Daniel Bertoch - Railroad Incident

I have already documented different accounts of the eye incident Fred received while working on the railroad, which Eda claimed included a back injury. I've wanted to investigate the incident more fully somehow, and the frequency and common types of railroad injuries.

Interestingly enough, I found an article where another family member was injured. This was Daniel Bertoch, Fred's son-in-law, who had married (and later divorced) his eldest daughter Marie. The marriage had only occurred 1.5 months prior, and no doubt Daniel being immediately out of work would have caused a strain on the relationship. The injury here appears to have been less devastating than Fred's, but I am sure was quite difficult. I do not know much about the wheel press, and how Daniel would have had to handle the wheels.

Document Type: Newspaper Article
Written by: Newspaper editor?
Written on: June 14, 1905
Periodical: Deseret Evening News
Originals: Yes
In Possession by: Multiple Venues

Content:

Pocatello, Idaho.

Injured in Car Shops.

Daniel H. Bertoch Has a Leg Broken by Falling Wheel

Special Correspondence.

Pocatello, Ida., June 22.--Daniel H. Bertoch, 37 years of age, an employe[e] of the Oregon Short Line shops here, was seriously injured this afternoon about 3:30 o'clock. He was engaged in rolling a car wheel away from the wheel press, a new work for him, when the wheel fell on him, breaking one leg. He was given medical attention at once.

Mr. Bertock was born in Salt Lake City, but came here from Magrath, Canada, last winter, and recently married Miss Marie Kohlhepp of this city.

Letter to Wilford Woodruff -- Settlement in Utah

In July 1893, Fred was struggling to determine a proper home for his family. There were other LDS men in this situation in Pocatello, who'd come from different locations. They determined, with Fred writing the letter, to reach out to Wilford Woodruff, the fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Woodruff had been in this position since 1889) for guidance. They came to him with a proposal to dig a well and create an establishment in the desert lands west of Salt Lake. It's hard to determine exactly where they proposed -- "Granite Mountains" in the Dugway District southwest from Salt Lake on the American Desert.

It no doubt seems to reference this general region in the desert west of Tooele (where George Reynolds and Joseph F. Smith directed the feedback). Here's a map from Google, not looking very hospitality. The Dugway here is the government facility built around WWII for testing purposes reg. chemical agents and other top secret projects. It would not have been the reference Fred was making. The pin on here is for Granite Peak. A not very hospitable place. I don't believe Fred and his family every attempted to settle out here in the end.

I've included the document, along with response notes from Joseph F. Smith and George Reynolds.

Document Type: Letter
When Written: July 16, 1893
Location: Pocatello, Idaho
By whom: Frederick J. Kohlhepp
To whom: Wilford Woodruff
Additional Notes from: Joseph F. Smith, George Reynolds
Originals: Yes
In Possession by: LDS Church History Library

Content:

Wilford Woodruff,

Dear Brother We your bretheren have contemplated going down to the Desert near Granite Mts. in the Dug way District south west from Salt Lake on the American Desert, for the purpose of sinking an artesian well for the purpose of irigation, and if we could strike water there we intended to go down there and take up land colonize there, and before taking any further steps, we thought it adviseable to ask your advise on it.

[p2] Being acquainted with the Well driveing buisness, and we brethren have families and no land and we would like to get homes for us and our families; We have an Idea that if we could get water there, it would be a great opening for settlements.
Please write as soon as convenient, as we would like your aproval and ever wishing to be dictated by those in authority, ever praying for your wellfare, we remain your brethen in the Gospel.

Fred J. Kohlhepp
John. Ethos Olive.
John J Cairns
William K. B[??]seter

[p3] P.S.

We are all from different places, here working for means to make us homes somewhere.

I have been through that part of the country several years ago, and think by the lay of the land that wells could be got there.
Fred. J. Kohlhepp
Pocatello Idaho

In other handwriting by J. F. S. [Joseph F. Smith]:

I think these brethren should counsel with the Presidency of the Tooele stake, as they may know something about the region they speak of. If they can spend the means + time to test the wellboring question, and if successful, enough land could be reclaimed thereby to make a settlement where schools + meetings could be had allright. Otherwise, they had better locate [wards?] to other settlements. J. F. S.

[return note]

Fred J. Kohlhepp
July 16 '93

Dear Bro Ruben: Will you read this on the train, and present the matter to the Presidency of the Tooele stake as suggested in Prest. J. F. Smith's memo:
G. R. [George Reynolds]

Southeastern Idaho Maps -- 1880 - 1920

There are no detailed maps of the settlements of American Falls, Neeley, or Rockland where Fred lived most of the time. Perhaps one of Pocatello could be found, where Fred at times went to work, but on the whole there are only general maps of Idaho made available to look at. I've selected many of these and tried to "zero on" on the region where Fred lived most of his post-married life. I'll share them in chronological order. You'll notice that the small towns of Neeley and Rockland are not always mentioned, but the creeks that ran by or through them are often noted on the maps.

1876:

1880:

1882:

1883:

1889:

1897:

 1903:

1911:

1924:

1927:

Dry Farmer, Creative Problem Solver

Mary Ella wrote a series of reflective articles on her and Fred's past in America Falls, Neeley, and Pocatello in the Spring of 1915 in the local American Falls Press. They've been quite the pleasure to find, and help flesh out some of the gaps in Mary Ella's life prior to meeting Fred, her mother Minerva Wade's activities, as well as Fred's own activities up until his mission in 1905. As always, they suggest further areas for research. I'll start with the April 22, 1915 article, "First Dry Farm Started in 1899" on the front page.

"First Dry Farm Started in 1889

Trials of a Pioneer in Harvesting Wheat with Scythe and Threshing by Hand – No Machinery to Harvest his Crops.
Mrs. Fred J. Kohlhepp Tells of Early Dry Farming Experiences Near American Falls – Inability to Procure Machinery Resulted in Developing Inventive Genius of Mr. Kohlhepp.

On April 7^th, 1889, Mr. Fred J. Kohlhepp went on his dry farm situated about five miles south of American Falls. He succeeded in getting in a few acres of grain and proved to his own satisfaction that dry land grain could be raised there.

He could get no machinery to harvest his crop and had to cut it with a scythe and thresh it by hand. This did not pay, so after spending all the money he had on hand, building and fencing, he returned to Pocatello on December 12^th and went to work again in the car shops. The next two years he spent in Pocatello trying to get money to buy machinery to improve his homestead, going on it only every six months to comply with the law, which was not as strict as the present time.

On June 16, 1893 he met with an accident from which he never entirely recovered. Being unable to work for wages he determined to make a success of his dry farm and hired help to break about fifty acres of land.

For several years he raised good crops of wheat but could get no machinery to cut or thresh it. Once he persuaded a man with a binder to come and bind his grain and he was filled with hope, when the team came with the machine, but when the man got on the grain field he decided the soil was too soft. It would ruin his binder, he said, so he drove away, leaving Mr. Kohlhepp in despair. But necessity is the mother of invention. He got an old mowing machine and rigged a table behind to catch the grain which was raked off by hand when enough was cut to make a bundle, thus saving several stacks.

Being unable to get it threshed he constructed a merry-go-round, using the horses to tramp the grain and thresh it with their feet. He raised good wheat and corn in 1897 when there was no rain from April to October.

In 1900 he decided to raise rye and feed it to cattle so he might have success even if the threshers failed him, so he put in about fifty acres, which yielded an excellent crop, the whole field averaging six feet in height. This drew the attention of all who came near. Many made special trips to see the wonderful dry land crop and said: “Why cannot we do likewise?” Some of them did and from that time dry land farming has grown until American Falls is one of the largest grain shipping points in the United States.

Mr. Kohlhepp had been laughed and jeered at and told his land was not worth five cents per acre, and asked if he could raise enough to feed the rabbits, which indeed were a great pest, but he persisted and proved his principle, not only in raising grain, but potatoes, peas and other products.

Had machinery been available Mr. Kohlhepp would have proved his theory twenty-three years ago, that wherever grass will grow, grain will grow, but pioneers must have patience and it sometimes take a life time to prove a principle."

Several items of interest:

(a) 1889 and Neeley property -- I assume this is the Neeley land, which I believe BLM has land grant records of. I'll need to corroborate this.

(b) Railroad work -- Notice how the article states he "went to work again in the car shops," implying that he'd worked in the car shops in Pocatello prior to 1889. I also believe his autobiography describes him doing railroad work in the West during his travels in the early 80's.

It's interesting to see for what purpose he did the railroad work -- it was for the end goal of making a success of his farm, and getting help for his land. It was ambitious, and as noted, tragic.

(c) The incident referenced feels like it means the eye incident that left him blind in one eye. A devastating injury for a 31 year old, at least according to the time that this article noted. It no doubt changed the course of Fred's life and financial prospects.

(d) The creativity Fred had here to solve his problems is impressive, and something I've wanted to understand further. I can only vaguely understand and visualize how the mower and the cattle merry go round worked. I'm curious how the animal hoof threshing didn't destroy the grain. But to be honest, I know very little about farming, so I've got a lot to learn here.

(e) Other little details: rabbit issues, public ridicule to public admiration

It's rather sad that Fred didn't have more success, in proving out a theory that others in the community then profited far more from.

1938 Article on Minerva Teichert (Fred's Daughter)

The Relief Society Magazine (a periodical for women published unofficially by the Church of Jesus CHrist of Latter Day Saints) in Volume 25, No. 3 (March, 1938), pages 168-170 has an article on my great-grandmother, Fred's daughter Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert. The article is entitled "One of Ours (Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert)," and judging by it, this is a recurring series. It was written by Dorothy Clapp Robinson. An interest article in its own right, I'll only focus on the details in it up to Fred's death in 1919. I prefer providing the source not in bits (as you can tell by now), so here is the section I am interested in:

"Undoubtedly her talent for drawing was inherited. Perhaps there was born with her, too, a talent for perseverance but both qualities were added upon by a rare type of directed effort. There came a time when she tasted the joy of recognition by critics and teachers but not until she had paid the price. Out of Boston came an educated talented Jew, convert to a new faith. In the West he married a girl who had been bred in that faith. Both had literary and artistic ability. Minerva, their second child, was given all that complete understanding and encouragement could give, but there was no money for painting lessons. Isolated on a farm, miles and miles from a teacher, no money to take her where there were teachers, mere living was a struggle. One less valiant would have wept and succumbed to their lack of opportunity. Not Minerva. 'Knock and it shall be opened unto you' had literal meaning for her. She knocked and knocked until doors of opportunity began opening as doors will to those who persist.

At age thirteen, the age when most girls are just leaving the doll period, she was already making her own living and paying for painting lessons. Minerva Kohlhepp was born in Ogden but in her first months her parents moved to Idaho. There is little about dry-farming and ranching that she does not know. There is little of it she has not put on canvas. In a little shore in American Falls she first exhibited. While still a child she dressed a group of dolls in native costumes of every country. They drew a great deal of praise but seemingly took her no nearer an art teacher.

In Pocatello she worked for her board and attended high school. There she met a woman with splendid artistic ability who helped her to other contacts. A Mrs. Sparks who was going to San Francisco needed a girl for nursemaid. Minerva had been preparing herself for just such an opportunity. In San Francisco she found time for work at Mark Hopkins' Art School.

After graduating from high school she taught in rural Idaho just long enough to insure a year of study in the East. In February, 1908, she enrolled as a student in the Art Institute in Chicago--and what a student! Once there, nothing less than finishing would satisfy. She worked and schemed and borrowed money in order to stay. By July she had completed the first year's work. In 1912 she completed a three years' academic course beside studying Dramatic Art and Indian Dancing at the Chicago Conservatory of Music.

The year 1913 found her back in Idaho teaching school, paying debts, writing poetry and finding time to file and live on a homestead near American Falls. It was at this time also that her determination to be a great painter suffered a slight retard. Herman Teichert, who pursued her as persistently as she pursued art, came near winning his case. But before she had quite decided, an offer came to teach art at the University of Utah. Her ambition flared anew and she went to New York for final preparation.

All these years her reputation had been growing and hardly had she reached New York when she was offered a scholarship under Robert Henri. Henri had come back to the Art Students League for the year 1914-15. This big chance swept away all immediate thoughts of homestead, sweetheart, and teaching offer. She was the first to enroll under the master portrait painter and became not only a favorite pupil but a warm personal friend. Some think her portraits show a strong Henri influence. She received other scholarships as well, one under George Bridgeman for draftmanship.

The next three years brought Miss Kohlhepp another rare privilege. The war was on. The wealth and culture of the world settled in New York. The Art Students League, fearing complications, would accept no gifts of money, but wealthy patrons of art could and did aid the struggling pupils. This aid came in the form of tickets to things of worth. Minerva Kohlhepp being an advanced student shared generously.

Many of her evenings were spent listening to opera, studying theatrical lighting effects, enjoying Russian ballet, etc.

During this time her financial problems were still with her but with the determination so characteristic of her she found things to do about it. She had a natural bent for making the most of a dollar and a propensity for finding work along the line she liked. She sketched cadavers for doctors. She painted animals for a series of school books. One afternoon she did a portrait of Wallace Beery dressed in skins for the show Purple Knight. She received fifty dollars for that. She did much work for the movies.

Of her the great Henri said, "She is one of the coming woman artists of America."

The summer of 1917, when war clouds hung so threateningly, Miss Kohlhepp woke to the realization there were other fields of interest far from halls of learning. For the first time in her life painting took second place in her heart. She hurried home to marry her cowboy sweetheart, Herman Teichert. While he served in France she lived on his paternal homestead that in the days of stock companies had been known as Tall Tree Center. Mrs. Teichert loved this old ranch and some of her finest work was done there. She loved the Snake River "bottoms" where the ranch was located. She told of it in verse and story as well as on canvas. It is her delineation of life on the "bottoms" that makes her so essentially an Idaho artist.

There was everything in that section to stimulate the artistic urge. From Horse Island to Big Hole, from Ferry Butte to the cataracts at American Falls she gathered her studies. And such a variety! Here were tradition, scenery, and local color. Here she found marsh grass, brown-topped tules, gray-green sage, blue pools and foaming rapids, stretches of meadowland and warmscented cowpaths, giant gnarled cottonwood, tangy willows and flaming kinnikinick. Here, too, were picturesque cowboys, gaudily attired bucks, squaws in bright blankets and papooses in boards. She studied bucking broncos, dances to the Sun God and the ruins of old Fort Hall."

Items to consider/research further:

- Look into "One of Ours" to see if it was a series and what general purpose of the series was. Clearly, it is to highlight and draw positive attention to Minerva in this particular case.

- Who was Dorothy Clapp Robinson and how would she have learned about Minerva?

- Here we encounter the Jewish myth once more. I've not seen in friends own writings or those of his sisters or parents anything on Jewish ancestry. I remarked in a prior post how I wonder if this spread from a folk etymology of the term Kohlhepp and family ancestry speculations.

- Fred is noted as educated and talented. It describes Minerva's art talent as inherited. There's often a reference to Fred as being a source of her artistic talent in other sources. This article (perhaps since it is an article for women) also notes that Mary Ella was a source for her talent ("Both had literary and artistic ability").

- It gets Fred's Boston upbringing right, and his marrying Mary Ella in the west. It's interesting that it seems to suggest Fred converted to the faith first, and then married a girl bred in the faith. I'm not sure that sequence of events is quite right.

- It really stresses the Kohlhepp's family poverty. They cannot afford lessons, but they do provide encouragement. No teacher is anywhere near where they live. Quite likely true in towns like Neeley and Rockland. Poverty is driving the Kohlhepps to have their children work at young ages to pay for their living and board, to live in other homes. As a teenager, Minerva is going out to San Francisco. Perhaps for someone like Frederick who made his own journey throughout the United States as a young man, this is seen as they way of things.

- The article reports that the Kohlhepps moved quite quickly to Idaho following Minerva's birth, "in her first months." This would have put the migration to Idaho in late 1888, early 1889.

- She exhibits the first time in a little store in American Falls.

- It isn't until she makes it to Pocatello that she finds a woman (Mrs. Sparks) to further her artistic abilities.

- The other items don't tell us much about Minerva's relationship with her family, as much as her having been away. It does make one wonder how much the sisters really grew up together.

Mary Ella Hickman Autobiography 2

Today, I will finish the second half of Mary Ella's account here. Unfortunately, it doesn't too us too much more about Fred:

Other years when crops failed I started out with a team and covered wagon in the autumn, going twenty miles on one side and seventy on the other to buy and trade provisions. Once on my last trip I was overtaken by a storm. I never crossed bridges until I got to them. I had an extra horse tied beside the team. He got frightened at one of the frail bridges and crowded the team so one wheel slipped off into the mire at Marshaw Creek, ten miles west of Pocatello. The team just could not pull it out even after I had unloaded all the wheat, flour and supplies. I unhitched and fed them and we got up into the wagon to eat our lunch. I always took one of the older and one of the younger children with me. They kept us company and were a great comfort. "We can't stay here all night," said the older child, "What will we do?"

"No one can cross the bridge until they help us out," I answered, and before we had finished our lunch, one of the finest big teams I had ever seen came along. There were two big strong men in the wagon. They had to unhitch and help us out, but then they went on without even offering to help load the sacks of wheat back into the wagon. I managed it someway and was soon on the road rejoicing in our winter's supply of provisions.

The account ends abruptly, with her simply managing things somehow. She doesn't take us very far into her own life. We rather see more into her willingness to get things done on her own, and how much she traveled, often without Fred.

Mary Ella Hickman Autobiography 1:

In 1977, Glendy Baddley donated to the LDS Church Historicial department a document by Mary Ella Kohlhepp Martineau that described her family history in her matriarchal line from the American colonial days down to her own life. With each of the historical personages, she writes as if she were them, but stays close to her actual family history. The document was written likely somewhere between 1933-1938 when she was living at 270 Vine Street in Salt Lake City, Utah. It can still be seen in the Church Archives in Salt Lake City as MS 5739 under the title "Story of the lives of her great-grandmother Mary Thayer Bundy, her mother, Minerva Wade Hickman, and herself." In her account, Mary Ella mentions some information about Fred and their family arrangements during their marriage. This comes from pages 6-7 of the account. I will share the other half of the account in the next post:

When I married in 1886, we went on a homestead in Idaho. There were great expenses building fencing, clearing the sagebrush off the land, and everything that goes with building a new country. Often the two of us lived on less than a dollar a week. We could buy one hundred pounds of potatoes for fifty cents. Jackrabbits were plentiful and my husband was a good shot. Our meat diet was cottontail or bunny fried in butter.

When we had exhausted all our means on the homestead, my husband got his job back in Pocatello. Every six months, however, it was necessary to return to the ranch in order to hold it. Before we proved upon it my husband met with an accident and lost the sight of one eye. He thought if I had to take the living I could do better in some town where he could help raise a garden. We got a little home ten miles from Ogden. I made coats into capes as capes were then the fashion, and did dress-making and sewing of all sorts.

When our six months were up my husband again returned to the homestead to look after things. He wrote to me to follow [him to Idaho] as a man had decided to jump our claim if we did not return. We had two mares with colts, and I rigged up a white top buggy, filled the box with food and clothing, and a bed on top of everything, put in my five little children and on the fifteenth of September 1884 we started out.

p.7

When we reached Curlew Valley it snowed so we stayed three days at my brother's. After leaving my brother's we camped at night. I gave the children their supper then told them stories until they went to sleep.

My oldest daughter asked me recently if I remembered how the wolves howled around our camp when we were going back to Idaho to save our homestead. She said, "I think they were trying to get the colts." It was such a dreary lonely place and she was afraid of their mournful howl, but when she would mention that I would only say, "It's nothing but coyotes," and go on with the story. She thought that if I was not afraid it was all right. She says I taught her the greatest psychology in her childhood she has ever learned. "If it is anything bad the Lord won't let it hurt you. If it is anything good it won't hurt you, so don't be afraid of anything."

NOTES:

1. It is interesting how Mary Ella only refers to Fred as "my husband." Other accounts in the story mention Moses Wade her grandfather, but she never mentions her father (Wild Bill Hickman) or Fred directly. Since many names of men, besides these, are neglected, it may not have been a specific choice to omit Fred's name alone. Perhaps her new marriage also influenced this.

2. Mary Ella mentions a lot about their trying to "prove up" a homestead in Idaho. She mentions the hard toil in clearing out the land for their work. She also explains how poverty stricken they both were out there. Fred's shooting skills are noted, and how he kept shooting Cottontail to put meat into their diet.

3. It looks like the life on the homestead grew too hard with tthe lack of finances. Fred had to work in Pocatello (over at the railroad, which this account does not mention), but then had that terrible eye incident as I mentioned in prior posts. With his inability to see out of one eye, Mary Ella implies here that Fred couldn't find other manual labor as he had done throughout his life. People apparently didn't want to hire someone with poor vision, and who didn't have the healthiest build to boot. Mary Ella claims that it was Fred's suggestion that she should become the primary bread winner after this point, and that he would supplement the family's income/provisions by creating a garden. Ella did a lot of seamstress work, and she was quite excellent. My grandmother still has many nice lace tablecloths that Ella made. They moved near Ogden, UT, which is where Mary Ella's mother, Minerva Wade Hickman lived. However, they still wanted to keep their land in Idaho, and they couldn't leave the land too long or they would lose their right to possess it. The Ogden moved was out of desperation; they still wanted their Idaho home. Fred took the effort to head back and check on the land. But this was no easy for them to juggle, especially when someone else had wanted to jump their claim. Imagine being a mother throwing 5 young kids into a buggy and riding across rugged country to Idaho! The howling of those wolves certainly would have been frightening. Mary Ella mentioned staying three nights at her brother's. She had many brothers, so I am not sure which one she is referring to here.

4. She mentioned leaving in September 1884, but this must either be a typo or an error. She wasn't married until 1886, so how can she have left for Idaho with 5 kids by then? 1894 might be more likely. I will have to go through my gedcom and see if she had 5 living children by then.

Kohlhepp House Burnt Down

Although I have yet to post the accounts by Fred and Eda where the family home(s) burnt down, I have found his newspaper article which validates their claims. This is in a June 1894 Salt Lake Tribune. It reads:

Fainted Beyond the Flames.

Narrow Escape of a Pocatello Woman and Child in a Fire.
Pocatello, Ida., June 16 [1894].--Special to Tribune.--The residence and furniture belonging to Mr. Kohlhepp was totally destroyed by fire last night at 12 o'clock. Mr. Kohlhepp was in Ogden in the hospital, and no one was at home except his wife and child. A fire broke out in the building about 10 o'clock, but was discovered by Mrs. Kohlhepp, who, with the assistance of neighbors, succeeded in extingushing the flames as they thought, before that had gained much headway, but at 12 o'clock the fire broke out again.

Mrs. Kohlhepp was awakened by the noise and ran out into the yard with her child and fainted. She was found in an unconscious condition upon the arrival of some neighbors. Had she not gotten out in the yard, she, together with her child, would have been burned to death, as the house was falling in before any one arrived on the ground. The origin of the fire is not known. The building and furniture were insured for $300. The loss is $1500, including a fine piano.

This interesting article shows many things:

1. We learn from it that the Kohlhepps did enjoy music, owning a "fine piano" in their home.

2. Fred was in Ogden (staying with Minerva Wade, his mother-in-law, perhaps?) for hospital visits. He seems to have struggled with illness throughout his life.

3. Only Ella was at home with one child. I imagine this would have been Eda, the youngest at the time (she had been born in 1893). So where were the others: Marie, Minerva, and Fred?

4. They were smart enough to get insurance, but the coverage wasn't good. Makes you wonder why they had the insurance--had it happened before? Was it common to get fire insurance in Idaho?

5. This points to the Kohlhepp superstition about fire being controlled by Satan or some demonic power, as I have read in some Kohlhepp correspondence. The source in the article is listed as unknown. Ella thought she had put out the fire and then it restarted. They grew suspicious about these events.

I will post the image of this article soon, it is on my other computer.

Mary Ella Hickman Shortly after Fred's Death

Documentation of Fred's life after his mission is hard to find. It is especially difficult to find information on Mary Ella once Fred passes away. We know she eventually remarried into the Martineau family, and became estranged from my great-grandmother, Minerva Teichert. The general story is that they became contentious over the parenthood of Constance. Minerva did not believe Constance was her biological sister, while her mother insisted it was so. I don't want to spend a lot of time in the dispute here, but this conflict is definitely an important event for the relationship of Minerva and Mary Ella.

What interests me here is a few news article I discovered regarding an accident Mary Ella had. I'll post the articles throughout in chronological order. Since Fred died in September 1919, this lets me know a litte bit about Mary Ella's life following her husband's death. The first article is from December 25, 1919 from a notice in the Rigby Star:

"Mrs. Ella Kohlhepp, 54 years of age, of American Falls, who is visiting relatives in Salt Lake, suffered a fracture of her left collar bone, lacerations and bruises about her head and probable internal injuries, when she was struck by a street car."

This sounds like a very painful incident for Ella. Given the injury, it's no surprise that months later, a notice appears in the Deseret News on March 17, 1920 that she is suing for damages.

This states, "Woman Asks $20,000. Ella Kohlhepp has begun suit in the [ard] district [ours] against Utah Light & Traction company, for $20,000 damages for injuries suffered from being struck by a street car. She alleged that as she was walking north on State street near Twenty-first South street. Dec. 19, 1919, she was run down by a street car through failure of the motorman to give warning and that she suffered body bruises as a result of the accident."

The following day in the Deseret News in the March 18, 1920 issue, another article reads:

Accident Victim Will Resume Literary Work

Mrs. Ella Kohlhepp who was struck by a street car last December 19, suffering a broken collar bone, will leave soon for her home in American Falls, Idaho. Mrs. Kohlhepp has been working a numbers of years, on a collection of Indian traditions and stories, she knew Chief Pocatello, and from him was able to obtain much data[.] At the time of the accident she was taking a course in English at the University of Utah. As soon as she has arranged her affairs at home she will move to Salt Lake. Two of her lyrics, "Joseph the Prophet" and "His Glory," which Prof. Lund has arranged to the music of "Sweet Afton" and "Oh, My Father" will be sung at general conference in April, she says.

Now, to review what is interesting in these article:

1. Ella must have been having a hard time with a husband that passed away in September and then getting hit by a car in December. It is interesting that the article mentioned her as "Mrs. Kohlhepp," as if she was still married. Perhaps she did not want it known that she was now a widow, or the reporter was not aware that she was?

2. The accident and the course being taken at the University of Utah show that she was dwelling in Salt Lake City following Fred's death in September. At least, I hope it was following, since Fred died in American Falls in mid-September. When did coursework for the University of Utah start in 1920? I imagine it is similar to today, when coursework starts in early September. I hope she was there for Fred's death and funeral! Did she start late into the semester or what? This is interesting. I know Ella had a habit of leaving the home and living different places for long periods of time, so I wonder if she was even there for Fred's final hours. If anything, we at least learn that she was moving on after Fred passed away (or at least planning to do so). She was going to head back home, settle the affairs, and move to Salt Lake.

3. It shows Ella's interests. She was taking a course in English at the U, suggesting she was trying to work on her composition skills for the Indian traditions and stories she was collecting (and perhaps just for general interest). She had received education earlier at the Sacred Heart Academy when she was young (the only one of her siblings to get an education), and this shows she pursued it a bit further. The article mentions that she had been working on collecting the stories for "a number of years," making it a passtime of hers while Fred had been alive. I wonder if some of these tales made it into Minerva's A Romance of Old Fort Hall or Drowned Memories. We also learn that was writing poetry, much as Fred had done (and likely something they did together). While this article claims that two of Ella's lyrics would be sung during the April Conference (quite a venue in Mormon circles), conference reports of the April 1920 General Conference do not suggest they were sung.

In April 1920, the following were sung:

"O say, what is truth?"
"Come, O Thou King of kings."
"Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah."
"Lift Thine Eyes" (Mendelssohn).
"The Spirit of God like a fire burning."
"Hallelujah to the Father" (Beethoven's "Mount of Olives").
"The Lord's Prayer."
"The Lord Victorious" (Mascagni).
"O, Love Divine."
"Now Jesus Loved Martha and her Sister and Lazarus."
"Earth and Heaven."
"As the Earth Brings Forth Her Bud."
"I Will Greatly Rejoice in the Lord."
"Blessed Be the Lord God of Israel."
"I Bring You Glad Tidings."
"Is This the Messiah?"
"Let the Lower Lights be Burning."
"The Palms."
"Do What is right."
"We thank Thee, O God, for a prophet."
"How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord."
"High on the mountain top."
"Guide us, O thou great Jehovah."
"Redeemer of Israel, our only delight."
"Do what is right, let the consequence follow."
"Now let us rejoice."
"O ye mountains high."
"Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear."
"Praise God from Whom all blessings flow."
"Come, let us anew our journey pursue."
"One Hundred Years."
"O My Father."

None of these songs resemble those described in the article. Of course, the article claims that "His Glory" would be sung to "O, My Father," but Eliza's hymn was not a tune at all. It, in fact, was sung to many different tunes (in the April 1920 Conference it was sung to the old English tune that Eliza R. Snow preferred), so it is difficult to know which tune Mary Ella was planning/hoping to have her lyric sung to. Now, I don't think Ella was making these songs up. I have located some copyrighted lyrics of hers that were placed to music, which I will post up later. It is likely these were real lyrics she wrote. As for the Mr. Lund, I am not sure who he is. I will have to some investigative work here.

4. She knew Chief Pocatello. Whenever someone claims they knew someone famous, I get suspicious. I haven't read on Mary Ella's childhood in a while, but I don't remember her spending much (if any) time in Idaho before she married Fred. I will have to investigate this. However, Chief Pocatello (the leader of the Shoshoni people of Pocatello, Idaho) died in 1884. He was known for leading attacks against settlers when there was strife between the tribe and the emigrants. Eventually, he made peace with America, and moved his people onto the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, where they strived to survive relocation (dealing with intense starvation in 1875). Mary Ella had her first two children, Marie Elizabeth and Minerva Bernetta in North Ogden, Utah from 1887-1888. Her first child recorded as being born in Idaho is Frederick William in 1891. It seems unlikely that she ever met Chief Pocatello (having died 7 years previous), and if she did, extremely unlikely that she knew him on any sort of deep level. No doubt she eventually knew of him, but that is a completely different kind of knowledge.

5. Her injuries were not insignificant. I am curious if there are any court records associated with the damages she felt she was inflicted (the $20,000). Did the injuries have any lasting impact on her?

Idaho, Shakespeare and the German Police (Lisonbee Account 5)

I continue on with Eda’s account:

“They lived in North Ogden after their marriage with grandma, Minerva Wade Hickman. They bought a home later in Pocatello, Idaho, Fred and Eda were born here but father never was happy there. Then they moved to Plain City, their son Moses was born here. Father had a back injury and and eye blinded in a R.R. shop accident in Pocatello. They couldn’t make a living on their small fruit farm in Plain City, so they homesteaded land 6 miles south of American Falls, Idaho. It was the beloved home of the family. There we were raised. The house was big with a dirt roof. The roof leaked when the storms were too long. The long winters were spent father reading aloud to the family. One winter he read all of Shakespeares plays, and acted them out. He read them in such a way we could understand and love them. We all spent the winter quoting Skhakespear. He read the best leterature, histories. When we were in High School all his reading really helped us. Fathr was the first person to raise dry land wheat in Idaho, there was an article in the newspaper about this. He may have raised the best wheat in the whole West.

When my father was 45 years old he was called to Germany on a mission for the Church. He knew the language and being an older man did a lot of good. People listened to him and he made many converts. The German police finely got after him for preaching the Gospel, and encouraging the people to leave Germany and come to Zion. He had a hard time excaping from them.”

Commentary:

1. Eda is helpful in giving us some details about Fred’s life after his marriage and before his mission, of which there is little information. She does not mention how long they were in North Ogden before they moved to Pocatello, but the birth places of the children help. Marie Elizabeth was born almost exactly 9 months (plus 8 days) after their marriage, so she must have been a honeymoon baby (or so we hope). They must have been sealed right after they had Marie. It would be good to find the original temple sealing date from the Logan temple. Minerva was born also in North Ogden on August 28, 1888. However, by Fred’s birth in July 28, 1891, they were living in Pocatello, Idaho (Although my PAF states American Falls; might want to check the records here). Eda’s birth on January 25, 1893 does correspond with the Pocatello location, as does Moses Wade’s Plain City birth location on November 7, 1894. She doesn’t mention Sarah, so she likely was born in American Falls, but I will have to do the homework here.

2. I appreciate Eda mentioning that Fred didn’t like Pocatello, but she does not explain why. That is too bad.

3. Eda mentions the eye incident, but combines it with a back injury I was unaware of. Were they separate events? No record that I am aware of explains HOW Fred got the eye injury. But oral history and my family’s PAF has explained how Fred got blind in the one eye. I will bring up the PAF account later. It is interesting to note that Fred does not complain about his back or eye in his correspondence. That he has a fake/lame eye is easily observed from later photographs, which I will also begin to post soon.

4. Eda is the only person I know who mentions they tried to live off a small fruit farm in Plain City. I will have to look into this more.

5. Homesteading. I know that Fred and Mary Ella successfully homesteaded in American Falls, and I know that Minerva tried to do so as well, but failed. I would like to read up on what actually is required in this procedure to gain this land.

6. The beloved home. I am glad that Eda speaks warmly of the home here. I ordered scans of the home from the Minerva Teichert papers available at BYU and there are also some pictures available from the Hope Hilton papers at the University of Utah. I will post as I can. I would like to do some photo restoration work with Photoshop before I upload them, to get rid of damage, tears and splotches.

7. Literature. This is one of other accounts where I have heard Fred read Shakespeare to the children. He also had various history books in the home. My mother has some of the books that Fred once had, and I believe one was on the history of the punic wars. Again, I will have to check my information, but I will be at my mother’s home tomorrow to check to make sure.

8. Dry wheat farming. Eda is correct in stating Fred was the one he introduced the dry wheat farming according to the tradition and according to newspaper articles. Tom Dille, whose father lived next to Fred, wrote about how Fred brought in the dry wheat farming to Idaho. I will post those articles soon.

9. Called on a mission when 45 years old. This cannot be correct, Fred was 43 when he started his mission, based on his birthday, passport application, and mission correspondence. How did mission calls work back then? Did Fred apply for the call, or was he independently called?

10. Mission success. Eda claims Fred had a lot of success on his mission. He did baptise and confirm some people based on his journal account, but he wasn't the most explicate in spelling out how many converts he made. I have gone back to some of the branch records from Switzerland and gathered some information, but there is still more work to do here.

11. Towards the end of Fred's mission, his record gets sparce, but based on his correspondence you can tell that there is some problem going on. Eda more fully expounds the issue being with the German police. Some BYU Student wrote an excellent dissertation on the missionary effort in Germany right around this time that I will have to read more fully to understand the exact tensions.