Rasmus? No, Robert.

One of my immigrant ancestors, my great-great grandfather, Rasmus Pedersen, was born on May 22, 1852, in Frejlev, a tiny village on the island of Lolland, Denmark. His father, Peder Olsen, was a blacksmith. Rasmus and his brothers were also trained to be blacksmiths. Starting with brother Hans in 1879, the entire family migrated to the United States by 1882, most of them settling near Waupaca, Wisconsin.

Rasmus married Karen Pedersen in April 1880 and they arrived in Racine, Wisconsin in time to be recorded in the 1880 US Census for that place. While living in Racine from 1880 to 1883, Rasmus worked as a blacksmith and the couple welcomed two daughters – Gertrude and Marie. Shortly after Marie's birth, the couple joined many other Danish immigrants, settling in Howard County, Nebraska. They helped establish the new village of Nysted, not far from the town of Dannebrog.

It was about this time that Rasmus adopted the more American-sounding name of Robert Petersen. He is recorded in the 1885 state census of Nebraska under that name, and he used it for the rest of his life.

The reason for this post is that I recently learned of another family member – also a descendant of my Danish blacksmith ancestor – who made the same name choice.

Robert and Karen's daughter, Marie, married C.A. Christensen in 1904. The eldest of their nine children was born in 1906 and named Oswald. Official documents record his name as Oswald Robert Christensen. However, at a recent family reunion, a member of his immediate family informed me that he was named Oswald Rasmus by his parents, and that he also chose to use Robert instead. We don't really know when or why he decided to make the change. Perhaps it was around the time of World War One, when many immigrants and children of immigrants preferred not to have "foreign" names. That is speculation on my part, however. "Uncle Os" was the eldest brother of my maternal grandfather, Clifford "Kip" Christensen.

Want to learn more?

• A biographical profile of Rasmus Pedersen (1852-1939) on Wikitree.com

• Danish island of Lolland article on Wikipedia.com

• Danish naming customs article on Familysearch.org

• Danish immigration article from the Museum of Danish America

• Dannebrog, Nebraska history article from the Nebraska Historical Society

Marie (Petersen) Christensen – United States Citizen or Not?

 

Marie (Petersen) and Christian A (C.A.) Christensen about the time of their marriage in 1904.

The United States is a "Nation of Immigrants," in a phrase popularized by a 1958 book written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy. From colonial times until now, waves of people have come to this land seeking to make a better life for themselves and their families. It must be acknowledged that these waves dispossessed the Native peoples who had lived in North America for thousands of years, and that hundreds of thousands of others were brought here against their wills to be enslaved.

Many Americans celebrate their immigrant ancestries and honor the contributions their forebears have made to building the country in which we live. The ugly side of the story is that each wave of immigrants were met with prejudice, stereotypes, and discriminatory laws and social treatment.

According to the editors of History.com

"Between 1880 and 1920, a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization, America received more than 20 million immigrants....The peak year for admission of new immigrants was 1907, when approximately 1.3 million people entered the country legally."

My great-grandparents, Marie (Petersen) Christensen, and her husband, Christian Andrew (C.A.) Christensen were part of this wave and found themselves caught up in the backlash.

Marie was born in Racine, Wisconsin, on 27 February 1883, to Danish immigrants Robert and Karen Petersen. Marie was granted citizenship by birthright, a privilege extended by the 14^th Amendment to all people born in the United States or its territories. C.A. Christensen was born in Denmark in 1881 and came as a child in 1888 to Wisconsin with his parents, Jens and Caroline. He would remain a Danish citizen until such time as he would complete the Naturalization process.

It is unlikely that Marie and C.A. gave much thought to the citizenship implications of their marriage in January 1904. I believe they were more focused on where they would live and how they would support the family they hoped to build together.

Although it may seem surprising today, there was a time in the United States when the citizenship of a married woman was tied to the citizenship of her husband. This principle was embodied in federal law when the U.S. Congress passed the Expatriation Act of 1907, which stated that "any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband."

According to Meg Hacker, of the U.S. National Archives:

If an American woman married a foreigner before 1907 and the married couple continued to reside in the United States, she did not, because of her marriage, cease to be an American citizen. The American woman remained a U.S. citizen even after her marriage to a non-U.S. citizen.

Even though Marie and C.A. were married in 1904, they apparently believed that she had lost her citizenship by marrying a Danish citizen. They must have been relieved when Congress passed the Cable Act of 1922 (approved 22 September 1922, it was also known as the Married Women's Citizenship Act or the Women's Citizenship Act). Both Marie and C.A. petitioned to become naturalized American citizens – in Marie's case, she petitioned to have her birthright citizenship restored – in August 1924.

The section of Marie's petition form where she was to declare her intention to become a citizen of the United States was crossed out...

and covered by the following typescript statement:

Marie's United States Citizenship was restored on 27 February 1925. Here is her Certificate of Naturalization:

C.A. was granted citizenship in February 1925 at the same time as Marie, but that's another story...

 Sources:

"Cable Act of 1922", Immigration History, a project of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society (2019); web page (https://immigrationhistory.org/item/cable-act/ : Accessed 30 May 2022).

Hacker, Meg, "When Saying "I Do" Meant Giving Up Your U.S. Citizenship", Prologue (Spring 2014), U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland; digital article (https://www.archives.gov/files/publications/prologue/2014/spring/citizenship.pdf : Accessed 29 May 2022).

History.com editors, "U.S. Immigration Before 1965", History, A&E Television Networks (10 September 2021);digital article (https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/u-s-immigration-before-1965 : Accessed 29 May 2022).

"Expatriation Act of 1907", Immigration History, a project of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society (2019); web page (https://immigrationhistory.org/item/an-act-in-reference-to-the-expatriation-of-citizens-and-their-protection-abroad/ : Accessed 30 May 2022).

“Naturalization Records, 1853-1943”, Waupaca County, Wisconsin, Clerk of Courts. Petitions, 1921-1925, Waupaca Series 16, Volume 9, Petition No. 879, Filed 2 August 1924, Marie Petersen Christensen; digital images, FamilySearch.org, “Wisconsin County Naturalization Records, 1807-1992”, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZXSV-NXN2 : 30 May 2022) image nos. 246-250. (Viewing the image of Marie's petition requires a free-of-charge FamilySearch.org account)

“Naturalization Records, 1853-1943”, Waupaca County, Wisconsin, Clerk of Courts. Petitions, 1921-1925, Waupaca Series 16, Volume 9, Petition No. 866, Filed 1 March 1924, Christian Andrew Christensen; digital images, FamilySearch.org, “Wisconsin County Naturalization Records, 1807-1992”, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZZMK-5Q2M : accessed 30 May 2022), image nos. 206-209. (Viewing the image of C.A.'s petition requires a free-of-charge FamilySearch.org account)

Wikipedia contributors, "Cable Act," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cable_Act&oldid=1084647817 (Accessed May 30, 2022).

Remembering William Duwe, 1884-1918

With Memorial Day 2022 coming soon, I wish to share the story of William Duwe, a great-great uncle who died fighting in the First World War. My thanks go out to cousin Robert Knuth, who prompted my research on William, the "Black Lions" of the 28th Infantry Regiment, and the battles of Cantigny and Soissons.

William Duwe was born 10 May 1884, in Forestville, Door County, Wisconsin to parents William and Catherine (Tagge) Duwe. William's parents came to Door County from the Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany. The senior William Duwe served in the American Civil War (32^nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment), was postmaster of Forestville, a farmer and saloon-keeper. Both of William's parents died before he reached his eighth birthday. As a young man, William worked winters as a lumberjack in the forests of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and as a farm laborer in Forestville during the growing season.

In the patriotic fervor following United States entry into the First World War (6 April 1917), the all-volunteer Company F, 5^th Regiment of the Wisconsin National Guard was formed in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. One reason the company was formed was so that young men from the area could "stick together" and represent Door County as a unit. Company F left Sturgeon Bay on 17 August 1917 for National Guard training at Camp Douglas, Juneau County, Wisconsin. William Duwe volunteered for Company F despite being two years older than the maximum draft age of 31.

The Wisconsin and Michigan National Guards were federalized by the War Department, ordered to Camp MacArthur near Waco, Texas, and combined to form the 32^nd ("Red Arrow") Division of the U.S. Army. In Texas, William and other men from Door County were assigned to the 128^th Infantry Regiment, 32^nd Infantry Division, and on 18 February 1918, they embarked at Hoboken, New Jersey, bound for Brest, France, disembarking there 6-7 March 1918.

Before the 32^nd Infantry Division had arrived in France, General Headquarters decided it would supply replacement troops to depleted units. When this order was carried out, the 128^th Infantry Regiment saw all of its privates, privates first class, and captains reassigned to the 1^st Infantry Division (The "Big Red One"). William Duwe was assigned to Company L, 3^rd Battalion, 28^th Infantry Regiment, 2^nd Infantry Brigade, 1^st Infantry Division. 7,000 of the 32^nd Infantry Division's 27,000 men were reassigned.

Transfer to the 1^st Division, 28^th Infantry Regiment was a fateful development for William Duwe, since it placed him in two actions that would prove to be milestones for the United States Army: the battles of Cantigny (28-30 May 1918) and of Soissons (18-22 July 1918).

Cantigny was the first offensive of the war commanded and executed by the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). The 28^th Infantry led the attack on German-held Cantigny, beginning at 5:45 AM, 28 May 1918. It attacked across no-man's land with three battalions abreast after a punishing early-morning artillery barrage of the German positions. The artillery shelling pummeled the village of Cantigny and the trenches immediately to its west, but left troops in trenches to the north relatively untouched. 

William's Company L, at the far left of the line of attack, suffered massive casualties when it advanced against these entrenched German troops, whose positions were masked by dust, smoke, and debris. 

Source: Davenport, Matthew J. First over there: the attack on Cantigny, America's first battle of World War I. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, 2015, p. 108.

Although German counter-attacks continued through the 29^th, the Americans consolidated their hold by 30 May 1918. For its courageous action leading the attack in this battle, the 28^th Infantry Regiment earned the nickname "The Black Lions of Cantigny."

The Battle of Soissons was part of a much larger Allied offensive intended to interrupt German railroad supply and communication lines. Allied success in this objective is viewed as a key turning point in the war, because German forces went on the defensive afterward and never regained the offensive during the remainder of the war.

 

Source: Coffman, Edward M. The war to end all wars: the American military experience in World War I. New York : Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 419.

The Soissons offensive, which began on the morning of 18 July 1918, was intended to surprise German forces. All communications were to be ultra-secret and troop movements took place under cover and at night. On the night of 17 July 1918, the men of the 1^st Division slogged through mud in a dark forest during a thunderstorm, each one holding onto the pack of the man ahead of him in order to maintain the line. Word of the impending attack was apparently leaked by captured or deserting members of the French 153^rd. Division. This led to German shelling of the 28^th Infantry's position (at a crossroads near Cutry) just before the scheduled time of the attack, which caused 25% casualties to William Duwe's unit.

The preemptive German artillery fire wounded or killed several Company L men from Door County., According to Frank Parkman of Sturgeon Bay, who was interviewed for an article in the Door County Advocate, the same high explosive shell that wounded him wounded Ed Severson of Ellison Bay and George Culligan of Algoma, and also killed Harry Erickson of Sister Bay. Parkman said that William Duwe was hit in the small of the back with shrapnel and was weakened by a three mile walk in search of a medical aid station.

William died of his wounds, probably at Base Hospital 7, near Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France, on 23 July 1918. He was first buried in the American section of St Symphorien Cemetery in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France. In 1920, William's remains were brought back to the United States and reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. William's grave is number 618, located in Section 18 of the cemetery. Information about William's grave site, including images of his headstone are viewable at the Arlington National Cemetery web site.

Sources:

Many sources were consulted to research the journeys taken by the men of Door County's volunteer "Company F" to the battlefields of France and Belgium. The Door County Library Newspaper Archive was especially valuable in documenting William's story. 

Specific articles that mentioned William Duwe's service, wounding, and death included:

• "William Duwe Dead," Door County Advocate, 27 September 1918, p. 1, col. 3

• "Dies of His Wounds : William Duwe Succumbs to Wounds Received in Battle July 23^rd : Was Member of Vol. Co. F," Door County News, 26 September 1918, p. 1, col. 1

• "Back from France: Frank Parkman, Company F Volunteer Returns Home Honorably Discharged," Door County Advocate, 17 January 1919, p. 1, col. 3

A good article on the history of Door County's volunteer Company F is:

• Jim Lundstrom, "War Comes to Door County: Remembering Hyper-patriotism and Anti-German Sentiments on 100th Anniversary of WWI," 14 November 2017, Door County Living, vol. 15(4), Winter 2017

A first-person account of Soissons was written as a student paper at the U.S. Army Infantry School by then-Captain, and later Commanding General of the 1st Infantry Division in the Second World War, Clarence Huebner:

• Huebner, Clarence. The Operations of the 28^th Infantry in the Aisne-Marne Offensive, July 17-23, 1918.

Books consulted included:

• Coffman, Edward M. The war to end all wars: the American military experience in World War I. New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.

• Davenport, Matthew J. First over there: the attack on Cantigny, America's first battle of World War I. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, 2015.

• Johnson, Douglas V. and Rolfe L. Hillman, Rolfe L. Soissons: 1918. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1999.

 
 

 

 
 

Os and Jennie Christensen on their wedding day, April 4, 1928

 

These photos show Oswald R Christensen (1906-1989) and Jennie Douglas Rait (1908-1994) on their wedding day, April 4, 1928. Os and Jennie farmed and made a family in Iola, Waupaca County, Wisconsin. Their home was the gathering place for their many siblings, nieces, nephews, friends and others. It was a place where people always felt welcome. Photos courtesy of Dana Christensen Zarling, their granddaughter.

Duwe Family Christmas 1947 in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin

This photo shows a Christmas gathering in 1947 of the extended family of John and Mayme Duwe. Shown from left to right, front row: Itola Duwe (nee Wolf), baby Barbara Duwe, Barney (surname unknown to me; husband of Itola's sister Delores), Floyd B Knuth (seated), Wallace R Tess (just behind Floyd's shoulder), Ronald R Duwe, Mary Ann "Mayme" Duwe (nee Dier), Nancy Tess, Signe "Cena" Dier (nee Jensen) - the family matriarch in dark dress at focal point of the grouping, William Knuth, Richard Knuth, and Leona Peterson (nee Duwe). back row: Donald M Duwe, "Auntie" (name unknown to me; possibly sister of Mayme Duwe), Mildred Tess (nee Duwe), Helen Knuth (nee Duwe), and Delores (nee Wolf), sister of Itola Duwe.

Who is this woman? (a genealogico-photographic detective story)

For many years, this photograph has been in our photo album collection of my wife Caroline's ancestors, but we were not sure who she was. We had no more than Caroline's mother's note on the back: “Floie Tidd's grandmother..?” Florence (“Floie”) Pidduck (nee Tidd), 1901 – 1976, was my wife's maternal grandmother. Her ancestors and relations have lived in England's County of Kent, south and east of Canterbury, for centuries. Having wondered about this for a long time, I set out to solve the puzzle.

If the lady in the photo is one of Floie's grandmothers, I knew who were the candidates: 1) maternal grandmother Susannah Finch (nee Cook), who was born in Dover, Kent (of the white cliffs) in 1836 and died in Faversham, Kent in 1872; or paternal grandmother Ann Worrell (nee Tidd), who was born in Teigh, Rutland in 1830, and died in Dover in 1909. The lady in the photograph appears to be in her 50s (55 plus or minus three years, I thought). If you look closely at the lower right corner of the photograph, you may jump to the same conclusion that I did (“It says Dover...must be Ann Worrell”). Well, maybe. If the woman IS Ann Worrell, and her age is, say 55, the photograph would have been taken sometime close to 1885. I knew that the next step toward solving this mystery was to date the photograph.

To my good fortune, after Googling “dating old English portrait photographs,” I found a treasure of a web site to help me date the photo of the lady. It was constructed by Robert Vaughan from his personal collection and is titled simply “Put a date on that old photograph.” Mr Vaughan guided me through the dating method so ably that I felt like Dr Watson following along three steps behind Sherlock Holmes. 

Here is the address of his invaluable web resource:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~victorianphotographs/family/index.htm

(Robert Vaughan, c. 2012)

Using Mr Vaughan's method, I was able to deduce that what we have is a carte-de-visite (square cut, thin card stock, 10.2 cm X 6.2 cm) from the 1860s. Despite the name, the carte-de-visite was not used as a calling card, but rather it was usually placed in the family photo album.

Next, Mr Vaughan puts us on the trail of the photographer. At the lower right corner of our lady's picture we see “Clark.” More information is found on the back side:

J Clark – 46 Snargate Street – DOVER

(Snargate? How Dickensian!)

With rising excitement, I opened Mr Vaughan's roster of Victorian English photographers, only to find no Clark from Dover in the list. Not giving up, Google leads me to an article about Dover's photographers on a wonderful web site about the town's history (https://doverhistorian.com) where I learn that:

“By 1862, Clark & Co opened up at 42, Townwall Street and James Clark opened a studio at 46 Snargate Street, staying for 7 years.”

The style of the card, and what we've learned about the photographer point to the 1860s. Mr Vaughan's web pages include a fascinating gallery of Victorian photographs arranged by year that gives further evidence that our lady's image was captured sometime between 1862 and 1865.– most definitely NOT during the 1880s. And that calls into question whether she can be either Susannah Finch OR Ann Worrell.

Now I had to do some real arithmetic, which has never been my strong suit. If we assume our photo was taken in 1864 and the lady is 55 years old, she would have been born in 1809 (long before the 1830s births of our previous candidates). With that in mind, I searched my family tree records in RootsMagic, a very useful software program for genealogists that has great search and reporting features. I searched for anyone in my tree born after 1802 and before 1815 who ever resided in Dover. 

From that search, only one person emerged as a likely subject of our mystery photograph: Susannah Cook (nee Belsey), who lived her entire life in Dover. She was born there in October 1805, to tailor William Belsey and his wife Susanna (nee Randall), and she died there in 1863. She married carpenter Robert Cook at the age of 23 and gave birth to five sons and one daughter (Susannah, “Floie's grandmother”). In the 1851 English Census, Susannah's occupation is given as “Matron Alms House.” English alms houses are charitable homes for the elderly or the poor. For a married woman to list any occupation on the census is notable, as most either replied with “None” or something like “Domestic duties” in that category.

The 1851 Census record gives another glimpse or two into the lives of the Cook family. The younger Susanna Cook, age 16 is listed as resident in the house next door as the servant of Surgeon Thomas Heritage, MRCS (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons – London). The residence is listed as a “dispensary;” an out-patient clinic for the poor that also dispensed medicines. It may have been associated with the alms houses for which Susannah Cook the elder served as matron. Finally, this historical tidbit from the 1851 Census report. The census taker lists a lodger of unknown name, age 50, who is described only as a “Frenchman.”

I cannot claim 100% certainty that the mystery woman in our family photograph is Susannah Cook (nee Belsey). However, one final observation weighs in favor of the identification: it is that this branch of Caroline's family seems most successfully to have saved and passed down many of the ancestral photographs that are preserved in our family album.

If you have read this far, I thank you for coming along on my search!

Sources:

1. "Put a date on that old photograph," Robert Vaughan, c. 2012, http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~victorianphotographs/family/index.htm

Accessed 16 MAY 2020 

2. "Dover's photographer's and the film festival," https://doverhistorian.com/2016/01/23/dovers-photographers-the-film-festival/ Posted 23 JAN 2016; Accessed 16 MAY 2020.

3. Ancestry.com. 1851 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Class: HO107; Piece: 1632; Folio: 361; Page: 36; GSU roll: 193534-193535

Finding Dedemiah: Tracing the life of a great-great-great grandmother through documents and DNA

When I became interested in genealogy research, my purpose was to chart the ancestry of my children. Thus, I have enjoyed learning about my wife's family background as well as my own. I am grateful for the work that my father-in-law, Peter W. Gilderson, has done on his forebears, as it laid the foundation for my own research. Any genealogy hobbyist knows the joy of the "the hunt," and that there is always another fact to track down or mystery to solve. One mystery in Peter's family tree was the identity of his great-great grandmother, Dedemiah, whose married surname was Bull, but whose birth surname was not known by him.

Peter Gilderson's family tree at the time I started researching in 2015

In my first try at researching the Bull family, I found information that hinted at fascinating stories of love, loss and struggle -- but I could not find Dedemiah. Particularly, I could not find anything about her origins or birth name. Imagine how many ways the rare given name "Dedemiah" might be mis-spelled in document indexes and transcriptions. Eventually, I found baptismal records for two girls with that name, born close to 1800 in the county of Sussex, which lies just to the south of London -- Dedemiah Driver, baptized in Brighton in 1805, and Dedemiah Allen, baptized in Withyham in 1804. But I could not find any document that would point strongly toward one or the other as the primary candidate to be my wife Caroline's great-great-great grandmother. I was at what genealogists call a "brick wall" in my research, so I moved on to something else.

I came back to this mystery in 2018, looking again for evidence that would reveal Dedemiah's surname and origins.The first clue came from the 1881 English Census for Barkingside, Essex (now part of London).

Now, there is no place in Sussex called "Wetham," but there is a village called "Withyham." This was the first piece of evidence that pointed toward Dedemiah Allen.

The second piece of evidence I found was that Thomas BULL married Didyma Allen in Tudely, Kent, England, on September 2, 1822. Tudely is northeast of Royal Tunbridge Wells, in Kent, and about ten miles from Withyham. It is about five miles from Speldhurst, Kent, where Thomas Bull was baptized on August 9, 1796. I was beginning to feel confident enough about Dedemiah's origins to type "Allen" into her surname space on my family tree.

The final piece of evidence came from a source that has only recently become easily available to family history researchers -- DNA testing. In 2017 and 2018, Caroline and her parents took autosomal DNA tests through Ancestry.com. The test results provide information about where in the world one's ancestors likely came from. Of more interest to the genealogist, Ancestry.com also provides a list of other DNA testers who may share common ancestors. When those DNA matches have also built family trees, it is sometimes possible to discover the links and to trace the generations back to common ancestors.

My father-in-law Peter's list of matches included a person in southern England who shares an amount of DNA with him that indicates a possibility of being distant (5th to 8th) cousins. Two people who are 5th cousins share great-great-great-great grandparents in common. Peter's DNA match has created an extensive family tree that shows they may be 5th cousins, sharing an Allen ancestor. I write that they MAY share an Allen ancestor because I have recently read a blog post titled Confirmation Bias in Genetic Genealogy: Beware! on the Who Are You Made Of? blog, which cautions against making premature conclusions about common ancestry from DNA matches. 

Whether Peter and his DNA match do indeed share a common ancestor, it seems to me that the documents, supplemented by DNA, point to Caroline's 3X great grandmother having been born Dedemiah Allen. This conclusion has led to the discovery of more information about the lives of Dedemiah and Thomas Bull, and of the Bull family of Speldhurst, Kent.

Sources:

1. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1881 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
Class: RG11; Piece: 1746; Folio: 53; Page: 29; GSU roll: 1341420

2. Confirmation Bias in Genetic Genealogy: Beware! 
https://whoareyoumadeof.com/blog/2018/08/27/confirmation-bias-in-genetic-genealogy-beware/  Posted 27 AUG 2018; Accessed 15 MAY 2020

Ethel May RADLOFF (nee DAVIES), age 96, remembers her parents

Eliza J. Davies (nee Jones), 1854 - 1904

John W. Davies, 1838 - 1930

In August, 1981, my great-aunts Wilma Shanklin (nee Radloff) and Adeline Ayres (nee Radloff), asked their mother, Ethel May Radloff (nee Davies) to sit down and tell some stories about her life while a tape recorder ran. They sent the tape to me -- having decided that I was the likeliest collector of family stories in the next generation (I guess they were right!).

Below is a selection from that recording where she remembers her father and mother. The recording -- digitized by me from the analog tape -- is quite muddy and hard to understand at some points. I include below a transcript containing my best guess at what she says. Despite the poor sound quality, I find it is a joy to hear the three of them again; a joy I wanted to share.

Ethel Radloff at 96 years remembers her parents

Transcript of a recording made in August 1981

Wilma (Radloff) Shanklin: Tell him about Grampa Davies homesteading that farm out there.

Ethel Radloff: Oh, My father came from Wales. He was a Welshman. And, he bought a homestead for [inaudible]. Then he gave it up and sold some of it to his brother. And it seemed that he never worked after those boys were big. [Adeline laughs] [Next section not clearly audible] Those five (?) boys.

Adeline (Radloff) Ayres: Your dad died at 92?

Ethel Radloff: My dad, he died at 92, and some months. And, my mother, she came from England. And my mother was English and Welsh. And she had ten children. Five boys and five girls. And, she died at a early age. I think she was about 48. I was 18 when my mother died. So, of course, I had to take over. 'Course I always could work, but you had to. [Adeline laughs] There was a baby every two or three years.

And, we had oxen. I remember the oxen. I remember [muddled] we'd feed 'em. And there'd be a flat (?) that'd come down. And I was lookin' at those oxen and that old flat (?) came down on my head. [Adeline and Wilma laugh in background] So maybe that's why I'm not very smart now. [All laugh] And, I and my sister Laura – my sister Laura is 85 – we're the only two left out of the ten children.

Davies homestead, Town of Rose, Waushara County, WI, ca 1905. 

L. to R. possibly, Alice (1890-1978), Edith (1888-1970), Ethel (1885-1990), and

John Walter Davies

 1920 plat map, Town of Rose, Waushara Co, Wisconsin

Published by W.W. Hixson Company

(see especially sections 17, 20, and 21 for Davies and relations ownership) 

Source: Wisconsin Historical Society, https://wisconsinhistory.org, Accessed 03/28/2020

 Children of John and Eliza Davies

L. to R.: Lillian, Albert, Ethel, Ward, Edith, Frank, Alice, Edwin, Laura

 Ethel May Davies, age 18, ca 1903-4

They "don't believe it is catching" -- how the 1880 Diphtheria outbreak in Shawano County, WI devastated the Miatke family

In April 1864, Martin and Anna Miatke left their home in the small village of Schmogrow-Fehrow (population about 1,100), near the city of Cottbus, in the northeast German State of Brandenburg. After spending several years living in Ontario, Canada, the family settled in the Town of Richmond, near Shawano, Wisconsin.

Here is a graphic that shows how my dad, Ronald Duwe, is descended from the Miatkes:

By June 26th, 1880, when they provided information to U.S. Census enumerator Joseph M. Rogers, their household consisted of Martin, Anna, and seven of their eight children. Here is the census record for the family at the time:

The children present in the home at the end of June were: Johanna (17), Augusta (15), Paul (13), Otto (11), Herman (9), Ernest (7), and Amelia (5). Oldest son, Martin (19), was not living with the family.

As Shawano doctor J.D.W. Heath reported to the Wisconsin State Board of Health at the end of the year, a deadly outbreak of diphtheria raged through the area during the second half of 1880: 

Since my appointment as health officer of this city (Shawano), I have taken active measures for preventing the spread of Diphtheria, which has lately made its appearance among us, by placing Shawano in the best possible sanitary condition. The disease, however, prevails to a considerable extent; in several cases all the children in a family, nursing babies included, have died; it is almost needless to say that these little victims had been living under the most unsanitary conditions.

Many here and many in the town of Richmond, where the mortality has been very great...shut their eyes to the facts and proclaim that they “don't believe that it is catching.” Another thing worthy of attention in considering the spread of the disease is, that in many instances where it breaks out in log-cabins or other one or two roomed structures, sick and well live and sleep in the same apartment, sometimes even in the same bed. In many of those dwellings it has proved extremely fatal, and what wonder?

The Miatke family was devastated. Records from their family burial plot indicate that Martin and Anna lost sons Paul, Otto, Herman, Ernest, and daughter Amelia to the disease. Half of their family was gone in the space of a few weeks. During that time, Anna was carrying Valeria, who was born on November 22, 1880.

Diphtheria is caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. The name of the disease is derived from the Greek diphthera. It means "leather hide," in reference to a thick gray substance, called a pseudomembrane, that may spread over nasal tissues, tonsils, larynx, and/or pharynx. 

The disease and its effects were described by ancient Greek and Roman writers. The bacterium was first observed in diphtheritic membranes by Klebs in 1883 and cultivated by Löffler in 1884. Antitoxin was invented in the late 19th century, and toxoid was developed in the 1920s.

According to a web resource published by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia:

The United States recorded a high of 206,000 cases of diphtheria in 1921, resulting in 15,520 deaths....Diphtheria is extremely rare in the United States today; between 2004 and 2011, no cases of diphtheria were reported to public health officials. One case was provisionally reported in 2012.

Why is diphtheria extremely rare in the United States today? Because a very high percentage of the U.S. population is vaccinated, causing what is known as "herd immunity." Those who choose not to be vaccinated are counting on herd immunity to protect them even as they risk weakening its protection for those who cannot be vaccinated.

Resources consulted:


Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: Diphtheria. Atkinson, W., Wolfe, S., Hamborsky, J., McIntyre, L., eds. 13th ed. Washington DC: Public Health Foundation, 2015. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/Pubs/pinkbook/downloads/dip.pdf. Accessed 16 November 2019.

College of Physicians of Philadelphia. "Diphtheria," in The History of Vaccines: an education resource of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/diphtheria. Last update 17 January 2018; Accessed 16 November 2019.

Sadarangan, Manish. Herd immunity: how does it work? University of Oxford, Department of Paediatrics, Oxford Vaccine Group. https://www.ovg.ox.ac.uk/news/herd-immunity-how-does-it-work. 26 April 2016; Accessed 16 November 2019. 

Wisconsin. State Board of Health. Annual report of the State Board of Health for the State of Wisconsin for the year ending 1880. Madison, Wis.: Wisconsin State Board of Health, 1881, Extracts from Special Correspondents, pages 128-130. [Full text accessible here: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005719980; Accessed on 15 November 2019.

Zereis, Cathe. Shawano County Genealogy. Cemeteries. Meatke-Miatke Family Plot. http://sites.rootsweb.com/~wishawa4/Cemeteries/39mietkerichmond/39meatke.htm. Last updated 2008; Accessed 16 November 2019.

Grandfather's War – Clifford A. “Kip” Christensen in World War II

November 21, 2019 is the 100^th anniversary of the birth of my maternal grandfather, Clifford Alvin “Kip” Christensen. This seems a good moment to recount what we know about his service in World War II. All who knew him agree that his service in Europe marked him profoundly. The horrors of war shook a young man who was intelligent and charismatic, but who had a dark turn of mind, and a weakness for drink that brought out a mean streak in his character. 

When my grandparents, Kip Christensen (1919-1972) and Audrey Radloff (1921-2000), married in Chicago in May 1941, the future must have seemed bright for them. A handsome couple with movie star looks, of which they were more than a little bit vain, they had come through the worst of the depression trusting that hard work would see them through.

Wedding photo, May 1941, Chicago, IL

Less than one year later, the young couple suffered the hard blow of a son born to live only one week. The infant Rodney died on April 16, 1942. Kip traveled by train from Chicago to Waupaca with a small white coffin on his lap, taking his son home to be buried.

Possibly looking for a fresh start, Kip and Audrey moved to Detroit, Michigan in the summer of 1942, along with thousands of others, as the city and its automobile industry transformed itself to become America's wartime manufacturing powerhouse. Ford Motor Company's gigantic Willow Run Plant alone would employ more than 40,000 at one time and would produce 8,865 heavy B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft by the end of the war. Tensions in the crowded city exploded into violence between blacks and whites for about 24 hours in June 1943, until federal troops enforced order. 

February, 1943, Detroit, MI

On November 29, 1943, Just over a week after Kip's twenty-fourth birthday, he reported to the Recruit Reception Center at Fort Sheridan in Lake Forest, IL. Just a few days later, he was shipped out to the Field Artillery Replacement Training Center at Camp Roberts, CA. He spent several months there, qualifying to be a Cook and to operate the Army's field artillery pieces.

Fort Sheridan, Lake Forest, IL, November, 1943

Camp Roberts, CA, 1944

Training as a Cook earned Kip a Technician, 4^th Class (or Tec-4) Rank, allowing him to be paid as – and addressed as – Sergeant. The Tec-4 patch (see inset in photo with overalls) has three chevrons and a letter “T”.

Artillery Training at Camp Roberts, CA, 1944

In April, 1944, Kip was assigned to the 97^th Infantry (Trident) Division, 365^th Field Artillery Battalion, and ordered to report to Fort Leonard Wood, MO by May 10, 1944.

Kip's assignment to the 97^th Infantry Division at Fort Leonard Wood, MO.

Here is the uniform shoulder patch of the 97^th Infantry Division – the Trident:

The 97^th Infantry Division crossed the submarine-infested Atlantic Ocean during the final week of February, 1945, arriving at Le Havre, France on the first day of March. After staging at Camp Lucky Strike, France, the Trident Division crossed into Germany on March 28, 1945, passing near the devastated town of Aachen.

The 97^th arrived in time to participate in one of the last major battles of the war in Europe – The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket. During the first two weeks of April, 1945, German Army Group B, with about 350,000 troops under the command of Field Marshal Walther Model, was encircled and defeated. Seventeen American divisions, including the 97^th, were part of this climactic effort.

 Trident Division Campaign Maps, April 1-18, 1945

With German forces dissolving between the 16^th and the 18^th of April – more than 300,000 German troops surrendered to become POWs – the battle of the Ruhr Pocket was over, and the 97^th Infantry Division was redeployed. The Trident Division was moved to the German-Czechoslovakian border to hold down the left flank of the U.S. Third Army as it moved south and east through Germany and Austria. The 97^th Division's first objective was to take the city of Cheb, Czechoslovakia.

As preparations for invading Czechoslovakia went forward, the Flossenburg concentration camp was discovered within the Division's sector of control. When troops of the 90^th Infantry Division discovered the camp on April 23, 1945, approximately 2,000 weak and ill prisoners remained in the camp, and unburied corpses lay on the ground. The Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel), which ran the camp to house political prisoners, Jews and others, had been evacuating the camp as U.S. Army forces closed in during April, 1945. They forced prisoners on a 125-mile death march south to a German-controlled camp near the village of Posing. 

According the U.S. Army's website history of the camp's liberation (link below):

The 97th Division performed many duties at the camp upon its liberation. They assisted the sick and dying, buried the dead, interviewed former prisoners and helped gather evidence against former camp officers and guards for the upcoming war crimes trials.

I do not know what duties my grandfather was called upon to perform. As a child, I was told or came to understand that he had taken part in the liberation of a German concentration camp, and that it gave him nightmares for the rest of his life.

One more quote from the U.S. Army website history of the liberation:

One eyewitness U.S. Soldier, Sgt. Harold C. Brandt, a veteran of the 11th Armored Division, who was on hand for the liberation of not just one but three of the camps, Flossenburg, Mauthausen, and Gusen, when queried many years after the war on his part in liberating them, stated that "it was just as bad or worse than depicted in the movies and stories about the Holocaust. . . . I can not describe it adequately. It was sickening. How can other men treat other men like this'"

With operations in Czechoslovakia between April 25 and May 7, 1945, the 97^th Infantry Division was involved in some of the final hostile actions to take place in the European Theater of war. The Division met uneven resistance – at times almost none at all; at times, quite determined – as it drove to take Cheb from April 26^th through 28^th, 1945 and Pilsen on May 6, 1945. On May 7, all forces were ordered to halt offensive actions in expectation of the acceptance of the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany's forces on May 8, 1945, known now as V-E Day (Victory in Europe). 

Trident Division campaign map – final days of war in Europe

Kip Christensen, Camp Old Gold, France, June, 1945

After a brief stay at Camp Old Gold, near Yerville, France, the 97^th Infantry Division sailed on the S.S. Brazil troopship. They arrived at Camp Shanks, near Nyack, NY on June 24, 1945 and were granted thirty-day furloughs. The Division was to be redeployed to the Pacific for the expected invasion of Japan, but the destruction of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic weapons led to Japan's surrender on September 2, 1945. Elements of the 97^th Infantry Division did participate in the occupation of Japan, but Kip Christensen was not among them. He was given an honorable discharge from Division Headquarters at Camp San Luis Obispo, CA on October 22, 1945. 

 

Military Service Milestones for Clifford A Christensen:

29 NOV 1943 – Enlistment – Recruit Reception Center, Fort Sheridan, Lake Forest, IL.

DEC 1943 – Field Artillery Replacement Training Center, Camp Roberts, CA for training on cook duties and in use of 105mm howitzer artillery.

MAY 1944 – Assigned to 97^th Infantry Division (Trident Division), 365^th Field Artillery Battalion, Special Services Battery, Fort Leonard Wood, MO.

JUL 1944 – Earmarked for assignment to the Pacific Theater, Division relocated to Camp San Luis Obispo, CA for training in amphibious landing operations.

SEP 1944 – Division relocated to Camp Cooke, CA for further amphibious training.

DEC 1944 – Heavy losses to American forces in the Battle of the Bulge cause Division to be reassigned to European Theater.

1 MAR 1945 – Division arrives Le Havre, France; proceeds to Camp Lucky Strike staging area.

28 MAR 1945 – Division crosses into Germany west of the city of Aachen.

1 APR – 18 APR 1945 – Battle of the Ruhr Pocket.

23 APR – 30 APR 1945 – Troops of the 90^th and 97^th Infantry Division liberate the Flossenburg Concentration Camp near the border of Germany and Czechoslovakia.

23 APR – 6 MAY 1945 – 97^th Infantry Division redeployed to German-Czechoslovakian border to hold left flank of U.S. Third Army's drive into southeastern Germany and Austria.

7 MAY 1945 – All American forces in Europe ordered to halt offensive action.

8 MAY 1945 – Allied forces accept unconditional surrender of its armed forces by Nazi Germany (Victory in Europe, or V-E Day).

Late MAY to mid-JUN, 1945 – Camp Old Gold, near Yerville, France.

24 JUN, 1945 – Division arrives at Camp Shanks, near Nyack, NY on the troopship S.S. Brazil; granted thirty-day furlough.

22 OCT 1945 – Honorable discharge; Camp San Luis Obispo, CA 

Internet resources consulted in researching this post: 

The 97th Infantry Division During World War II (http://www.97thdivision.com/historyp1.html) Accessed 9 NOV 2019.

Dabrowsky, John R., Colonel, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center. “U.S. Army Liberates Flossenburg Concentration Camp.” U.S. Army. https://www.army.mil/article/8441/us_army_liberates_flossenburg_concentration_camp. 11 APR 2008, Accessed 10 NOV 2019.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Encircling the Ruhr.” The Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/encircling-the-ruhr. Accessed on 9 NOV 2019.