HAROLD AND HELEN STAFFELDT FARM HISTORY
By Lorraine Staffeldt Yuccas

The Staffeldt family has a proud heritage in the Naperville area. In the 1870s, Karl Staffeldt, along with his adult children, emigrated in the United States from Mecklenburg, Germany. The eldest son, Johann, brought his wife Friedericke and their two children with him. After their arrival, two more sons---including Henry---were born.. in fact, the 1880 federal census showed the family living in Naperville with Johanns’s occupation listed as a tile makes (probably at Van Ovens). Henry was listed as only 11months old. 

The agricultural area along the east branch on the Dupage River contained rich farmland and a settlement of many early pioneers. Johann leased and then in1999 purchased the Royce Road farm from William King, who had bought it in 1857 from Samuel and Emily Goodrich. On the farm, the road divided the groupings of buildings with the farmhouse, garage, tool shed, chicken houses and smokehouse on the north side of the road and the large barn, silo, corncrib and pig barn on the south side. When Johann retired from farming, he sold the farm to Henry and built and new home on Jefferson Avenue in Naperville.

Henry married Emilie Hauser in 1908. their daughter Emily was born 1916 and son Harold in 1918 in the Royce road farmhouse. In 1924, when Harold was ready to begin school, Henry and Emilie rented out the farm and moved to Aurora so that Harold could attend St. Paul Lutheran School and later East Aurora High School. In the midst of the Depression, Henry, Emilie and Harold returned to the farm.

In 1947, Harold married Helen Swanson, a high school classmate at St. Paul’s Church. Helen, whose father worked for the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railroad, had lived in Eola and worked as a secretary prior to her marriage. Henry and Emilie retired to Aurora, but stayed very active and involved by coming to the farm on am almost daily basis.

Four children were born to Harold and Helen. Harold Jr., Lorraine, Janice 9who died of Leukemia in 1957) , and Roger. Hal (as Harold Jr. was nicknamed) and Lorraine attended Hillside School, which was located on the site of the former Two Rivers Sports Bar on the South Naper Boulevard. Memories of those days in a one-room school hose are truly unique, pumping buckets of water for drinking and washing hands, stoking the coal furnace, and participating in the annual Christmas program, hall and Lorraine, dresses in their pajamas, recited “It Was the Night Before Christmas.” At another program, those students with missing teeth sang, “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.” Being one of the youngest on the school meant lots of attention from the older students, and it was entertaining to listen to the lessons in which the older students were involved. During those early school years, Lorraine was instilled with the love of learning and decided that she would become a teacher, a profession in which she would devote more than 20 years of her life.

By 1954, Valley View School on Naperville-Joliet road opened. Several rural one-room schools were consolidated, and the modern facility was built. A gymnasium and a hot lunch program were amenities that all student enjoyed. Harold Sr., was elected as a charter school board member, a position he held for eight years.

After graduating from Valley View---or North View, in Roger’s case---all three children attended Naperville Community High School where they became quite involved in activities and academics. Both Hal and Roger played football while Lorraine played in the band. College came next. Hal pursued a program in building construction technology at Bradley University. Lorraine, and education degree at Illinois State University and Roger a degree in agriculture from Illinois State.

Life on the farm was always busy! Each family member pitched in wherever possible. Eggs were gathered daily. The dairy cows were sold in 1950, but replaced with a herd of steers. Each day one of us children had to ride snicker, out horse, to round up the steers in the barnyard to be fed. The boys helped with the fieldwork by learning to drive the tractor at an early age. In the spring, a large vegetable garden was plated. Of course, this meant a lot of work later on. Canning tomatoes and freezing sweet corn and green beans called for extra hands.

While most of the chores were shared and unpaid responsibilities, once in a while an opportunity for extra compensation arose. The old corn picker was not very efficient. With crop rotation, the next year the field was planted in soybeans, and many volunteer corn stalks sprouted from the corn that the old planter had missed. So we kids were paid to walk the soybean rows to hoes out the unwanted corn and any weeds. The soybean rows were quite long---from Royce road northward almost to Modern-day 87th Street. The intense June sunshine gave us a real tan in a relatively short time. City friends wrongly thought that the tan had come from sunbathing!

Seasonal activities related to planting and harvesting are also memorable. The long hours and total dependence on the weather made farming a real challenge! Fortunately, neighbors willingly reached out and helped one another with bailing hay or straw and other tasks, as they arose. As a means of thanking then, a hearty meal, typically roast beef, mountains of mashed potatoes, sweet corn, tomatoes and apple pie was prepared and served.

Hal recalls the annual activity of butchering pigs. “Early on a cold frosty morning, Dad would start a wood fire under the special kettle used only for heating water for butchering. The neighbors would gather to help as two fat hogs were sorted from the rest of the group. After catching, killing and scraping the hogs, we left them for a couple days before we cut the meat. Dad’s cousin, Henry Staffeldt, a butcher who owned a grocery store on Fairview avenue in downers Grove would appear with his sharp knives. The hogs were cut in half and hauled into the basement. Al parts of the hogs were utilized. Lard was rendered from the fat. Fresh pork brains were fried with onions and served on toast with salt and mustard for breakfast that morning. Hams were smoked. Sausage was made from the old press and also would cured in the smokehouse. On one occasion, Ed Otterpohl, our neighbor who was a retired police chief from Naperville, got his beard wound in the gears of the sausage press. He had an unwanted beard trim that day!”

Besides the hard work, life on the farm also included numerous fun-filled events. Out farm proved to be the gathering place for many groups and activities, family picnics, barn dances, hayrides, Helen’s birthday club, potluck club, pinochle club, church groups and so on. In 1954, Harold built flagstone fireplace near the horseshoe bend in the river. At the same time, he planted a dozen willow trees, which were literally small twigs. Until the weeping willow trees began to grow, a canvas tarp was attached to a wooden framework to provide shade for the gatherings that toke place at that location. 

By the summer of 1859, an artificial lake provided a place to cool off. Marshall Erb, a local excavator had been hired to use his earth moving equipment to transform the previously swampy area into a spring fed swimming area. The water temperature of that artificial lake closely paralleled the temperature of Lake Michigan so it did not take long to forget the heat of the long day of farm work. Harold began to landscape the area with many varieties of trees: spruce and willow were used extensively. 

In addition to the farm responsibilities, Harold and Helen took on additional duties. Harold became involved in the DuPage Township politics by being elected and serving terms as justice of the peace and assessor. In the mid-sixties, both Harold and Helen found outside employment. Harold worked for Lawndale Industries in aurora and then as a foreman for Naperville Park district. Helen worked as the office manager at Naperville Country Club until her sudden and untimely death in 1971.

In the 1970s, Harold sold the acreage on the south side of Royce Road to the city of Naperville, which deeded it to the Naperville Park district. Later, this would become a part of the DuPage River Park. Within the park is a commemorative stone, which was placed there by the DuPage Presbyterian Church in 1958. the congregation first met in the school that stood at that site in 1833, about the same time that Naperville was settled. The area North of Royce Road was for development and became Farmington subdivision. 

Keeping several acres of woods, Henry dubbed the area Hickery Hill and built and new home for himself there. Woodworking, gardening, and mowing his lawn became his pastimes in his senior years. His six grandsons enjoyed romping around in their grandfather’s yard, riding the golf cart, playing volleyball, taking a spook walk on Halloween night. When Harold died in his home on September 12, 2001, his death concluded over 100 years of Staffeldt occupancy on Royce Road.