Edmon Odaffer

As told by Ruby Odaffer Atteberry, wife of Ray Odaffer, Edmon’s son.

Edmon Odaffer lived on a 120 acre farm 1/2 mile south and 1 1/2 mile east of Weldon, Illinois, which he had purchased. The farm had two houses on it and they were put together to make one large house with 13 rooms and a long porch across the front of the house.

He took pride in his farm and built a white picket fence around the yard and a new grainery for storing the oats which were much raised at that time. There was a large barn for horses and cows, a hog house, a chicken house, a cob and coal house, a summer kitchen house, and a brooder house. He was a thrifty person and expected everyone to do their share of the work.

He was fast and could do lots of work in a short time. He knew all the ways to do things quicker. Every gunney sack on the farm had to have a strip of cloth sewn to the top of the sack sot it could be tied up after it was filled with grain, cobs, fee, or whatever it was needed for.

He was regular with his his work. The cows were milked at exactly the same time every day; feeding was done on schedule and the the work was done in time to have the meals on time. In the spring he planned to be starting to the field by the time the sun came up. That meant that all the chores were done by then.

He was married to Mattie Florence Harlow from Mt. Vernon Illinois. They were the parents of five children.

When the family were growing up he taught them all to work and lots of work was done on that farm. Chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cows, and horses were raised and a big garden was raised and there was an orchard with apple, peach, cherry, plum, and pear trees. A long grape arber, gooseberry, blackberry, and rasberry bushes were also grown. Their living was made from the farm, and Edmon helped with all of it.

After he retired and moved to Weldon and his son took over the farming he was not satisfied so he moved back to the farm. He was unable to do the work and in 2 years he moved back to town. He was a person who wore his old clothes all the time at home but if he was going uptown for anything he dressed up in his suit. Some of the guys kidded him about it.

In his time it was coal stoves that were used and a poker made of iron was used to punch up the coals. It usually laid on a sink under the stove and while still on the farm if there would be a knock on the door, Edmon always took the poker with hime when he went to the door and his wife would light the lantern because it was dark with no electricity. I don’t think he was afraid but he had the iron poker in case.

Bill Odaffer, his brother lived close and he and Edmon did some of their work together. Edmon bought a team of big black shiny horses from the sale when his brother Lemuel died, and they were always a pride of his. He kept them looking beautiful.

He was one of the early owners of a car when they first came out. He bought a Reo car back then when the roads were dirt and were muddy a lot of the time- only driving it when the weather permitted.

He bought a piano for his 3 daughters which they were very happy about. Sometimes they had square dances in their big house. The living room and dining room were large rooms. The carpets were rolled ;up and the furniture moved out.

They attended the Enterprise church which was a country church 2 miles south of the Prairie View school. His children attended that school. Mattie was good to help in times of sickness and many times went to help the neighbors out. She was a large woman and wore a size 52 dress. She was a good “Pennsylvania Dutch” cook. She pieced many beautiful quilt tops during the winter months. She gave them to her grandchildren. There were 11 grandchildren. As Edmon became older he had trouble with his eyes and couldn’t drive his car. He had a neighbor boy drive him out to see his farm.

He and Mattie sat on the front porch of their home in Weldon much of the time as they got older and often some friend or neighbor was sitting there with them. They were friendly people.

Ed resided around Weldon, Illinois for 52 years. In later years he was a member of the men’s bible class at the Methodist Church.