Ramcharan-Crowley

... Cholera broke out and the father and the two boys, whose names and ages I do not know, took it and soon passed away. My father and Aunt Theresa did not take it. Father was then 17 and Aunt Theresa 15 years of age. Aunt Theresa, stunned by the death, refused to go on and he, being 17 years old could not force her. ... Of course Aunt Theresa then went to Booneville where Ann was. I do not know how long they were there but I often heard Aunt Theresa speak of the negro slaves there. I also do not know how long they were around St. Louis before going back to Peoria. But I have a faded certificate, so dim as to be scarcely legible, saying that Theresa Schneblin had recieved the first communion in the Parish Church at Carondolet in 1853, that is in St. Louis. How long before they went back to Peoria I cannot tell, but it seems to me they must have both been married at the usual age. Theresa to Joseph Burger, and Ann to John Thome. ... It seemed that Ann had been through enough. But the final blow was loss of health and total blindness. Aunt Theresa brought her down to our house for a few days. She had to be lead around... ... I think your mother [Theresa, daughter of Ann] was around 13 or 14 when her mother died. By that time your mother was fully able and was making her own living, - and would not have to take any talk from the stepmother. She seldom went to see her father and of course Aunt Theresa encouraged her to stay away. ... Now in closing I can say that my Aunt Ann and your grandmother was a quiet, gentle woman and not given to quarreling. But Aunt Theresa Burger was a different type, and as she said, allowed nobody to run over her and could debate vigorously– also work as well. But the English I learned there is not found in dictionaries, or the Bible.