WEIGAND FAMILY OF YORK TOWNSHIP
DuPage County, Illinois The following are excerpts of childhood memories taken from a story about the WEIGAND Families of York Township, written in 1987 by Roy Weigand of Lombard, Illinois. Roy is a descendant of Peter, a son from the marriage of widower Johann WEIGAND and his third wife, Gertrude Flickman Yanzer. With Roy Weigand's
approval, this story was edited and
condensed
for publication on the Web by Jim Bauer, a descendant from Johann's
first
marriage to Barbara Phister Gromling.
Early Memories of Lombard, Illinois "John (Johann) Weigand and his third wife, Gertrude Flichman Yanzer, whom he married sometime between 1850 and 1853. In 1850 John was 39 years old, born in 1811 in Reuchelhelm, Germany. According to the 1850 census they were living on the family farm on the northwest corner of Roosevelt Road and Finley Road..." "The story we always heard on the farm was that John (Johann) and either seven or nine brothers came to New York. John became separated from the group, became lost and never saw or heard from the others again. Supposedly they were stone masons..." "Records show that John was the owner of the land in 1848... John's name was one of the first recorded on some of the pages at the title company and 3rd, 4th. or 5th on some of the others. The farm was in both York and Milton Townships. And at one time was considerably more acreage than the farm we knew. The 1862 maps show the farm up to and including the DuPage River and going north from that point. Supposedly, the great grandmother (Gertrude) lost part of the farm in the depression in the 80's or 90's, this could easily be understood..." "One of Johann's sons, Joseph, enlisted in the Civil War from Danby Junction (Glen Ellyn today) and according to the records was a POW for about two years. After the war and his return, he remained in the reserve and was a Captain at the time of death..." "Apparently there were three homes built
on
the
farm at one time or another. The first one stood just east of the
DuPage River, approximately across from Longy's Tavern...One of the
Muskets
from the old farm was hanging behind the bar as Joe had loaned it to
Longy "The second house was built along the
little
stream
that wandered off Roosevelt Road through part of Aunt Kate's garden,
then
along the walk to Joe's house, about 100 feet north and bit east of the
present home. Believe about where the old outhouse used to sit, near
what
was the pig barn run. This house was torn down, according to
Jack,
about 1919 as Uncle Ferdinand had a new home built by Mr. Cavanaugh,
right
after 1900 when he "Joe built a brick home behind the orchard when he was married. They lived in this home until the farm was sold to the gas company. This house was moved and now stands off Park Boulevard, south of Roosevelt Road, which was the corner where the old lighthouse stood..." "Uncle Ferdinand and Uncle John used to
tell
stories
about how the wolves used to come up to the doors of the farmhouse at
night
when they were young boys and scratch on the doors, looking for
food,
etc... Another story told, also repeated by my father was that Gertrude
would say to John, 'Your children and my children are fighting with
our "Speaking of Aunt Kate, she sent me one or two letters when I was in the service. I really appreciated her thought and effort especially being aboard ship in the Pacific and it was quite a chore for her, in-as-much-as she was not real good with English when it came to writing, but she was very good with the German language in various dialects... The story was told that when Aunt Kate and her friends or relations were on the party line (telephone), they would switch to a different dialect and continue talking, one could always hear the phones hanging up as they were all party-lines, because there was no point to listening to what they could not understand..." "My grandfather, Peter ran the farm for
several
years and also had a thrashing ring, doing custom thrashing as well and
trading horses, etc. They were thrashing at Louis Meyer one time when
Mom
was home and met my father. How long Grandpa ran the thrashing
ring,
I don't know. He also ran the old hotel and owned it, buying out
his father-in-law, Phillip Schempp. He ran the Lombard
Hotel until he sold out and retired but then "One of the old stories used to be that when Adam Keller dated Barbara(Weigand) and came to visit, he would walk from Naperville to the DuPage River by the farm in his bare feet. Then wash his feet in the river and put his shoes on for the rest of the way..." "They used to talk about Gertrude walking to Naperville to visit John's grave and then visit her daughter and walk home the next day or so. Aunt Gert says she walked to Lombard many times, visiting the family and then returning to the farm..." "Uncle Ferdinand had a write-up in the
Rotogravure
section of the Chicago Sunday Tribune one summer or fall during the
depression
showing his orchard and tree grafts for which he was noted for..." "We have lots of old pictures of the
family,
parts
of the barn and various shots of the farm as well as group pictures;
Roosevelt
Road being paved, Finley Road all gravel, etc. Dad had many
pictures
of Lombard in early days, many on glass negatives. We have had
these
copied and just this past summer I turned over 70 of them to the
Lombard
Historical "Dad used to tell, when he was a boy, that he could put his
ice
skates
on at the house on Main Street, go out the back door, onto the little
stream
that flowed through the yard to where the Village Hall now is,
down
Grove Street and out to the DuPage River. Aunt Gert mentioned
this
many times and said Gramma always kept extra warm socks for the "I remember the little stream that trickled through the yard at the old home. They had the wooden sidewalks and the stream went underneath and started along the northwestern tracks, flowing across St. Charles Road about where the new Bradleys Drug Store was built and coming out on Main Street and into Grandpa's yard, winding its merry way to the DuPage River..." "Pranks played at Halloween time were
many,
pushing
the outhouses over while the occupant was waiting to catch the culprit
doing the deed and sometimes they had the misfortune of stepping in the
holes where the outhouse had been moved from, as it had been planned
that
way. Sometime the occupant was caught from behind and the
building
pushed over, door (face) down. It didn't do any good for anyone
falling
in to try to come "Another time a cart or wagon was put up
on
the
steeple of the First Church, quite a feat and quite a problem to get it
down... Sometimes the rails were greased on the old Great Western
Railroad
so the engines couldn't make the grade on the east end just before
Grace
Street. Sand would have to be sprinkled on the rails before the
engine
could make "Dad and his pals used to go swimming in a deep hole on the north side of the Great Western RR Tracks, called the Old Cut. This was used for a bum's camp through the depression and not a real good spot to visit. The bums used to come to the houses for handouts and marked your sidewalk accordingly if you gave them any food, etc..." "We used to ice skate a few blocks east
on
what
was called the K.C., just across the tracks from Alexander Lumber
Yard on the north side of tracks. I remember this place well as
one
day I fell in and by the time I walked home the few blocks, had stiff
legs
almost up over my knees, certainly glad it wasn't very deep..." "Every fall apple cider was made and
kept in
the
root cellar under the house. Aunt Kate kept her garden produce
there
as well. There were several hardwood trees growing around the
barn
area and when they would slaughter any cattle or pigs in the winter
time,
they always hung from the trees, cooling and then were cut up for meat
as well as making sausage. Aunt Kate would make various kinds of
sausage
and everyone seemed to go "Roosevelt Road was first a gravel road
and
then
was paved two lanes. When the cars first came out, many an
automobile
was brought over and made to climb Baker's Hill. If the car could
climb the hill, the customer purchased it. If not, it went back
and
another one was tried. Eventually, Roosevelt Road was paved four
lane wide, sometime in the 30's "Grandpa Peter Weigand and wife Mary,
lived in
their home on Main Street in Lombard where the telephone company now is
located; it had a large barn and several out buildings. Horses
were
kept in the barn, his riding horse and others that he let friends use,
which were also needed for his buggy, sled in the winter, etc., before
the automobile came. There was "When automobiles came, Grandpa was one of the first to have one and after that the horses disappeared. Grandpa had his own gas tank in the yard and it was still there when the phone company took over even though it had not been used for many years and no doubt was rusted out. There was also a well on the property, very good and cold water which we used the hand pump for when we were there. Sure tasted good at that time..." "Dad used to tell a story about Grandpa locking up and coming home at night from the hotel, usually he carried the receipts in his pocket. Whether or not he carried a gun was never discussed but this one night a stranger came up and asked him for a light for his cigarette and Grandpa just took the lantern and held it in, near the man's face in a position so the man could light his cigarette without taking his right hand from his pocket. That settled that whole situation and the stranger moved on and no one ever bothered him after that..." Thanks to Roy Weigand for his permisson to post these few memories. If you would like to know more about the whole story, or other Weigand information, contact: ___________________________________________________________________________
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