Blanchard Family 1530s: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Water”

Holy Water:

The Baptisms of the Children of Thomas and Elizabeth Blanchard

            My tenth-great-grandfather Thomas Blanchard was a yeoman near the Hampshire village of Goodworth Clatford. There are no records of his birth or his marriage to first wife Elizabeth. It is believed that he was born sometime between 1590 and 1600, and that the couple married before their first son George was born around 1620. However, we can verify his other six childrens’ births through parish baptism or christening records from St. Peter Church in Goodworth Clatford.

            According to the parish records contained on FamilySearch, Thomas’s son Thomas was christened on October 12, 1623. Two years later daughter Mary was christened on January 15, 1625. Next was Steven, June 22, 1628, followed by my ninth-great-grandfather Samuel Blanchard, christened on August 30, 1629. The last two sons, Nathaniell and David, were christened on July 22, 1631 and February 2, 1633.  

 

My ancestor Samuel Blanchard's christening record

            I was very excited to discover that the church where the children were christened still stands in Goodworth Clatford. St. Peter’s Church has existed in various configurations since the 12^th century. By the 1600s, it looked very similar to the church today; the diagram shows that only the organ area was added in the modern era.

            Even more exciting, the baptism font where Thomas’ infants were christened with holy water is still there, and still in use. The font dates to the Norman era, and is a table style font made of Purbeck marble, with six flat arches carved on one side of the tabular section, and the other three sides featuring pairs of celtic-knot shaped crosses. How amazing to see the photos of the church and font, and to imagine my ancestors standing before the font and gazing up at the altar.

Front of Font

            According to Buckingham Vintage’s article on the history of christening clothes, in the 17^th century the church required infants to be immersed in the water of the font, quite different from the modern practice of dribbling the water on the baby’s head. Infants wore their swaddling clothes, and occasionally had special lace covering draped over the swaddling clothes. I wonder what my 9^th great-grandfather Samuel Blanchard wore in 1629? Did he cry in shock at being immersed? At least he was baptized during the height of summer, so he wouldn’t have become chilled.

Side of font

            By 1638, Elizabeth Blanchard was dead, and Thomas had remarried a widow named Agnes Bent Barnes. Thomas and Agnes’ first child, also named Agnes, was the last of Thomas’ children to be christened at St. Peter’s. Agnes’ brother, John Bent, had moved to Massachusetts, and persuaded Thomas, Agnes and Agnes’ mother to emigrate and join him in the New World. 1639 found the Blanchard family living in London, waiting to set sail over yet more water.  

            I hope to someday visit England. Perhaps I’ll be able to stop in Goodworth Clatford and stand in St. Peter’s church in front of that ancient baptismal font, separated from my ninth and tenth great-grandfathers only by four hundred years of time.

Sources:

A Brief Illustrated History of Christening & Baptism Clothes – Swaddling, Bearing Cloths, Gowns & Dresses by Buckingham Vintage, http://www.buckinghamvintage.co.uk/

https://blanchardfamilyhistory.org/content.php?id=2

https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/k/e/l/Roger-F-Kelley/GENE3-0001.html

https://ancestorsinaprons.com/tag/thomas-blanchard/

Peder Pederson: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt “Nearly Forgotten”

Peder Pederson: 1860-?

My Lost Great-Uncle

            Most of my extended family believed that our grandfather, Paul Peterson, came to America with his parents Peter and Anna and his older brother Jacob. And that’s where their version of the story ends: Paul had one sibling. But that’s far from true. Paul had two older sisters, Marit and Guri or Julia. Both women came to America, married, and had large families. Some of my cousins are aware of at least one of the sisters. But no one but my brother seemed to know that Paul had a mysterious older brother, Peder, who simply disappeared from all records and from the collective family memory.

            Peder was the third child and first son born to Peder Pederson and Anna Gulbrandsdatter in Lesja, Oppland, Norway in 1860. Since he was the oldest son, he was named after his father, Peder. He appears on the 1865 Norway Census with his parents, 12 and 9 year old sisters, and his three-year-old brother Jacob. Peder was listed as being six years old.

            The family emigrated from Norway to the United States in the spring of 1870, when Peder was about 10 and my grandfather Paul was nearly 3 years old. Peder Pederson Senior filed a paper with authorities before they left Norway listing the family members and their birth dates. Peder was listed on this handwritten document as having been born November 10, 1860.

            Once in the United States, the family lived briefly in a couple areas in southern Minnesota before settling in Brown County’s Linden Township. Parents Peder and Anna and the two youngest sons, Jacob and Paul, appear on the 1875 Minnesota Census. The oldest three children were missing, including Peder, who would have been about 15 by that point. My research has shown Peder’s sister Guri/Julia was already married by this point, and had moved to the Dakota Territory. However, I don’t believe Marit was married yet. So where was she? And where was Peder?

            Of course Peder may have already been dead by this point. I have been unable to find any documentation of the family’s arrival in the United States, so I cannot confirm Peder survived the voyage and entered the country with the family. He could also have died during the first few months in the United States, before the family settled in Linden Township.

            However, there are some tantalizing clues that Peder was living in Brown County in the 1870s. His sister Marit married a man named Johan Trosdahl either late in 1872 or early 1873. They had a daughter, Mathia, in 1879 who was baptized at the Lake Hanska Lutheran Church on April 27. The church record shows that Mathia’s godparents were “Peder Jaramo” and “Jacob Jaramo”. The Peterson family often used the geographic name of the agricultural estate they came from in Norway as an alternate surname. This alternate name, still used by half of my extended family to this day, is Joramo, sometimes spelled “Joramoe” or “Jaramo”. Jacob is obviously Marit’s brother, Jacob Peterson/Joramo. Peder could be either Marit’s father Peder or brother Peder. If it was her brother, why are there no further records for him after April 27, 1879? What could have happened to him?

            In addition, I located a burial record from the same church for a “Peder Joramo” born in “Lesja” from 1878. The record states that Peder died on June 14 in either 1877 or 1878, and was being buried on August 28, 1878. That delay between death and burial may seem strange, but I have been told that it took Lake Hanska Church several years to acquire land for a cemetery. Church members who died before the cemetery was built were buried at home. The August 28, 1878 burial record shows that eight people with wildly varying death dates were all buried at once—obviously these were reinterments. This Peder Joramo had been buried at death, and moved to the new cemetery on August 28. The big question relating to this record is whether this burial might be for Peder the father, or Peder the son. I know that Peder the father died sometime between 1875 and 1880 in a farming accident. He was initially buried on a neighbor’s property. His descendants aren’t sure if his body was ever moved to the Lake Hanska Cemetery. There is some indication the record may be for Peder the son: the burial record has a column for the deceased’s age, and this box appears to read “17”. That would have been Peder’s age in June 1878. So perhaps both Peders died within the span of a few years, and Peder the son was reburied in August 1878.

            There is an even more remote possibility that Peder, like his sister Marit, survived to adulthood and moved away, out of the collective memories of future generations. I was only able to prove that Marit had survived when my DNA was matched to several of her descendants; probably the only way I could ever prove Peder had survived would be if he had a family and their descendants tested their DNA.

            Until I can find more evidence to back up any of these possibilities, Peder will remain a nearly- forgotten mystery ancestor. He will never truly be forgotten now, however. His existence is now supported by sufficient evidence to show other researchers that he existed. I also hope that more evidence will come to light to tell me what happened to him after he left Norway bound for America.

Epidemics and Ancestors: The Benjamin Blanchard Family

Epidemic Tragedy in 1739: Benjamin Blanchard, 8^th Great Uncle

1693-approx 1760 

            I am writing this blog post in March of 2020, during the COVID-19 or “novel coronavirus” epidemic. The state of California has issued a shelter-in-place order, requiring that anyone who can work from home do so, and that anyone who works for a non-essential business also stay home. All schools are shut down, all gatherings of more than ten people are forbidden, and food and cleaning essentials are in short supply in the stores. Many people are facing financial hardship after being laid off from their jobs. The stock market has lost one-third of its value, crippling retirement funds. Like most Californians, I am stunned at how an epidemic can wreak such havoc in such a short time. My genealogy research demonstrates that epidemics brought devastation to my ancestors as well. The story of the Benjamin Blanchard family is one example.

            My 8^th great uncle Benjamin Blanchard was the fifth child of the seven born to my 8^th great-grandparents Johnathan Blanchard and Anne Lovejoy Blanchard of Andover, Massachusetts. He was born on Valentine’s Day in 1693. He was a “husbandman” or farmer, and married a local girl, Mary Abbott, daughter of Nathaneal and Dorcas Abbott, on December 29, 1718.

            Over the next two decades, the couple had ten children. But the fall of 1739 brought tragedy. Beginning in 1735 and lasting until 1740, a disease called scarlatina or “throat distemper” swept through the American colonies. The disease was a form of scarlet fever, and since medicine in that time period was primitive, and doctors and healers were few and far between, families had no one to turn to when family members caught the disease. Children were particularly susceptible. There are some anecdotes that suggest in some villages, half the children died in a single year.

Ernest Caulfield described the path of the disease south into Massachusetts in his “A History of the Terrible Epidemic, Vulgarly called the Throat Distemper, as it Occurred in his Majesty’s New England Colonies between 1735 and 1740” and “The Throat Distemper of 1735-1740 Part II.” (excerpts below)

“It has long been known that there was an epidemic of some disease…which involved most of the inhabited regions of New England and caused great loss of life wherever it appeared. In some of the towns nearly half of all the children died and at times it was feared that the disease would actually destroy the colonies. This strange “Plague in the Throat” was not like any disease with which they were familiar. They knew that whooping-cough and measles could spread among children, but never had any such mortality accompanied a childhood epidemic.”

            The symptoms of the disease include a red rash on the face, neck, trunk and limbs, white tongue with red spots, high fever with chills, a sore and red throat, difficulty swallowing, nausea, vomiting and headache.

Scarlatina reached Andover in 1739. Over the span of one week in October, the Blanchards lost four of their children. Nine year old Dorcas was the first to succumb; she died on October 13. The youngest child, Abiel, who had just celebrated his second birthday three weeks earlier, died on October 15. His eleven-year-old brother Jonathan died the following day on the 16^th. Three days later, seven-year-old David died.

            It is hard to imagine the grief Benjamin and Mary faced. They may well have been ill themselves. Their teenage children were spared, but four of the five youngest children were suddenly gone. I am unable to find any record of the children’s burial location. Their death records were recorded with the city, and appear in histories of the area, but I have found no further information, Many of the extended Blanchard family members were buried in Andover’s South Church burial ground, but no records show the four children there.  Perhaps they were buried there, but Benjamin was unable to afford stones to mark their graves so their resting spot was lost.

            Benjamin and Mary had two more sons after the epidemic. They named them for their lost sons, David and Abiel. David was born February 19, 1740—his mother was pregnant with him when she lost her other children. Tragically, he only lived two months, dying on April 10, 1740. Abiel was born October 20, 1741, almost two years to the day after his siblings’ death. Like his namesake, he only lived to the age of two, dying on January 28, 1743.

            What a tragic time for this family. Benjamin and Mary had a total of twelve children, and suffered the deaths of half of them before the age of twelve.

            After Abiel’s death in 1743, the remaining family members relocated, first to Dunstable, Massachusetts, and then to Hollis, New Hampshire. Mary seems to have died around this time, while Benjamin lived into the 1750s or 1760s. Their burial locations are unknown.

Sources:

The Essex Antiquarian: An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Biography, Genealogy, History and Antiquities of Essex County, Massachusetts; Perley, Sidney, ed.; Volume 9, page 28

History of the Town of Canterbury, New Hampshire, 1727-1912: Genealogy and appendix; Lyford, James Otis, Rumford, 1912. Pg. 26-27.

Phyllis Peterson: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt "Popular"

Phyllis Peterson: 1927-2019

Fairest Coed of Them All

            I found a marvelous newspaper photo of my paternal first cousin Phyllis Peterson when she was around 19 or 20 years of age proving that she was a very popular young woman when she was at college.

Phyllis makes the paper in 1947

            Until I saw this photo, I never knew Phyllis had attended St. Olaf College, the Northfield Minnesota school across town from my alma mater, Carleton College. In 1947, St. Olaf held a contest to select the six fairest young women on campus, and Phyllis was one of the women who were honored. The school newspaper published an amusing article on how the selections were made; a group of male students who were friends of the editor compiled a list of young lovelies, and then voted to pick the top six. Even though Phyllis was only a sophomore at that point, she had obviously made quite an impression.

St. Olaf paper article about the "fairest" honor

            I love the photo they used. The clothing from the era was wonderful—Phyllis wore a dark dress with decorations at the shoulder and hip, her shoulder-length hair was styled in artfully curled waves, she wore a delicate watch and had manicured fingernails. She was quite the fashionable young woman. The photo was taken in February of 1947, the spring of her sophomore year.

            Phyllis Ann Margaret Peterson was born November 3, 1927 to my uncle Philip Peterson and Mina Blackstad Peterson. The family lived in the St. James area of Watonwan County Minnesota, where Philip worked as a farmer and ran a trucking company.

Phyllis entered St. Olaf in 1945, and was mentioned in the campus newspaper several times. She was a good student, making the honor society as a freshman. She performed in a dorm Christmas program, and she was nominated as fair queen for the campus world fair in March 1946. One month later, Phyllis was elected as freshman class secretary; her future husband Luther Molberg was elected president. All of these activities and honors indicate she was popular with her classmates.

Phyllis elected secretary; future husband Luther is president

It appears Phyllis did not complete her St. Olaf degree. She married Luther in 1948, and their first child was born in August 1948, just 18 months after she was honored as one of the fairest co-eds at St. Olaf.

Phyllis and Luther Molbert on their wedding day in 1948: a beautiful couple

            According to her obituary, Phyllis modelled for the Eleanor Moore Agency in the Twin Cities for many years. She remained a beautiful woman all her life. She and Luther had two daughters, Andrea and Elizabeth, before they divorced. Phyllis married again to Norman Madson. She died March 26, 2019 at the age of 91.

Polly Daniels Randall: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt "Luck"

Polly Daniels Randall: 1774-1851

Lucky Cousinhood: An App Led Me to My 4^th Greatgrandmother’s Family

            When I attended my local genealogical society’s Christmas party, I never expected to find a roomful of cousins, or to knock down one of my research brick walls.

            As part of the party entertainment, all the attendees were encouraged to open the FamilySearch app on their phones, and then select the “Relatives Around Me” option in the drop down menu. The app then compared everyone’s family trees to see who in the room shared common ancestors. To my surprise, 22 of the people in the room were my cousins—admittedly very, very distant cousins, but still, we were all stunned to discover we actually shared ancestors.

            My biggest surprise was discovering that my best friend, Pat, and I were ninth cousins three times removed, the closest relationship I had in the room! We were so thrilled. We used the app to examine the linkage—the app placed our trees side by side and traced the relationship back to our common ancestor, Reverend Joseph Hull, born in England in 1594. This surprised us both, as neither of us had any Hulls in our family trees. We had some work ahead of us to prove this relationship to our satisfaction.

Cousin connection with Rev. Hull as common ancestor

            As I looked at the lineage on my side of the image, I saw some names I did recognize: my second-great-grandfather Jerome Dane and his mother Sally Randall. But I did not recognize Polly Daniels, the next name and Sally’s mother. A quick glance at my Ancestry tree showed that I had poor Polly listed as “Polly LNU”, or “last name unknown.” Was this FamilySearch tree the key to information I had been unable to find? Had I just discovered my fourth great-grandmother’s family? The only documents I had ever found for Polly were from after her marriage, and only showed her married surname of Randall.

Polly Randall headstone in Genesee County New York

            Verifying the information required bouncing back and forth between the FamilySearch and Ancestry websites. I looked at the documents attached to the FamilySearch wiki-based tree that showed Polly, her parents and her grandparents. I then returned to Ancestry to try to find those documents and any additional records that would verify the relationships. I was excited to finally find Polly’s father’s will, which included a provision for his “daughter Polly Randall”. The brick wall was broken at last! I had found Polly’s parents, Samuel and Elizabeth Nobles Daniels.

Samuel Daniels will with provision for daughter Polly Randall

            I had never expected a Christmas party would bring me such lucky discoveries: a new set of fifth great-grandparents, and a room full of distant cousins, plus, best of all, a familial connection to my BFF Pat.

Abigail Dane Faulkner: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt "Strong Woman"

Overcoming a Death Sentence: 

Abigail Dane Faulkner 1652-1729

            Abigail Dane Faulkner faced the unthinkable: her community turned against her and her family. She was accused and convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death. She only escaped the noose because she was pregnant. Abigail was eventually freed, but instead of fleeing the scene of her torment, she held her head up and stayed. She fought back. Abigail Dane Faulkner was an amazingly strong woman.

            Abigail Dane was my eighth great aunt, daughter of my eighth-great-grandfather Francis Dane and his wife Elizabeth Ingalls. She was born October 13, 1652 in Andover, Massachusetts, where her father was the local minister. In 1675 at age 22, she married Francis Faulkner, one of the sons of a wealthy local landowner.

            As the years passed, her father fell out of favor with his parishioners, and they tried to oust him by hiring another minister. Francis Dane fought back, and the parish ended up splitting the salary between the two men, leaving both ministers barely able to support their families. There was considerable ill will between them and their factions of supporters.

            While the new minister fell in with the witchcraft mania sweeping through nearby Salem, Francis Dane opposed the trials, and drew the wrath of the witch hunters, who began to look at Rev. Dane’s own family as potential witches.

            Abigail Dane Faulkner was an attractive target. Her husband had been the beneficiary of his father’s largesse; Edmund Faulkner gave the bulk of his extensive land holdings to Francis Faulkner when the young man was in his early twenties, years before Edmund died. Francis’ siblings were left with the remainder of their father’s holdings when he eventually died, which probably embittered them toward their eldest brother.

            Francis’ early fortune would have left ill will in the community as well. Because he held so much land at such a young age, he was admitted as an Andover townsman “upon the account of the land which he now enjoyeth”. The position of townsman conferred benefits and gave him influence that men older than he was but with less property were denied.

            At some point, Francis became ill with what his wife described as “fits”. He was unable to handle his responsibilities, so Abigail became the manager of his lands and property. Female power during that era was rare and was met with disfavor, so there may have been community hostility directed at her.

            In August 11, 1692, Abigail was arrested and examined by the Salem court officials. Her young daughters, Abigail Faulkner and Dorothy Faulkner, were also both arrested. They were only nine and twelve years old, and out of fear and confusion, were persuaded to accuse their mother of witchcraft, telling the court that “thire mother apared and mayd them witches.”

Examination of Abigail Faulkner

            Poor frustrated Abigail admitted to some of the charges. The examination notes that “she owned: that: she was Angry at what folk s:d when her Couz Eliz. Jonson was taken up: & folk laught & s'd her sister Jonson would come out next: & she did look with an evil eye on the afflicted persons & did consent that they should be afflicted: becaus they were the caus of bringing her kindred out: and she did wish them ill & her spirit being raised she did:pinch her hands together.” This was basically the gist of the complaint against her: that she looked angry and clenched her fists when people were unpleasant to her. In the hysteria and hatred of the times, that was enough to persuade people of her guilt.

Conviction and death sentence

            Abigail was convicted on September 17, 1692 of the “fellony of Witchcraft Comited on the body of Marthah Sprague allsoe on the body of Sarrah Phelps”. She was sentenced to death, but the sentence was delayed until the birth of the child she was carrying.

Bond agreement to free the Faulkner daughters

            Abigail’s daughters were paroled out of prison in October by their uncle Nathaniel Dane and John Osgood, who paid a bond of 500 pounds sterling—a small fortune in those days. Francis Faulkner also put up a bond of 100 pounds sterling to ransom his daughters. Rev. Francis Dane, Francis Faulkner and other Andover residents petitioned the governor of the colony to halt the trials and free the remaining prisoners, including Abigail. Abigail herself presented a petition, arguing that her husband’s health had deteriorated, and her six children would starve if she wasn’t freed to manage their property. Here is a portion of her petition:

“Thankes be to the Lord I know my selfe altogether Innocent & Ignorant of the crime of witchcraft w'ch is layd to my charge: as will appeare at the great day of Judgment (May it please yo'r Excellencye) my husband about five yeares a goe was taken w'th fitts w'ch did very much impaire his memory and understanding but w'th the blessing of the Lord upon my Endeavors did recover of them againe but now through greife and sorrow they are returned to him againe as bad as Ever they were: I having six children and having little or nothing to subsist on being in a manner without a head to doe any thinge for my selfe or them and being closely confined can see no otherwayes but we shall all perish Therfore may it please your Excellencye your poor and humble petition'r doe humbly begge and Implore of yo'r Excellencye to take it into yo'r pious and Judicious consideration that some speedy Course may be taken w'th me for my releasement that I and my children perish not through meanes of my close confinement here w'ch undoubtedly we shall if the Lord does not mightily prevent and yo'r poor petitioner shall for ever pray for your health and happinesse in this life and eternall felicity in the world to come so prayes from Salem Prison”.

Abigail's petition to be released

            Abigail’s petition to the governor was successful, and she was released in December 1692 after spending four months in the Salem prison. The witch trials were halted shortly after.

            Abigail and Francis Faulkner continued to live in Andover alongside the people who had accused and condemned her. In 1703, she petitioned the colonial court to exonerate her of witchcraft, noting that without a declaration of her innocence, she would continue to be subject to suspicion and rumor. The petition states:

“The pardon haveing Soe farr had its Efect as that I am as yet Suffred [to] to live but this only as a Malefactor Convict upon record of the most henious Crimes that mankind Can be Supposed to be guilty off, which besides its utter Ruining and Defacing my Reputation, will Certainly Expose my selfe to Iminent Danger by New accusations, which will thereby be the more redily believed will Remaine as a perpetuall brand of Infamy upon my family’.

Abigail's petition to be exonerated

            Abigail and her family had to wait until 1711 for the courts to grant her exoneration. She continued to live in Andover until her death on February 5, 1730. Her ailing husband outlived her by two more years. Despite her fears of a “perpetual brand of Infamy”, her daughters were able to marry within the community, and her sons became Andover townsmen like their father. Her strength prevailed.

Sources:

Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Abigail (Dane) Faulkner." ThoughtCo, Feb. 11, 2020, thoughtco.com/abigail-dane-faulkner-3528108.

Four Generations: Population, Land, and Family in Colonial Andover Massachusetts...

By Philip J. Greven, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1970, pgs. 95-97

http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n166.html. Copies of Abigail Faulkner trial documents, sentencing, and petitions for pardon.

"Accused Children in the Salem Witchcraft Crisis", Darya Mattes, 2004, Cornell University

Jorgine Syverson Ahlness: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt "Disaster"

Jorgine Syverson Ahlness: A Family Disaster  1879-1908

            The word “disaster” usually inspires visions of floods, tornadoes, fires and plagues of locusts, the type of material that is perfect fodder for disaster movies. But disasters can be smaller and more personal in scale—the type of disaster that rocks a family.

            Jorgine Syverson was my great-aunt and sister to my paternal grandmother Regina Syverson Peterson. Jorgine, sometimes spelled Jergina, was born December 1, 1879 on her parents’ farm in Linden Township in Brown County, Minnesota. She was Ove and Ragnhild Syverson’s fourth daughter. She probably had no memory of her father; he died in a farming accident when she was only two. Jorgine’s mother kept the family together and managed to keep the farm operating, first on her own, and then with the help of her two surviving sons, Ole and Sever, and her older daughters.

            Jorgine married a neighbor man, Hans Ahlness. The Ahlness and Syverson families appear on the same census pages in 1880 and 1900, with only one other family listed between them, so I suspected the farms were quite close to each other.

            The 1900 plat map for Brown County shows my hypothesis was correct; both families had 160 acre homesteads just south of Linden Lake and west of Emerson Lake (which no longer exists), probably a quarter of a mile apart at most.

            Jorgine and Hans married December 8, 1898. She had just had her nineteeth birthday days before. Hans was seven years older. Like Jorgine, Hans had lost his father, Lars, while he was quite young, leaving Hans to manage the farm and support his mother and several of his younger siblings. The 1900 census shows Hans, Jorgine, and their first child Lina Alvida, living with Hans’ mother, Sigri, and his little brother Ludwig, 14, and sister Ida, 11.

            Jorgine and Hans went on to have four more children over the next eight years. In addition to Lina, born in 1900, they had Oscar, born in 1902, Stina, born in 1904, Richard, born in 1906, and Harry Joseph, born in 1908.

            Unfortunately, Jorgine died December 13, 1908, just eight months after little Harry’s birth. According to her obituary in the local newspaper, The Hanska Herald, “About three years ago, [Jorgine] was sick with consumption from which she apparently recovered and for nearly two years following enjoyed good health, but early last July the disease returned. Since, she has been ailing more or less from time to time, and during the three weeks preceding her departure she suffered continuously.”

            The obituary was one of the most flowery, sweet pieces of journalism I’ve ever read. The loss of such a young woman struck the Herald’s editor hard; he truly eulogized her. Here are some excerpts:

            “Not often has the Herald been called to perform the duty of recording so sad a death. Wherever the word passed over the community it left sorrow and expressions of sympathy for the little motherless children and the bereaved father.

            “She was of a conscientious disposition striving at all times to make her home full of happiness and love for her family. The comfort and well being of her dear children she always had at heart. For them she labored from day to day with never ending patience.”

            Writing of Jorgine’s burial in the Linden Lutheran Church cemetery near the Ahlness farm, the Herald stated, “In this dearest of all places to her, she lies down at length to sleep and rest. Beautifully appropriate such a resting place, where her kindred sleep and where a few of her lifelong friends remain to gather about the dear form with honest tears of bereavement, to lay her away tenderly in the narrow house with its curtains of fadeless green.”

            The Herald’s obituary concludes with the following passage:

            “Gone from our sight! But because life and love are stronger than death, she is ours still. She is still the mother of the dear children, upon whom she doted with such clinging fondness, and the companion still of him who mourns earth’s greatest loss, and may she not by this very transition wield over them a stronger force for goodness and truth than before.”

            What an amazing tribute to a life cut down too soon, and a recognition of the devastation her family faced at her death.

            Sadly, Jorgine’s youngest son Harry died just months after Jorgine, a month shy of his first birthday. It must have been nearly impossible to care for such a young infant without a mother even if Hans was able to find a wet nurse. Harry may have also caught tuberculosis from his mother. He is buried next to Jorgine.

            Hans remarried five years later, and had nine more children with second wife Ida Vee. Jorgine’s oldest four children all reached adulthood.