Wolterman Genealogy - Week 17

So far I have covered the Wolterman, Determan and Woerdehoff families in my husband’s tree. The next series of posts will focus on Theresa (Determan) Wolterman’s mother and her family.

Theresa’s mother was Mary Anna Luchtel. Mary was born 17 June 1873, the first child of Herman Bernard and Sophia (Grote) Luchtel. Though Mary was born in Dyersville, Dubuque County, Iowa, by the time the 1880 census was taken, the Luchtel family resided in Wheatland Township, Carroll County, Iowa. That’s a distance of nearly 223 miles!

Iowa map

It is interesting to think that if the Luchtel family had not made the move, Mary would have never met Johann August Determan, whom she married in Breda, Carroll County, Iowa on 27 January 1891 when she was just 17 years old. Their marriage and a listing of their children was covered in Week 8, which can be found here.

Mary and August’s story was also covered in Week 7, which can be found here. Seven years after the death of August on 18 March 1910 in Butte, Boyd County, Nebraska, Mary married Bernard Clemens Schulte (known as Clem) and moved with 4 of her children to the Schulte farm in Breda, Carroll County, Iowa. The 1920 census for Wheatland Township indicates that Clem and Mary were living on the farm with Clem’s children Sarah, Mary, and Edward, and Mary’s children Clement, Theresa, Martha and Joseph.

Clem died in Breda on 11 March 1930 at the age of 81, leaving Mary a widow at only 56 years of age. The 1930 census shows her renting a home that is not located on a farm. Her son Joseph is living with her. By the 1940 census, Mary was living alone in a home in Breda that she owned on Artz Street. This is a relatively short street that runs between N. 1st St. and N. 2nd St., within easy walking distance of St. Bernard’s Church. Further information on the census shows that Mary was living in the same house in 1935, and that the highest grade she had completed in school was 6th grade.

Mary was 82 when she died in Fairfax, Renville County, Minnesota on 25 November 1955. It is probable that she had relocated to the Fairfax area to be close to her daughter, Theresa (Determan) Wolterman, and her family. Mary was buried by her first husband, August Determan, at Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in Butte, Nebraska.

Mary's stone

Wolterman Genealogy - Week 8

Theresa Kathryn Determan was covered in my last post. This one will talk about her father, Johann August Determan. Johann, who went by his middle name August, was born 11 September 1867 in Lyons, Clinton County, Iowa to Bernhard Clemens and Maria Anna (Sander) Determan. His siblings included Marie Elizabeth born 1861, Johann Gerhard born born 1862, Theresa born 1864, Anton born 1866, Leo born 1869, Maria Catherina born 1871, John born 1874, Anthony John born 1876, and Louie born 1879. All of the children were born in Clinton County, Iowa. August also had at least 7 older half-siblings, but I will get into that story in my next post when I talk about his father.

At the age of 23, August married Mary Anna Luchtel. She was 17 at the time, and was the daughter of Herman Bernard and Sophia (Grote) Luchtel. The wedding took place in Breda, Carroll County, Iowa on 27 January 1891. August and Mary had 10 children, all of whom were born in Mount Carmel, Iowa. The children were listed in last week’s blog post, which can be found here.

Determan land in Iowa

August farmed in Carroll County until 1908, when he moved his family to land in Butte, Nebraska. On 18 March 1910, August died in Butte. He was only 42 years of age. He is buried in Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in Butte.

Johann August Determan's
headstone

Wolterman Genealogy - Week 7

In my last post, I took the Wolterman male line back as far as I can at this point. This week I will begin with Theresa Kathryn Determan, my husband’s paternal grandmother, and work back through the Determan side of the family.

Theresa was born 17 May 1903 in Mount Carmel, Carroll County, Iowa to Johann August and Mary Anna (Luchtel) Determan. She joined older siblings Caroline born in 1891, Mary born in 1892, Frank born in 1894, Laura born in 1896, Elizabeth born in 1897, Edward born in 1899 and Clement born in 1901. Two additional children were born after Theresa: Martha in 1905 and Joseph in 1907. All of the children were born in Mount Carmel, Iowa, where they lived on a farm.

The Determan family traveled by train to Butte, Nebraska in 1908 when Theresa was 5 years old. Johann (who went by his middle name August), established a farm in Butte. Two years later August died at the age of 42. Mary was only 37, but she continued to hold onto the farm with the help of her children and hired hands until 1917. At that point, so the family story goes, 68-year-old Bernard Clemens Schulte came from Breda, Iowa to visit Mary in Butte. His wife, Marie Elizabeth Determan, had died in 1913. Marie was the older sister of August Determan. She and Bernard had 12 children, and she was 51 when she died.

Clem Schulte farm

Bernard proposed to Mary, and she moved back to Breda with the following children: Clement, Theresa, Martha, and Joseph. (August and Mary’s son Edward had died in 1900.) Her son Frank remained on the farm, and her daughters Carolyn, Mary, Laura, and Elizabeth had all married and stayed in Nebraska.

On 14 November 1917, Bernard and Mary married in Breda, Iowa. Mary was 44 years old at the time of her second marriage. At least 4 of Bernard’s children would have still been at home at this time.

Theresa was in 9th grade when they relocated to the Schulte farm in Iowa. She later said that she and her siblings were happy to have a shorter walk to school in Iowa. In Nebraska it was 3 miles from the farm to their school.

Theresa worked in a dry goods store. I've been corrected since my post about Frank Conrad Wolterman regarding how she met her future husband. She and Frank met at a dance, not a shower. They married on 6 June 1922 at St. Bernard Church in Breda, Iowa. From this union came 11 children, and as I explained in my first post, I am not listing the birth years of the children because some of them are living and I want to respect their privacy.

Frank and Theresa's wedding day

During their marriage, Theresa and Frank lived in Maple River, Iowa, Breda, Iowa, Fonda, Iowa (on Moore's farm and later the Lampe farm, moving into the town of Fonda after a tornado damaged the house and 22 buildings on the Lampe farm), and their final move was in 1950 to a farm west of Fairfax, Minnesota.

Frank died in 1964, and Theresa lived with her son Stanley on the farm for a while. Later she lived in a mobile home before moving to an apartment. Her last year was spent in a nursing home in Mapleton, Blue Earth, Minnesota. Theresa died in Mapleton on 28 January 1988 at the age of 84.

So as not to be redundant, you can read more about the life of Theresa and Frank by going to my first post, which can be found here.

Theresa on the right, with her
mother Mary before 1955