[Photos: jfg and Jim Aufderheide collections] [Revised after a visit with Jim Aufderheide on 21 February 2007]
As Gertrude Boock Graupner turned 88, still managing the farmstead in Spencer, she wondered whether she might make one last trip to her New Ulm. So, on 23-24 June 2000, my daughter Emily and I took Mother on an adventure to the wonderful city she still considers, at age 94, her home, where both her Aufderheide and Boock grandparents lived. During that visit, the short digital videos listed on the right side-bar of this blog, were produced.
On an earlier visit to New Ulm, in the late 1980s, Gertrude and I had stopped by the then-vacant Aufderheide homestead, to take a closer look the house that she knew so well, William Aufderheide (Jack and Joyce's son) happened to be heading home from work and saw us. William parked his pickup truck on side of Minnesota Street, near the old
office entrance (on the west side of the house) and introduced himself to us. When he realized how interested Mother was in the brickyard history, he generously opened the house and gave us a tour. It was a mutually-appreciated experience, because Gertrude was able to recall the details and functions of the rooms and what furnishings and contents were located in each of the rooms and the upstairs bedroom, while her grandparents were living there.[To my dismay, this happened so unexpectedly and the moment was so compelling, that I neglected to record or photograph any of it. Fortunately, we have this from a series of photos in Jim Aufderheide's collection.]
How did Gertrude know the Homestead so well? Although Arthur and Emma Aufderheide Boock lived in Spencer, Wisconsin, between 1908 and 1914, when their three children--Norbert (1909), Gertrude (1912), and Esther (1914)--were born, they returned to New Ulm for sixteen years. During this period, Norbert and Gertrude became acquainted with their many younger New Ulm cousins, frequently visited the Aufderheide Brickyard--young Norbert got a part-time job there, and later, Gertrude attended Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm.
In spring 1985, Norbert and Marian Boock had taken a long trip to California, and visited
Howard and Rose Aufderheide. After returning to Spencer, Marian mentioned that Howard had wondered what had happened to the contents of Elise and Fred's Brickyard homestead. Earlier in May 1983, I had asked the same question of Carly Aufderheide, while working on the history of the Brickyard.[Carly with Grandma Aufderheide on the west side of her house, feeding newly hatched chickens in 1916. P:jfg]
Hence, the following 1985 rough draft of a letter from Gertrude to Howard and my speculative drawings, based on Carl J. and Gertrude's recollections, were produced . Jim Aufderheide has also been involved in a more extensive research project involving the Brickyard and the homestead, so the following will hopefully serve as a contribution to that effort.
April 9, 1985
Spencer, Wisc.
Dear Rose and Howard: -
It was so good to hear how much Norb and Marian enjoyed their long trip [to California], especially their visit with you at your nice home. Marian mentioned you had wondered whatever happened to the Aufderheide belongings. As I lay awake early this morning, I went back in memory of all the rooms and tried to think who has the various items. Some things must have just stayed there for a while [after Fred and Elise Aufderheide passed away] for the Andersons [next tenants] to use. Will you bear with me, as I share this with you? Norb and I being the oldest cousins may have remembered the most, though Norb is rather indifferent about it all. You, Howard, must have good pictures of the home in your mind. Are you 6 years younger than I? 
We entered the big kitchen of the house from the screen porch [on the northeast side near the windmill] and through the hall where the telephone hung. Remember the big square wood range in the south corner by the window? The sink, with faucets for well water was the followup for nice soft rain water, was first. Then a "pie cupboard" which held dishes and food at times. It's walls were of tin with punched designs (Carl Aufderheide told me they had it in their basement in St. Paul. The big table with all its leaves and the chairs and the couch which opened, I never knew who took them. The sideboard Meta Flick wanted and was given as a remembrance for her kind services. [Photo postcard from Hertha Aufderheide, 23 January 1911. East side view from 1909. As one entered, the kitchen was to the left, just beyond a small foyer where coats could be hung up on hooks. The window on the far left, was the master bedroom. P: jfg]
One door led to the bedroom in which two, 3/4-sized bedsstood and a high bureau with lilttle drawers on top. Aunt Hertha took the bureau and Grandpa's walnut bed; had them refinished by the Biebl brothers and Carol may still have them in use, unless Pam has them now. I can't remember who wanted the other bed--Grandma's. Uncle Karl took the safe. Your folks [Herman and Esther] took back the cedar chest, since your Dad gave it as a gift years before. My mother [Emma A. Boock] used the gray rug with blue design for many years--even brought it to Spencer for their bedroom. There was a round walnut table which Grandma later put on the screen porch for her plants!! Aunt Clara saw the value of it, had it restored beautifully and used it. I believe Ruth has it now.
The other kitchen door led to the former office which had a desk which Hertha had redone and Carol still has. I think your Dad or Karl took the leather and wood recliner. There was also a leather and wood sofabed where I slept usually. That, and the washstand I lost track of.
Then there was the parlor with its rose design carpeting (inlaid) and its cherry furniture. Hertha wanted the piano but never took as she had her own. Buds took it later and used it in his rec room after he built his house. I think my mother took all the furniture. Later we divided it between Norb and me. I still have one loveseat and a rocking chair, also the table and the big Bible which lay on the bottom shelf. The other loveseat, a chair with arms, and one without, Marian reupholstered and used for a while. Now Marilyn has them--she is such a "family heirloom" lover. She has a few frames, too, and old pictures. We have some frames, also. Our grandchildren get rocked in the rocker.
[The interior view of the Parlor, on the occasion of Emma Aufderheide and Arthur Boocks wedding celebration, 15 July 1908, looks to the southeast corner with the faux cherry door to the Master Bedroom and the window to the south. The floor is carpeted with a floral pattern as are the walls. The ceiling also has an ornate pattern. The wedding cake is sitting on a table (under which the large family Bible lay) that matches the armless chair on the left side of the door, a similar chair with arms on the Parlor's north wall, two love seats, and the upholstered Parlor rocking chair. A blonde piano sits left of the armless chair on the Parlor's east wall. The portrait hanging to the right of the door is of Fred's mother, Sophie Beneke.]
There was a bookcase and a few wooden smaller rockers and porch bench--can't remember who has them.
The bedding, the dishes, silverware and silver sets, the cutglass were divided amongst the four families.
I only saw the inside of the house once while Norm Anderson and wife lived in it. They both were so hard of hearing it was hard to make them understand who I was, but once Norm understood, he was very gracious. They kept up the rooms very well. It all seemed smaller than what I saw in my memory.
Norb took the Edison, maybe he still has it. And we have an old washstand your Dad and Uncle Karl had in their upstairs bedroom. What happened to the three beds upstairs I have no idea. Maybe they were given away later. There was little value to them.
When our parents died (Emma and Art), Norb and we divided [their belongings] all between us, except for the electric stove and washing machine. Dave got married soon after that and too the living room set, plus lamps, etc. Then Cathy married and took the dining room set, a little desk, and kitchen set, cedar chest--all of which she uses daily. We have several bedroom sets in reserve for our company. We couldn't bear auctioning anything. I share the piano and two trunks with old-fashioned clothes, Mother's wedding dress, and lovely blouses, etc. Many a style show has used them.
Gertrude
[Further Notes: Because of the five or six similar basement windows and the two window wells, the similar appearance of the foundation, Carl J. Aufderheide's 1983 note that the basement was built "of solid concrete and reinforced with railroad rails", and Jim Aufderheide's recollection that the basement was quite large, it might be that the house had a full basement underneath it. Jim Aufderheide related on 21 February 2007, that Grandma Elise was very fearful of a recurrance of the type of cyclone that leveled New Ulm in the late 1800s, and that Grandpa Fred made sure that the house would withstand such a storm.
When I commented on the elegant design features of the front of the house, with its four shuttered windows and the tall door, and the unusually high brick facade and substantial cornice of the North and South ends of the master bedroom/kitchen/East entrance half of the house, Jim Aufderheide pondered whether Herman Schapekahm, the prominent designer and builder of both residences and public structures like DMLC's Old Main, might have designed the brickyard homestead. He was Elise Schapekahm's brother.
In 1989, the house was bulldozed by the owners of the property at that time and there is a "For Sale" sign at the curb; it is difficult now to even imagine that an entire era of family history ceases to have any physical artifacts remaining on the property once occupied by The Aufderheide Brickyard and Homestead. jimg]
Closing note: Although this posting dealt mainly with homestead furnishings, a number of recollections published in THE SETTLER, Summer 1983, by Carl J. Aufderheide, Norbert Boock, and Gertrude Boock Graupner will eventually be reprinted here.
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