Tillie

     Tillie was born on a farm near Hazelton, the 4th child of Gottlieb and Lydia Grenz.  After her older sister, Erna, died at the age of 3 years, Tillie became the oldest daughter in the family.  There fore, Tillie was only allowed to attend school through second grade; after that, her father felt that she had received enough education, so Tillie was forced to drop out of school since she was expected to stay home to help her mother with the housework and the babies.

Tillie remembers that she milked a lot of cows, plus carried wood and coal for the stoves, plus washed a lot of clothes, in addition to helping her mother with the garden and canning the produce for the winter.  A daily chore was cleaning the kerosene lamps and refilling the, plus emptying the asses from the two wood stoves- the kitchen range and the space heater.

Tillie also remembers her father going down to the river with a hay wagon to collect wood, along with John and Pete Stoller and the older boys from all three families.  They would be gone a couple days or longer, sometimes.

Tillie stayed at her Grandmother Louisa (Gabert) Schock's home in Wishek to take care of her, when Tillie was 15 years old.  Tillie stayed there until her grandmother died in Aug. 1939; Tillie was almost 18 by then, and her parents had moved to Tower City, ND.  although she moved back home, she soon hired out to do housework at various farms in the area until she married Julius Hoff in 1943.

Julius was the third oldest of the thirteen children that were born to his parents.  He met Tillie in 1940.  They were married while Julius was in the Army Air Force.  Tillie moved to the various bases that Julius was stationed at for 2 1/2 years and their first-born child, Harley was born in 1945 at Swannanoah, NC.  Julius was discharged in April, 1946 at Fort McCoy, WI.

Julius and Tillie operated his dad's farm from 1946 until 1952.  During that time, their daughter Darlene was born in 1948.  They moved to Valley City for two years, 1952 until 1954; they moved to a farm near Pillsbury in 1954.  In 1960, Tillie was very badly burned in a gas explosion in their house, suffering burns over 85% of her body.  She spent almost five months in the hospital.

Although Darlene was only 12 years old at that time, she learned to cook and bake bread real quick, plus clean the house and do the laundry.  Sister Helen also spent time during the summer, helping Tillie and Darlene do the household chores and cooking for the hired hands.

The family moved to Goodrich, ND in July, 1964 where Julius purchased and operated a Standard Service Station.  In the Fall of 1966, They moved to Bismarck to operate a Standard Service Station, which Julius operated until his retirement in 1982.  Tillie did babysitting for 21 years until she suffered  a stroke in January. 1991.

Tillie has mostly recovered from her stroke, so she can do most of their housework.  With Julius's help to peel any vegetables, they do more things together!  Plus, they enjoy going out for the special suppers at the Amvets and VFW, and the American Legion.