Christine Gertraude Walz - Part 8

           Electricity came to Rexburg in the late 1890s. In August of 1898 Fremont Stake was organized with Thomas E. Ricks as the new stake president. By late 1899 the railroad had come as far north as Rexburg and the tracks were about a block west of the Klingler home. The settlement reached city status in 1903.

Main Street, Rexburg, Idaho

            Some of the older Klingler children from the first wife were getting married during this period and were setting up their own homes. Several of the boys were working in other areas. Godfrey was sent on a mission to Germany from the farming ward of Independence. John, Karl, George, and Bill served missions later. Eva served when she was 68.

3rd Ward Meeting house 1907

            During the quarterly conference held in June 1907, Rexburg was again divided into three wards. This time the Third Ward was in the southwest part of town, the Second Ward in the northwest, and the First Ward on the east side. Hyrum Ricks, Sr. was sustained as bishop of the Third Ward with George Steiner, Casper's son, and Conrad Steffen as counselors.

            On July 7, 1907, Christine Gertrude Buchmiller Klingler was sustained as president of the Third Ward Relief Society. She chose Lula C. Anderson and Elizabeth Ricks as her counselors. Olive Buckley was her secretary, and Frannie Bieri, treasurer. By the following December a new rock chapel was finished and meetings were being held in it. The chapel was located a block west of the Klingler property next to the railroad tracks. The Relief Society under Christine's leadership held a number of bazaars to raise money for a new white picket fence around the grounds. Later, money was raised to plant lawns and trees. In 1912 a donation of $28.80 was given by the Third Ward Relief Society as its share of the LDS Church's China and U.S. flood

relief projects. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, $25.60 in cash and 775 pounds of flour were donated to war victims. The flour was the Third Ward Relief Society's share of Fremont Stake's carload of 57,000 pounds sent to the suffering Belgians. The money also went to the Belgians. In 1916 the sisters of the Relief Society were asked to save their pennies to help build a new temple in Hawaii.

            Hard cash was a rarity. Besides the bazaars the Relief Society sisters were asked to collect and sell the eggs laid by their hens on Sunday. The proceeds would then be added to the Relief Society funds. The Sunday eggs were known as "the Relief Society eggs."

            In later years Christine's son Karl recalled a personal experience with eggs. He was a teenager at the time. His mother had asked him to get his new pony and take a bucket of eggs uptown to be sold at one of the stores. He set the bucket on top of a large fence post before he dismounted to open the gate. After the gate was open he jumped back on the pony but the animal suddenly bolted into the post. Of course, there were broken eggs all over him, the pony, and the ground. His mother came running from the house really angry with Karl because the eggs were all broken. However, a neighbor woman had seen the accident and

assured Christine it was the pony that had caused the problem. It is not known whether these were Relief Society eggs or some of the many eggs Christine sold to help raise cash for the family.

            The boys in the family chauffeured their mother around the ward in a buggy with a horse or horses as she visited her Relief Society members. Sometimes she didn't need the service - she could visit them right in her home. They were new immigrants from Europe who were temporarily housed with the Klinglers until they could move out on their own. The Riplinger family was just one of the families who started out this way.

            Only a few things such as salt and sugar were bought at a store. Christine's husband, Friedrich Ludwig Klingler, grew vegetables in a large garden on their lot. When the vegetables were ready to harvest the family kept what it needed and sold the surplus. The Klinglers had regular vegetable customers who put in their orders a week ahead. Some of the vegetables were made up into attractive bundles and the younger boys would peddle them from their wagon. Each boy was allowed to keep some of the money. Bill, who began having vision problems early in his life, didn't think it was fair that he had to use his vegetable money to buy his own glasses. Several grocery stores also bought vegetables from the Klinglers. Mrs. Jacobs of the Fogg and Jacobs store bought from the boys and remembered their wagon.

            The family also had two large raspberry patches. When the berries were ripe Christine and the children would pick in one patch while the other was being watered. More than 100 quarts were bottled each year. The extra berries were sold. Once when Emma picked berries for a woman who had ordered them in advance, the woman refused to pay the agreed-on price. Christine said they would let it go this time, but she said she would not take any more orders or sell to the woman again. Eva and Sara were paid 10 cents for each dollar's worth marketed. Sara said, "We got lots of money but I was always in the raspberry patch on my birthday, which was August 20". Currants were grown and bottled or sold. Several varieties of apple trees and a pear tree were also grown on their lot.

            Besides growing their own fruit and vegetables the family had cows to milk and pigs to slaughter. The Klinglers made sausage, head cheese, and smoked hams and produced plenty of lard. In the fall the father and boys usually killed and dressed a fat calf. Chickens not only furnished eggs but also provided tasty Sunday dinners, mid-week treats, and picnic fare. Grain and alfalfa were raised on an 80-acre farm which the family had acquired south of Rexburg. Their livestock were fed hay and grain, and the wheat was taken to the local mill to be ground into flour. The mill also purchased other grain from the Klinglers. Milk was sold

at five cents a bucket for years. They also kept some of the poor families in the ward in milk.

           

Behind the home were two root cellars. One was for vegetables and one was for fruit. It was Friedrich's contention that the two products should not be mixed because the vegetables would spoil the flavor of the fruit. In the vegetable cellar were cabbages, winter radishes, potatoes, many kinds of squash, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, and crocks full of sauerkraut, which Friedrich made from cabbage. Other crocks held Christine's sour pickles, which were described as "fabulous" by all who tasted them.

            Apples took up a lot of space in the fruit cellar. They were stored on shallow shelves, according to their variety. In winter months Friedrich or one of the older children would go into the fruit cellar and fill bowls of apples for the family to enjoy. The apples stayed crisp and flavorful all winter. Hundreds of bottles of fruit were also stored in the cellar.

            Friedrich used reeds to make sturdy baskets. They were used by the family for gathering and storing produce from the garden. They were also used in the home.

            While the vegetable garden was the responsibility of her husband, Christine delighted in her flower garden. The front yard of the home and the side of the lot were planted with beautiful flowers such as bleeding hearts, peonies, and narcissus, to name a few varieties. The Klingler flowers were a showplace in the neighborhood. Christine also had beautiful plants in her home all year long.

            Christine's sour pickles were mentioned earlier. She always selected the best cucumbers picked from the garden. They were washed thoroughly and put into crocks. A heavy brine was made from salt, vinegar, water, and spices, and poured over the cucumbers.  They were kept in the brine under the weight of large dinner plates for several weeks and then bottled. Weeks or months later when they came out of the bottles they were salty, crisp, and delicious.

            Another of her favorite recipes was for mustard pickles. Apparently, she once gave the recipe to her daughter, Emma, as it was later found in her cookbook:

                         3 tablespoons mustard worked together with 1 tablespoon sugar

                         1 egg beaten with the above until smooth.

                         1 teacup vinegar and add to above working until smooth, then

                          cook for two or three minutes stirring aU the time. When cool add

                         1 tablespoon olive oil and work until very smooth.

                         Use (add) cauliflower, whole small cucumbers and small onions.

            She often made chicken and noodles for the older children when they came home for visits. The dish was a special treat and they all enjoyed it. She also made Brindly (sic) soup, which was flour browned in lard or butter with milk added to make it like thin gravy. Then, to transform Brindly soup into "noodley soup," homemade noodles were grated into it.  She made the noodle dough with eggs, flour, and a bit of salt. The dough was rolled out and cut very fine. Another soup known as Grindiy soup was a hot broth heated to boiling with a batter then stirred into it to form small lumps like dumplings.

            The family also enjoyed Christine's wilted lettuce salad. It was made by frying bacon until it was crisp, then pouring the bacon fat over fresh lettuce leaves from the garden - with a bit of vinegar and the bacon added. She also made a bean salad that everyone liked, but none of her descendants could remember how it was made.

            Another of her favorites was Apfel Kuchen, apple cake. The tasty dessert was made with a rich bread or biscuit dough rolled out and placed in a very large dripper pan.  Apple slices were spread on the top and then an egg custard mix was poured over everything.  It was then baked very slowly. "Mmmmmmm good!" later wrote Dawn Klingler, a granddaughter. Dawn's mother was Genevieve, wife of Karl. Genevieve learned how to make the delicious dessert from visits to Christine's home.

            On Sundays Christine roasted enough meat for the main meal and for "piecing" by the children in the evening. The house seemed to be a gathering place for young people, especially on Sunday evenings. Christine made German almond or "Marzipan" cookies by pouring the batter into molds with designs on them and then laying them on the hot stove. They were very hard and could be stored for months. She made springerli, too. These were another type of cookie.