Matthew Duling

DULING SCHWINGLER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/20/2010 at 18:17:48

Woodbury County History 1984

Matthew and Gertrude (Schwingler) Duling
By Kathering Duling Hoffman and Dr John L Duling

One of the first Duling ancestors to settle in America was Jacob Schwingler, father of Gertrude (Schwingler) Duling. He participated in the dissident student movement against Bismark, a revolution in 1848 bent on bringing democracy to Germany. The police came to arrest Jacob on the night after he fled Germany, making his way to Jordan, Minnesota, where he lived, brought his wife, Anna Katherine (Metz) Schwingler, 1822-1898, and raised his family. Anna’s ocean voyage, to join Jacob, was harrowing, but she was joined by friends, Wilhelm and Gertrude Nachbar, who also settled in Jordan in 1854. (There exists, even today in downtown Jordan, a log cabin built by theNachbars.)
Gertrude Schwingler was the first white child born in Scott County, Minnesota. She would relate stories of how the white people in that area would hide their valuables and themselves in underground shelters when the Indians would come to raid their land, and how they built long fences out of the timbers in the Minnesota woods, to keep in their cattle and to divide the land. Other children in the Schwingler family were: Herman, Isabelle, Joseph, and Andrew.
In Minnesota, Jacob became a farmer, a school teacher, and even an Indian scout. It was this latter service which enabled him to accept a commision as ‘Colonel’ in the US Army, serving with the Third Minnesota Regiment at the Battle of Vicksburg, where he died in action. His daughter, Gertrude, was educated at Jordan, and grew to adulthood there. It was a short distance from Jordan to Madelia, Minnesota, where Gertrude met and married Matthew Duling on December 26, 1880.
Matthew Duling, a son of Johann Deweling, 1800-1882, and Anna Marie (Niederkorn) Deweling, 1811-1887, was born on September 3, 1855, in the wine village of Wincheringen on the Mosel in Germany. Matthew (Mathias) had a long heritage from bother German (Deweling) and Luxembourger (Niederkorn). It is interesting to note that the family crest is one of the oldest in heraldry, coming from the ‘Rampant Lion of Trier’ and adding the ‘cross’ from the Crusades. This heritage came principally from the Niederkorn family.
With the mixed blessing of his family, Matthew left Germany, at age 17, and sailed to America. In Chicago, a timekeeper for the railroad told Mathias that, in America, his name should be ‘Matthew Duling’, instead of Mathias Deweling. Henceforth, his name was changed, for who could argue with a railroad timekeeper in those days?
Railroads were being built throughout the Midwest in the 1870’s and 1880’s as new lands were opened for settlement. Matthew was assigned work in Minnesota, and that is where he met his wife-to-be, Gertrude Schwinger. After his marriage in 1880, the Dulings settled in St James, Minnesota. But in the very next year Matthew was transferred to Sioux City, Iowa. This is where their seven children were born and raised: Albert, 1881-1963, Anthony, 1883-1942, Isabelle, 1885-1906, Marie, 1888-1938, twins John ‘Jack, 1895-1963, and Hermann ‘Mike’, 1805-1966, and Raymond Joseph, 1896-1959.
The Duling children walked from their home on 6th and Courts Streets to St Boniface School and St Joseph Church. Later, the four eldest attended Central High School, while the three youngest attended Trinity High School, where Hermann ‘Mike’ was a star football player. Music was a source of great pleasure for the family. All of the children sang and played the piano and/or violin. Bert, especially, was a talented musician, violinist, and pianist; he even wrote songs.
Matthew worked his way up to become not only an engineer, but to be a millionaire through wise investments. At one time, he owned part of what is now Fourth Street in Sioux City, several farms, and houses. But a panic at the close of the 19th century caused him to lose much of his investment, so there was virtually very little in the Duling estate left by Matthew at his death at age 65. As engineer on the Chicago-St Paul-Minneapolis-Omaha Line, his ‘run’ was usually from Sioux City to Norfolk, Nebraska. Along this run his friendly wave was recognized by many. Some of his sons followed him into railroad work: Albert, Hermann, and Anthony, who was conductor for a few years before being employed by Swift and Company and working up to become assistant superintendent of the Sioux City plant. Gertrude continued to be active in Catholic women’s groups and the Railroad Engineers’ Auxiliary until her death at 79, December 22, 1934.
Both twins served in World War I. Then Jack went to work at Swift and Company, also becoming Director of th Employees’ Credit Union. Raymond became a medical doctor, first working as a bookkeeper, later being graduated form Creighton University in Omaha as an M.D., specializing in obstetrics and gynecology.
Isabell was the first to marry in 1905. Tragically, both she and her baby died in childbirth the very next year, leaving only her husband,m Michael Kneifel. In 1912 Marie married William Nicoles and moved to Oakland, California. She died there in September, 1938.
Hermann ‘Mike’ married Lottie Von Hosen, 1891-1954, a widow with two children, in 1920. They settled in Sioux City where Mike became an engineer for the Great Northern Railroad. There were no further progeny, issue of this marriage. Mike died in 1969 of cancer.

Albert ‘Bert’, the eldest son of Mathias and Gertrude, was the last to marry. His bride, Angeline, 1882-1977, was a widow from Pennsylvania. There were no childen, born to this union. Bert served as Treasurer for the Railroad Workers’ Union for many years. Bert and Angeline lived in the Mathias Duling home for many years before moving to 24th Street in Sioux City, and then to South Myrtle Street (what was then a small truck farm).