Georgie’s Memories – Part 10: Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles

Grandpa Wellman

My mother often spoke of her parents’ early days in the United States and I hardly listened to my regret.  I think my Grandfather Wellman came to New Orleans and then up the Mississippi.  I don’t know if he came by train from St. Louis or how that was.  He came to Fort Madison and went to work up in Green Bay (near Wever) for a family named Lange.  He learned English after he came to this country, spoke with a German accent and was much more comfortable in German of course.  My Grandmother Catherine Krumpelman Wellman came later and went to stay with some cousins named Rhinehardt in Nauvoo, Ill.  When my grandparents married, they rented a farm west of West Point where their first child, Uncle Ben, was born.  When the second child, Uncle George, was born in August 1888, Grandpa had gone to the mill when Grandma went into labor.  She took Uncle Ben and walked to the Kaltefleiter place (now Gary Fedler’s) and had Uncle George there.   Shortly after that they moved to what we called the Schumaker place (now Albert Neuweg’s) where my mother was born April 2, 1890.  They lived there until 1915 or 1916 – about the time my folks were married.  My grandmother died while they lived there, 1904, also my Uncle Frank, in 1896, a child of 4.

After they moved to the Middendorf place Grandpa also bought the Bruegenhempke place.  We lived in the house on that place.  Grandpa would drive over with the team every few days.  If he had been to town to trade butter and eggs he always got a sack of candy for us.  He and my mother spoke German as he was more comfortable – his English was broken.  I could understand German then.  He had a full mustache – was not too tall. 

He was a hard worker, a harsh disciplinarian – did not hold with any foolishness but was crazy about us kids.  When Grandma died he was left with five children, the oldest only 17 and the youngest, Uncle Al, 7.  He was independent, thought for himself, probably his family and his land were his greatest joy.  He had courage and a sense of adventure – it would certainly take nerve to sail across the ocean to start a new life with what you could carry, knowing very few people, with no command of the language.

Uncles and Aunts

Uncle Ben Wellman was the oldest of the children.  He married Teresa Merschman from Fort Madison.  They had 11 children.  They lived north of the Bruegenhempke place on what was called the Weimer place.  Across the road was a cemetery , the Goldsmith Cemetery.  There were many small cemeteries as years before people used to bury their dead on their own property.  You used to see small plots of green in plowed fields where someone was buried, graves that are now forgotten.  Some of the graves in small cemeteries have been exhumed, others fallen into neglect.  Uncle Ben enjoyed raising animals, there used to be blue ribbons at Grandpa’s house that he had won at the Fair.  Aunt Teresa was an excellent seamstress.  She used to make dresses for us as my mother was not good at sewing.  Aunt Teresa made my mother’s wedding dress.  The skirt was made of accordion pleating.  They sent the material away to be pleated.

Uncle George married Veronica (Verona) Moeller.  They had eight children, lived just northeast of Grandpa’s place.  Their 2^nd oldest child, Leonard, died of pneumonia as a baby.  I can still remember how he looked in the casket.  He was holding a rose in his hand.  There was a creek on their farm.  We used to go down to the creek and seine minnows with a piece of gunnysack (burlap).  Sometimes we got crawdads which I was afraid of. 

Getting feathers

Aunt Verona knew how to get feathers from geese when they were molting. I remember once when she came over to Grandpa’s.  She went in the southeast corner of the big barn and sat with sheets spread all around.  Somebody, I suppose one of my uncles, would catch the geese and bring one to her.  She would hold its neck and run her hands though the feathers and they would fall on the sheets.  We made pillows out of the feathers – also feather beds, but they were going out of fashion then already.  We saved feathers from ducks and geese too when they were butchered.  Feather beds were warm and soft to sleep on.

Grandpa Wellman had an old fashioned bed with ropes instead of springs.  He had a corn shuck mattress on that.  It was emptied every fall and had new fresh corn shucks put in it.  He kept the egg crates in his bedroom as the door was closed and it was cooler in his room.  He gathered eggs in a basket.  They had a long room across the south side of the house – the cook stove was in the center of the north wall.  They used it for heating mostly but there was a heating stove on the living room on the northwest corner. 

There was a table, chairs and benches on the west end of the kitchen.  There was a big wood chest next to the stove and a china cabinet on the east end of the room.  A pantry near that – I remember smoked summer sausage hanging in there, also a smoked, dried leg of beef, big pans of milk that were skimmed, and the cream churned into butter.  The churn was a modern one for then.  It was a barrel with a top that clamped on.  It sat in a cradle type stand, had a handle and you turned until you felt it thumping.  Then it was taken out and worked into a ball with a butter pat, and salt was added.

Uncle Tony never married.  He and Uncle Al lived on the Middendorf place after Grandpa died in 1927.  Uncle Tony died in 1937.  Then Uncle Al married Ann Spohrer.  They lost the place during the depression.  Later Uncle Al lived in the house on the Bruegenhempke place (Read more about it here).  Uncle Al had a good voice, could play the violin, and was asked to sing in the church choir.  My mother often said both Al and Tony were kept too closely at home by their father – should have been allowed to get out more with people their own age and have more social life – would have been better for them but Grandpa was a hard worker and probably had forgotten his youth or may not have had a carefree time.  He never learned to dance. 

Uncle Tony and Uncle Al had a battery radio when they first came out.  They were rare then.  It was quite a thrill to listen to stations in New York and other far away places then.  They never knew what station they might pick up as transmitters were not so reliable then, They worked on this at night – I don’t know if that was the only time anybody was transmitting or if it was when they had time.

The living room at Grandpa’s was seldom used – company and holidays or for a funeral.  They had a picture album.  In it was a picture of Grandma Wellman taken after her death.  It looked terrible.  Later my mother burned it.  Once a year we housecleaned at Grandpa’s.  Aunt Anna Boeding Kruempelmann (Grandma Wellman’s sister-in-law) came to West Point on the train and helped.