Shafer information from aunt Mary

in no particular order here....& keeping in mind that these are things she has discussed currently with her cousin Virginia & in the past with her aunt Dona...

Oscar & his sister Inez Shafer decided to change the spelling of their last name to Schaeffer trying to cash in on something...maybe the Schaeffer pen company...my aunt Mary thinks she remembers her Aunt Dona telling her this.

the Shafers came from Germany.

Gene Mathes' mom grew up with aunt Mary's mom. She corresponded with his mother over the years.
Gene & Becky Mathes lived in Marshallville, IA both are dead.

when Oscar & his first wife Edna divorced, they had 3 kids. the oldest was Nadine, who was 15 when my father was born,she took my very young aunts Mary & Freeda berry picking while their baby brother was being born at home.
Edna had to move in with her parents. Times were hard back then. She couldn't afford to keep the kids. Oscar's sister Inez never had children, her & her husband took in Oscars son Wayne, adopted & raised him.
Oscars parents George & Rosa took Eva from ages 5-11. There was a story about her being sexually molested, then her mother took her back.
Eva married Harold Mathes, they lived in the Blythedale, MO area.



Leta remarried a neighbor of my grandparents.. an older man named Morris Griffin. he had lots of whiskers. Leta & Morris had a child, my aunt thinks it was a daughter. she's not sure if they just had the one.
Morris had a daughter who married an Oxford & lived in Des Moines, IA.


George Schaeffer lived in San Jose, was married, & visited my Axsom grandparents several times per letters my grandmother wrote to my aunt.


Oscar moved to DeWitt, Arkansas mid 40s. he lived there for years. In April 1964 my Axsom grandparents left the family farm off Route A near Trenton, MO, packed their youngest son & a few belongings into the car, & went looking for better opportunities. Oscar had told them to come to Arkansas, where he was a tenant farmer & lived in a shanty house. He said there was always work there. (in the meantime, my parents moved onto the farm to run it. It was my first home when I was born Dec. 8 1964.) They got to Arkansas & visited Uncle Oscar, but decided to keep looking, & ended up in San Jose, CA, where my grandmother lived until her death in 1992 & my grandpa lived until he had to go live with my aunt & later in long term care for health reasons. He was very happy in Arkansas, was not known to have remarried, & is probably buried somewhere in that area.

Eva & her husband are dead.

Wayne is probably dead.
Edna married Roy Willis & had more kids with Roy. (now I don't even remember what Edna Willis had to do with anything...she was in my grandma's diary listed as picking up kids that my grandmother was watching...will have to look at the journal again.)

but most importantly, both my aunt Mary & her cousin Virginia have pictures of Oscar. I might also have a picture, but can't find the album I think it's in.