The stories of Remy Heydacker and his brother, Eugene, as told by Remy's granddaughter-in-law, Ruth Watson of Rochelle, and Eugene's granddaughter, Mary Lou Soule of Winfield, Kan.

Remy Heydacker was 6 and his brother Eugene was 8 when their mother died in 1872. Their father was a cook and chief butcher aboard a ship. It later was learned he died in New Orleans.

The boys lived in a New York orphanage until 1876, when they came with a trainload of 27 orphans to Rochelle. Remy's family still has the shirt he wore when he arrived.

Remy went to the John Cheshire home near Holcomb; Eugene was taken by the C.A. Schoonhoven family of Chana. Both families had daughters, but no sons.

The boys did farm work and attended business colleges, Remy in Rockford and Eugene in Chicago. Neither boy inherited anything from their foster parents' estates. But Nina Cheshire Willi, the Cheshire's only daughter, left Remy a farm, which still is in the family.

Eugene and his family moved to Winfield, Ks., in 1906. Later he returned to Rochelle, where he was a carpenter. Remy worked for the phone company and later was Rochelle city clerk.