Quotes from the Early American Museum

 

The following quotes are from the 'We're Americans First: East Frisians of Champaign County' oral history project and exhibit at the Early American Museum, portions of which are still on display through December 1997.

 

"Like most East Frisians, my family was oriented toward farming, they were land hungry people... they thought that land was the only asset really worth having"............Robert Behrens.

 

 

 

 

 

"He bought the first 47 acres for $10 an acre and it had never been broken from prairie grass... they were full of snakes, frogs, mosquitoes, green-headed flies... it's still in the family today".............John Behrens.

 

 

 

 

 

"Anything we raised, we had a lot of. We had our chickens and eggs and, of course with the garden, we had our potatoes; so quite often our evening meal which we called supper was fried potatoes and scrambled eggs... we also had mush".............Irene Osterbur.

 

 

 

"The last time we had a corn sheller on the place... as the corn sheller pulled out of the drive, my father said 'I hate to see that go...We will not be neighbors anymore. These people won't have time for each other'... It's so competitive anymore and people are so busy .... it's not the togetherness and the harmony that we'd like to see... everybody's so busy trying to make it"............Wayne Busboom.