Person:Katherine Pfeiff (1)

Name	Katherine Pfeiff
Gender	Female
Birth`^?`	12 Nov 1859	Gielshausen, Germany
Marriage	4 Oct 1886	Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa, USAto Alfred Meyer, Sr.
Death`^?`	9 Apr 1948	Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa, USA
Other^[1]		Reference Number - wikitree.page_id
Other^[2]		Reference Number - wikitree.privacy
Other^[3]		Reference Number - wikitree.user_id

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Biography

Katherine Pfeiff was born in Gielshausen, Germany, the oldest daughter of Peter and Maria, coming to Des Moines County at the age of 5½. On October 4th, 1886 she married Alfred Meyer who was born in Burlington, Iowa, the son of George and Magdaline Meyer. They were of Swiss ancestory and father George was a tailor. The newlyweds resided on South Adams Street in Burlington in Burlington for 14 years where Alfred was a foreman at the casket factory and worked six days a week, twelve hours a day for $2.00 a day, a good wage in those days. To them were born a son Alfred Jr. and a daughter Veronica. He was a very handy man with wood and after supper in the evenings would get out his tools and build various things. This was done in the kitchen which naturally would make quite a mess, Katherine was often asked how she could put up with this all the time and the reply would be she'd rather have him there than at the saloon. In the home of grandson Leonard Miller is a prized possession - a dough box - which Alfred made for his wife. It has now been refinished and in it the Miller's have rolls for the player piano which belonged to Leonard's great-grandmother Sandberg (Miller's Side). In 1900 they bought a farm in Union Township and thus began the life of a farmer. To Alfred this was new, but with the guiding hand of his wife, they made a go of it. Butter and eggs were taken into town and sold every Saturday. There was a small orchard and the apples were sold in season. Veronica had to herd the cows along the road everyday and drive them down down about a mile to the creek for water as water was short at home. When Alfred worked in the fields, the horses he used had colts and Veronica would go get them at noon so they could feed also. The two children went to Eureka School close by and to church in the German Methodist Church which was less than a quarter mile east of their home. An old Rock Spring Methodist Church and the Eureka School were built of stone - near the cemetery where J. Peter Wagner is buried. The old Rock Spring Church was closed before 1900. All that is left of the church are a few foundation stones that turn up with the plow.

In the spring of 1907 a basement was dug for a new home. This is the one Veronica lived in later in her life. In June the son Alfred Jr. died and it took a lot of persuasion by friends and neighbors to continue but they did and the house was completed that fall at a cost of $2,500. The carpenters came and stayed, sleeping in the barn with  Katherine and daughter cooking them three meals a day, six days a week. In 1918 Alfred and Katherine retired from active farming, the year their daughter was married.

In 1919 they took a trip by train to Ft. Meyers, Florida and it was something for them to talk about for many years. In 1938 the two grandsons dove them to Kansas City, Kansas and Bastrop, Louisiana where some lost nieces of Alfred were found. Traveling through the Ozarks in the back of the car kept getting lower and lower as they kept picking up rocks every time they stopped. They all had a wonderful time. The next year they took them Colorado to visit Ralph and Hildegard Schuff. They spent a week there and Katherine never was happy about the drive up Pikes Peak and when they crossed the bridge at Royal Gorge she just sat in the backseat and looked straight ahead. There was no way of getting her to look down. The trip also took them to Yellowstone Park and this she could tolerate. In later years they moved to the old house. There they had a large garden and Katherine had flowers everywhere, but the thing recalled most is the cookie jar that was always full and waiting for their hungry grandsons and that smile on their daces as the grandson would sneak in thru the kitchen past the living room where the two sat in their rocking chairs. Two finer people you'd never know. They died within 3 months of each other and are buried in the Greenwood Cemetery.

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