Indeed, it was during the 1930’s and 1940’s that Will’s, Ida’s and Arnold’s families became separated. After Ida died in 1939, the various siblings and cousins through the Treuthardts lived in different cities and had their own families. The cousins never forgot each other – my father thought of them, I know. But after the cousins’ deaths (approximately the 1980's-1990's), as in all families, the distant relatives naturally drew apart and were unknown to each other. In the next 50 years, there was only one connection (about 1960?) that I am aware of, until the late 1990’s when God brought us together again, through Margaret, her sisters LaVerne, Mary Lou and me. That is a future blog which is percolating.
You’ve noticed, this is not a chronological history. We are going in all directions at once. Beginning with Friedrich’s death and continuing with his birth of his grandchild Anna, and a photograph of the Swiss community – and finding out Friedrich was married twice -- we still aren’t finding out much about HIM.
Like getting acquainted with a stranger, if we met a person and started asking about his early life and worked our way systematically through his life, it would not be as interesting. We would be asleep before we got very far in his boring chronological revelations.
Rather, this account is discovery-oriented. Discoveries are uncoordinated. We are putting together a puzzle and don’t know if all or most of the pieces are there. A puzzle isn't recognizable until you get close to finishing.
For my readership, the people you need to recognize are Friedrich, his
wife Anna, his daughter Ida (the oldest child in that marriage), his son
Arnold, and his oldest son Will, by Friedrich’s first marriage.
Anna’s obituary mentioned the immigration of the family to the U.S. in 1883. In the next few blogs we will track them on their travels from Switzerland to Texas 130 years ago. I hope you are as excited as I am! I am always ready to go back to Switzerland!
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