Ann Hillmann Schwaba - Continued

Henry was the next brother who was a very successful truck farmer in Glen Rock, New Jersey.  He was also reputed to be a very stingy man who wore old clothes and refused to go to town to buy his shoes. His daughter had to measure his foot on a piece of cardboard and take that into the shoe store and buy him his shoes.  They tell a story about the time he would come into Patterson with his wagon filled with produce and gave it all to St. Joe’s Hospital. This was amazing because he counted every penny and to give something away was not keeping with his reputation.    Benjamin was the next brother.  He was married to Mary who was a very good business woman.  They had two girls, Mary and Viola and a son.  Ben was a very successful truck farmer and made a great deal of money.  He followed the tradition of the Hillmann family, that is he counted every penny. My father, Walter, , really enjoyed him. He would tell stories about Ben’s great use of profanity and dry sense of humor.  Dad said you always knew how he felt about everything.  After he died his daughter sold off the property at great sums of money and made a fortune for the family.    The last of the Hillmann clan was my grandfather, Peter. He was well-educated, much more so than the rest of family.  He returned to New Jersey and married Mary McCloskey.  She came from a well-to-do family. An interesting anecdote -- her first cousin was Cardinal McCloskey of New York City.  Her mother and father came to America from Belfast, Ireland.

I am very vague on what followed after my grandfather left the school.  The brothers left Iowa and came back east.  Elizabeth Hillmann stayed in Iowa and married a man named Hess whose family was in the farm banking business.  Descendants of her family are still in Carroll and as far as I know still own the bank there.  My father, Walter, kept in touch, with them to some extent. In fact, sometime during World War II my father, mother, and Donald went out to Iowa to visit them.  The Hess’s gave Dad a carton of steaks and other meats; this was like a gift of gold as meat was rationed at the time.  I have always thought that I would go out to see them one day but never have.    To continue with the rest of the Hillmann's.  The oldest of John and Mary Ann’s children was Herman.  An advanced age he decided to move to Florida and began a hotel in what is now Orlando.  This was sometime in the twenties when Florida was just being developed.  How successful he was I do not know.  It was said that he left a good deal of money to his heirs.  At the age of 92 he was struck by a car crossing the street in front of his hotel.  Everyone joked about his death saying he would probably of live to be over 100 if he died of natural causes.  He was quite a robust man I was told.    The next brother was George who had nine daughters and one son.  He lived in Glen Rock, New Jersey and I think was a farmer also, but later went into the hardware business and as far as I know his heirs are still in the business.    The next brother was Arthur who moved his family to California.

Continued