2014 July 21 Berrien Center to Cassopolois, Cass County, Michigan

Family history lesson:  Clarence (Shorty) Hofmeister and his twin brother's mother, Eva Walker Hofmeister, died when the twins were about 2 years old.  Later, their father William Hofmeister remarried.  He married Dora Fickel from the Prescott area.  He and Dora had a large family, half siblings to Clarence (Shorty).  William and Dora moved their family to Anita, Iowa and then on to Cass County, Michigan.  He moved all the children there too but some chose to return to Adams Co, Iowa.  Two of those who returned were Shorty and his half brother, Julius (Jude).  William lived out his life on a farm in Cass Co, Michigan and is buried in the Crane Cemetery with his wife and several of his children, their spouses and grandchildren.  

 

 

William was a carpenter.  He built barns.  And if he built barns, I'm pretty sure he built anything else he wanted to.  Can you imagine building a barn?

 

One of William's daughters Tressie Hofmeister (named after her Aunt Tressie Fickel) married Leroy True and lived near her father and mother.  Tressie  and Leroy had 10 or 11 children and the youngest was Patricia.  Pat married Larry Overton.  In 1970 they bought a house and acreage near Barrien Center, Michigan.  There they have raised 3 or 4 children and have built a comfortable resort where they enjoy entertaining relatives, friends and neighbors.  Lanny and I visited them this week.  We had met them before at Iowa Hofmeister reunions.  They host a True / Hofmeister reunion each year around the 4th of July. 

 

 

Pat says she isn't a gardener but she has flowers all around. 

 

 

I envy Pat her hollyhocks!  Mine are 1/3 that size and the ones we had here in Creston last summer, didn't come back. 

 

Pat reminiscing with her husband Larry.  Lanny is listening and looking.

 

 

 

Lanny found this in the shed.  What is it?  4 of us, 63 years + (that's 240 + years of knowledge lol ) didn't know what this was.  The closest we could come was to call it a boot scrapper.  We really have no idea . . .

 

Once Majestic Barn is now run down and needing TLC. 

 

A view from the farm.  William and Dora owned 160 acres.

 

 

The old farm house is gone.  Pat is showing me about where it stood.  She points out the living room, dining, Uncle Jay's small bedroom, Gramma and Grampa's.  She looks for the rock her mother stood on as a girl.  She retells stories she heard from her mother.   Pat is glad of the chance to remember and we are glad of the chance to hear. 

 

" The row of pine trees is completely gone.

 

That tree over there was on the other side of the yard fence."

 

Uncle Jay was a bachelor and lived on here after his folks were gone.  He farmed and tended it all his life. 

 

Stones abound in Michigan, Pat and Larry told us.  Dig a hole and you will find a rock.  In Michigan, the farmers had rock boats.  It was a skid, with sides.  You hooked it up to a horse or two.  The horses pulled the skid out into the field and people (probably children) picked up rocks and threw them on the skid for the horses to pull out of the fields.   

 

Top of the barn. 

 

Amazing that the other three stories are below grade.  On this side, William or someone, graded dirt up and tamped it down to make a ramp so that a team of horses could walk right inside.  Pat remembered where the horse stalls were, the cow stalls, the bin where the hay was tossed down.  You could tell she enjoyed the memories.  "I am so glad you came!"  she said. 

 

We were so glad we did, too.

 

 

The old water hydrant.   

 

I want to go back.  I will copy old family pictures and news articles for Pat and hope to see old family pictures that she has.  I have much to learn and see and enjoy.  I would love to pass it on to all of you.