At the April 8th Membership Meeting, five WVGS members who reached 90 years of age were presented with books in their honor for the WVGS Library.
Ervin E. Leifheit
Ervin Leifheit was born in Aurora, Illinois. His parents were Arthur Leifheit and Elizabeth (Hill) Leifheit, and he lived in Yorkville, Illinois, until graduation from High School. He attended the same school building from kindergarten through high school and lived only a block away. After graduation, he enlisted in the Air Force rather than being drafted into the Army during the Korean Conflict.
The Air Force decided that he would be an instructor in Guided Missiles and Rocket Propulsion. Maybe they were right because, after discharge in 1995, he was hired by Aerojet Liquid Rocket Co. to make, test, and teach the engines for the Titan missiles and the orbiting maneuvering engines for the Space Shuttle.
In 1974, he returned to school and entered the University of Minnesota to become a Mining Engineer. He worked for and retired from Consolidation Coal Co. until 1994.
His past wife, Dolores, and he became interested in genealogy in the 1970s. They were raising and showing Afghan Hound dogs and began studying pedigrees, and one thing led to another. They were hooked. They did most of their research but did hire professionals from time to time.
Delores’s lines covered common names such as Daily, Smith, and Peacock.
Ervin’s lines included Leifheit, Moenkemeier, Henne, Nolte, Hill, Galloway, Johnson, Kirby, DeWolf, and Trowbridge. His lines include the common man, accused warlocks, ministers, and royalty. It has been and still is fascinating. He took a break to pursue other interests but returned to clear up a few dead ends.
At the April 8th membership meeting, he was presented with the book “Family Maps of Kendall County, Illinois,” which lists the first landowners where some of his ancestors lived.
Floyd Niemeyer
Floyd was the first child of Earl and Florence (Wegman) Niemeyer. He was born at his paternal grandparents’ farm home in rural Effingham County, Illinois. Their farm was near the village of Teutopolis, Illinois. It is a small village founded in 1839 by thirty-five German families from northwest Germany. Teutopolis is approximately 150 south of Chicago, 60 miles west of Terre Haute, Indiana, and 107 miles east of St. Louis, MO. The national road (currently Route 40) is the main street through Teutopolis. Pennsylvania Railroad was the east-west railroad.
Sometime in October 1934, Mr. Schultz, known by his father, had purchased 320 acres in the adjoining county, Fayette, near the St. Elmo community, about 30 miles west of Teutopolis. Mr. Schultz offered his father the job of running his cattle and farm operation, raising Hereford (white face) cattle and feed. His father was thrilled.
Two siblings were born, Rita (1936-2023) and Albert (1941). Albert and his son are working the original farm.
Floyd attended Martin Box’s one-room country grade school. He walked 2 miles every day. After grade school, he attended St Elmo High School.
He then attended Sparks Business College, graduating with a G.M. accounting certification. He was hired by Phillips Chevrolet, St. Elmo, as their bookkeeper.
Uncle Sam sent a greeting, and he served our country for six years. After service, Floyd accepted employment with Boos Block Company in Effingham, Illinois, in their accounting department. After resigning from Boos Block, he attended Eastern Illinois University to earn a B.A. in business management.
Upon graduation, Floyd founded Adhatters, a company specializing in baseball caps with company logos. Health issues forced the company to be sold.
A year later, Floyd became a Subway sandwich franchisee, beginning with one store, and by retirement in 2016, he had developed six stores.
He has been a snowbird since 2005 and is still a charter member of the Effingham Historical and Genealogical Society in Illinois. The book presented to him at the meeting is the “Family Land Maps of Fayette County, Illinois.”
Gladys Smith’s 100th Birthday
Gladys Smith, our centenarian, was born on December 4, 1923. Gladys graduated from the University of New Hampshire, later earning a masters degree from UCLA. She and Ebert (her husband) moved to Sun City West from Whittier, CA in 1982 to live here full time.
Shortly after that, she discovered WVGS. They were meeting in the R.H. Johnson Library. She became active in WVGS and did intensive genealogy on her and Ebert’s families in the following years.
She has three maternal ancestors certified through the Daughters of the American Revolution; three or four of them could also qualify. She also became active in DAR.
The book selected was “Finding Your Scottish Ancestors,” which centers on Scottish history and research. Her paternal line was from Kilmarnock, Scotland, and they were in the weaving industry, which led them to Connecticut, where there was a carpet weaving industry in the early 1800s. Her research had stalled in the last five years due to poor eyesight, so her son Mart has taken on the task.
Mart’s sister, Sylvia Boyd attended the meeting. Mart and his wife were at a previous meeting and plan to return this fall. Sandy Korton, a member and a neighbor, was also at the meeting.
Rosalie Swenson
Rosalie Swenson was born in Little Rock, Iowa, on June 14, 1930. She graduated from High School in Worthington, Minnesota, and married Charles Swenson.
She was a stay-at-home mom, with a full-time job. Later, she had several part-time jobs after their four children (three boys and one girl) were in high school or working. She was a driver for a drug and alcohol rehab in Minnesota.
In 1985, she moved to Westbrook Village, Arizona, from Forest Lake, Minnesota, where she worked at the recreation center as a receptionist for many years. Rosalie moved to Sun City in 2002. She has been a member of WVGS since 2018.
Little Rock, Iowa, is in Lyon County and a very rural area, but they have several books online published by their genealogy society. The book presented to her was “American Migration Routes, Vol. 1.”
Lu Williams-Valles
Lu was born July 1, 1932, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She attended school in Linn County, Missouri, until the 7th grade, then in Golden, Colorado. She attended secretarial school in Denver, Colorado. Her favorite “temp work” was learning about different things. She worked in Ohio, New Hampshire, and California. Lu has lived in 11 states.
Her Dad talked about family, and her research began in Ohio, where her grandparents and great-grandparents were Quakers. When the National Genealogical Convention met in Colombus, Ohio, she met her cousin and started her research.
Her father’s grandparents were Lambert, and her grandmother was a Standifer who lived in Sullivan County, Missouri. The Standifers had ten daughters and one son, so her research was more complicated after the girls married.
They moved to Arizona in 1972 from California for her husband’s work. She joined in 1998 as a Life Member when the “Sun Cities Genealogical Society” monthly meeting was at the Sun Cities Museum of Art, and the library was at 11116 W. California Ave, Youngtown. She was the Recording Secretary for WVGS for five years from 2005-2009, even though the limit was two years. Lu served under three different Presidents.
The book presented to Lu was “Family Maps of Sullivan County, Missouri,” which will be on our shelves for all to use.