Living married Living [Group Sheet]

Notes:

23 Jun to 16 Oct 1944
Company A., 156th Training Battalion
92nd (or 98th) Regiment I.R.T.C.
Camp Hood, TX

26 Oct to 25 Dec 1944
16th HQ & HQ Det.
Special Troops No. 1
Camp Chaffee, AR


Do any of you remember your dad talking about working at a munitions plant in St. Louis?  I want to say it was McDonnell Douglas.  Melba, his sister worked there as a welder during WWII.
After your dad and I were married, after his Farmer Store manager job.  He went to college for a short time at Carbondale.  When you (Jim) were born he was working in sales for a man in Chester selling (at the moment I can't remember but is seems like it was office equipment or something like that.  The guy went out of business and your dad did not get all his pay.
I think it was then that he lived with Phyllis and John and worked at the same place your uncle John worked in the office. He also worked in the office.  (Seems like he filled in for someone at that office and started at the plant in Sparta in the fall.) It was there I remember him telling me he decided the men in the factory made more than the office workers.  We moved to Steeleville apartment when you were 18 months old and your dad was employed by World Color Press. Phyllis and John were living in an apartment at that time. (email from Mom, Aug 2012)

(Medical):Contracted Kidney Cancer and had kidney removed.  Cancer later spread to brain and tumor was removed.  Cancer later spread to colon and this was also removed, but it was then found that cancer had returned to brain and Dad was terminal.

Previous to this Dad had heart disease including triple or quadruple bypass surgery

Bobbie married Living [Group Sheet]

Notes:

(Research):Attended St. Paul College in Concordia, MO, arriving there on 6 Sep 1911 and graduating on 15 Jun 1917.

WWI Draft Registration:  24 Aug 1918
Harry C. Welp
born 12 Aug 1897 in Frohna, MO
residence Frohna, MO
father born St. Louis, MO
Student of Divinity at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis MO
Tall, Slender, Brown eyes and Brown hair.

Attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO; graduating in 1921.

Harry married Alma Phillipine Emilie Rafert 12 Oct 1921, Indianapolis, Marion County, IN. Alma was born 2 Sep 1900, Indianapolis, Marion County, IN; was christened 23 Sep 1900, St. Paul Lutheran, Indianapolis, Marion County, IN; died 25 Jul 1996, Altamont, Effingham County, IL; was buried Jul 1996, Altamont, Effingham County, IL. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

(Research):The Indianapolis journal, Volume 50, Number 250, 7 September 1900
VITAL STATISTICS SEPT. 6.
Births.
Edward H. and Lizzie Rafert, 231 East Merrill street, girl.

"I also remember the Lusitania sinking in May 1916.  I read it to Mom in the newspaper after school as she peeled potatos for supper.  Then we knew the war seemed to be coming.  It was a terrible tragedy, some 1600 persons killed.  Later Walt and a friend left for the Marines."  from Jottings by Alma Rafert Welp.

Memories of Quilts and Quilting by Doris Welp Russell
My mother as a young woman married and moved with her husband to a small, small town in Southern Illinois. She had lived in a large city all her life. Her father had died when she was seven so at sixteen she needed to go to work and help contribute to the needs of her family.
She had two brothers and a sister older and twin brothers younger.
In this small southern Illinois town the ladies of the church gathered to quilt on Thursday afternoon. Usually quilts were pinned into a wooden frames. The cost of the quilting was figured by the amount of thread used. (Used spools were put in a container to be counted when the quilt was finished) Frames were pieces of wood with an edge of cloth tacked on. Onto this cloth the quilt was pinned. Lining, cotton, then the quilt. As the quilters would quilt and could no longer reach to stitch, the clamp that held the wooden ends together were removed and the quilt would be rolled and reclamped. This was done from both sides of the quilt. At that time "30's-40's" most quilt's were double bed size. Occasionally they would have all day quilting and the ladies would bring their lunch with them also younger children. The children would play in the school basement and slide on the wooden floor under the quilts. Many received a splinter from the wooden floor.
Mother was not a quilter when she arrived and told of being criticized about the size of her stitches. If too large she would be required to remove them. Needless to say her stitches after a while were perfect and even. She pieced many quilts from fabric left over from sewing her daughters (four) wardrobes. We would look at the nine patch quilt or any pattern quilt and remember whose dress that was and what style or whether it had been a favorite. Most of the quilts she pieced after they retired. Dad would cut the pattern out of cardboard and he also helped cut the fabric. When finished she would quilt them in a small round frame which she held in her lap or sometimes she placed it on a stand. Mother pieced quilts and quilted until the evening before she left us. I visited her one July evening and when I was leaving she asked if I would take the quilt she was working on and check to see if she had missed any areas and then bind the quilt. Another finished quilt----the next morning getting ready for breakfast she was called to rest.
(Marking of quilt----patterns were made of cardboard and some were quite elaborate. Straight lines were made by using the yardstick. I still have a few of her patterns for marking.)