Notes |
- My father, Rudie, was born 21 Aug 1900 at the home of his parents. The date is not sure since the birth certificate was not filed properly. His father died when Rudie was about two years of age. His father's death may have been related to a fall in a barn because he had severe head pains for years after the fall. Rudie's mother Sophie was allowed to stay on the farm and did for a while. As the boys grew up they chose not to farm. Sophie met a man, formerly from Hoyleton, who courted her. After their marriage the family moved to Scott City, MO (near Lebanon). Once there Sophie took care of her two youngest boys, Leonard and Rudie and also her new husband's family. By this time Millie and Paul were married and stayed in Hoyleton. The boys lived with their mother in Missouri for a while but first Leonard moved back to Hoyleton to stay with Millie and her husband Albert Krughoff. Shortly after, when he was 13, Rudie moved to Millie's home too. They both liked Millie and Albert Krughoff's home. Albert was more than a father figure to Rudie; He was father--and Albert never complained.
My father met Emilie at church. They married and 1928 I came. We were on a farm near Hoyleton. Dad did some farming in summer and taught country school. It was depression time.
All the boys had been to Elmhurst. It was runby the Evangelical Church (now UCC) and was an inexpensive place to go to be educated. My father was a night time worker at the Chicago Tribune and also had other jobs while in school. I don't believe Sophie helped any money wise. She died when I was eight. She had cancer and the operation in those days was very crude. Sophie had a few of her things left--so--Paul and Rudie went to have things settled. They filled their car with trinkets and quilts and came home. I'm sure she was brought back to a grave in Hoyleton to be buried with her first husband. We never saw mauch of the step-family she raised in Missouri. I alwayhs had a feeling the step-brothers weren't members of the "good-guys club".
Music ruled the Brinks; all the boys played instruments and Millie loved to play the piano and organ. My father had the Venedy Band, New Minden Band, Nashville Band and other school bands such as Hoyleton. He also had a drum and bugle corp for Nashville.
He was an avid collector of Indian relics. He hunted many in the area of Hoyleton and New Minden. Kent, my oldest son, now has his large collection.
The house he bought in New Minden gave him the privilege of planting all kinds of shrubs, trees and a large vegetable and flower garden. He spent many hours in the garden.
Dad's leaving us in 1976 left mother in a town where she needed transportation and she couldn't drive a car. She came to live with my family in Columbia, Illinois in July 1976 and departed her life at the Waterloo Nursing Home on 17 Jan 1991. She had been there only 12 weeks.
by daughter, Betty Brink as found in
Brink/Beckmeyer Family History 1999
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