Interview with great

Interview with great-Aunt Florence Maher Bertram (great-Uncle Leonard Bertram’s wife) 1991:

Florence Maher was born May 1912, in Valmeyer, IL, the daughter of John B. & Catherine (Dugan) Maher.

Florence’s father built a house close to the quarry (Valmeyer). She remembers that when they were little kids, the quarry men would warn their mother that they were going to blast and advise her to take the 5 kids away from the house. She said their mother would herd them all towards the lake and that when they returned to the house, the windows were broken and the chickens were dead. The quarry men would then come over and pay them for the damage. She said her Dad had built the house and that he eventually tore it down in sections and re-erected it farther away from the quarry.

Re: Black family of Matt King in Valmeyer. “Matt King – son drank. He went back to E. St. Louis after his parents died. Florence doesn’t know his parents’ names – they were just Grandpa and Grandma King to her and the other little (Irish) Maher kids. The elder Kings had probably been slaves. Old Mrs. King died after Florence & Leonard moved to St. Louis. Her mother, Mrs. Katie Maher, and Mrs. Louis/Lewis? helped dress and “lay her out”. She was laid out in the cabin the Kings lived in. Florence remembers that Mrs. King “kept beautiful roses” and a nice garden. The Kings lived in a little log cabin with a dirt floor located at the base of the Valmeyer bluffs and were buried near its grounds in the “old black cemetery”. She sketched an approximate place in Old Valmeyer where the cemetery is located (attached). Her niece, Susie (Maher) Parada?, owns the land now and the cemetery still exists.

Florence said she heard that when Mr. King was young, he was “drug around from farm to farm to service black women, as he was the only black male around”. She says her mother was extremely offended by this because “he was a married man and the people doing this were supposed to be Christians.” She said “Think how Mrs. King must have felt!”

Florence recalls the Kings having a granddaughter – Laura? And thinks she went to E. St. Louis.

The Kings were pretty old when Florence was a child. She says Mrs. King was a tiny gray-haired lady. Mr. King was also gray-headed when Florence was a girl.

Florence says that although the Kings were “wonderful people”, that they were not always treated with respect. She remembers Mrs. King’s rose bushes being stripped without permission for bouquets. Mr. Maher always insisted that his children treat the King family with respect and they did and came to love them.

Florence’s uncles, Michael & Patrick Maher, owned the Cottage Hotel, Saloon and Store in Valmeyer near the quarry. Her father, John, (and Michael & Patrick) were the children of John & Bridget (Fletcher) Maher, both born in Ireland. (I attach an old article “A Glance Into The Past” with a picture of the old hotel.)