Notizen zu dieser Person
BIOGRAPHIE: Joseph Helget was born 10 Feb. 1978 to Wenzel Helget and Barbara Kiefner at 602 Front Street in the "Goosetown" section of New Ulm, Minnesota. In December of 1881 the Helgets moved to a farm in Section 20 of Cottonwood Township on the Little cottonwood River. Joseph was an only child. He had two brothers and a sister who died in infancy. Joseph grew to be over six feet tall. As a youth, Joseph attended the one room school house later known as the Dahl school located on Co. Road #24 about a mile from the farm. He loved the outdoors. The Helgets owned a five acre wood lot on the Cottonwood River where Flandreau State Park Group Camp is now located. Joseph loved to spend time by the river hunting and fishing. Mathilda Rewitzer was born 15 April 1877 to George Rewitzer and Franziska Grossman on a farm on Section 25 & 26 of Sigel Township. She was the forth of eight children. Mathilda went to school right next to the Rewitzer farm. Mathilda grew up to be a very beautiful woman, tall and dignified. The Helgets and Rewitzer lived very near to each other on adjacent townships in Brown County, so it certain that Joseph and Mathilda knew each other as children. They were married on 31 May 1898, Memorial Day. They had a difficult time getting flowers for their wedding because of the holiday. They lived together with Joseph's parents in the little farm house inCottonwood township. To this union five children were born, two of which died in infancy, Emma 1898 and Alfred in 1905. Whilhelmine "Minnie" was born 7 June 1900, Josephine 21 May 1902 and Rosa on 9 Dec. 1907. Life on the farm was very hard. Both husband and wife had to work inthe fields. Little tome off was taken for child birth. Infants were cared for and nursed in the fields. Josephine and Minnie went to the Dahl School. Josephine developed a bronchial condition, from which she never fully recovered, while walking the long distance to school on the very cold winter days. On 20 may 1908 George Rewitzer, Mathilda's father, retired from farming and sold the farm in Sigel to Joseph Helget and moved to Sleepy Eye. In the Spring of 1909 disaster stuck the Helget family. Joseph contracted typhoid fever from some bad matter. Matilda battled the fever heroically by wrapping her husband in ice, but Joseph died on the 8th of March 1909. Mathilda was unable to run the farm alone with three young daughters and her already elderly father and mother-in-law to care for. She decided to rent out the farm and move to New Ulm. An auction was held on the Helget farm on the 30th of March and much of the live stock and farm implements and tools were sold to friends and neighbors. To gain additional capital she sold her interest in the Cottonwood farm back to Wenzel Helget for $2000 in December of 1909. The Helgets, Wenzel and Barbara, already in their 60's and Mathilda and her three small daughters, Minnie, Josephine and little Rose not yet two years old, moved to 227 No. Washington Street in New Ulm. The family moved on the North side of New Ulm so that they could be near to Holy trinity catholic Church. The family was able to sustain itself from the rent of the farm property. When the young girls all school at Holy Trinity they were only able to speak Böhmish, a Bohemian dialect of German. They were not able to speak English or High German because they were brought up by their grandparents, Wenzel and Barbara. The girls all finished Holy Trinity Grade and High School and went on to Good counsel Academy in Mankato. On a hot summer day, the 30th of June 1916, Barbara passed at the age of 78 of a sever attack of asthma. Wenzel was a lost and heart broken man after the death of his dear wife and died shortly thereafter on 19 June 1917 at the age of 74. There are no known photos of Wenzel or Barbara. Wenzel was described by his granddaughter Rose as a kindly man with a head of pure white hair and a full white beard that she liked to braid when she was young girl. She also recalled that he would take her to daily Mass, pulling her in a sled in the Winter time. She also recalls going to Trinity with him and playing 500 with all the older people. Shealso would go the neighborhood saloon everyday for grandpa Helget to get a pail of Beer. At the end of the day, Wenzel would have beer soup made of beer and milk before he went to bed. he also would have a steady diet of sauerkraut, dumplings and pork. Minnie married Albert Veigel in 1922 and they live for a short time in Chicago. They returned to new Ulm to open a small restaurant in downtown New Ulm that soon became famous for "those Bar-B-Q Ribs" and grew into the famous Veigel's Kaiserhoff. Minnie died in 1967 and her husband Albert in 1976. They had three children, Don, Geraldine and Dolores. Josephine never married. She worked for a time in St. Paul as a domestic but never was cure of her bronchial condition that she developed as a child. She died of pneumonia in 1941. On 25 of April 1932 Rose married Hugo Paulson, a St. Paul electrician who was boarding upstairs of the Veigel's while working as a electrician's foreman at Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm. They lived in St. Paul except for a short return to New Ulm when Hugo went into partnership in an ill fated electrical business. He died on 16 June 1973 after working as an electrician for over forty years. They had three sons, Gerald, Robert and Roger. In 1937 Mathilda then 60 years old married Frank Groebner, a widower who was previously married to Mathilda's first cousin Louisa Rewitzer, the daughter of Johan Rewitzer and Elizabeth Grossman, Mathilda's mother's sister. Louisa had died in 1935. They were married for seven years when Frank died on 3 April 1944. Mathilda continued to live alone at the home 327 North Washington until about 1950 when ill health forced her to retire to the Loretta Nursing home where she died on the 15th of Feb. 1956. Mathilda's life was a life of almost constant care-giving. After her husband died in 1909, Mathilda cared for her three small children and her husband's parents, Wenzel and Barbara for nearly ten years until they died. Barbara was be ridden for several years and needed constant care Mathilda also took care of her niece Francis Hermer for seven years after her mother, Mathilda's younger sister Katrina died during the WWI flu epidemic. After her mother, Franziska, died in 1925, Mathilda took in and cared for her father George until he died in 1932. Mathilda also cared for Josephine, her daughter, She was sickly most of her life, suffering from a bronchial condition that she developed as a child. Mathilda "Tillie" is remembered as a very kind person with an air of silent dignity. She always liked to work in her garden. He is remembered by her grandson, Robert Paulson, as the person who passed on to him the very rich German-Bohemian cultural legacy and also encouraged him to pursue the field he loved most, music.
Manfred
Kolbeck
