Documents: Ekke - Reka - Flessner - Folkerts - Confirmation - Marriage Certificate -- November 17, 2022

Confirmation certificates.

Marriage certificate.

Edith Flessner, Wife Of Don -- January 2, 2021

Edith Flessner, wife of Don; obituary. 

Edith L. Flessner, 93, of Oxford, PA, formerly of Newark died Wednesday, October 4, 2017, at Christiana Hospital, Newark, DE.

She was the wife of Donald Flessner with whom she shared 64 years of marriage.

Born in Philadelphia, she was the daughter of the late Leslie A. and Edith M. Kessler Grand and sister to her late brother, Leslie Grand. Edith received her BS and Master's Degrees from Drexel University and attended the University of Minnesota for her Doctorate.

Gravesite, and here:

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