ANDREW AND GERTIE

The Second Generation

Chapter II-2 of ANCESTORS

By Glen V. Smith
October, 1990

Return to Smith Family Table of Contents

Page One

In Chapter I-2, ANDREW SHERMAN FENNEY's birth was reported. He was the second of 8 children born to SJUR and BRITA FENNEY, his birthday was on October 26, 1858. He was born and raised on the farm that his pioneer parents had settled just three years earlier in 1855. They had arrived in a covered wagon with all their worldly possessions.

Andrew's early life was typical of a struggling pioneer family in the Jackson County, Wisconsin wilderness of the time. SJUR and BRITA were busy clearing the land for raising crops, getting enough crops planted to support the family, and raising their 8 children. By the time Knute and Andrew were 6 years old a school had been established and they had both started their education. The school, 2 miles west of their farm, was named the Finn School.

A good description of this school will be found in the chapter, "MILAN and THEOLINE." In Milan's autobiography he included a description of a few school days at the school which they both attended from 1864 to 1870.

We can assume that among Andrews's school mates were his older brother, Knute, Milan Smith (who was his same age), and his younger brother, Lewis.

It is sad that we do not have more information about Andrew's school years and the events that affected the family life during this time period. however, we know that the 3 oldest of SJUR's sons (Knute, ANDREW, and Lewis) stayed on the farm as farm hands during these years; and that SJUR and BRITA were providing for all 8 children.

ANDREW was confirmed into the Lutheran Church by a Reverend O. J. Solberg on May 18, 1873. ANDREW was 15 years old.

Knute was the first to leave the farm in 1880. In the very next year the family suffered the tragedy of his death and also the deaths of the four youngest children. For additional detail on this tragedy, refer to Chapter I - 2.

After this tragedy the family remained together on the farm for the next 6 years. ANDREW, Lewis and Sam were now all grown and were strong and capable farm hands.

Page Two

The three grown sons must have been asking themselves who among them would inherit the farm. It perhaps was a thought in everyone's mind. And did the three sons all have ambitions to be farmers? In 1887, ANDREW, reached the ripe old age of 28 years. He was ambitious, handsome, full of life and a gregarious young man. Many girls in the country side knew of this eligible bachelor and they had their eyes on ANDREW. But he had ideas of his own to work for his fortune in the business world as he knew it. He located an entry level job clerking in a country store in nearby Merrillan, Wisconsin. The store was owned and operated by a L. J. Merrill, a member of a pioneer family who was instrumental in starting the village of Merrillan.

So now we have ANDREW in Merrillan starting his career and most likely pursuing a new social life. That makes it time to backtrack a few years to pick up the story of a cute, soft spoken, quiet little Swedish girl named GERTIE NELSON; and follow her travels until she also arrives in Merrillan.

LARS and MARGARET NELSON were living in Gjerna, Dalerna, Sweden on January 9, 1867 when MARGARET gave birth to a third daughter who they named GERTIE. Her older sisters were named Katie and Anna.

There wasn't any information about their life in Sweden that I could find. However, GERTIE's daughter, BESSIE, wrote a biograph and told several facts;

1. Her parents had a son Nelse born a few years after GERTIE.

2. GERTIE was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church.

3. The confirmation class was possibly as large as 100.

4. The entire family immigrated at the same time to America, in the year 1883. GERTIE was 16 years old.

Upon their arrival in New York City they made a decision. Katie and GERTIE would stay in New York and seek employment while the rest of the family (Parents LARS and MARGARET, their daughter Anna, and their son, Nelse) would journey to Merrillan, Wisconsin where they had acquaintances who had immigrated from Sweden earlier.

So Katie and GERTIE, not knowing any English, found out about an employment office at Castle Garden in the New York Harbor.

(This place later became known as Ellis Island, the well known immigration center which operated from 1889 to 1954).

Page Three

The events that followed were recorded by GERTIE and Andrew's daughter (BESSIE) in a biography that she wrote in 1934. That biography is copied here; I have only added punctuation and parenthetical notes to the story as it was written by BESSIE;

"....A man named John Hull from Connecticut was there (Castle Garden) looking for a young lady to do housework and my mother (GERTIE) hired out to him and stayed there one year. My mother could only speak Swedish at first and the family only English. So at times they had to go several miles to another Swedish girl who had learned some English and get her to interpret if they had something important to settle or talk over. But Mother learned to speak English very fast.

Aunt Katie got work in Jersey City but she became lonesome and so she wrote to mother and asked her to locate a job close to her place and so mother did but yet she was lonely for her parents; although she had a nice place to work. Katie stayed there for only 6 months and then started alone (on the train) for Merrillan.

After staying one year in Connecticut my mother started for Merrillan too. She stayed at home with her parents for one week and slept most of that time because she was very tired from her trip on the train from Connecticut to Merrillan, Wisconsin. She had to sit up in a seat for the entire trip.

Then mother went to work in the big hotel at the depot called the Blair House. She stayed there one year and then went to work for Theodore Wright (a relative of Sarah Wright - ? - See Chapter I-1) They lived in Wrightsville at that time but later they moved to Merrillan and bought a meat market. Altogether mother stayed with them 2 and a half years. It was at this time that she met my dad who had just came to Merrillan to clerk in L. J. Merrill's store."

(GERTIE was now 20 years old and ANDREW was 28.)

"They kept company for six months and were married in Blair, Wisconsin in November, 1887. Uncle Lewis was clerking in Blair at the time. Katie and Lewis were bridesmaid and best man."

Bessie's story continues on Page Four

Page Four

"My dad worked at Merrill's store four years and then he was offered higher wages at A. S. Trow and so he went there to clerk. He stayed there five years making nine years altogether. During these nine years, four children were born. Birdie was the first but she died when she was eleven months of brain fever (encephalitis, meningitis?). Archie, Bessie, and Arthur were also born in Merrillan

Then (1895) my parents and us three children moved to my grandfather's (SJUR) farm three miles southeast of Taylor. The youngest son (Sam) of my grandfather's , then living, and only son staying at home, had been killed by lightning on October 10, 1895."

Glen V. Smith notes: I can remember my mother (BESSIE) telling us this sad story. She said that Sam, on a cloudy and mild October day, had been out plowing the fields with a team of horses from their farm. When evening came they were expecting Sam to come home for his supper. But he was long overdue. So SJUR went out to the field to look for him. When he got to the field a tragic sight was waiting for him. The lightning had struck the horses killing them instantly; and apparently the bolt for lightning followed the horses reins and struck down Same who was driving the team. Same was 28 years old.

In 1895 SJUR and BRITA were 61 and 62 years old, ANDREW and GERTIE were 36 and 28, their 3 children; Archie, Bessie and Arthur) were 5, 2 and 1. Bessie's biography continues;

My father (ANDREW) felt that he had to come home to help his dad. So we lived with my grandparents that winter and in the he spring we built a new house close by my granddad's. My brother, Sherman, was born in the new house on November 29, 1896. The carpenters were John Peterson and Ole Rockney.

Then (the next summer, 1897) my folks decided to move back to Merrillan seeing as how Uncle Lewis and family would come on the farm and stay with my grandfather and grandmother.

In Merrillan my father clerked for McCormick in his country store. My sister, Alice, was born there on ????? in 1898. It was then that George Olson from Taylor came to Merrillan and asked my dad to go into the store business with him in Taylor. My dad consented and we moved to Taylor. We lived a short time in the house now owned by Johnny Collins.

That summer (1899) my dad (Andrew) was taken very ill with appendicitis and he was taken to LaCrosse on a cot to be operated on. He was at the Catholic Hospital five weeks and was taken home on a cot. Alice was a baby at the time. He gained his strength quite fast. He was in business with George Olson for a couple of years and then he started a store."

Bessie's story continues on Page Five

Page Five

Bessie's story continues;

"of his own in the building where Schansberg and Rauk have their meat market.

At this time (1901) my dad had the house that he had built on the farm (in 1896) moved to town, across the fields and they placed it across from the Presbyterian church and we lived in that several years. In later years my dad sold it to Chris Larson and today (1934) Chris and his wife live downstairs and Russell and his wife and two children live upstairs."

Glen V. Smith's notes...My grandmother, BRITA FENNEY, died February 12, 1900. She was 67 years old. Andrew's brother, Lewis, married a Blair girl on July 5, 1891

" In 1902 my brother Archie died of diphtheria. " (He was 12 years old, he died on September 10, 1902).

Glen V. Smith's notes....Bessie would occasionally talk about her older brother Archie. She left me with the feeling that Archie was Andrew's "pride and joy" and that he was a "chip off the old block." When he got sick they desperately tried to save him. Bessie was only 7 years old at the time but she had the feeling that her parents felt that the doctors had made some kind of a mistake in his treatment. It is interesting to speculate how the lives of his younger brothers and sisters would have been affected if he had lived. But it was not to be.

"
He (Andrew) sold out his goods in the store and moved to the farm. (Perhaps the grief of Archie's death caused this move). Alvin was born on the farm on March 21, 1904.

In 1904 he (ANDREW) was nominated (and elected) for County Treasurer of Jackson County, Wisconsin. The family moved to Black River Falls where Merlin was born in January of 1906. Dad stayed in Black River Falls only three years because Grandpa Fenney (SJUR) became poorly and so we had to move back to the farm. Martin Tallack finished the one year remaining in Dad's (ANDREW) term as County Treasurer.

Andrew's nomination was at the last Republican Convention that was ever held. The state primary law went into effect 2 years later and Andrew was renominated in the first county primary. He was re-elected by a large majority.

"Then when my folks got back to the farm (in 1907) they built onto the old house of my grandpa's. This was to make more room for our large family and we then stayed on the farm as long as grandpa lived. Grandpa died September 10, 1911 at the age of 77. ANDREW and GERTIE were 52 and 44."

There is more about this period of their lives in the Chapter III-1 ...Elden and Bessie. It tells a little about the school days of the children.

Bessie's story continues on Page Six

Page Six

"In 1913 my folks moved to LaCrosse and Helmer Johnson and wife moved to the Fenney farm to work the farm while my folks were away. My dad and brothers worked at various things in the city. In the fall they moved to Minneapolis (in search of better job?) and they stayed there one winter and they worked at wholesale houses; my two brothers (Arthur and Sherman) and my dad. (Bessie had stayed back near the farm to teach school)

In the spring (1914) my dad received a letter from a store keeper in Blair named A. Anderson and he wanted to sell out his store. My dad decided to go to Blair to look it over and then he decided to buy Anderson out. So in April, 1914, they moved to Blair and stayed there six years.

World War One raged from 1914 to 1918; the USA entered the War on April 16, 1917

"at the end of that time dad sold out to Benrud Brothers and moved to Alma Center and bought the Farmers Store there in 1920." (ANDREW was now 61 years old)

"I believe dad went into business with his sons, Arthur and Sherman. They named their store..."A.S. Fenney and Sons." Sherman had returned from duty in the U. S. Navy during World War One, had married and was looking for a job.

"My dad was a kind and industrious man. He loved to take long auto rides. (in 1916 a Model T was selling for $400.00). He loved to go places to visit his sons or daughters, or someone else. But he like to get back home at night, often making many miles in one day. I used to love to hear my dad talk of his early days, of their simple home life, his school days, their work, and their play. I wish he had written a story about it before he passed away; but I think we forgot to ask him to do that. He loved to read and his chief reading was the newspapers and the Bible. He would often play the guitar and sing songs, especially Swedish songs which he learned in Merrillan. They were cheerful songs as I remember them. I'm sure he loved his children very much from so many instances I remember.

My father passed away at Alma Center on Monday evening, November 9, 1931 at the age of 73 years and 14 days. He was laid to rest in the Hjerlied Cemetery about one mile south of Taylor where his parents are buried, also his brothers and sisters, and son and daughter."

In later years Elden and Bessie and Sherman would also be buried in this cemetery.

This is the end of Bessie's biography of her parents. We owe her our eternal gratitude for this history.

Page Seven

Did you count the number of times that Andrew moved his family? I counted 13 times although one move was only to a new house on the farm. All these moves were an attempt to find a more prosperous life for his family; and it is evidence of his strong ambition to succeed. His greatest success was the great family he left behind.

After Andrew's death, Gertie decided to buy a house in Taylor where she knew more people from her youth, and also her daughter, Bessie, was living there and raising her three children. The smith grandchildren were delighted. Now they would have two grandmas' living almost next door to their house; the cookies and treats would be abundant. She moved to Taylor in the summer of 1936 at the age of 69.

So for a few short years Gerard lived out her life in Taylor. She had frequent visitors; Sherman and family would come calling from Alma Center where he was running the country store; Arthur had started farming near Alma Center and would visit with his family; Alice would make the trip from Minneapolis with her family; Alvin and Marlin with their families would come calling; and each summer her children would organize a Fenney reunion. It would usually be held in Rochester, Minnesota and was "the event" of the summer for all. The grandchildren (cousins) retained their fond memories of these picnics forever. The mm home movies of these events are especially precious.

Gertie's health gradually failed while in Taylor and she passed away on September 9, 1940 at the age of 73. Her obituary stated her death was due to a intracranial hemorrhage.

Funeral services were at the Taylor Lutheran Church, across the street from her home. Internment was beside her husband Andrew in the Taylor Woodlawn Cemetery. The Cemetery had been renamed; Bessie had referred to it as the Hjerlied Cemetery in her biography above.

Additional references to the life of Andrew and Gertie will be found in Chapter III - Elden and Bessie.