WHO was Elizabeth Naber?

Elizabeth Naber has been a mystery to us because her death certificate says her father was Bernard Richls, and we believe she was the second 'Elizabeth' married to Gerhard Naber but we can't seem to prove it.

Background: When we were kids, we regularly went to Bancroft, Iowa to visit mom's cousins, Ida and Walburga Naber, tho mom said they were "not really cousins".
Over the years, when we'd ask mom about it, she seemed vague, or maybe we weren't listening. The questions were always about Ida and Walburg because we didn't have any other Naber relatives. As it turns out, they were the daughters of Gerhard Naber's son Henry with his first wife Elizabeth. Mom's mother, Margaret, was Gerhard's daughter by this second Elizabeth.
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I don't know where this tree came from or who drew it, but I found it among mom's stuff after she died in 1996. I tucked it away. Another family with repeat names through generations--argh.
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Along with it was this immediate family tree in mom's handwriting--ah, "Richels"--amazing that it took me 13 years to make the connection, but even then, either spelling could be correct.


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Searching ancestry.com, Bernard Richels, b 1864, arrived alone from Germany in May of 1886, but he can't be the parent of Elizabeth, since she was born in 1846. Besides, after that, even he drops off the radar...

Don't loose any sleep, ok? We'll keep looking!

How far was it?

See Dyersville, west of Dubuque? That's the area our Nabers came from.

And see Davenport, at the bottom? That was where William and Katherine (Naber) Bahns started their family.

Larry found the city directory for Davenport, Iowa from 1890-91, which showed a few BAHNS, including a Wm Bahns. In one entry, he worked for the Black Hawk Brick Company as a laborer, and in the "Musical Organizations" listing, he was the leader of the Germania Band.

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Could it be that Pierz needed a band leader, and that he applied for and got the job? Since we don't know why the Nabers moved to Morrison County, I'm just speculating, but it's possible. Perhaps Gerhard coincidently purchased the Buckman farm before he died?

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Here's a map that shows how far Pierz is from Davenport. They would have taken a riverboat up to St Paul, probably, then the train.

By 1908, Wm was 39, and Katherine was 28. Her mom was 62, and her sibs were 32, 30, 26 and 24, all unmarried. Maybe they saw Minnesota as a fresh start, huh?

Sure, Buckman's nice, but...

Another mystery about Elizabeth Naber is why she and 5 of her children moved from Petersburg, Iowa to Buckman, Minnesota.

We discovered that her daughter Katherine (grandma's sister) married William Bahns in Iowa in 1902. By the 1910 census, they were in Pierz. Were they the impetus for her mom and sibs moving too? Or, was Buckman "as good as anywhere"?

Larry found documents indicating Gerhard Naber had been land-speculating in Minnesota in the 1880s, but we don't know where or IF he bought acerage, tho that could be a reason his widow moved. The farm in Petersburg was large, with good soil, but might have been too much. Elizabeth was 45 when Gerhard died (at 62) in 1891. By the time they moved she was around 60. It's hard to imagine that farm SW of Buckman as a cushy retirement home....

But it's obvious Elizabeth Naber had money when she arrived. When her daughter Margaret married Anton Janson, they were able to pay the back taxes on his farm because of Margarets' generous dowery:
$9,600.00 from 1910 is worth $224,420.07 in 2008 dollars....from MEASURING WORTH online.