20. Death and Obituary -- Anna Geiser Treuthardt

March 11, 1936, Wednesday

On this day in 1936 Great-grandmother Anna Johanna Geiser Treuthardt died.   The funeral was on Thursday March the 12th.   Two short obituaries exist, from the collection of Katherine & Reinhold.   Neither obituary has a citation, though the first one was surely published in the Georgetown, Texas Williamson County Sun and the information would have been supplied by Anna’s daughter Ida Krieg and a grandchild or two.   This obituary must have been printed a day or two after the funeral.   
I have numbered the obituaries and added some comments at the end. 

1)

"Pioneer Resident of Georgetown Dies Wednesday
"Heart Ailment Fatal to Mrs. Anna Treuthardt

"Early Wednesday morning a heart ailment from which she had been suffering for some time was fatal to Mrs. Anna Treuthardt, pioneer resident of this city, and native of Switzerland.   Death came swiftly to this beloved woman, and carried her into the great beyond, where her spirit went to convene with that of her maker.

"Funeral services, which were held Thursday morning at 10 o'clock at the Friedrich Funeral Home, were conducted by the Rev. Robert F. Jones, pastor of the First Presbyterian church.  Interment was in the Odd Fellows Cemetery immediately following the services at the chapel.

"Mrs. Anna Treuthardt, 89, was born in Roggwyl, Switzerland on Feb. 7, 1847.   From an early age, she was taught to love her God, and at the age of 16 she was confirmed into the church at Roggwyl.    In 1871, she was married to Frederick Christian Treuthardt, of Georgetown, in Lausanne, Switzerland.   In 1883, some 53 years ago, they came to Georgetown to make their home.

"Three children were born to this union, one of whom survives Mrs. Treuthardt.  She is Mrs. Ida Krieg of Thrall.   Twelve grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren also survive.

"Pallbearers, who were grandsons of the deceased were Oscar Krieg, Julius Krieg, Will Krieg, Arnold Krieg, Ed Krieg, all of Thrall, and John Treuthardt of Georgetown."

2)

“Georgetown, March 12.-- Funeral services were held here Thursday at 10 a.m. for Mrs. Anna Truehardt, 89, who died near Georgetown early Wednesday after an illness of six weeks.

“Mrs. Truehardt was born Feb. 7, 1847, at Roggwyl, Switzerland.  She was married in 1871 to Frederick C. Truehardt at Lausonne (sic), Switzerland.   With her husband and children she came to the United States in 1883 and settled near Georgetown.   She is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Ida Krieg of Thrall;  12 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

“The Rev. Robert Jones conducted the funeral services.   The eight grandsons of Mrs. Truehardt acted as pallbearers:  They are John Truehardt of Georgetown, Siegfred Krieg of Eola, Oscar, Werner, Ed, Will, Julius and Arnold Krieg, all of Thrall." 


Spellings of surnames
In 1, the name Krieg was misspelled and I have corrected it.   [Nobody would object to that.]    This was a misprint by the newspaper.

In 2, the surname is consistently spelled Truehardt.   This is inaccurate for the Swiss immigrants and for the Arnold Treuthardt family.  John, descendant of Arnold, is listed first in the pallbearers list;  but he too exclusively used the original Swiss spelling.   The Americanized form of the surname was adopted by the Will Treuthardt family.  Will, who died in 1930, six years earlier than his step-mother Anna, used the original spelling as well, as shown by the name Treuthardt engraved on his tombstone.   This is why I believe the second citation was written or amended by the Will Treuthardt family; and I don’t know where this second obituary was published.   

Pallbearers
Obituary 2  states that Anna's eight grandsons were pallbearers.   In 1, two grandsons’ names are omitted – Werner and Sigfrid.    In neither copy are the Krieg grandsons listed in birth order.   The youngest Sigfrid (with misspelled name) is listed first, and the others are "mixed."        
   
Survivors
Only one daughter, Ida, 12 grandchildren (8 of Ida’s and 4 of Arnold’s children), and 17 great-grandchildren are listed as survivors.   Not listed are those who predeceased Anna.     This caused me confusion at first.  I’ll explain more in the next blog.    It is all clear now, and it was clear to the people in 1936 who read the newspaper.    Incidentally, several more great-grandchildren were born to Anna after her death, including me.     

The funeral home
I have never heard of Friedrich Funeral Home of Georgetown.   Maybe others familiar with that time know where it was located.       


Georgetown
So what was it?  In the city (1) or near it (2)?   It depends on how you define the city limits of Georgetown.   It is not hard to reckon how somebody could interpret it either way.   Since Ida herself was writing the information for obituary 1 (I’m 99% sure of that), it means something to me that Ida considered Georgetown her familiar hometown.          

The Switzerland clues
Now we are getting someplace, with evidence.   We know Anna’s birthdate and place in Switzerland.  We learn that she came from a God-fearing family and that she was confirmed at the age of 16 in the church where she was brought up.   We learn her husband’s full name, and their marriage year and place. 

I knew that my father and uncles had said their grandparents’ marriage place was Lausanne.   For years I did not know more than that.   But the place of marriage is not exactly right.   The Treuthardts were not married at Lausanne but at Lavigny.   Lausanne is the closest big city to Lavigny, a small town even today.    This too confused me, as to why the exact place was not named;  until I noted that Americans don’t know where Switzerland is, and much less do they know where the towns are.   Especially in those times it would have been true.   

Year of immigration
And we have a reliable year of immigration, 1883!   

19. My family authorities (continued)

Here I want to keep listing my family authorities among our branch of the Krieg-Treuthardt family.   This early effort took about twenty years and more, up to about 1997.   (Certainly it was not something I worked on continuously, but every so often one or two new facts came to me.)      

Family history research has a life of its own.   "It" is resistant to releasing information;  it closely and jealously guards the secrets.    What information it gives up at first seems insignificant, almost petty.   Many times the effort of discovery seems futile, and one is embarrassed to admit how little progress he/she is making.   How easy it is for one's family story to languish and fade away over time.   One cannot even define what progress is.   

Every family's history is unique, so one never knows what to expect.   There is no way to anticipate from which direction the ideas may come.   It has to be important to somebody, to rediscover it by being patient and waiting for the research to creep its way towards his/her direction.

Many times while my children were young, I had to "let it go."    However, I never gave up curiosity or my goal, and I developed patience.   Now I know, the work has to ripen.     That takes a long time.   It is important to begin a family history study when one is young, so that he/she has many years to develop patience.   

A remarkable thing happened over time.     Knowledge and information began to tumble in, quite suddenly in the scheme of things, after all those preliminary years of building on small events and ideas.   

If you want to get my instruction list and scientific techniques and methods for researching our family history, here it is.

•  Ask
•  Seek
•  Knock  

Asking, seeking and knocking comes in many forms!   

   
Among my grandfather Gottlieb Krieg's family of twelve, he was the second-to-last child.    My father was the second-to-last child of eight.   I am the second-to-last child in a family of six, and Gottlieb's and Ida's penultimate grandchild out of eighteen.   Birth-order-wise (second-to-last), I arrived at the end of the branch of my family.   Knowing absolutely nothing about the subject of family history was apparently was so fascinating to me, that I was motivated to ask, seek and knock for more than three decades, going on close to four decades.   This information came from others.  

Sincerely, I would have made no progress whatsoever without the help of Roy and Norman.     Both of those men were inspirational and helped me to have a vision.   They got me oriented in the right direction.   They brought first- or second-hand memories to share, giving me events on which to focus.

Roy and Jo provided their Georgetown home as an ideal central place for our "small" Krieg reunions every year, where the older people talked;   the children played alongside each other and, two kids at a time, drove the go-kart endlessly in circles around the house -- and recklessly drank more soda water than they were permitted the rest of the year.    Providing a venue for sharing news, meeting people, and remembering history, was a tremendous contribution to this study. 

Norman every year would bring a family history "show-and-tell" object that he had found at home.   He had a great memory and could talk for a long time.  I brought a notebook, but there was more to learn and do than I could take notes of.   One needs to listen and hear.   I wanted to visit too, and watch the kids.   I depended on Eddie to remember things that I had not heard.  

The cousins were encouraged to recall things.   The ones who used to live in and around Thrall described the family of those early days.    Marjorie recalled things that were "atmospheric," Robert was always there to give information and approval, and Lucille added items or memories.     Roy took us to places of interest in the Georgetown area, and he suggested other materials for me.    Leon and Ida encouraged me with their support and memories.    Reinhold told me his story about the Williamson County flood.   Jean too had interviewed Aunt Anna before the latter's death.   My brothers lived in Thrall only a short time and were too young to remember the oldest history, but Harvey observed a lot, for being so little.    At one time (Roy told me) 26 members of the Krieg family lived in Thrall.   Since Aunt Maude's death, there are none.

Before Uncle Arnold Krieg's death in 2000 (he was in the nursing home for a couple of years), we visited at their home several times, and I would always ask him questions.   He might have a [short] answer that generated more questions, he might not, but we gained in those visits a better first-hand sense of the earliest times, and of his childhood memories at New Bern, Texas.
   
Of considerable value was the packet of snippits and papers that Reinhold and Katherine shared with me.   Although Katherine didn't know anything about them, and they didn't make any or much sense to us, they came from the files of Ida Krieg, our grandmother.    There were some Swiss documents that we didn't know anything about (now I know more and will tell you later).   Little as they were, they led me to other remote facts.    In these posts, I will record now and then that certain items came from the collection of Katherine and Reinhold.   They originally belonged to Ida.  

What all of the above eventually resulted in, was a history of Krieg Brothers Chevrolet Company, of Thrall, Texas.   Using the memories of the cousins and uncles, I wrote this history of the memories of the uncles, aunts and cousins, to compile as much "regional" information as possible.    Afterwards, I shared the history with every branch of the family.   The reports have probably been lost in the shuffle, so I plan to enter the report on this blog eventually.   When I get to the Kriegs, this report will be helpful in imparting the history of the Kriegs in Williamson County from about 1920 to 1950.

As recently as last year, Earl brought me an item from the Krieg family Bible which was a typewritten Christmas poem on which paper my father had signed his name in cursive handwriting.   It must date from about 1920.   One never knows what might become valuable as a clue to the history.   When I get to that point, I will tell about that little adventure of the Christmas poem.  

16. Baptism Day of Anna Krieg and Louise Treuthardt, 14 February 1897

The Baptism Day of Anna Louise Krieg and Louise Elisabeth Treuthardt

February 14, 1897

These two Baptisms are documented in the 100th anniversary edition of St. Peter Lutheran Church of Walburg, Texas.   The infants are cousins, Anna Louise Krieg and Louise Elizabeth Treuthardt.   Anna's birth date is November 21, 1896.   Louise was born in December, 1896.   This picture was in the possession of Anna (my Aunt Anna) in 1977.   (See notes at the end of this post to find out how I got a copy of it.)   She told me she was one of the babies in the photo. 
 

It was February 14, and the tree was leafless.  Everyone was wearing long sleeves, and most were wearing several layers.    A few people look windblown and cool.   The children's patience was being strained, not to mention that of some other people who wished they could be someplace else.   Isn't that the way it is when people gather for a family photograph? 

The Treuthardt Grandparents

In the front row center are seated Friedrich Treuthardt, age 63, and his wife Anna Johanna Geiser Treuthardt, age 50.    Grandfather Friedrich (or Fred, as his tombstone records) lived exactly ten years, minus two days, after this picture was taken; he died February 12, 1907.  Grandmother Anna lived an additional thirty-nine years, to age 89; her death date is March 11, 1936. 

 The Babies' Parents

The honored mothers are seated on either side of the grandparents, each holding her baby.  Their husbands stand behind them--in perfect symmetry--between the wife and parent. 

Seated next to Grandfather Fred is his daughter Ida (Treuthardt) Krieg, and behind them is her husband Gottlieb Krieg.  Ida is 25 years old, and Gottlieb is age 26.  Ida is holding baby Anna.

Next to Grandmother Anna is seated her daughter-in-law Louise (Ischy) Treuthardt, holding baby Louise, and behind them, Wilhelm Treuthardt, holding his child.  Will, born in 1858, is 39 years old.  His wife Louise, born in 1865, is 32 years old. 

The three older children belong to Will and Louise Treuthardt.   He and Louise were married at St. Peter in 1891.  The three children are Frederick William, almost 5 years;  Will F., Jr., not yet 4 years; Arnold, two years old.*  The baptisms of these three children are not recorded at St. Peter.  

*These children were identified by their daughters and nieces

 in June, 1997, at the Treuhardt reunion in Holland, Texas. 

These five children are all of the grandchildren of the Treuthardts in 1897.  No other children of Gottlieb and Ida were baptized at St. Peter, as the Lutheran church at New Bern became their new church home.  Their son Oscar, born in 1899, was baptized at New Bern, and all their other children as well.  Thus the association of the Kriegs with St. Peter, Walburg/Georgetown, was terminated by 1899.    Three additional children of Will and Louise were born later than 1897 and were baptized at St. Peter.  

 

 The Pastor and his wife

In 1977 Anna Krieg Fuessel (who was one of the babies in the photo) stated that she thought the pastor and his wife are pictured at the right of the photo.  The pastor in 1897 at the Walburg Church was Rev. Johannes Mgebroff.     

In February, 1997 (exactly 100 years after this picture was taken) Eddie and I went to Clifton, Texas, for me to interview Pastor Mgebroff's son (who was also a Lutheran pastor) at their home.    Pastor Fred Mgebroff was then 89 years old.    I brought along this picture to ask Fred Mgebroff whether the man in the picture was his father.    He did positively identify his father and mother, Pastor Johannes and Mrs. Helene Mgebroff.     

Pastor J. Mgebroff is the second from the far right, back row, the nice-looking young man with a beard, and his wife stands next to him, looking towards the group.    Pastor Mgebroff was born in 1868 in the Ukraine of southern Russia.  He graduated from the Pilgermission St. Chrischona in Basel, Switzerland, and was sent to Texas as a missionary.   In this photo he would have been 29 years old.  His wife, Helene Kummel Mgebroff, was well educated in "music, voice and domestic science."  Their marriage date is September 14, 1895, so on the date of the photo they had been married for exactly one-and-one-half years.  The couple remained at St. Peter barely another year, as they left Walburg to take a call at another Texas church, in June, 1898.

The scholarly Pastor Mgebroff was a pre-eminent historian of the Lutheran Church in Texas, having researched the first 50 years of the Texas Synod, and written a comprehensive history published in 1902.   It is said that he had an extensive theological library, one of the best in Texas.   In 1919 he died suddenly at the age of 51, a great loss to the early Texas Lutheran Church.   

It is a marvel that the little community of Swiss people had such a knowledgeable and excellent resource of spiritual care during those years.   Our history might be different if they had not had this influence.     

Notes:    
Within the year 1997, the Pastor Mgebroff whom we visited at Clifton TX, had died.   
Originally this picture was in the collection of my grandmother Ida Krieg, then she passed it on to her daughter Anna (my Aunt Anna), whose Baptism Day is recorded here.  After Anna's death, Anna's son Reinhold and his wife Katherine inherited the pictures and album.   At a family reunion Katherine showed the album to me, and I recognized it as the same one Aunt Anna had showed me in 1977.   The snapshot was small, not more than 5 x 4 inches.    My husband Eddie Kolodziej took a picture of the snapshot.   
It is a tribute to the quality of these old photographs, that even when enlarged, the images, details, and faces are clear.    Eddie took the picture with an SLR camera.   I doubt these days that digital reproductions are capable of doing as well, being limited by pixels. 
Other people in the picture have been identified, however, I will not make those identifications yet.    It is enough to know that these people were a majority of the Swiss people who had immigrated to Georgetown, with their descendants.   It is fairly safe to say that most of the people in this picture (who are 20 years or older) were born in Switzerland.        
 

This information comes from a paper that I wrote in 1997, 100 years after the photograph was taken.

I used this picture in August, 2008 on the invitation to the Krieg, Treuthardt, Walther reunion in Georgetown, Texas at Christ Lutheran Church.   

14. Walburg, Texas, St. Peter Lutheran Church, 1890's

The Texas-Swiss community of the 1890’s and early 1900’s

The 100^th Anniversary book of

St. Peter Lutheran Church, Walburg TX

Another year, Roy (always on the lookout for clues for me) brought to my attention a particular church history book – the church where Gottlieb and Ida were married in 1895.    St. Peter Lutheran Church of Walburg TX had been established in 1889.  One hundred years later, in 1989, St. Peter Lutheran Church published a history book, to commemorate the church's 100^th anniversary.  Roy lent me his copy to read.   This marvelous history was an eye-opener!   

The records of the church revealed many events for the Treuthardt family.    All three Treuthardt children who immigrated to Texas, Will, Ida and Arnold, had been married at St. Peter Lutheran Church, and most of their children were baptized there.     Friedrich Treuthardt and his wife Anna were mentioned several times as Baptismal sponsors to various infants.   It was discovered that Friedrich had died on the 5^th wedding anniversary of Arnold and Louise Treuthardt.

One can perceive here the strong network among Swiss families.    Interrelationships among Treuthardts, Bouffards and Ischys leaped from the pages.   For instance, the Krieg children had two Aunt Louise Treuthardts.    They were identified here, one Louise Ischy married to Will, and the other Louise Bouffard married to Arnold.   Families and friends!   Names and dates!     With the information from the St. Peter history, my Treuthardt study was fortified with marriages, starting with Will Treuthardt and Louise Ischy’s marriage in 1891, baptisms, confirmations and deaths, including Friedrich's.   

Walburg is quite a distance from Georgetown, over ten miles.   How could it be that Georgetown residents were attached to the Walburg church?   

This question was partially addressed in three sources which I found then and in future years, in which obscure reference was made to “the Georgetown congregation.”   The Walburg church record tells that special services were held in Georgetown for awhile, lead first by Pastor Collmann (who confirmed Ida in 1893), and then by the scholarly and faithful Lutheran pastor John Mgebroff, who spoke German but also was fluent in French. 

[He is one of my favorite Lutheran missionaries to Texas!   He was especially influential in recording the Lutheran church history of Texas, 50 years after the first missionary was sent to Texas.   In 1997 I met and interviewed Pastor John Mgebroff’s son Pastor Fred Mgebroff at Clifton TX, shortly before Fred's death that same year.   The second Pastor Mgebroff identified his father and mother in Aunt Anna’s Baptism picture of 1897.]       

The three references to the Georgetown congregation that I found were as follows:

1)  a brief mention in the St. Peter history; 

2)  Ida’s confirmation certificate; 

3)  Georgetown listed as “a preaching station” in a 50-year history of the Lutheran church in Texas written by Pastor Mgebroff.    

This information seems to have been forgotten today. 

However, Marguerite Treuthardt Whitehead confirmed to me that the Lutherans met in Georgetown.   I believe they worshiped in the Presbyterian church basement.    When the Lutheran pastors no longer served Georgetown (probably after Pastor Mgebroff's short term), then there was no longer a Lutheran presence in Georgetown.    I would not overlook the possibility that the services were conducted in French some of the time, since so many of the Swiss-Texans spoke only French.   Pastor Mgebroff, from the Black Sea area of Europe and the son of a merchant, knew many languages.