Another update on Lena.......

Bingo!

I visited the archives in our local library first this morning. (That alone is an experience. The room is locked and they stop just short of having an armed guard accompany you).

On the Immanuel cemetery, I found a Caroline Schopp. “Lena” would be a logical nickname for Caroline. The dates of birth and death fit. She was born in 1877, so she would have been 11 during the “Blizzard of ‘88”. Her husband was an L. E. Schopp, and is not to be found in any Seward County cemetery. I also found out my great-grandfather, Frederick Bender, donated the land for the Immanuel cemetery, and his wife, my great-grandmother, was the first burial on the cemetery in 1891. Hers is the small gray stone.

I then went to the Immanuel cemetery and found stones for both Caroline Schopp and Wilhelmine Dargeloh right where the plat said they would be. Caroline’s stone is between Dargeloh and my maternal great-grandmother, Alora Bender. The stones of both Dargeloh and Schopp are obviously new and show signs of having been recently set, with fresh dirt around the bottoms. They were not there the last time I visited the cemetery a couple of years ago. (Dargeloh is spelled with an “o” on the stone, but the only way I’ve ever seen it spelled is with an “a”). Someone interested in both must have made a donation, as the original stones would have been similar to my great-grandmother’s, which dates to 1891.

On the landscape, the farmstead in the center is where my mother grew up. The one on the right, behind the pole, belonged to a great uncle, a brother of my grandfather.

This satisfies my own curiosity. If you have any other questions, I’ll try to answer them.

I could ramble on about family and neighborhood history, but I’ll leave that for another time. My late mother was a good writer, and she filled a large spiral notebook in longhand with anecdotes and stories of her early life and of the family in general including how and when she met my father. She titled it, “The Way Things Were”. I’ve always wanted to retype it on my computer and save it on a flashdrive. Maybe someday…..

That notebook sounds like a TREASURE. Keep it in a FIREPROOF lockbox. I sure wish my grandparents had done something like that. Never met either of them, as they passed before I was born. All I have is a couple pictures taken by my dad of a couple of crumpled, rumpled old people. Sure wish I could have known them, they must have had stories to tell.

Could you scan the pages into a computer, rather than taking the time and trouble to type it? That way, it would still have the character of her writing, mistakes, and all.

Scanning is a possibility.

We concentrate too much on our daily lives, and don't give enough thought to our ancestors and how their lives must have been, and their own dreams and aspirations.

My paternal great-grandmother gave birth to ten children and outlived five of them, my grandmother included. It's sobering to contemplate the heartache just that one woman must have gone through.

Hey Goose, is this the Lena that I read about in the book "the Children's Blizzard"? If so this was a fascinating read. Are you related to them? I have read that story several times.

One and the same!

The columnist, George Will, did a bit on her several years ago. That's how I got interested. I read the book, and then began trying to track down her grave. George Will mentioned her being buried in the Immanuel cemetary near Ruby, NE, which is only a couple miles from my house. I couldn't find the original gravestone, but it now appears someone replaced it. And as I said above, it turns out she's buried next to my maternal great-grandmother.

Actually, all Ruby consists of now is a grain elevator, a township hall where people in my precinct vote, and a house the elevator owns and rents to an employee. It was a going town a hundred years ago, situated on a mainline railroad.

GOOSE...you wrote: "She titled it, “The Way Things Were”. I’ve always wanted to retype it on my computer and save it on a flashdrive. Maybe someday….. "

I can't urge you enough to do that. I'm working on a family history update and that sort of thing would be absolutely priceless. Some day, your great grand children will appreciate the effort. Just do one or two each day....and you just might discover a side to your Mom that you didn't know existed. That's what I found when I cleaned out Dad's house. (Mom passed away 10 years before Dad)

Rick

Goose;

Thank you so much for the photos and the information. Those of us who have read the book feel we "know" the kids, a tribute to the writer's perserverence, although he missed that Ruby still exits. If I get out that way, maybe you can show me around and share a story or two. I secons that on writing that journal. Do it before it's too late.

Larry

The entire story fascinated me. I just happened to pick up the book at my local bookstore. I cannot imagine what those children went through that day. I don"t know what it is about "Lena"s" story that makes it so much more fascinating. I had even thought of driving to Ruby NE from Oklahoma just to see her gravesite. Thank you so much for posting these photos. I would like to read George Will"s article on her.

Family history is kind of my hobby as well. We had my uncle and my mom sit down here a couple of years ago with a camera and microphones and made DVD stories of their lives, just talking about their lives growing up and what they went through during the depression and dust bowl. Fascinating stuff.

Some really had a hard life back then. Found a cemetery next to a tower site I was working on. Found a set of markers where a lady had eight kids. Only one lived past the age of two.

Okie;

Those who stayed through the "Dust Bowl" and survived had their own share ofardship.

Larry

Thanks so much for sharing. I have a pretty good history of both sides of my family and am very thankful for it. Dad had a large box of family photos from about 100 years ago and I kept asking him to write on the back who those people were, he always said next winter I'll do it. A lot of winters came and went and he never did. My brother and I had to throw away a lot of family history when he died because of it. We had no idea who the people were. No way to know, Dad was 95 when he died and all the rest were long gone.

"Provenance" is what you must preserve therefore scan her writings to keep her original hand and not type them. As RayP[MI] suggested.