Bergman, Louise Caroline (Flamkamp) 1832-1898

BERGMAN, FLAMKAMP, MAYTAG, SCHNATHORST

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/5/2005 at 17:16:11

Mrs. Louise Bergman Passes Away ­ Close of a Long and Useful Life

Last Sunday afternoon just as the sun was sinking in the west at the close of God’s holy day, the life of mother Bergman went out and she sank into that peaceful sleep which knows no more wakening to the pains and sorrows of this world.

For the past six months Mrs. Bergman had been confined to her bed with stomach trouble, suffering almost constantly with the disease that would not yield to the skill of physician nor compromise with the gentle hands of the loved ones who day and night wrought to sooth the pain and make comfortable the last hours of their dear mother’s long and useful life.

She bore her sufferings with the heroism of the true Christian, never complaining, and, retaining consciousness to within a short time of her death, continued to cheer and console her children impressing upon them the priceless blessing of a dying mother’s love, the influence of which shall never cease to woo them toward that blessed home where the eye is never dimmed with tears and partings are no more.

Louise Caroline Flamkamp was born in Horn, Lippe Detmoldt, Germany, February 8th, 1832. At the age of fourteen, she was confirmed in the Lutheran Church of her native town, and during all the years of her after life remained true and steadfast to the solemn vows she then took upon herself. In 1852, when she was twenty years of age, she emigrated to America with her brothers and sisters. William Bergman, a young man who afterward became her husband, being an emigrant on the same ship. They first settled in Freeport, Ill., where she and William Bergman were married in May 1854. In 1856 they drove to Jasper County, and two years later moved to Spirit Lake where they lived four years and were driven out by the Indian outbreak, which resulted in the great Spirit Lake massacre. From there they returned to Jasper County, and settled on what has ever since been known as the Bergman farm, eight miles north of Newton and where they were living at the time of Father Bergman’s death, October 31st, 1889.

Five years later Mother Bergman moved to Newton where in a beautiful home supplied with every comfort and surrounded by her children whose loving care was constantly over her, she lived until the summons of her Master called her to her blessed reward.

She was the mother of eleven children ­ seven sons and four daughters ­ one son and one daughter preceding her to the better land. Wm. C., Henry G., Adolph A., Chris W., Fred H. and August H. Bergman, and Mrs. Dena M. Maytag, Mrs. Charlotte M. Schnathorst and Miss Minnie L. Bergman survive the mother and were with her during her last illness when the dear mother heart ceased to beat and the love-lit eyes closed in the sleep of death.

Brief services were held at the home on Wednesday at 10:30 a. m., conducted by Rev. B. C. Baumgardner, after which the remains, accompanied by a large number of friends and relatives, were taken to St. John’s Church at Horn, in Malaka Township, where the funeral services were held under the direction of Rev. Henry Huebschman of Chicago, an old friend of the family, who had preached the funeral of father Bergman, and also officiated at the confirmation and marriage of several members of the family. A large number of old friends and neighbors were present who had known and loved mother Bergman during her long years of residence among them The remains were laid to rest beside her husband in the German Cemetery adjoining the Church. ~ The Newton Record, Newton, IA, Thursday, October 20, 1898