Monday, June 19, 1939

Washed, ironed, patched. Rain pretty much all day, had terrible storm by Klotzs, tore up peach & maple trees a few, wheat shocks all down; 1 field of about 5 acres completely all down. Pap took Whip went to New Athens also Uncle Fred & got bu. boxes. pap hauled 38-1 load & went after another 29 & Uncle had 25 in Chev. & also went for another load. Mauff was here. Mrs. Rennecker came over little while this afternoon, after the rain. Tornado in Minnesota, cleaned out 4 towns 10 dead, 200 injured.

Thursday, April 7, 1938

Raining all day. Bert [Bertille] cleaned kitchen, painted coal oil stove etc. Mass Jos. Keller & lady friend came awhile this afternoon, about 1/2 hr. to get 10 doz. eggs. for themselves & friends. Awful ugly weather, suppose to be rain turning to snow & 32 [degrees]. At Chicago had a pretty severe snow storm the last days. In Birmingham Alba. [Alabama] had a cyclone, never heard from Ed Brand.

Sunday, March 20, 1938

Went to mass. Uncle Fred & A. [Aunt] Mary came Bert [Bertille] went along to see the tornado ruins at Darmstadt & Baldwin it looks awful there to ; church tower stands, rest all down & few houses to; then we came home. A. [Aunt] Mary & Bert [Bertille] went to Lent devotion this afternoon. It is so nice today awful warm; Bill Klein, Louis Schoenborn, Isd. Wacthel came we played 5 hand pinochle, had cake, wine. Louis has his car fixed again, Fred Schaefer wrecked it for him last Mon; driving intoxicated.

Thursday, March 17, 1938

St. Patrick’s Day. We went to Leo’s today had dinner & supper. Bert [Bertille] helped wash & quilt. Pap helped hitch the young mare & hauled wood up. Eggs. 15 [cents]. Bert [Bertille] took 8 doz. up. found 104 today. Beautiful afternoon, nice warm. Uncle Fred & A. [Aunt] Mary had stopped here, then went around to Red Bud to see the tornado stricken area, by Vanburen’s, through in there.

Tuesday, March 15, 1938

So dark & cloudy this morn & raining heavy. Bert [Bertille] washed, ironed curtains; This afternoon at 3 o clock, had such a heavy hail storm, for about 1/2 hr. or longer; & down by Walter Gregsons, terrible cyclone went through, blew part of the house & barn in, they say, lot of people from town here, went to see it. Its Kaufman’s at Waterloo, he just build it up last fall. new home. Pap went to Smithton, bank & to see Ed. Heap; came home before the hail.

Monday, April 6, 1936

Cloudy, & cold; In Alambama [sic] had a storm yesterday, 1 reported dead. In Georgia Tornado, 1,000 persons dead, & 4 houses burned this morning, from cyclones; terrible in other states. Pap & Rose took load wheat to Waterloo & went out to see Joe Freund’s to see his cow; but pap didn’t want it, but made trade anyway – $75 – cash – $75 note, coming to look & get it Thurs. morn. Leona is sick in bed with flu, – cold. Mr. Saliger of Horse Praire got the cultivator $35.00 this afternoon. Wm. C Voges was here wanted to buy oats, thought it was to high price but was going to tell his son Charles. Aaron Papenberg the assesor [sic] was here. We went out to Uncle Freds, for supper; & on business, paid interest of $300.00 note.

Saturday, April 4, 1936

Pap went out to haul wood again this morning. Lot of news on the radio of Hauptmann; & flood all over in Southern State & a tornado passed through Georgia & South Carolina, quite a few injured, & killed, 1000 are homeless, houses blewn [sic] to pieces. Uncle Fred & Aunt Mary came he went in the woods to get rock. R. Zipfel of Red Bud brought us our chicks – 305 – 280 @ 9.25 – $25.90 & 25 that pap won as attendance prize; we got 75 lbs. slartine [unclear – possibly starting] a mash along free, 25 lbs. with every 100 chicks; there all pretty nice White Rocks. Joe Griffin came & put us a new A. battery radio for half price $1.50, it works pretty good now, Steve Rennecker was here, collecting telephone dues. Eggs are only 15¢ now here; 16¢ on radio this morn.

Wednesday, July 11, 1934

Went out threshing again, had them for lunch, carried it out, & had dinner & lunch again, then left for Levi Ganley’s. Papa & Rosalia were hauling wheat all day, taking it home in chicken house. Henry threshed 1085 bus. wheat, we got 361 bus.; one of his fields average 24 bus. to an acre. Uncle Fred & Aunt Mary had to leave & go threshing by Henry & Oscar Birkner. It got awful cloudy & rained a little, in Jacksonville, Ill: there was an awful Tornado $75,000 damage. & in Smithon [sic] it was pretty bad, trees all torned [sic] to pieces, houses over roofs off. It looked awful black in the north. Eggs were 9¢ but now up to 11.

Wednesday, Aug. 10, 1932

Papa took the mower out to Henry’s & got the frame wagon. Mr. Bershing was here & wanted to sell watermellons [sic], from 5¢ up to 25¢ real nice ones. Papa & Rosalia are putting up alfalfa hay this afternoon. In Ruma there was a cyclone yesterday evening, but we never heard if it did much damage. Lightening struck Tom Havey [? – unclear] mare, one what has a young colt, the Rendering Truck from Belleville got it this morning. Today is Chicken Supper & Pinic [sic] in Paderborn. We went out to Uncle Fred’s at watermellons [sic] then took them along to the pinic [sic] at Paderborn, they had a nice crowd. Mr. Jung our egg man from Red Bud bought 11 doz. eggs @ 15¢. Uncle Fred & Aunt Mary came here awhile, they were at Sensel’s bought a watermellon [sic] for 25¢, & they went to see Dentist Wagner at the Club House, tomorrow morn, they have to go to Belleville & get teeth fixed. It was sure hot today. Aunt Mary bought bread, flour, at the pinic [sic], 2 loaves for 5¢,  & 5¢ loaf, she bought 4.

Tuesday, April 26, 1932

The paper says last nite that there was teribble [sic] tornado in Memphis Tennessee. 8 killed, 5 injured so far. Papa went out to get a load of wood but it was to soft, he got stuck, he stopped at Henry’s awhile. Rosalia & Bertille went out to Uncle Freds this afternoon & helped clean house, had lunch there. They varnished the middle room floor, got the big room all fixed up already. Fredrick Fristche was here & wanted 2 settings of eggs, but we didn’t have it on hand, so he is coming tomorrow evening.