Quincy pioneer Karl Weber passes
Quincy pioneer Karl Weber holds his newest great-granddaughter Karlee Dee. She was named after Karl and her other great-grandfather, Lee Fortier, of Quincy.
QUINCY - Quincy pioneer Karl Weber, 98, watched technology change and the rural town grow throughout his lifetime.
"One of his biggest delights was sitting on our porch in the evening and seeing all the lights in the valley," said his son Dave Weber, of Quincy, on Wednesday.
"He was very much proud of, not just his family's history, but the history of Quincy," Dave said.
Karl died on Sunday of natural causes. A celebration of his life is 1 p.m., Saturday, at the First Presbyterian Church of Quincy, located at 715 Central Ave. North.
Dave said his father had "a long rich life" and recalled how 80 years ago, there were only two or three lights to be seen in Quincy.
"Now there's just a sea of lights," Dave said. "He couldn't believe how many people were there, but also the technology."
Dave and his father farmed together.
"Even the week before he died, he loved harnessing mules, going out and working with mules," Dave said. "He preferred mules to horses. I don't know why."
As a farmer, Karl used mules to pull rod weeders, a wheatland plow and a grain drill.
His parents immigrated to the US from near the Volga River in Russia, speaking German as their native language. They taught their children German too.
Karl was born a half mile from where he lived in Quincy and stayed there for the rest of his life.
Dave learned about the significance of faith, integrity, the simple joys of life, family and hard work from his father.
"Faith is the most important thing," Dave said. "Faith will get you through a lot of things. One of the most important things is the simple joys of life, the importance of family and hard work. He and his brothers, they weren't afraid of work. That was a big lesson to us all, to my generation."
Dave said both he and his wife, Harriet, were close to his father.
"She was very close to my dad and loved him dearly," Dave explained. "She considered him probably her father as well."
At last year's Farmer Consumer Awareness Day in Quincy, Karl "had a very good day," Dave said.
"He was very proud of Quincy and of his area," Dave says.
The hardest thing for him was to outlive his peers.
"Not that he didn't like people but it was time to go," Dave said. "It was time to do, in his words, to move on."
Harriet called the loss of her father-in-law "huge," but realizes he was ready to go.
His other honors included the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Quincy Chamber of Commerce in 2008 and a Pioneer Certificate from the Quincy Valley Historical Society and Museum.
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