Emigration Documents

Johann & Sophia Vogt Reher emigration permit

Found: Three emigration documents.

My sister, Jerri's son, Phil Haussler, has translated the documents.
About the above document he says...

"Schleswig, March 17, 1873 --- This is essentially Johann’s (born Feb 1 1840) emigration papers stating that he has permission to emigrate to the US with Sophia Vagt (born Dec 6 1835) and their children, Emma (born June 7, 1867) and Ernst (born April 30 1872). It states that he is giving up his Prussian citizenship and that these papers must be exercised within the next 6 months. It’s a lot of legal jargon... I can send this to my college German professor who is an expert at reading old German script and get an exact transcription if you want me to. Also note that the (his last name) Ramm is crossed out Reher is written in lightly – I assume this was a typo…"




Ernest Reher Vaccination Certificate
"That Ernst Friedrich “Rehr” from Hoegersdorf, The 21st of August 1872 at ¼ year old was vaccinated and all the appropriate paperwork has been complete. I testify, signed ....??"


Anna Reher Vaccination Certificate
"That Anna Christina Dorothea Reher; from Hoegersdorf, born in Negernboekel; age 1 year, the 13th of Juli 1864 was vaccinated and all the appropriate paperwork has been complete, I testify, signed ....??"


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Cousins Get-together

... Cousins ...
photo taken about 1944
(left to right)
Rogene with Sandy in front, Arlene and Caroline with Jackie in front, LeMae with Darwyn in front, Beverly and Dorothy

Monday, June 5th, 2006 the local cousins got together.

Alfred and Frieda Reher Buettner's daughter Rogene and her husband Ed Behrendsen were in town from Colorado and that prompted the little "family reunion". If I remember correctly, this was the first time we had all gotten together in 15 years.

Ernest and Minnie Reher's would have been happy as eight of their ten children's families were represented:
Hugo: daughter Jackie and her daughter Michelle
Arnold: daughter Eunice
Emil: daughter Sylvia and her husband Ralph
Eddy: daughters LeMae and her husband Marvin
and Caroline and her husband Joe,
Ella: son Bob and his wife Norma, and daughter Dorothy
Dora: daughter Sandy
Frieda: daughter Rogene and her husband Ed, and son Darwyn
Barney: wife Juleen and daughters Jodi and Jerri

Art and John, with families in Wyoming, were missing as only the local Nebraska cousins were notified of the impromptu get-together. Of these Nebraska cousins, only Eddy's Arlene and Ella's Beverly could not attend.

I think the evening was a huge success. It sure was fun seeing everyone and getting caught up a little. I know I left wishing there had been a little more time and that we had gone around the room telling each other about our own families, where our children were, and what they were doing.

Everyone brought photos from their collections: photos of their families for inclusion in "their stories" and old family photos, ones of our grandparents that were new to me. I was so thrilled with them all and will try to get them posted soon.

My camera had died three days before we got together but several people took pictures. So far I have received pictures from Jerri and Sandy. No one likes pictures of themselves and so I hope they aren't too upset by these... I know I hate the ones of myself but in all fairness will share them too. I tried to choose the best picture of each of us.

Hopefully we can all get together a little more often. We left vowing to try to do this when some of the other cousins come "home" to Nebraska...


Rogene and Ed Behrendsen

Sylvia and Ralph Peters

Sandy Mensik, Jerri Haussler, and Darwyn Buettner

LeMae and Marvin Stoltenberg

Jackie and Michelle Pollock

Dorothy Lilienthal

Darwyn Buettner

Caroline and Joe Ruzicka

Norma and Bob Husmann
holding Juleen's dog Savannah

Jodi Govig, Juleen Reher, and Jerri Haussler

Candid photos... around the room

Rogene's Memories

Rogene has written some of her memories of growing up, memories of her parents Frieda and Alfred Buettner and of her brother Darwyn.
She also brought me some more photos which I have added both here and in Frieda's story.


Frieda Reher and Alfred Buettner when they were dating

One of the main things I remember about Mom and Dad is the way they enjoyed dancing. We went to the Platte-Duetsche nearly every Saturday night. Back then, nobody heard of a “baby sitter”! Everyone brought their kids along. There was a bedroom with 3 or 4 beds with no bedding on them. Little kids were laid every which way on the beds to sleep when they got tired. Between dances, us kids ran and slid on the dance floor. It was almost always polka music. The folks knew every radio station that played polka music and they would dance around the kitchen table.

They celebrated their 25th and 50th anniversaries at the Platt-Duetsche. At their 50th, Catherine (Buettner) Minor over heard a couple of teenagers remark, “Look at those old people dance.” Catherine said she didn’t think they were so old.

Frieda and Alfred dancing on their 50th

Not to long after that their health began to fail, Mom had diabetes, and Dad’s knees started giving him trouble. Dancing became too much for them, so they played cards several times a week. I think pitch is what they mostly played.

Mom learned to knit and play the organ in later life and when Dad retired they did a lot of fishing, walking along the Platte River and Loup River banks. Barney gave them a recipe for “stinky catfish bait” that really caught the fish. “Stinky” was a good name for it. It was really bad.

We always had Rat Terrier dogs and raised a few puppies. Dad always bobbed their tails right after they were born. One day when Mom & I were cleaning Darwyn’s room, we noticed an awful smell. We looked around and in a drawer we found a small metal aspirin box with 4 little tails. He wanted to keep them. When we were small, the dogs liked to sleep under the cook stove. Darwyn wanted to get at them and got his head stuck under the stove. Dad wasn’t home and we couldn’t get him out. Thank goodness Arnold, Mom’s brother, showed up delivering fuel. He was able to lift the stove just enough to get Darwyn out.

We always had a few hogs and milk cows. I helped milk but only in the evenings. I don’t ever remember having to milk before school in the mornings.

We always raised a few ducks and a lot of chickens. The folks sold hatching eggs. Chicken feed came in large print cloth sacks. Mom and I would always pick out patterns we liked and bought enough sacks to have enough fabric to make something. I learned to sew with feed sacks.

The folks were faithful Farmers Union members going to local meetings one night a month and yearly state meetings.

We always butchered our own meat. We didn’t have electricity then so the meat had to be taken to town and put in lockers. Mom canned some meat too.

No electricity meant no fridge. We had an icebox and every week we bought a 50 lb. block of ice for it. A dishpan was kept under the icebox to catch the water as the ice melted.

We quite often visited aunts and uncles, usually for Sunday dinner. Several of the ones I really remember are: when visiting Ella and Ot they always had the Sunday paper with the colored funnies. That’s the only time I saw them and it was a treat to read “colored” funnies. Going to Ed and Hedwig’s was always fun, playing in the hay mow in the barn and playing house on top of the cellar. When we visited Arnold and Hattie, Darwyn and I would get to go to a movie or clamp on our skates and skate on city sidewalks.

The folks told about one of the motels they stayed in on the way to the Black Hills on their honeymoon. There were bed bugs in the bed. What a beginning. They laughed about it when they told it, but I’m sure it wasn’t funny at the time.

Written by Rogene Buettner Behrendsen in May 2006…




Rogene told me that if Frieda knew I had posted her wedding photo in Rare Ramblings, she would just kill me… She always hated that photo.


Frieda and Alfred cutting their 25th Wedding Anniversary cake
in thier kitchen...
What memories this picture brought back...
I remember those plates on the wall, the tile and pink paint. Another thing I remember is that Frieda had one of those little vases that was the bust of a pretty woman with a hat on her head and a real necklace of pearls. You put the flowers into the top of her head. I see these vases at antique shoppes and always think of Frieda.


March 11, 1951 Rogene married Bernard Harders. They made their home next to his parents on a farm north of Wood River, NE.
Rogene and Berney adopted four children: Pam, Joel, Martin and Michelle.
They have 3 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
Rogene and Berney were later divorced.

Pam was born Sept. 21, 1952 and Joel was born Nov. 4, 1953.
They are real brother and sister and have 8 other natural brothers and sisters.


Joel and Pam when Berney and Rogene adopted them in 1958


Pam and Joel


Joel

Pam married Lowel Baird Sept 20, 1973. They had two children before being divorced, Rex born April 12, 1975 and Angela born Oct. 24, 1979.


Pam and Dale Rauch were married May 17, 1990
Rogene has 6 great-grandchildren: Pam's 6 grandchildren: Darcie, Dylon, Isaac, Owen and Madison are Angela's children and Rex has a daughter, Paige.


Pam's son Rex Baird and Amy Schlund married June 10, 2006

Marty was born November 4, 1968 and adopted by Rogene and Berney shortly afterwards.


Alfred and Marty "smoking" their twin pipes


Marty looking at Michelle the day she was brought home...
she was 5 weeks old
Michelle (called Shelly) was born June 26, 1970


Shelly and Marty


Berney and Rogene with Marty and Shelly


Shelly and Kirk Hartmann were married August 25, 1990


Shelly and Kirk have one son
Kamin born June 12, 1993


November 3, 1990 Rogene married Edwin Behrendsen.
Rogene and Ed live between Glenwood Springs and Grand Juncion, Colorado in Battlement Mesa... Their address is Parachute, CO.



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Johann F Reher Obituary

Johann Frederick Reher

From the Saturday, November 15, 1924 Grand Island Independent:

Johann F. Reher

Johann F Reher passed away at the St. Francis hospital at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, at the age of 84 years. Mr. Reher was born in Schleswig-Holstein, German, and was united in marriage in that country. He and his wife and two children came to America when the deceased was 33 years of age and came at once to Hall County, where they have resided ever since. He was, therefore, 51 years a resident of this community and lived through some of the trying times of the early years, including the grasshopper siege.

Ernest Reher, the son, and Mrs. Emma Scheel, one of the daughters, were born in Germany, a second daughter, Mrs. Carl Stoltenberg being born in Hall County. There are also many grandchildren and his widow to mourn his loss.

Funeral services will be held from the home place, two and one half miles east and one half mile south of the Gulzow corner, at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Rev. H. Schumann officiating.

For the past three months Mr. Reher had been totally blind and, unfortunately, about ten days ago, sustained a fractured hip as the result of a fall from a chair.

The family is one of the oldest and most widely known on the Island and, unquestionably, a legion of friends will pay their last respects to the deceased as they also tender their sympathy with the bereaved ones.

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The above obituary says "..... and his widow to mourn his loss."
This is an error.
Johann's first wife, mother of his three children, was Sophie M Vogt.
She died on November 10, 1894 in Hall County, Nebraska. She was 59.
Two years later, Johann married Sophia Rohlf who's first husband John Schuller had passed away. Sophia died in January of 1907. (see her obituary below)
Sophia Rohlf and her parents came over to America on the same ship, at the same time as Johann Reher and his family.
As far as I know, he did not marry again.

Johann Frederick Reher
Born: January 2, 1840 Bebensee, Segeberg, Holstein, Germany
Died: November 15, 1924 Grand Island, Hall County, Nebraska

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Sophia Rohlf Schuller Reher Obituary

Sophia Reher

From the January 27, 1907 Grand Island Independent

PIONEER WOMAN

TAKES OWN LIFE

Despondency Following Breakdown is Cause

A most regrettable affair took place this morning at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Reher on the old Schuller farm, about a mile and a half southeast of the city, when Mrs. John Reher, formerly Mrs. John Schuller, committed suicide by shooting herself through the head with a revolver.

Mr. and Mrs. Reher had risen as usual in the morning and had breakfasted. Mr. Reher had gone over to another house on the same farm to get some milk. When he returned the kitchen was vacant, so far as Mrs. Reher was concerned, but nothing was thought of the matter until Mr. Reher discerned a peculiar odor. Going through the house and looking about he found Mrs. Reher on the bed with a revolver lying close by, dead. Horrified, he immediately notified other members of the family and the county officers and Sheriff Sievers immediately made an investigation ascertaining the above facts.

In addition thereto, it has been learned by the sheriff that Mrs. Reher some months ago suffered a nervous breakdown and at that time, during a spell of melancholia, threatened to end her misery by taking her own life. Little, however, was thought of it and her action this morning was a complete surprise.

Mrs. Sophia Fredericka Reher was born in Holstein, Germany, March 7, 1849, being the daughter of Joachim Christian and Anna Christina Rohlf. She came to America with her parents in 1873. On reaching the country, the family came directly to Hall County, Nebraska. She was the second of a family of six children. She was married to John Schuller, the third postmaster of Grand Island, and sometimes referred to as the first real postmaster. Some years after his death, she was united in a second wedlock to Mr. John Reher. Three children remain to mourn her, namely Mrs. Lena Meyer, John Schuller and Mrs. ____ Faldorf of Hamilton County.
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Sophia Rohlf and her parents came to America on the same ship, Frisia, and on the same voyage as Johann Reher and Christian Reher and their families.

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Claus Stoltenberg Obituary

Claus Stoltenberg

From the May 10, 1913 Grand Island Independent

DEATH OF FIRST ISLAND SETTLER

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Claus Stoltenberg passes Away
Peacefully at His Home
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HEAD OF PROMINENT FAMILY

First White Man to Make Home Between
Platte and Wood Rivers
Came to Hall County in 1859
Funeral Takes Place Monday

Claus Stoltenberg, the first white settler to locate on the island, the tract of land between the Wood River and the Platte River and from which Grand Island gets its name, passed away at the old homestead south of Sand Krog at 8:45 last evening. Mr. Stoltenberg had no sickness, other than of a general weakness, due to old age and he passed away in a peaceful sleep. He became unconscious yesterday morning and was never revived. He lived to be 80 years, 8 months and 7 days old. On December 6, last, Mr. and Mrs. Stoltenberg celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in a family circle which is one of the largest and oldest in Hall County. Mr. Stoltenberg came here in the year 1859, less than two years after the fist colony of white people settled here.

Claus Stoltenberg was born September 2, 1832, in Brodersdorf, Probstei, by Keil, Germany. He was brought up in the Fatherland and like his father followed farming, and up to the year 1856 worked as a farm hand in the old country. In that year in the month of March he came to America and worked for a year and a half in Wisconsin. In November he started father west and landed in Omaha, Peter Stelk, brother of Marx Stelk, one of the very first settlers in Hall County, was the companion of Mr. Stoltenberg in those days and it was through the senior Stelk, after living a year and a half at Omaha, that Mr. Stoltenberg and a few other emigrated to the then wilderness here in the spring of 1859. Mr. and Mrs. Hans Arp, parents of the Stelk brothers were in the party who came with Mr. Stoltenberg also, the Stelks being step children of Mr. Arp. Mr. Stoltenberg and Peter Stelk worked together and in the spring of 1860 they located in the vicinity of where the Stoltenberg farm is now located, the very first white men to locate on the Island.

On December 6, 1862, Claus Stoltenberg was united in marriage to Miss Paustian. John Wallichs, Grand Island’s first mayor and then justice of the peace, performed the ceremony, one of the first matrimonial knots to be tied here. Mr. and Mrs. Stoltenberg took up work on the land where he had settled and have lived on the place ever since. There were no surveys at the time and those who were located had first claim to the land. IN 1866 the Union Pacific railroad was built through and the land was surveyed. For twenty miles on each side, every other section became government or railroad property. Mr. Stoltenberg’s location happened to be in a government section and he obtained some land by first pre-emption and bought more at $1.25 per acre.

Though very attentive to his farm work Mr. Stoltenberg found some time to give to public affairs. He superintended school work in years past, was treasurer of hi locality, road overseer, represented his community as supervisor and filled other offices, which his work on the farm permitted. For about nineteen years Mr. Stoltenberg lived a retired life, though he helped about the place which has been farmed by his son, Ferdinand.

Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stoltenberg, all of whom are left with the mother to mourn the loss of their father, except Mrs. Claus Tagge, who departed this earth some years ago. The other children are Edward Stoltenberg, of Prairie Creek, Ferdinand Stoltenberg, of the Island, Mrs. Bernard Wiese, of Prairie Creek, Mrs. Ernest Reher, of the Island, and Carl Stoltenberg, of this city. There are 34 grandchildren and one great grandchild, born to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hitchler.

Mr. Stoltenberg held to the customs observed in the Fatherland. There, if a farmer sold his land, he was either considered bankrupt or not a good man to work. A man who held to his farm and who transferred it to his children from one generation to the other was considered more successful and such is the case in this instance.

The funeral will take place Monday afternoon at 1 o’clock from the home southwest of Sand Krog.
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Claus Stoltenberg
Born: September 2, 1832 Brodersdorf, Germany
Died: May 9, 1913 Hall County, Nebraska

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Esther Paustian Stoltenberg Obituary

Esther Paustian Stoltenberg

From the Grand Island Independent

PASSING OF PIONEER

Mrs. Claus Stoltenberg Dies
After Illness of Some Length

Mrs. Claus Stoltenberg, one of the oldest residents of the Island, passed away peacefully yesterday afternoon at four o'clock at the old home place now owned by her son, Ferdinand Stoltenberg. For the last ten days her condition has become gradually more serious and the members of the family realized that the end was not far off. With her passing, another of the Hall county pioneers has gone to the great beyond, leaving one of the largest and foremost families in the rural district in this locality.

Mrs. Stoltenberg's maiden name was Esther Paustian. Like her husband, who died about a year ago, she was born in the year 1832, on October 6th, and she was brought up in the Fatherland and worked there until 1862, when she became a member of a party of immigrants to America. Abel Wragge and Henry Stoltenberg, other pioneers here, were also in the party who landed in New York on July fourth, during the troublesome times of the Civil War. They came direct to Omaha where Mr. Stoltenberg and others joined the party. The trip west to the Hall County settlement was made by ox team.

On December 6, 1862, Miss Paustian was united in marriage to Mr. Stoltenberg by John Wallichs, then justice of the peace. It was one of the first marriages preformed in Hall County. On December 6, 1912, the golden wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Stoltenberg was celebrated here. Six children and many grandchildren are left to mourn the loss of their mother and grandmother. All children are living except Mrs. Claus Tagge. The others are Edward Stoltenberg of Prairie Creek, Mrs. Ernest Reher of the Island, and Carl Stoltenberg of this city. The funeral will take place Thursday morning at 11 o'clock from the old home south of Sand Krog.
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Esther Paustian Stoltenberg
Born: October 6, 1832 Laboe, Germany
Died: March 1, 1915 Hall County, Nebraska

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