Rolfes

ROLFES MOHRING

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/14/2010 at 20:44:06

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Rolfes
By N McCarthy

Clem Henry Rolfes, emigrated from Germany in 1897. He, his wife, Anges (Mohring) Rolfes, sons Henry, age 2 ½, and Bernard, age 1 year, their clothing and a few mementoes came from Damme, Germany, via ship to Boston harbor. A coach ride followed, to Iowa where two cousins as well as Clem’s older brother, Frank, had arrived several years earlier.

Clem’s wife was five months pregnant when they made the trip. They stayed with Frank Rolfes at LeMars in a two-bedroom farm home. Frank’s wife was also expecting. Clem’s wife had a son and Frank’s wife had daughter within 24 hours of each other. The babies shared a bed in the already cramped farmhouse. The son was named Frank Clem Rolfes.

Clem’s family had members of the huge Germany; his father had been for over forty years. A brother’s accident at sea and stricter naval requirements prompted the move to America. The family filed for citizenship at LeMars.

The family increased to include: Herman, Elizabeth ’Sister Aniceta O.S.E.’, Bernadean (Schroeder), Agnes (Ruba); and Anna, all now deceased. Four younger children died in childhood. One girl, Mary, was one of the first appendectomy surgeries in the LeMars hospital and died of adhesions as a result of it.

Clem died of stomach cancer in 1912, leaving his wife and children to earn a living on the small rented farm by themselves in a new country. All the children had bee boarded at a Catholic school in LeMars where they lived, coming home for the holidays, as was the custom of that time. All were forced to leave school after the father’s death.

Frank married Seraphine Guntren in Merrill in 1930. Their children were: Francis, married Nancy Collins, LeMars, eleven children; Dorothy, married Joseph Hurley, LeMars, one son Joe; Norma, married Paul McCarthy, Sioux City, six children; Margaret, Sister Gertrude of O.S.B.; and James, married Luella Meyers, LeMars, three children.

Frank died in November, 1975; Seraphine died in November, 1983.