Linda’s Headstone of the Week; Week #13

Last week I wrote about Catharina Dorothea Elisabeth Schultz Lindgren (and I bet she didn’t put all that on one line!) and the fact she saved the money her son earned only to give it all back to him. This week I’ll honor that son, my grandfather, my Poppie, Henry August William Lindgren, whom I was named after.

His nickname was Lindy, and according to mother, there had been no grandchild named after him, and I was elected! I was named Dorothea Linda, Dorothea for his mother and Linda for him . Since his nickname was Lindy, the obvious choice for my name was Linda and I was called Lindi throughout my childhood.

Ola Lindgreen, father; Henry August William Lindgren, son

Henry August William Lindgren is buried in Sacramento Masonic Cemetery and is in the same plot as his parents. He is listed on the same grave marker as his father, Ola Lindgreen.

L-R: Ola Lindgreen, Henry August William Lindgreen, Catharine Dorothea Elisabeth Schultz Lindgreen, Anna Dorothea Louisa Lindgreen

 Henry was the only son born to above mentioned Catharina Lindgren and her Swedish husband, Ola Lindgren. He was just 3 years old when the family immigrated from Germany to America, and  as I wrote last week, the family first settled in Big Rapids, Michigan. This picture was taken in that City in 1889, according to the information on the back. My grandfather would have been about 4 years old in this picture.  He was a handsome young man, wasn’t he? I imagine this was about the age he was when he met my Nana, or rather she met him! She had spied him on a streetcar and talked about him so much that her friend finally had a dinner party and invited the both of them. They were married on 18 June 1913, in the morning, and she graduated from High School that afternoon! 50 years later I was at their anniversary celebration in the same city. I still have the invitation and a napkin from the event.

He was a Boilermaker by trade, starting his career in Sacramento with the Union Pacific Railroad and finishing the career in Hilo, Hawaii for the Hilo Ironworks. That’s where I remember visiting him, the Hilo Ironworks! It was noisy and hot, but just getting to visit him at work and go into his office was a thrill. He always had time for us.

The first thing he’d say when we arrived to spend a good portion of the summer was, “come over here and let me count your ribs!” Each time, we’d dutifully go over, and he’d tickle us until we were gasping for air! You’d think we’d learn and we probably did, but we’d go anyway!

Then there was the time he was going to pull my loose tooth. As he put a string around the tooth about to be extracted I kept trying to talk to him and couldn’t talk with his big hand in my mouth. He pulled the wrong tooth . . . and then he did what any good grandfather would do and pulled the right tooth! All this with a twinkle in his eye!   . . . and probably holding his tongue right, because he’d tell us you can’t do anything correctly unless you were doing just that!

. . . and no story about my grandfather would be complete unless I mention that he was an awesome candy maker! Not just any candy, mind you, but Coconut Candy! Not Baker’s Coconut, but Hawaiian Coconut! . . . and we thought it was a treat to get to stir it as it cooked! My mouth is watering as I type this!

Henry Lindgren, Bertha von Breyman Lindgren, Catherine Lindgren Sherman
Front Row, L-R: Linda (me!) Priscilla and Bud (WF Sherman, Jr.)

See that twinkle in his eyes? I think this picture was taken on one of our visits to Hilo and it must have been on a Sunday after Church and after going for “Chop Suey” in town, a Sunday tradition when we were there. This picture was taken in front of the large front porch, and that’s me being controlled by my Grandfather . . . or teased, one or the other!

When the time came for retirement a decision was made and they sold the house in Hilo and came back to California. They bought a lot with a barn in Lakeport, and Poppie remodeled it into a wonderful two bedroom home with a great kitchen for Nana and a living room large enough for the grand piano. Rosebushes were in the backyard and the large dictionary had it’s place on it’s stand for Nana. It was a lovely setting and I loved visiting there just as much as I loved visiting Hilo. Why? Because they were there

and Poppie still had that sense of humor and that twinkle in his eyes!

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Linda’s Headstone of the Week; Week #12

I was named Dorothea Linda at birth. Dorothea, my first, and I always thought my very formal name, was after my great-grandmother, Catharina Dorothea Elisabeth Schultz Lindgren. You’ll find out where the Linda came from on another post.The names tell the story ~ her maiden name is Schultz and she was born in Germany and her married name Lindgren, a Swedish name. He had come from Sweden and was a field hand on her father’s farm. She was the farmer’s daughter and who Ola Lindgren picked for his bride. According to family legend, land in Germany was only passed to the sons at that time, and with no land of their own, Ola and Catherine decided to immigrate to America, a decision the couple never regretted according to copies of letters in my possession.

On 18 April 1887 they arrived in New York with their 7 year old daughter, Anna Dorothea Louisa, and their 2 year old son, Heinrich August William and life in America began for the family. The first stop on their journey was Big Rapids, Michigan where they added to their family with a daughter, Elsie Laura Vera, and lost Anna, who is memorialized with her mother.  They didn’t stay there long because they were in Sacramento by the early 1890’s, and blended into the immigrant population.

Ola and his son (my grandfather, Henry) worked together as Boilermakers for the Railroad, and Catharina charged her son “rent” each payday. Unknown to Henry his mother was setting his “rent” aside and saving it for his son’s future. When the time was right, according to my mother, the money was given to him, and with it he built a home. According to a letter she wrote to her niece in Germany:

“Henry, as a carpenter, so they call them here, build a house and now he has already started the third house. He has already sold two. He got 2650 dollars for the first one and 3000 for the second one. He has 16 more lots here in Oak Park, everything here has built up and gotten more expensive. Where one paid $100 gets $1000 for it. . . I can hardly believe what I am writing . You will think we are bragging. It is very good here. We have everything we want when dear God only gives us our good health. When I and my husband don’t have to work any longer, we can live from our earnings.”

Catharina loved her new country, and yes, she bragged about it in letters home. She continued being frugal, teaching her son the habits that would follow him throughout life. She left this earthly life on December 28, 1925 and is buried in Sacramento’s Masonic Cemetery with two of her children, her husband and her daughter-in-law.

My great-grandmother appreciated the life she had in America, but took nothing for granted. She kept the values she had in the old country and instilled them in her son. Because of those things (and because I am her namesake!) Catharina is my pick for

Linda’s Headstone of the Week, Week #12.

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Linda’s Headstone of the Week; Week #11

For the next few weeks, I’ll be covering my California ancestors ~ my maternal ancestors! Since the only one I have done so far was my great-grandfather, William Adolphus George von Breyman, I’ll honor his wife this week, Wilhemine Sophia or Minnie, as she was known.  

First I must go back  to her beginnings ~ Minnie was born in New York in 1854 to immigrant parents, Frederick and Amelia Gode/Goda. The only thing I know of the parents is from two different census records, 1850 and 1870.

• In 1850, Minnie was not born, but her sister Louisa was. Louisa was a year old and her father was a milkman. I’d been looking for a Lutheran Minister, since that was what my grandmother’s memoirs said! Just another family legend, I guess!
• By 1870, Amelia is alone with the two girls – Minnie, age 15, is a domestic and Louisa, age 20, is a tasselmaker and Minnie was born in New York. I’d been looking her birth in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania where her father was a Lutheran Minister. That’s where my grandmother said she was born and that’s where subsequent census data states, also. Second family legend.

Sometime in the 1870’s Amelia took Minnie left New York and headed to San Francisco where Amelia had relatives. California families with names of Blum, Swank, Murdock and Wagner are supposed to be relatives of Minnie ~ this from letters written by her son to various members of the family. In 1877, Minnie marries and before Christmas that year she is a mother. Her husband is almost 20 years her senior and would die before their 25th anniversary. Minnie still had three young girls under ten (my grandmother was one of them) and several other children at home to care for. The family lived in Arbuckle for a while before moving to Sacramento close to a married daughter.

I have several pictures of my great-grandmother and I decided to share two of them on this blog; one taken either before she was married or shortly thereafter, when she was in the prime of her life and the other taken shortly before the end of her life.

That move to Sacramento mentioned above is important for several reasons, the most important is the fact that my grandmother, Bertha, met the man she was married to for over 50 years in that city and because she did, I am.

And because Bertha met and married Henry Lindgren, Minnie was able to spend the last few years of her life in Hawaii. Henry Lindgren’s job took him to Hawaii, and when Henry went, he took Bertha, Minnie’s daughter. And because Bertha was in Hawaii, Minnie was able to spend the last few years of her life in sunshine and tropical weather, enjoying her daughter’s growing family.

The picture above was taken just months before her death, sitting in the yard at my grandparent’s home in Hilo, Hawaii. She is holding a large hibiscus in her lap. Shortly after this was taken, she boarded the Lurline and sailed back to California. She died 3 months later at her son’s home in Ventura on 13 March 1934 and is interred in Ventura in Ivy Lawn Cemetery. At the time of her death she had two sons, six daughters and twenty-nine grandchildren!

Minnie had traveled from New York, around the Cape to California, to Hawaii and back to California. She was loved and cared for by her family and left a legacy that will continue with each generation from now until eternity, and this is why I have honored her as

Linda’s Headstone of the week for week #11.

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Linda’s Headstone of the Week; Week #10

My headstone of the week this week belongs to “The Perfect Son-in Law,” Philip Kleiss Auxer. Philip is one of my 3rd great grandfathers, and one that I have a lot of respect for. Philip Kleiss Auxer was born in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County to Michael Auxer, Jr. and his wife, Catharine Kleiss Auxer on 6 April 1810. He was named after Catharine’s father who had died 10 years previously.  Philip died in Harrisburg, Dauphin County 75 years later on 27 January 1886 and is buried in Harrisburg Cemetery.

It’s the life between the dates that’s important, and Philip was important to a lot of people, mainly his wife, daughters, and mother in law. Mother in law?? Yup! and of course you’re going to find out why!

Before Philip had reached his 7th birthday, his mother was a widow with 5 children under 10 years of age. His father’s friend (and I use the term loosely) Philip Albert, was appointed guardian for the children and before the year had passed he had married his “friend’s” widow.

Michael had few specific wishes in his will. One of them in particular was mentioned in his obituary that appeared in The Church Advocate, a publication of the Church of God.

From Michael Auxer’s Will: Item, it is my will that my beloved wife, Catharine, shall keep my four children in her care, viz: Amelia Auxer, Philip Kleis Auxer, William Auxer and Adam Auxer, and provide for them, until each of them may have received education sufficient for them, and then direct my three sons to such trades as they may choose to learn . . . “

From “The Church Advocate”: . . . Losing his father at an early day, he was placed among strangers where he was trained to a life of honesty and industry. . .”

Philip Albert went on to to sell the various properties left by Michael to his widow to care for her children and it is unknown where the money went. What is known is the fact that the two youngest sons, William and Adam, were schooled as “Poor Children” and the County took the responsibility of paying for their education since their mother was no longer able to.

Philip was established as a wagonmaker by 1840, married with a young family in the Stackstown area of Lancaster County. By 1850 the family had sold their property and moved to Harrisburg with his wife, 2 daughters, a son and a granddaughter. Within 10 years his mother-in-law, Susannah Bischof Leader Kaylor, joined the family.

Susannah had married after the death of her first husband Samuel Leader. The marriage to George Kaylor did not work out and Susannah (the Woman’s Libber of her time!) had a prenup in place and sued George for divorce. Philip was her representative as her “Next Best Friend,” in the divorce, a common practice in 1854. With her monthly alimony and her sole and separate property firmly in place, she joined the Auxer family in Harrisburg. The house on Boas Street was full.

In 1873 the couples only son, Abraham, died and Mary followed him to the grave 4 years later. The two girls had left and taken the grand daughter with them. This left just two people living in that big house on Boas Street, Philip and his mother-in law, Susannah . . .Susannah who would live to the ripe old age of 94 years old.   And, just exactly who do you think took care of her in the waning years of her life?

Bingo! her son in law, Philip! This man had to be a candidate for Sainthood! Since I can’t even imagine my husband  in a million years taking care of my mother for 7 years after I leave this earth, I must pick Philip’s headstone in Harrisburg Cemetery as

Linda’s Headstone of the Week for Week #10!

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