Biography for Remi Stoens, Putnam County, Illinois Remijus "Remi" Stoens (1894-1985) Birth:  February 18, 1894, Ogelsby, LaSalle Co. IL Death:  June 16, 1985, El Paso, Woodford Co. IL Parents:  Peter Stoens and Louisa Thierie Siblings:  Caesar, Mary, Frank*, Laura*, Ann* (* = Died in infancy) Marriage:  October 8, 1927, Hennepin, Putnam Co. IL Spouse:  Alberta "Bertie" Stoens Children: 1.Elsworth 2.Howard 3.Robert 4.Edith (Tucker) 5.Arnold Remijus "Remi"  Dennis Gerard Stoens was born in Ogelsby, Illinois in La Salle County on February 18, 1894. Remi's family lived in Ogelsby until 1901. They then moved near Florid, which is 4 miles southeast of Hennepin, Illinois in Putnam County . Remi attended school in Florid and received an eight grade education. On Tuesday, March 14, 1915, (according the local paper, The Putnam Record), Remi and his family moved to the town of Hennepin. In August of 1918, Remi was recruited into the US Army. While in Boot Camp, he wrote a letter home which was published in The Putnam Record. It said: LETTER FROM REMI STOENS Camp Shelby, Mississippi, July 29, 1918 Dear Friend Cook, I'll write you a few lines on behalf of Stephen Novac and myself. We are in the same regiment but not the same company. I will tell you a few things that have happened to us since we left home. We arrived here on the morning of May 27, and were kept in the detention camp for 3 weeks and were kept in close confinement at that.  We even had to ask the first sergeant if we wanted to go to the canteen. We left the detention camp on the 19th of June and were put in the 151st infantry. I am in the machine gun company and Stephen is in Company D and is learning how to throw bombs as well as handling a rifle. We are getting along fine and like our work fine. I was on stable detail today and Stephen was sent to over to the Y.M.C.A. to sweep the hall. We are all getting a chance at these little details, but don't like them for they will knock us out of so much drill and will take us just that much longer to get ready to go across to France or wherever we suppose to go. We have had our woolen clothes given to us and hope to leave here before long. Well, hoping to hear from the folks at home, I will give you both addresses, mine and Stephen's. Stephen Novac, 151st Inf. Co. D., Camp Shelby, Mississippi Remijus D. Stoens Machine Gun Co., Camp Shelby, Mississippi In September of 1918, while at training camp, Remi had to undergo an operation for appendicitis. The operation went well, thankfully but they made him march, carrying heavy knapsacks before he was completely well. This made Remi shrink an inch in height.  Remi served during WWI during 1918 and 1919. By the time he made it across to Europe, the war was over. He did meet a cousin of his, while in France in 1919. During his time there, Remi served military police duty, since the armistice had been signed. During a scuffle between French and American soldiers, he was wounded on the hand when a gun accidently discharged.  Because of that, Remi received his honorable discharge. After his time in the service, Remi returned to Hennepin, Illinois and lived with his parents. Remi as a young man, would go bar hopping by skating down the Illinois River from town to town during the winter. Once on Halloween, Remi and a group of friends took a farmer's wagon completely apart and put it back together on top of his barn as a prank.   In 1925, while he was helping his father paint the house of some property they owned outside of Florid, Remi met his future wife, Alberta Roseanna Daily. Remi would try to get Alberta or Bertie as she was called, to come outside and meet him in the mornings by throwing rocks at her bedroom window. (She never did though). Bertie did however agree to drink coffee with Remi in the mornings and they would go for long walks in the evenings. They even went parking in his old Ford at Lover's Lane. (They never did say what they did there.) In 1927, Bertie agreed to become Remi's wife and on October 8, 1927, Remi Stoens and Alberta Daily were united in holy matrimony by Reverend Peter Qwarh, a Catholic priest in Hennepin, Illinois at the Catholic Parsonage in Hennepin, Illinois. After their marriage, Remi and Bertie moved in with Bertie's grandmother, Rosa Beck. Rosa died the following year on March 13, 1928. Remi and Bertie continued living in Florid until the summer of 1929. During that time, Remi's first son was born on October 20, 1928 but only lived 5 days. He was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Hennepin.  Remi and Bertie had 4 more children, Howard, Robert, Edith and Arnold. Remi and Bertie moved outside of Florid, around 1929. Remi had gone to work for George Haun and Remi and Bertie moved into one of the houses he owned. Remi and Bertie were having difficulties with Remi's family because of Bertie's age. Another one of their problem's was Remi's religion. Remi's family were devout Catholics and Bertie would not join the church. There was a violent argument over their baby Howard and Remi was excommunicated from the church. Because of these problems, in 1931 Remi and Berty moved to Mark Kay's place in Oxbow (no longer exists) which was outside of Magnolia, Illinois.   The place, like the Haun's place had no electricity, inside toilet, or inside running water. The water had to be gotten from a well outside and it made living rather rugged. Remi and Bertie's first few years were filled with adjustments just as all married couples are. At first Remi wanted to do everything for Bertie. He wouldn't let her lift a finger to do anything and didn't even want to leave her alone to go to work. Finally, Bertie convinced him that she was perfectly capable of doing things for herself and she would be all right by herself. Remi worked by the month farming at Mark Kay's and every night he came home to his "Pet" (his nickname for Bertie). During the early 1930's, Remi and his brother-in-law, Haroll worked for Mark Kays farming.  They made a grand total of 9 dollars a week. Remi ran the combine and Haroll ran the tractor.  Remi and Haroll were good friends and spent a lot of time together. Haroll can remember he and Remi breaking horses together. Remi soon grew tired of farming for someone else and in 1934, he decided to try farming for himself. Remi rented a farm called the Rismire's place outside of Magnolia and Remi struggled to make his farm pay. By now, Remi's sister-in-law Babe had married Aldin Haun and the four of them spent a lot of time together. They are mentioned visiting Bertie's brother Ray and his wife While at the Rismire place, Remi and Bertie had their only daughter, Edith Roseanna. She was so tiny that they didn't think she would live. They wrapped her in a blanket and put her in a buggy near the stove to keep her warm. Edith might have been tiny, but she was healthy and she became the apple in her father's eye. Bertie remembers Remi looking down at that tiny baby and saying, "She's so little, she looks just like a doll. Pet, let's call her Dolly". Remi stuck it out at Rismire's for about 3 years trying to make a living from farming. Remi just wasn't making a living and they both decided it would be best to try farming someplace else. Remi found another farm called the Shlesher place and settled there hoping that this time they were at their permanent home. The farming there was also poor and the house was so very cold that they just couldn't stay there When Bertie was seven months pregnant with her fourth and last child, Remi moved his family again. It was January when they moved to a place outside of Henry for 2 weeks until they could find a place they could afford. This house had everything - running water, inside bathroom and electricity. The children were so fascinated with the lights that they kept running around the house turning the lights on and off. Bertie knew that they couldn't stay there though, so she only unpacked what was absolutely necessary. For two weeks, the whole family lived out of boxes. Finally they found a place outside of Toluca owned by Ed Spangler and Remi went to work for Spangler farming.  This house was a little better than the others. It didn't have running water, but it did have an inside pump and a bathtub. It's a good thing that Remi's clothes were well worn back then. Several times Remi came back to the house with no pants on because they had been caught in machinery and ripped off. Remi's daughter Edith can remember that one of her favorite chores she would help her father do was to make apple cider. They would cut and core the apples and load them into the old lard press. Remi would turn the old press, tightening it down until the juice oozed out the bottom. Remi was a caring man, always ready to help out a neighbor. Edith can remember one night when she was very small of her father being awakened by a neighbor late at night because a neighbor's barn was on fire. Remi didn't think twice, he put on his clothes and out the door he went to try to save the livestock. Back then, neighbors were a close community. At harvest time, they would all hire a combine and work together to bring in the crops. Remi was also a strong man. One time there were several hunters down by the tracks near their home. One of the hunters was hit by a train. He was a big man, but when Remi was asked to help, he carried the man from the tracks all the way to the hunter's car on his back. Remi and his family stayed at the Spangler place until 1950. Remi was then offered the job of taking care of pigs for the Hydridges and decided to take it. Remi moved his family to the Hydridge place outside of Toluca and hoped that he would make more money at taking care of pigs than at farming. They stayed for two years trying to make a living a raising hogs but it simply didn't work out. Remi and Bertie rented the Helander place east of Toluca and Remi went to work at the Cheese Factory in Toluca. The job was very hard and if Remi cut himself, the salt would eat big sores into his hand. After they had only lived at the Helander place for several months, Remi's old boss, Ed Spangler offered Remi and Bertie back their old house, rent- free, in return for doing chores. Remi and Bertie gladly accepted the offer. Remi continued working at the cheese house and they stayed at the Spangler Place for two years.  Then in 1955, Remi and Bertie decided to make another move. They bought a little house in Toluca, Illinois, by the Jumbo. It was the first house they had ever owned. They were tired of renting. Bertie was 47 and Remi was 61 years old. While they lived in Toluca, Remi worked as a carpenter for Bill Zilm (but he didn't get paid his last check) and worked at the cheese factory.   Remi decided to retire once he reached 65. It was the worse thing he could have done. Shortly  after he retired, Remi had a mild stroke. The doctor said it was because Remi went from being very active to doing nothing. Shortly after that, Remi went to work for Pete Mastellio running different gas stations.  Even as Remi began to age, he still remained strong. Sometimes he didn't even know his own strength. One time, his son Bob was helping Remi fix some of the plumbing. Remi said "I'm getting too weak in my old age. You'll have to tighten it for me." Bob took one look at the pipe and said "Too weak! - Dad you've tightened it so tight that you've stripped the threads!" Remi and Berti's son Howard and daughter Edith had married and had children by 1960. Remi and Bertie spoiled their grandchildren rotten, but they were all fairly good kids so it didn't hurt them too much. The biggest treat of all is when all the grandchildren got to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house at the same time. Remi let them build things out of wood in (what they called) The Round House, taught them how to play checkers and would take them fishing. Remi was always building something for his grandchildren. One year, he built all of them doll beds, which some of them still have to this day. He would also give them rides on his knee when they were little and tease them mercilessly when they pouted. One of his favorite sayings was "......'s mad and I'm glad and I know how to please her. A bottle of ink to make her stink and a little boy to squeeze her." When they became cranky, Remi had another saying, "She's tired and she wants to go to bed. She had a little drink about an hour ago and it went right to her head." Remi and Bertie's favorite sport was fishing. There were many a family gathering and picnic around a favorite fishing spot. After the grandchildren got old enough to fish, Remi would take them fishing too. Everybody would pile into the "old car" and off they would go to fish. Remi's favorite fishing partner became his grand- daughter Nancy. As soon as she became old enough to enjoy it, they would go fishing together every summer. He even bought her first fishing license for her when she turned 16. He also took her to get her first driver's license. Remi was also an avid reader and loved to read westerns. You could find him sitting any evening engrossed in a good book, especially Zane Grey. He also loved to garden and would plant his potatoes on Good Friday even if there was a foot of snow on the ground. For a special treat, Remi would buy ice cream. Now that ice cream was always eaten the day it was bought, so if there was only one grand- child visiting, that meant that they got a third of a 1/2 gallon of ice cream! Remi and Bertie would also take the grandchildren in the "old car" for ice cream cones.  There were many a time when more ice cream got on the seats of the car than in the tummies. In 1965, Remi bought a house in Washburn so that Bertie could be closer to her doctor, because of poor health. In 1966, Berty had a heart attack. She had to have complete bed rest from November through March. That didn't stop Bertie from enjoying Christmas. She simply had a bed made in the livingroom where she could see everything. In 1969, Remi was told that he had cancer. It was cancer of the lungs and he was 75 years old.  The outlook wasn't very promising, but the doctors performed surgery. Remi not only survived the surgery, but went back to work the next year for Pete Mastelio. He operated the gas station called the White Top in Washburn, Illinois. Remi and Bertie celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in October of 1977. It was a big open house celebration that all of their friends and family attended. The celebration was held at the American Legion in Washburn, Illinois and the place was packed with well wishers. It was during this time, that Remi started having mishaps while driving and when it came time to renew his license, he wasn't able to pass the test. His son Bob sold his car so he wouldn't be tempted to drive. That about broke Remi's heart. To not be able to drive was devastating for him. Three years later, in 1980, Remi fell and broke his hip. At the age of 86, he was just too old to recover right. Bertie tried to take care of him for two years. Then in 1982, Remi developed blood clots in his legs. He had to be rushed to the hospital for them to be removed. After 5 hours of surgery, Bertie was told that he would be all right, but he would be hospitalized for a long time. After that, Remi would be moved to a nursing home for special care. This was their first separation in 55 years. Remi was placed in the Hawthorn Nursing Home in El Paso, Illinois. Bertie continued to visit him as least twice weekly, hoping that he would improve and be able to come home. Remi's health though, continued to decline. In December of 1983, he had to have one of his legs amputated below the knee. After that he seemed to lose his will to live. On June 16, 1985, Remi Stoens passed away in his sleep. He was laid to rest in the small cemetery outside of Washburn, Illinois in Woodford County. --------------------------------------------------------------------- UGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Piper