The Fricke House

08/10/2025

This beautiful butterfly was drinking water out of the puddles on the porch after the rain!

08/02/2025

Sometimes, on days like today, after I clean the BnB, I sit on the porch and take it all in. It's a perfect day. The temp has finally gone down, there's a wonderful cool breeze blowing, the cicadas are chirping, the birds are singing, the butterflies are flitting around and off in the distance there's the sound of a tractor mowing. It really doesn't get much better than this!

08/01/2025

While looking for information on The Fricke House I found this interesting article in a copy of Roegge Connections, a family newsletter of the Gerhard H.F. Roegge family. My husband's family descends from the Roegge family, as do many people in the Arenzville/Meredosia area I am finding out!!

One of the young men in this picture, Emile, lived in the big Roegge farmhouse that sits back off the road, just down the road from The Fricke House. My husband's Grandfather, Earl Lovekamp, is also mentioned as playing on the team. He also lived his adult life in the Roegge house. I found it interesting that there were ball teams playing just down the road from here at one time till it moved to Honey Point Church Rd, which is just a short walk (well, not a short one but doable) across the field from the Roegge house.

This article was written by Daryle Tegeder based on his recollections and discussions with "Fat" Weber, Leonard Staake and Orval Fricke.

PLAY BALL!

In the 1920s, the Roegge cousins of the J. Henry Roegge family formed a baseball team and named themselves the "Lakeside Orioles" as they all lived within several miles east of the Meredosia Lake.

The home field was on the J. Henry Roegge homestead, John Tegeder farm, located NW of the house along the Cass Morgan County Line. Road.

The games were played on Sunday afternoons and were well attended by local spectators. They had a concession stand where they sold soda pop and candy bars. The profit from the concession stand plus "passing a hat" among the spectators helped pay for the balls, bats and uniforms.

They played teams from Meredosia, Beardstown, Arenzville, Black Oak, Chapin, Lynnville and Bluffs. All home games were played on the Tegeder fields in the 1920s and 1930s.

They had enough interested players that they had 2 teams: an A team and a B team. The picture is of the A team that consists of E.J. Korsmeyer, Hugo Lovekamp, Emile "Rusty" Roegge, Edwin "Kiddo" Lovekamp, Howard Tegeder and Alex Roegge, all cousins. In addition, the team included Virgil Steinberg, Elmer Pelker and Ewald Fuelling.

The B team consisted of Irwin Hoffmeier, John and Paul Lovekamp, Armin "Boots" and Wilbert Fricke, Leland "Fat", Clarence "Dick" and Harry Weber, and Dale and Jigs Reining. Several of the players interchanged with both teams. Leonard Staake was in charge of the concession stand.

The team was disbanded prior to WWII and then resurrected again in the 1940s after WWII. However, they had a new home field which was formerly a cow pasture along Rt 100 and Immanuel's church lane now called Honey Point Road, 1/2 mile East of Immanuel Lutheran Church (no longer standing).

They also had uniforms and named themselves the "Orioles". Members of the team were Robert and Daryle Tegeder, Earl and John Lovekamp, Melvin and Wilbur Alhorn, and LeRoy Fricke. Others that played on the team were Herbert Hinners, Gilbert Floyd and "Burger" Surratt from Meredosia.

The team was disbanded in the early 1950s due to a lack of players and The Korean War.

07/20/2025

While doing some family research, I discovered a few pictures that we think are The Fricke House. It wouldn't appear so now because the front door is on the North side of the house. The house in these old pictures shows the door on the East side of the house.

When the house was sided, they removed all of the siding down to the original wood. And there on the East side of the house was what shows an old door. I have looked at this house at many different angles and I'm 95% sure that this house is the one in the pictures.

The house has been added on to several times throughout it's life. I think that it started out as a little square home, then the kitchen/bath/laundry room you see now was added on. Then what we call the furnace room which sits in between the house & the garage, then the garage. Or maybe the furnace room & garage were added onto at the same time.

The only thing that seems off to me is, the original home was sitting on a shorter foundation. The picture that shows the porch looks like it was higher. The house now is on a lower foundation, like the original house picture. That's the only thing throwing me off.

The last picture shows what looks like the two doors that were there when we got the house. It had 2 doors, one entry to the kitchen, one entry to the dining room. We closed in the dining room door. The earliest picture of the house would've been from the late 1800s (from my research), then the one with the porch would've been in the early 1900s and the one showing the 2 doors would've been the mid-late 1950s.

I do know that there was a big 2 story house across the street from here, the original Fricke House, that was torn down & the family moved over to this house. There is another family home just down the road behind this house. I do not know of another house that was in this area that looks almost exactly like this house. Could be, I suppose.

What are your thoughts? Is this the same house? What about the foundation??

07/10/2025

This cute little baby was in the backyard. I scared him off, but then he came back & took a little siesta under this tree. This was right outside the bedroom window!!

06/25/2025

With the temps being absolutely ludicrous, I dug out this antique ice cream maker. From what I can find this gem was from the 1920's era. Imagine all the summers spent with family & cooling down with some homemade ice cream!

05/20/2025

04/30/2025

Sunsets are so pretty at The Fricke Farm!

04/22/2025

Zsa Zsa & Russell are enjoying the sunlight today at The Fricke Farm!

04/22/2025

Room #2 wants you to know it's just as good, if not better than Room #1!!

Room #2 has 2 double beds that are the same hybrid mattress as Room #1. It also has the same sound machine, fan, Roku TV & room darkening curtains. If you enjoy the sun waking you up in the morning (not me), this room will get all of the morning sun, as it faces East.

Either room is a winner in my book!!

04/15/2025

Room #1 seems to be the winner in which door would you choose!

I'm partial to a large bed with plenty of space! Our hybrid mattresses are soft & comfy with a blend of soft springs and memory foam. They feel like a regular mattress!

Don't let the bright, all white room fool you. We have blackout curtains that do indeed black out the room. Rest assured 😉 that you will have a peaceful night's sleep and the morning sun won't wake you!

The house is super quiet, but if you are one of those that can't sleep without sound, we have 3 options!
1. Earplugs to drown out your snoring sidekick.
2. A tower fan to hum you to sleep & keep you cool if needed.
3. A sound machine where you can choose whether you want to be lulled to sleep by a gentle rain or several other options. It even has a dryer sound!

We have Roku TVs in both bedrooms so you can watch tv or sign into your own accounts such as Netflix, Hulu, etc. It's always set up in Guest Mode. It asks when your checkout date is when you turn it on. It will sign you out of all your accounts when you checkout!! The TV is situated at the perfect height for viewing when you're all curled up in bed!

Last, but not least, you have access to a shared (Jack & Jill) half bathroom, just like on The Brady Bunch, only they didn't have a toilet. 🤪

04/14/2025

It's laundry day! My favorite room in the house is the laundry room.

I added a few vintage aprons that belonged to my husband's family. One fun & one flirty! The Dutch print on the one and the little pocket on the other are perfect!!!

The rack on the wall was pulled out of my husband's grandfather's basement. I have several & saved them for years, just waiting for the perfect place for it! Believe it or not, this piece fit perfectly on this wall, without having to cut it down!