Preface by Bob Wundrock, nephew of Dorothy Dehlinger
The following is the recollections of Dorothy Dehlinger
(1907-1994), oldest daughter of Jacob and Agnes (Betker) Dehlinger. My Aunt
Dorothy Dehlinger was the matriarch of the family since her mother met an
untimely death in 1954. She always had stories about her upbringing and early
life in Rosholt. Dorothy lived at home in Rosholt and Stevens Point until her
parents died in 1954. During the Stevens Point years she was a housekeeper for
the Dunnegans, and Mingenbocks. She also worked for Taylor’s Drug stores as a
cook and bookkeeper at their south side and downtown stores. Never married, she
was an opinionated, generous and well-read person.
Dorothy’s handwritten memoirs were transcribed by my daughter,
Rachel, then edited by me.
Bob's parents:
Herbert Wundrock of Milwaukee married Irene Dehlinger in Stevens Point in 1940. They raised six children: Judy, Pat Mike, Bob, Mary and Chris.
GRANDPARENTS
Jacob (1879 - 1954) Dehlinger and Agnes Betker (1886 - 1954 daughter of Carl and Mary) were married at St. Adalbert’s church, Rosholt in 1904. For a while Jacob tried farming in Wausau, but found he didn’t enjoy it. He moved back to Rosholt and became a self-taught electrical engineer. He ran the Rosholt power plants, both steam and water powered, until 1922, when a power company bought the system. Jacob had wired many of the homes and businesses in Rosholt. The family moved to Stevens Point in 1922 into a house Jacob had built on Center Street. He worked for the Soo Line Railroad until the 1930’s and then was a handyman until his death in 1954. Agnes also died in 1954. Jacob and Agnes raised nine children: Carl, Dorothy, Mary, Lucy, Ray, Irene, Ozzie, Jim and Bob.
GREAT-GRANDPARENTS
Nicolas Dehlinger emigrated from Alsace-Loraine in 1866. Even though he spoke German, some area residents referred to him as a “frog,” a derision on his supposed French ancestry. Johanna Meier came from New York as a child with her parents. Both settled in the Ellis area. Nicolas and Johanna Dehlinger raised nine children on a farm just north of Ellis, Wisconsin. The children were: Johanna, Jacob, Charles, Alex, Carl, Henry, August, Lena, and Albert. The Nick and Johanna (a.k.a. Regina) were divorced and Johanna went to Stevens Point to work at the Jacobs House. She died of the flu in 1900. Nick remained on the farm until seven years before his death in 1914.
Additional Information
MRS. NICHOLAS DEHLINGER;
Mrs. Johanna Fredericka Dehlinger died at the home of her mother, Mrs. C. F. Meier, 626 Elk street, shortly before four o'clock last Saturday morning, after an illness of only a couple of days with heart trouble, which was brought on with great severity by an attack of grippe (influenza). The deceased lady was a native of New York City, where she was born Feb. 22, 1850, and would therefore be 50 years of age on the 22nd of this month. Her parents came to Wisconsin when she was a child and at once located on a farm in the town of Sharon. About 33 years ago she was married to Nicholas Dehlinger, but a few years ago they decided to live apart, and since then Mrs. Dehlinger had lived with her mother in this city. Last fall she went up to Dancy to cook in a lumbering camp, but thereafter was called back on account of the illness of her mother, who is about 75 years of age, and was seriously ill for a time, but has recovered. Mrs. Dehlinger was stricken suddenly on Thursday and passed away at the time above stated. Besides the mother and husband, there are eight children, Alex, Charles, Carl, Jacob, Henry, August, Albert and Lena, some of whom have made their home in the town of Sharon, and others in this city. The loss is a severe one, most especially to the aged mother, who is now left alone. The funeral was held yesterday morning from St. Martin's Catholic church in the town of Sharon, Rev. E. P. Lorigan officiating, with interment in the church cemetery.
Nick died, January 13, 1914. His obituary in the Stevens Point Journal stated the following:
Nicholas Dehlinger, one of the early residents of the town of Sharon, where he lived for over forty years, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Nicholas (Lena) Simonis, at Rosholt, Sunday. Mr. Dehlinger had suffered for a year or more with cancer of the stomach. The deceased was seventy-three years of age and was born in Germany. He came to this country when he was twenty-five years old and lived on a farm in Sharon until seven years ago, since which he made his home with his sons and daughter. He made a trip back to his old home in Germany several years ago. There are eight surviving children, Carl and Charles Dehlinger, Wausau; Henry of Kelly; Albert, Rhinelander; and Mrs. Nicholas Simonis and August, Jacob, and Alexander of Rosholt. Mrs. Dehlinger died in 1900. The funeral will be held Wednesday morning from St. Martin's Church in Sharon, Rev. Bartleme officiating.
Early in their life together, mom and dad learned the hardships of acquiring a home of their own and the trials of raising a family. Their first year of married life was spent in an apartment above Jensen’s store in Rosholt where mother had been an employee at sixteen years of age. She did not have much schooling, only to the third grade, but was a mathematical whiz, which helped in her many tasks at the department store. Their second and third year they ventured on a farm near Wausau but that proved too difficult in view of dad’s weak and ailing back. So they decided to borrow enough money from a Rosholt bank to buy a home of their own. The house still stands as a prominent red brick structure on highway 66 on Rosholt’s east side. It was 1909 and the family now consisted of Carl (1905) and Dorothy (1907) with another on the way. Mary was the first baby in the family to be born in our new home in Rosholt.
This first home was in a grove of trees native to the area; tall pine, sturdy oak, few white birch and hard colorful maple. The house was of red brick veneer and at first consisted of three bedrooms, a living room, combination kitchen and dining room. A root cellar was a fine place to store home grown vegetables, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, rutabagas, beets and other hardy winter “keepers”. There too were the shelves with rows and rows of preserves, wild black berries, raspberries, applesauce, apple butter, jams, jellies, relishes, canned vegetables, pickles and other home preserved foods. Each fall dad bought a large barrel of apples (the barrel was labeled salt and for a good reason). The delicious, juicy red fruit was doled out each day and not one bite was wasted. A ten gallon earthen jar of sauerkraut, made from cabbage grown in our own garden, was cooked with spare ribs of pork or other fresh pork, another staple food raised from scratch.
Two porkers (pigs) were raised from little squealers in the spring, to fine specimens of hogs, expressly for fall butchering. I can still remember how the animals would squeal to high heaven when being cornered and caught for the ordeal; how the carcasses were dipped in a huge barrel of scalding hot water to remove the bristles. The entire process of dressing the beasts for the family larder was rather interesting but not too appetizing. The liver and heart were used first, cooked in a most palatable way, which was a treat. Mother usually made liver and blood sausage, each a most delicious addition to our daily fare. Smoked sausage, bacon, pork chops and roasts were other meats we enjoyed during the winter months. Processing the fat by grinding and rendering it into leaf lard was a project I won’t forget as I got blisters on my hands turning the old meat grinder attached to a kitchen chair. The fat, after grinding, was slowly heated in a large rendering kettle until it consisted of the golden liquid fat that turned a pure white when it cooled. The drained chittlins or cracklins were good to eat as they were or added to other food. Smoking the sausage was done by suspending them over a large pot of smoking corncobs in a large wooden barrel, our improvised smokehouse. Mother also would keep a flock of chickens, provided the family with fresh eggs as well as good roast chicken dinners, which usually was a Sunday treat. Sometimes she cooked good old-fashioned chicken soup, real chickeny with homemade noodles or dumplings and bits of carrot and parsley to add to the wonderful flavor.
Of course the family cow of mixed “Guernsey” breed, although not a registered bovine, was an excellent producer of quantities of rich milk. She received good care in return for her fine production record. Mother was kidded by her family, friends and neighbors about how she spent more time with the cow than she did with her family. She insisted on milking Bossy except when mom was ill or confined with a new baby. Bossy did get the best of hay, silage and supplements plus all the water she needed to produce that quantity of milk. Whenever she freshened (once had twin calves) she had to be milked three times a day averaging ten to twelve quarts at each milking. Later the quantity decreased but we always had enough for drinking, used the extra cream for making homemade butter, cottage cheese too made of extra milk as were all other foods made of dairy products. Mary was the official cow tender, from the time she could handle the critter. She insisted it was a difficult task, especially when Bossy decided to head for places other than her grazing area, then younger sister Mary could not hold her with the chain but would be dragged along ‘til someone came to her rescue. Incidentally, Dad, was brought up on a farm, but did not favor that kind of life so he decided to educate himself. It was not too easy to earn a living even in those simple days of the early 1900s. He had worked as a cook in a lumber camp before he was married. The wages were $30 per month. Later, after he was married and his growing family demanded the necessities of life, he decided to study the electrical line and so secured a book on the principles of electricity. He did well enough to engineer the electric power plants in Rosholt. During the summer months while the waterpower was available he worked at the plant, reading the various gauges and meters that were installed at the small power plant.
During the slack water seasons and winter months, the power had to be generated at the old saw mill where dad had to fire the huge furnace to get steam to do whatever was needed for the electrical power for the small town’s needs. Both these plants were most interesting and I still remember many things about them. At the waterpower plant dad had a bed, table, rocking chair and a few other chairs. Early in the skating season the town folk used the plant as a warming house and I still remember the row of skates on rows of hooks. Many of us did not have skates but as children enjoyed sleds pulled across the pond by the grown-ups. One fellow, Andrew Olson, was a champ of sorts both as skater and skier. He is mentioned in one of Malcolm Rosholt’s books.
We as children would carry dad’s hot supper to him when he had to be at the plant early during the fall, winter and spring months. Mother always put extra portions in the basket so we could eat along with dad. The supper usually consisted of hot fried potatoes, fried or boiled eggs, and sometimes raw eggs, which dad would mix with the potatoes. Sometimes baked potatoes with homemade butter, pork chops, and a vegetable, canned fruit, and homemade bread with butter. Dad’s daily work during daylight hours also included wiring homes, churches and other buildings as well as reading meters, so as to total the electrical bills. I recall going along with dad when he did a bit of wiring at the old Concorder Lutheran Church at Rosholt, exploring the attic and getting dirty with all the dust up there. One day Mary and I were down to visit dad. We found that he was down by the railroad depot, but there was a train in the station. Mary and I proceeded to climb under a railroad car to get to dad. It was one of the few times dad ever yelled at us.
Whenever dad had spare time, he cleared land of trees, shrubs, brush and stumps on another plot of ground. The land belonged to old man John Rosholt who let dad use the land in return for clearing it. All this required days of cutting down trees, clearing underbrush, dynamiting stumps and finally plowing the rough land. He planted potatoes the first year, then in later years, corn, both sweet corn and the field variety for silage. On our own land, he usually planted cucumbers, carrots, onions and all garden vegetables. One year he planted wheat, which yielded a fine crop, which he harvested. He took the grain to Bentley’s mill near Jordan where it was milled into fine flour for baking middling, etc. for animal consumption. There was always a patch of clover, which when cut and dried was winter forage for the old red cow. After cutting, the hay field was used for her grazing during the late part of the growing season.
Dad put on an extra room to be used as a kitchen, which was a welcome addition to the house, as the family had grown. Phillip was only a day old when he joined the angels. Lucy was born two years later, she was the first redhead in our family, she was little, but oh my! The folks bought an automatic cradle made by Lullaby Company of Stevens Point. Dad, even when busy, always found time to play with us. When we as tiny tots ran to greet him coming home, he would pick us up individually and toss us up in the air and then give us a whisker rub, which made us scream with delight. Dad was a great stickler for clean hands and combed hair at all meals, including breakfast. He set an example by always coming to the table well washed and hair combed. Mary and I wore our dark hair in long braids down our back. Neither had our hair cut until in our late teens.
When dad was a young man, he smoked a corncob pipe, but in later years gave that up. He avoided alcoholic beverages, but did have an occasional glass of beer. He never cursed or even used profane language. In fact, several of his cronies said he admonished them about using the name of the lord in vain, which they heeded. His credit rating was good as he did not buy what he did not need and what he needed was bought with hard earned cash. The fact that both parents observed these rules was great help to avoid bad debts. We were encouraged to keep our credit good.
My folks were devout Catholics who did their best to keep the laws of God and man. They impressed us with the desire to do the same thing.
While dad worked at the electrical plants, owned by Mr. John Rosholt, we visited his home and felt it was the grandest home in the village. His horse Bessie was a special pet that always came up to the fence, anticipating carrots, sugar or an apple. She was a beautiful and gentle creature, somewhat like Queenie, Grandpa Carl Betker’s carriage horse. When a large electrical firm bought out the local power plant, dad was released, as he was not a graduate engineer. How well I remember one of the graduate engineers came to our house to ask dad’s advice. His name was Ernest Zamsaw, who eventually married my cousin Helen Dehlinger. Helen died at the birth of her first child.
Dad became a highway patrolman of about seven miles of road in the area. It was then that he bought a team of horses, Molly and Babe, to use in his work of grading and other work to keep the road in good repair. The horses were very gentle and we kids became very attached to them, especially brother Carl. We had several pets such as Sport, a fox terrier; and several cats. One was a black and white feline beauty who when let into the house, always headed for the downstairs bedroom. He was so clean that there never was any evidence of him being there on the bed, his favorite place. Another cat, a large tawny creature, was real friendly until he was caught in a trap. His mangled foot gave us an inkling of what happened. After that, he was a very shy critter.
As children, Carl, Mary and I loved to walk the three miles to our grandparents’ Carl and Mary Betker’s farm. We once brought back a Christmas tree that Carl had cut in the grove on the farm. We always enjoyed our candle lighted tree with its garlands of stringed popcorn, Christmas cookies, polished red apples, colored popcorn balls, candy canes, strawberries and cherry candies and the pretty filmy angels perched on the very top.
Many people, especially the farmers, commented on mother’s clean windows, white washing on the line, and the well-kept vegetables and flower garden. Many folks passing on the highway stopped to buy small bouquets of the tea roses. There were four large bushels of them. She also had a climbing rose bush, seven sisters, which won a prize at the community fair. She loved roses and continued cultivating after we moved to Stevens Point.
After Lucy, Raymond arrived in 1915 and he was such an active fellow that we recall many an incident of his escapades when he was big enough to crawl and later run like the very dickens (as a matter of fact he never stopped going at a rapid pace). Irene arrived on the scene in 1917, and that made three auburn haired members, as Ray also was a carrot top.
Of course, we children had our own chores, which included chopping wood, filling the wood box, working the potato patch and the garden, which the boys usually shared. The girls washed windows, ironed clothes, and mended small tears, helping with the washing. An old hand washing machine was a big help, but still was work. Mother and dad’s family grew with an addition of Ozzie in 1920. He arrived quietly and he was quiet one of the family throughout his life. I still remember him as a dark haired tyke dressed in a pale nightie when he was about six months old. James arrived next in 1922, and that was a day of great concern. Mother had her babies at home with a doctor in attendance. On this day she was in grave danger, but god spared her and she lived.
Mother always baked bread and once a loaf won first prize at a Farmers Institute in the village. It was just one loaf of eight baked that day, but her bread always was so good as she put the best ingredients into it, milk, home rendered lard, good flour and a great deal of thought and hard work. She kneaded the whole batch ‘til it was even textured, then placed it in a warm place to rise. She baked it ‘til a golden brown in her wood range, the scent was the more tantalizing in the world of wonderful aromas. When spread with fresh homemade butter and eaten with a large glass of cool, unpasturized, non-homogenized, honest-to-goodness real down to earth cow’s milk, it was food fit for a queen and all her subjects.
Mother was a fine dressmaker in her younger days. She not only sewed all our clothing (from the skin out), but she also sewed wedding gowns for many young women of the area. We usually were all invited to the weddings where we as children learned to dance. My parents were fond of dancing, so they made the most of such an occasion. Because there was always a baby in the house, it usually was my task to help with the family washing and the baby wash with dozens of diapers, little shirts, nighties and such. As the wash was done early in the morning, I did the washboard stint before going to school.
I attended the Rosholt Public School ‘til my sophomore year in high school. In the lower grades we had hand inspection. How well I remember the teacher, Miss Olga Murat, commenting on my clean hands. I told her about how I washed baby diapers, this brought on a lot of laughter. Once a cyclone came out of a black sky, just as school let out. Mary and I made it home just as the storm hit. The wind blew down a lot of our fine trees; the rain was driven right under the doors into the house. Mother and dad were at Barney Betker’s wedding, so Mary and I were alone, but were too busy to be scared. Once a porcupine climbed to the very top of our tall pine trees, it was the one and only time I ever saw one. It was up there several days and came down at night.
It was quite common to see Indian families drive by with their lovely ponies. One family in particular would camp over night in our grove of trees. The hollow where they built their campfire remained many years later. One Indian man was cruel to his wife when he became drunk. She usually came to our kitchen without knocking and would squat on the floor with her papoose on her back saying, “trade bread.” She usually wore an Indian shawl and long, full shirts. Mother gave her bacon, bread, milk, fruit and vegetables. She in return gave mother hand woven Indian baskets, some of which lasted many years. As a small child, I believed Indians brought babies!
We attended the country church (St. Adalbert’s) usually walking the distance. When dad bought a second hand car, we were happy to ride especially on cold winter days. Later, he did buy a new Ford, which started the tradition of Fords in our family, up to the last one that my youngest brother Bob used to take to his classes at college starting in 1948. The old Ford was even mentioned in the “Iris”, the college yearbook. We enjoyed many outings on Sundays, going to grandma’s farm, to aunt Polly’s, to Wausau to have family picnics with uncle Charlie (Dehlinger), uncle Henry (Dehlinger), uncle Carl (Dehlinger), uncle August (Dehlinger) and uncle Alex (Dehlinger) from Rosholt, aunt Lena (Nick Simonis) from Rosholt, and uncle Albert (Dehlinger) from Rhinelander. Dad and his brothers usually played baseball while the women got the food ready on the tables. Usually there was a whole bunch of bananas hung on a tree for us kids to pick and enjoy eating.
Dad worked for Western Electric of Chicago as a demonstrator of their dynamos for rural areas; after that he worked for the Soo Line railroad in their Stevens Point yards in the car shops. It was about 1922 that he built our home on Center Street in Point.