52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #24 – Father’s Day

The father I remember, photo by my brother Don in 1966, Bossier City, Louisiana. Probably a Sunday afternoon, and that is probably a beer in his hand. Sunday’s and beer went together.

Jerry Stalter and Signe Viola Stalter his older sister in 1928. She died in 1929 when she was hit by a streetcar in St. Paul, MInnesota. She was 6 years old.

Jerry Frimpter Stalter was born August 10, 1924 in St. Paul, Minnesota to Perry Hunt Stalter and Signe Helmena Anderson. Jerry died March 1, 2007 in Humble, Texas. He was married to Grace Evelyn Hancock until they divorced in 1964 and then married to Bobbie Rose Quigley.

From the earliest time I can remember, Jerry loved to square dance, go fishing and to baseball games, golf and just be part of everything life had to offer. That included raising four children all a year apart, as well as a step daughter and a son from his second marriage.

Sharon, Don, Linda and Carol Stalter about 1950

My beautiful picture

Life always seemed to be busy with baseball games, swimming lessons, piano lessons, visiting Grandma and Grandpa Hancock, school and church activities. As we got older Jerry missed a lot of that because he took a job with Johnson’s Wax and traveled two weeks at a time going to Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Utah. He had favorite stores and restaurants in many of the small towns that he worked and he would always come back with stories about the wide open country and the things he had seen and the people he met.

Dad loved going to the mountains. When he was home over the weekend we would drive up to the mountains, find a picnic spot and spend the afternoon hiking or playing whiffle ball. Many times we would meet my aunts and uncles and cousins for a big family picnic. The men would play horseshoes and the women would sit in lawn chairs and talk while watching the children.

Jerry loved the challenge of driving in the mountains. I swear it seemed like he took the curves faster than other drivers. But then, I always sat in the middle and couldn’t really see out the window very well, just rocked side to side between my dad and my mom. I was happy when I graduated to the back seat.

I don’t really know at what point my parents decided to get a divorce. It was confusing to me, I was only 13 years old at the time. But looking back, I believe they made the right decision. Dad married Bobbie who was a wonderful, loving mother to her daughter and their son and always opened her heart and home to Don and I when we visited.

Mom married Art Mann who actually was much like my dad, fun loving and kind. He helped teach me to drive and then even trusted me with his car on Saturday nights that he and my mom were not going out to dance at the Westminster Elks Club. He was a wonderful ‘grandpa’ to our children.

My dad, Jerry Stalter, myself and brother Don Stalter, gathered in Mesa, Arizona after the death of Uncle Vic Stalter, Jerry’s brother in 1997.

Although I called Jerry by phone when he lived in a nursing home in Texas, I always had to time my calls so that he wouldn’t miss bingo or whatever activity for the day was taking place. Predictable!

Memories come only once, life is short embrace it while you can.

 

 

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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #23 – Going to the Chapel

When my husband and I were married, 50 years ago, my mother refused to go to a Catholic Church for my wedding. My father advised me to do whatever I wanted, they were divorced. So My Uncle Vic escorted me down the aisle to the two priests who performed the ceremony during lent in a Catholic church.  We signed all the papers for being underage, John was 20 and I was 19, for not being Catholic but pledging to raise our children in the Catholic church and whatever else they put in front of us.

Interestingly his parents had a similar dilemma. His mother’s family was Irish Catholic and his father was Russian Jewish. His father, Sam Singer, converted to Catholic when he married Rosemary McMahon. They were married at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Luebbering, Franklin County, Missouri as well as the County Courthouse in Union, Missouri. The children were all raised Catholic.

The most interesting marriage I found in his family records was both happy and sad. Simon Farbstein was married to my husband’s great aunt, Lottie Singer. Simon died in 1922 at age 28, when their son, Jack was 10 years old and daughter Bernice was 8 years old.

Simon Farbstein

Lottie married Jack Ansel in 1925 after Simon’s death. In 1935 daughter Bernice gets married and the notice in the newspapers reads like a fairy princess wedding. Christmas night of 1935 at the Washington Hotel before an improvised alter with greenery and ivory tapers. The bride’s uncle Dr. J. J. Singer gave her in marriage. She wore a gown of heavy white crepe and a veil of tulle, fastened with orange blossoms. She carried white roses and lillies of the valley. All this during the depression.

Bernice’s stepfather, Jack Ansel must have loved children. He provided a good life for Bernice and her brother Jack who died in 1941 at the age of 28. My husband, John and his cousins still remember the movie tickets Jack Ansel provided for them to visit the local theaters and the comic books he would bring to their homes.

Love those memories.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – #22 – So Far Away

 

Living in the 21st Century medical assistance is something most of us take for granted to be nearby and instantly obtained. However, in 1895 living in Vernon, Colorado, a small rural town ten miles south of Wray, Colorado, professional medical attention was “So Far Away” for my second great grandfather Jacob Foreman.

Early picture of Denver General Hospital. The building on the right is the original Arapahoe county Hospital pre- 1904 which was the year Denver became a county.

According to the Colorado State Archives Patient Register for Arapahoe County Hospital  (known to most of us as Denver General Hospital), Jacob Foreman, age 54, was admitted February 9, 1895 and treated for multiple neuritis.  He had lived in the county for 7 years, immigrating to Colorado in 1887. Was born in Ohio and married. He was patient number 176 and was discharged on March 4, 1895 his condition being “improved” after three weeks. The entry also notes as a contact John Baxter at 1420 S. 13 Street in Vernon. Mr. Baxter was the neighbor who provided the ‘ride’ to Denver. The term multiple neuritis describes an inflamed nerve causing pain in the body.

In a letter from Jacob to his brother living in Time, Pike County, Illinois Jacob regrettably requests $100.00 to pay for the hospital and 354 mile round trip by wagon and team to Denver.

Jacob Foreman was born in 1840 in Highland County, Ohio and moved to Time, Pike County, Illinois as a young man. He served in the Civil War in the 28th Regiment of the Illinois Infantry, Company E. Jacob Foreman married Sarah Elizabeth Watt in Pittsfield, Pike County, Illinois on March 17, 1867. The family moved from Illinois to Kansas in 1877 but were unable to find a suitable home and settled in Coloma, Carroll County, Missouri in 1878 near several of Sarah’s brother’s and their families.

Vernon Park – center of town.

In 1887 the family moved to Vernon, Arapahoe County (now Yuma County), Colorado. Jacob paid a $10.00 fee to homestead 160 acres under the government Homestead Act as well as an additional 160 acres under the Timber Culture Act. The government requirement was to work the land for 5 years and then title would be transferred to the homesteaders name.

Left – Town of Vernon in 1900. Right – Close up David Foreman’s home next to Christian Church where he and Jacob were ministers.

Jacob sold his homestead in 1906 and he and Sarah and son George moved to Mustang, Oklahoma near Jacob’s brother Robert Allen Foreman. By 1920 Jacob and Sarah returned to Vernon to be near their children, living in the town of Vernon. Jacob died in 1923 and Sarah died in 1928.

Jacob and Sarah Foreman ca 1922, Vernon, Colorado

 

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #21 – Military

In Honor of those who serve – Memorial Day, May 28, 2018.

Friday, May 11, 2018, we attended a memorial service for my brother Don Stalter at Ft. Logan National Cemetery. In addition to the Navy, members of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Denver Chapter 1071 attended and served as an Honor Guard. These gentlemen were so kind and helpful and very generous and giving of their time for a wounded veteran they didn’t even know.

Don’s medals

Mr. Marty Chavez took over 80 photographs and the President of Chapter 1071, Mr. Stan Paprocki presented the commemorative coin for the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War to Don’s children Jeff and Jaime as well as dog tags with Don’s name.

 

This organization makes a tremendous impact on communities all across America. I feel proud to have met the members of the Denver chapter and so thankful for their grace and kindness. I encourage everyone to support this organization.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – #20 Another Language

French or German or maybe Swiss-German and Norwegian

Stalter is an alteration of Stalder, a name frequent in Switzerland. “Stalder” is an Alemannic word meaning “slope”. No wonder that in a mountainous country like Switzerland many people live on sloping soil and received their names from their dwelling places. The early Stalders were merchants traveling the mining operations in the Alps.

Stalders are mainly concentrated in the Bernese Oberland and in the Canton of Lucerne. The former belong to the Reformed Church, the latter are Roman Catholic. Migration from the Swiss Alps also brought Mennonite Stalders to the Palatinate. Several of these Stalter families still live on farms around Zweibrucken.

The Catholic Stalters, who now live mainly at St. Ingbert, Saarland, go back to Casper Stalter who, being a Catholic, most likely pertains to the Stalders living in the Entlebuch Valley, Canton of Lucerne. His wife, Anna Margaretha, however was Reformed. On their way north, the couple made a halt somewhere in Alsace, where a son Johann Heinrich Ludwig Stalter,  was born about 1702. Casper Stalter made his home in Neunkirchen, Saarland, and was employed at that town’s important iron plant. His wife, Anna Margaretha, died there November 26, 1740 aged 77. Casper survived her by a few years.

Johann Heinrich Ludwig Stalter married about 1725 Maria Magdalena Camus (Camy), daughter of Phillip Camus, an ironmolder. From 1741 to 1759, he was a hammersmith at Muenchweiler, later he moved to Rentrisch, near St. Ingbert, where he died May 4, 1772. He is the ancestor of today’s St. Ingbert Stalters.

Johann Heinrich Ludwig Stalter and Mary Magdalena Camus had at least ten children, among whom was Nicolaus Stalter born at Neunkirchen July 17, 1729. At Muchweiler he met Elizabeth Morlo and was married to her at the nearby Catholic Church of Losheim on November 24, 1755. In 1764 the couple was at Dillingen forge and there responded to Baron Hasenelever’s invitation to come to work in New Jersey.

Baron Hasenelever’s task was to provide ironworkers, miners and others in these trades to immigrate to America following the War for Independence. Nicolaus Stalter appears in the early census records in Charlottenberg, Bergen County, New Jersey noted for its early mining history.

The above information is a brief story of the Stalter/Stalder/Staldter families of Switzerland. Like many European countries the borders of Switzerland changed depending on who was at war. Sometimes you lived in France and sometimes you lived in Germany and if you wanted to remain Swiss you would have to move. Several tales of the Stalters reveal that the young man was German speaking Swiss and his love was French Catholic.  Obviously the French and the Germans didn’t get along so you had to pick what you wanted to be – French or German. If you were in the German territory and you wanted to be French, then you had to move and vice versa. Some Stalters lived in Alsace-Lorrain.

Joseph the son of Nicolaus had son John P. Stalter whose son John J. Stalter married Emeline Conklin of Monroe, Orange County, New York. Their son was Jacob Stalter who settled in the Hudson River Valley at Stony Point in Rockland County New York. Jacob Stalter and his family including son Perry Stalter appear in the 1910 census in Oklahoma. By 1920 Perry shows up in St. Paul, Minnesota in the Army and served in World War I. Perry married Signe Helmena Anderson whose parents immigrated from Norway in 1892 and their son was Jerry, my father. Another language to add to this ancestral line.

More on the Stalter’s New York history from the book “Doodletown” by Elizabeth Perk Stalter in the coming months.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week# 19 Mother’s Day

This weekend we celebrate Mother’s Day. I have personally enjoyed 47 Mother’s Days.  I decided I would rather share the pictures I have of some of the mothers I know and wish I could have known.

Evelyn Hancock Senior Year 1943

Mary Salina Kenyon Squires

Sena Anderson

Top row left to right – Lulu Pearl Brace Hancock Baber, Lois Emerette Goodell Totten, Mary Phoebe (Birdie)  Totten Brace; Signe Helmena Anderson Stalter Frahm; The Hancock girls Charlotte, Charlene, Pearl, Evelyn, Dorothy, Shirley. Bottom row – Grace Evelyn Hancock Stalter Mann, Mary Saline Kenyon Squires, Simonette Signe Christofferson Anderson, Sarah Elizabeth Watt Foreman.

Grace Irene Squires ca 1890

Top row left to right – Lulu Pearl Brace Hancock Baber, Margaret Coe Frimpter, Mary Frances Foreman Hancock, Lois Emerette Goodell Totten, Grace Irene Squires Foreman.

Mary Salina Kenyon Squires. Frances Theresa Godfrey McMahon, Sarah Elizabeth Watt Foreman, Rosemary McMahon Singer.

Happy Mother’s Day to all!

 

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week #18 – Close Up

Jacob Foreman – Close Up

 

This is Jacob Foreman, my great, great grandfather. He was born in Buford, Highland County, Ohio,  December 7, 1840 to parents Jacob Foreman and Margaret Briggs Foreman. He was the sixth of ten children.

About 1855 the family moved from Ohio to Time, Pike County, Illinois. On November 1 of 1861 Jacob was 21 years old and enlisted with Company E of the 28th Illinois Regiment to serve in the Civil War. The 28th Illinois Regiment was moved down the Mississippi on a steamship to St. Louis and then marched with Ulysses S. Grant to Paducah, Kentucky. Their main duty was to disrupt the supply lines to the Confederates.

Jacob Foreman ca. 1863 Civil War Uniform

Jacob fought in the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing better known as Shiloh and the Battle for Corinth, Mississippi and Vicksberg. He was injured, returned home to recover and then joined Company E of the 28th Regiment in New Orleans to guard a British frigate that had been captured in the Gulf of Mexico. Jacob mustered out of the army in Brownsville, Mississippi in 1865 and returned home.

In March of 1867 Jacob married Sarah Elizabeth Watt. They had 5 children. In 1877 they headed west to Kansas but unable to find a new home they returned to Coloma, Carroll County, Missouri near where several of Sarah’s brothers lived. After 10 years of growing cotton and 3 sons being born and the death of one daughter they set out by wagon for Colorado.

Jacob and Sarah homesteaded 160 acres under the Homestead Act and 160 acres under the Timber Culture Act in what was Arapaho county, now Yuma county three miles west of Vernon just south of Wray.

In 1897 Jacob became ill and was hospitalized in Denver in what became Denver General Hospital. He was treated for three weeks and then returned home. In 1906 Jacob sold the homestead and he and Sarah with their youngest son George, moved to Mustang, Oklahoma where Jacob’s younger brother Robert Allen Foreman lived. In the spring of 1920, they returned to Vernon, Colorado to be near their children.

 

Jacob died in 1923 and Sarah died in 1928. They are buried in the Glendale Cemetery near Vernon, Colorado. The house they lived in at Vernon still stands.