Month: March 2018

Death of Dutch Ed, pioneer

Liberty County Times (MT), 15 Mar 1945:
Funeral services were held on Wednesday of this week for John E. (Dutch Ed) Trommer, old-time settler of this section of the country. Trommer passed away Friday evening after only a very short illness, although his health has been failing for a number of years.
He was born in Colberg, Germany in April of 1859 and came to the United States as a young man, shortly after the Northern Pacific started their railway westward. He had been in Montana for 65 years. Among the first jobs he held after leaving the employ of the Northern Pacific was freight-boss on a freighting string from Fort Benton to Fort Browning.
Later he married a woman that had come to Montana to teach school. She was employed at the schools in Browning. After their marriage they came to the Lothair district and he settled there to make his home and operate a ranch. At the time the land was opened to homesteading he was operating a successful horse ranch north of Lothair. By squatter rights he obtained a homestead and has remained on it the rest of his life.
The most of his family has been gone from this country for considerable time. It is known that he had five children, 2 boys and 3 girls. One of the boys has been in Panama for a number of years. The whereabouts of the rest is not certain.
Interment was made in the local cemetery following services in the local Methodist Church.

Married: Aug. 29, 1898

Fairfield (IA) Ledger, Page 3, Column 8:
Trommer-Grove. Married, at the residence of the bride’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Grove, six miles east of this city, Monday evening, August 29th, by Rev. Wm. J. Funkey of Fairfield Lutheran church, Mr. John E Trommer, of Chester, Montana, and Miss Zana Olive Grove.
The nuptial tie that made of twain one, was made at 8 p.m., in the presence of thirty-five or forty friends. After the ceremony and abundant and delicious [meal] was served, and several hours were spent in a pleasant, social good time.
A little after 12 o’clock, the bride and groom started for Fairfield, escorted by a large number of the guest, to take the train at 2 a.m. for the west. They expect to spend a day in Minneapolis and reach their home in Chester, Montana Friday or Saturday.
The bride is well and favorably know in and around Fairfield. She has been serving very acceptably as teacher in the Willow Creek Boarding school of Blackfeet Agency for the last six years. The groom evidently is a genial gentleman and successful business man. For several years past he has been engaged in stock raising and and owns a large ranch near Chester, Mon.
The many friends here of the bride and her excellent family will join in hearty congratulations, wishing them a long and happy life together. Besides several friends from Fairfield, there were present from abroad Miss Emella Bredline, Chicago, Miss Mary Nelson, Lockridge, Mr. and Mrs. Tall, Rome, and Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Grove, Stockport.

Mrs. Trommer has gone to her Heavenly home

Sandra Olivia was born on November 4th, 1868, in Marka, Skaraborg, Sweden. She was the fourth child and the first daughter of Anders and Maja Christina Grov. When she was about a year and a half, in the summer of 1870, her family emigrated to Jefferson County, Iowa.

In the 1890s, when Zanna Olive Groves was in her 20s, she worked for a few years at the Willow Creek Boarding School on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation west of Browning in northern Montana.

In Montana she met John Edward “Dutch Ed” Trommer, a German immigrant who had come west working on the Northern Pacific Railroad. Olive and Ed married on August 29, 1898, and filed claims for land close to Chester, Montana. They became sheep ranchers and quite successful.

In the fall of 1905 Olive was visiting her parents in Iowa, giving birth to her fifth child. From the Fort Benton River Press, Nov. 29, 1905:

From the Fairfield Daily Journal, Nov. 25, 1905:
“…. This community was shocked Monday evening to hear that Mrs. Ollie Trammer was dead. She had come from her home in Montana with her husband and children two months ago to visit her parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. G. GROVE. The husband had gone back and Mrs. TRAMMER and children remained. A little babe was born three weeks ago and the mother was apparently on the road to recovery. Monday she was bright and hopeful all day, planning when she would be able to return to her Montana home, but about six o’clock she was stricken with heart failure and in half an hour she had gone to her Heavenly home. Messages were sent to the husband and to a brother and sister in Colorado. The deepest sympathy of the entire community goes out to the bereaved husband and parents and to those who cared for her so faithfully and to the five little ones who so much need a mother’s care.”

Anders Svensson Hedberg

Anders Hedberg, laborer, died in Falköping on Sept. 21, 1875. He was 64.

The estimated total value of his belongings was 90 kronor, around $10.

The estate inventory states that his daughter Maria Christina’s whereabouts were “unknown”.

Christina and her family had emigrated in 1870, and in 1875 they were living in Cedar Township, Jefferson Co., Iowa.

Johanna

The first time Johanna moved away from her family to work was in 1862. She was 18 years old. She moved to Slättäng, in Sandhem southeast of Falköping. Two roads met in Slättäng and there had been a local court and an inn there for a long time. It seems Johanna was a maid at the inn. We can’t know for sure what kind of work she did, but likely household jobs like cleaning and/or kitchen work. She gave birth to a daughter, Augusta Olivia, on Feb. 13, 1864. The little girl died in May the same year.

My grandfather Karl Adolf was born in Falköping in 1871, and his sister Elma Georgina in Stora Malm in 1875. Johanna moved around Falköping several times with her father and younger sister Ada during those years. I haven’t been able to trace all her moves. Even tho Elma is noted as having been born in Stora Malm some distance away I haven’t been able to find Johanna in that parish.

Former staff lodgings at Horns säteri, Överenhörna.

After Johanna’s father Anders died in September of 1875 Johanna and her two children moved to Horns säteri, in Överenhörna. That’s where Johanna met Josef Larsson Kratz, who she would later marry.

More accomplished researchers would probably not give up before they’d been able to trace Johanna’s every step across Sweden. For one thing, there might be clues as to who Karl Adolf’s and Elma’s fathers were in the household records. I’ve decided to let the mystery be, for now.

Josef Larsson Kratz, soldier

My great grandmother Johanna married in 1878. She was 33. By then she had given birth to four children. One girl, Augusta Olivia, had died as an infant in 1864. My grandfather Karl Adolf was 7, his half sister Elma Georgina was 3. Hulda Josefina, who’s father was Johanna’s new husband Josef Larsson Kratz, was a few months old.

Starting when she was a teenager Johanna had worked as a maid in many places. Johanna and Josef met when they were both working at a large farm in Sörmland. Josef was 20 years old, and in the fall of 1878 he became a soldier. He was given a small croft, Löfnäs soldattorp, close to lake Mälaren outside of Mariefred. Everyone moved.

The remains of Löfnäs soldattorp, Toresund, Sörmland. The second Mrs. Kratz lived here until the 1930s.

Josef Kratz was the last soldier at Löfnäs. My father’s older sister, who was born in 1907 and knew her father, Karl Adolf, well, said that soldier Kratz was “not kind”.

Dagny Wentzel, teacher

Ada Hedberg’s daughter Dagny Gunhild was born on Feb. 5, 1886 in Göteborg. She was number four of seven siblings.

Dagny was a teacher, and she also helped create programs that brought inner city kids into the countryside for long summer vacations.

As a young woman Dagny became a member of Göteborgs Kvinnliga Diskussionsklubb (The Göteborg Female Discussion Club), and in 1932 she was elected to the board of the Göteborg branch of Svenska Kvinnors Vänsterförbund. These organizations were founded in the 1910s, and their initial mission was to work for women’s right to vote. They continue to work for gender equality, women’s rights, and peace, to the present day.

In December of 1928 Dagny gave a talk to introduce the topic for the night at Göteborgs Kvinnliga Diskussionsklubb, “Should the same retirement age be applied to male and female public employees?”.

Dagny was also an active member of national organizations for teachers.

Dagny never married. She died at 88, on July 7, 1974. Since 1925 she had owned a house at Storängsgatan in Änggården. Her mother, Ada, lived with her.

In 1951 the city of Göteborg honored Dagny with a medal for her contributions as an educator.

Last name, Haller

Signe Emilia Båf married Johan August Pettersson Haller on Dec. 3, 1912. Their son Bengt Arnold was born in Göteborg on May 24, 1915. He died on Dec. 17, 1923, from the measles. He was 8.

Johan August died in Örebro on Oct. 2, 1946. He was 65.

Signe died in Göteborg on May 25, 1965. She was 86.