JOHN A. SEPPELFRICK FAMILY

John A. Seppelfrick was born on August 30, 1899, the son of Herman and Eva (Gerhardt) Sepplefrick. His mother died when he was two years old and he was raised by his grandparents, John and Mary (Wiesbrock) on the farm on Rt. 59, now the site of the Meijer store. When he was old enough, he worked as a hired hand for Harold Rott on a farm on Modaff Road.

On February 14, 1924 he married Margaret Schmars (1898-1983), the daughter of John and Amelia Schmars, at St. Mary Church, Plainfield. They started farming on the Echelberger farm on 87th Street. Their daughter Virginia was born during the Depression when the family lived there.

In 1932, they moved to Modaff Road, where they rented a farm owned by Mrs. Royer. This farm was the same one Harold Rott had rentedwhile John worked for him. Their daughter Lois was born while the family lived here. They had dairy cattle until 1950. When the family purchased the farm on Naperville-Plainfield Road, south of 75th Street, they brought with them the hogs and chickens from the last farm. Corn, soybeans, oats, and hay were grown and Lois will never forget going out on the hot summer days with a hoe, trying to get those thistles out of the corn as the soil was red clay and hard as cement. If you could not hoe the weeds out of the tall corn, you had to pull them out.

The horses did the pulling of the wagons, planters, and cultivators, and even the sleigh on rare occasions. I remember the old tractor with the lugs on the wheels; it worked very hard to get through some of the hard soil. Oftentimes, machinery broke and Skin Greenberg could fix anything that needed to be repaired.

Virginia and I were fortunate to have attended country school, and she walked to Springbrook School for several years, and I walked to Hobson School for two years. In cold weather and deep snow, our milk truck driver, Ray Landorf, often gave us a ride to school. In later years, Dad drove us to town to attend school and graduate from SS. Peter and Paul School. Mom and dad gave use a good high school education, as all three of us girls graduated from Sacred Heart Academy.

There was no electricity or inside plumbing on College Road until after WW II, so we read by oil lamplight after the other chores were done. These were to fill the water reservoir in the cook stove so there would be warm water in the morning; there was wood to carry for the heater; coal to carry for cold winter nights; For supper, we had to bring up four of the fried pork chops from crocks of fat, a jar of green beans, and some potatoes from the cellar.

Back then, the Christmas tree was as pretty with the strings of popcorn and a few ornaments. The packages from Santa were not fancy or many. They were practical. A gift might be a new blouse made from a feed sack or a new scarf that Mom made. One year my old red wagon got repainted with my nickname on it.