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Family
Marriage: Children:
  1. Ella Mae Maurer: Birth: 11 Mar 1887 in Vermillion, Clay, South Dakota, United States. Death: 30 Jan 1968 in Faulkton, Faulk, South Dakota, United States

  2. Clara Christine Maurer: Birth: 20 Mar 1889 in Vermillion, Clay, South Dakota, United States. Death: DEAD in Faulkton, Faulk, South Dakota, United States

  3. Frank Roland Maurer: Birth: 20 Dec 1892 in Vermillion, Clay, South Dakota, United States. Death: 31 Jan 1988 in Fort Meade, Meade, South Dakota, United States


Notes
a. Note:   !The following is from their newspaper: "Funeral services were held for Mrs. Christine Maurer Monday afternoon at the Sorum Funeral chapel. Rev. Clayton Berry was in charge. Richard Holmberg, a great grandson, sang "Good Night Here, Good Morning Up There," "Beyond the Sunset", and "Jesus Lover of My Soul," with a granddaughter, Mrs. Richard Hammond at the organ. Miss ReJean Bowar played during a part of the service. The Eastern Star gave the ritual service at the Chapel at the close of the service. !Internment was beside her husband in the Faulkton cemetery. !Christine Lillian Peterson, daughter of Christine and G. Jonas Peterson, was born on 18 September 1864, in Gagnef Parish, Darlana, Sweden. She was one of thirteen children. When four years old, she came with her parents and a brother to Vermillion, where they lived on a homestead. The family later moved to Vermillion. !The family lived on their farm at Vermillion until forty-seven years ago when Mr. and Mrs. Maurer and Frank moved to a farm near Faulkton. Mr. and Mrs. Maurer moved to Faulkton thirty-five years ago. !Mrs. Maurer had been confined to a wheel chair the past two years. She became seriously ill March 9th and died March 10th at the Faulk County Memorial hospital. She was 92 years of age. !She united with the Baptist Church while at Vermillion. At Faulkton, she attended the Methodist Church. She was a member of the Fairview Ladies Club at Vermillion, The Tuesday Club, W. C. T. U. American Legion Auxiliary and the Order of the Eastern Star at Faulkton. !Additional Notes from Lucille Wimer: "Christine (Peterson) Maurer was four years old when the family came to the United States. She just remembered that her hat blew off in the ocean. Her brother was eight years old. They came because her father Gjed Jonas Peterson believed in religious freedom. The Lutheran Church was the national church of Sweden and he didn't agree with it's concepts (all of them, that is). He was pretty well educated and had some money. !His wife's sister and family - Grafs Anders Anderson, Jr., came and homesteaded on the farm next to them. Christine (Peterson) Maurer's daughter, Mae, corresponded in later years with their daughter, Esther Anderson (who was about Mae's age). Esther became Mrs. Joel Lundeen, and lived in Aberdeen, South Dakota, for a time., !More history from Lucille Wimer: "Christine Peterson was born in Sweden (think at Vasterfors Village, Gagnef Parish, Dalarna), and came to the United States when she was four years old and her brother eight years of age. All she remembered of the voyage is that her hat blew off into the ocean. Judging from her photos, she was a young woman of average appearance, not especially pretty. As I recall her in later years, she had a beautiful fair "Swedish skin and complexion". Her hair was brown (grayish eyes) and she wore it in a very fancy twisted design in back - a "switch" which she pinned on and could then twist into the intricate design very quickly. Of average height and great pride, she had, on occasion, the bearing of a "personage' and one felt that here was someone of importance. She was efficient, a bit on the domineering side, and it was largely due to her that the family retained its financial success and progressed during she and her husband's early years. (I recall mother saying that Grandpa would have squandered much of it away - or not made it - taking his horses to races at the county fairs, etc.) !She worked for a time in her father's mercantile store in Vermillion and that is where she met her future husband Edward Henry Maurer. All her life she called him "Edward Henry" seldom shortening it to Ed as most people did. He then had brilliant dark eyes, almost black. I remember her telling me about being at a dance before they were married. Evidently some girl commented on his eyes and that she could take him away from Grandma. Christine replied something to the effect that she "didn't think she could, but to just go ahead and try. If she could, it was better to know it now" - which to me was very typical of Grandma. !Christine was not married in the Baptist Church as she "wasn't going to promise to obey her husband". (or anyone) She attended the Methodist Church in Faulkton (at least when I was old enough to remember) when she went to church. She fussed at her widowed daughter Mae (my mother) until she quit attending the Catholic Church, but seemed to think it all right for we children to do so until she became determined that Don (Sullivan) join the "Friendly Indians". Just a youth group like scouts or ?? but which Father McManus had said no Catholic boys could do, largely, I think because the Congregationsl minister headed it. Later, I know the Catholic kids belonged. !Christine and her husband farmed on land originally belonging to his parents, a few miles East of Vermillion - beautiful stretch where they planted trees on both sides of the road - long since cut down to widen the highway. There they built a fine large two story square frame house. This house even had a music room and the "hired men's room" above the kitchen was large enough to sleep six, though I have no idea that or if they had at any time that many hired men. Evidently, there were many guests for meals and much company. They later rented out the property at Vermillion and bought land about four miles South of Faulkton, South Dakots in the Northern area of South Dakota and moved there with their son Frank - the daughters then being married. Again, they built - a large barn (still in use in 1958) and a small one story house. Some years later, they purchased land across the road about a half mile farther South on the East side. This time they built a house with turret and a big front porch as was the style then. Upon retirement, they purchased lots from Patrick O'Neil (Faulkton's man of wealth who moved to Los Angeles contributing considerable to the catheral there, etc.) South of the courthouse and on a "corner". The house was set in the center of a large lawn with a driveway to the house which circled in back hidden by honeysuckle, lilacs, spirea, etc. (Always called "the circle"). This house was built of stucco and again vastly different from any of the others they had built previously. The many flowers planted in front of the shrubbery "circle" and around the house made it a show place. Mnay a person stopped in passing just to look. !Flowers became her hobby. In self defense from spongers, who got to the point that they not only asked for flowers but said what kind, she became irked one day and told a woman that that would be $.25 or $.50 or whatever, which shocked her. However, other people then came by to ask to buy flowers so they began to sell them making up funeral, wedding sprays, etc. (Mae usually did the arranging). This became the "pin money" with which rock crystal dessert plates, goblets, etc., were purchased. !It was the custom for Christine and her husband, upon retirement to spend their winters in Long Beach, California usually staying at the Chestnut Apartments near the ocean. The Colgrove family, who lived in the next and only other house in the block (one vacant lot between) were good friends who also went to California in the winter. I have heard grandma talk of a few couples going together and "getting a car" (special railroad car chartered for them) - Think O'Neils went at least once with them - for these trips in early years. As they grew older, they no longer went in winter. Depression and Dust Bowl years also came along. !Her schooling was limited as one would expect in a large pioneer family who commenced life in this country in a "dug out". (Her youngest sister Mary ended up with a University education and Christine's daughters both attended the University). She was often kept at home to sew and knit for the younger children. As she told me many times, in every dream she ever had, somewhere in it, she was barefoot - no doubt caused by the fact that she often had to go to school barefoot even when a big girl and felt greatly humiliated. Possibly this remembrance of hard times and fear of such a possibility in the future were what caused her to guard her pennies so closely. !Christine was rather "close" with money and objected intensely to many little things as buying a pice of pie and coffee at the local cafe when home was right there and "wasn't hers good enough?" as indeed it was her apply pie was superb. The cafe was in sight of the house but if any of us ever saw a relative in there it was never mentioned at home and we hoped we hadn't been seen going in. !By contrast, however, she allowed nothing "cheap" to be purchased. In home, furniture, clothing, etc., one bought quality (you wore your old things - somethimes mended and patched underneath where it din't show - until you could buy and pay for the new spot cash the really good items - which I learned was truly the smart way. She was wise enough and forward looking enough to plan their last home in advance of the times so that it is still a well planned and modern home even in the 1970's (House was inherited by Frank Maurer and was sold after Mae Sullivan's death so no longer in the family). I recall her sister Ellen, married to Ras Pivito an oil man, once sent her a beautiful dress of hers - hand made of Cluny Lace and at that time very costly. It sort of irked Christine but she knew its style and worth and she did wear it on very special occasions though I doubt if she would ever have worn anything else as a hand me down from Ellen - "she could afford her own things." !I heard my first risque story (or nearly) from her. She got a kick out of an amusing story - one that would go way over mother's head or if she "got it" that would cause mother to leave the room (and they were not filthy stories) which also sometimes amused her. !Christine was a very active person. In addition to her hobbies of flower raising, she enjoyed crocheting (I have two bedspreads that she made which are presently about 55 and 40 years old respectively, and a hooked rug which she used to make out of cut up old silk stockings and yarn - for the flowers). She early belonged to an auction Bridge Club, Merry Makers Club, and others as well as the Easter Star Lodge. She prided herself on doing her official duties perfectly, with all of the ritual memorized. !I don't know what caused the difficulty between she and Grandpa the P. W. Petersons - (Grandma's brother and Grandpa's sister Ada) of Vermillion, South Dakota. I was grown up completely before I even knew we had any relations there (on mother's side of the family). In spite of continuous trips back to Vermillion, at least a couple a year, I never once heard either of them speak of the P. W. Petersons. I asked mother about it and she always shrugged it off or said "I'll tell you sometime" from which I gathered that she either didn't approve of it or was ashamed of the fact. I think it probably had to do with money for in an old letter from Grandpa's older sister Ellen Maurer, she says something about "at least getting something out of "it" for their father. I got the impression that he had loaned the Petersons a large sum of money when they were farming, which they never paid back or some such thing. Apparently, Ellen too was displeased with them - they had evidently told her also that they didn't want to have anything to do with her, after learning that she had visited Christine, etc., - this from another letter -. !Christine had a mastoidectomy while they were still spending winters in California. It was done by a specialist, but a few years later (after I had quit nurses' training I know) she had a reoccurence and Dr. Zachritz wanted her to go to Rochester, New York for surgery but she insisted that he do it, as to use her words, she figured "he could do it, and if not, she didn't give a damm". He was a fine surgeon. Her daughter Clara and I were called into the surgery during the operation and shown where the skull was eaten through and the brain exposed or touched., We were asked to decide immediately as to whether Dr. Zachritz should just "clean it up" giving her a chance for perhaps six more months to live or to do a good complete surgical job with little chance of recovery probable. We, of course, told him to just "clean it up". Several hours after surgery, she went into a coma and paralysis of entire left side but eventually came out of it all except for the left side of her face where her mouth drooped, and the lid under her eye also drooped causing her intense pain - it was drying -. I persuaded her to go to Dr. Rudolph (eye specialist in Aberdeen that I knew was very good). He removed the lashes and sewed the lid under her eye to the upper lid leaving a tiny slit to see through. She lived for many years after all this. !Christine died at 92 1/2 years of age. In these later years, she had become very senile and was confined to a wheelchair. She had also become very thin and didn't seem at all like the person I knew, when I went to her funeral. She had always been a robust person and I'd guess she weighed around 150-160 pounds during the years when I best recall her. She is buried in the Protestant Cemetary at Faulkton as is her husband." !From another history from Lucille Wimer: "Edward Maurer and Christine farmed on land originally belonging to his parents. They later built a house, etc., on this land which lay east of Vermillion. Additional farm land was purchased which lay "on the bottom". These farms were rented and they purchased land at Faulkton, South Dakota, where they continued farming operations until their retirement when they built a house in town and lived there. Christine died of a heart attack after being a semi-invalid and confined to a wheel chair for a number of years. She was 92 years of age." !A copy of a newspaper article CELEBRATE GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY, she sent me on 16 March 1999: "Mr. and Mrs. E. H Maurer celebrated their golden wedding anniversary Sunday at a family dinner. The three course dinner was served by two granddaughters, Misses Lucille and Marjorie Sullivan. A gold wedding cake and gold candles decorated the table, other appointments and the menu carried out the gold color. Just before the last course the three smallest grandchildren, Marlene Ann, and Frankie Maurer and Donald Sullivan presented their grandparents with a golden gift from the group. The afternoon was spent socially and in taking snapshots of the group. All their children and grandchildren were present. They were: Mr. and Mrs. Frank Maurer and children Marlene and Frank, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. P. J. Ruhaak and son Roland, Mr. and Mrs. Ted Holmberg, Mrs. Mae Sullivan and children Lucille, Marjorie and Donald. Other guests were Mr. and Mrs. G. E. Swanson of Wausa, Neb., whose wedding anniversary was the day before, W. H. Waterman and Mr. and Mrs. George Waterman who were old friends of the Maurers when they lived near Vermillion. Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Maurer have been residents of Faulk county for the last twenty-four years, coming here from Vermillion." She also wrote that "Grandma and Grandpa E. H. Maurer also celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary."


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