(from a lengthy 1935 letter, from Zwaantje to daughter Ruth, recollecting many past days) "I wonder if you remember when you took an old hen from the chicken yard and sat on the front porch rocking it. People went by laughing and laughing. It was main street to town... At another time you took Carneige, our $8.00 thoroughbred rooster, and Daddy said, now that won't do. You have your playthings and all your dolls. You said, but they're not alive. I want something alive. You always wanted one of those little tots at the childrens' home, we passed so often in Springfield. So Daddy said to go and pick out a child. That's how Myrtle Cox came to stay with us almost a year from Aug. 1912 to July 4th, 1913 when I took her back. We lived at West 4th Sterling at that time, but she went, never saying goodby to You or Daddy. The poor little thing wasn't responsible. Her father a brute, her Mother dead..."
At the right is the porch swing where we used to count the cars going by on 4th Street. But Grandma said that she always prayed for the people in the cars. Sometimes Grandma had Phil and me sit with her on the porch and "fish" for leaves in a pail of water using a stick, some string and a bent pin for a hook." (recollections by Janna Hey Dean)
Grandma Holtzman & Friend
Back of photo: "Mary Sue from your Grandma Holtzman and her Canadian friend Mrs. B???. Winnipeg, Canada. Taken May, 1946. Front Porch of my home.""
Grandma Holtzman's house,
401 13th Avenue, Sterling, Illinois.
Bill Palmer, Aunt Mart's Husband
(on walk in front of Grandma's house)
When she took in roomers for her upstairs, she posted a sign just inside her front door: "No drinking, no smoking, no swearing and no carousing around." Her home was dedicated to the Lord and she made sure any prospective renters knew that it was. (recollections by Janna Hey Dean)
Grandma Holtzman had a treadle sewing machine. [Later, Dad (Abe Hey) installed an electric motor on her machine. Jan Hey] She baked apple pies in a gas stove and put them in the north window because it was cooler. She had no refrigerator, so we went across the street and west to Connell's Grocery. [Jan would go to Connell's if Grandma needed thread. Most of Grandma's groceries came from Don Wilger's Grocery across the street. Later Mr. Eshelman bought Wilger's. Eventually, Mr. Eshelman's brother, Lyle, opened his photography studio there. Jan Hey] Grandma had a swing on both the east and south porches. The mail came on the south porch. Once I discovered a hornets nest on the south porch and was stung lots of times and had to see a doctor. We swung most on the east porch; it was bigger and more open. Grandma greeted people on the sidewalk with "You Hoo." Grandma had a clothesline out back, and used a rug beater to get the dust out of throw rugs. (recollections by Phil Hey)
We often visited two neighbors with Grandma. Mrs. Street, a semi-invalid, lived a couple blocks north. Dorothy Engels lived across the street east. Dorothy cared for her aged mother, Mrs. Gibson and her twin sister (Sturdevant), in their 90's, Emma and Eva, whom we called Em and Ev. It was exciting to hear them tell about growing up and The Prophet visiting their parents on their front porch in Prophetstown. (recollections by Jan Hey Dean)
Aunt Gertie and Grandma
June, 1958
Notice picture of Grandpa (above)
