Christine Gertraude Walz - Part 4

     Christine then traveled to Logan to visit her sister Christina Magdalena. When she stepped off the train a man approached her and asked if she would like to become one of his wives. She told him to go away. He warned her that she could never be exalted unless she would go into polygamy. She was surprised by the proposal because she was not yet a member of the LDS Church. However, she had forsaken the Lutheran Church before she left Germany.

Logan, Utah 1891

     Shortly afterward her other sister, Anna Maria, also known as Mary, joined a non-LDS polygamist group from the East. They were led by a man who had brought them west to join the LDS Church. But the LDS members would have nothing to do with them because they did not believe in the other principles of the Church. Anna Maria joined this group anyway. They stayed in the Cache Valley area for a while. Christine once went to the farm where they were living to see her sister. Anna Maria threw clods of dirt at her to drive her away because she didn't want Christine to see her and the other wives working in the fields like men. Not too long afterward this group left for the East and Anna Maria was never heard from again.

     Christine had full intentions of going back to Germany after her visit with her family. However, she was persuaded to stay and make America her home when she found she was with child. She had to make a living so she hired out as a domestic to families who needed help when mothers were having babies. A number of husbands proposed marriage to Christine even as their wives were giving birth but she had made up her mind she would never marry into polygamy.

     Her nephew, Conrad Walz, and his father, George Ludwig Walz, worked at the Logan Temple site on

weekdays. On Sunday afternoons people would often walk or ride in a buggy around the temple site to see how much progress had been made during the week. Conrad, who was 16, took his Aunt Christine there, too, and told her what he did. He had the privilege, he said, of transporting 12 life-size metal-fabricated oxen from the foundry to the temple. He explained to her that the oxen would be painted gold and used to support the baptismal font. Christine began asking Conrad questions about his religion. She decided to give five dollars of her hard-earned money to the temple project. With Conrad teaching her, and with the help of others in the Logan Fourth Ward, Christine became converted to the Church.

     Christine, now 22, gave birth to a baby girl January 19, 1882, in Logan. The baby was given the name of Emelia Walz at her blessing March 2, 1882, by Christian Schneider. On the ward record the name was spelled Emily. On the same day, Christine was baptized by Fred Bessler. She was confirmed by Jacob Spori. Both the naming of the baby and the baptism occurred in the Logan Fourth Ward.

     A young unmarried German immigrant, Karl Heinrich Buchmiller, had joined the Church in his native land and had come to Logan to find work. The year was 1882 and he was hired by the newly completed Utah and Northern Railroad. It ran from Utah to Butte, Montana, but he remained based in Logan. Karl, also 22, but a few months younger than Christine, took a "liking" to the lovely young German woman and her little girl. After a short courtship he asked her to become his wife. He also expressed his desire to love and care for her 15-month hold child as his daughter.

     April 9, 1883, by Daniel H. Wells, just two days after Karl's 23rd birthday. Karl's sister, Mary, lent Christine her wedding dress. Mary and her husband, Emil Krause, accompanied them.

They traveled to Salt Lake City and were married in the Endowment House 

Logan, Utah, about 1882