Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert Goes to Study Art

In the March 23, 1901 Salt Lake Herald there is a snippet called "Pocatello Happenings." In it, it notes the following: "Miss Minerva Kohlhepp, a graduate of the Pocatello High school has gone to Chicago to study art." This is nothing much, but it gives me a general date for when Minerva headed out to Chicago, and also that she was recognized by her community somewhat for her art pursuits. I suppose it also adds that she did graduate from Pocatello High.

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?

Dye Business, Education, and Health (Lisonbee Account 2)

I continue on with Eda’s account:

“My grandfather was the first person in America to dye human hair. He came just in time for the Civil War in American and he dyed the material for the northern soldiers uniforms during the war. Grandmother’s first husband had a dying business, he died, Frederick John Kohlhepp was one of his employees[.] He married his former boses daughter and then he owned the dying establishment.

My father was educated in a private school where he was taught German half the day and English the other half. In his home the children spoke English while the parents answered them in German. His people weree of the finest class, and they came from the fest families of Europe. The VonRosens of France, Abies from Germany, and the Juesiers from Switzerland. [1]

My fahter never got along well with his father. His father wanted him to carry on his business, he was the only son, which by then had grown into quite a large concern, the family became very wealthy from their dying business. Then my father became ill, finally a doctor advised my grandmother that her son would never live to see 20 years because he had “consumption.” The damp climate of Boston the Dr. told the mother was very bad for his health. So at a very early age, he always said 17, he left school and headed out West.”

Comments:

1. It is an interesting oral history that Johann Friedrich (Fred’s father) dyed the uniforms for the civil war. It is a little surprising that Johann could set up a factory and become prominent enough for the Northern troops to employ his work for uniforms. Of course, I do not know when he moved to Boston. He lived in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania beforehand. They were not in Boston at least by 1855 when Amelia was born. I suppose it’s possible, but I wonder how that information could possibly be verified. I could learn some general information about Boston during the Civil War, but beyond this it would be quite difficult. I wonder what information or papers is available about long dead companies, besides just being in directories and advertisements. But a business directory doesn’t say much. For instance, I found Johann’s business in the 1871 Jamaica Plains business directory.


All it tells you is the name of the business “Jamaica Plain dye house” and that it was located on Brookside Avenue. It is nice to be able to plot where it would have been on a 1870s Boston map, but you can’t tell about what sort of business they did. This makes substantiating the claims about hair dying and soldiers’ uniforms quite difficult.

2. The statement about Johann marrying the former boss’ daughter to own the dying establishment has been recorded in other records too. I believe Minerva or my Grandmother (Laurie) wrote an elaborate description of the situation that may have been an oral history or their speculation about what happened. I will get to those records later.

3. Fred’s education: I think Eda’s account here is the only document where Fred is described as attending a private school where he learned German and English, or how languages were used in the home. Fred’s education is problematic since many documents claim different things; it will be difficult to pin down.

4. Eda claims he came from some of the best families in Europe: how is this claim made? How does she know what are good European families? All of our Abes are from Saxony/Germany as far as we can go back in 1502. By Juesiers, Eda must mean the Heuszers who we have located in Hessen, Germany. As for the Von Rosens, I need to check up on them in another PAF.

5. There has been a lot of mythology on Fred’s consumption. True, it seems he died of it; it killed a lot of people. But how did Fred live relatively well with consumption until the age of 57? People have claimed he also contracted it on his mission in 1905, but he lived another 12 years. I doubt the historicity of these claims. Regardless, there was definitely a movement going on with transcendental idealism in Thoreau and also in the Boston climate of the need to get out into nature for the good of one’s lungs. People feared their health when they were around industrialized cities. I read in some education books on Boston schooling from Fred’s time period on children’s needs to get out of the city for fresh air. I will have to locate my source there and place it up, and place some of Thoreau’s statements.