Peter
&
Bertha

Wedding Picture – Pete (sitting) and Bertha (veil) Schaefer June 22, 1910

Pete's Bio

PETER J.SCHAEFER,

HUSBAND, FATHER, GRANDFATHER

Peter J. Schaefer was the seventh child of John H. and Mathilda nee Hoffmann Schaefer. He was born in Belleville on Nov. 23, 1886. After about eight years of schooling, he did some work until he married Bertha Hoffmann.

Pete then worked in the mines in Belleville until the birth of their fifth child and then lived in Beckemeyer, IL., for a year and a half. On his return to Belleville, he worked with Grandpa Schaefer in the John H. Schaefer and Sons Grocery Store until he had too many credit customers. While working in the store, Pete had a severe accident in a truck explosion while he and some of the boys were repairing it. His face was badly burned, and the tips of his ears were burned off. For years this was a cross to him because he was very conscious of it. However, in later years, he overcame this and discovered that people didn’t notice and lived just as happily as the rest of us. Pete worked in various Stove Foundries in Belleville for the rest of his working days. He was called a stove mounter. He did this type of work until around his seventies. He would have continued longer, but his health would not permit it.

The main homestead was 618 West Monroe which he took great pride in keeping repaired and in good condition. The boys’ help added a hallway, bath, and kitchen to the house. He also enjoyed making wooden furniture such as lawn chairs, barber chairs, benches, toys, and a baby bed for our family and about 12 grandchildren.

His yard and vegetable garden were also a source of pride, and we enjoyed eating what came from the garden and fruit trees. As the family matured, he greatly loved the get-togethers of the family, with the evening usually ending with a round of harmonized songs. One of his greatest pleasures was singing in the Cathedral Choir. His children also enjoyed hearing him and another choir member sing the Special Tenor parts to the Mass. He was a member for 45 years and stopped very reluctantly. His heart and legs could no longer make the three flights of steps to the choir loft.

Bowling, playing cards, and in later life, playing pool were some of the past times he enjoyed. Many good times were had with the sons and sons-in-law playing cards. His laugh was very infectious. At present, his son Richard sounds the most like him in this matter.

He had ideals he lived by and tried to instill them into his children. He was a pious man, and the Family Rosary and prayers to the Sacred Heart were a part of daily life. Pete and his wife, Bertha, were privileged to enjoy and celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary on June 22, 1960. Professor Miller and the men of the choir sang for the Mass. Their oldest daughter Henrietta and her husband Al Bauer celebrated their Twenty-Fifth the previous Sunday to let Mom and Pop have the honor of their day. After suffering from a heart ailment and the last three years of hardening of arteries, Pete died in the Hospital with none of his be-loved family around. His funeral was July 31, 1964, the same day as his friend, the choirmaster Professor Miller. Pop was laid to rest in Green Mount Cemetery within the same line as Professor Miller, with the eldest grandson of each family as a pallbearer and other grandsons as altar boys. ~Respectfully Doll Schaefer

Bertha's Bio

BERTHA FRANCES HOFFMANN SCHAEFER,

WIFE, MOTHER, GRANDMOTHER, GREAT GRANDMOTHER

Bertha Frances Hoffmann was the fourth child of Francis and Nettie nee Boehl Hoffmann. She was a very quiet, hard-working, and prayerful woman. During her early years, she lived in a moderate home and enjoyed the simple pleasures of a big family. She worked hard with her sisters and brothers to keep the family going.

She lived in the days when irons were still heated on the stove; the style was still long dresses and many petticoats. Long hair was also in style, and Mom could boast that she never had her hair cut once in her lifetime.

“Mom,” as she was known to most people, lived for God and her family. She waited on her husband daily and most of the time, even up till the time of the arrival of the new babies. Of course, we know this was quite frequent, having mothered fourteen children in all. Her greatest trials were when Pop was burned, the death of their first son, Reinald, the accidental death of daughter Virginia aged 3, and death at birth of twin baby Daniel. Even though these trials were hard to bear, the happiness of rearing the remaining 11 children seemed to counteract and stimulate her desire to fulfill her role as wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

She enjoyed the small things in life, like planting flowers and sewing dresses and coats for the girls and shirts for the boys. She always saw that each was neatly dressed and attired correctly for church. Another enjoyable time was listening to Spelling, Geography, and Religion answers, playing word games, or singing while doing dishes on Sunday afternoons. The celebration of her Sisters’ Birthdays each year brought her great pleasure. Their enjoyment of talking about each other’s families brought great happiness and kept them close. Mom was frugal; she knew how to make things stretch and was forever working with figures. One of her greatest worries was that she wouldn’t have enough money to be taken care of in her old age. She didn’t want any of her children to have to sacrifice and pay for bills she thought belonged to her.

She loved the visits of her married sons and daughters with their wives, husbands, and children. She always called to make arrangements for family gatherings at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. She loved her grandchildren and tried hard not to spoil them, but as all grandmothers do, she had to do her share too. She was privileged to know she had five great-grandchildren but was too sick to enjoy them fully. Another little pleasure with these family gatherings was that many men-folk wanted Mom’s home-baked bread for dessert. We always enjoyed her freshly baked coffee cake and bread. When we were little, seven loaves a day had to be baked.

After Pop’s death, Mom remained alone at home for a year and then, following in her mother’s footsteps moved in with her daughter and son-in-law Al Bauer and family. They took loving care of her for nearly two years, and one September day, she was taking her daily walk and broke her hip. From that time on until her death, she was quite confused. She was in the Hospital from September to November and then to a Nursing Home for almost a month. She still had a sweet smile and prayed very much while waiting to be called to heaven. Her power of prayer and faith was strong, and this is one of the greatest treasures she passed on to her children. She died from a blood clot forming in her foot on Dec. 15, 1967. Her pallbearers were also grandsons from each family. She is laid to rest next to Pop in Green Mount Cemetery.

~Respectfully Doll Schaefer

Pete

11-23-1886
7-28-1964

Bertha

5-23-1888
12-15-1967

Family

Henrietta
Reinald
Sylvia
Hugo
Ralph
James
Richard
Virginia
Marilyn
Thomas
Daniel
Dolores
Alice
Joan

Birth/Death

05-16-1911/03-31-1981
11-22-1912/10-16-1913
04-21-1914/04-05-1998
07-25-1915/09-11-1972
08-08-1916/09-13-2006
09-29-1918/06-21-2013
01-10-1921/02-25-2004
01-23-1923/10-30-1925
08-20-1924/06-29-1993
02-13-1927/07-13-2016
12-17-1928/12-17-1928
12-17-1928/07-31-1974
12-10-1929/07-18-2020
08-14-1933/04-18-2023

On August 14, 1933, the youngest of fourteen children was born to Bertha (Hoffman) and Peter Schaefer in Belleville, Illinois. She was baptized at St. Peter’s Cathedral on August 20, 1933, and named Joan Marie. Three of the children died as infants, so the family of eleven living children, six girls, and five boys, grew up in a happy and thoroughly Catholic environment with the joys and challenges of a large family, especially during the World War II years.

Three of the children died as infants, so the family of eleven living children, six girls, and five boys, grew up in a happy and thoroughly Catholic environment with the joys and challenges of a large family, especially during the World War II years.

Joan attended St. Peter’s Cathedral kindergarten and grade school, staffed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. In the eighth grade, Joan desired to follow God’s call into religious life. One week after her older sister, Dolores (Sister Daniel Marie) entered the candidature at Sancta Maria in Ripa, St. Louis, MO, Joan entered Notre Dame High School as an aspirant. Following graduation, she entered the candidature on August 30, 1951. During her second year of candidature, she went to teach third and fourth-grade children at Blessed Sacrament School in Hannibal, Missouri. She began the novitiate on August 1, 1953, and was given the name Pierre Marie. She professed her first vows on August 2, 1954, and final vows on August 2, 1960. She later returned to her baptismal name.

Sister Joan received a bachelor’s degree in English from the former Notre Dame College in St. Louis, MO, in 1963 and a master’s degree in secondary education from Xavier University, New Orleans, Louisiana in 1973.

Following her profession, Sister Joan ministered in Catholic education for twenty-three years. She taught at St. Anthony, Longview, Texas; Christ the King School, Corpus Christi, Texas; St. Philip Neri, Metairie, Louisiana; Redemptorist Junior High School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She was the principal at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Dallas, Texas.

In 1974, she experienced a call to serve God’s people in foreign missions. Three years later, in 1977, she started her mission to Ghana, West Africa. During the next eighteen years, she taught at St. Martin’s Secondary School, Nsawam, Ghana; was co-director of the Catholic Conference Center in Nsawam; was a teacher at St. James Seminary, Sunyani, Ghana, and became headmistress at the newly opened Notre Dame Girls Senior High School in Sunyani. During this time, she also ministered at a women’s prison, teaching Bible classes and holding religious services. Following a short period of community service at St. Mary of the Pines, Chatawa, Mississippi, and a sabbatical, she returned to Ghana and ministered as an occupational therapist at the Orthopedic Training Centre in Nsawam.

Because of a surgical error in 1986, Sister Joan had a paralyzed vocal cord and found teaching difficult. Therefore, in 1996, her next ministry was postulant director for the former Dallas Province at the formation house in San Antonio, Texas. She also served adults in a literacy program part-time. In 2001, she was called to be the director of the Retreat Center at St. Mary of the Pines, Chatawa, Mississippi.

When her term at the Retreat Center ended in 2009, Sister Mary Kerber, District Leader for the District of Africa, asked her to return to Africa as the secretary in the District Office in Accra, Ghana. She was present in August 2011 when the District of Africa became a Province. She said her last goodbye to Africa at the end of 2012 and spent six months assisting in the archives at the Generalate in Rome.

Back in the United States, she spent several months helping at the former provincial house in Dallas before returning to St. Mary of the Pines, Chatawa, Mississippi as the assistant to the director of the Retreat Center. She moved to St. Anthony’s Gardens, Covington, Louisiana, in 2020 where she continued to perform community service. Following a hospital stay, they transferred her to Trinity Trace Community Care Center, Covington, in early March 2023 and placed her on hospice in April 2023. She died peacefully around 8:00 p.m. on April 18, 2023, at Trinity Trace as Sisters kept vigil.

Sister Joan was a kind, gentle, prayerful, hospitable woman who witnessed God’s love and care for all of God’s people. She enjoyed reading, gardening, writing poetry and haiku, needlework, and word puzzles. As she reflected on her years as a School Sister of Notre Dame, Sister Joan said, “Wherever I am, I will continue to live gratefully to God and all the wonderful people who appeared in the varied snapshots of my long life.” An example of a haiku she wrote is:

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May she experience the fullness of the life of the Resurrected Christ as she enters eternal life.

Peter
&
Bertha

Pete's Bio