Herman Henry & Amelia Louise Seifert Marker Kerber

Family Page

These two individuals are the beginning of my branch of the Kerber Family Tree.  I'm sure everyone has fond memories of their grandparents.  I was fortunate to have two sets of wonderful grandparents; role models for my life.  Herman and Louise were my maternal grandparents and I'm so grateful that they lived long enough for me to know them.

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Grandpa and Grandma had both had first marriages.  He to Effie George and she to Asa Marker; both deceased.  I never, ever knew of or heard them say and unkind word to one another.  They always seemed to respect the roll that each played in their marriage.  Their whole focus seemed to be on their family and each other.  I especially loved it when they spoke German to each other when they wanted private communication; their secret language.

  September 16, 1925 Marriage Certificate.

 

 

 

Georgie, Grandpa's daughter by Effie, was sixteen and chose to live with her mother's George family.  Gail stayed  with them and was always close to Grandma as she felt toward him.  She told me once that "in those days" if a couple didn't have children, it was always supposed it was the fault of the woman.  She lived with Asa for 7 years and was thrilled when within two years they began having children.

My mother told me that Grandma used insurance proceeds from Asa's accident to help Grandpa buy the farm located in Buchanan County between the city of St. Joseph, MO and the town of Faucett, MO.  They built a new modest house and outbuildings. 

The children grew up in this house.  Front to back:  Clara Belle, niece Joann, Betty Jean behind Joanne with Helen Louise (my mother) beside Betty, Grandma (Louise) behind Betty, Herman Jr., and Dorothy (Gail's wife and Joann's mother)

Sometime in the mid-1940s, Grandma wanted to move from the farm and back into the city of St. Joseph where she grew up.  They kept the farm which Grandpa worked and bought a two-story German style house so common to the Mid-West on 13th Street.  here shown with Grandpa standing on the porch. 

They also rented a room or rooms while living here.  The rest of their lives, whoever rented from them became extended family members.  These renters always called them "Mom and Pop" and I remember visits, cards and letters from people who rented from them years before.  I was born while they were living in this house.

Grandpa sold his farm in Faucett, but soon bought another farm about an hour from St. Joseph across the river in East Kansas outside of the town of Horton.  All of us Grandchildren have wonderful memories of this farm, the horses, My love of horses began right here.  Me in front with my cousin Les on back and Aunt Betty holding her horse on the farm in Horton.

Ike the donkey, Grandpa's Jersey milk cows, his black angus cattle and other animals and foul.  Grandma was always cooking for the help and family so I remember the table always having heaping bowls of food.  And I remember Grandpa's sweat-stained hat hanging on the hook when he came in from the fields.  I would bore you to death with all my happy memories!    You can see the big barn in the background of this picture taken in the early 1950s.  The farm equipment was kept in ground floor, with hay stored above.  There were small rooms to the side where the grains were kept that fed the animals.  In the basement the Jerseys would come in for milking and the overhang sheltered all the animals from the heat of Summer and cold of Winter.  There was also a big, water tank always full of cold running water for the animals.  I loved that barn.  This picture left to right: Aunt Betty, Chick (Mother's second husband) Helen (my Mother), Aunt Cookie, Grandma and Grandpa Kerber home for a weekend visit from Topeka, KS where they had jobs. 

Grandma grew lonely with her "chicks" gone from home and in his 60s, Grandpa had been advised to retire.  I think Uncle Herman worked for a while but just wasn't a farmer.  He had a family, lived and worked in St. Joseph.  The girls were all living and working in Topeka.  They bought a large old house on Mulvane that had originally been a fraternity house for students who attended Washburn University located a block away.  Grandpa and Uncle Herman remodeled the house so that they could live downstairs and made two apartments and a sleeping room upstairs with a shared bath.  My sister, Lynn grew up in this house.  All of us other grandkids came to visit here.  We all LOVED it; the stability and love we felt there, aunts, uncles and cousins as well as the big extended family of renters coming and going,

Aunt Clara (who we all called Cookie) moved to her life in California but came back every Summer vacation to excited family members.  She and her life-long friend Lillian, who also had family living in and near Topeka, would drive in with their dogs bringing gifts and spend their vacations doing projects for their families.  It was always a special time of laughter and fun. Lil and Aunt Cookie in their VW bus - 1967

Grandpa turned over the running of the farm in Horton to Aunt Betty and Uncle Dee but once freed from farm chores soon went to work, I think for the state of Kansas, driving a tractor cutting grass along the highways.  I'm not sure how long.  I just remember him maintaining the apartments.  After I moved to Topeka in 1965, Grandpa thought it best to buy another small two story house near Topeka High School so Lynn and I could walk to school.  Again Mother would come over after work, Aunt Betty and Uncle Herman pitched in pulling off old paper and remodeling so that there were two apartments to rent which made income for Grandma and Grandpa in their retirement.    This picture taken not long after moving in.  Cousin Les sitting on the pedestal, Mother, Uncle Cecil Capps visiting from WA and me in October 1965.

Aunt Betty suffered from ill health which deteriorated during this period.  She came to Mulvane and took the bedroom in the front of the house and helped as she could.  Grandma and Grandpa never went to the doctor.  It's unclear to me but for some reason Aunt Betty was being cared for by a doctor in St. Joseph.  Increasingly, she had to make the hour and a half trip to Missouri.  They decided to sell the house on Mulvane and bought a house on St. Joseph Avenue in St. Joseph.    1969 after purchase. Me holding Christine and Grandma.  This house was previously owned by a Knoth cousin of my Grandma's.  Their Grandma Knoth (nee Huber) had died after slipping on ice in the back yard.  Aunt Betty passed away not long after moving here and Grandpa lived there until the early 1970s.  I do have happy memories of this house as do the great-grand daughters Christine and Heather.  and great-grandsons Bryan.  I think Scott and Jeremy would remember the next house.

After Aunt Betty passed away, my Mother Helen moved back from Topeka to take care of them.  I know because of her loving care, Grandpa lived to be 84 and Grandma to be 80 without having to go into a nursing home.  But after Grandpa's death  March 23, 1973, and mother taking care of Grandma full-time, that Uncle Herman bought another two-story house and moved them into the bottom floor and rented out the upstairs so they could be cared for.    Grandma said she felt like a gypsy but moved her last time knowing that her son was doing the best he could to take care of her.

Grandma, who never went to the doctor, fell ill and had to be taken to the hospital.  I was sitting with her when family came in to announce that Uncle Gail had passed away.  There had been some discussion as to whether they should given her condition but decided that the news should not be kept from her.  I'll never forget that I saw a change in her eyes; like the light went out and she gave up the fight to get well.  I knew she was tired.  And she did pass out of life on Valentines Day, February 14, 1978.  The funeral was held but she could not be buried until the ground thawed.  She lies in ground at Memorial Park Cemetery in St. Joseph, MO beside her Herman, husband of almost 47 years, her daughters, Helen and Betty and son Herman Jr.  

To this date, 2010, Aunt Cookie is the only child still living.