Link to Schaumburg's past, she lived entire life in family homestead

One of the last direct links to Schaumburg's rural roots has passed away.

Viola Meyer, who was born on a 19th century farm at Wise and Roselle roads in Schaumburg, and who lived her entire life in the same house, passed away on Sunday. She was 90.

Mrs. Meyer's years on the family's 150-acre dairy farm were captured in a pair of oral histories recorded by village historians.

The first was done in 1998 as part of a preservation project of Schaumburg history, spearheaded by a group of volunteer facilitators. Mrs. Meyer later participated in Schaumburg's Millennium Committee's three-part history, preserved on DVD.

Both now are stored in Schaumburg Township District Library's digital archives.

"Viola's oral history is a wonderful example of how the history of Schaumburg Township stays alive," says Schaumburg librarian Jane Rozek.

In both, Mrs. Meyer described her long days on the farm, spent doing everything from baking for the week and cleaning the house and barn, to driving the tractor, filling the silo with chopped corn, and even walking the cows across Roselle Road to their 40-acres of pasture on Wise Road.

She also vividly remembered the tornado of 1933, that tore through the Schaumburg area, taking down 12 barns in its path, and striking their house with lightning.

Mrs. Meyer spoke fondly of meeting her husband, Henry, when he came to work as a farmhand in the late 1930s. The couple married in 1939, and though they never had any children, they remained on the farm, helping Mrs. Meyer's parents, John and Martha Homeyer, with the many animals, crops and chores.

"I enjoyed farming," Mrs. Meyer said. "I really did."

Mrs. Meyer submitted photos from her childhood in rural Schaumburg, to a book compiled about the area's history by Schaumburg's Cultural Services director, Betsy Armistead, called "Images of America: Schaumburg."

Her submissions included photos from the one-room school she attended at St. Peter Lutheran School in Schaumburg, as well as an aerial shot of the family farmhouse, surrounded by its vast open acreage.

Her mother sold the farm in 1960 to developers, while their former pastures became the site of the Campanelli YMCA and Frost Junior High School in Schaumburg.

However, the family was able to retain their five-bedroom farmhouse on what is now Laurel Lane, and Mrs. Meyer lived there nearly until her death.

Services have been held.