My hometown of Berger celebrated 200 years in 2018!
Ivan Meyer
On March 23, 2018 Ivan and I talked about his family and other things. Like the fact that in 1945, Easter was also on April 1. And that was also a very wet spring. I verified the date and of course, he was right.
Ivan's grandmothers were both named Caroline. His dad's mom was Caroline Schaffner daughter of Jacob Schaffner and (by the way), grew up on the farm where I currently live. Caroline had a brother Oscar, another brother and a sister Louisa. But getting back to Caroline, when she was 18 she married a man from Germany who was Johan (John Meyer). He was 36 when they got married (Caroline much younger) and they had Sophie, Gottlieb, Arthur (Ivan's Dad), Carrie, Daniel, and a little boy that died when he was 2 years old, maybe from diptheria. Daniel was born a few weeks after his dad died. Caroline then married Jacob Betz who died in 1946 at 89 yrs old minus a few days. Arthur was the only child that stayed in the area, the rest of the children moved to St. Louis when they were young. Arthur worked in St. Louis a few times before he was married, but then when he was 40 he married Nettie Foderhase who was 36 and Sept 11, 1925 Ivan was born.
Ivan's mother's mom, Caroline Helmadach was born to Charles and Caroline Helmadach . She had 13 children, 9 girls and 1 boy that lived. Three other little boys all died young with "sore throats". Charles had a store where Dan Haid's house is now next to the Lloyd Haid "mansion". When the older girls were married and the youngest child maybe 3 years old, Charles bought a train ticket to Hermann. From there he took the train to California and was never heard from again. After 7 years, his wife filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion. She then married Frederick Falbeck and she lived to be 93. None of her 13 children were multiple births. Most of the girls moved away (St. Louis, Lawrence, Kansas, Montana, Colorado, etc). Anna Helmadach (Ivan's great aunt married JFL Oberwortmann) and his grandmother Caroline married Edward Forderhase and lived on the same farm that Ivan and his family lived on. Caroline and Edward Forderhase's children were Nettie, (Ivan's mom), Lydia, Walter and a baby Leo who died when he was 4 and is buried at the Etlah cemetery. So much information that may contain errors and some of the names may be spelled incorrectly. Please let me know!
Interview with Ivan Meyer about his home area of Berger! Let me give you a little info on Ivan - he has been at HADH for about 19 years (as a grandfathered nursing home patient). Initially, he was admitted with heart problems and I am aware he could be gone with those problems at any time. For now, he is a pleasure to spend time playing pinochle with several times a month. The other three of us, have been playing since we were children - Ivan didn't learn the game until he was at HADH. He is extremely sharp and calculates score differences along with the scorer. He shares his history and is an all around joy to spend time with. I sincerely hope he outlives me.
One of the highlights of Ivan's life has always been baseball! He never misses a game on TV and when Berger had it's ball games it was always a fun time for Ivan when he could attend.
Eugene Pfautsch and Dugan Speckhals (both still alive!) organized the team even though they were only 15 or 16 at the time and were subs. I hope I have these details right, because Ivan was very happy to give lots of details and I wasn't taping - I just tried to write real fast! This was in 1947.
Harris Fieselmann was the last of the starting 9 players. He played shortstop and he died in 2017 about 89 years old. Dallas Kropp played 2nd base. When Eugene Pfautsch moved to St. Louis with his job, he would come out on Friday night and pitch. Ivan said he was a good pitcher with his long arms. By then, Dugan was a catcher and played shortstop. There were 6 subs that didn't play very much, but Victor Schaefer was a sub and played center field. He moved from Washington (maybe) and started a garage next to Carl's farm. Victor was a nephew of Eddie Wilding (my father's cousin).
In the late 1930's there was also a ball team in Berger. Ivan's dad would take him to watch the games. Sonny Meyer was a pitcher and he pitched for Berger and New Haven. Also in the 1930's John Rethemeyer and Oscar Foderhase (Ivan's mom's cousin) pitched.
Ivan lived in the bottom - 3 miles from Berger. He says he never lived in Berger - but like me as a child, it was the closest town and OUR hub. When I was in grade school there were several grocery stores, a bank, 2 elevators, 2 bar/restaurants, a mortuary, and 3 churches. When Ivan was in grade school some 20 years earlier there were 4 "general merchandise" stores, which meant in addition to groceries, they carried shoes, overalls, and pretty much whatever you needed. Ratherts store moved from the flood area to the Shroeder Sabre spot (across from the post office) and finally to Dieterle's. When his mom needed flour for bread they would get it at the elevator. Some things they would buy at Stothmanns was yeast, corn flakes, Kelloggs crumbles, rice krispies, puffed wheat in a bag, Quaker oatmeal, but Kelloggs was the main brand. Strothmann's had a refrigerator but no ice cream. Strobel's tavern/restaurant did however have ice cream.
In 1910, Lloyd Haid built the large house and Eagans store was where Dan Haid's house was later built in 1945.
Berger always had a little over 200 people with the highest census at 247. It is noteworthy, though, that the city limits expanded over the years. Alfred Eggert was out of the city limits but was annexed in with the hatchery. Mayor Frankenberg annexed Delvin Juedemann and the Berger Road area. Berger was not in a school district until later. A bus came for New Haven and for Hermann high schools and the city paid the schools for the students that went there. Ivan graduated from Hermann High School.
There were several grade schools and Ivan attended Lower Berger Bottom School which was .4 miles from his home. His teachers were Ethel Coulter, Beatrice Meyer and Juanita Kraettli. One time at school he fell through the ice and he went in water to his knees. He was able to get dry before the end of the day and Ethel was teacher at the time. Several years later he finally told his parents! The school usually had 22 students but his grade had 5 (the year before 4 graduated) and the year following Ivan's graduation there were only 11 in the whole school.
He said his dad talked rough but his mom gave him 2 spankings! In 1927 they had the first flood from heavy rains. The first flood Ivan remembers was in 1935 and they stayed with neighbors (his mom's cousin), until the water went down. Their house flooded 11 times over the years.
Etlah meanwhile had a store where the owner Bob Crowder had a TV and you could buy soda and candy and watch TV.
Another thing Ivan would get very animated about was Stothmann's Store. It was a gally style grocery store and different from the others in Berger (Lorine Rathert or Dieterle's). In this one, there were groceries stacked high to the ceiling and you would ask for the item you wanted like oatmeal, the owner would just get it and add it to your grocery items. Or maybe you wanted sugar or corn flakes. Ivan thought this was far preferable to finding what you wanted and then having to make all the choices.
Lorene Eggert
On 5/23/2017, I visited Lorene Meyer Eggert. She will be 90 Oct 20, 2017. She was born in the house next door to where she lived in Berger until after her husband died suddenly Oct 19, 2010.
When Lorene was young, her family had cows, hogs and chickens in the lot next door which was an alfalfa patch. When Lorene was 16 and worked at the Langenberg CAP factory in Berger, she met Alfred Eggert (than 17), who worked at the Langenberg HAT factory in New Haven. They met, not at work, but at a Bethany Picnic which still takes place annually. Alfred joined the Navy when he was 18 during WWII. He served from 1944 - 1946. They were married Oct 5, 1946 after he returned home. Their daughter Janeial was born in April 1948. In 1950, they built their house on the lot next door to Lorene's parents (formerly the alfalfa field) where they lived for the rest of their 64 years together.
Jumping back to Lorene's family history - her greatgrandma was Dora Helmadock Albetz. The Albetz's live on a farm my aunt and uncle (Theresa (Groner) and Herbert Speckhals) lived for a number of years while I was in grade school. The Helmadock farm is where Janeial lived with her husband Myron Hemeyer and raised their 2 children Craig and Julie. This farm borders my farm to the North.
Dora had 3 children Wanda Albetz Coulter, Emil Albetz and Katie Albetz Meyer. Dora's husband died one month befor Katie (Lorene's mom) was born. Katie Albetz married Oscar W. Meyer (no relation to Ivan Meyer). Oscar W. Meyer is not to be confused with Oscar L. Meyer who lived in Berger during the same time period.
Paul Groner
Paul Groner was born at St. Elizabeth 10/23/1925. In 1936, he moved with his family (9 of the 10 children - Martha was already married), and his parents Paul Senior and Clara Evers Groner to Etlah. The bottom soil was very rich and fertile in contrast to the rocky soil they left.
In 1941, however, there was a flood in the spring. They still were able to plant 200 acres of corn, but when they started harvesting it, there was another flood. Then they moved to the Barnard farm off Rohlfing road where he still lives and farms cattle, horses, chickens and crops. When they moved to the 150 acre farm, they rented it for $400/year. The flooded corn they were mostly able to salvage as they could feed it to the hogs. When they moved there most of the chilren were married and only George, Hubert, Paul and Clara were still at home. They rented the farm until 1945 when they bought it. George married Marie Meyer in 1946 (no relation to Ivan or Lorene). Clare joined the convent several years later where she became a Franciscan Sister for 20 some years and later married Joe Everdon and moved back to the Hermann area. Grandpa died 10/19/1957, but Grandma, Hubert and Paul continued to farm. In 1948, when their daughter Caroline died, my Grandparents took Clara Sidney Biggerstaff as their daughter. Grandma died in the mid 1970's and Uncle Hubert in 2000, with Paul managing on his own. In 2016, he was named "Farmer of the Year" for Gasconade County! Even though he lived in Etlah and rural Hermann, he saw many changes in Berger as this was where he has attended Mass for the last 81 years.
Willa Kemper Englert
Willa moved to Berger with her parents when she was very young. She lives here with her husband Harold and they raised their three children in Berger. When I asked her daughter Lela about growing up in Berger, she said if you did anything wrong you better go home immediately and tell your parents before someone else told them!
Willa showed me a booklet about Schaffner's Hatchery where her dad worked and a picture of Berger in the early 1900's. She also showed me calendars from 1951 and 1953. There were pictures of cartoon chicks for every month and her dad recorded the number of eggs laid on each day.
She also showed me an invitation to a birthday party for Janeial Eggert when they were 4 or 5 years old. Lots of wonderful memorabilia. Her family attended the the Methodist church just up the hill from the Catholic Church. The Methodist Church was built in 1898, just one year after the Catholic Church. The church is now their Butterfly Haven, appropriately named and next door to their home. Harold is mayor of Berger and does whatever he can to preserve what is left of a town with no businesses except a half day post office.
BERGER NEWSPAPER ARTICLE FROM 1968
In 1968, when there was a large 150 year Berger celebration, there was also a one time Berger newspaper published. Glenn Vollertsen let me borrow one from his family archives. It has an excellent article about the history of Berger by Wm. F. E. Strothmann.
I am going to summarize it and some of the other articles in the newspaper. Boeuf township and Berger was one of the first settled sections of Franklin County, along with New Haven (Millers Landing). Leonard Heatherly arrived in 1808 and there were already settlers here. John Phillips was probably the first in the county around 1805. The Shawnee Indians then occupied the area and our pioneer fathers lived on terms of good feelings and friendship with them. It was after the war of 1812, however that the area of Etlah and Berger were settled by James Hatton, John Obanyan, Angus Langham, Daniel Schowe, Samuel and Robert Schowe, James, Howard, Nicholas and Abraham Fischer, and Silas Hall in 1818.. The census record for 1820 Franklin County was lost, but the 1830 census record shows the population of Beouf to be 832 whites and 40 slaves. Since then, St. John's township and New Haven township were broken out of the Boeuf township.
By 1840, the census of Franklin County had doubled. Germans started coming after 1830, including a Schmidt who was a surveyor, Fred Spreckelmeyer, a physician and surgeon who arrived in 1840. H.M. Tugel, a farmer and miller (1848), F. W. Bade, a farmer from Germany, August Bade also a farmer from Germany. Wm Drewel came from Prussia in 1848. Daniel Erni came from Switzerland in 1848. Fritz Schaffner a farmer and stock trader came from Switzerland in 1845. Daniel Schaffner (from Germany ?) was also a farmer and stock raiser and he came in 1845. Daniel Haid came from Switzerland in 1844 and settled in Gasconade county. He was a farmer and a stock dealer and he opened the first saloon in Berger. Henry Judemann was a farmer who came in 1844 from Germany. Hall, Witthaus, Weber, Dieterle, Meyer, Kallmeyer, were other early settlers. No definitive explanation for the name of Berger, the principal town of Boeuf township. When the railroad was built, it was known as Berger Station.
Mr. Schaffner was one of the witnesses to the birth of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. He was a farmer and stock dealer and was called the cattle king of this area. He was the grandfather of Joy K. Schaffner and Ralph, Ray, Ruth and Russel Schmidt.
In 1856, the Berger post office was established. In 1870, the town was laid out by Charles Helmendach and consisted of seven blocks. Elm, Market and Walnut running Northeast to Southwest and Front, First and Second Northwest to Southeast. More streets added later. In 1870, Berger had 3 churches but also 2 dry goods stores, a blacksmith and wagon shop, a saddle shop, a hotel and a brick yard.
There is more about the moral fiber of the people and early farming methods - an excellent article! It talks about how neighbors helped one another - with not only harvesting, but if someone was sick, building a home or even with butchering. I am going to add some pictures from the newspaper. I think the archive center in Washington would have a copy of the newspaper. (Berger - 1968 edition.)
There was also a cap factory (where Alfred and Lorene Eggert worked). The Berger plant opened in 1942 and closed in the late 1980s. It usually employed 50 - 55 workers. It is now the factory of Horror and can be visited before halloween!
THE CHURCHES OF BERGER (article copied from the 1968 edition)
The history of the churches of Berger is a story in itself. Being a Christian community, they have afforded a firm foundation for the teachings of Jesus Christ. Space does not permit the writer to go into the chronology of each church.
In 1842, the Methodist congregation was founded in the Berger community under the pastorate of the "fiery" William Schreck. Schreck served the Hermann circuit, founded in 1844, and that year the parsonage where meetings were held was built. Called the Berger Station congregation, it was located three miles from Berger. The church was built in 1851 and was called the Zion Church. The Ebenezer church congregation, located in the Bottom, constantly found its lands being inundated by the Missouri river. In 1889, it formed one congregation with Zion in the village of Berger under the leadership of Rev. H.F. Miller. Ebenezer is now (1968) served by Rev. William Bunge.
St. Paul's Parish had its beginnings in 1851 with Masses being offered in one of the homes of the parishioners. The Rev. Fr. George Tuerk (1851 - 63) seved the parish and was the organizer of churches at Berger Station and Little Berger. A log church was built in 1874 and as the parish grew, a brick church was built in 1887 under the pastorate of Rev. Fr. Fulgence Eich. The Rev. Father Gaudence Schroeder, O.F.M., is now (1968) the parish priest.
Bethany congregation was not organized until 1853, but meetings were held in the home of Frederich Obertwortmann years earlier. Rev. C. Nestel was Bethany's first pastor. The first church was built of logs. In 1871 a stone ediface was completed. Bethany is called the "mother church" of the area Evangelical congregations, with pastors of the church founding St. James congregation at Stony Hill and St. John's in Berger. The residents of Berger Station in 1875 desired to have a church within the limits of the town. Rev. Fr. Werning became the first occupant of the pasonage built in 1877. Bethany and St. John's became one charge in1953.
(No pictures are printed as the churches are still standing, and can be seen on a private tour of Berger. The Catholic and Evangelical churches are still active. The Methodist church is no longer an active congregation but the church is now "Butterfly Haven" owned by Harold and Willa Englert.)
In 1950's I have strong memories of the Berger Garage and Petrol Station. My dad would typically buy $3 of gas for the car at a time and that would last more than a week as everything we needed we could buy at Berger which was less than 2 miles from our farm where we raised cattle and chickens and had a great garden. By now the gas station has closed along with the grocery stores which in my young mind was the place to get penny candy. At Lorene Ratherts, she kept it behind the counter, but you could go back there and pick out the kinds you wanted. My favorites were peanut butter logs and tootsie rolls, and then they were good sized for a penny! Our church was also at Berger, as well as the 2 taverns (restaurants which sold beer).
