Louisa Behrndt Week 64 Sepia Saturday (click here to go to the Sepia site)

Louise Behrndt and William Lemke

 This week I introduce Louise Behrndt, another of Charlie Behrndt's (Jerry's maternal Grandpa) sisters.  Louise  was born November 29, 1876 to Adelbert and Sophia, one of their eight surviving children and the third daughter.  Finding  her gorgeous wedding photo to William Lemke in about 1900  initiated my interesting journey accompanied by email exchanges with a generations times removed cousin of Jerry's whom he does not even know but who found me through Ancestry.com. She shares my passion for genealogy and history, so we have pieced information together and shared photos.  She'd not  seen this wedding photo and I'd not seen the newspaper clipping she had.   

Marriage to William for Louise meant moving over the hills and around the bend to his farm where they worked hard farming the land.  
They had two children William Ezra (1902-1983)  and Aleta, a daughter who died in infancy in 1905.  In 1906, when he was only 35, William was eating supper after working all day in the fields and choked on a prune pit.  The brief newspaper account has some gruesome  detail, along with the misspellings we have come to expect. Not only a sad death but freakish.  The  widow Louisa somehow kept the farm going for a time, likely with help from family, friends and hired hands but then moved back home with her parents.



Copied from Winona Daily Republican June 1906

 
In 1908 Louise  married her second husband,  a widower,  Albert Kletzke.  In my study of these families and this farm area, I note that it was common  for the same family names to reappear.  William Lemke's  ( Louise's first husband)  mother was Bertha Kletzke.  So far as we have been able to determine Albert was a distant cousin to William Lemke.  The life of the farmers centered around their  community  churches for social activities along with threshing and work parties.  So often when a spouse died there would be a distant relative of someone and I imagine the locals thrived on matching together widows and widowers.  

1917, About 1 year old,
 Charlotte

Albert and Louise had one daughter, Charlotte born in 1916.   Although Albert was quite well known in the area, and is mentioned prominently in an old  history of Houston County published in 1919, there are few  photos of  him but we had one, taken in 1923 at the gathering for her parents' golden wedding anniversary.  I've shared the Adelbert Behrndt's here  before, but here are Adelbert and Sophia again at their  50th amid two daughters Frances and Louise.  Albert Kletzke is the large man, with almost  head chopped off standing to the left in the back and Louise is standing on the far right, next to her sister Francis and  behind, her daughter, Charlotte.  There were many photos taken of the sisters and their husbands but I found none of Louise and Albert during this celebration  that lasted the entire weekend at the home farm.  The little girl standing in front to the left, Carol Jean Frey, is the daughter of Frances and her husband Philip who stands in the back between the two sisters.  Carol Jean looks like she is about done with the posing while little Charlotte  seems to be praying she keeps still.  
 

Besides being known as a prosperous farmer  Albert was the president of the small local telephone company and a share holder in the bank that was established in town. He was involved in many community activities and the local history book mentions him as a generous sort.  

 Louise survived Albert Kletzke, who died in 1933.  Here is Louise in 1930 with brother Charlie; she'd have been about 46. Her  once dark hair appears completely white or gray.  Louise lived to be 95, following the longevity of the Behrndts. 

We have an array of photos of Kletzke's daughter Charlotte who died in 1999 at age 82 and who married  Clarence Vanderohoe who died in 1992.  They had four daughters and two sons, some if not all of whom may be alive today.  Some may live in this area; I wonder what they know of their great grandmother Louise?    

Charlotte Kletzke Confirmation

As usual click on the title of this post, to go to the host Sepia Site and see what others have shared this week or what Alan has dug from arcives as our photo find of the week.

Charlie and Sorry

PS Afterthought, when I saw the long horn cattle Alan posted this Saturday I recalled this photo of Charlie Behrndt, with his "Sorry" goat; that was the goat's name after all....you can only imagine how longhorn cattle evoked this photo....