Hershey News 1954-10-14

              HERSHEY NEWS
Vol 2 HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA, OCTOBER 14, 1954 No. 41
Mrs. Sarah Risser Of Vian
Finds Life Fun At Near-95
"Grandma" To Everybody, She Is One
Of Area's Oldest Residents
Next time they begin
America somebody ought to
Township lady by the name
M. Graby and has
taking nominations for Mrs.
tell them aboUt a lovely Derry
of Grandma Risser.
Grandma should claim the
Mrs. America title on the
basis of several qualifica-tions:
1. Seniority—she'll be 95
years old on January 17.
2. Personality — she's a
cute, spick-and-span little
lady with a merry disposi-tion.
3. Talent — she's been a
grand mother to four sons
and five daughters, and a
grandmother to 21 grandchil-dren
and 16 great-grandchil-dren.
Grandma Risser lives at
Vian, south of Hershey, with
a daughter, Edna, who is a
retired Hershey Chocolate
Corporation employee. She
was born in the Bachman-ville-
Campbelltown area on
January 17, 1860, as Sarah
resided near Hershey all her life.
She married farmer Jacob S. Risser on October 21, 1880,
and for forty years they lived on a farm near Bachmanville.
A son, Floyd, now farms the home place.
Her husband died in 1932.
Longevity Formula
Grandma Risser could well be the oldest resident of
Derry Township. Certainly she is one of the spryest around,
for her age.
She is living (and lively) proof that "hard work never
hurt anyone." At near-95 she gets around her Vian home un-assisted,
"takes her own baths" and generally enjoys life.
As a farmer's daughter and farmer's wife, she has put
in many hours of hard work. Fate decreed that she was to
be born into a farm family of "all girls" and many of her girl-hood
days were spent working in the fields.
Recalling those days of toil as a field hand, she states
firmly that the "best thing ever invented for a farmer is the
combine."
Grandma Risser is one of those fortunate people who
have enjoyed a lifetime of good health. Recently her activity
was slowed down' by a mild heart attack. Even that didn't
bother her too much; it was a couple weeks before she'd con-sent
to medical aid.
"Always before when I was sick a little peppermint would
fix me up," Grandma explained with her typical twinkle.
Retains Memories
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this amazing
woman is her mental scrapbook of memories—most of them
pleasant.
Grandma, for instance, likes to tell stories of her school-days
at Fox's School, near Campbelltown. She was a school-girl
in another postwar period—not long after the American
Civil War.
She chuckles heartily as she recalls how the pupils
locked the stern old schoolmaster out of the schoolhouse;
how the schoolmaster solved the problem of detecting which
student perpetrated some "trick" by "hitting each one of us
to make sure he hit the right one."
But the old schoolmaster must have taught well. Grand-ma
can still recite poetry from her Second Reader.
Sending Grandma into rocking laighter during an inter-view
on Saturday was a friend's question to her: "Did you
ever play kiss-ring and post-office?" Apparently she has
some girlhood memories she didn't .talk about.
She also has a clear mental picture of her 'family history,
passed along to her by her parents and grandparents. Her
great-grandfather Graby (then Grebe) "ran away" from
Germany to escape enforced military service which was con-trary
to his religious belief. He found freedom here after
working out his term as a redemptioner to pay for his nine-month
voyage to America by sailboat.
Redemptioner George Grebe's great-granddaughter has
found a full life here, almost a century of it. She's proud of
her sons and daughters: George, who lives at Bachmanville ;
Frances, wife of Rev. Joseph Newgard, Dixon, Iowa; Edna,
with whom she resides at Vian; Elmer and Homer, who oper-ate
a 4,000-acre farm complete with oil well near Keene,
North Dakota; Ruth, the late Mrs. Leigh Kirkland who died
in 1950; Floyd, a Hershey Route 2 farmer; and Dorothy,
wife of Earl Nissley of Falmouth. Another daughter, Violet,
died in infancy. t
Grandma Risser also has a sister, Mrs. Amos M. Brandt,
residing in Campbelltown. Twenty-one grandchildren and six-teen
great-grandchildren round out the family.
.0e.t#4s144#####444,#####IP4s1
DON'T BURN UP THE ROAD
The odor of burning leaves is one of the pleasant
Autumn smells. But burning leaves along the streets
are mighty disastrous to read surfacing.
To avoid street damage, Hershey Estates Horticul-turist
H. L. Erdman announced that the leaf pickup
truck will go into action each Friday and Monday
throughout the "leaf season."
He urged all Hershey residents to rake leaves into
the gutters for the pickup service.
Floral Beauty On
Small 'Acreage'
In the photograph at left,
Edwin W. Schwenk of 24
East Caracas Avenue gives
tender care to a growing
plant at his home where
brightening the corner where
he lives is the waY he likes to
spend his spare time.
Above, with the place a-blaze
with Fall flowers, he
takes to an easy chair to make
plans for next Spring's flow-er-
growing.
Schwenk manages to use a
small amount of ground to
grow a great many lovely
flowers from the first breath
of Spring to the last gasp of
Fall.
His "acreage" consists of
narrow strips of ground along
the east and north sides of
his home, where the quality
of the blooms make it a Her-shey
showplace.
•
•
Heads Fire Co.
•
JAMES RICE
James C. Rice, 129 West
Granada Avenue, was elected
president of the Hershey Vol-unteer
Fire Company for the
coming year at the annual
election held last week at the
fire hall. --
Other officers elected in-clude:
•Felton Ebersole, vice-president;
Eugene Gray, fire
chief; Paul Hetrick, irst
assistant chief; Dale
Sr.,
dinder,
second assistant chief; J. W.
Dressler, trustee (to fill an
unexpired term); Paul Sea-vers,
trustee (three years) ;
Rev. William Sheldon Blair,
chaplain.
Elected as members of the
house committee were Elmer
Reidel, Joseph Moratti and
Joseph Fenicle.
Admitted to membership in
the company were Jacob Hei-sey,
Howard Lowry, John
Tacca, John Levering, Martin
Moses, Jr., Joseph Magazino,
Joseph English and Mario Ma-cchioni.
School Food Worker
Making good use of a beauti-ful
reclining chair, a retire-ment
gift from fellow workers,
is Mrs. Minerva Ebersole of
Union Deposit who retired
recently after being employed
in the Canning Room at the
Milton Hershey School's Main
for 23 years.
In that period of time, she
commented, "I handled Many
a gallon can and enjoyed it."
She had been in charge of the
canning operations for a num-ber
of years before retiring,
and in addition to handling
cans she had made many
friends in the course- of her
long t ervice.
Her chief interests are in
her home, her church. (she has
been treasurer of the Evan-gelical
United Brethren Sun-day
School at Union Deposit
for seventeen years) and her
family.
The wife of Isaac L. Eber-sole,
she has two daughters--
Mrs. Viola Skinner of Palm-
Retires
Mrs. Minerva Ebersole "
dale and Mrs. Grace Peiffer,
Palmyra—and two grandsons
and two granddaughters.
Mrs. Ebersole had been em-ployed
at the Main since July
20, 1931.
Hershey News
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