Nabers in Dairyland

 ...Naber and Sons, Muscatine, Iowa

I remember mom mentioning relatives in Muscatine, Iowa, but I doubt we ever went there to visit.  Ida and Walburg probably visited there, and kept mom in the loop with family news about them.  

Larry found this bottle cap for sale on line.  COOL, huh?  Wonder what year it was from.  This sort of cover fit in the tall, slope-sided bottles (from earlier times), not the ones below...but why do I know that?  The squarish bottles were what we bought at the Dairy Bar on 3rd Street in St Cloud, but they had foil caps that fit down over the lip, remember?  The phone number is just four digits--1791--so it was before the national system was fancied-up with letters.

I'm guessing the Naber and Sons Dairy existed in the 1920s to 40s?

We can change this info if we find out different! 

(Next day--Larry found these ads in the Muscatine Journal in the 1940s)

THANKS, LARRY X2 ☺

Anton Janson marries Margaret Naber

The May 22, 1913 issue of the Pierz Journal carried this wedding announcement.  Probably written by Math Hesch, it seems to be worded delicately, since everyone knew Anton Janson was just a little prickly....  


"We have the pleasant opportunity this week of relating to the marriage, which took place in out village last Monday at 9 a.m., when Miss Margareth Naber and Anton Janson were united in marriage by Rev. J. B. Brander at the St Michael's church, in the presence of relatives of the couple and a large number of invited guests.  The bridesmaid was Rose Janson, sister to the groom, and John Naber was best man.  Music was furnished by the choir.  After the ceremony, the couple were showered with hearty congratulations.  The happy newweds were the recipients of many presents.  They will make their home on the grooms farm in Buckman".


Cool, huh?

Elizabeth Naber 1873-1911

One of the conundrums Larry and I ran into early in our search was the numerous different Elizabeth Nabers we found.  We eventually discovered that my grandmothers' father, Gerhard Naber, had married twice to women named Elizabeth and with the second Elizabeth had a daughter they named... Elizabeth.  

When great grandpa Gerhard died in Iowa, his widow Elizabeth moved to Buckman with her sons John and Gerhard, and daughters Margaret and Elizabeth.  A third daughter, Katherine, already lived in Pierz (Mrs William Bahns).

Evidently, the younger Elizabeth had kidney troubles* even before they left Iowa, and finally died of it in April, 1911:

 I was struck by the life/death/funeral/burial economy of the announcement in the paper.  Sure, the Pierz Journal was a weekly, and this all happened within a week.  It was strange, tho, seeing it all on one page.

* Bright's Disease is an older classification for different forms of kidney disease. It was named after Dr. Richard Bright, who described the condition in the early 19th century. Lack of understanding of kidney function naturally meant that several different conditions could be considered Bright's Disease. These include inflammation of the kidney, commonly called nephritis. Inflammation may be the result of too much protein being shed through the kidneys, called proteinuria, or hematuria, which causes blood in the urine. As well, Bright's Disease might describe kidney failure due to high blood pressure or retention of fluids.

Those symptoms most commonly associated with Bright's Disease were intense pain on either or both sides of the lower back. Fever might be present and intense edema, or retention of fluids, might cause the extremities to appear extremely swollen. Breath could be labored and difficult, particularly if kidney failure caused fluid to accumulate in the lungs, or was caused by metastasized cancer.

Naber news from 1912

"John T. Schmid, recently from Medina, N. D., has bought the farm of Margaret Naber, better known as the old "Poster Farm" east of Buckman, and moved onto it a few weeks ago".

Margaret Naber was my grandmother, before she married Anton Janson, but HOW did she come by a farm of her own?  We know "John Naber and his mother" moved to Buckman from Petersburg Iowa in the spring of 1910 (his sisters Margaret and Elizabeth moved there, too...was that just understood?)
We know the farm in Iowa must have sold for big bucks (Larry found an article mentioning the great increase in Iowa farm land prices  then), so perhaps the Nabers invested in a few farms instead of just one.  It would have been a good way to bestow a legacy on a child and increase the value of the inheritance at the same time, huh?

It's all in the perspective

Over the past four years, Larry and I have discussed Nabers quite a bit, in particular my grandmother's mother, Elizabeth.
  (Grandma's father, Gerhard Naber, married his second Elizabeth in 1871.  They had 5 more kids together: Elizabeth, John, Catherine, Margaret, and Gerhard.  My grandmother was Margaret).  
  We've wondered why Elizabeth and her grown kids left Petersburg, Iowa and moved to Buckman, Minnesota, of all places.  Ok, daughter Catherine was living in Pierz with her husband and kids.  Did they move to be near her?
  In my mind, it was a mother who moved to another state and whose unmarried kids came along.  But 'society' saw it differently, evidently.  Here's a blurb from the Buckman News of March 4th, 1910:

John Naber, his two sisters and mother, who are now the proprietors of the A.L. Kiernan farm arrived here from Iowa on Saturday with their stock and household goods, and will make their future home here.

Wow.  Ok, we know Elizabeth's husband Gerhard died in 1891, so she'd been a widow for almost 20 years by 1910.  John was 37, his sisters were 38 and 28, but his mom was only 64 when they arrived in Minnesota...hardly over the hill.
  But wait--John's brother Gerhard wasn't listed with the family there.  No wonder--he'd married Julia Grittner in 1909.  Her family was from Buckman, so the Nabers had earlier associations with Morrison County...it's a still unfolding story!
(Thanks to Horst's book (see the sidebar) for including this blurb).

Mr. & Mrs. John H Nabor celebrate

It's pretty neat that searching online casts such a wide net.  To find mentions of relatives from long-past years, it helps to use a "wildcard" like "Nab*r", which is probably exactly what Larry did here.  (One problem with searching newspapers for the word Naber is that it's used for 'neighbor' in stories written to sound like 'country' dialect--sheesh!)  But the index comes from a machine reader, so the interpretation is iffy anyway.

This couple almost has to be "ours" because  York, Nebraska is in the right part of the state (52 miles west of Lincoln) where other Nabers settled.  Also, they were born in Oldenburg, Germany in 1841 and 1852.  

York, Neb. April 13~Mr. and Mrs. John H. Nabor celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently.  They were married at Hammelswart, in Oldenburg, Germany on the 18th day of March, 1872, and on the third day thereafter sailed for United States.  They arrived in York county soon after and homesteaded south of Waco where they made their home for forty-five years.  Five years ago they moved to Utica to make their home.  Their family consists of ten children, twenty-four grand and great grand children.  Mr Nabor is eighty-one years of age, and Mrs. Nabor, seventy.

I'm of course under a "Women Are Every Bit as Important" obligation to find Mrs. Naber's first name.  According to the 1900 census from Waco township in York Co Nebraska, it was Gerhardine, even tho the enumerator spelled it funny.  How can I be so sure?  Look below the census excerpt:

Ahhh...I found John Henry Naber on Find a Grave.  His wife's name was Gerhardine Schmidt Naber.

Birth:	Jan. 3, 1841 Oldenburg, Germany
Death:	Mar. 30, 1930 Nebraska, USA
Family links:  Parents:   Anna Lucia Schroeder Naber (1799 - 1881)  Children:   Infant son Naber*   William Heinrich Naber (1877 - 1959)*   Metha Mathilda Naber Hoffschneider (1879 - 1967)*   Henrietta Anna Naber Hoffschneider (1881 - 1955)*   Karl F. Naber (1884 - 1887)*   Clara Gerhardina Naber Schlechte (1888 - 1990)*  Spouse:   Gerhardine Schmidt Naber (1852 - 1936)* *Point here for explanation
Burial: Saint Johns Cemetery Waco York County Nebraska, USA

Farm Dogs

I think Nabers and Jansons always had favorite dogs. They liked being in the picture, too, I guess. ☺
I inherited Ida's photo album, and there are tons of dog photos without people.  I'm sure Ida knew each one's name...

Mom's cousins Ida & Walburga

Katherine (Naber) Bahns 1881-1854

Grandma Margaret Naber (Janson) had a sister named Katherine.  According to the 1910 Buckman township census, Katherina and her husband William Bahns had 3 little girls by then--Rose, Regina and Helen.  They evidently lived east of town because a page later I found Andrew Suess.  

We know they married in Iowa in 1902, and that Rose and Regina were born there, but Helen was born in Minnesota.  The only two photos of Katherine we know we have are HERE and HERE, and we have none of William (1869-1932).

However, among mom's pictures, the girl with the accordian I think is Helen or Betty Bahns, both of whom I remember.  Larry found a reference to William Bahns leading a band in Pierz, so music was probably a part of their home life.   I can't tell which of mom's cousins she is, but I do know that's Helen in the next two pics.

Helen Bahns married Lawrence Cable around 1940.  That's them on the right....

and Helen behind the girl below.  No, I don't know who the others are...lol.

This little girl is the next generation: She's Katherine's grandaughter Shirley, born in 1941.  Her dad, John, was the youngest of Katherines kids, born in 1914.

I'd really like to hear from a Bahns descendant, or a Cable or Sarp or Hoheisel!

Info from Obituaries

Two obituaries from  Iowa in 1915 and 1944.  Margaret Kauper Naber was the wife of Henry Naber, who was the half-brother of  great grandfather Gerhard Naber.  (Henry's mom was Elizabeth Rupipper, and Gerhard's mom was Elizabeth Richels).  But look what other info is included--she was born in Lohn, Hanover, Germany, which leads us to look in that area for Nabers, too, since immigrants tended to settle in the new world near people they knew in the old.  It turns out that Henry died exactly a year before two of his half sisters Mary Schlichte and Grandma Margaret Janson. (They both died in April, 1945).

This below is just a sweet bit of daily life on the Naber farm in Bancroft, Iowa.  The reporter was a friend, you can tell, and he probably got supper out of the deal that day, too...lol
(BTW, Larry said the woman mentioned, "Mrs Jos. Baltz" was the former Clara M. Raskoff (1872-1956), just so we know ☺).

On the left is Henry Naber with his daughter Walburga, and on the right, Henry with daughter Ida.  Below is a young Reinhard Janson with the sisters, probably in Bancroft, probably in the 1940s.

THANKS for searching newspapers, Larry! ☺

More NABERS

Most mornings, Larry and I chit-chat a bit on instant messenger before I go off to work, and if either of us found something fun, we share it.  My sharing tends to be news items and goofy pictures, while Larry shares vids and music and family links from places online it never occurred to me to look.  Today, he was looking at Arcadia, Carroll County, Iowa. (Why there, huh? But we knew some Nabers traveled thru Carroll and a few stayed.  We didn't know much else, and still don't ☺ ).  The website has a bunch of old pictures from Arcadia's early years, and THERE .....

H. F. Schroeder, Joe Schweers, Ted Staples, Gerd Hammers, Elmer Schroeder, Bernard Naber, Mike Booth, Ras Nelson, Gilbert Michael, Barney Vander Loo, Shorty Anderson, Val Naber, Harry Wood

...in one of the few photos with names, we have TWO Naber men--Bernard in the middle of the top row, and Val, second from the right.  The photo isn't dated, but it looks like late 30s/early 40s. No, we don't know how they connect, but it's a good bet that anyone with that name in the U.S. does.

Click the link--Arcadia looks like a nice little town--there's an Aloysius Naber pictured on a baseball team from 1923-24, too.  If you have info about these Nabers, let me know, ok?  I'll post it!

BTW, if the photo above was a map of IOWA, then Carroll Co would be Ted Staples waist band button.  Got it?  ☺

Johann Heinrich NABER

THIS seems to me to be a really precious document for the Naber family in 1878 Nebraska.  It gave them ownership of 80 acres because they'd lived there for six years, and they'd improved it.  That 12 X 27 soddy was about the size of a small one car garage, and the 10 X 20 one is mentioned as a second house...like for sleeping maybe?

Below, December 1st, 1877, John becomes a citizen of the United States, and so his whole family became citizens too.
(John Heinrich was my grandmothers' uncle, or Great grandpa Gerhards' brother).

THANK YOU to Larry, and to the state of Nebraska for digitizing these records...

Something odd about Nabers...

From the Carrol (Iowa) Times, September 1908, comes this article that Larry found....

It struck him that Nabers seem to die in twos--grandma Margaret (Naber) Janson died within three days of her sister Mary, and Joe Naber's sister-in-law became ill at his funeral and died (New Mexico).
(That account is a few posts down).

We're pretty sure Frank Adam Naber, in New Vienna, was a blacksmith.  He was born in November 1845.  John Henry Naber would have been his cousin, I think.  According to family trees on ancestry.com, the John who died in 1908 was born in 1853, but to different parents than Franks.

MORE about the Naber Family--"Our New Mexico Nabers"

Paging thru Ida's photo album is frustrating because almost none of the pics are marked with who or when...but there are a few exceptions, like this one: (and even that has a fairly un-helpful caption!)

We saw this older man (middle) in other photos too--photos that were developed in San Antonio, Texas and New Mexico.  Hmm.  WHO were they, and WHY did Ida have pictures of them?  The grandpa there does look similar to Ida and Walburga's dad Henry, but no, it's not Henry---

But wait, remember the hand drawn NABER tree I found in mom's stuff?  It says that a few Nabers moved to New Mexico.  Taa-Daa! Larry and I think the wedding couple were Joseph Edward NABER and his new wife, Anna C. Roll, and that the man in the middle was Joe's father, John.

(BTW, most of this stunning research was accomplished yesterday by Larry!)

(Most likely, the other look-alike man in that wedding photo was Joe's brother Al--read on to see why we're sure it's them!)

 

This photo was also in Ida's album--certainly, some of the people are recognizable from the wedding photo, right?  The old man, and the couple, now a few years older, with what must be their daughter...but Hmm.  This is about 1933--why is Joe wearing headphones??  Who knew they were even invented then?  Like kids today,  he couldn't be bothered to remove his vintage iPod for the picture??

The answer is below, on Joseph's WWI draft card--check out what he wrote for #12:

WOW--it was an early hearing aid.

 

Even more proof is in these two newspaper clippings from the Albuquerque Journal in 1942:

  ................................................
The little girl is JoAnn or Joan, daughter of Joe and Anna, and the couple on the far left is probably Aloysius Naber and his wife or sister (I think she's the other woman from the wedding photo, too). 

Or, is it a photo of the whole family except brother Ben?  That would make the 3 unidentified women Frances, Cecilia and Elizabeth.

Now, I need to find other photos from the album with these people!

Was this really a 'hired girl'?

The first time I saw this photo, I asked mom who it was, and she said the little girls were "Loretta and me". Ok....then, who was the big girl?  She glanced at it again and said it was probably one of the 'hired girls' they had in those years. :::::  Now, all these years later, I think mom was wrong.  I recognize the barn with white trim as being in Nabers yard, in Bancroft.  I think the Jansons were there, visiting Henry, Ida and Walburga.  (Mom looks about 8 here, and Loretta, 6.  That would make the year 1923).

So, if the "big girl" was either Ida or Walburg, then we need to compare pictures:

Hmm! Between them, Ida was always the camera nut, so I think she took this picture of the kids with her sister Walburga--who was--wow--quite lovely, at 25!