Lilly Mae Foster Wiemer was born in Elberon, Iowa to Elba O. Foster and Elizabeth Kendall Foster. Her father died in 1903 of Tuberculosis. Her mother remarried to her father's brother, Van Foster.
Grandma wrote:
"When I was eight,my mother married my father's brother -- Now that I am older & look back on that marriage I feel my poor mother made a big mistake - She was a hard working person. I can remember her washing clothes on the board to make 50 cents. If she did the ironing, she got a dollar...When I was 10 my mother had a new baby sister for us. My sister & I both wanted a brother, but we were real happy with our new baby... My mother never did get well after our baby was born. When the baby was three weeks old, mother never left her bed again. If I were not in school I was picking up coal - nights I was rocking the baby - I'll never forget once I woke up and the baby was lieing on the floor, but I was lucky she was not hurt. My mother passed away Dec 28, 1906. She was 30 years old..."
When her mother died, Lilly and her sister Ionia were sent to The Lutheran home in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The Henry Stuhr family took her from the orphanage to live with them near Waco, Nebraska. They brought her back to their farm (about 1907)to help care for their flock of children. Grandma told me it was very hard work, but she always loved babies, and had many to take care of in this home. Grandma met my grandfather William Wiemer as a result of her move to Nebraska and her attendance at the same church - South St. John's. They were married when grandma was sixteen. Grandma and Grandpa had twelve children (one was stillborn). They farmed for many years living near Waco, and then Tecumseh and for a few years during the dirty thirties in Missouri. They returned to Nebraska and moved to York. Their home at 1002 Nebraska Avenue was a rest home for the elderly for many years. After Grandpa's death, I remember Grandma caring for three or four elderly persons. When this work became too hard, or because regulations changed, Grandma ran a boarding house. She rented rooms mostly to construction workers, but also several school teachers took up residence in her well kept home. Grandma did marry again, to Herman Rottluff on February 10, 1957. He died February 11, 1970. Grandma loved to write, and had several pen pals over the years. She also began writing about her life, but unfortunately we only have a couple of pages from this precious journal(see excerpt above). She was a loving and giving person who believed in God and wanted her children to be honest, hard working and God fearing people. She succeeded in raising eleven children through some very difficult, lean years. She is a wonderful example of strength, faith and endurance, and she is greatly missed!