1- Gehling, Henry (1821-1874) & Adelaid Catherine (Kennebeck) (1826-1892)
Henry (Heinrich) Gehling was one of the first Gehlings of record to come to the United States. It is thought that he was born on 13 October 1821 (although his tombstone reads 1818) in the town of Averesch, Westphalia, in extreme northwestern Prussia. Then - as now - Averesch was a small farming community in the rolling lowlands near the border with Holland. In elevation it was a mere 164 feet above sea level. About three miles to the east lay the city of Ahaus. Today, Ahaus is a bustling city of more than 36,000 inhabitants. More than three dozen Gehlings are still listed in its telephone directory.
Henry's parents were Henry and Moria (Wilton) Gehling. He had a sister named Christina (b. 1825) and two younger brothers named Herman (b. 1822) and Bernard Herman (b. 1824). All belonged to the Roman Catholic faith, then the predominant religion in Westphalia.
It is thought that the younger Henry emigrated to America in 1852 and settled in Racine County, Wisconsin, near Burlington. Burlington was a small town situated at the confluence of the White and Fox rivers in the southeastern part of the state. The town had its beginnings in the mid-1830's, and by the early 1850's already contained a saw mill, a grist mill, a woolen mill, and - perhaps of greater importance to Henry - a Catholic Church (est. 1846) and a small contingent of German immigrants.
Liking what he found in Burlington, Henry made a hurried trip back to Westphalia to claim as his bride a young woman named Adelaid Kennebeck, who was five years his junior. Adelaid was the oldest child of Herman and Elizabeth Kennebeck. She had been born on April 22, 1826 in the town of Ahaus. She had a younger sister named Mary and two younger brothers named Bernard and John.
In 1854, Henry and Adelaid, returned to Racine County, Wisconsin, and were married in the town of Burlington on 19 September 1854 under the name of Gelling. The following year, not only Adelaid's aged parents, but her brothers and sister as well, joined them in Wisconsin. The Kennebecks, however, chose to settle further north in Buffalo County near the town of Waumandee.
In July of 1855, Adelaid gave birth to their first child, a girl named Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina lived only fourteen months. She was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Burlington. Nearly a year later, on 2 August 1857, Adelaid gave birth to a second daughter named Mary Catherine. By then, however, there was talk of a move further to the west. Before the end of the decade, Henry had joined a few friends on a walk to Iowa, where they staked out claims in Winneshiek County near the 1840's military reservation known as Fort Atkinson. After selecting their acreage, the men walked some seventy more miles south to Dubuque, where they paid the required $1.25 per acre.
Henry moved his family and his farm and household goods to northeastern Iowa in wagons, crossing the wide Mississippi by ferry boat. Initially, the nearest market was forty-two miles away at McGregor, but eventually two small towns named Calmar and Festina (known early on as "Big Springs") were established nearby. A church - Our Lady of Seven Dolors, later named St. Mary's - was built in Festina. It was the first Catholic Church in the area.
In later years, many of Henry's relatives emigrated from Westphalia and joined him in the Festina area. His younger brother, Herman Gehling, brought his wife Elizabeth (Hartman) and six children over in 1869. Herman was followed by the other brother, Bernard Herman and wife Elisabeth. and later by other relatives including Herman Gehling (b. 1803) and wife Elizabeth (Bornemann) and Margaret Geeling (b. 1815) and husband Gerhard Herman Huinker. Gerhard's first wife had been Henry's sister Christina, who - after giving birth to two children in the early 1840's - had passed away in Westphalia.
Surrounded by these relatives, Henry and Adelaid Gehling reared six children of their own on their Iowa farm: Mary (b. 1857 in Wisconsin), Margaret (b.1860), Herman (b.1861), Anna (b. 1863), Henry Jr.(b. 1866), and Bernard (b. 1868).
Henry and his family were listed in the 1860 U.S. Census under the name of "Geling." They were living in Washington Township and their post office was at nearby Fort Atkinson. Henry was 39 years old at the time, his wife Adelaid 34, with their two daughters Mary and Margaret, 3 years and 5 months respectively. Living with the family was a 17-year-old farm laborer named Henry Kinker. The value of the family farm was placed at $1,600, the value of their personal goods at $400.
By the time of the 1870 U.S. Census, the family name was still listed as "Geling," although the post office had been moved to the new town of Calmar. The value of the family farm remained the same: $1,600. The value of their personal goods had risen to $1,200. Henry was listed as 49 years of age, Adelaid 44, Mary 13, Margaret 10. There were four more additions to the family: Herman 8, Anna 6, Henry 4, and Bernard 1. Also living with the family was a 59-year-old farm laborer named Henry Miller. A school had been established in the new town of Festina, and the four oldest children had been enrolled there during the previous year.
Henry had already passed away by the time of the U.S. Census in June of 1880. It is thought that his death occurred on 24 May 1874. He was 53 years old. He was buried in Our Lady of Seven Dolors Cemetery at Festina, Iowa. In the 1880 Census the family name was written for the first time as "Gehling." Adelaid was 55 at the time, and keeping house. Herman 18 was doing the farming. Anna 15 was still at home. Henry Jr. 13 and little Bernard 10 were in school.
By the late 1880's most of the original Henry Gehling family had moved away from Winneshiek County. The two oldest girls were already married (Mary to Henry Hackfort, Margaret to Henry Brinks), and both had moved to Carroll County in western Iowa. Herman and his new wife Ella Timp followed them in 1888, as did Anna and her husband Herman Hackfort several years later as well as Barney and his wife Maria Timp (Ella's younger sister) by 1900. The other son, Henry Gehling, Jr. eventually moved to Pennington County, Minnesota. Their widowed mother, Adelaid, is thought to have remained on the family homestead the remainder of her life. She died on 22 March 1892 at the age of 76, and was buried beside her husband, Henry, in Our Lady of Seven Dolors Catholic Cemetery at Festina, Iowa.
(Research of Genevieve (Reinart) Gehling and Richard Gehling)
2a- Herman George Gehling (1861-1955)
Herman was born on a farm near Calmar in northeastern Iowa on 10 November 1861. He was the firstborn son of Henry and Adelaid Gehling. He had three sisters and two younger brothers.
Herman went to school in Festina, Iowa. Attending the same school was a little neighbor girl named Ella Timp, who lived just down the hill and across the creek from the Gehlings. When Ella came of age, Herman began courting her. They were married on 24 January 1888 in St. Mary's Catholic Church at Fort Atckinson. He was 26, she was 18. The first six months they lived with Herman's mother on the Gehling homestead, which Herman had probably been farming since the death of his father ten years earlier.
But Herman needed a place of his own. Two of his married sisters had moved to western Iowa, so Herman and Ella decided to visit them. When the newlyweds got off the train in Carroll County, they strolled the platform for a long time. They looked over the grassy hills and fertile soil, and decided then and there this would be their new home. Herman purchased 160 acres of rich black loam for $1.25 an acre. The farm was located on 71 South, one and a half miles from the town of Carroll. It boasted a two-room house, but no outbuildings. Their furniture came by train to Dedham, Iowa, the nearest railroad station. It was hauled by wagon over dirt roads to their new home. Here a daughter named Mary and a son named Henry were born to them.
In the early 1890's, Herman moved his growing family into a new farmhouse. Here Ella gave birth to their other eight children: Theodore, Agnes, Herman Jr., Anna, Joseph, William, Catherine, and Cecilia Ann. Herman continued to farm, but also took an active role in developing the town of Carroll. He is said to have been a stockholder in the first bank, to have opened the first sale barn, and to have served as both city councilman and president of the Farmers Grain and Lumber Company.
When he retired in 1924, Herman gave up farming and moved with his wife to a new house at 642 West Second Street, Carroll. After Ella's death 13 years later, Herman was joined in the house by his youngest daughter and her family. Herman himself became seriously ill in early 1955. He died at home one Sunday evening at 7:15 P.M. The date was 6 February. He was 93 years old. He had outlived all of his brothers and sisters but one. He was in turn survived by seven children, fifty-nine grandchildren and sixty great-grandchildren.
In his later years Herman had been a true family patriarch, revered by all and sought out for sage counsel and sound advice. When several of his grandchildren decided on a move from Carroll County to cheaper land then available in southern Minnesota, they went to old Herman with their doubts and reservations. "Go, by all means," he told them. "When I first came to Carroll there was no railroad through town, few roads, and fewer schools. Go and start your own community. You'll be glad you did."
(Research of Genevieve (Reinart) Gehling and Richard Gehling)
2b- Adeline "Ella" (Timp) Gehling (1869-1937)
Ella was the daughter of John Theodore Timp and Magdalena Christina Giesing. These two German immigrants had met and married in the town of Burlington, Racine County, Wisconsin. They had moved to Winneshiek County, Iowa in 1854. The Timps, Giesings and two other families had all moved there together and built a large log cabin, which was occupied by the four families for about three months. Then separate houses were built. Christina said that while all were living together they enjoyed it immensely, even though there were a total of three small babies in the log cabin including her own firstborn, Henry Theodore. By the time their eighth child, Ella, was born on 30 October, 1869, the Timps were already well established on their own farming claim along a creek in Washington Township, Winneshiek County, Iowa.
When Ella came of age, a neighbor named Herman Gehling began courting her. They were married on 24 January 1888 in St. Mary's Catholic Church at Fort Atckinson, Iowa. After their marriage, Herman and Ella spent the first six months living with Herman's mother. Two of his sisters lived in Carroll County in western Iowa. Herman and Ella visited them several times before deciding to settle in Carroll County also. They purchased 160 acres at $25 per acre on Hwy 71.
Carroll County had been organized in 1856. In the 1870's both the Iowa State Board of Immigration and the N.W. Railroad Co. were promoting settlement in the area. As a result, settlers from eastern Iowa and foreign immigrants were moving into the county.
Herman & Ella had their furniture sent by train to Dedham, which was the nearest railroad station to their new farm. With the help of their brothers-in-law, Henry Hackfort & Henry Brincks, they hauled the furniture to their first home. This was a two room house. Their first two children, Mary & Henry, were born there. Then Herman & Ella built a home on Hwy 71, which is two miles from Carroll on the west side of the road. That house was still standing in 1980, but had been added to. Other buildings had also been added. That home was where all the other children were born. They attended Sts. Peter & Paul Church and school in the town of Carroll. That church was later demolished and a new church (Holy Spirit) and school built.
Ella took sick and suffered a stroke in 1935. She recovered and was doing fairly well for a couple of years. But she relapsed in March of 1937, and died on 2 May 1937. Herman had purchased her a home in Carroll, which stood on the first corner north of the Raccoon river. The house later became the property of their youngest daughter and her husband, James Houlihan. Their original farm became the property of Herman Gehling, Jr.
(Much of this information comes from the genealogy work of Genevieve (Reinart) Gehling and Richard Gehling)
3a- Henry Bernard Gehling (1890-1958)
Henry was the first son born to Herman and Ella Gehling on their farm a mile and a half south of Carroll, Iowa. Henry was born at home on 30 May 1890. He was baptized at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Carroll and later attended classes at the parish school. He began to help around the farm almost as soon as he could walk. Before long he was feeding the chickens, gathering eggs, and doing the endless chores associated with farm life.
The story is told of Henry's teenage encounter with a band of thieving hobos. The hobos had roped one of his father's calves, and were leading it off to their rendezvous site under the Carroll railroad bridge. As soon as he saw what was happening, Henry mounted his horse and followed them to town. At the railroad bridge he demanded the animal's return. Despite being outnumbered a dozen to one, Henry somehow managed to deny the hobos their dinner and return the calf to his father's farm.
Gradually Henry took over much of the work on the family farm. Two years after coming of age he met and courted 19-year-old Regina Reiling of nearby Breda, Iowa. They were married on 2 September 1913. Father Gehling officiated at the ceremony, and a large dance followed. After the honeymoon, the newlyweds settled down on a farm one mile south of Carroll, which he was renting from his father. They stayed there for nearly a quarter of a century. All of their seven children were born there: Frances, Lawrence, Erwin, Clarence, Paul, Albert, and Virginia.
The 1930 Depression years were hard ones for Henry. Corn prices were low. Cattle feeding was no longer profitable. There was always plenty of food, but the bills kept mounting. In the late 1930's, Henry gave up the Gehling homestead and moved to a rental farm near Humbolt, Iowa. Several other rentals followed. Finally, in 1945, he bought an 80-acre farm just north of Gilmore City, Iowa. Here he stayed until ill health forced him to move to town.
Henry spent his retirement years driving the back roads of Iowa in an old pickup truck. He always rose at 4 A.M. After breakfast, he was off to check the crops and perhaps talk soil bank or hog prices with any farmer he met on the road. Afternoons he usually spent at the local sale barn swapping stories , checking weights, and looking over the livestock brought in. Mid-afternoon was nap time, followed by dinner and the inevitable pipeful of Prince Albert tobacco. By 7 or 8 P.M. he was ready for bed. Early to bed, early to rise - it was a schedule he had followed his whole life.
The end came one cold winter day in 1958. Henry had just returned from his daily rounds. He parked his truck, entered the house, and sat down in a chair near the doorway. He was tired, he said. Moments later he suffered a fatal heart attack. The date was December 7. Henry was buried in St. John's Cemetery, Gilmore City, Iowa. His grave rests on a hill overlooking the rich black farmland he loved so well.
(Memories of Richard Gehling, 1998)
3b- Regina Teresa (Reiling) Gehling (1892-1975)
Regina Teresa Reiling was the fifth child of Albert and Mary Teresa Reiling. She was born at home on the Reiling farm in Carroll County, Iowa, at 2 A.M. on Monday, October 23, 1893. A few days later she was baptized at St. Mary's Catholic Church in the nearby town of Mt. Carmel, Iowa.
When she came of age, Regina was enrolled in the Mt. Carmel grade school. There she spent the next eight school years. Life for her - as well as for all the Reiling children - revolved around daily chores at home, studies at school, and devotions at the parish church. The church had burned down three times: in 1883, again in 1892 - the year before Regina was born - and then again just after she was confirmed at the age of thirteen by the bishop from Sioux City. The fourth church was constructed entirely of brick. It was dedicated on 16 July 1908, the 40thh anniversary of the first Mass celebrated there.
Regina's formal education came to an end with her completion of the 8th grade. As a teenager, she was expected to work full time on the farm, with chores that ranged from washing and ironing to feeding the chickens and weeding the garden. When her older sister, Caroline, got married in early 1912, much of the care of her seven younger siblings fell squarely on the shoulders of 18-year-old Regina. But she did have time for a social life, even though it revolved mainly around visits to neighbors and occasional picnics or community dances. That same summer, Regina met a young man at a Mt. Carmel church picnic. They hit it off so well that he escorted her home in his one-horse buggy so that he might meet her parents.
The young man's name was Henry Gehling. He was the oldest son of Herman and Ella Gehling, who lived on a farm one mile and a half south of the town of Carroll, Iowa. When he and Regina first met, Henry was just twenty-two years of age, and already working a farm he had rented from his father on the first section west of Carroll. In between cultivating and harvesting and plowing, he seems to have sandwiched in several six-mile trips to the Reiling family farm during the summer and fall of 1912. On 5 January 1912, he wrote a short note, put a 2 cent stamp on the envelope, and addressed it to Regina Reiling Carroll, Iowa R.R. #2
"Dear Friend
"As I am through washing dishes, and it is only seven o'clock I will try and write a few lines. Don't see or hear anything, but the snow blowing and the clock ticking. Have been to Mass this forenoon, stopped at the folks for dinner, then came down here and caught the chickens that were out. Got all but one. Will try to get her after awhile.
"This will be kinda bad, for Tuesday night. Hope it will change by that time. Don't stay home on account of me. I would come if I had a bid, but you just go and let me know about it later on.
"Suppose you are still studying at that long letter I wrote last week. That was the first German letter I ever wrote. Well, good night.
"With best regards I remain yours. Hy. Gehling"
A year and eight months later, Henry and Regina were married at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Mt. Carmel. The date was 2 September 1913. Family members from all over Carroll County gathered for the ceremony, which was presided over by Henry's cousin, Father John Gehling. Following the ceremony, all were invited to a large reception and dance.
The newlyweds settled down on the rental farm where Henry had been batching the previous two years. There - over the next dozen and a half years - Regina gave birth to seven children: Frances Mary (1914), Lawrence Albert (1916), Erwin Henry (1918), Clarence Joseph (1920), Paul Anton (1924), Albert Frank (1926), Virginia Mae (1931).
Henry farmed the land with horses and with the help of his five sons as they grew older, and was soon growing bumper crops in the fertile Iowa soil. During the early 1920's he managed to have a new barn and silo built, and began to feed several dozen head of beef cattle. But the good times began to unravel during the Great Depression of the 1930's. Corn prices were low. Cattle feeding was no longer profitable. There was always plenty to eat, but the bills kept mounting.
Unable to cope, Henry held a farm sale on 21 March 1938, selling off all his machinery and work animals. The farm was returned to Henry's father, Herman Gehling, who in turn re-rented it to Regina's oldest daughter, Frances, and her husband, Leo Wendl.
Henry, meanwhile, decided on a move to California, hoping for some relief from his continuing asthma problem. In his absence, Regina moved herself and the five children still at home back to the Reiling farm near Mt. Carmel. Her father, Albert, had died of cancer two years earlier; her mother, Mary Teresa, had broken her hip in February of 1938, and now on her return home from four months of hospitalization, needed someone to care for her. The move worked out to the benefit of everyone concerned.
In September, Henry returned from California to help Regina celebrate their 25th Wedding Anniversary. But Regina was not yet quite ready to leave the Reiling farm. She remained at her mother's until the last of February, 1939. Then in early June of 1940, she and Henry took what she ever afterward called "a second honeymoon" to Humbolt, Iowa, where they rented the Alpers' farm. They stayed on that farm for nine months before moving to the neighboring town of Clare. A few months before the outbreak of the Second World War, they moved out of Clare to a series of nearby rental farms.
World War II separated Regina's children as nothing had before. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, her three oldest sons - Lawrence, Erwin and Clarence - were registered with the Selective Service as required by law. Lawrence was one of the first to be called up for the draft in Carroll County, but because he already had three children and was a farmer (considered an essential occupation) he was excused. Clarence was driving a gasoline truck in Carroll, and was soon classified as 1-A.
After Clarence received his draft notice in early 1942, his brothers Erwin and Paul left for Washington state to work in the government shipyards at Seattle. Erwin received his draft notice in April of 1943 while working as a millwright. Soon after Paul returned to Iowa to work on his older sister's rental farm near Carroll. He was nineteen going on twenty when he decided to join the Navy. His mother, Regina, came down from Clare to see him off at the train station in Carroll. She was as surprised as anyone to read in his first letter home that he had instead been inducted into the Marine Corps.
After her third son entered the service, Regina hung a banner with three blue stars in the front window of her Iowa home. She hoped that none would have to be replaced by a gold star, a sure sign that he had died in battle. In 1944, Regina made a list detailing where all her children were during the month of September: "Frances - 29 - Carroll, Iowa. Lawrence - 28 - Gilmore City, Iowa. Erwin - 26 - Fort Knox, Kentucky. Clarence - 24 - North Africa. Paul - 20 - Parris Island, South Carolina. Albert - 17 - Carroll, Iowa. Virginia - 13 - Clare, Iowa - Dooley Farm"
Clarence had been inducted into the Army Air Corps, and trained to prepare cargo planes for military missions. He had been sent overseas in March of 1944, first to North Africa, later to the Persian Gulf. He lived in barracks with blackouts every night, and worked in hangers preparing C-46's, C-47's and C-54's for military flights.
Erwin went into the Army Trucking Company, where he drove supply and mail trucks. He was sent to France after D-Day to aid in supplying American forces with food and ammunition. He was present for the V-E Day festivities in Paris at the end of the war in Europe.
Paul had intended to join the Navy, but ended up in the Marine 1st Division that was sent overseas for the final land battle of the war - the battle for the Japanese island of Okinawa. Once on the island, Paul was struck in the back by a Japanese mortar shell and treated in a hospital. He fully recovered from his wound, returned to duty, and was awarded the Purple Heart.
By the time the last of their three sons had returned from the service at the end of the war, Henry and Regina had bought a farm of their own just a half mile north of the little town of Gilmore City, Iowa. They moved in the first of March, 1945. The farm consisted of a mere eighty acres, but it was a focal point for family gatherings once most of the Gehling children had married and moved onto farms in the surrounding area. Regina reveled in having most of her children and grandchildren living nearby again, and planned birthday parties and holiday festivities for every occasion.
When Henry's health began to fail him in the early 1950's, he and Regina rented out their farm to their youngest son, Albert, and moved into the nearby town of Gilmore City. Their property was near the railroad tracks on the northwestern edge of town. It contained a large, two-story frame house, a small barn, and a wonderful old weeping willow tree, with branches so long that they touched the ground. The interior branches had been cut out to form a circular room that provided both shade and privacy.
Henry died of a heart attack on 7 December 1858. It was the 17th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the reason for the U.S. entry into world War II. Henry was buried high on a hill in St. John's Catholic Cemetery, one-half mile outside the town of Gilmore City, Iowa.
A few months later, Regina was prevailed upon to sell her two-story home, and move into a smaller house on the south side of Gilmore City, near the home of her oldest son, Lawrence. Her house was just across the street from St. John's Catholic School, where several of her grandchildren attended classes. Regina spent the next seventeen years tending her flower garden, baking her delicious anise cookies, and enjoying her many children and grandchildren. She died on the 11th of March 1975, and was buried beside her husband, Henry, in St. John's Cemetery.
(Sources: Family Diary of Clara Reiling; genealogy work of Janice Wendl and Richard Gehling)
4a- Lawrence Albert Gehling (1916-1982)
Lawrence was born on the family farm near Carroll, Iowa, on 9 May 1916. He was the firstborn son of Henry and Regina Gehling. While still a baby, Lawrence was infected with a strain of the post-war influenza then sweeping the country. For a time his life was despaired of. Unlike several of the neighbor children, however, Lawrence survived the epidemic and was soon taking an active interest in the family farm. It is said that as a five-year-old he once substituted for his father, showing some construction workers the exact site and dimensions of the barn they had been hired to build.
For a time, Lawrence attended a small country school, always making the two-mile trip on horseback. Later, he and his brother, Erwin, attended an academy in town, which was run by Catholic nuns. His studies came to an end after eighth grade. For the next six years he worked alongside his father and brothers on the farm. At age 19, he and two friends - Lawrence Siepker and Eddie Klocke - decided it was time to see the country. The year was 1936, a Depression year, and money was hard to come by. But the trio confidently packed their belongings into an old car and headed west. They reached Kansas just as the wheat harvest was beginning. From there they traveled on to Arizona, rode mules down into the Grand Canyon, then went to the California orchards for a winter of orange picking.
Lawrence was back in Iowa in time for spring planting. But his stay on the family farm was short-lived. He soon met a 17-year-old girl from Halbur, Iowa, named Genevieve Reinart. The two were married on 28 October 1937, and after the wedding ceremony went for a short honeymoon to Atlantic, Iowa. On their way home they were run into the ditch by a road grader.
For the first ten years of their married life, the newlyweds moved from farm to farm across western Iowa. Sometimes Lawrence worked for wages, sometimes he rented the farm outright. His first job on the George Wernimont farm near Auburn, Iowa, paid only $30 a month, but did include three dozen eggs a week, one-half hog a year, the milk from one cow and part of the fruit from a large orchard. The hours were long - usually 5 A.M. to 9 P.M. The work was hard - farming with mules, slopping hogs, caring for over 400 head of cattle in the feedlot. After acquiring some livestock and equipment, Lawrence began renting farms on his own, beginning with the Billy Bedford farm northeast of Willey, Iowa, and ending with the Leo Wendl farms near Gilmore City, Iowa.
In the fall of 1947, Lawrence and Genevieve quit farming altogether. They sold off all their machinery and bought a house in Gilmore City. Lawrence began hauling limestone. By then his growing family numbered six children (Lois, Richard, Connie, Bonnie, Tom and Charlie). Before the last of his children left home, Lawrence had become a jack-of-all-trades, working at various times as a truck driver, an electrician, a mechanic, a welder, a lathe operator, and a city marshal. In his later years he also ran the gas, water, and sewage departments for the town of Gilmore City.
Lawrence was a restless man in many respects. Always a hard worker, he found it difficult to sit back and relax. At home, after a long day at his job, he would invariably go out into his tool shed and work far into the night. His hands were a testament to his lifestyle - large, strong hands, calloused and rough, covered with the nicks and bruises of a lifetime of labor.
Much of Lawrence's relaxation came from the animals with which he surrounded himself. He had originally farmed with horses and mules, and always had a family dog around the house. In later life he acquired a couple of saddle horses and a goat. The horses he rode, the goat he hitched to a cart of his own manufacture. The goat cart worked so well, he considered building a small stagecoach to be pulled by six Shetland ponies. The ponies were easy to come by, but the stagecoach never left the drawing board. For a time he gave home to a mischievous pet raccoon, then to a de-scented though still smelly skunk. His last menagerie consisted of seven Siberian Huskies. These he hitched to a dog sled and mushed over the wintry Iowa countryside.
In the winter of 1981-82 Lawrence was diagnosed with lung cancer. For six months he fought the cancer with every means available, regularly making the long trip to Iowa City for the drugs of chemotherapy. But try as he might, this strong man - who had rarely been sick a day in his life - gradually succumbed to the ravages of the disease. Lawrence died surrounded by family on 19 August 1982. He was 66 years old.
(Memories of Richard Gehling, 1998)
4b- Genevieve Mary (Reinart) Gehling (1920-2005)
Genevieve was the fifth and last daughter of Peter and Mary Reinart. She was born on 10 February 1920 on a farm four and a half miles southeast of Halbur, Iowa.
When she was eight years old her parents moved the family to a house high on the hill overlooking Halbur. She grew up jumping rope, playing ball, and exercising on a trapeze. The trapeze was made out of a broom handle, and was hung from chains. There she spent many a summer day, hanging upside down and swinging back and forth. During the school year she attended St. Augustine's Catholic School in Halbur, and had lots of friends.
St. Nicholas used to come to her house every December 6th. Sometimes there would be two who came: St. Nickolas, dressed in red and passing out goodies, and Black Pete, carrying a handful of sticks for any kids who had misbehaved. Jen always received a bag of candy, fruit, and nuts. Before receiving them, however, she had to kneel down on the living room floor and pray.
As a young girl, Gen had several pets - a parakeet that used to nibble on her dad's ear, ducks, pigeons, and a dog named "Nigger." The pigeons she raised usually ended up in her mother's oven or in the weekday soup. The dog named Nigger was a little Boston Terrier. It was prone to fits, which made it try to climb walls. The girls of the family would immediately climb up on chairs when the fits came; only Grandpa Hoffert remained seated, but he always grabbed a coal shovel for protection.
When Genevieve was nine years old she caught whooping cough, then scarlet fever. Her house was quarantined for six weeks. The next year she got blood poisoning in her hand.
After graduating from 8th grade, Genevieve hoped to attend high school in nearby Carroll, but was denied entrance by her parents, who reminded her that none of her older sisters had enjoyed such an opportunity. So instead of attending school, she spent her late teen years working on the farms of her married sisters, slopping hogs, milking cows, and feeding horses until she was seventeen.
In 1937 Genevieve met and married Lawrence Gehling. She wore a black dress to the marriage ceremony. After a day-long honeymoon, the young couple moved in with her parents for a few months, then into a shared house on the George Wernimont farm near Auburn, Iowa. Their early years of marriage were spent moving from farm to farm and from small town to small town in western Iowa.
Genevieve gave birth to seven children over the years: Lois, Richard, Donald, Constance, Bonita, Thomas, and Charles. Before the last of her children left home, Genevieve began working as a cleaning lady for various families around Gilmore City, Iowa. She later worked at a couple of retirement homes in Pocahontas, Iowa.
Even while engaged in these many jobs outside the home, Gen found time to become interested in family genealogy. She provided information to Mary Anne Rhinehart for her Reinart Family History, which was published in 1980. She also wrote scores of letters to the descendants of Herman Gehling, seeking names and dates for her own work on the First Gehlings in America. Finally, she wrote down the memories of her girlhood, of Reinart family ancestors, and of her married life. These memories contain a vast amount of information, which will undoubtedly be treasured by generations of her future descendants.
After the death of her husband Lawrence in 1982, Genevieve moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to be near her children. She took up landscape painting and began piecing together quilts and embroidering pillowcases.
Genevieve spent the last four years of her life at the Cedarwood Health Care Center in Colorado Springs, where she continued to work on her many crafts until her death on 16 February 2005. She had just celebrated her 85th birthday the previous week. Her ashes were taken back to Iowa to be buried next to her husband Lawrence at St. John's Cemetery near Gilmore City, Iowa.
(Memories of Richard Gehling, 1998)
5- Timp, John Theodore (1831-1900) &
Magdalena Christina (Giesing) (1834-1886)
John Theodore Timp was born on 19 January 1830 in Germany. After emigrating to central Wisconsin with his parents, he met and married German-born Magdalena Christina Giesing, the 18-year-old daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Giesing. The wedding took place in 1852 at the little town of Burlington, Racine County, Wisconsin.
Two years later, Theodore and Christina Timp joined her parents and two other Burlington families in a move across the Mississippi River to Winneshiek County in northeastern Iowa. The four families shared a large log cabin during their first three months in Iowa. Then separate houses were built. Christina said that while all were living together they had the time of their lives. There were a total of three small babies in the log cabin, including their own son named Henry, who had been born in late October of 1853.
By the time their second son, John, was born in March of 1855, the Timps were already well established on their own farming claim along a creek in Washington Township, not too far distant from the later town of Festina. Over the following twenty years, Christina gave birth to eight more children: Joseph, William, Peter, Anna, Caroline, Adeline, Mary Ann and Bernard.
Christina passed away on 9 April 1886. Theodore survived her by fourteen years and four days. Both were buried in St. Francis DeSales Cemetery, Ossian, Iowa. Their identities were forever preserved in the 1850 US Census of Burlington, Racine County, Wisconsin, in the 1860 & 1880 US Census of Washington Township, Winneshiek County, Iowa, and in the collective memories of their numerous descendants.
(Sources: research of Genevieve (Reinart) Gehling and Richard Gehling)
6- Schirck, Frank Albert (1806-1881) &
Mary Ann (Monk) (1812-1886)
Frank Joseph Schirck is said to have been a descendant of the old Schurch Family, which originated in Bern, Switzerland. The ancestral Schurchs seems to have been members of the Mennonites, a liberal group, who broke away from the Amish during the 1600's. Persecuted in Switzerland, the family settled in the province of Alsace, a German-French area that came under the rule of France in the mid-17th century.
Emigration of family members to the United States began in the early 1700's. A favorite destination seems to have been the Pennsylvania Dutch settlements in Lancaster and Allegheny counties, Pennsylvania. During the emigration, the old family name of Schurch (which is still used in Switzerland today) was variously misspelled by clerks at the ports of arrival in more than 70 different ways, among them Sharck, Scherg, Scherk, Scherrich, Schirck, etc.
Frank Joseph Schirck himself was born about 1806 in the province of Alsace, France. Nothing is known of his early childhood or adolescence or even when he first decided to emigrate to the United States. Family stories, as recorded by his granddaughter Clara Reiling, indicate that Frank "crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a sailboat. The sails were wrecked by a storm, and the boat drifted about for 5 months, til finally it was found by the crew of another boat. The people were nearly starved, and Grandfather made a promise to be always satisfied with any kind of food he would later have in America."
After his arrival in the United States, the movements of Frank Schirck were tracked by the census takers.
Frank Schirck, age 30-40, was listed in the 1840 U.S. Census as a "head of family." He was living in Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania. He was married, with two children (Henry & Mary Ann) both born in Pennsylvania. Also in the household was an older man, 40-50, probably a German named Joseph Camp, who later moved with him to Ohio.
The name of Frank's wife was not listed in the 1840 census, but she was in fact a local girl named Mary Ann Monk, who was seven years his junior. It is not known whether Frank joined the Catholic Church on the occasion of his marriage in 1837, or whether his family had converted sometime earlier. In either case, both Frank and Mary Ann seem to have been practicing Roman Catholics throughout their married life.
Sometime during the mid-1840's, the Shirck family made a major move to the west. In the 1850 U.S. Census, Frank Schirck was listed as a 44-year-old farmer living in Harrison Township, Carroll County, Ohio. With him were his 37-year-old wife Mary Ann, and their seven children: Henry aged 12, Mary Ann aged 10, Francis aged 9, Rose aged 7, Virginia (Regina) aged 6, John aged 4, and Victor aged 1. The first five had been born in Pennsylvania, the last two in eastern Ohio. Also in the same household was the enigmatic Joseph Camp aged 61.
Ten year later, the 1860 U.S. Census still listed Frank Schirck as a farmer in Carroll County, Ohio. His family remained much the same, but with the subtraction (possibly through death) of Joseph Camp and the addition of son Victor aged 8.
By the time of the 1870 U.S. Census, Frank was 64 years of age, and the landlord of a hotel in Mansfield, Ohio. His wife Mary Ann, at age 57, supervised the cleaning and cooking. Still at home was their oldest son Henry, a member of the legislature, as well as daughter Rosa Philomena (26) and youngest son Victor (19). Added to the family were Mary Ann's 91-year-old mother, Magdalena Monk, and the three Reiling grandchildren: Joseph (12), Henry (10), and Frank Albert (8). Also living at the hotel were two teen aged girls, who worked as in-house domestics, and thirteen boarders: a carpenter, a painter, a blacksmith, three laborers, and five stonemasons, one of whom had his wife and son with him.
The Reiling grandchildren had been adopted by Frank and Mary Ann Schirck following the untimely deaths of their parents, Salomon and Mary Ann Reiling. Along with the three grandsons came the dream of moving to a new life in western Iowa. In 1871, Frank and Mary Ann Schirck sold their hotel and bought 100 acres of land very near the newly-founded town of Mt. Carmel in Section 22, Kniest Township, Carroll County, Iowa.
Kniest Township was a German colony founded by Lambert Kniest and Heinrich Baumhover. In 1868 the two entrepreneurs had purchased land some five miles northwest of the town of Carroll, Iowa, from the Iowa Railroad Land Company, with the understanding that within a year several dozen farm families would settle the township. All the families were to be of German or Dutch descent, devout Catholics, and good Democrats.
The first settlers arrived from Dubuque in the spring of 1869. By mid-July, they had founded the town of Mt. Carmel and built a 24'x40' frame church, with a nearby cottage to serve as priest's residence. By the time the Schircks arrived in 1871, the small frontier settlement contained no more than a few rough structures surrounding the little church, but the population of the township as a whole had risen to nearly 300 individuals contained in some sixty farm families. The farms themselves were small, generally no more than eighty acres. Price per acre was $4 for the early settlers, from $5-$10 for later arrivals. Until the coming of the railroad in 1874, most of the farmers raised only enough crops to satisfy their own household needs.
Kniest township remained a frontier settlement for several years after the arrival of Frank Schirck and his family. In the early 1870's there were still few roads or trees, nothing but miles of flat, tall-grass prairie filled with watery swamps and miry sloughs. Prairie fires ravaged the land in summer, snowstorms in winter. Just the year before their arrival, a seven-year-old girl of the Dewald family had been burned to death in one fast-moving fire. And the following winter, four German emigrants had perished in a raging blizzard twelve miles south of Mt. Carmel.
But the Schircks were determined to make their last home a happy one. Although of French origin instead of German, they did satisfy two of the three basic requirements by being both Democrats and Catholics. They immediately joined the Catholic Church in Mt. Carmel, and remained involved in church affairs during the construction of 1874 when the building was doubled in size.
In the 1880 U.S. Census, Frank Schirck was listed as being 74 years of age, his wife Mary Ann as 67. He remained active as a farmer in Kniest Township, she keeping house. Still living with them were their 30-year-old daughter Philomena and their 18-year-old grandson (Frank) Albert Reiling.
Frank Joseph Schirck died the following year, just as the original wooden church in Mt. Carmel was being replaced by a new brick structure, which was surmounted by a large gold cross that was visible for miles around. Frank was buried in the nearby Mt. Carmel Cemetery under a tall, white tombstone. Carved on one side were the simple words: "F.J. Schirck Died Aug 21 1881 Aged 75." His wife Mary Ann followed him in death five years later. She was buried beside him, and the other side of the tombstone was carved to read: "Mary A. Wife of F.J. Schirck Died June 5, 1886 Aged 74."
Years later, a new tombstone was placed over the graves, and the original stone was leaned against a nearby tree. On this new stone were listed the names not only of Frank and Mary Ann Schirck, but also the names of their daughters - Rosa P. (Philomena) and Regina - and Regina's son Albert E. Bechler, all of whom were buried in the same lot.
Frank Schirck's generosity, high moral standards, and dedication to family values became bywords among his many descendants. His granddaughter, Regina Reiling, is said to have encouraged any of her childrens' accomplishments with the words: "That's the Schirck in you coming out."
Another of Frank Schirck's granddaughters, Clara Reiling, gave an accounting of the many Schirck children in her family diary:
"The sons had different occupations. Henry had been a school teacher. Frank was a soldier. Vic was a farmer, first on Olerich farm in Kniest twp, then he moved East of Carroll, where he owned a nice farm and lived there till he died. He was elected county supervisor on the day he died.
"John Schirck about the year 1870 was a cowboy working for the Creighton Brothers business men at Omaha. He helped drive cattle from Mexico to Omaha. Once there was a herd of 1000 cattle got for $1. 00 a head. The men worked 3 days to get them into the Rio Grande River to swim across. It took several months to bring them to Omaha. Nights some men would watch the herd while others camped a few miles away. One time the cattle had a stampede and overran the camp destroying everything even cook kettles. The men had escaped on their horses.
"Mary Ann Schirck and her husband Salomon Frank Reiling both died in Ohio and their sons adopted by the Schirck grandparents and brought to Iowa.
"Philomena Schirck lived a maiden life, had a dress-making business in Carroll. She is buried with her parents at Mt. Carmel.
"Regina Schirck and her husband Lou Bechler first lived in Carroll. Later they moved to Omaha, where the children were educated and grew up.
"Leonard Schirck perished with the great earthquake in San Francisco.
"John Schirck later in life married, had no children, and died in California.
(Most of this information comes from the family diary of Clara Reiling and the research of Richard Gehling).
7- Reiling, Saloman Frank (1828-1864) &
Mary Ann (Schirck) (1840-abt.1868)
Salomon Frank Reiling (or Reyling) is thought to have been born in Ersingen, Baden, Germany, on 19 June 1828. He was the second youngest in the family of Joseph and Katherina Reiling, who - over a period of eleven years - parented six sons and a daughter named Florentina.
Salomon grew up surrounded by family and immersed in religion. Reilings had been living in the little hillside village of Ersingen as far back as the early 17th century. By then the town itself had been in existence for over 500 years, and throughout much of that period had belonged to the nearby Dominican Monastery. The dominant religion was Roman Catholicism. Christ the King Catholic Church towered over the town, continuing to serve the needs of its 19th century parishioners as it had for hundreds of years. Beside it sat the parish school, which dated back to the early 17th century. Like their ancestors, all the citizens still observed each 7th of September as Gelubdetag or "vowing day," a traditional day of fasting, payer and Holy Communion to commemorate the terrible plague year of 1357.
Salomon's granddaughter, Clara Reiling, wrote in her family diary that Salomon "had many religious books and writings." One of these books has been preserved. It was originally written in German. In the English translation it is entitled: "Prayer Booklet for Salomon Reiling in Ersingen." This booklet was dated 1843, when Salomon was fifteen years old and still living in his parents' household. It was handmade. The pages were stitched into the book with thread, and the cover added later. Written in an exquisite German script were morning and evening prayers as well as prayers to be said while dressing, undressing and washing.
Little is known of Salomon's early life. It is thought that he was apprenticed to a miller, then served in the military as a young man. (There still survives a prayer book, written in German, which he used during his military service in 1850.) Three years after the death of his father, 24-year-old Salomon decided to leave the old country and sail to America. He arrived in New York City aboard the sailing ship De Witt Clinton in December of 1852. From there he journeyed west to Ohio, to hilly Brown Township in Carroll County, where his Uncle Lawrence Reiling owned a farm. Nearby was the village of Lodi (later called Malvern), which contained a newly-built Catholic Church - St. Francis Xavier - served by the Rev. H. Mankenheide. Salomon quickly became both a dedicated parishioner and a permanent member of the community.
As time went on, Salomon became acquainted with the Schirck family of nearby Harrison Township. He began courting the eldest daughter, Mary Ann, and on 14 October 1856 the two were married at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Lodi. Salomon's bride was only sixteen years old at the time of their marriage. She had been born in Pennsylvania on 2 February 1840, the second child of Francis Joseph Schirck and Mary Ann Monk. In the 1850 U.S. Census she was listed as living on a farm in Carroll County, Ohio, with her parents and six other brothers and sisters.
A year and a half after her marriage to Salomon, Mary Ann gave birth to their first son, Joseph Valentine. He was born on 14 February 1858 and baptized into the Catholic Church fourteen days later. Another son named William Henry was born on 13 July 1859 and baptized on 2 August in Lodi/Malvern. All four were listed in the 1860 Federal Census as living in Brown Township, in the County of Carroll, State of Ohio, with their post office at Malvern. Salomon's occupation was that of a miller; his personal estate was valued at $700, his real estate at $250.
A daughter named Mary Caroline was born to the Reilings the following year, on 9 February 1861. She was baptized at Lodi/Malvern on 3 March, but died just one month and six days later. A third son named Frank Albert was born on 2 June 1862. He was baptized twenty days later in Magnolia, Ohio.
Three years after the death of Mary Caroline tragedy struck the Reiling family again, when Salomon himself died from an unknown sickness. Salomon's granddaughter, Clara Reiling, later told of the death in her family diary: "Salomon died in Ohio from sickness caused by doing an act of charity. During the Civil war, the body of a soldier had been sent home for burial. The coffin was opened and the body found in such bad condition that nobody wanted to close it. Salomon Reiling offered to do it and became sick and died 6 months later, leaving his children." Salomon was buried in the Malvern Catholic Cemetery. A 1963 reading of his tombstone revealed the words: "Solomon Reiling 1864 age 35."
Tragedy struck for a third time a few years later. Salomon's widow, Mary Ann, died of unknown causes, leaving the three Reiling boys motherless as well as fatherless. Family members immediately stepped in to help out. One relative asked if he might adopt the second son, William Henry, then nearly ten years of age. But the maternal grandparents, Frank and Mary Ann Schirck argued against splitting up the three boys and proposed taking them into their own family.
By the time of the 1870 U.S. Census, the Schircks had moved to Mansfield, Ohio, where Frank at age 65 was the landlord of a hotel. His wife Mary Ann, aged 57, supervised the cleaning and cooking. Still at home was their oldest son Henry, a member of the legislature, as well as daughter Rosa Philomena (22) and youngest son Victor (19). Added to the family were Mary Ann's 91-year-old mother, Magdalena Monk, as well as the three Reiling grandchildren: Joseph (12), Henry (10), and Francis Albert (8). Also living at the hotel were two teen aged girls, who worked as in-house domestics, and thirteen boarders: a carpenter, a painter, a blacksmith, three laborers, and five stonemasons, one of whom had his wife and son with him.
The following year, the Schircks sold their hotel and moved to a farm they purchased near the newly-founded town of Mt. Carmel in Kniest Township, Carroll County, Iowa. There the three sons of Salomon and Mary Ann Reiling learned farming, went to school, and grew to manhood. Highlights of their later lives were chronicled by Clara Reiling in her family diary:
"Valentine Reiling was married at Newton, Iowa. Later he lived at Angus, Minnesota, where he died 1920.
"Henry Reiling married Mary Ann Daniel and lived around Carroll about 20 years. Then moved to Canistolia, South Dakota.
"Frank Albert Reiling married Mary Teresa Wernimont. Lived a year at Olerich place, then moved to Ortner farms near Mt. Carmel. In 1899 moved onto the place they bought 4 miles east of Breda. Here most of the family grew up and were married"
(This information is from the family diary of Clara Reiling and the research of Jean McNamara, Sister Rose Zita Rosonke OLVM, Brother Paul Rosonke CSC, and Richard Gehling)
8a- Frank Albert Reiling (1862-1937)
Frank Albert Reiling was born on 2 June 1862, the third son of Salomon and Mary Ann Reiling. At the time of his birth the Reiling family lived in the little village of Malvern in eastern Ohio, where his father worked as a miller. He was baptized as Frank Albert at St. Mary's Catholic Church in the nearby town of Magnolia, but like his two older brothers he would ever after be known not by his first name, but by his middle name, which in his case happened to be Albert.
Following the untimely death of both their parents in the mid to late 1860's, Albert and his two brothers were adopted by their maternal grandparents, Frank and Mary Ann Schirck, and welcomed into the family hotel in Mansfield, Ohio. But along with the Reiling grandchildren came the dream of moving to a new life in western Iowa, so in 1871 Frank and Mary Ann Schirck sold their Ohio hotel and bought land near the newly-founded town of Mt. Carmel in Kniest Township, Carroll County, Iowa. Their trip west was made by covered wagon. On arriving in western Iowa, they found that most of the houses were only small shacks and that there were no roads, trees or fences. What wells there were had all been dug by hand.
Their three Reiling grandchildren - Valentine, Henry and Albert - attended the parish school in nearby Mt. Carmel. They were often obliged to make the trip barefoot, feeling the need to remove their shoes and socks to keep them from getting ruined in the muddy swamps. Late falls and winters were spent at their studies, springs and summers in helping their grandfather on the farm.
Their grandfather, Frank Schirch, died on 21 August 1881, ten years after moving his family to Iowa. He was buried in the nearby Mt. Carmel Cemetery under a tall, white tombstone. His wife, Mary Ann, followed him in death five years later. By then the two older Reiling grandchildren, Valentine and Henry, had already left home. Albert, the youngest, seems to have remained on the farm for five years after the death of his grandfather. He not only worked the soil and looked after the farm animals, but also hired himself out to neighboring farmers and helped care for his grandmother in her declining years.
Six months before his grandmother's death, Albert was married to 19-year-old Mary Teresa Wernimont, the oldest surviving daughter of Carroll County neighbors, John and Anna Catherine Wernimont. The marriage ceremony took place on 19 January 1886 at St. Barnard's Catholic Church in Breda, Iowa. The newlyweds seem to have settled in at the Schirck farm until the death of Albert's grandmother in June of 1886. They then rented a series of nearby farms, until at last - in 1899 - they were finally able to buy their own place four and one-half miles east of Breda, Iowa, along what was known as the Breda Road. There they reared a dozen children.
For much of their marriage, Albert and Teresa's life revolved around their many children. Clara, the eldest, was obliged to cut her elementary education short so that she might help care for her eleven younger siblings. All were expected to help in the daily chores as they grew older - the girls doing housework, tending the garden, collecting the eggs; the boys working the fields, feeding the livestock and milking the cows.
At age 19, Clara decided to return to school. She finished all eight grades at the Mt. Carmel grade school in just two years. She then attended the Teachers' Institute in the nearby town of Carroll. After passing her exams, she began an eight year career as a rural school teacher in various Carroll County grade schools. Ill health eventually forced her to return to the family farm, where she again helped with the housework and cooking as well as the care of her younger siblings. Her pay consisted of a $3.50 weekly wage and a clothing allotment.
By the time Clara returned home in 1917, the next three oldest Reiling children had already married: John to Mary Gehling, Caroline to Ed Under-berg, Regina to Henry Gehling. And by then the boys next in line - Theodore, Wendy and John - had hired themselves out to relatives as live-in farmhands. Still at home were Frank and his younger brother, Gregory, as well as the baby of the family, Mary, who was just six years old. Twelve-year-old Anton, who seems to have been born with Down Syndrome, had just been placed in the St. Coletta Institute in Jefferson, WI. With the exception of one extended visit home two years later, he would remain there until his death in 1927.
On 31 January 1920, Clara - then 32 years of age - was married to a WWI veteran named Joseph Schelle. The wedding had been scheduled for four days earlier, January 27, but on that day her 17-year-old brother, Gregory, had died. He had been sick for ten days from what was later determined to be a ruptured appendix. The family offered all the wedding preparations for him. Even the flowers that Clara was to wear on her head at her wedding were placed on his coffin. The next morning there was a Requiem Mass for Gregory instead of a Nuptial Mass for Clara. Caroline and Ed Underberg came from Milford, Iowa, for the funeral of Gregory and for the delayed wedding of Clara. Then in February they moved to Springville, New York.
After their marriage, Clara and Joe Schelle settled down to a lifetime of farming in Carroll County, where they reared their own family of two sons and three daughters. Throughout much of the rest of her life, Clara continued to make entries in the family diary she had begun in 1905. She seems to have made it a true family project by encouraging her relatives to send her information about their own family doings, which she then faithfully entered into her diary. It was in the pages of this diary that she outlined the high points of her parents' (Albert and Mary Teresa's) life on their farm near Breda, Iowa:
"Albert Reiling made a trip to Crawford, Nebraska, in March 1906.
"Mr. and Mrs. (Mary Teresa Wernimon) Albert Reiling made a trip to Minnesota in May 1908 to inspect the Wernimont land property of Worthington. They also visited relatives at Remsen, Iowa.
"Mrs. Albert Reiling and daughter Caroline made a trip Aug. 1910. They stopped at La Crosse and Sparta, Wisconsin, and at Dubuque and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
"Mrs. Albert Reiling was Delegate to Roman Catholic Mutual Protective Convention at Fort Madison, Iowa, 1910.
"During May 1919, father Albert Reiling paid the last debt on the home farm with money from hogs at wartime prices. (Note: to celebrate the occasion, the name "Reiling" and the date "1919" was painted in bold letters on the front of the family barn. The words remained plainly visible until the latter years of the 20th century).
"Mr. & Mrs. Albert Reiling attended a Convention in Le Mars, Iowa, in fall, 1921.
"Albert Reiling attended Farmers Union convention Des Moines in 1924.
"Mrs. Albert Reiling and daughter Mary spent several weeks New York in summer 1926 visiting Ed Underberg family.
"Relatives of Reilings and Schircks celebrated 70 Birthday of Father Albert Reiling in Carroll Park, June, 1932.
"Schirck and Reiling families gathered in Carroll Park, 1934.
"Golden Wedding of Albert Reiling and wife Mary Wernimont was celebrated Jan 20, 1936. (date 19 Jan.)
"Last birthday of our Father Albert Reiling was celebrated by Reilings and Schircks at the Clara and doe Schelle home dune 2, 1936. Father was 74.
"Albert Reiling was in St. Anthony Hospital, Carroll, summer of 1936. Had serious operations for cancer. Died April 22, 1937. Reilings from Dakota and Collings from Remsen, Iowa, came for funeral. Snowstorm on day of funeral."
"Mrs. Mary Reiling alone in Sept. 1937, traveled to $pringville, N. York, to visit Caroline and family.
"Mother, Mrs, Mary Reiling, broke her hip Feb. 22, 1938. Was in St. Anthony's Hospital 4 months.
"On Aug 18, 1940 the children and grandchildren celebrated Mother Reiling's 74th birthday at her home (think we gave her a Rocking Chair)"
(Sources: Family Diary of Clara Reiling and the research of Richard Gehling)
8b- Mary Teresa (Wernimont) Reiling (1866-1945)
Mary Teresa was born 18 August 1866 in Dubuque County, Iowa. She was one of fourteen children of John Wernimont and Anna Catherine Peters. After her parents moved to a farm in Kniest Township near Breda, Iowa, she met and fell in love with Albert Reiling from nearby Mt. Carmel. They were married on 19 January 1886 at St. Bernard's Catholic Church in Breda,Iowa. The newlyweds rented farms for thirteen years, then in 1899 bought their own place four and one-half miles east of Breda, Iowa. There they reared a dozen children:
1. Clara Catherine - Born Tuesday evening, 8 February 1887
2. William Edward - Born at 11:30 P.M., 18 March 1889
3. Anna Mary - Born 2 December 1890. Lived only six weeks.
4. Caroline Mary - Born 12 December 1890
5. Regina Teresa- Born at 2 A.M. Monday, 23 October 1893
6. John Sudger - Born at 2 P.M., 26 March 1895
7. Wendlin Joseph - Born 5 November 1896
8. Theodore Albert - Born on Monday morning, 4 March 1898
9. Francis Salomon - Born at 7 P.M. Tuesday, 20 February 1900
10. Gregory- - Born at 9 A.M. Wednesday, 12 March 1902
11. Anthony Henry- - Born at 7 P.M. Tuesday, 17 January 1905
12. Mary Teresa- Born at 1 A.M. Wed, 20 September 1911
Mary Teresa and Albert celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in January of 1936. Albert died of cancer just 15 months later. Mary Teresa survived him by nearly eight years. On 20 February 1938, she broke her hip, necessitating a four-month long hospital stay at St. Anthony's in Carroll, Iowa. On Mary Teresa's release from the hospital in late June, her daughter Regina came with five of her children to help in the slow recuperation. Regina did not leave until the last of February, 1939.
Mary Teresa lived for another four and a half years. She died on Christmas Eve, 1945, during a fierce Iowa blizzard. As she neared the end, all but one of her nine living children were gathered at her bedside, and that one - Caroline Underberg of Springville, New York - was racing homeward on a cross-country train. While her mother clung tenaciously to life, two of her sons drove five miles through the blowing snow to meet the train in Carroll, Iowa. They returned home with Caroline just in time to say their goodbyes before Mary Teresa's peaceful passage from this life. "Mother is with Father for Christmas," her children are reported to have murmured to one another.
Mary Teresa was buried beside her husband in the little cemetery at Mt. Carmel, Iowa.
(Sources: research of Sister Rose Zita Rosonke OLVM, Brother Paul Rosonke CSC, and Richard Gehling)
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