Ruth Marie Schwartz Driskell, aka Boo Boo, or just Boo, or Boolah, take your pick, was my grandmother. Her family arrived on U.S. soil very early on during the formation of this country. The Family Schwartz came here from Neckargemünd, Germany. The first to come was Johann Georg Schwartz in 1743 aboard the ship Neptune. He married his wife, Maria Catherine Schweig, in 1748 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Johann died in Lancaster in 1799 and Maria in 1780, also in Lancaster.

Here then at This Link is the German ancestral family Schwartz Church Book Records.

John Walter Schwartz was a twin to Samuel Marshal Schwartz. John served as a town marshall for Elkville, IL and also worked in the mines, as a foreman, at Hallidayboro, IL. His finger was injured in a mining accident and the doctor removed his finger with his "tobacco" knife. John died of tetanus. Some thought it was the doctor's dirty knife but it was more realistic to think it was from the mines where horses and mules were used to pull ore wagons. Source: family records and recollections, cemetery records of Jackson Co. Illinois.

Further information was found on 12-7-1992...the 80th anniversary of his death...in the journal of his sister Eva Lucy Schwartz Casleton. Her entry states: "Brother John died Dec. 7, 1912. Sat. he got his finger mashed in the mine and then had to have it cut off. He took lockjaw & blood poisoning and died. He hated to die so bad he said he would be a better man if he got well. I didn't go to the funeral. I went to the house."

Ruth Schwartz related this tale regarding her father: "I remember my papa waking up with dread on election day, because election day in a small mid-western town in those days was a busy day for the constable and sheriff. My papa was the sheriff, but had been the constable, too. One was elected, the other was appointed. He dressed, put on his gun, and said, 'Well, guess I'll get going, Emma. I'm gonna arrest the first son-of-a-bitch I find drunk today!' My mama said he came home for lunch and seemed sort of down. When she spoke of it, he said, 'Emma. Remember what I said at breakfast?' 'Yes.' 'Well guess who the first drunk I ran into was? Joe!' (NOTE: that would be Joseph Schwartz, his baby brother) She said, 'Oh! John! How awful! What did you do?' He said, 'Well, I took him down and locked him in Nauseley's barn, Em. I couldn't put Joe in jail.'"

John and Emma had three children, Mabel Lillian Schwartz, 1896, Ruth Marie Schwartz, 1898, and Herbert Edward Schwartz, 1904. Herbie died at six months from pnemonia. Ruth Schwartz Driskell told this story of her little brother: "I had a baby brother that I loved very much. His name was Herbie and he was born in 1904 when I was only six years old. When Herbie was about six months old he got pneumonia and died. I also got pneumonia at the same time and could not go to Herbie's funeral. My Aunt Ida stayed home with me while the family went to the cemetery."

Every year, for years, the family would meet in August at the home of J.D. Hays to celebrate Sarah Schwartz's birthday. The articles to the left and above explain this, although the gathering in the photo above may have been any one of a number of such gatherings.

It should be noted that the house in both large photos above is the same house. Edward Schwartz died in 1904. His older brother William who had preceeded him in 1871 had married Sarah Kimmel and they had a daughter Ellen. Ellen married John Dudley Hays and the old Schwartz homestead became their home.