From 23 June 1916 to 09 Dec. 2007 = 91 years, 5 months, 16 days.
Anne was born at home on the Hydro homestead to Peter and Margaretha Peters about 1:30 a.m. As the time’for her arrival neared, her dad sent the two older boys in the buggy across the creek and across the prairie to go get Mrs. Ebel (the homestead mid-wife). It was a pretty dark night, no moon. Dogs announced their arrival at the Ebel homestead Mrs. Ebel was ready and waiting and said, “Move over boys, I’m driving!” She was a rather large woman so when she sat down on the buggy seat, her side went way down and the two little boys went way up in the air on their side; they had to hang on for dear life as old Mrs. Ebel drove those horses at a pretty fast clip. Some of the first company to see new baby Anne was the Schroeder family. All the Schroeders had very light-colored or blond hair so when Arnold (age 8) looked at this new baby with all that dark hair, it is said that he said, “I’m going to marry her someday!” and marry her he did. Anne was number 12 of 13 children; the last one to leave this old earth in her large family of nine girls and four boys. Five little girls were born in Russia, five children were born in Oklahoma and three children were born in Montana. Two little girls (of the first five) passed away at a very young age; Anne’s little brother died at age 21 days times were hard on that old Montana homestead; a cycle of drought then as now. A little one learns how to do things by watching and then by doing, soon Anne knew how to use a sad-iron, cook, sew, garden, ride horses, drive a team of horses to plow and plant and harvest; how to shock grain (wheat and oats) and by age 13 had learned how to drive a car. She dearly loved her horse, Buck (a lovely buckskin color). She was slim as a beanpole and would just jump high to get on Buck, bareback, of course. One day while getting ready to ride out to find the milk cows, she jumped so high that she jumped right over Buck and landed on the other side of the fence. Looking around quickly to see if anyone was watching, she picked herself up, dusted herself off and jumped again but not as high or hard, and rode off to bring the cows in for milking. School was named Hydro School and had sometimes up to 20 or 30 children of all ages attending. Many children in the Hydro community could not speak English so even though they were too old for gradeschool, they went to school anyway to learn English. German was spoken in Anne’s home so she had to learn English too. (Her parents knew the formal and informal Russian language because Katherine the Great in 1786 had asked them to move to Russia from Holland to teach her people, the Russia people, how to farm.) Of course, the Peters family also spoke in High or Low German. Anne’s Mother never learned the English language fluently, just enough to get by but she could understand the language quite well. Anne’s Dad did learn English. Their little Mennonite church held a dear spot in the hearts of those homesteaders, too, especially since the farmers had all helped to build that little church. Anne’s Dad also took part as one of the neighborhood lay-preachers as they had no resident preacher though a traveling preacher came through, now and then. Hydro School was a few miles from their home so an old shack was moved onto the school grounds so the three school-age Peters children could batch’ during the week. By the time little sister Agnes got to be school-age Elizabeth had finished her schooling. On Sunday night the girls would get out the sack and into it went four potatoes each, three or four loaves of bread, a big jar of jam and maybe a jar of dill pickles too and sometimes a slab of bacon or ham; seldom any fresh fruit, but occasionally a jar of chokecherries that the girls had helped Mother can in the summer. When they took chokecherries along, they’d have a contest to see who could get the most seeds in their mouth and they’d laugh and laugh. When Mom told us this story, she wondered aloud to us, how had they kept from chocking on a mouthful of seeds!! Arnold was one of the older’ boys in school, leaving school before the 8th grade to help out at his home, but being Anne was a girl, she finished 8th grade. One special event when they were courting, Arnold took Anne to the Chinook Fair before they were married. The attraction was a plane ride: At age eighteen at county fair, Bi-wing plane ride gave them a scare! No use to hang on terrible tight If they’d fell out they’d die of fright! Brothers and sisters married and moved away; times were hard and homesteaders sold out or just left everything and moved away, too. It was on a Sunday, Dec. 20, 1936, that Anne married Arnold in the Methodist Church parsonage (before the morning church service). Then it was a drive back out to Anne’s parent’s home for the wedding dinner (at noon). They lived in Zurich but only for a short while as one old homesteader (35 miles) out North really needed some extra help so they moved to the Montgomery Place known in the neighborhood as The Ice Box that shack had no insulation! Then they moved onto the Haugland yard. They lived out north most of their married life, raising their four children out on the wind-swept prairie, moving into the Zurich area only long enough for their three younger children to attend and then graduate from Chinook High School. They lived out North’ until September 1992 when they moved into Chinook. Arnold passed away Nov. 12, 1995. Anne enjoyed crocheting and sewing and in later years pieced many beautiful quilts. After being shown how to knit, she learned how to knit over the telephone! She was a good cook, just like her mother! She was an avid reader, loved chickens, houseplants, gardening, flowers, farming, (seed-time and harvest); anything to do with cattle, she especially liked horses though after she married, we don’t remember that she ever rode. Anne loved to cook and entertain and loved parties! She loved to tell stories of when she was a kid and was always delighted to hear or tell a joke. On Anne’s last day on earth she attended her granddaughter; Erin Ramberg’s, Christmas Party and then got to see the cattle and the chickens. Survivors include their four children, Merilyn (Ray) Hall, Lois S. Ramberg (Herb Vasseur), Larry Schroeder and Margaret (Peggy) Schroeder; six grandchildren: Erin Ramberg, Romy (Eric Bentle), Brian (Tracy) Schroeder, Jared (Debbie) Schroeder, Michelle O’Brien, Shaune (Heather) O’Brien; and twelve great grandchildren: Afton, Miles, Megan, Ashley, August, J.D. & Allison Bentle, Kristian O’Brien, Bjorn and Leif Schroeder, and Hallie and Cole Schroeder.
