Random Photo -- November 5, 2021

November 5, 2021, wearing my new O. C. Taylor Elementary School t-shirt -- the school where Sophia attends school.

Map To The Oksol Farm South Of Newell, SD -- October 6, 2021

Drawn during one of my trips back to Williston, probably around 2017?

1909 -- 1951: Manson, Birthplace Of Edna To Ruth WIth Baby Bruce

On August 12, 2021, I received a two-page typewritten letter from "Margaret Ann" and six photographs, which completed the mosaic I had started some time ago, trying to piece Ruth's life together. 

Below, the original photo plus a duplicate with a description. Six original photos/twelve photographs altogether. The original photos are now in a binder with Bruce.

1909: home in Manson, where Ruth's "Aunt Edna" was born.

 

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1917: photograph of Reka. At age eighteen, this was most likely a graduation photograph.

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1938: Margaret Ann's baptism; she was born one month after her father was killed in a farming accident in 1938. Her brother, Gil, is standing to his mother's right. I believe that is Ruth to Margaret Ann's immediate left, and to Ruth's left, her brother, Don.

Would that be Reka right behind Ruth? Most of the others in the photograph is the Wessel family; Edna was married to Roland Wessel. Where was Ekke?  Did Ekke take the photograph?

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Perhaps my favorite photograph in this series. This is Ruth in 1946. The war had been over for one year. She is standing next to her cousin Margaret Ann, probably about eight years old; considering how often Ruth talked about Margaret Ann, I do think these two were very, very close. 

Margaret Ann was born one month after her father was killed in a farming accident. Her brother, Gil, a little over one year old at the time, was sent to live with one set of grandparents, the Folkerts, while Margaret Ann was sent to live with the other set of grandparents, th Flessners. 

Ruth would have visited her grandparents at the farm often and played with Margaret Ann. 

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1951: four generations -- great-grandma Hinrika (I think this is the first photograph of Hinrika that I have ever seen); grandma Reka; Ruth and Bruce, born August 14, 1951.

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1951: Great-grandma Hinrika and baby Bruce, born in August, 1951. I wonder if this is the farm house near Manson?

Letter And Photos From "Margaret Ann" -- August 14, 2021

Letter and photos received from "Margaret Ann," postmarked August 9, 2021.

 

 

 

Photos pending.

Letter And Photo From Don Flessner, July 14, 2021

Letter, note: Mrs Roger Berg is "Margaret Ann," 85 years old, I believe, which means Ruth was about nine years older than Margaret Ann. If Margaret Ann came to live with Ekke and Reka Flessner about age two years, Ruth would have been about eleven years old and her brother Don about fifteen years old.

Photo, undated, perhaps, 1930?

• Don b. 1923
• Ruth b. 1927

Paul And Christine's Farm

 

Oscar (b.1912), patriarch Paul, Eddie (b. 1911), Carl (b. 1922);
Clara (b. 1916), matriarch Kristine, Myrtle (b. 1914).

If photo taken in 1936: Eddie, 33; Oscar, 32; Myrtle, 22; Clara, 20; Carl, 14.
Carl could not have been any younger, but if Carl was 16, then
Eddie and Oscar were 35 and, respectively.

Myrtle Alfreda Oksol Wilson

From "Legacy," Rapid City Journal, November 21, 2003.

Myrtle Oksol Wilson, 89, Rapid City, died Wednesday, November 19, 2003, at Fountain Springs Health Care in Rapid City. 

A prayer service will be held on Friday, November 21, 2003, at 7 p.m. at Kinkade Funeral Chapel, with Pastor LeRoy Flagstad officiating. Visitation will be Saturday from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Kinkade Funeral Chapel. Burial will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Wilson Cemetery near Newell, with Rev. Al Jacobson officiating. Family and friends may gather at Kinkade Funeral Chapel prior to leaving for the cemetery or meet at the cemetery. A memorial service will be held Sunday, November 23, 2003, at 2 p.m. at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Rapid City, with Pastor Al Jacobson and Pastor Don Brendtro officiating. 

Myrtle was born October 9, 1914, near Castle Rock, SD, to Paul and Christine (Tangvold) Oksol. 

She was raised on a farm south of Newell and graduated from Newell High School in 1933. On June 1, 1940, she married Russell Wilson. To this union two children were born, John Paul and Charlotte. 

After Russell's death in 1959, Myrtle began a career working for the federal government and later the South Dakota State University at the Newell Experiment Station. When the office moved to the Research and Extension Center in Rapid City, Myrtle moved to Rapid City, and retired after nearly 20 years. She also worked for several years at the Town and Country Ladies Wear in Rapid City. 

Throughout her life, Myrtle devoted many hours to church service. She was organist at First Lutheran Church in Newell for over 30 years and she also sang for hundreds of weddings and funerals in the Newell area. After moving to Rapid City, she joined Trinity Lutheran Church and sang with the sanctuary choir for another 30 years. She was active in many church groups including Trinity Lutheran Church Women and Abigail Circle. 

She was a Charter Member of Sons of Norway, Borgund Lodge, where she served as the social director and taught beginning Norwegian for several years. She enjoyed spending time with friends and family, dancing, playing bridge and telling Ole and Lena jokes. She was a volunteer at the Chapel in the Hills, wearing her traditional Norwegian Bunad and being photographed with visitors. 

Myrtle is survived by her son, John Paul Wilson and his wife, Marlene, Charlotte, NC; her daughter, Charlotte Wilson, Sturgis; one brother, Carl Oksol, Willison, ND; and numerous nieces and nephews, and a wide circle of friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, two brothers, and one sister.

The East Frisian Page -- March 21, 2021

East Frisia is a small coastal region in northwestern Germany, bordering the Netherlands.

1. If East Frisia were a country, its annual consumption of tea at 300 liters per capita would be the highest in the world. But it's not a country. So, let's ask this question: at 290 liters tea per capita which country is in first place?

__ India
__ England
__ Ireland
__ Turkey
__ Kuwait

Link here. 

From Wiki, East Frisia.

In an otherwise coffee drinking country (Germany), East Frisia is noted for its consumption of tea and its tea culture.

Per capita, the East Frisian people drink more tea than any other people group, about 300 litres per person every year.

Nearly 75 percent of all tea imported to Germany is consumed in this region.

Strong black tea is served whenever there are visitors to an East Frisian home or other gathering, as well as with breakfast, in mid-afternoon and mid-evening.

The tea is sweetened with kluntjes, a rock candy sugar that melts slowly, allowing multiple cups to be sweetened.

Heavy cream is also used to flavour the tea. The tea is generally served in traditional small cups, with little cookies during the week and cake during special occasions or on weekends as a special treat. Some of the most common traditional cakes and pastries to accompany tea are apple strudel, black forest cake, and other cakes flavored with chocolate and hazlenut.

2. Name the breed of horse Zorro rode in The Mask of Zorro (1998) and The Legend of Zorro (2005).
__ Arabian
__ Friesian
__ Morgan
__ Budweiser Clydesdales

Answer at wiki if I forget to provide answer later. 

3. From germangirlinamerica. 

What else is East Frisia "famous" for?

The birthplace of the Mennonites. Their founder was Menno Simons, 1496 - 1561.

Barbara's Children

Barbara Flessner:

• Ruth's great-grandmother -- emigrated on SS America with her husband and eight children
• included two 8-month-old babies
• one of the 8-month-old babies was Eilert Ekke who would be Ruth's grandfather
• nine of her ten children listed below were born in Germany
• nine of her children were born before they emigrated but the first-born Hilkea Maria died at two years of age, in 1855
• the family emigrated in 1869
• she had at least one more child after she arrived in America; possibly three children were born in the US
• one source suggests ten children altogether; another source suggests twelve
  

Link here. 

Folkerts -- Immigrants -- US

The German immigrants in the mid- to late-1800s arrived in the US through two different ports: New York and New Orleans. 

Initially I assumed the Flessners and the Folkerts arrived in the US at New Orleans. That was wrong. 

The Flessners arrived in the US at New York.  It turns out that at least two of the Folkerts arrived via New York, also. 

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Link here.

Steamer Bremen
Bremen, Germany, to New York, New York

May 25, 1868

110  Eilert Folkerts              27      m  farmer  Germany  US310  Garrels Folkerts             25      m          Germany  US 

The given names (Eilert and Garrels) I recognize as in our family tree. 

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Link here. 

SS Herman
Bremen, Germany, to New York, New York

June 19, 1869

330* Folk Folkerts            26      m  farmer       Wiesede 
331* Taalke Folkerts          28      f               Wiesede 
332* Folk Folkerts                1m  m               Wiesede  

The given names (Folk, Tallke) I do not recognize as in our family tree.  

Flessners -- Immigrants -- US

Until I found this link, I assumed the Flessners and the Folkerts arrived in the US at New Orleans. The German immigrants in the mid- to late-1800s arrived in the US through two different ports: New York and New Orleans. 

In this case, the Flessners arrived in the US at New York.  It turns out that at least two of the Folkerts arrived via New York, also.

Link here.

SS America
Bremen, Germany, to New York, New York

September 1, 1869

District of New York -- Port of New York

Whether or not there is an error in the spelling of the surname, the fact is that the "Flessner" spelling was retained by the family in Illinois and Iowa. There were both "Flesner" and "Flessner" families. It appears the Flessners ended up in Iowa; the Flesners remained in Illinois.

711 Elmwood Drive, Storm Lake, Iowa

The home at this address is the house that the Williston Oksol children would remember. We visited Storm Lake perhaps every other or every third summer when growing up..

It was only later, much later, that I learned how lonely mom -- Ruth -- was for Storm Lake. The loneliness of the Dakota prairie is epic. It can drive people insane and it does.

But for mom,  I think, loneliness and the Dakota prairie were only two legs of a three-legged emotional stool. The third leg was the desire to share the joy of her four, then five, and finally six children with her parents in Storm Lake. Only in hindsight do I realize that Grandpa Flessner and Grandma Reka did not see their Williston grandchildren nearly enough. And the reverse was true and emotionally, even more difficult. Ruth did not get to see her beloved Iowa enough -- where all her memories were -- growing up on the farm, among too-numerous-too-count German cousins, uncles and aunts; taking the train between Manson and Fonda, a memory that died with Ruth. Even her brother Don does not recall mom taking that train but she must have done it often. It was one of her stories she told later in life when most other memories were fading. When we visited Storm Lake, to the best of my knowledge / memory, Ruth never visited anyone other than her parents. If I understand her history correctly she graduated from high school in Fonda and went to nursing school in Sioux City after that. If that is correct, she never lived in Storm Lake. Her parents would have moved to Storm Lake after she left home.6

Compared to North Dakota, Iowa is a garden of Eden -- longer summers; less severe winters; more green; smaller iconic Norman Rockwell American farms; big lakes; trees and squirrels. And less wind; though more terrible tornadoes.

When the Williston Oksol children visited the house at 711 Elmwood Drive, one of our favorite activities was rushing to the front door of the house or, when we were older, actually running to the end of the street, when we heard the train whistle.

It's funny, but no one ever asked where that train originated or its destination. Only now, when I'm trying to piece Ruth’s history together, do I ask the question. 

It turns out the Illinois Central had two main arteries: one from Chicago to New Orleans; and, one from Chicago to Sioux City. I believe the entire system was called the Illinois Central but it was composed of the two main corridors. The north-south line was the Illinois Central, and the east-west line, the Chicago Central, was from Sioux City/Omaha to Chicago. We never even thought of asking if the train stopped in Storm Lake but with a packing plant there, it may have. If not, its stops would have been Sioux City/Omaha, Fort Dodge, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, and Chicago. 

The interesting aspect of that track for me is this: it would have connected Manson and Fonda and that would have been the train Ruth would have taken, visiting her two sets of grandparents, while growing up. 

Interestingly, assuming there was a passenger train at the time, Ruth could have also taken the train back and forth between Sioux City and Storm Lake while in nursing school, another question we never thought to ask. 

Reka and Ike lived on a short street, Elmwood Drive, that ran north-to-south, off W. Milwaukee Avenue. There were only seven houses on their side of the street between Milwaukee (Iowa Highway 7) and the railroad track. The Flessner house was the third house north from the track. 

Sixth Street ran along the track for about a block before it ran into Vestal Street. I've long forgotten but it was probably on Vestal Street, about another block down the street, where there was a very, very small convenience store. At least once a week, during our school-age years, we would walk by ourselves to the convenience store to buy candy from the few coins Reka would give us. 

From wiki the Illinois Central Railroad as of 1996, a freight train by then:

Golden, Illinois -- Birds Of A Feather Flock Together -- New East Friesland

The question remains: once arriving in the US, how did the Folkerts and the Flessners end up in Iowa? The Flessners ended up in Illinois, in the Chicago area, specifically Golden, Illinois, before ending up in Iowa. How did that happen? The answer will surprise you. It surprised me. 

Google german immigrants Golden Illinois.

Golden, Illinois, is just east of the Mississippi River, east of the Kansas state line, north of St Louis, and midway between St Louis and Davenport, Iowa. 

How the Ostfriesland immigrants made it to Golden, Illinois.

• a 14-week journey or longer
• began in Bremerhaven, Germany
• by ship to New Orleans or by ship to New York
• if to New Orleans:
  
• riverboat up the Mississippi River to Quincy
• Golden was thirty miles east of Quincy, the county seat of Adams County, the westernmost county of Illinois
• a two-day journey by wagon from Quincy on the Mississippi, east to Golden
• if to New York City
• rail to Chicago
• rail to Golden
  

Geography of Golden -- Thomasboro:

Flessners / Fonda --- Folkerts / Palmer - Manson

It appears the Flessners arrived in Champaign County, Illinois, after emigrating from Germany, before moving to Fonda, Iowa.

Meanwhile, the Folkerts were in Palmer, and then to Manson. I do not know where they originated prior to coming to Iowa.

From Behrens, p. 231, which matches / corroborates family diagrams I put together when I spoke with Ruth many, many years ago.

From Chapter 18, Champaign County, Illinois, p. 231.

Ekke Andreesen Flessner was born December 12, 1824, in Ludwigsdorf, Ostfriesland, the son of Ekke Andreeson Flessner (note the very same name which causes confusion) and Anna Catharine Margaretha geb. Behrends. He married Barbara Andreesen Flessner (his cousin, causing more confusion) in the Lutheran Church at Weene. She was born on December 20, 1832, at Ludwigsdorf, the daughter of Andrew Thomson Flessner and Hille Eilers geb. Baldsen. 

Ekke and Barbara emigrated to Golden, Illinois, in August 1869, and subsequently moved to the Flatville area in Champaign County. 

The question remains: when coming up the Mississippi River, did they decide not to go all the way to Chicago, getting off the boat early; did they get off at St Louis and continue by land to Golden, or was there a stop on the Mississippi River just west of Golden? The answer will surprise you. It surprised me. 

Google german immigrants Golden Illinois.

Golden, Illinois, is just east of the Mississippi River, east of the Kansas state line, north of St Louis, and midway between St Louis and Davenport, Iowa. 

Ekke Flessner had been a farmer and sailor in Ostfriesland, and was a farmer at Flatville. Ekke Flessner died on September 13, 1904, and Barbara Flessner on March 6, 1906. They are both buried in Beckman Cemetery. 

The map, Flessners:

• Beckman Cemetery, Champaign County, IL, cemetery photo. Cemetery appears to be northwest of Flatville, just north of the Thomasboro - Flatville highway;
• Champaign, IL: city
• Thomasboro: town, midway between Champaign and Rantoul
• Rantoul: town, 15 miles north of Champaign; minister here provided cemetery info on Ekke; home of Chanute AFB (decommissioned)
• Flatville: village, 10 miles southeast of Rantoul;

The map, Folkerts / Palmer - Manson -- Flessners / Illinois --> Fonda:
 

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Waverly, Iowa

After receiving her teaching degree [Cedar Falls] after the death of her husband, Edna moved to Waverly, Iowa, with her two children, Gil and Margaret Ann, where Edna taught at the same school for 32 years.

Palmer, Iowa

From Behrens, p. 318

St Paul Lutheran Church, Palmer, Iowa.

The village of Palmer lies in northeastern Bellville Township in Pocohontas County. It was platted in December, 1899 in anticipation of the arrival of the railroad. The railroad was completed and the first train arrived in July, 1990, and the little village soon grew and prospered. 

It should be noted that Reka Folkerts Flessner was born in 1899, the same year that Palmer was platted. 

St Paul Lutheran Church had its beginning when Reverend William Weltner, pastor of St John Lutheran Church at Lizard Creek met with a group of Palmer area residents in the home of Fritz Bruns in April, 1902, to discuss the organization of a new church.

The result of this meeting was the organization of a new building in Palmer. The church, measuring thirty-two by forty-eight feet, with a seventy-five foot bell tower, was dedicated on November 17, 1902. 

The charter members of St Paul Lutheran Church were as follows:

John Arends    Arend Arends    Juergen Behrends    Herman Beneke    Fritz Bruns

Folkert Folkerts    Dirk Hartman    Ontke Ihnen    John Ihnen    Henry Ihnen

Tjark Ihnen    Christ Inen    Garrelt Johnson    Wm. Lage    John Nomann

H. E. Peters    Enne H. Peters    Wm. Wiegert    Charles Wiegert    Heio Wiese

Note: "Johnson": originally Janssen.

In  October, 1903, the congregation purchased land one mile south and one-half mile east of Palmer for a cemetery. Pastor Weltner served the congregation on a part-time basis until March, 1911, when St Paul called a full-time minister, Reverend V. F. Groth. He would serve the congregation until his death in 1932.

In 1934, the church's Ladies Aid and Missionary Society was formed. Among its charter members were Mrs Elsie Arends, Mrs George Block, Mrs Helen Malm, Mrs Grace Schow, Mrs Elsie Aden, Mrs Kathleen Wiegert, Mrs Henry Krie, Mrs Christine Wessels.

In 1967, the Methodist Church building was purchased for use as a Sunday School building. Today, St Paul Lutheran Church occupies a fine new brick building. 

Early confirmands during the early years of St Paul Lutheran Church's existence:

• 1903:
• Martha E. Wiegert
• Gretje F. Folkerts
• Jacobus V. Folkerts
• 1905:
  Johann R. Wiegert
  
• 1906: 
• Ikka Folkerts
  
• 1908:
• Hilka J. Folkerts

St Paul Lutheran Cemetery, one mile south and one-half mile east of Palmer. Selected tombstone inscriptions:

• several Janssens
• several Arends
• several Malms

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Folkerts

Reka and "Fred":

• Link: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/130654462/frederick-wilhelm-folkerts.  -- Fred
• Link: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/119643530/reka-flessner. -- Reka

It is interesting that in the screenshot below two of the siblings are not mentioned. The four siblings: Fred, Reka, Clara and Edna. Clara died in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, probably in her teens or early 20's.

Reka was born Dec. 18, 1899, to William A. and Henrika (Wiemers) Folkerts. She graduated from Manson High School and attended Iowa State Teachers College, Cedar Falls. She married Ekke Flessner on Nov. 10, 1920, in Manson. Preceding her in death were her parents and husband. (Storm Lake Pilot Tribune, 9-15-1990).

Of note: after her husband was killed in a farm accident, Ruth's Aunt Edna, Reka's sister, also attended that same college in Cedar Falls.

Ekke Flessner burial site:

Reka's mother, Hinrika: link here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35623903/hinrika-g-folkerts. Hinrika had nine siblings, and two children, a son "Fred" and a daughter, Reka.

So, "Fred" is Ruth's beloved "uncle Fred" by marriage. In addition, she would have had nine uncles and aunts with unmarried surname, Wiemers. Hinrika's maiden name: Bohlen. 

Reka's grandmother Henrika Bohlen:

• b. January 6, 1837: Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany
• married 1858
• immigrated 1881 (age 44)
  
• d. July 27, 1888, age 51: Iowa

Reka's grandfather Garrelt Gerdes Wiemers:

• b. November 19, 1834: Landkreis Aurich, Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany
• married 1858
• immigrated 1881 (age 47)
  
• d. October 7, 1915, age 81: Pomeroy, Calhoun County, Iowa,

So, Hinrika, Ruth's grandmother and Reka's mother, came over with her parents as a child. Hinrika, grandmother to Ruth, born in Germany, as were her parents, all of whom came to America. So, Ruth was third or fourth generation American depending on how you "measure it."

If I have the dates correct, Hinrika, Ruth's great-grandmother, immigrated to America with her parents when she was four years old. It looks like they immigrated with eleven children, all born before coming to the states, the eleventh born in 1880, the year before they emigrated in 1881.

New Photo Of Ruth Surfaces -- Taken About The Time Ruth Graduated From High School -- Don, Perhaps, Just Out Of The Service (WWII)

Jan sent this photo  to me today (February 3, 2021) with no accompanying information except to say it is "Mom and Don."

I replied:

They were four years apart.

Don, b. 1923.

Ruth, b. 1927.

17 years old and 21 years old. Home for Ruth's high school graduation?

1923 + 21 = 1944.  Both Carl and Don, if I recall correctly, served in WWII. So, unlikely Don would have been in Iowa in 1944.

1945: after the war; Don comes home after the war?

1945:

Don: 22 years old

Ruth: 18 years old.

So, what did the back of the photo say? What year was the photo taken?

This note from Don that we received awhile back provides a bit of data points around the time this photo was taken:

I [Don] graduated High School in May, 1941—before Pearl Harbor but with much turmoil in the world.  Military service was a near certainty for the boys graduating.  I was working in a local drug store during High School and continued after graduating.  One of my high school friends was doing a similar thing in another store.  We met at lunch frequently and made plans to go to Los Angles to earn ‘big’ money in the defense work.

The two of us, in his car, left the Iowa farm on a spring morning in 1942.  Ruth, our parents and the family dog waved us goodbye.  We arrived in Los Angles, found living accommodations and a job.  I enlisted in the CG in December.  Sometime after our departure, our parents and Ruth left the farm and moved into Fonda.  Ruth completed high school and entered nurse training.