----Source: GREENWOOD GLEANER (Greenwood, Wis.) 01/08/1914

Schoenwetter, Frank (22 Jul 1857 - 23 Dec 1913)

Frank Schoenwetter was born July 22, 1857, near Kuestrin, Bradenburg, Germany. He came to Dodge Co., Wis., in the year 1870. He was united in marriage on July 9th, 1882, to his present wife. This union was blessed with ten children, four of who have preceded the father in death. The family came to Clark County, Wis. in 1900, where they conducted a farm in the town of Eaton. Last fall they sold this farm and bought a new home near Neillsville. Several months ago Mr. Schoenwetter began to fail and on Dec. 23rd he decided to go to Rochester, Minn., to consult a physician, but he passed away on the same day in the above mentioned city before reaching the hospital, death overtaking him in the hotel. The remains were sent to Neillsville and the funeral services held in the Presbyterian Church in Greenwood on Dec. 29, Rev. O. Saewert officiating. He is survived by his wife, three sons, three daughters, one brother and one sister. He reached the age of 56 years, 5 months and one day.

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Obit: Schoenwetter, Bertha Salzsieder (1861 - 1939)
Contact: Stan

----Source: MARSHFIELD NEWS HERALD FROM Greenwood Library Scrapbook Collection

HOLD SCHOENWETTER FUNERAL FRIDAY
 

Greenwood Funeral services were conducted Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Zion Reformed Church at Greenwood, Clark County for Mrs. Bertha Schoenwetter, 78, who died Friday, Nov. 24, 1939, at her home in San Jose, Cal., after being in poor health since June.

The Rev. P.H. Franzmeier conducted the services and burial was made in the Greenwood Cemetery. Another service was conducted in San Jose, Cal., on Sunday, Nov. 26.

During the services Mrs. Henry Keiner and Misses Louis and Frieda Keiner and Gertrude Schwarze sang Abide With Me and Sweetly Resting . Mrs. Adolph Meyer was the organ accompanist.

Pallbearers were C.C. Hoehne, Charles Varney, Albert Miller, John Wendt, Calvin Franz and Adolph Meyer. Flowers were carried by Alice Wendt, Elaine Jackson, Alice Mae Thorson and Thelma Thorson.

Mrs. Schoenwetter, the former Betha Salzsieder, was born in Pommern, Germany, Oct. 22, 1861. In June 1882 she came to America, and on July 9, 1882, was married to Frank Schoenwetter, who preceded her in death Dec. 23, 1913. In 1919 she moved to San Jose, Cal. And had since made her home there.

Surviving are two sons, Frank and Erwin Schoenwetter, San Jose, Call., and Mrs. Abe (Delia) Thorson, Owen, 23 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, and one brother, Herman Salzsieder, in Germany. Five children preceded her in death.

Her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Frank, accompanied the body to Greenwood. They plan to return home Wednesday, Dec. 6.

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SCHOENWETTER family, Warner township

1905 #56 Schuenwelter, Frank Head W M 51 M Germany Germany Farmer 11 O M F  Bertha Wife W F 43 M Germany Germany House Keeper Delia Daughter W F 16 S Wisconsin Germany  Eastman Son W M 14 S Wisconsin Germany Farm Laborer 12 Herbert Son W M 12 S Wisconsin Germany Irvine Son W M 10 S Wisconsin Germany  Eda Daughter W F 8 S Wisconsin Germany  Elsie Daughter W F 6 S Wisconsin Germany  Frankie Son W M 2 S Wisconsin Germany

1906 sec 3 residence Frank Schoenwetter (1915 Rurk & Veidmann)

Note: Frank and Bertha nee Salzsieder Schoenwetter (compiler Sharon Short's maternal great-grandparents) purchased, for $5315, 120 acres in sec 3 Warner township, on 14 Nov 1901 via Canfields of Chicago who held the mortgage until fully paid on 21 April 1902. In 1906 the Schoenwetters purchased the adjoining 120 acres of Longwood township sec 34, originally owned by W.H. & Julia Mead, from the Owen Lumber Co. These two parcels, sec 34 in Longwood and sec 3 in Warner, were sold by the Schoenwetters to Elmer Van Bussum for $12,000 on 31 Oct 1910.

BioM: Schoenwetter, Delia Elvia (29 Jun 1907)

Contact: History Buffs

Surnames: Schoenwetter

----Sources: Warner Township Pioneers By Sharon Short, Michigan Marriages  (1868-1925)

Michigan Marriages, 1868-1925

Groom: Abraham Thorson, 23 yr. old (1884) male b. Norway
Marriage Date: 29 Jun 1907
Location: Menominee, Menominee, Michigan

Marriage Place: Menominee, Menominee, Michigan
Father: Thorson Abraham, Mother: Anne Gurine Andersdatter
Bride: Delia Schoenwetter, 28 yr. old (1879) female, b. Wisconsin
Father: Frank Schoenwetter
Mother: Bertha Salzieder

Thorson - Schoenwetter Family

Thorson, Delia Elvira nee SCHOENWETTER (4 Nov 1888 - 7 June 1962)

*Excerpt taken from Warner Township Pioneers By Sharon Short & the Clark Co., WI History Buffs

Delia Elvira was born in Lowell, Dodge Co., WI to Frank and Bertha nee Salzsieder Schoenwetter on Nov 4, 1888. In 1905, a former neighbor of the Schoenwetter family, Mr. Krupps, hired 16 year old Delia to work in the household of the large dairy farm he was managing. Menominee River Lumber Co owned the farm located near Vulcan, Michigan. It was here that Delia met Abraham Thorson who had emigrated from Norway arriving on the ship "Norway" at Ellis Island on June 7, 1901. Abe worked briefly at the sawmill in Menekaunee, WI before continuing on to the Vulcan, MI farm in the fall of 1901. In 1905 the farm sold the dairy cows and began fattening slaughter cows for the Chicago meat plants. In 1906 over 200 Vulcan men were without work, the governor sending in troops to quell the riots. Abe by now had become a jack of all trades on the farm and continued to send most of his earnings to his family in Norway, but no longer talked of going back there to farm. Abe Thorson and Delia Schoenwetter were married on June 29, 1907 in Menominee, MI and soon after moved to a cabin near Faithhorn, MI where Abe worked as a lumberjack. Delia did the washing for the lumberjacks, carrying water from a nearby stream. Abe, whose father made skis for a living, had spent his spare time entering ski competitions and won first prize worth about $600 on the day his first child Bertha Gurine was born Feb 22, 1908. Delia and little Bertha returned to Warner township where Bertha was baptized on June 14, 1908 and returned soon after to her little cabin in MI remaining there until July 1909 when they moved to an upper flat in Withee, WI. The second child Alvin Oscar was born there on April 6, 1910. Abe walked to Owen were he was employed, fearful of the wolves still in the area. While a teenager he had been treed by wolves while skiing to school in Norway, not being rescued until late that evening.

Abe was hired to be a "straw boss" on the Bright Farm for the 93 dairy cow operation in September 1910, three years prior to Halburt Bright's death in 1913. The family moved to Green Grove township and lived in one of the Bright Farm employee houses. The third child, Harry Theodore was born there on Nov 9, 1911. Somewhere between Feb and June of 1912 the Abe Thorson family moved to the little farm in Eaton township sec 7 where they remained until August 1924. Abe Thorson called their farm "Oaklane Dairy Farm".

By 1913 Abe and family had collected enough fieldstone to build a round silo that was still standing straight and true when last visited in 1969 although all the other buildings were gone. Five more Thorson children were born at the west Eaton farm, Leona Edith in 1913, Violet Evelyn in 1915, Eleanor Delia in 1917, Norman Herbert in 1919 and Thelma Angeline in 1923. The family made many life-long friends while living there, the Lenherrs and Seliskars in particular. In August 1924 the Thorson family traded their farm for an old house in Chippewa Falls and Abe went to work on a nearby dairy farm. Things didn't work out so they moved back Warner twnpship, to the Otto Wetzel farm in Warner sec 3 while the Wetzel family moved to Greenwood. Here Abe and Delia's ninth child, Alice Mae, was born in May 1925. The old west Eaton farm in Sec 7 became available again when the Chippewa buyers couldn't pay the mortgage so back there again for the winter of 1926-27. Early in 1927 Herman Olson became CC sheriff and needed someone to run his farm in Warner sec 31. Herman Olson and wife were godparents of Abe and Delia's daughter Eleanor, and friends of the family. Abe and Delia's tenth child, Donald Kenneth, was born on the Olson farm in June 1928.

In the late summer of 1929 the Abe Thorson family rented the Sam Smith farm, the house and barn being in Warner sec 11. The depression was in full swing and the family had to move again in 1931, this time to Longwood sec 27 bordering the Longwood School, to a small house owned then by the Adams family. Another move in the summer of 1934 took the Thorson family to a small rental cabin in Taylor Co, on the north shore of Richter's Lake. Abe had to walk more than 5 miles to hwy 64, and hope for a ride, as the family had no vehicle. If no ride he had to walk an additional 6-10 miles to a carpenter job, lugging his heavy carpenter tools with him. In early 1936 the family moved back to Longwood township, sec 27 again, but this time to the little house owned by the Carl Benson-Flatten family. Here Abe and Delia's eleventh and last child, Carl Ronald was born in June 1936.

About August of 1937 the Abe Thorson family moved to Longwood township sec 35, on to property previously owned by Wlm Mead and later owned, until the late 1930's by Ed Culp. This was on the eastside of hwy 73, about half-mile north of the Warner township line. The two-story house was "L" shaped with a porch spanning the long arm of the "L". The upstairs was split into two separate bedroom areas with separate entrances, one for the owners and one for the hired help.  The house was haunted, footsteps on the stairways being heard by the Thorsons, something cold grabbing a hand while the person was sleeping. Old man Culp disappeared while he and his family was living there. The story being that Mr. Culp was killed during a family fight and his body put in the well that sits in front of the short side of the "L" shaped house.

By March 1943 the Abe Thorson family had saved enough to purchase a home in the little village of Withee, just across the road from the back of the Withee school building.

Delia continued to do laundry for others, pumping the water from the porch pump, heating it in the copper boiler and carting it to the wash machine on the porch. She ironed everything with flat irons heated on the wood cook stove in the kitchen. Abe still had a few cows and made hay for them, being limited by the size of the little barn. A pig or two and chickens were also housed there. Abe worked out as a stone mason and as a carpenter, now having an old Ford coupe car for transportation. He raised green beans and pickles for the Owen cannery.

As soon as school was out for the summer of 1944, Abe, Delia and young Carl went by bus to Hat Creek, CA to build a fieldstone house for Delia's sister Elsie Schoenwetter Frank. Abe was already well known in WI for his ability to split fieldstone by tapping it once like a diamond, and had built many beautiful fireplaces as well as homes. Art Young, who at that time owned the nearby "Old Station Resort" in Hat Creek was so impressed by the Frank family home that he hired Abe to come back in 1945 and build a stone fronted motel. (Located on Sierra Hwy #89, 14 miles from the Hat Creek entrance to Lassen Volcanic Nation Park.)

Abe and Delia Thorson sold the Withee house in July 1949 and purchased 40 acres in Grover township, Taylor Co, on Pirus Rd, at the edge of the Chequamegon National Forest. Daughter Thelma and family lived across the road and daughter Leona lived 2 miles further up the road at that time. There was an old shack built by the prior owner Chris Winkel, in about 1933, after he bought the land from the WC Railroad but it was no longer livable. Abe built a 12' x 20' cement block building, intended for a chicken coup, that the family moved into in August. This was meant to be a temporary abode, but due to Abe's many outside jobs and the building of a barn and pump house, it became their last home after adding additions to both ends of the building. (A tornado on 2 Sep 2002 destroyed the out buildings, tore off the house roof, blew out the windows and made toothpicks of the 4,000 red pine and white spruce trees granddaughter Sharon had planted in 1973.)

Abe and Delia celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary in June 1957. Delia was diagnosed with colon cancer in March 1962 and died at age 73 on June 7, 1962, 61 years to the day after Abe landed at Ellis Island. Abe, age 78, continued to live alone in the little house, gradually selling his milk cows as arthritis crippled his hands. Delia's flowerbeds and houseplants became his hobby and he went fishing more often. His nearby children and grandchildren looked in on him often and included him in on all family activities and trips.  Daughter Eleanor insisted on putting a phone and electric heat in the house and covered all the cost of utilities and taxes, Abe's monthly social security check of less than $50 going for his other needs.

Abe expressed a desire to visit Norway as he hadn't been back since he left in 1901, never to see his parents Thore Abrahamsen Stole ("Stole" being the historical name of Thore's first farm, "Birkeland Farm" and "Hageland Farm" being where Abe's parents were born.) of Birkeland (1858-1934) and Anne Gurine Andersdatter of Hageland (1857-1933) or his siblings Johanne (1886-prior 1960), Olene (1888-1952), Rasmine (1891-prior 1935) again. (Abe, being the oldest son had inherited the farm name "Stole" as his third or surname but dropped it after coming to America.) Brother Anders (1894-1957) had also come to America and lived with Abe in 1917 and later lived in NY where Abe visited him in 1954.

Daughter Eleanor and her daughter Sharon Short bought Abe's property on April 17, 1967 so that Abe would have travel funds, giving Abe lifetime tenant rights. Eleanor's son Barry Short was killed in Viet Nam on April 30 and Abe debated leaving her at that time, but arrangements had already been made.

Abe, age 83, left for Norway on May 11, 1967 and returned on September 2. He stayed with his sister Thora (1897-1984) and husband Theodore Farestad in their new home that had been built in front of his childhood farm home at Mygland (name of the Stole farm after the larger Mygland farm was annexed) near Mandel in Sor-Audnedal township, Vest Agder county, Norway. His youngest brother Hans (1901-c1970) and family lived nearby and saw to his travels. Abe's photo and life story appeared in the Kristiansand paper shortly after his arrival, Han's son-in-law being a "typograph" there.  In the spring of 1968 Abe went to Dr. Johnson in Withee to have a large black mole by his belt line looked at. The doctor sliced it off and sent it to Madison, the test result being cancer that then spread throughout his body. Abe died on February 20, 1970 in Medford hospital at age 86. Abe and Delia Thorson are buried in the Greenwood, Eaton township cemetery.