The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1915-08-27
Judge and Mrs. Willer Hold
43rd Wedding Anniversary


course, was married.
In the year following the marriage,
big things happened on April 7, 1873.
The Judges first son, Edward Willer,
who now is assistant chief clerk for
the Frisco at Chaffee, was born; Judge
Willer, at the age of %, was elected
to the City Council for the first time,
and his father-in-law, E. D. Engel-
mann, was elected Mayor of the Cape.
When he was married, the Judge
ran store in Haarig. All of his con-
tempOraries in the City Council now
are dead. There were only four Coun-
cilmen at that time.
The Judge yesterday recounted how
Haarig got its cOgnOmen.
There were a couple Germans who
just came from Haarig, Germany.
One was Godfrey and one Christian
Joerns, but they were not related to
one another.
''They usaS to keep things going at
high pitch between them and every
one out here first called them the
Haarig Joerns, then the locality where
they had their places of business, up
the street there, got to be known as
Haarig.
THAT was away back before the
war"
The Judge served in the City COun-
Gil for Is years. He was City Assessor
for is years and was elected Justice
of the Peace for the first time in No
vember of 1890 He never has failed
! of reelection since.
| The Judge is as robust as ever. He
/ prescribes regular hours for success
/ full work. He goes to bed at o'clock
and arises regularly, winter and sum-
mer, at in the morning.
Withal, however, his hair is grow
ing white. 1t flows in even, undula-
tons back from his forehead and his
full beard and heavy mustache are
! silvery.
Mrs. Willer also is becoming silver
haired, but yesterday her voice and
manner had all of the freshness and
sparkle of youth.
The couple have three children in
addition to Edward WilIer: William
F. Willer, known in the Cape as pot
tie" Fred and Henry Willer. Two
daughters, Adelaide and Helena, are
dead
Both the Judge and Mrs. Willer
commented on the changes in the
times. A large black automobile pass
ed noiselessly by the house on the
paved street. The Judge looked up and
remarked:
81 believe like the Teller in the story
- The Lord made dumb animals as a
beast for man, but those automobiles
are an invention of the devil
"No, sir. In those old days we didn't
have any sidewalks and paved streets
around here like we have now. You
| had to take lantern on a dark night
and walk, and it was walk through the
mud if it was on a bad night"
The wings on the Court House were
completed shortly before the Judges
marriage. Steamboats, piled the river
in far greater numbers than now and
steamboat stocks sold for more than
twice the face value.
There was Just dirt landing at the
| foot of Themis street instead of the
cobble-stone levce of today. Once
there was wharf boat, but it didn't
last long.
I Mrs Wilcr told how in those days
before she was married and still was a
pupil in the school, the teacher forced
the class to go to see a man hung to
a tree limb about a block and half
south of the Willer home on Middle
street.
The man had killed an army officer.
/ The girls in the class, of course, didn't
want to witness the spectacle that the
boys were anxious to get in on.
Mrs. Willer looked up just in time
to see the man drop.