Henry Franklin & Edith Mae Oertel

OERTEL WELCH ROBBINS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/24/2010 at 21:41:27

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Henry Franklin and Edith Mae (Welch) Oertel
By MaryAnn Oertel Haafke

Henry Franklin Oertel ‘Frank H’, son of John and Lydia Robbins Oertel, was born on the home farmstead in Grant Township, Woodbury County, Iowa. He was eleven years old when his father died and seventeen when his mother died.

After his mother died, Frank and his two brothers were on their home. His older brother, George, was already working and his younger brother, Fred, was living with their great-uncle Henry Mayer. Frank went to work for Harry Brooks in his Drug Store in Oto. He has told how he lived in the back of the store.

He must have been serious and industrious because it seems likely that Mr Brooks helped finance his college education. In 1894, Frank went to Highland Park College of Pharmacy in Des Moines. He was then apprenticed to Mr Brooks for a stated length of time.

Somewhere in this period, after his return from college, he must have gone courting. He was wooing Edith Mae Welch. She was the daughter of William A Welch and Hattie Louisa Cone Welch. Her father had been the blacksmith in the town of Oto but he had to give up this heavy work because of a Civil War injury. He went to work in the general store in Oto owned by his brother, Frank Welch and brother-in-law, W J C Smith.

Edith was teaching in a country school and Frank would go out in a buggy and bring her to town for the weekends. On January 18, 1895, Frank and Edith were married. They traveled to Sioux City by train with Edith’s mother as chaperon. They were married at the First Presbyterian Church, stayed overnight in Sioux City, and returned to Oto on the train the next day.

They moved into a little house with Frank’s great-uncle Hank. Uncle Hank was a very handy man to have around the house. He could cook, take care of children, and he wove baskets as a hobby. Henry Mayer was a brother of Frank’s grandmother, Christina Mayer Oertel Zerfing. Henry and his half-brother, Christopher Long, were bachelors and had lived with Frank’s mother and father. Uncle Chris died in 1890. In 1898, Frank bought the house from Uncle Hank but it was to be his home for as long as he lived.

On the 4th of July 1896, Frank and Edith’s first child was born. It was a son and they named him Lloyd George. Many photographs were taken in the next few years and they show him to be a husky little boy with big dark brown eyes and dark hair.

One year later, in October, twin boys were born prematurely and they did not survive. On September 29, 1900, another son was born to Frank and Edith. He was named Harry Frank and he was very different from his older brother. He was blonde with blue eyes and more slight of build.

These were happy busy years for Frank and Edith and their growing family. Edith’s family, mother, father, sister, also aunts and uncles all lived in Oto in those early years. But around 1900 her parents and sister moved to Sioux City where her father was employed as an oil inspector. In 1901, with another baby on the way, Lloyd went to stay with his Welch grandparents in Sioux City. He lived with them most of the next year and started to school there.

Uncle Hank had been a member of the family these last six years and as mentioned he was a very helpful person. In January, 1902, he died and is buried with his parents, Peter and Margaret Mayer, in the Oto Cemetery.

During this time Frank was working for Harry Brooks in the drug store. Harry and the banker at Oto, P G Riedesel, were building a building in the newly platted town of Bronson, located on the new extension of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad from Moville to Sioux City. Riedesel intended to establish a bank in the new town and Brooks was to set up a drug store. Frank was to operated the drug store as a partner with the idea of his buying the business in the future.

During the busy summer of 1902, a daughter was born on the 29th of August. She was named Louise. No middle name was given so that she could use her maiden name the rest of her life.

In the fall the whole family moved to Bronson. The little house in Oto had been sold to buy a lot and build a house in Bronson. In the next few years Frank bought out the interest, Harry Brooks had in the building and the business, and by 1906, he was the sole owner.

When Lloyd was thirteen, Harry nine, and Louise seven, a baby girl joined the family. She was named Helen. She was a darling child with big dark eyes and shiny dark hair. The family nicknamed her Babe.

Frank became the second Postmaster the town had known, the first being M G Smith. This was 1915 and the was to hold this position until 1945 when his seventieth birthday meant compulsory retirement. The Post Office occupied the northeast corner of the drug store for all those years.

During World War I, Lloyd was drafted into the Army. He had been attending Highland Park College of Pharmacy in Des Moines. He was sent to Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, to work in a chemical division because of his chemistry background. About this time a new school marm was boarding at the Oertel home. Her name was Helen Hagan and she was from Sioux City. Around 1915 the original one-story house was remodeled and a second story was added. With three more bedrooms and Lloyd away at school it was only natural to ‘board’ some of the teachers. Edith’s father died in 1908 and sometime soon after her mother, Hattie Louisa Welch, came to live with them. She died in 1930 having lived most of her widowed years with the Oertel family. She is buried in the Oto Cemetery with her husband.

In 1917, Harry had graduated from High School. Frank bought a farm just south of town about this time and he decided Harry was going to farm. Harry wanted to join the Navy but he was too young, so he farmed. Harry’s was the first graduating class of Bronson High School.

After his army service, Lloyd finished his education and in 1919 became a registered pharmacist. On September 5, 1920 he married Helen G Hagan in Sioux City and they returned to Bronson to live.

About this time Frank took a few months off and let Lloyd take charge of the drug store and Post Office.

During this time Edith was busy with her home and family. She was active in church work such as Ladies Aid Society, Missionary Society and Bible Class. Living on main street can have its advantages and its drawbacks. When a meeting place was needed in a hurry the Oertel home was available.

The next event in the family was Louise’s graduation in 1921 from Bronson High School. The next few years were quite uneventful until Louise’s marriage in 1924 to Harry L Hurd. He was engaged in farming with his father and after he and Louise were married they moved to a small house on his father’s farm. Frank and Edith’s first grandchild was born December 22, 1924, Dean Oertel Hurd.

Five months later on May 20, 1925, Lloyd and Helen’s only child, Mary Anne Oertel was born in St Vincents Hospital in Sioux City.

On March 4, 1925, Harry Oertel married Maude Lighthall and they made their home on the farm. Their first child, Frank Dale Oertel, was born January 31, 1926.

Life in the 1920’s was prosperous and the big events in the family were new grandchildren and a graduation. Louise and Harry’s second son, John Dale Hurd, was born September 21, 1926, and Maude and Harry’s second son, Richard Wayne Oertel, was born August 27, 1927.

In May of 1928, Frank and Edith’s youngest child, Helen, graduated from Bronson High School. Helen was a talented musician with a lovely soprano voice and she studied piano for many years. After graduation she studied piano and voice at Morningside College. She gave piano lessons for many years.

Another grandchild joined the family on June 17, 1929. A daughter was born to Maude and Harry Oertel. She was named Harriet.

In the fall of 1929, Helen ‘Mrs Lloyd’, and Mary Ann drove to California. Lloyd was recovering from a serious kidney illness and couldn’t travel. He had to spend the winter in Bronson with his parents. He joined Helen and Mary Ann in the spring of 1930.

Grandmother Welch died on May 21, 1930. That left only three people living in the Oertel home. There had never been so few since Frank and Edith were married and set up housekeeping with Uncle Hank Meyer in 1895, thirty-five years. But this was not to last.

In California, Helen Hagan Oertel died February 19, 1934. She is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles, California. By late that summer, Lloyd had made the decision to send Mary Ann back to Iowa to live with his parents. So once again Frank and Edith opened their home, this time to a motherless nine-year-old granddaughter. This was to be her home for the next eleven years.

The next big event in the family was a new baby boy. David Bruce Oertel was born April 18, 1836, the fourth child of Maude and Harry.

A year later on September 25, 1937, Frank and Edith’s youngest daughter, Helen married Carl H Hurd, the younger brother of Harry Hurd, Louise’s husband.

The 1940’s brought many changes in the lives of the grandchildren, including graduations from Bronson High School. World War II saw three grandsons in the army, Frank and Dick Oertel and John Hurd. All returned safely.

On January 18, 1945, Frank and Edith celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a family dinner at their home.

That same year grandchildren began getting married. This was followed the next few years with great-grandchildren. These great-grandchildren became a new joy in Frank and Edith’s lives. But Edith did not have long to enjoy the great-grandbabies. On September 15, 1948, Edith Mae Welch died in her home where she had lived for forty-five years. She is buried in Graceland Cemetery, Sioux City, Iowa.

Frank continued his life which had always been his family and his drug store. Great-grandchildren now lined up in front of the candy case for their weekly portion of candy, just as their parents before them had done each Saturday night.

After suffering several strokes in the late 1950’s, Frank had to close his drug store. He died on May 29, 1961 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery alongside his beloved with, Edith.

The descendants of Frank and Edith Oertel are numerous and are scattered over the U.S.A. A few still reside in Woodbury County, Iowa.

(correction for David Bruce Oertel should be 1936 (not 1836).