Emma's Story: Once Upon a Lifetime

ONCE UPON A LIFETIME
Emma Marie Erna Gertrude Aufderheide Boock
November 13, 1884 – March 13, 1967

by Marilyn Boock Schmidt

(Contributor credit is given at the end of each section)
[Photo at Norbert and Marian Oelrich Boock's new home in Spencer, August 1951. Left: Emma Aufderheide Boock, Jerry Boock, Marilyn Boock, Norbert Boock, David Boock, and Marian Oelrich Boock.]

Emma was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, the second of five children born to her German immigrant parents, Elise (Eliese) and Fred Aufderheide, who founded the New Ulm Brick and Tile Company. Emma, fifteen when her older brother, William (17) died in June of 1900 of an illness that plagued him throughout his life (probably asthma), shouldered the responsibilities of an oldest child of entrepreneurial parents, early on. Emma had two younger brothers, Karl and Herman (who later took over the family brickyard operations) and a sister, Hertha.

Emma graduated from high school as Valedictorian of her class and was awarded a scholarship to Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, but didn’t attend college because she was needed by her father to help with office work at the brickyard.

In 1908 Emma married Arthur Lincoln Boock, whom she knew from St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, as a classmate in New Ulm High School and as a bright young man whom her father was grooming to assist him in his business and banking ventures. That same year Emma and Art moved to Spencer, Wisconsin, where Art became Cashier of the Spencer State Bank.

Their first child, Norbert Frederick, was born in Spencer on July 25, 1909 in a small white house close to the present intersection of highways 98 and 13. In 1910 the three moved into their newly-built home at Mills and Pacific in Spencer. Gertrude was born in 1912 and Esther in 1914. That same year Art was offered the Cashier position at the new Farmer’s and Merchant’s Bank in New Ulm, a business venture of Emma’s father, and so the family returned to New Ulm, while Art’s brother, Oscar Boock, assumed the Cashier position at the Spencer Bank.

Art and Emma built a beautiful brick home on State Street and their lives revolved around the activities of the extended Aufderheide and Boock families in New Ulm. Emma was busy raising her family, active in their social circle, with relatives and involved in activities at St.Paul’s. Sadly, young Esther died August 30, 1917, of spinal meningitis and for a short time Emma’s children lived out at the brickyard while their house was fumigated.

In 1925 Farmer’s and Merchant’s Bank was closed and obligated to reorganise. As part of this reorganisation Art left the bank and began selling insurance. They sold their house and rented the upstairs of her sister, Hertha and George Gieseke’s house on Minnesota Street. Norbert and Gertrude attended school in New Ulm.

In 1930 Oscar and Cora Boock decided to move to Waterloo, Wisconsin, where Oscar became Cashier of the Waterloo Bank. This gave Art and Emma an opportunity to return to Spencer, where Art assumed Oscar’s position at the bank. Both Norbert and Gertrude graduated from the Lutheran High School in New Ulm. Norbert went on to the University of Minnesota and Gertrude to Dr. Martin Luther College. Emma occasionally drove them to New Ulm for family visits and for schooling.

Norbert and Marian Oelrich, a local girl, were married in 1937. Gertrude married Carl Graupner, from Burlington, in 1939. Soon there were nine grandchildren. Norbert and Marian moved to Spencer from Minneapolis in 1945 when Norbert joined his father in banking, later built a home on Main Street in Spencer, with Norbert selling insurance. Carl and Gertrude began farming in Spencer in 1949. As a result, from ages 65 and 68 to their deaths, Emma and Art were very close to their growing family.

[Photo in Spencer (1948) at the A. L. Boock's: Upper Left: Uncle George Gieseke, Norbert Boock, Marilyn Boock, Grandpa Arthur, Grandma Emma Aufderheide Boock, Cathryn Graupner, Marian Oelrich Boock. Lower Left: Jim Graupner, Gertrude Boock Graupner, David Boock, John Graupner, Philip Graupner, and Ken Graupner.]
Arthur passed away August 16, 1964, after suffering a heart attack while on a visit to New Ulm. Emma died in her home in Spencer on March 19, 1967, of cancer. Both Emma and Art are buried in the Lutheran Cemetery in New Ulm, next to the grave of their infant daughter, Esther. (Written by grandson Jim Graupner on the anniversary of Emma’s 122nd birthday.)

“Mother loved to talk of her childhood, about the pets they had to care for, even a peacock and guinea hens. Grandpa (Fred Aufderheide) bought them bicycles, which they used in warm weather to go to school. At first a tutor, who also kept books for Grandpa, instructed the children at home. Willie, the oldest son, suffered from asthma. Mother was a fifth grader when she started going to the Lutheran school in town. (New Ulm) Sometimes a horse and buggy took them to school. The horse spent the day at the livery stable until school was out. Emma and her siblings were musical, learning piano, and the three who attended D.M.L.C. played the organ and violin also.” (Written by daughter Gertrude Boock Graupner in THE SETTLER)

Emma left us no journal of her early married days in Spencer, Wisconsin and so her grandchildren have gathered information culminating in two views presented next:

View 1:

“I haven’t seen anything that shows that Emma and Art were either having problems, particularly bothered by the life they lived in Spencer, or as a stay at home parent. I didn’t see that from brother, Oscar and Cora Boock, either, who started in an even smaller village---Wayside, and then moved to Spencer in 1915. We have so many photos of social activities in New Ulm, but most of them were at the brickyard and involved sledding, boys doing their thing in the woods, photos of ladies dressed in white laced dresses, family picnics. My view is that they happily lived in the world that was, without special requirements for material things or social status, even though they had it by virtue of parents being significant entrepreneurs and active in their church and DMLC. I’m not sure they had much social intercourse with the many other families in town who were better educated or who also ran business enterprises, were Catholic or Turners. A group photo taken in Spencer probably shortly after their arrival indicates how quickly Emma became acclimated to Spencer “society.” We see 30 lovely young ladies, fashionably dressed and written in Emma’s hand are family names as Pickett, Ingham, Graves, Heath, Stoltenow, Damon, Schaefer, Marten, Hanson, Andrews and Heath, respected names even 60 years later.” (Contributed by grandson Jim Graupner)

View 2:

“Emma was surrounded by family and friends in New Ulm until she and Arthur moved to Spencer immediately after their marriage on July 15, 1908. It would be a lonely time for her, moving to a rural town far from home. Photos of Spencer in the early 1900’s show a small business district with wooden sidewalks and muddy roads. She had the title banker’s wife, but she was a high school graduate with honours, moving to a town with no high school or college, no Wisconsin Synod Lutheran church with its special liturgy and hymns, but a Missouri Synod Lutheran church. High German was spoken in one location, Low German in the other. A postcard from her mother Eliese in March of 1909, showing a snowy downtown New Ulm reads on the back, “Dear Children, be comforted. With God’s help everything will get better.” Mama Was her mother referring to the snowy winter, to her daughter’s lonliness living in Spencer 5 months pregnant with Norbert and living in temporary housing?

When we moved to Edmonton in 1965 before the birth of our first child, Jonathan, Grandma Emma sympathised with me, verbally and in letters, having experienced moving to Spencer before the birth of her first son, Norbert. In both cases the move was because of a husband’s career, not our choices. She was lonesome for home already during her first month in Spencer and her mother-in-law in New Ulm missed the newly weds. “I am very pleased that dear Emma wants to come home. Oscar (another son) left yesterday, which is very hard for me. If this goes on I will soon be all alone. Mother” (Written to Art and Emma August 20, 1908 by her mother in law, Wilhelmine Plath Boock and translated from German by grandson Philip Graupner) One year later her mother showed concern in a letter mailed to Spencer: “How is little Norbert doing? We think about him every day. Keep washing him in this heat so that he doesn’t get sick on me. We miss you so much since all of you left for it is lonely. Let Hertha help you and don’t let the girls (Hertha and a friend, Martha) come home for the heat is just as bad here with 100 degrees in the shade. Mamma” (Written by her mother Eliese Aufderheide)

Two generations later, a November 13, 1965 letter to granddaughter Marilyn living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada stated, “We are all still up in the air about the new increase in family and wish that you were not so far away so we could see him (Jonathan) often. December 7, 1965 she wrote “You now always remind me of us when we first were married and had no car. We did not always get home for Christmas, either. It took 16 hours by train one way and once I did not get home for two years.” About her first Great Grandson, living 1300 miles away: I said "that boy should have a drum for Christmas" and everyone looked aghast. I was kidding, of course.” And January 8, 1967, “We called a Pastor from Canada and he accepted. Now I wish it were you folks. Wouldn’t that be nice to have little Jon closer. Now I’ve got my strength too, to hold him. I was in very poor shape when you were here, was too weak to hold him. Love to you, especially to Jon.” (Letters written by Emma Aufderheide Boock after the arrival of her first great grandchild. She had met him for the first time during the past summer but her cancer and medication left her weak. Baby Jon was held close to her and she had strength only to stroke him.) Her early years in Spencer would have found her quite housebound, spent caring for her three children born during that time. How excited she must have been after six years when they moved back to New Ulm. (Contributed by granddaughter, Marilyn Boock Schmidt)

Did Emma Aufderheide Boock find hapiness in Spencer? Above were presented the views of two grandchildren, but the decision is yours.

Fred Aufderheide wanted Art and Emma closer so that Art could be cashier at his new Farmers and Merchants Bank. In 1914 they and their three young children moved back to family and friends in New Ulm, though they left behind in Spencer a lovely new house, friends at the church and in Marshfield.

Art had built an eleven room, brick house on State Street in New Ulm for his family. The sixteen years back home in New Ulm were full of happy gatherings. “When I think back, Norbert and I really had a nice childhood. With the Boocks, Ruemkes, Aufderheides, Raabes, Schapekahms, Weddendorfs and Giesekes intermarrying, there were cousins who became aunts or uncles, etc. In the summer we’d gather for picnics in a wooded area or in a meadow near a river close to Grandparents Fred and Elise Aufderheide’s home and brickyard business. A great many open Dodges would bring the relatives with lunch baskets, to share in the fun. Ball games, cards, hiking and exploring made for enjoyable outings. In the winter we’d have fun sliding down hills or skating on the nearby pond.



For a while relatives even formed an orchestra amongst themselves-violins, cornets, xylophone and reeds. Aunt Emma A. P. and Mother could have played the piano, too. Cousins, aunts and uncles from Minneapolis would come for several weeks in the summer. Norbert and I spent time helping at the brickyard, weeding, looking for potato bugs, hunting eggs and feeding the chickens. The grandparents had hired girls for the house and hired men for the brickyard work. We all enjoyed their big wind up Edison Record Player, a radio and one of the first cars in New Ulm. (Excerpts from The Settler, by daughter Gertrude Graupner.) The family has many photos of large gatherings from those happy years.

Emma was busy with all of the activities of family, friends, church and Dr. Martin Luther College (DMLC) during those 16 years back in New Ulm but much sorrow came her way also. “In 1917 three year old daughter Esther suddenly died of spinal meningitis. The disease was considered very contagious and so Norbert and Gertrude were sent to the Grandparents. The private funeral was conducted from the house, which was then fumigated and closed up for a week.” (From The Settler, by daughter Gertrude Graupner.) “It must have been very difficult for my mother (Eliese Aufderheide) when we all moved in with her.” (Overheard by granddaughter Marilyn) Emma’s cousin, Aurelia, married the day before, placed her wedding bouquet on Esther’s grave. Emma was known to avoid funerals when ever possible for the rest of her life.

In 1925 the bank closed and their eleven rooms, beautiful brick house on State Street was sold. “The family lived in upstairs quarters in a house that Art & Emma and her sister, Hertha and George Gieseke had purchased.”(Recorded on a tape given by daughter, Gertrude Graupner) Nine years later, in 1926 her father, Fred Aufderheide, died of cancer when Emma was 42 years old and her mother, Elise Aufderheide died of the same disease in 1929 when Emma was 45. During those years she spent as much time as possible at the brickyard, helping out.

Art and Emma moved back to Spencer, Wisconsin in 1930 when Arthur was again offered the Spencer State Bank cashier position, left vacant when his brother, Oscar, moved to a similar position in Waterloo, Wisconsin. It was just the two of them as son Norbert was travelling and attending the U of Minnesota in Minneapolis and daughter, Gertrude was completing high school in New Ulm and continuing her education at DMLC. They purchased from Oscar and Cora Boock the white clapboard house they had originally built during their previous stay in Spencer. It, too, was a beautiful, eleven room house.

Jobs were scarce in the early 1930’s so having a husband as the town’s banker would come with some prestige for Emma. The ‘30’s and early 40’s were the years she drove her children back to New Ulm and Minneapolis when they came to spend summers in Spencer. She became involved in a weekly Tuesday Evening Bridge Club which included Mrs.A.J. McIlhattan, Mrs.Charles Haslow, Mrs. Emil Marten and Mrs.Harry Hermanson, joined the Spencer Women’s Club, played the organ for Trinity Lutheran Church and was a member of it’s Altar Guild and Ladies Aid Society. A photo of its membership shows her to be a fashionably dressed member which included mostly farm women in homemade house dresses. She was a volunteer with the newly organised library and did lots of reading herself, including magazines as The Saturday Eve. Post. In a letter to daughter Gertrude in the spring of 1938 Emma wrote of attending a band concert, being invited to son’s in-laws, Minnie and Frank Oelrich for a social Sunday and provided meals for Frank Oelrich when he took a part time job in Spencer. Letter writing consumed much time, corresponding with her children, cousins, aunts and her sister, Hertha, to whom she wrote twice a week. (Postage was economical compared to long distance phone calls.) During WW2 she assisted with the preparation of bandages, sent packages to relatives in Germany, wrote to local soldiers, knit mittens, socks, scarves and afghans, braided rugs and sewed patchwork quilts from Arthur’s old woollen suits.

The wedding of her son, Norbert and Marian Oelrich, took place in Spencer in 1937 and she and Arthur hosted the wedding reception of their daughter Gertrude and Carl in 1939 at their home. “When their first granddaughter came to visit from Minneapolis at age two months Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Boock hosted a party inviting the Facklams, Haslows, Schowchos, Seitz and Martens,” (from a newspaper clipping) Photos taken on their front lawn in Spencer show them hosting Art and Emma’s siblings and spouses, his mother, their two children and spouses and the Oelrich family, in-laws of Norbert.

In 1945 Arthur invited son Norbert to join him in the Spencer Bank as assistant cashier, a position he kept until 1952 when Norbert left to form his own insurance company. That fall Norbert, Marian, Marilyn and David (Jerry was born later) moved from Minneapolis to Spencer, into the apartment that had been made from the four large bedrooms on the second floor of the Boock house. It was an exciting time for Emma having family so close once again. She said, “Sharing this big house helps me to be generous and not selfish.” Norbert’s family lived there for four years until they build their own house on the west side of town. The upstairs continued to be filled by renters until the property was sold in the ‘80’s. In 1949 her joy doubled when daughter Gertrude, Carl and five children (a sixth was born later) moved from Burlington. Wisconsin to a farm just south of Spencer which Arthur had purchased. Now her immediate family was living close by and became an important part of her social life for her remaining twenty years.

Her grandchildren remember those years with the following memories:



MEMORIES OF GRANDMA BY HER GRANDCHILDREN

From Marilyn Boock Schmidt:

My first memory of Grandma Emma was in the early 1940’s when we’d drive from Minneapolis to Spencer to visit. The large, white, clapboard house in Spencer had four bedrooms upstairs for company. There would be a flurry of activity in a cold upstairs when beds were made up. (It seemed in style to make the beds once company had arrived, not before.) There was the smell of moth balls when bedding came out.

Her light reddish brown hair was rolled in the back, with fine wisps of hair framing her face. She wore wireless glasses, the kind popular now in 2007 and very little make-up, except for some “powder for my nose.” She smelled of talcum powder which she used after baths and under her girdle. If she wasn’t’ wearing an apron she’d wear an old housedress over a newer one for gardening and kitchen work, which she could quickly take off if company came. Her hands were quite knarled from arthritis. The backs of them and her arms had many freckles. Her comfortable black shoes and purse she’d replace with the same model once they were quite worn. She always wore skirts and dresses. I never saw her in slacks. Her Sunday dresses often had shades of brown and paisley prints. Once when her kitchen needed repapering she had it recovered in the same pattern, yellow with green vines the same she was replacing.

The years we lived in their upstairs apartment Grandma was so kind to me: a swing was hung in the basement for my entertainment. Grandma washed on Tuesdays so that my mother, with her three children, could have the traditional Monday wash day. Grandma taught me to make May baskets, dolls out of her hollyhocks, to do jig-saw puzzles, to play solitaire and other card games. She had a great sense of humour and would have a good chuckle over games like Old Maid, Authors and reading the cartoon “Hazel” when the Saturday Evening Post arrived. She said that early in their marriage she laughed when husband Arthur spilled a can of paint and he never painted again after that. One year for April’s Fool Day her trick was to place wads of cotton into her otherwise delicious home made dinner rolls. She would feed the neighbour dogs when grandpa wasn’t home.

Grandma looked on the positive, didn’t say unkind words about anyone, was tolerant of those with ideas different from hers, and had a kind, quiet personality. I looked forward to spending time with her as she had a bottom kitchen drawer full of items for her grandchildren to play with, also a large doll house and a miniature cast iron kitchen range. Her home-made cookies and rolls were delicious and for family dinners she’d always prepare extra food the children would like, like “weenies.” When we lived in the apartment upstairs my cat Goldie and I would often slip down to spend time with her and she’d welcome us eagerly, always had time to play. I used her large upright piano for
lessons, for practice and she’d give me pointers. The double garage had an outside stairs in the backyard which led to a wonderful playroom.

Grandma never complained about her health, never had anything more serious than “just the sniffles” though she always carried a cloth handkerchief up the sleeve of her dress.

Having lived through the depression she continued to be a saver of string, butcher paper and wax paper. She washed her dishes in a pan which she carried outside and poured over her roses, killing any bugs and fertilising the soil at the same time. In her kitchen was a small stove, near the basement steps, which she used to take the chill off the house in the mornings, burning her accumulation of paper. The coal burning furnace chores were hers, also, doing what ever it needed early in the morning and before bedtime.

Celebrating family birthdays was important for her and she’d arrive with a cake she’d baked and decorated and a practical hostess gift as a pound of butter. Sundays she’d entertain us and Graupners with a chicken dinner, stretching her dining room table so we’d all fit. The Grandparents purchased one of the first televisions in Spencer and we’d arrive for the Sunday eve. meal, to eat and watch Jack Benny and Ed Sullivan as the TV was in the dining room. She also enjoyed Father Knows Best, What’s My Line, I’ve Got a Secret, the Burns and Allen Show and wrestling –yes, wrestling which came on late at night!

Her Christmas tree was always standing in the cold sun porch, with the glass doors closed. Every year her gift from Grandpa was a box of chocolates with lots of paper money inserted under the ribbon.

Once I’d left Spencer for college she’d mail me postage stamps to encourage me to write. She was faithful with her letter writing for the eleven years after I left home until she died. Once she accompanied my folks on a visit to Dundee, Illinois where I was teaching and treated us at a local restaurant. I helpfully took her green coat from the coat stand, helped her put it on and they left for home, where she realised it wasn’t her coat, much too big. I went back to the restaurant, but hers (a much better coat) was never returned.

The last time I saw her was the summer of 1966 when we came home to show off our new son, Jonathan, her first great-grandchild. “Will you come by in the morning before you leave?” she asked. We had a 1300 mile trip home, needed to get an early start, and were not able to stop by to say goodbye. I regret that. She died the next spring, two months before her second great-grandchild was born, and I regret also that she missed that news, but was comforted to know she died at home, in her own bed, with her wire framed glasses still on her nose. I always felt close to her, perhaps because my mother told me as a child that I had “the Aufderheide look and had her easy going nature.”





From Kenneth Graupner:



I wish I had more recollections of conversations and discussions with Grandma Boock to share, but I don’t. I remember her always as elderly, plump, friendly, kind, non-critical, interested in us, but not opinionated, not advising us as to what to do. If she did advise daughter, Gertrude, I never heard it. She seemed the calm, the accepting foil to Grandpa’s strong statements on religion, politics, communists, Eastern Jewish bankers, and in his last years, his campaign for truth, integrity and redress in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.

She didn’t talk so much as she quietly did her things. By the time I knew her, she no longer played organ in church. I don’t think I ever heard her play piano. She played cards with Lucille Tack and others (Tillie Martin lived in the brick house a block to the east – Douglas St., Esther Callahan might have been another), was active in the Women’s Club and the Ladies Aid, volunteered in the village library. (Somehow I knew this was important to her and that books and reading were a great pleasure.)

I remember family dinners at her house, hearty, nourishing food but very standard. I remember battered cooking pots, her drinking coffee from a jar. Perhaps the strongest food memories were that she made Farina for breakfast, not oatmeal. It seemed refined, perhaps a bit genteel to me, a real treat because my mother Gertrude rarely made Farina. I remember cakes and cookies; she definitely had a sweet tooth.

She was rather plain in many ways, yet had a slightly genteel air about her – she knew her worth and position and didn’t have to impress others. She always tended a garden which included raspberries. I don’t think Grandpa did much except perhaps to spade in the spring. She had a hired man – I think the bachelor who lived in the 8’x10’ brooder house, who cut her lawn and did other yard chores.

Her own job/focus clearly was homemaking. I’m pretty sure she did some knitting and, at one time crocheting, in addition to cooking and cleaning. She may have had some help from Mrs. Blanchard across the street.

I always had the sense that Grandma Boock was an unofficial social service agency, making sure the marginal folks had a legitimate income by hiring them for various jobs. I do remember the depression era stories of her feeding countless people, mostly men (“Bums” is not the right word), who were riding the rails in search of work, destiny, etc.

That makes me realize she befriended everyone, knew everyone, was loved by everyone, watched out for people without butting in.

I don’t remember hearing her talk about the past, certainly not like my mother has spoken so pleasurably about growing up in New Ulm and the Brickyard. I’d say she tended to live in the present. Nor did I hear her express regrets as to what she wished she had done. She always seemed fairly content, even in those last years when husband A.L. was “so off the beam.” She continued to worship at Trinity even though A.L. drove elsewhere.

I know that she and Grandpa Boock were very excited and pleased when Oma, Carl’s Mother, and Hanni (Johanna), Carl’s youngest sister, came from Germany to visit in 1951; and I recall they were equally and vicariously involved when my parents and Cathy and Chuck took their six week trip to Germany in 1964 (my father’s first return to Germany since the early months of 1933). It was only 10 to 14 days after their return from Germany that Grandpa died on a trip to New Ulm. We all stayed at Sandy Aufderheide’s place for the funeral. As we all left, I remember (this is one of the most striking images I have of Emma) a woman in shock with a ghostly pallor. Still, from what I could tell, she did quite well after Grandpa’s death. Although she drove in open cars from Spencer to New Ulm and back in the early days, I don’t believe she ever drove the new Studebaker after WWII, and no longer drove in her older years.

She developed a large cyst on her thigh about the year before she died. It was a rhabdomyosarcoma, an unusual cancer of muscle cells and it had already metastasised to the lung (I already was in medical school and somehow I learned these things. Possibly went on an appointment to the oncologist: I’m not sure). But I do know she had mild chemo injections (perhaps every 1-4 weeks) which greatly reduced the cancer and kept it at bay for many months. The chemotherapy was not too toxic, and the goal was comfortably palliative and the oncologist even made a couple trips to her home toward the last to give the injection so she wouldn’t have to journey to Marshfield Clinic. I contrast this with the more aggressive approach of son-in-law, Carl’s oncologist, a man who could not tolerate “losing” to the cancer. I know that I visited her and took several photos of her sitting on her sofa in her living room; quite thin and frail but enjoying the conversation. She died in March ‘67; the last 2 months needing more help from Marian, Gertrude and Mrs. Blanchard.

Although Emma and Art had visited us in Burlington a few times when we lived there, the trip was over 5 hours and our house was very small. I’m not sure where they stayed. So, I really didn’t get to know her until we moved to Spencer when I was 7.

I also heard the story, but not from her, that she was valedictorian of her high school class and her father insisted she work in the brickyard office; so she turned down a scholarship to Gustavus Adolphus College in Mankato.

Coming back to the driving, Art was an absolutely terrible driver, but I never heard her get angry with him despite many near misses with Greyhound buses and other vehicles.



In the early years in Spencer a frequent Sunday afternoon entertainment was a ride through the countryside with Art and Emma and usually 2 children in front, or perhaps Art and Carl in front and then 2 adults and 4 children in back. Of course, Art knew each farmer and the history of each farm. Amazingly, I enjoyed those excursions. And there were Sunday or holiday excursions to Wildwood Park in Marshfied or Rock Dam or Cherokee for picnics, swimming, etc. I remember Emma’s big insulated jug – stainless steel outside, but functional. She certainly enjoyed her family, especially the grandchildren. In our family, I think red haired John was a favorite; perhaps because when Cathy was born in March of 1948, 16 month old John went to stay with her for 3 months because he was so lively (we moved to Spencer right after Christmas of 1948).

I wish I knew much more of her childhood and adult years but this is what I can add. She was a very comfortable Grandma; one knew she was interested and cared and was proud of her family. It always seemed to me that my mother got along quite comfortably with her mother and it was good for my mother to be raising her family in the town where Grandma Boock lived.


From David Boock:

When living upstairs at Grandpa and Grandma Boock’s in Spencer we had a cat, Goldie. Grandma liked the cat a great deal and I think it spent most of it’s time with her. Also, Grandpa permitted it to sleep on his lap evenings when he sat in his chair.

Although she was educated, intelligent, talented and was financially secure, she treated everyone with respect and decency. She did not flaunt her position or herself. Although she played bridge with the elite of Spencer and belonged to the Woman’s Club, she had friends among the poor and lowly. Grandpa was the Bible thumping, in your face Christian, while Grandma lived her faith through her treatment of others.

For example, “Bums” knew the Boock house and knew they could get a hand out from Grandma. Also, the grandparents supported an old man, Charlie Hebert, who lived in a chicken coup first at the corner of #13 and #98 until he got moved to the marsh on the west end. He did yard work and odd jobs for them. Grandma paid him well and gave him meals and food to take home. A number of marginal folk in Spencer were paid well for tasks they performed for Grandma. Her neighbour, Lydia Blanchard worked for her and took care of her prior to her death – socially two different people, but friends. I never heard anyone say anything bad about Grandma Boock.

I remember her playing the pump organ in the church balcony, which she pumped with her feet. She also had a piano at home but I seldom remember her playing it. Perhaps this was due to the arthritis in her hands. I can visualise her fingers seeming to go in all directions, yet she never complained.

In my mind, Grandma’s kitchen was most famous for the lady bugs she had on her plants. They never were killed. On the wall between the windows which had the plants and bugs, above the stove, was a black woman’s silhouette. I think it was a gift from the Baers when they were missionaries in Africa. She also had a small wood stove in the kitchen in which she burned paper. The best baking she produced was a small bun made from folding the dough together before baking, also her cookies and a coffee cake. I can remember hoping that she would serve hot dogs for meals as they would be OK, as cooking was not her thing. Instead she had many other talents and interests.

Grandma always seemed to have money in her purse. I don’t know if she had her own funds, family money or just handled the household funds. Whenever we went anywhere with her she would buy the meal and give the driver “gas money.”

She always dressed well, often putting an old dress over the better one to keep it clean, particularly when in the garden. She always grew little red cherry tomatoes; she had raspberries and the plum trees. I remember her hollyhocks which could be made into little people.

Grandma never drove the car but always renewed her license as she thought she might want to drive someday. She loved to play games and always seemed to have a puzzle set up on a card table during the pre or early T.V. days.

I remember a trip we took to the Black Hills. Grandpa didn’t go as he had been there once already. Being a small person and sitting in the back seat, she once hollered out on that trip, thinking we were going over the side of the road into a drop off as she could not see the road. She attended my college graduation in Eau Claire and bought dinner at Heckels in 1965. Cheri met her once, in 1967 just before Grandma died.

I think Grandma would have fared better in today’s world as her knowledge and skills would have been more respected and utilised than what they were in the decades she lived.


From Jim Graupner: (In addition to the synopsis of her life written on the anniversary of her 122nd birthday, found at the beginning of Once Upon a Lifetime)

Grandma was a good card player, stuffed her hankie in her sleeve, used some sort of talc for perspiration in the days before air conditioning, called police officers “cops” and didn’t particularly like them, except maybe a Blanchard who was a cop.

She gave Mom a dollar when she drove Gramma shopping in Marshfield, shared a passion with Grandpa for collecting, kept the connections with her New Ulm family regardless of the conflicts and was truly aware of the activities of her grandchildren, having real insight into matters.

Gramma was loving, but not bold or particularly demonstrative in her loving. She was not afraid to drive to New Ulm or have Annie Fritsch or Art Gustman at the table or drifters/”bums” at the door. She volunteered as an itinerant librarian and as a Civil Defence look-out person.

She was refined, but not haughty and always looked past the socio-economic differences in relating to people and according them respect and dignity.

I don’t think that she and Art were a poor match.


From John Graupner:

Of the time I was left to stay with G’ma and G’pa Boock, when I was about two years old, I can remember nothing. I do recall them telling about a time when they had taken me to church and I had attracted some unwanted attention by running up and down the center aisle…an active Christian, certainly, but no zealot. I do recall times (non-specific) sitting with G’ma and G’pa in church. The hard, wide wooden benches. Trying so very hard to sit still and behave but never quite succeeding because it was just too long a row to hoe. Extreme boredom. Pastor Mueller. Turning around on the bench to study everybody around us. Getting pats on the butt or a tug on the arm to sit down. Grandma digging in her purse for something to distract me like a Chicklet, or a torn half-piece of Spearmint gum, a toy or a small book. They always sat on the left side of the church about half-way to the front.

After services G’pa would stop at Kuethe’s Drug Store to pick up the Sunday paper. I don’t remember which paper, only that I liked the comics.

I felt comfortable being with G’ma. G’pa was intimidating, gruff, demanding. It has been said that I was G’ma’s favorite because of my reddish Aufderheide hair. That’s not true. It was my charming personality—NOT. I don’t know about favoritism but I felt kind of flattered that it might be true.

Grandma, it seemed, was always a potential source for a treat, hard candy or something. There is a round, flat, pink peppermint candy I liked. Sometime G’ma allowed us to have a similar candy, a Pepto-Bismol tablet. Or a Tums. Maybe because of that I found their bathroom worth exploring. There was a glass on the sink in which Grandma soaked her false teeth. Once I was entertainingly shocked when she took out her teeth for us to see.

Exploring wasn’t a big pastime at G’ma’s house, but the most interesting places I recall were the basement. It was warmer, cleaner and less obstructed than ours. The furnace and boiler were noteworthy. There was a big walled-in cistern. Grandma had her laundry sinks and her brownish, home-made bars of soap. G’pa had a wood box that he saved specifically for us (me?) to pound nails into it, or pull them out, or saw a board on if we could. G’ma would sometimes have him haul it up to the kitchen for me, along with a jar of used nails and his straight-clawed hammer which took two hands to lift.

Another place that fascinated me was the crawl space under the roof to the sides of the bedroom upstairs. The Norbert Boocks lived there, I think, when we first were shown this discovery. It was small but it had huge potential because it was like …hidden.

The room above the garage was good adventure, with its own outside stairway. G’pa had storm windows up there. The garage below was too ordinary, packed gravel floor, often
damp. Back in the house I mustn’t forget G’pa had the desk in their bedroom that had so many pens, pen tips, ink, paper clips, thumb tacks and other intriguing useful things and oddities. G’ma would try to find used paper for us to draw on the back.

Grandma had milk delivered to her porch. The cream separated into the tops of the bottles, which were designed for that. Grandma hung laundry on the porch, which was screened in. I seem to remember she hung fly paper strips near the door. Grandma was an amazing fly catcher herself. In spite of her arthritic, knobbly-knuckled hands she could snatch a fly off the table with surprising deftness.

Grandma’s neighbour friends were interesting and a couple were a little repulsive. I remember being brought over to Mrs. Blanchard’s. I don’t know why but I was somewhat frightened of her. Mrs. Peterson (?), the bearded lady just across the road, was as strange as a circus attraction. Her house was too closed up and smelled strongly of cooking cabbage or something. She seldom seemed to come outside her house.

G’ma never drove the car. She had a license. She said she got hers by registering for it at the bank. No driver tests. I suppose she did know how to drive. I, like most all of us, had occasion to drive for them. I didn’t get my license until late 1963. I vaguely remember driving them to New Ulm in the red Lark. It must have been in the summer of 1964. I was inexperienced with big city driving and at one point, after missing our turn off, G’pa had me turn around on the freeway. On the way home we stopped at a church by Lake Wissota, east of Chippewa Falls. Grandma had packed a lunch. She described how they used to always stop there. It was sort of a landmark. Travellers relied on landmarks more before maps were improved.

I was twenty years old when Grandma died. I was in the army, stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. I wasn’t allowed a pass to attend the funeral, and that didn’t greatly upset me, but now not remembering. I sort of taunted G’pa and G’ma during the ’64 Germany trip by building the fake still in the woods. I occasionally took advantage of G’ma by showing up for lunch at her house instead of walking home in the days before we did hot lunch. I loved her big meals, like at Christmas, with all the relatives. She cooked chicken remarkably tender. And she was a tender person, I think. She took the edge off Grandpa’s hardness and made him a more likeable person.


From Granddaughter, Cathy Graupner Busby:

I don’t have anecdotes about Grandma, just random memories:

I remember that Grandma and Grandpa Boock took their turns in the watch tower over the 1 story fire station to watch for enemy planes.

Grandma drank her coffee from a bean jar. I have the battered old pan that she used for her dinner rolls. I remember sitting on their huge dictionary at the table, and later on the piano bench with Cousin Jerry.

Grandma allowed my friends and me to wash the raw egg out of our hair after freshman initiation; we should have used cooler water.

I also stayed on Grandma’s couch covered with her cedar-scented blanket when I had a stiff neck and Mother had gone to pick berries with the boys.

She told me that a dead Indian was buried in the hill against the north side of the house under the living room window. (It was a large tank for storing furnace oil) I remember Sunday drives through the country with all 10 of us in one car.

Grandma’s and Grandpa’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration was held in the church basement. We sang “The Old Gray Mare Ain’t What She Used to Be” and “Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet.”

Do you remember that Grandma’s doctor told her to drink a beer with a raw egg in it to boost her blood?

I remember 2 dish drying incidents, but I don’t remember who was involved in which, Jerry or John. On each occasion we were helping to wash & dry the dishes in the sink next to the bathroom. One boy put the dishes on the porch and the other broke a dish –with the same result—neither had to dry anymore dishes.

When the basement floor was poured, we could roller skate down there.

There were a few toys in the attic above the garage, including a small cabinet (much like the Indian in the Cupboard cabinet) that I thought was a doll cabinet, although it was probably a medicine cabinet.






We rarely went upstairs or even into the front foyer where the stairs were. There was a bedroom at the top of the stairs next to the kitchen that was saved for Grandma’s company, even though the apartment was rented. I think that the bedroom set there was perhaps their original bedroom set which later went into the attic of our farm house after Grandma died. When we cleared out the Spencer house, Erin asked for the old bed frame from the attic and we added the similarly dark dresser from the “purple room.” I was surprised to find that they were a matched set, which looks wonderful in Erin’s room with a puffy white featherbed.

After Grandpa died, I stayed several nights with Grandma to keep her company. She was worried that she would keep me awake, so she gave me Mogan David wine to help me sleep.

Grandma kept scrapbooks with newspaper clippings of all her grandchildren.



From two of Norbert’s sisters-in-law, Marian’s siblings, who knew Emma from the 1930’s:

“She was such a kind person, really wonderful. On the farm we never had pop, but when visiting Mrs. Boock she would serve it in the living room carried on a special tray filled with fancy cut glasses, complete with ice cubes and ginger ale. She was so nice to me when I stayed in Marian and Norbert’s upstairs apartment working my first job after high school, at Kuethe’s Drug Store. She had an easy going personality.” Bonnie Oelrich Plath

“I remember her as a kind old soul, warm to everyone she met. Everyone liked Mrs. Boock. I never heard of a single person who didn’t. Life dealt her some hard knocks but she took control of her life and made the best of her situation. We had a lot in common and I always felt a special bond towards her.” Lillian Oelrich Woodkey Johnsrud.


From the Marshfield News Herald:

Mrs. Arthur (Emma) Boock, 82, died at her home Monday morning, March 13, of old age complications. Jasper Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

Funeral services were conducted on Wednesday, March 15, at 12:30 p.m. in the Trinity Lutheran Church, Spencer. The body was then taken to the Minnesota Valley Funeral Home in New Ulm, Minnesota for Thursday services at 12:30 pm. The Rev. William H. Ruhbusch officiated and burial was made in the Lutheran cemetery in New Ulm, Minnesota.

The former Emma Aufderheide was born November 13, 1884 at New Ulm, Minnesota. Her marriage to Arthur Boock took place July 15, 1908 at New Ulm.

After their marriage the couple moved to Spencer where he was a cashier in the bank until 1915 when they moved to New Ulm. In 1930 they returned to Spencer.

Mrs. Boock was a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church, the Ladies Aid and Guild. She was a member of the Spencer Woman’s Club.

Two children survive, one daughter, Mrs. Carl (Gertrude) Graupner, Spencer, and one son, Norbert, also of Spencer. Nine grandchildren and one great grandchild. A sister, Mrs. George Gieseke, Watertown.

Besides her husband she was preceded by one daughter and three brothers.


From The Spencer Record:

Final Rites Held for Mrs. Arthur Boock

Funeral services were held at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 15, at Trinity Lutheran Church for Mrs. Arthur (Emma) Boock. Rev. William Ruhbusch officiated. The congregation sang “The Lord’s My Shepherd, I’ll Not Want” and “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” accompanied at the organ by Mrs. Arnold Brusewitz.

Pallbearers were Jerry Boock, Charles Graupner, David Boock, James Graupner, Robert Schulte and Kenneth Graupner.

Those from Spencer attending the final rites in New Ulm, Minnesota, on Thursday were: Mrs. and Mrs. Norbert Boock, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Graupner, Kathy, Charles and James Graupner, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Oelrich, Pastor Ruhbusch and Mrs. Irvin Jasperson.