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Note: From notes of Erma Cramer:
Jennie Kramer kept her first daughter, Helen, home from school until Dorothy was able to go and they could go together to Egan School. When she entered them into school, she changed the spelling of their name from Kramer to Cramer because she thought it sounded less German. It was World War I time and the people of German heritage in the neighboring town of German Valley were under surveillance by the U.S. government. They actually changed the name of German Valley to Meeken. It was later changed back to German Valley. All of the children's school records were with the Cramer spelling.
We never really knew where Louis or Jennie attended country school. Recently a neighbor purchased a picture of pupils and teacher from the North Grove Elementary School and Jennie and her brother George are in it. It also possibly includes their younger sisters, Annabelle and Elizabeth. All of Louis and Jennie's belongings were lost in a house fire when Helen and Dorothy were in 1st grade. The family lived in a granery while rebuilding.
Jennie said she was the only girl she ever knew who was a junior. She was named after her mother, Jane Cady Brown Hoverland. She was called Jennie instead of Jane. She said the Kady on her mother's tombstone is wrong and should be Cady.
Jennie said she walked west on Otter Rd. during her last pregnancy (Jim) to care for her mother who had developed throat cancer.
Jennie would not allow playing cards in the house because Methodists of that time were against drinking, dancing, and card playing. The domino game of "42" was the social game of the time but Jennie didn't play.
OBITUARY-MRS. LOUIS KRAMER DIES
Mrs. Louis Kramer, 72, a lifelong resident of the Leaf River area, died Thursday morning in Rockford Memorial Hospital, after a prolonged illness.
Mrs. Kramer was born in Leaf River on December 3, 1883, the daughter of Fred and Jane Hoverland. She was married to Louis Kramer March 2, 1904 in Freeport.
She was a member of the Leaf River Methodist Church and a charter member of the Women's Society of Christian Service, also a member of the Sunset of Life group of that society.
Surviving are her husband; four daughters, Mrs. Harold Stine of Joliet, Mrs. Orvel Hagen of Lombard, Mrs. Hibbard Reber, Sr. and Mrs. Paul Wilson, both of Egan, three sons, Ralph Cramer of Rockford and Fred and Howard Cramer, both of Egan. She also leaves 10 grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and a brother, George Hoverland of Egan.
Mrs. Kramer was preceded in death by two sisters and an infant son.
Services were held Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Leaf River Methodist Church. The Rev. William Lewis, former Leaf River pastor, officated. Burial was in Lightsville Cemetery.
Rockford Morning Star, April 1956
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