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August & Gottlieb families: records by Helen Truher,
mailed by Michael Barrett Truher of Los Angeles, CA, in 1999: optical character recognition of Helen Truher's typed copy supplied later by Ron Haack. - minor ed for clarity-2005m0205JBT printed to August-Minn-2005m0205.rtf temporarily on desktop
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Helen Truher recalls: pg A-4 Continued -
JIM TRUHER'S (JWT1) FAMILY
Father (Your grandfather Truher) August Louis Truher was born August 5, 1866 in Dantzig, Germany. An old map I have puts Dantzig in "East Prussia". Anyhow, the Truhers and Paines were Prussians and militarists. August was brought to the U.S. by his parents when he was six years old because his mother was determined to get her sons out of the soldier business. During World War I when August had a relative who was a German general, he wouldn't let his children admit their German extraction. When he grew up, August went to work for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad. After he married Nellie Barrett and they had 3 children, the family moved from town to town as the railroad was constructed westward. The western terminal was Tacoma, Washington, and they lived there several years before moving to Seattle. When your father was about 11 during WW-I they moved to a small farm in Kent, Washington, He worked as a conductor until he retired at the age of 72. He lived to be 81 and died in Hawaii at the home of his eldest daughter, Helen Alderman. He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City next to your Grandmother Truher.
Mother (Your Grandmother Truher) Helen Mary Barrett (called Nellie) was born in Austin Minnesota on May 14, 1876. She had a brother and about 4 sisters. When she was quite young (about 18, I guess) she took a job as a teacher in a one-room country school near Austin. There was very little pay, and she "boarded around" with the families of her students. Apparently, they had a schedule so she would stay in all the homes by the time the year was over.
A-5
Jim Truher's family - continued
I don't know how long she taught school, but she said some of her pupils were taller than she was. Then she took a job as a reporter on the Austin paper. We have a copy of the articles which appeared in that paper at the time of her marriage to August Truher. At that time she was 25 and he was 35. The couple had 5 children--Helen, Louis, James, and the twins--Mary and May. She died in Seattle, Washington in 1945 and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.
Grandfather Truher (your great grandfather) Gottleib Truher was born and died in Germany, presumably in "East Prussia", but I don't really know about that.
Grandmother Truher (your great grandmother) Caroline Paine Truher came from an interesting family. Her sister was an opera singer of some note, according to Helen Alderman (who sang on the radio in Honolulu in her youth). And one of her relatives was General Von Kluk whose name is in the history books as one of the most prominent generals in the German army during World War I. I have heard that he was a half brother of Caroline Paine, also that he was a cousin, and I don't know the exact relationship, nor does Helen Alderman. Anyhow, the story is that Caroline hated all the militarism in her family and in the whole Prussian culture and prevailed upon her husband to emigrate to the United States. I have a note that her father's name was Ludwiq Paine, and her mother's name was Rose.
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HBT writes from Helen Alderman Truher letter to Helen Burke Truher, and leaves transcription for her sons. "Below you will find a typed copy of the substantive portions of a letter written to me (Helen Burke Truher) by your father's eldest sister (Helen Truher Alderman). The letter is five handwritten pages, so I will just copy all portions relating to her knowledge of the Truher-Paine family."
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following written by Helen Alderman in April, 1980 (this line is an edit by Jack Truher)
"There is some mix-up about when our grandfather lived in Minneapolis--also as to when he died. My father (Augustus L. Truher) told me that his father (Gottlieb) died on their wheat farm in Minnesota when Augustus was 15 or 16 years old. He worked on the farm with his father. His brother, Charles, was still too young. After Gottlieb died, father tried to continue to do the farm work with hired help and the guidance of his mother.
"About a year later his mother had typhoic fever and nearly died. It was several months before she could do anything and the girls were too young to help. Father had to give up the farm work and from his mother's (Caroline Paine) instructions from her bed, he learned to cook. He told me his father had taught him how to butcher, but his mother taught him how to make bread and cookies and cakes and how to can vegetables, smoke meats, make saurkraut, sausage, etc.
"When he was about 18 or 20 he knew he did not want to continue the farming, so they sold the farm and moved to Minneapolis. I understood that his brother Charles was born before they acquired the farm, but that his sisters had been born on the farm. Perhaps the farm was near Hutchinson, Minn. don't know for sure, Perhaps they shared the ownership with others, hut I never understood it that way. It was always what he and his mother decided. The farm was about 300 acres from what he told me--mostly wheat. He said they had good equipment and livestock--horses, a few cows and some chickens. He told me he hated it.
"He told me he loved the sound of the trains and decided that he was going to be a railroad man. That must have been when he was about 20. He was 25 when he and Mother were married. She met him when she was a reporter for the Austin Daily Herald. It was owned by Gertrude and John Skinner. She was 25 years old and used to interview the interesting visitors to Austin, so went to the deport (edit, "depot") to check the incoming people. Austin was the southern end of the line with a "lay-over" there. The train left the next morning for Minneapolis (What better timing for romance?). So he had been a railroad man for nearly 15 years before he and Mother were married. He still owned and lived in the house in Minneapolis--in which hiw (edit, "his") mother and sister (Aunt Gussie) lived. When he and Mother decided to live in Austin, he sold the house to Gussie Haack and her husband. That was in 1902 when he and Mother were married. They lived in a small house in Austin next door to a lot he had purchased on Main Street. They built a nice house on it where I was born in 1903, Louis in 1904, James in 1907.
"Father told me that his mother saw to it that he went to school (Lutheran church schools) and insisted on his speaking "high German". She had been well educated in Prussia and made him study when he was a boy. He did speak beautiful German when I could coax him to help me. (Note During WW-I, he wouldn't let the children admit their German heritage at all.)
Page 2, Helen Alderman's letter
"When I was about 18 I went to Minnesota to visit my mother's sister (Aunt Mary Ferguson) and while I was in Minneapolis I went to see my grandmother Truher. I had been studying German and could speak it a little. (Note: I believe this was the first and only time any of Augustus' children met their grandmother). Grandmother (Caroline Truher -ed.,jbt) had been sick and her hair had been cut short to make it easy to wash. She was in her eighties and was as spry as could be. She ran upstairs to get her comb and brush to show me how easily she could do it. She died in December, 1928, the day I left Seattle to take the ship to Hawaii. She was 90 years old. (Note: James was attending USC at that time.)
"One other thing I remember that Father told me was that he had a cousin named August who was called "Auggie" and that he (Father) was always so glad that his name was Augustus so he could be called Gus. He said it sounded more manly. Did you know that Mother never called him Gus? She told me one time when I asked, that she called him Mr. Truher for quite a while, later called him "dear", and then after I was born he was called Father or Papa from then on.
"Father has written in our family bible that he was born Augustus Louis Truher. He was a baptized Lutheran and then baptized a Catholic before he and mother married."
Edit by Ron Haack: In early August, 1999, I visited Austin, Minnesota. I went to the Church of Saint Augustine where I met Father Nelson. He researched the marriage records of 1902 and confirmed the marriage date of April 15, 1902 for Augustus and Helen Truher. I then visited the Mower County Courthouse in Austin, where I found the location of the land and future home of Augustus and Helen, at the current address of 911 2nd Avenue, N.E., Austin, Minnesota. I have photos of the church and of the house.
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Truher, August & Nellie
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August and Nellie Truher were married, here (interior of this Catholic Church
, where was such an enormous investment when built. That implies a lot about ideology and social style. It is interesting for the very spare, undecorated, non-commucative, top-down learning style - perhaps more about Minnesota than about Catholic
Here is an interior photo taken by Ron Haack in the 1980-90 era..
ame URL:
https://truher.net/dot-mac-jbt/sites/NoteTaker/graphics/gen-ta/ChurchStAugustineAust1324.jpg
My sense:
The style is responsive to subdued communications of the region. The lighting of the sacristy is subdued as well; windows are very high. I would imagine the side walls are lined with stained glass windows, but still dark.
What is achieved is "rest", contemplative withdrawal. This is no center for dancing, dialogue, debate, or waving of arms and legs. Not much participation is implied. More about sitting still and don't get crazy. Listen to what the clergy says.
The big Catholic Churches I knew in the 1950s, built in the 1930s, in Southern California were covered with art-work. Little of the fleshy Italian, but lots of complicated colorful art.
Churches built after WWII were plainer, of less European influence, but brightly illuminated. More connection to the natural environment would be nice, but not too much.
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Ronald H. Haack finds August-Nellie marriage record
1715 Kinross Lane
Ft. Wayne, IN 46804-1481
1715 Kinross Lane
Fort Wayne, IN 46804-1481
September 1, 1999
Father Nelson
Church of St. Augustine
405 Fourth Street N.W.
Austin, MN 55912
Dear Father Nelson,
Thank you for your help in early August in finding and copying the 1902-marriage record of Augustus and Helen Barrett Truher. Enclosed is an annotated copy of that record plus a family tree of Helen Mary Nellie Barrett. From this union came a Sister, a Doctor of Education, a physicist, engineers and a preparing medical doctor. They all reside in the California area.
My connection to this family is through Augustus Louis Truher. His father (and my great grandfather) was Gottlieb Truher of Minnesota.
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more detail on Truher family history
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Ron & Jack emails on August with Nellie; text of link above is extracted here below (from an email 2003-10-03)
From: Jack Truher <truher@earthlink.net
>
Subject: Truher family history; 1870s onward
====================================================
notes from Ron Haack: In early August, 1999, I visited Austin, Minnesota. I went to the Church of Saint Augustine where I met Father Nelson. He researched the marriage records of 1902 and confirmed the marriage date of April 15, 1902 for Augustus and Helen Truher. I then visited the Mower County Courthouse in Austin, where I found the location of the land and future home of Augustus and Helen, at the current address of 911 2nd Avenue, N.E., Austin, Minnesota. I have photos of the church and of the house.
From John Burke Truher of Los Altos, California, July 4, 2001: "I checked with my brother Jim. August and Nellie lived in a fine, very tall Victorian, 3.5 story house on Queen Anne Hill from about 1940-45. That house is where the photos were taken that I sent you of my brother Jim and I being read a story on the floor while Nellie read seated on a stool above us. I was nearly four years old and Jim nearly 8.
From about 1935-1940, August and Nellie lived at a smaller 2 story property within steps of a tiny house my dad built on August's property including the tiny house at 3115 South 135 Street, Riverton Heights in 1937. August owned about 5 acres there, then only had his house and the little one my dad built for us. The little house was sold about 1945, and probably the larger house about the same time. This Riverton Heights location is now in the flight path, very near, and just north of the main Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The little house is still there. I suspect that August and Nellie's Riverton Heights house. Jim Jr. reports that the Queen Ann Hill house has been replaced by an apartment complex. Jim has seen, within the last couple of years, the tiny house where he and I lived, in Riverton Heights.
I don't have records or knowledge of August and Nellie's residence after about 1945. Somewhere in Seattle until Nellie died; then August moved briefly to Altadena and then to Hawaii where he died with his oldest daughter."
==========================================
August Truher was a railroad conductor for many years. One of his trains was in an accident of record:
From an ICC accident report:
"Milwaukee Road Employees Involved in ICC Reportable Accidents, 1911-1940
NAME JOB TITLE LOCATION RR DIVISION DATE ICC REPORT ACCIDENT COMMENTS
Truher Conductor Ranier, Washington Not Stated Jul. 3, 1913 278 Derailment"
==================================================================
From notes on Gottlieb Truher:
The early records of St. Lucas Lutheran Church in Bay View, Wisconsin (era about 1875) show Gottlieb Truher's last name spelled "Truhr, no "e"". Caroline Truher's maiden name is spelled "Pein', several places.
Time line For Gottlieb & Caroline Truher:
November 21, 1832: Born, Danzig, Prussia (now Gdansk, Poland.
1859: Married, Danzig, Prussia.
July 08, 1870: Immigrated to USA via NYC, with August as infant (? - actually born in 1866 in Prussia). Caroline was pregnant with Charles Edward.
(From Filbey's "Germans to America", Volume 224, 1870:
From Germany to USA, Gottlieb Trur, age 38, Male, Farmer, Caroline Trur, age 32, Female, August Trur, age .11(eleven months, actually born in Prussia in 1866). Ship: Western Metropolis, from Swinemunde, Kiel and Christiansand to New York, arrived 08 July, 1870
edot from Jack Truher, Feb, 2000: "Now this begins to make sense. Of the three cities you list, two have somewhat different name adaptations. But this definitely begins to support the greater Berlin residency of the Trur family.
We can assume that the Filbey's entry probably means that the ship, Western Metropolis, began it's Western trip from Danzig. But it picked up the Trur family in Swineoujcscie (current Polish name for Swinemunde). Swineoujcscie is a shipping port, on the Baltic coast just at the border between Germany and modern Poland, about 50 miles north of Berlin. Then the ship traveled West to pick up additional passengers at Kiel, a major German port city on the Kiel Bay. In order to get out the Baltic Sea into the Atlantic, the ship must then travel north and then west. On the Southeast coast of Norway, the ship would have conveniently passed Kristiansand, another port where passengers boarded. Then on to New York.
The Danzig connection is: the ship's log would show that its journey began there. That association could be preserved in association with all passengers of that ship. I forget now how many sources have told us that Danzig was the Truher emigration point. I think there were other independent references of Danzig, but I can't name any of them, except the report I got from a German.")
August 11, 1870: Charles Edward was born in Wisconsin, probably Bay View. No Baptism record available as of 1999. Date verified per Confirmation Record at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Acoma Township, McLeod County Minnesota.
August 1872: Brother Jakob emigrates from Danzig, Prussia via Baltimore, Maryland and arrives in Bay View, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin sometime later to join Gottlieb.
Note: A picture was discovered in January of 2001 of the brothers Jakob and Gottlieb. The date is unknown, and could have been in the early 1870's in America, or in Germany before they emigrated.
January 22, 1873: Matheldie Helene (Aunt Till) born, Bay View, Wisconsin.
July 7, 1874: Herman Adolph and Julius Albert born, Bay View, Wisconsin.
July 21, 1874: Herman Adolph and Julius Albert die, Bay View, Wisconsin.
November 29, 1875: Gottlieb buys house on 156 Lenox Avenue, Bay View, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin (now 2370 and 2372 Lenox Avenue, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, 2 houses).
January 14, 1876: Auguste (Gussie) Amelia born, Bay View, Wisconsin.
June 1876: Gottlieb's last recorded communion at St. Lucas Church, Bay View, Wisconsin.
Mid 1876 - Mid 1885: Reconstruction, best guess: Gottlieb and Caroline and family went to Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota sometime after mid 1876. Note: Caroline Lietzau married Gustave Pinske on June 11, 1876 in McLeod County Minnesota. On January 7, 1879, Caroline Pein Truher was a Godparent to their son Theodore Hermann at his baptism in Immanuel Lutheran Church, Acoma Township, McLeod County Minnesota.
The Truher family eventually migrated to Fossum Township, Polk County, Minnesota by 1880 (Federal Census) where they were shown as living either next door or on the same farm as Gustave and Caroline Pinske. The four children were also there, but Mother Florentine was NOT listed. (This part of Polk County became part of the new Norman County in 1881. Fossum Township is on the eastern border of Norman County, with Wild Rice Township adjacent and to the West).
Between 1880 and 1885, the family moved to Wild Rice Township, Norman County, Minnesota, where they staked and worked their farm. The 1885 special Minnesota State Census shows them in Wild Rice Township, Norman County, Minnesota, again either with the Gustave and Caroline Pinske family, or next door to it (see "Ron Haack", below). Just a short distance away was the Ernest and Johanna Pinske family farm. Again, the four Truher children (August, Charles, Matilde and Augusta are listed, but now Gottlieb's mother Florentine Truher is listed, age 79 and born in Germany.
June 4, 1885: Gottlieb and Caroline Truher sold his house at 156 Lenox Avenue, Bay View, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin to brother Jakob Truher for $700. Gottlieb and Caroline are listed as from the town of Wild Rice, Norman County, and Minnesota.
December 24, 1885: United States grants Gottlieb and Caroline their land in Norman County, Minnesota.
June 4, 1886: Gottlieb and Caroline get mortgage on above land from Hiram Upton.
1886: Some major catastrophic event descends upon the Truher family. See the notes on son August Louis Truher where he tells a story of death (?) and his mother Caroline coming down with typhoic fever, rendering her helpless and August forced to learn to cook, etc. Whatever the event, it caused the next several steps in the eventual migration of the Truher's to Minneapolis.
Note: In August of 2000, a Hennepin County Minnesota Probate Court document from the year 1900 was discovered which tells of the commitment of Gottlieb to the State Hospital for the Insane at St. Peter, Minnesota. Details below; however, it speaks of a lawsuit "with his brother" about the 1885 time period. Gottlieb never recovered from that episode. At this writing, there are no details about this lawsuit. During May and June of 2001, Ron Haack wrote letters to the Norman County Minnesota Clerk of Courts, and the Milwaukee County Historical Society (Wisconsin), asking for any information on such a law suit. In both cases, there is NO record of such a lawsuit, either for a Truher/Trur/Truhr as plaintiff or defendants.
September, 27,1886: Gottlieb and Caroline buy 525 Franklin, Hutchinson, and McLeod County, Minnesota. They are listed as from Hennepin County, Minnesota.
December 18, 1886: Gottlieb and Caroline assign land in Norman County, Minnesota to Phelps and Calkins, attorneys for Mr. Upton.
April 17, 1887: Son Charles Edward Truher confirmed at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Acoma Township, McLeod County Minnesota.
October 1888: Daughter Mathilda Truher confirmed at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Acoma Township, McLeod County Minnesota.
April 5, 1891: Daughter Auguste Amalie confirmed at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Acoma Township, McLeod County Minnesota.
April 11, 1891: Norman County, Minnesota sheriff forecloses Gottlieb and Caroline's Norman County land. They still owe $855.35 and they missed a $48 interest payment.
1891/1892: The Minneapolis City Directory lists August Truer, brakeman, as living at 313 10th Avenue North. No mention of the rest of the family.
1892/1893: The Minneapolis City Directory lists at 2932 18th Avenue South: August L. Truer, brakeman, Charles E., brakeman, Gottlieb, Susan (? -Augusta??), folder, Mpls Envelope Co., and Tillie, folder, Mpls. Envelope Co. The family had moved to Minneapolis. Minors and non-working women were not listed in city directories, thus the absence of Caroline.
Note: There is confusion about two addresses, 2930 and 2932 18th Avenue South. 2932 18th Avenue South MAY have become 2930 18th Avenue South by 1900. A Sanborn fire map of 1906 shows the house as 2932, THREE lots north of the east-west alley, just where 2930 stands today. Another possibility is that 2930 and 2932 are really the same house, just downstairs and upstairs. After 1900, 2932 is never mentioned again.
1893/1894: The Minneapolis City Directory now shows at 2932 18th Avenue South: August Truher, conductor, Charles E., brakeman and Gottlieb, but not the women.
November 7, 1894: Gottlieb and Caroline sell 525 Franklin, Hutchinson, and McLeod County, Minnesota.
1894/1895: The Minneapolis City Directory now shows at 2932 18th Avenue South: August Truher, Augusta, seamstress, Charles, brakeman, Gottlieb and Matilda, sewer.
June 1895: The special 1895 Minnesota State Census shows the following: At 2932 18th Avenue South (first floor assumed): Gottlieb Truher, age 65, Caroline, age 56, August, age 28, brakeman, Charles, age 24, brakeman and Gussie, age 19, seamstress.
At 2932 (2nd floor): William F. Frank, age 24, born in New York, Electrician and Matilda Frank, age 22 (Tillie Truher got married 1n 1893)!
At 2930 18th Avenue South (one house north of 2932, no longer there, or see Note above): Albert Frank, age 25, born in Minnesota, Expressman, Ida, age 28, born in Illinois and Sydney Frank, age 2, born in Minnesota (wife and son). It is assumed that Albert was William Franks's brother - verification is needed.
June 16, 1896: Auguste Amelia Truher (daughter) marries William Carl Haack in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, and Minnesota. They will live at 3036 Snelling Avenue South, Minneapolis, the home of Louis and Amelia Zadach (brother-in-law and sister of William). Louis' father Friederick Wilhelm Gotthilf Zadach and stepmother Florentine (Florence) lived next door at 3032 Snelling Avenue South, Minneapolis.
November 4, 1896: Son August L. Truher buys 2930 18th Avenue South (old 2932, see above), Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota for $2100 cash plus an assumed mortgage of $1500. (Note: same house only sold for about twice that amount in 1954). This was a 2 family duplex.
January 1, 1898: Grandson Herbert William Haack is born at 3036 Snelling Avenue South, Minneapolis.
Note: A picture was discovered in January of 2001 of Gottlieb and Caroline Truher with their daughter Augusta Truher Haack and their grandson Herbert William Haack. It is believed that the photo was made sometime in the summer of 1898. There is the possibility that the picture was taken in 1900 at 2930 18th Avenue South, and that the baby was their granddaughter, Delilah H. Haack.
November 27, 1899: Granddaughter Delilah Henrietta Haack is born at 3036 Snelling Avenue South, Minneapolis.
May 17, 1900: William Carl and Auguste Amelia Haack and their children Herbert William and Delilah Henrietta move into one part of the duplex at 2930 18th Avenue South, Minneapolis.
June 6, 1900: The 1900 Federal Census lists at 2930 18th Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota: William C.Haack, born Nov 1873, cooper, Augusta A. Haack, born Jan, 1875, wife, Herbert, son, born Jan 1898, Delilah Haack, daughter, born Nov. 1899, Gottlieb Truher, born Nov 1831, married 36 years, immigrated 1871, 29 years in USA, not naturalized, retired, Caroline Truher (wife), born Aug 1837, mother of 9 children, 4 still living, August Truher, born Aug 1866 in Germany, not naturalized, railroad conductor. No Charles Edward! Also, William and Matilda Truher Frank had moved.
November 27, 1900: There is a commitment hearing in Minneapolis, and Gottlieb Truher is committed to the Minnesota State Hospital for the Insane at St. Peter. From the Certificate of Jury:
Gottlieb was not a member of a Church.
When were the first symptoms of this attack manifested, and in what way? Answer: Spring of 1886 after a law suit with brother, study and unusual interpretation of the Bible, excitable, etc.
Is the disease variable, ....? Answer: Yes. Variable in his moods and for a day or two seems rational. The predominant ideas recur at short intervals.
On what subject, or in what way is derangement now manifested? (State fully): Answer: Religiosity. Claims infidelity of wife and children. Outbursts of rage and temper towards family quotes Bible as his authority. The Bible tells him that he is to kill his wife and that the time is (to be ?) appointed.
Has the patient sown any disposition to injure others? Answer: Except (?) by frequent threats and claims that the time is coming when all should die.
What is supposed to be the cause of the disease? Answer: Worry over lawsuits in 1886.
The patient said (here state what the patient said to either or both examiners): Talked of his suspicions regarding his wife and family and his religious impressions(?). Excitable, talks loudly and boistrously.
Other facts: Suspicious of neighbors and threats of (?) violence. Is at times vulgar. Has frequently struck (?) his wife (?) insulted her.
Gottlieb was admitted to the State Hospital on November 27, 1900 and was discharged on July 29, 1901. There is no further mention of his mental problems, and no family stories about this episode.
March 10, 1902: August L. Truher (single) sells 2930 18th Avenue South, Minneapolis, to William Carl Haack (and wife Gussie, August's sister) for $1500 plus a mortgage assumption.
April 15, 1902: August converts to Roman Catholicism, changes his first name to Augustus and marries Helen Mary Nellie Barrett in the Church of St. Augustine, Austin, Mower County, Minnesota. He moves to Austin. It can only be imagined the profound affect on Caroline Pein Truher, his mother, who was a staunch Prussian Lutheran and sent August to only the best of Lutheran schools.
June 13, 1902: Grandson Harold Carl Haack is born at 2930 18th Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
December 5, 1904: Gottlieb dies in Minneapolis and was buried in Pioneer Cemetery, Cedar Avenue and Lake Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was exhumed in 1919 and re- buried in the new Haack/Truher plot in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota. (The Milwaukee Railroad appropriated part of Pioneer Cemetery in 1919).
July 24, 1912: Grandson Harold Carl Haack killed by streetcar on Lake Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota and was buried in Pioneer Cemetery, Cedar Avenue and Lake Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was exhumed in 1919 and re-buried along with Gottlieb Truher in the new Haack/Truher plot in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
December 12, 1928: Caroline dies at 2921 18th Avenue South, the home of her daughter Matilda Truher Frank and her husband William L. (across the street and a few doors north of Gussie Truher Haack's home where Caroline had lived for many years). She is buried next to Gottlieb and Grandson Harold Carl Haack in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis.
Ron Haack: On Wednesday afternoon, August 18, 1999, I met Ramona Weaver as she pulled into the Kraft Farm in Wild Rice Township, Norman County, and Minnesota. This is former farm of Gottlieb Truher in the 1880's. Ramona is the daughter of Mrs. Kraft, who died last year. We talked for over an hour. She showed me the Norman County History book with articles on the Pinske family (Ferdinand, Ernest, etc.). The front half of the current house may be original to the Truher era (no proof). I took three photos, two of the house and outbuildings, and one of Ramona. The current address of the farm is Ramona Weaver, 2162 390th Street, Gary, MN 56545.
Ramona showed me the burial site just South and adjacent of the Kraft-Truher farm, on the current Pinske farm, with a monument to Ernest Pinske and historical markers. Because of poor lighting conditions, I returned the next day and took some photos. Ramona gave me a name of Ervine Pinske, man with one arm, living just north of Trinity Lutheran Church in Twin Valley. I failed to connect with Ervine.
There is a little Lutheran Church on Minnesota 200, about one mile East of the Truher homestead; however, Ramona said it started in 1919 and then folded. Records were transferred to Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Manhomen, Minnesota.
The Norman County Recorder's office in Ada stated that Norman County split from Polk County in 1881, which explains the census of 1880 and 1885 differences. There is no record of land purchased by Gottlieb Truher in the Polk County Recorder Office in Crookston, Minnesota. It looks like he staked out the land, homesteaded it and got his land grant later.
When comparing the current Wild Rice and Fossum Township maps side by side, the current Truher farm (the Kraft farm) is in the northeast corner of Wild Rice Township, second section in from the East. Wild Rice Township's northern border is Minnesota Highway 200. The north-south frontal road past the Truher-Kraft farm is Norman County 41 (two miles West of the Wild Rice - Fossum townships border. On Minnesota 200, about four miles East of the Truher-Kraft farm and in Fossum Township lies another Pinske farm. It just may be that the 1880 Federal Census showing the Truher and Pinske clans in Fossum Township, Polk County, is no fluke! Then, again, the 1880 Census Taker may have erred, and the Truher and Pinske farms were ALWAYS in Wild Rice Township. We may never know for sure.
newpaper article text:
Caroline Pein Truher Genealogical Report:
Caroline Pein Truher's obituary from the Minneapolis newpapers, December, 1928:
"Services Saturday For Mrs. Truher"
"Funeral services for Mrs. Caroline Truher, 90 years old, cousin of General Von Kluck, wartime marshal of the German Imperial army, will be conducted Saturday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Willam Frank, 2921 Eighteenth avenue S., at 2 p.m.
"Mrs. Truher was born in Germany in 1838 and came to this country 58 years ago. She moved to Minneapolis 37 years ago. She is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Frank and Mrs. William haack of Minneapolis; two sons, C. E. F(T)ruher, Dubuque, Iowa, and A. L. F(T)ruher of Seattle; 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
"Further services will be conducted at the Anderson chapel, 1117 East Lake street at 2:30 p.m.. Burial will take place in Lakewood cemetery."
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on August's Seattle residences; from Jack Truher on July 4, 2001:
•
"I checked with my brother Jim. August and Nellie lived in a fine Victorian, 3.5 story house on Queen Anne Hill from about 1940-45. That house is where the photos were taken that I sent you of my brother Jim and I being read a story on the floor while Nellie read seated on a stool above us. I was nearly four years old and Jim nearly 8.
From about 1935-1940, August and Nellie lived at a smaller 2 story property within steps of a tiny house my dad built on August's property including the tiny house at 3115 South 135 Street, Riverton Heights in 1937. August owned about 5 acres there, then only had his house and the little one my dad built for us. The little house was sold about 1945, and probably the larger house about the same time. This Riverton Heights location is now in the flight path, very near, and just north of the main Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The little house is still there. I suspect that August and Nellie's Riverton Heights house. Jim Jr. reports that the Queen Ann Hill house has been replaced by an apartment complex. Jim has seen, within the last couple of years, the tiny house where he and I lived, in Riverton Heights.
I don't have records or knowledge of August and Nellie's residence after about 1945. Somewhere in Seattle until Nellie died; then August moved briefly to Altadena and then to Hawaii where he died with his oldest daughter."
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August's railroad career, Milwaukee Road railroad
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Date: November 27, 2006 From: Jack Truher <jack@truher.net
>
Subject: August Truher, Tacoma's Union Station 1911, and August's in rail accident in 1913.
Bcc: -Haack_Ronald, Mary Albert <mary@thealberts.org
>, Jim Truher III <jtruher@oz.net
>, JWT <jim@truher.com
>, MBT <truone@verizon.net
>
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August Truher was long-time conductor for Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway (commonly called Milwaukee Road).
pictures in message below also are attached.
I found a picture of the recently rehabilitated Tacoma Union Station, which was the West Coast terminus for grampa August Truher's many working years out of Kent, Seattle, and Riverton Heights, Washington.
1911 Tacoma Union Station, Tacoma, Wash., opens, May 1. Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway opens service to Washington, competing with the Northern Pacific and Great Northern, May 29. North Coast Limited service extended from St. Paul, Minn., to Chicago, Ill., via Chicago and Northwestern, December 17.
The Union Station has been rehabilitated as part of a renewal of downtown Tacoma, including a branch of University of Washington,
http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/
http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/shopuwt/business_detail.cfm?business_ID=30
a history of the Great Northern Railroad
http://www.employees.org/~davison/nprha/first.html
We have the picture of an eastern terminus rail station in Milwaukee, further indicating the grand investment associated with rail travel and transport in that era.
http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/shopuwt/business_detail.cfm?business_ID=30
I found the first web page below on google in 2001, which can not be found today on google. It shows that August Truher was working on the Milwaukee Road rail line in 1913 when a derailment accident occurred. Milwaukee Road was formally Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific.
I saw a photo of the
The first link below lists:
Milwaukee Road Employees Involved in ICC Reportable Accidents, 1911-1940
Truher, August
Conductor
Ranier, Washington
Jul. 3, 1913
278
Derailment
Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2001 06:20:30 -0800
To: Haack_Ronald
From: Jack Truher <truher@sirius.com
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Subject: August Truher in rail accident in 1913.
Cc:
Bcc:
Search on web page for name Truher, who was conductor, working for Milwaukee Road in 1913, involved in a derailment accident, on the Ranier run. My father was 5 years old. August working steady. Perhaps the conductor promotion opportunity is what brought him out west, more than family estrangement.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sponholz/iccpart02.html
also of interest
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sponholz/index.html
and
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sponholz/milwroad.html
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Truher, August Accident of Record.
From an ICC accident report:
"Milwaukee Road Employees Involved in ICC Reportable Accidents, 1911-1940
NAME JOB TITLE LOCATION RR DIVISION DATE ICC REPORT ACCIDENT COMMENTS
Truher Conductor Ranier, Washington Not Stated Jul. 3, 1913 278 Derailment"
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more on August's railroad years
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To: "Ron Haack" <cookierhh@verizon.net
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From: Jack Truher <truher@earthlink.net
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Subject: Re: August Truher Timeline
Cc:
Bcc:
Jack,
Attached is a Family TreeMaker Timeline of August Truher, his wife Nellie and his five children. I hope you can read it ok, if not, I will post it on the site.
What an interesting presentation. Both versions 1,2 have a text location problem with Louis Truher. The text sits to right of the box. Box itself for Louis is blank. Those history events add a lot to my way of thinking about the dates.
Now, to the best of your knowledge, fill in his work timeline at the Milwaukee Road. We know he was working as a brakeman as early as 1891, from the Minneapolis City Directory, and that the entire family left the farm at Wild Rice Township, Norman County Minnesota, about 1886, when August was about 20 years old. He would have been about 25 when he was a brakeman, maybe even younger, we do not know.
I recall that the wedding announcement in the Austin paper said he was a brakeman then. I have had the understanding that a railroad worker had to qualify and serve time in rank, including for some time as engineer, before becoming a conductor, which is how he is presumed to have been working for all latter years.
Try to estimate when he retired. We know his name was mentioned in a rail accident way out west about July 3, 1913. In 1913, he would have been about 47 years old. When did you think he tried to retire, what age? At the Milwaukee Road's bankruptcy in 1925, he would have been about 59 years old, getting pretty close. At the Milwaukee's exit from the 1925 bankruptcy in 1928, he would have been 62. By the next bankruptcy in 1935, he would have been 69 years old, in the middle of the Great Depression. Pole the family on this one.
Michael would have no idea. Jim Jr. might know something. Could take a few days. They don't linger on these ideas.
Certainly August worked past 1935. In those rough years, when I was born, he was the only one with a regular job. In those years, nobody thought that 59 years old was normal retirement. 65 was the expectation as in soc security, and August had to work until later. I have the memory, if vague in detail, he had to work until age 74; that would mean retirement in 1941, which is consistent with my mental timeline. That picture of August and I in Altadena was in 1945 I think, just a couple years before August died. Also consistent with my timeline. The year 1941 is my best guess for August retirement. I'll ask Jim if he can remember anything.
"In 1905, the Milwaukee decided to expand west again, this time to Puget Sound. The "Lines West" were built between 1906 and 1909, from the middle of South Dakota to Seattle/Tacoma. Technological marvels, the lines were never successful, and were a major contributor to the bankruptcy in 1925. In 1928 the Road reorganized as the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific. It was bankrupt again in 1935 and 1945. In 1977, once more in financial trouble, it reorganized and shed two-thirds of its trackage. It was acquired by the Soo Line Corp. on February 21, 1985, which operated it as the Milwaukee Road, Inc., until merging it into the Soo Line on January 1, 1986."
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Augusta Truher Haack's train trip to Seattle, 1951
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2003m1006 -- Jack Truher
My father almost never spoke about his own family background in any detail. There were so many unmentionable issues, off the table for discussion, that I never pressed my father about the larger Truher family.
Some of this reticence was due to the conflicted war years' experiences. Two world wars made identification as German risky in America.
Dad would tell occasional stories from his childhood in Kent, Washington. But I was curious about the residual Truher's in the mid-west. Knowing my interest in this, my mother checked in library through a number of big city phone books for me in the 1960s, looking for Truher surnames. I actually wrote to a few of these, and got perhaps three responses then.
In recent years, as a result of being found by cousin Ron Haack, I am able to put together what our grandfather August Truher's family was about. The short of it is that August's two sisters both married maintenance workers at the Minneapolis-St Paul railroad line terminal for a major rail company called The Milwaukee Road. Those sisters were then Mathilda Truher Frank and Augusta Truher Haack, whose lifetime family incomes were derived from that rail line. I think that Ron Haack's father became an electrician there. August also raised his family by the income of the Milwaukee Road, first laying new rail, then as a brakeman when that meant hopping atop moving cars to turn brake shaft wheels, and finally as a conductor for most of his working years.
My father told us only that "August was a conductor". We were told nothing about the rest of the railroading family. I'm not sure what Pop knew either. August was a very taciturn figure. My mother did not get along with August's wife, Nellie. There was probably some sort of family estrangement due to August's committing his father, Gottlieb, to a mental institution for a time -- or some combination of reasons. There was a religious family schism.
What I have learned through Ron Haack is that Mathilda and Augusta lived across the street from each other in comfortable, modest two-story houses in Minneapolis, raising their own families. There were active Lutheran cathedral affiliates.
Augusta had a daughter, named Delilah, who became Delilah Haack Deuel. In 1951 Augusta took a train to visit Delilah (and probably August) in the Seattle area.
What follows is an account by Ron Haack of his recollection of a drive to the train depot, starting Augusta on her journey.
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From: "Ron Haack" <cookierhh@verizon.net
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Subject: Milwaukee Road 1947
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 00:50:48 -0500
This email has some Milwaukee Road's train pictures, scanned from a book, and my account of my grandmother Gussie Haack's trip to Seattle in about 1951. The book is "The Milwaukee Road" 1928-1985 by Jim Scribbins.
Attached is a Milwaukee Road photo from the summer of 1947. It brings fond memories back to me from that era.
The "Columbian" is the train that Augusta Truher Haack took to Seattle to visit the Deuel family and daughter Delilah, either in the Summer of 1950 or 1951, but definitely before the death of her brother Charlie Truher in Minneapolis in September of 1951. The advent of the much faster Olympian Hiawatha in 1947 resulted in changing the old "Olympian" to a new name, the "Columbian", older cars and drawn by a steam engine. Slower, more stops, old fashioned sleeper cars (bunks above each other, all in one car, none of those fancy rooms, etc.) You Deuel folks maybe could pinpoint the year better. I remember her telling us that she preferred the Columbian because it was a slower train than the Olympian Hiawatha. She also had her Milwaukee Road pass for free coach travel, sleeper extra.
I remember visiting Charlie Truher with my Grandma Gussie in a Minneapolis nursing home early that Summer. Charlie was in pretty bad shape, but wanted to with her to visit Delilah. Gussie encouraged him along, fully knowing he was in no shape to go, which makes me believe it was 1951. My dad Herb Haack and I and maybe others drove Gussie to the Milwaukee Depot on Washington Avenue in Minneapolis one nice Summer morning.
We saw her off in the station, then drove to a rail siding where my dad knew the "Columbian" would side until under way. Sure enough, there it was stopped, it's big old steam locomotive spewing smoke, ashes and steam. We parked along side the tracks, and when the train started to roll, there was Gussie at an open window, waving to us. All of us waved back.
Gussie had a good trip, but came down with a very bad cold, almost pneumonia, that Summer. She died of lung Cancer in August of 1953 in Minneapolis.
The Hiawatha in the top picture is very similar to the Twin Cities Hiawatha that my dad took me for an excursion one Summer day from Saint Paul to Winona, Minnesota. I remember the General Motors diesel-electric engine, shown in the top picture. We spent several hours in Winona, me eating too much ice cream that I got sick and heaved all up on the return trip to Saint Paul on the Afternoon Hiawatha from Chicago (a very crowded train). Methinks all this took place in the late forties, maybe 19548 or 1946, I can't be sure.
Sure beat our modern air travel! he,he.
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Ron Haack
<mailto:cookierhh@verizon.net
>cookierhh@verizon.net
Hi, Buffs (again),
I read in my Milwaukee Road book WHY Gussie took the Columbian over the Olympian Hiawatha. Remember that I said she told us she preferred the Columbian because it was not as fast as the Hiawatha.
My book later mentioned railroad passes. Employee's passes (and their spouse's) did not entitle them to ride the faster Hiawathas. Gussie was just trying to placate us, because no way was she going to pay full fare to ride the Hiawatha. That was Gussie, never complaining!
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WW1 era, August's family repression of German heritage
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2003m1006 The information blackout about the Truher family that was communicated to August's grandchildren suggests some deliberate repression. We were reminded of this repression in the previous section on August Truher as told by his daughter Helen Truher Alderman:
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"Father told me that his mother (Caroline) saw to it that he went to school (Lutheran church schools) and insisted on his speaking "high German". She had been well educated in Prussia and made him study when he was a boy. He did speak beautiful German when I could coax him to help me. (Note During WW-I, he wouldn't let the children admit their German heritage at all.)
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The article that follows bears on the repression that reached Jim-Jack-Mike Truher. The American population in WW1 had been deliberately taught to fear and disdain German soldiers as baby-killing, mutilating barbarians, in most instances, falsely.
In the 1960s, I became aware of stories of atrocities in Belgium during the march of Alexander von Kluck's Prussian first Army at the start of WW1. I read Barbara Tuchman's "Guns of August" carefully on this point many years ago. I do not think that Tuchman challenged the validity of the atrocity reports, which have been shown as largely false. This correction of history, which affected our understanding of our heritage, is explained below.
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Mr. Fleming's latest book is The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I (Basic Books, 2003). He is a member of the board of directors of HNN.
rom http://hnn.us/articles/1489.html
6-09-03: Historians/History
by Thomas Fleming
on The Historian Who Sold Out
With historians heavily involved in either defending or damning the war in Iraq, it might be good time to ponder the case of Viscount James Bryce, the historian who sold out.
From the start of World War I, stories of German atrocities filled British and American newspapers. Most emanated from the German march through Belgium to outflank French defenses in their drive on Paris. Eyewitnesses described infantrymen spearing Belgian babies on their bayonets as they marched along, singing war songs. Accounts of Belgian boys with amputated hands (supposedly to prevent them from using guns) abounded. Tales of women with amputated breasts multiplied even faster.
At the top of the atrocity hit parade were rape stories. One eyewitness claimed the Germans dragged twenty young women out of their houses in a captured Belgian town and stretched them on tables in the village square, where each was violated by at least twelve "Huns" while the rest of the division watched and cheered. At British expense, a group of Belgians toured the United States telling these stories. President Woodrow Wilson solemnly received them in the White House.
The Germans angrily denied these stories. So did American reporters with the German army. Early in 1915, the British government asked Viscount Bryce to head a royal commission to investigate the atrocity reports. Bryce was one of the best known historians of the era; he had written widely praised books on the American government and on Irish history, sympathetically portraying the Gaels hard lot under British rule. In 1907, he had collaborated with an Anglo-Irish diplomat, Roger Casement, to expose horrendous exploitation of Indian peoples on the Amazon by a British rubber company. From 1907-1913, he had served as British ambassador in Washington, where he became a popular, even beloved figure. It would have been hard to find a more admired scholar.
Bryce and his six fellow commissioners, an amalgam of distinguished lawyers, historians and jurists, "analyzed" 1,200 depositions of eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen atrocious German behavior. Almost all the testimony came from Belgians who had fled to England as refugees; some were statements from Belgian and British soldiers, collected in France. The commissioners never interrogated one of these eyewitnesses; that task was left to "gentlemen of legal knowledge and experience" -- lawyers. Since the asserted crimes took place in what continued to be a war zone, there was no on site investigation of any report.
Not a single witness was identified by name; the commissioners said this was justified in the case of Belgians by the fear that there might be German reprisals against family members. But British soldier witnesses remained equally anonymous, for no apparent reason. Nevertheless in his introduction, Bryce said he and his fellow commissioners had tested the evidence "severely."
The Bryce Report was released on May 13, 1915. British propaganda headquarters in Wellington House, near Buckingham Palace, made sure it went to virtually every newspaper in America. The impact was stupendous, as the headline and subheads in the New York Times make clear.
GERMAN ATROCITIES
ARE PROVED, FINDS
BRYCE COMMITTEE
Not Only Individual Crimes, but
Premeditated Slaughter
in Belgium
YOUNG AND OLD MUTILATED
Women Attacked, Children Bru-
tally Slain, Arson and
Pillage Systematic
COUNTENANCED BY OFFICERS
Wanton Firing on Red Cross and
White Flag: Prisoners and
Wounded Shot
CIVILIANS USED AS SHIELDS
On May 27, 1915, Wellington House operatives in America reported to London: "Even in papers hostile to the Allies, there is not the slightest attempt to impugn the correctness of the facts alleged. Lord Bryce's prestige in America put skepticism out of the question." Charles Masterman, the head of Wellington House, told Bryce: "Your report has swept America."
Among the few critics of the Bryce Report was Sir Roger Casement. "It is only necessary to turn to James Bryce, the historian, to convict Lord Bryce, the partisan," Casement wrote in a furious essay, "The Far Extended Baleful Power of the Lie." By this time Casement had become an advocate of Irish independence. Few people paid any attention to his dissent, which was dismissed as biased. Clarence Darrow, the famously iconoclastic American lawyer, who specialized in winning acquittals for seemingly guilty clients, was another skeptic. He went to France later in 1915 and searched in vain for a single eyewitness who could confirm even one of the Bryce stories. Increasingly dubious, Darrow announced he would pay $1,000, a very large sum in 1915 -- more than $17,000 in 21st Century money -- to anyone who could produce a Belgian or French boy whose hands had been amputated by a German soldier. There were no takers.
After the war, historians who sought to examine the documentation for Bryce's stories were told that the files had mysteriously disappeared. This blatant evasion prompted most historians to dismiss 99 percent of Bryce's atrocities as fabrications. One called the report "in itself one of the worst atrocities of the war."
More recent scholarship has scaled down the percentage of the Bryce Report's fabrications; several thousand Belgian civilians, including some women and children, were apparently shot by the Germans in the summer of 1914 and Bryce more or less accurately summarized some of the worst excesses, such as the executions in the town of Dinant. But even these latter day scholars admit Bryce's report was seriously "contaminated" by the rapes, amputations and speared babies. They blamed this lapse on hysteria and war rage. This amounts to giving Bryce a free pass.
Correspondence between the members of the Bryce committee survived the destruction of the documents; it reveals severe doubts about the tales of mutilation and rape. One of the committee's secretaries admitted that he had been given numerous English addresses of Belgian women supposedly made pregnant by German rapes but could not locate a single case. Even the story of a member of Parliament sheltering two pregnant women turned out to be fraudulent. Bryce apparently brushed aside this negative evidence.
Lord Bryce the scholar should have known -- and almost certainly did know - -that tales of spearing babies and cutting off the breasts of murdered women were standard "hate-this-enemy" fables hundreds of years old, So were mass rapes in fields and public squares. He should have rejected such fabrications out of hand. Instead, he lumped them all into a general condemnation of the German army and people.
Why didn't Bryce dismiss the fabrications and concentrate on the German executions of civilians? Because that opened a very sticky subject. A high percentage of the Belgian Army were "home guards" who wore no uniforms except for an insignia pinned to their shirts or hats. The Germans, desperately trying to win in the West before the invading Russian Army smashed through their lightly held lines in the East, were infuriated by these seemingly civilian combatants, and showed them no mercy. They were entitled to do so by the rules of war in 1914. Some German field commanders obviously lost their heads and retaliated excessively against whole towns, such as Dinant. But a defense of sorts could be mounted, even for these men. The ensuing debate would have produced yawns in newspaper readers. They wanted what Bryce gave them -- blood and lust and horror.
The Bryce Report unquestionably helped England win the war. It convinced millions of Americans and other neutrals -- it was translated into 27 languages -- that the Germans were beasts in human form. No one except a few outsiders such as Casement ever reproached Lord Bryce for these vicious lies. He went to his grave loaded with royal and academic honors.
From a perspective of a hundred years, we ought to take a harsher view. The Bryce Report has obvious connections to the British decision to maintain the blockade of Germany for seven months after the armistice in 1918, causing the starvation deaths of an estimated 600,000 elderly and very young Germans. This was far and away the greatest atrocity of World war I and it made every German man and woman hunger for revenge. By creating blind hatred of Germany, Bryce sowed the dragons teeth of World War II.