Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Howard Herron 5 2
building and we bought that for $250. This whole block here and of
course we remodeled that building there. So that's how times was tough.
Q: Did you live in the American Legion Home?
A: No, no. 1 bought a home for $1500, a nice place up there and I sold
it for $4000 to Doc Surface and it's a nice bungalow. I bought it at an
auction. See after the receivers, all these fellows who went broke and
these merchants and banks went broke, these mortgages were due. They
couldn't collect the mortgages and everything so they, some man, I forget
his name now, he was the overseer of all of it. They had an auction sale
and sold all these houses at auctions and I bought two of them at auctions.
And I bought one, this one over here, and bought that from the First
Federal. I didn't have to have any money to buy that, and this one over
here. I bought with the money on it. And the Building and Loan started
again and they loaned me money to buy that, I bought another one up in
the west part of town from old man Garver and I sold it later on.
Q: Did you rent this property out?
A: No, well, yes, I rented the Garver property out but T sold it to Mr.
Ward, the retired Methodist Minister. One of the houses I sold to Doc
Surface and then Marie Riehle, my wife and I and her mother, they took
over the operating of the Commercial Hotel where Marie is. Marie was
traveling with her husband and so we kept it about a year. I give it up
because I went back in the Ford business.
Q: But you ran the hotel business there for a year?
A: Just about a year, yes. My wife and her mother and I still had a
partner with Schuster in the Ford agency.
Q: Did your wife and mother do the cooking there?
A: Oh, yes, they did the cooking and made the beds and everything else
in there. They hired help, a girl that lived out in the country,
Florence Perkin was her name, and she'd come in and help work.
Q: Do you remember what kinds of things were being done through the WPA
here in Auburn.
A: That came later on.
Q: That came later on?
A: Oh yes, this pavement was laid here.
Q: Around the square?
A: Around the square. *
Q: About what year do you think that was?