Their marriage
Mabel and Ollie Cirks on their wedding day, December 10, 1932
Ollie and Mabel were married December 10, 1932 by the Reverend Paul Buchmueller in the St. Paul's Church parsonage in Minonk. Their attendants
were Fred Cirks and Pearl Falk Koch. They lived first with her parents, then in the spring they moved to a farm in Section 23, also in Clayton
Township a few miles from her parents.
Best Replica Watches This farm was owned by B. von Nordheim and later owned by Kenneth Walker. They always referred to it
as the "Walker Place".
Four children were born while living on the farm. Donald in 1936 was born in a hospital in Bloomington. Evelyn in 1937, Marvin in 1939 and Darlene in 1940,
were all born at home. Donald went to the same country school as his father for most of the first grade. The family moved in the spring of 1943
to the 160 acre farm two and one half miles east of Minonk in Section 10 of Minonk Township. This is the farm that their grandson Dan Cirks and wife Julie now live on.
Donald then went to the Beal School on the corner near the farm. Their youngest child, Ray, was born on this farm.
Dick Cirks with the help of his children bought this farm and the 160 acres across the road in Section 3 for $200 an acre. Ollie and Minnie
shared this farm and Fritz and Annie shared the other farm, which was where Fritz, wife Eva and daughters Ida Belle and Betty Jean lived.
The children went to the Beal Country School which was located in the southwest corner of Fritz and Annie's farm. In March of 1955, Minne sold her
share to Ollie and Mabel and bought 80 acres in Section 14. Some years later, Annie sold her share to Fritz and Eva and she bought a farm in
Section 15 where she and husband Russell Sullivan and four children Duane, Gary, Richard and Margie Ann lived for many years. Dick Cirks also
bought the house at 615 Washington Street in Minonk where he lived with daughter Minnie.
Ollie and Fritz farmed together. They exchanged help shelling corn and baling hay and straw with their neighbors: Roger Tucker, Walter Danekas, George Jury,
Lee Jury, Gus Timmerman and Russell Sullivan. Mrs Roger (Lena) Tucker was a teacher at the Beal School.
When Ollie, Mabel and family moved to the farm east of Minonk, the house did not have electricity or running water. Electricity was put in about
1945 and the water in 1955. In 1943 Mabel's Uncle Eilert Kettwich put in the kitchen cupboards and they are still there today. Fruit trees and
grape vines were planted in 1944. In March 1946 they bought Don's first bicycle for $36.65. Gravel and cement for the gas pump platform were
]bought in 1946 for $3.25. In 1962 the old washhouse/summer kitchen was torn down and an enclosed porch and bathroom was added to the house
and the basement was enlarged.
Mabel died in 1965. Ollie continued farming and living on the farm until February 1975 when he had a farm sale and retired. He passed away in December of 1977.
Ollie with children Darlene, Marvin, Evelyn, and Donald