In 1927 Almon and Lizzie sold the farm on Milwaukee Avenue and moved the family to a large home on Virginia St. (Rte. 14) in Crystal Lake with the intention of retiring there. However the Great Depression of 1929 quicky changed those plans. Sarah (Rockenbach) Belcher describes that period of hardship in an account she wrote in 2005, which you may read here.
Over the years the 14 Rockenbach children attended school in Crystal Lake, married and moved away. In 1950 Lizzie passed away and soon after daughter Liz and her husband Frank moved into the home to assist Almon. About the same time Philip and Yvonne and their three young children moved into the house and occupied the second floor until they built a home across the street in 1955. Following Almon’s death in 1958 Liz and Frank moved away and daughter Ruth and husband Phil Taylor and four children moved into the house and occupied it until they sold it to Elmer Palm of Ridgefield in 1964 and moved to Cassville, Missouri.
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- Royal’s memories
- basketball in the barn loft
- cookouts and baseball games in the yard
- picking raspberries
- roping chickens
- coin hunting with Uncle Frank
- helping Aunt Ruth make rugs
- etc.
