Wolterman Genealogy - Week 29

Last week I wrote about Filomena Reichel. I know nothing about her family, other than the fact that her parents were Frank and Francina (Fidler) Reichel, so I have no more to add to the Reichel family story.

Alymer, Canada

Instead this week I will talk about my husband’s other great-grandmother Catherine Duffy, who was born 24 April 1862 in Alymer, Quebec, Canada. Alymer was incorporated in 1847 and is located on the north shore of the Ottawa River.

Notre Dame Cathedral

The daughter of James and Katherine (Gorman) Duffy, Catherine was baptized on 25 April 1862 by a priest from the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Ottawa. The cathedral was elevated to the status of a basilica by Pope Leo XIII in 1879.

When Catherine was about 6 years of age, her family moved to Ishpeming, Marquette County, Michigan, which is located in the Upper Peninsula. By the time she was 18, they had moved again, settling in Birch Coolie, Renville County, Minnesota. The 1885 Minnesota Territorial Census, taken on May 1st, indicates that 22-year-old Catherine was living with her family in Norfolk Township, Renville County, Minnesota. That same year she married Joseph C. Reger in Renville. Their life together was discussed in Week 24, which can be found here.

Catherine was 72 when she died in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota on 15 June 1934.

Catherine Duffy Reger

Wolterman Genealogy - Week 28

Next I’ll be writing about my husband’s great-grandmother, Filomena Reichel. She was born 13 May 1873 in Austria. Her parents were Frank and Francina (Fidler) Reichel. I have no information regarding any siblings she might have had.

Mathias and Filomena

According to census records, Filomena emigrated to the United States in 1892 when she was 19 years of age, settling in Minnesota. She married Mathias John Pfeffer, and they had 9 children together. Their family was covered in Week 21, which can be found here.

Filomena died of coronary occlusion due to arteriosclerosis on 26 October 1947 in Renville County, Minnesota, where she is also buried. She was 74 years of age.

Filomena

Filomena's stone

Wolterman Genealogy - Week 21

Mathias John Pfeffer, my husband’s great-grandfather, was born 3 January of 1864 to Martin and Rosalia (Madl) Pfeffer. He was baptized in the Catholic church on 4 January 1865 in Szentandras, Moson, Hungary. This area was later called Mosonszentandras, and is now part of Austria.

According to information he provided on U.S. census records, Mathias emigrated to the United States in 1886, making his way immediately to Minnesota. He would have been 21 years old. At some point he met Filomena (sometimes spelled Philomena) Riechel and they got married. Though I have found no record, it would have been after 1892 when Filomena entered the U.S. and before 1895.

Mathias and Filomena on their wedding day

They had the following children: Annie born 1895; Rosella born 1898; Joseph born 1900; Philomena born 1902; Mary born 1904; Katherine born 1907; Frances born 1909; Martin born 1913; and Edward born 1916.

photo on left about 1898 and the one on the right about 1920

In the 1910 census for Wellington Township in Renville, the family was living on a farm which they rented. By 1920, they were renting a farm in nearby Cairo Township, a township with an area of 34.2 square miles.

Mathias Pfeffer stone

 Mathias died at the age of 64 on 3 November 1929. The cause of death was listed as toxemia resulting from chronic myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart muscle. He was buried in Saint Andrew’s Catholic Cemetery in Fairfax, Minnesota.

*Note that his stone indicates a birth year of 1865. I chose to go with the birth year 1864 as that is the what the Catholic church in Hungary recorded as the birth year. If records have conflicting dates, it is customary to use the date on the record closest to the event in question, in this case, Mathias birth year.

Wolterman Genealogy - Week 20

For Week 20 I am switching over to my husband’s maternal grandparents. His grandfather was Joseph John Pfeffer, who was the first son born to Mathias John and Filomena (Reichel) Pfeffer on 19 March 1900 in Cairo Township, Renville County, Minnesota. The family lived on a farm in Renville County.

When he was 18, Joseph registered for the World War I draft. He indicated that his occupation was farming, and that he was employed by Mathias Pfeffer in Cairo. He stated that he was of medium height and build, with brown eyes and brown hair. There is no indication that Joseph served in the military.

Joseph and Christine's wedding day

On 19 September 1921, Joseph married Christina Agnes Reger in nearby Fairfax, Minnesota. He was 21 and she was an older woman of 25. The couple had the following children: John born 1922; Bernadine born 1923; Joseph born 1925; and Lorraine born 1930.

Joseph and Christinal Marriage Certificate

The 1930 census showed the family residing in Cairo, and Christina’s 37-year-old brother John was living with them as was Joseph’s 16-year-old brother Martin (this was likely because their father Mathias Pfeffer had died in 1929.) John worked on road construction and Martin as a farm laborer.

Joseph, Christina and their children

By the time the 1940 census was taken, Joseph, Christina and their children were living in the town of Fairfax. The census further indicated that they lived in the same house, which they owned, in 1935 as well. Joseph was employed as a government worker.

On 14 February 1942, Joseph registered for the WWII draft. He gave his weight as 165 pounds, height as 5’9”, listed his complexion as light, indicated he had brown hair and brown eyes, and worked for the WPA. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was an employment program created by President Roosevelt in 1935 during the depression. The program lasted for 8 years, and put around 8.5 million Americans to work.

Nearby projects of the WPA included the erection of Morton rainbow granite buildings and restoration of the original fort commissary at Fort Ridgely State Park in Ridgely Township, construction of several stone structures in Flandrau State Park in New Ulm, and installation of hiking trails, stairs, and seven new buildings at Minneopa State Park in Mankato.

Joseph died on 22 November 1977 in Fairfax at the age of 77, a mere 4 years after the death of his son Joseph. The cause of death for the senior Joseph was listed as massive gangrene of the small and large bowel due to thrombosis of the superior and inferior mesenteric arteries. He was buried in St. Andrew’s Catholic Cemetery in Fairfax.

Joseph Pfeffer's stone