Christine Gertraude Walz-Pictures

I had these pictures ready to scan and put into Great Grandma's history and then simply forgot that I had them.  So I am going to add them now.  Sorry about that.  I hope that you will enjoy them all by themselves rather than in a history.

Buchmiller-Klingler Family 1895
Godfry, Friedrich Ludwig Klingler, and John Buchmiller
Karl, Great Grandmother with George on her lap and Chris

The Buchmiller-Klingler Family
Caroline, Christina, Mary, Emma, Christina Magdalena (Grandmother)
Fred is seated.

The Buchmiller-Klinger Family 1908
First row: George, Fred, Great Grandmother, Alma, Bill in front of Friedrich Ludwig, Barbara, and Sara
Second row: Christina Magdalena Buchmiller, (Grandmother), Karl, Emma Buchmiller, John Buchmiller, Christina, Godfrey May, Chris, Eva, and Caroline
This picture was taken just before Godrey left for his mission.

Great Grandmother Christine Gertrude Walz seated
Standing:  Christina Magdalena (Grandmother), John and Emma Buchmiller
About 1910

Early Teens
Christina, John, and Emma Buchmiller

My Grandparents
James Edward Cook and Christina Magdalena Buchmiiler

Grandmother Christina Magdalena with her siblings John and Emma Buchmiller
Taken at a family reunion in Rexburg, Idaho about 1955

Christine Gertraude Walz - Part 10

           

On September 24, 1917, Christine was released as Relief Society president due to illness. Then, in the early part of January 1920, Christine became very ill. She had a high temperature, pain, red splotches, and finally broke out in lesions like boils. Her granddaughter Berneice Steiner Heinz remembers seeing her face and head tied up in bandages. Christine called for her nephew, Conrad, to come and administer to her. When he came, she asked him to pray for her to be "called home" as she was so ill she didn't think she could stand it much longer. He did as she requested and she died shortly afterward. She was 60.

            The entry in the Klingler Bible written by her bereaved husband reads: 

"The 17 January 1920 died my beloved wife, Christine Klingler in Rexburg. Sickness was erysipelas.

Buried the 19 January."

            Erysipelas is little known today. It is caused by a specific streptococcus bacterium and can be cured with modem-day antibiotics. Christine's death certificate states the main cause of death was a perforated gastric ulcer with erysipelas as the secondary cause.

            No formal funeral homes or mortuaries existed in Rexburg at this time. Those who prepared bodies for burial just came to the homes of those who needed them. After the preparations and dressing of the body were completed, the deceased person was placed in the casket. The casket was then placed on chairs in the center of the parlor. Someone other than a family member was usually assigned to sit up with the body at night. Before the church service for Christine, the family knelt around the casket for prayer.

Recorded in the Rexburg Third Ward Record Book A: "January 18, 1920 -

Bishop R. H. Smith gave out notice of the funeral of Christine Walz Klingler, to be held in the meeting house January 19, 1920".

"Minutes of the service held over the remains of Christine Walz Buchmiller Klingler, in the Rexburg Third Ward meeting house,

January 19, 1920. Bishop Richard H. Smith, presided."

Singing #219 "Sister Thou Wast Mild and Lovely."

Prayer was offered by George B. Wynn.

Singing #223 "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere."

Elder Peter Andregg was the first speaker. He spoke in German.

Elder Hyrum Ricks, Sr. spoke in English and read, "My Mother," after which he prayed.

Elder Horace W. Mason rendered a solo, #166, "What Voice; Salutes The Startled Ear."

He was followed by an address by William A. Smith.

Bishop Richard H. Smith then made a few remarks.

Meeting closed by singing #31, "Rest, Rest for the Weary Soul."

Prayer was by Elder John Austin Walz.

THE REXBURG JOURNAL, Friday, January 23, 1920, page 1

Mrs. Klingler Laid to' Rest

"Mrs. Christine G. Klingler, wife of Frederick (Friedrich) Klingler, died last Saturday of erysipelas of the stomach. She was 60 years of age.  

Funeral services were held at the Third Ward Meeting House, Monday.  The speakerswere Judge Hyrum Ricks, Peter Andregg, Prof. W. A. Smith, and Bishop R. H. Smith. Mrs. Klingler was one of the early settlers of this city and was a woman of excellent qualities. When the Third Ward was organized she was chosen president of the Relief Society, which position she held ten years. She was formerly married to Mr. Buckmiller (Karl Buchmiller) by whom she had children. Mr. Klingler also had children by a former wife, and still other children were born to the two. So these two good people have reared a large and honorable family together.  Mrs. Klingler was greatly beloved by all who knew her and will be greatly missed in the family circle. There was a very large attendance at the funeral service. John Phillips had charge of the interment".

            Christine Gertraude Walz Buchmiller Klingler was buried by the side of her first husband, Karl Heinrich Buchmiller, in Lot 12, Block 5, of the Rexburg City Cemetery.  Friedrich Ludwig Klingler had a four-foot high stone marker place on her gravesite. The monument inscription read, "Beloved Wife, Christine Gertrude Walz Klingler 1859 - 1920".  In the 1960s, her son, John H. Buchmiller, removed the first marker and installed a new one.  The new marker honored both his father and mother. Karl's grave had been unmarked until this time.

            Friedrich Ludwig Klingler died August 2, 1927, and is buried by the side of their baby son, Frank Jacob, in Lot 28, Block 3, of the Rexburg Cemetery. Christine's daughter Emma and three of her sons, John, Karl, and Alma, are also buried in the same cemetery.

            Christina Magdalena Walz followed her sister in death the next year on March 4, 1921, and is buried in Lot 31, Block 3, of the Rexburg Cemetery. Their brother, Johannes Heinrich Walz, died at Blanchard Township, Perth, Ontario, Canada, July 1, 1917.

There is a digital copy of the book that I took these written histories from.  It is entitled Christine Gertraude Walz Buchmiller Klingler.  It was compiled by Carol Dee Stoker Buchmiller and Golden Atkin Buchmiller.  

It can be found at the following url:

https://dcms.lds.org/view/action/ieViewer.dodps_pid=IE76112&dps_dvs=1371578726497~921&dps_pid=IE76112&change_lng=en

The book is a marvelous collection of family history and has lots more information, pictures and histories.  Be sure and look it up.

Christine Gertraude Walz - Part 7

             Friedrich's family included Babette Christine (Barbara Ronnenkamp), Maria Christine (Oswald), Friedrich Gottfried, known as Fred Jr., Anna Maria (Mary Ellsworth), Caroline (Spaulding and then Roos), Gottfried Christopher, known as Godfrey, and Christoph, known as Chris. An older son, Ernst, did not come to America with his family. Three children of Friedrich and Anna Maria died as babies.

            Barbara had married the year before at the age of 14 1/2 and was in her own home, and Fred Jr., 13, was helping on his Aunt Charlotte's farm while their son was on a mission. The other five children would join Christine's three to form the new family. Eight children and two parents made the one-room log house bulge. Friedrich kept his job in Pocatello and came home when he could. But Christine was cheerful, a good housekeeper, and an excellent cook. They were sure the marriage would work. Some of the overcrowding was eased when Friedrich built one room, and later another, onto Christine's small log home.

Rexburg, Idaho

            Karl Conrad was born in these crowded conditions on November 30, 1891, He was named for Christine's first husband, and for her father and her nephew, both named Conrad. By the following June, it was decided to put the three Buchmiller children out with relatives. Emelia, 10, and Lena, 7, went to live with Christine's sister, Christina Magdalena (Auntie Walz). They would help take care of her invalid husband while she was serving as a nurse and midwife. John Henry, 8 1/2, who had just finished the third grade, would live with Conrad Walz and his wife, Eliza, out in Burton. He would be taught farming. John was not

at all happy about leaving. When his stepfather asked John to give him part of his earnings, John said, "No! I'll give some to my mother but not to you."

            Auntie Walz was glad to have the help of the girls. She was very busy and hadn't been able to give George the attention he needed. Over the course of her career Auntie Walz helped more than 2,000 mothers give birth to babies, some as far away as Ashton and Driggs.  When Uncle George died in 1895 Emelia moved in with Auntie Walz's daughter, Mary Brenner, to learn sewing and dressmaking. Mary and her husband, Jacob, lived in Rexburg. Auntie Walz ' other married daughter, Christina Magdalena Walz Pfost, took Lena to help care for the Pfost children.

            Soon more children were born to the Klingler family. George Ludwig was born on October 8, 1894. His first name was for Auntie Walz' husband, and his second name was also his father's middle name. Two daughters came next — Eva Rosina on January 28, 1896, and Sarah, on August 20, 1897. Rosina was a Klingler femily name. Sarah later changed the spelling to Sara. Three boys followed the two girls. Wilhelm Wilfbrd was bom April 3, 1899.  He later was called William or Bill. Frank Jakob came November 22, 1900. Sorrow entered the home again as he lived only until October 14,1901. Their last son, Alma, was born August 12, 1902, just a month after his mother's 43rd birthday. Auntie Walz helped Christine with all

the deliveries.

Ricks Academy formerly Bannock Stake Academy

            The babies were blessed and, when old enough, baptized and confirmed. Education had to be considered. In 1888, before Christine had remarried, the Bannock Stake Academy was opened in Rexburg. The students were divided into three groups. Tuition was set at four dollars for intermediate students, three dollars for preparatory, and two dollars for primary children . Families with several school-age children sometimes could not afford to pay tuition for all of them. This was the case in the new Buchmiller-Klingler family, so some of the children did not get the education their parents wanted them to have.

            Life was very busy for Christine, as the children needed much care. Friedrich couldn't help as he was away most of the time in Pocatello. With the assistance of the older girls, Christine prepared food, made clothes, knitted the family stockings, and washed clothes on a washboard. Both Christine and Friedrich worried about the diphtheria and smallpox epidemics of 1891-92 and the measles outbreaks every spring. An occasional Indian scare was another problem. Christine had little time to think about her former home in Germany or events of the recent past.

            Auntie Walz always seemed to be readily available when her sister's family had illness or emergencies. Once when the children were playing Karl accidentally chopped off Eva's finger. Someone sent for Auntie Walz. She came as quickly as she could and put something on the injured finger, wrapped it up, and saved it. Another time when the whole family had typhoid fever she was the one who nursed them back to health. George was very ill and took longer than the others to recover. During this time everyone "spoiled" him and from then on until he was grown he was known as the "pet" of the family. There was an

emergency that Auntie Walz missed — a fire the boys started that Christine and Emelia put out by themselves.

            In August of 1887, just a few months before Christine lost her first husband, the Rexburg Second Ward was organized. The ward covered the southwest part of town. The bishop was Casper Steiner and his counselors were Roman Siepert and Conrad Walz. Auntie Walz was set apart as the ward's first Relief Society president. She served 18 years. The Third Ward was organized at the same time and covered the northwest section of Rexburg. It was merged into the Second Ward five years later.

First Ward Meeting House

Second Ward Meeting House

Christine Gertraude Walz - Part 6

            Christine learned a bitter lesson shortly after she came to Rexburg. A neighbor woman told her many negative things about another neighbor. She repeated it to someone else and that someone went to the original victim and said Christine had started it. The woman who had told Christine denied the whole thing and Christine then became the villain. She learned from that experience never to gossip or repeat stories.

            Karl and Conrad obtained haying jobs in Montana during the summer of 1887. While they were away Christine stumbled and fell into an irrigation ditch. She was going to or returning from a well across a pasture. It was dusk and difficult for the young mother to see and she was pregnant. The fall caused her to miscarry. She grieved over the loss for a long time.

            Karl returned home in the late summer, injured and ill, without Conrad. He had been seriously hurt in a runaway team-and-wagon accident and while in his weakened condition contracted typhoid fever. He lingered for a while and then died of pneumonia on October 27, 1887. He was only 27. The neighbors came to give solace to the young widow and to build a coffin from a cotton wood tree. Miss Ella Hinckley made the clothes and lined the coffin for Karl. After a funeral he was buried in the Rexburg Cemetery. The baby that Christine miscarried in the spring would have been born about the time of Karl's death. (Ella later

married Thomas B. Cardon and the two became parents of Genevieve. When Genevieve grew up she became the wife of Karl Klingler, son of Christine and her second husband Friedrich Ludwig Klingler.)

            Christine struggled to maintain her little family without her husband. Emelia was three months short of being six years old. John Henry was 3 1/2, and Lena was two.

Christina Gertrude Walz Buchmiller seated;
Standing-Christina Magdalena,
John Henry and Emilie Walz Buchmiller

             The young mother took in washing, did housework, and sewed for other families to provide their living. The children gleaned wheat from the ditch banks which their mother made into flour. But they often went hungry. Christine remembered later how tasty some wild meat was that had been given to her by a neighbor. Once she used a whisk broom to brush together enough flour to make some gravy.

            Three years had passed since Karl and Christine had arrived in Idaho to homestead. On March 9, 1888, Christine traveled to Blackfoot, the county seat of Bingham County, Territory of Idaho. She paid nine hard-earned dollars to the county treasurer and received the deed to the 2 1/2 acres she and Karl had homesteaded. The property was located in Southend, a community in the southwestern section of what is now Rexburg.  (Note:  This property is just down the street from where George and Diana Wilson used to live.)

            Christine became acquainted with a German woman named Charlotte Klingler Pfost. Charlotte's brother, Friedrich Ludwig Klingler,

Friedrich Ludwig Klingler

his wife, and family of six children had joined the Church in Germany and had come to Rexburg in 1886. They had a son born while in Rexburg on August 18, 1886. When Christine went to see the new baby, Christoph, she thought he was one of the most beautiful babies she had ever seen. The Klingler family moved a short time later to Pocatello so Friedrich could work for the railroad. While they were there another child was born, May 22, 1889. Two months later the mother died, and the baby lived only four more days.

            The children were brought back to Rexburg to live with various relatives. Friedrich continued working in Pocatello but would visit his children whenever he could. Charlotte wanted Christine to meet her brother. She played matchmaker and was the one who introduced them to each other. After a courtship they thought about marriage. They did much soul-searching on this matter, as Friedrich had seven living children and she had three. Also, Fredrich had a habit to overcome — he smoked a pipe. Christine did not approve of smoking.  He was able to give up the habit and a wedding day was set.

          They were to be married February 11, 1891, in the Logan Temple for time only.  Christine was already sealed to her first husband, Karl Heinrich Buchmiller. The day arrived for her to meet Friedrich in Pocatello where they would take the train to Logan. As she approached his home she could see him through a window with a pipe in his mouth. When confronted with this, he said he was not smoking but had put the unlit pipe in his mouth out of habit. He really had not smoked since he told her he would not, he explained. She was finally convinced he was telling the truth and that he did love her.

            They attended the temple on the appointed day. Christine stood as proxy for Friedrich's first wife, Anna Maria Bauer, so Anna could receive her endowments. The sealing of Friedrich and Anna Maria would be performed later. Then Christine Walz Buchmiller and Fredrich Ludwig Klingler were married for "time only" by Merriner Wood Merrill, president of the temple.