Martha “Mart” Amelia Hoffman Seltenreich: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Sister”

Martha Hoffman Seltenreich: 1891-1984

            Martha “Mart” Hoffman Seltenreich was my great-aunt, one of my Grandma Nora’s five sisters. I believe my grandmother felt closest to Mart as the sisters aged. I remember the two of them calling each other almost daily to chat when I was a child, talking about their gardens, cooking, their children and grandchildren, and their ailments and the doctors who were treating them. I still smile when I remember how Mart would call her chiropractor “the touch doctor”—not a bad description!


            Mart was born September 17, 1891 to William Henry Hoffman and Lena Hellena Funk Hoffman. She was the second of their seven children, eight years older than my grandmother Nora. Mart’s mother, Lena, chose the middle name “Amelia” to honor her sister Amelia Funk. 


   William and Lena Hoffman and all seven children at Macbeth farm. Mart 4th from left?    Approximate date 1926?


            Mart grew up on the farm my grandmother referred to as “The Old Nest” in Mankato Township. The property now features a car repair business and lies at the edge of the city of Mankato on Highway 83 just east of the intersection with Highway 22. Mankato used to be far from the farm, but the city has now grown to surround and cover what had been farmland and river bottom. 

 Confirmation photo of Grace Hoffman, the eldest of six daughters, and Martha, the second eldest. Approx. date of 1913-14.

                 Nora Hoffman Macbeth's writing at top: Hoffman farmhouse, "The Old Nest"

            The household must have been lively, with six young girls and one boy. The children attended the Dickenson School, a one-room schoolhouse. The girls created games and stories. My grandmother said that she and her sisters held elaborate doll funerals when a doll’s china head got broken, ending with a burial in the back yard. Her brother Elmer was pressed into service as the minister for the funeral—ministers had to be men! I would love to excavate that property to find the doll cemetery!

                      
                            Dickenson School--Nora Hoffman Macbeth handwriting

The girls socialized frequently—there were always friends coming and going from neighboring farms with large families given the age range of the seven siblings. The girls’ favorite family was the Seltenreichs who lived just down the road. The family had two older daughters and three strapping young sons, Julius, Carl Oscar, and Frederick. 

        

 Father William Hoffman with four daughters on haystack at The Nest

              The Hoffman girls were quite taken with the Seltenreich boys. It sounds like the sisters competed for the boys’ attention, and that there was some jealousy. Grace, the eldest, married Carl, the eldest brother. Sadie married Frederick, and Martha married Julius, known as Jay, who appears in photos to have been the handsomest of the three. My grandmother’s youngest sister Edna used to joke that my grandmother wanted a Seltenreich man, but the only one left was Old Man Seltenreich, the boys’ widowed father, so “Nora had to settle for Ivan Macbeth”. This used to infuriate my grandmother. However, as hinted by the photo below that shows a teenage Nora snuggled up to Jay, I suspect there might have been a little truth behind Edna’s teasing. 

                      


            Martha and Jay were married sometime in 1916--I have been unable to find the marriage record so don't have an exact date yet. They moved to a house at 123 Hubbell in Mankato where Jay first worked as a laborer for the railroad before becoming a firefighter for the city of Mankato. By 1930, they owned a home at 309 Wilton, a street and address that no longer exists, having been razed to build a shopping mall along Riverfront Drive. 


Martha Hoffman and Jay Seltenreich wedding in 1916. Her sister Sadie and his brother Fred were attendants.

It appears the Hoffman girls had fertility issues. Martha’s sisters Edna and Jennie had no children, Sadie had only one, and Nora and Grace had only two each. Martha and Jay had been married for nearly nine years when their only child, a daughter, Lucille, was born July 10, 1925.

            Mart was widowed in 1955; Jay was only 63 at the time of his death. Mart moved in with her daughter and son-in-law on their farm just a couple miles from my grandparents’ farm outside Eagle Lake. This enabled Mart and Nora to visit often. Their daughters were similar in age—my mother was only three years younger than her cousin Lucille—so the two sisters had a lot in common, especially their love of gardening. Both sisters had incredible yards that were riots of color in summer. 


            Mart died June 7, 1984 at age 92. She was buried at Glenwood Cemetery. She was survived by her daughter, her son-in-law Francis Flowers, and grandson Marty Flowers. Marty was named in honor of his grandmother.