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	Fern Steinhoff Jones Hornick, Iowa, USA Brick Section G - Row 26
-- a partner in farming, a lover of education, a devoted wife, a great mother, a smart woman. Just last year at age 74, my mother told her grandchildren she still misses schoolwork; she loved it so much. Mom maintained high grades through elementary and high school and really wanted to go to college. But growing up with various relatives in rough financial times, she couldn't afford college. Instead mom settled for business school, first by correspondence, and then finished in Omaha where she lived with a cousin, Esther Adams. My sister and I weren't told back in the 1950s and 1960s that women could do any job, but we were told we had to have some kind of training: college or a trade school. We both completed bachelor's degrees at Iowa State University, the first to acquire college degrees in our direct ancestral line. My sister has a degree in elementary education; mine is in home economics journalism. So we honor our mother who made sure we received the education she wanted so very much for herself Fern Steinhoff was born May 26, 1920 in a farmhouse along the Loess Hills just south of Hornick, in Woodbury County, Iowa. Her parents were Theodore Steinhoff and Freda Unkel. She has one younger brother Wayne. When Fern was seven, her mother died of diabetes. Unable to care for his children by himself, Theodore Steinhoff let various relatives take a turn at raising the children. After living with Pauline (Theodore's sister) and Dominic Hummel, Minnie (Theodore's sister) and Elizabeth Kochart Steinhoff (Theodore's mother), Fern lived most of her remaining childhood with Ada Steinhoff and Ada's parents, Annabel and Jacob Steinhoff. This family was doubly related to mom. Annabel was Fern's mother's sister. Jacob was a first cousin to Fern's father. On February 14, 1942 Fern married Orlie Jay Jones, son of Nellie Nicholas and Jay Jones of Holly Springs. The newlyweds first lived in a small hired man's house just south of the main Jones farmhouse. Several years later Orlie's parents moved to Hornick, and Fern and Orlie moved into the farmhouse where Orlie had been born. Today they still live in that house. It's a century farm; the land has been in the Jones family over 100 years, homesteaded by Orlie's grandfather. My mother wouldn't consider herself a farmer because she didn't drive a tractor and didn't work in the fields. But she worked with the livestock we had through the years. When I was small, I remember we had chickens. Later when I was in elementary school, we had about seven Holstein cows she helped milk. We had milking machines and a separator to extract the cream, which was sold. We also had hogs and sold feeder pigs. The hogs were a mainstay, after me cows and chickens were gone. My mom always helped dad with the feeding, giving shots, and even castrating when no one else was available for the job. At one time we had sheep; mom helped dock the lambs' tails. Besides the outside "chores" as mom would call them, she is a farm woman extraordinaire. An excellent cook, she loves to bake. Mom made her own lye soap up until about 1980. She always had a garden, till recent years, canning and freezing the produce. She is an excellent seamstress and worker of embroidery. She loves to decorate the house for every holiday. Christmas, without a doubt, is her favorite holiday, probably because she is at least 90% German. Her great grandparents Steinhoff immigrated to Monroe County Ohio from Germany. Her grandfather Louis Unkel immigrated from Germany through Ohio to Iowa. Mom was a great teacher. Much of her teaching me was a direct by-product of 4-H. As a girls' 4-H club member, I worked in the three areas 4-H had in those days: sewing, cooking and home furnishings. My mother was an expert in each area except some of the home furnishings, and she delved into those with me. We learned to strip and refinish furniture, and mat and frame pictures together. I remember one summer my grandfather Jones was in a Sioux City hospital. I was making a rather fancy dress for a 4-H project -- my first garment. Each day before mom and dad headed off for Sioux City, 25 miles away, mom would explain another step or two for me to sew on the dress so I could work while they were gone. That pink dress was awarded an alternate to the state fair. Each summer our family went on vacation. We girls visited nearly every state by the time we'd completed high school. Mom insisted we see state capitols and historic sites. Our family was just an average income family, striving to buy the 200 acre farm from my grandfather Jones, but money was always saved for vacation. When it was time to go to college, there wasn't much money saved. I got scholarships initially and then worked part time. My sister subsisted on student loans. We were convinced we had to go to college and we'd find a way Mom expected quite a bit from her children and did everything she could to help with schoolwork, with 4-H projects, or whatever our current passion was. Today, we remember the things mom did that not everyone else's mom did. Mom was smelling up the back porch making lye soap when most people only saw it at historical sites. We hunted wild grapes and learned how to make jelly. We looked for bittersweet in the fall. We hunted morel mushrooms, cut wild cat tails and pussy willows. My mom loves the outdoors and knows many wildflowers in the Loess Hills. She alone in our family could kill snakes. When she and her brother lived in the Loess Hills, they hunted bull snakes to see who could bring the largest one home to their dad. This is an opportunity to salute our mother, Fern Steinhoff Jones, who so encouraged our education, and today is still teaching us. She instilled in us the concept that there's always more to learn. The Fern Steinhoff Jones brick is loving donated by Kristin Jones Skelton, Rembrandt, Iowa and Lynette Jones Spicer, Ames, Iowa 12/31/94
Narrative Updated: 12/31/1994
Honored By:	Lynette Spicer