Frederick Kohlhepp - Missionary Letters - March 3, 1906

A letter Fred sent on his mission on March 3, 1906 is informative. It gives details of how money was earned back home through renting property (ranch), and references a renter (St. Clair) back in American Falls, Idaho. Fred is concerned in letting his daughter know the joy he has in her daughter. He notes some of the success he had with the Kaufman's (Rufolf and Rosa) in Thun, and his prophetic fear of being moved to another region in the mission. We see the depth of sacrifice many missionaries had to make on their missions. This does not sound like current missionaries, but rather ones from his (or stories from his missionary company's) past, since it mentions them being "well off again now." Fred also seems to have deepened his appreciation of the restored gospel.


March 3, 1906

My Dear Ella,

Your letter of the 15th was received with much joy. I was pleased to hear that you got a renter for the ranch.[N1] I hope he will take good care of things. If St. Clair takes the reservoir field this summer, perhaps your renter can get the irrigation to tend to like I have when doing for watter.[N2] I was surprised to hear from you that Marie [Elizabeth Nash] did not get my letter with the thanks for that dollar. I answered right away. Perhaps I have made a mistake in the address I have forgotten wheather it is 955 or 595 W. Center I wish you would write and let me know which is right.[N3] I have just written to her again, thanking her again for the dollar. If she does not get the letter, you will have to thank her for me. When I wrote the first letter I sent two pretty cards with it. I am sorry that she did not get it. If she does not get the last letter you must congratulate her for me and kiss it for me, and I hope and pray that it will be blessed with long life and happiness, and that it will grow up to become a loving dutiful daughter.

Dear Ella, we are having interesting times here in the Oberlands. Three of my friends here in this Branch have ap[p]lied for baptisms lately, and there [will] be some more ready soon. I am waiting to baptize them all at the same time.[N4] They are shifting the missionaries around from one place to another a great deal since I have been here, I dont know what their object is. I would not be much surprised to find myself in Germany or some other part of the Schweiz some of these day’s.[N5] I was in hopes I m[ight] stay a year or so in this place, it is the cheapest place in the mission. I may stay, off course I can’t tell. The first thing an Elder knows he gets a letter from Zürich to go at once to such and such a place and labor. You know we are supposed to be minute men, ready to go when called.[N6]

But we must not worry about it. Missionaries have come here who have had to sell even their wagons horses farming machinery and every thing they had to keep them on their missions, and they have returned home, and are well off again now. The Lord has blessed them, and he will bless me if I do my duty. I realize the great importance of this great Gospel work, more since I have been out here than ever before. Give my love to Frederick, I hope he did well in school this winter. Give my love to all the rest of the children, and kiss Viva for Papa. hoping to hear from you soon. I remain Your loveing husband and father,

Fred. J. Kohlhepp.

Regards from Bro. Kunz.

He says the young Swise is a swell young man.


NOTES:

[N1] Presumably, the ranch they had on Warm Creek.

[N2] They also owned property in American Falls.

[N3] According to his daughter, this was actually 955 W. Center, based on another letter from Marie.

[N4] The three he mentions who have applied for baptism must be the Kaufmans, who did so in his 2 March 1906 journal entry. As for the others whom he believe will do so soon, that is unknown. However, since he wished to baptize them together, he may be referring to other members of the Kaufman family. If so, they were all baptized on 11 March 1906.

[N5] And such it was, when Fred received news to go to Freiburg, Germany, on March 20, two and a half week after writing this letter.

[N6] Frederick’s use of the term “minute men” reflects his Massachusetts upbringing. The term was used by his home state to refer to their militia who claimed to be ready for battle in a minute’s notice.

Minerva Teichert Autobiography Part 1

Minerva Teichert wrote an autobiography, designed mostly to discuss her romance with her husband and her artistic training. It has been preserved in manuscript format in the Minerva Teichert Papers at BYU's Museum of Art.


Also, it was recently published in Marian Wardle's (Minerva's granddaughter; my aunt) book Minerva Teichert: Pageants in Paint. The autobiography has a few interesting remarks about her father. The first mention of him occurs on page 196:

My family seemed to enjoy travelling around. Altho[ugh] I was born in utah I spent most of my life in Idaho. Ruth Moench Bell of A. C. [Utah State Agricultural College] was my first teacher in the Plain City grade school. Soon after that first year we were up on the "Old Ranch" [the homestead owned by Fred and Mary Ella near American Falls, ID] in Idaho and didn't go to school much more until I finished the eighth grade "back to grandma's" [Minerva Wade's place] in North Ogden. Father had bought a great long legged mare, Puss, from Lyman Skeen in Plain City. She had her "spirits broke," as Skeen put it, from a long trip while she was too young to work. One morning I went to the barn and to my delight discovered a sorrel colt [Puss' colt, Gem] so brilliant in color to remind one of a very newly coined penny. He had deep purple eyes and I fell in love with him. We had Puss for years. Her sire was Derrick, the fastest race horse in Montana. Even now I see that mare at work, her head down, her spirits broken. Again I see her racing over the hills, loose and going like the wind when not in harness.

Gem was sired by a $40,000 horse, Sline, [whom] Skeen imported from England. He was mine. No princess was ever more delighted with her heritage. From the time I first tickled his glossy coat with my little bare toes until the big boys would say, "There goes Minerva Kohlhepp. I'm goin to ride home with her" and another answer "no you're not[--]she's on Gem." He was the greatest joy in my life. No wonder I love horses. I was never beaten nor nearly rivalled on that great long-legged raw boned aristocrat. Poor folks like us should never have owned Gem, at least not for his sake, but for mine it was wonderful. I often wondered, child that I was, how he knew he was a race horse. Father always worked him when he needed an extra horse. Then Gem hung his head in shame[,] but let his mistress mount him and the change couldn't be imagined. He lifted his classic head and no one ever passed him on the road. He thot any rider who happened along was just trying to beat him and pull as I would I couldn't hold him. Since I was not afraid of him I learned to let him go. I didn't have to teach him the game. He taught me.

Teichert has a very romantic picture of her time with Gem. It is hard to imagine that such an expensive race horse was actually Gem's father, and that if this was the case, that such a horse would end up with the Kohlhepps. Teichert admits as much, but it is still hard to believe. The With a Bold Brush story has her work 3 summers to purchase the horse, while the autobiographical account has it be a colt of a horse already owned by Fred, Puss. Fred apparently used Gem for work around the farm, and Teichert anthropomorphizes his "shame" at doing such work.

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.

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.