A Crib For The Generations

Earlier this summer at Flint Creek Valley Days, in a conversation with Helen Hauck Shanklin, I asked her if she had any pictures of her maternal great-grandparents, Anna and Charles Kroger. A short time later I was honored to receive not only pictures of the Kroger’s but also a family article written by Catherine Hauck Taylor (daughter of Dora and Lawrence Hauck). 

The following contains excerpts from this family article, written at an unknown date. “ I have wondered what my grandmother, a woman of gentile upbringing from an entirely different environment, thought of the new land where she was to make her home. The names were far from reassuring. Leaving Deer Lodge, they traveled by wagon to the Mouth of Bear, now Bearmouth, hearing of the Hell Gate on down the canyon to the west, then up Bear Gulch high in the mountain country to Beartown. This four year old, rough frontier town consisted of log cabins hastily built, rather close together, to house one thousand miners…Such was the environment which greeted my pioneering grandmother and where she proceeded to make a home for her family for almost five years while they steadily improved their financial standing.” “Two children were born to the Kroger’s in Beartown, Dora Catherine on September 11, 1871 and Walter Wesley on July 11, 1873. My mother was the first white child born in Beartown. 

Anna (Rusch) Kroger

Charles Kroger

This brings to mind two stories. My grandfather bought Grandmother a sewing machine which arrived in time to help her making the layette. One day as she sat at her sewing machine in front of a window, light was cut off suddenly and she looked up startled to see what made the room so dark. The window was filled with the faces of Indians looking at this object of strange magic. Fearfully she continued to sew. After what seemed an eternity, the light returned. The Indians left quietly.” 

“The second story is about a little crib. Originally it was a cradle, but the rockers have been lost through the years. My mother’s coming had created considerable interest in the camp. As a special gift, Mrs. Joaquin Abascal and her husband, recent arrivals who had established a general store in Beartown, sent for the cradle. It came by train to Corrine, Utah; thence to Deer Lodge by freighter and from there to Beartown by packhorse to be delivered by the mail carrier, Mrs. Abascal’s brother W.A. Clark, Sr. (shortly thereafter, Mr. Clark went into other fields, becoming heavily interested in the Butte copper mines. In later years he became Unites States Senator from Montana.) Grandmother told me they used to carry the baby in the crib to dances and other community gatherings where she slept peacefully, not awakening even on the trip home. No baby sitter problems for them! Four generations have slept in the little crib, my mother and her three brothers, my mother’s five children, five of her grandchildren and four of her great-grandchildren. Following is the list: Dora Catherine Kroger September 11, 1871; Walter Wesley Kroger July 11, 1873; Henry August Kroger October 25, 1975; Frederick William Kroger January 22, 1879; Herman Lawrence Hauck November 18, 1894; Catherine Dorothy Hauck September 10, 1901; Elsie Christine Hauck August 13, 1903; Dora Marguerite Hauck April 6, 1905; John Christian Hauck December 22, 1910; Lois Jean Hauck November 4. 1926; Marian Irene Hauck November 2, 1928; Elsie Margaret Taylor June 30, 1929; Dora Catherine Taylor September 27, 1932; Ellen Jean Taylor February 22, 1944; John Ryan McGarvey June 15, 1955; Allan Michael McGarvey June 26, 1957; Michael Dale McGarvey December 12, 1960; Margaret Ellen McGarvey February 18, 1964.” 

“During those early years in primitive Beartown, Grandmother and Grandfather often spoke longingly of their homes in Schleswig-Holstein and their families there. Finally, in 1874, fortified with eight bags of gold dust to finance the trip, they started out on the long trip from Beartown with their two small children, Dora, three years and Walter, one year old, to visit for several months in Germany. I do not know how many months it took for them to get there, but it could not have been an easy trip with such young children. According to Uncle Fritz, mother’s youngest brother, as he had heard the story, ‘the return trip was made with the two small children, three 16 gauge, pin fire shotguns, a large 12 tune cylindrical music box, a medicine chest, miscellaneous boxes and the necessary traveling luggage. By ship to New York, by train to Corrine, Utah and home by stage coach. A trip to end all time.’ Grandmother told me that she and Grandfather took turns holding the precious music box wrapped in a steamer robe.” 

 Wonderful stories!

Dora (Rusch) Lehsou, Anna (Rusch) and Charles Kroger, John Lehsou