1881
Ernst was about 20 years old when, about 1881, he married Wilhelmina (Minny) KIBLER (other sources say KUEBLER and GABLE) of Baden, Alsace-Loraine. Born August 23 1863, she worked in a cotton mill in Switzerland. She was short like her husband, 5 feet tall or less, and she was known for her keen sense of humor. She would sing as she worked, and baked "out of this world" bread, according to granddaughter Charlotte ZIMMERMAN. Her springerle recipe was a favorite of other children and grandchildren. Wilhelmina continued speaking German throughout her life, even in America.
1882-1889
Ernst and Wilhelmina started their family in Baden. Ernst who died young was born about 1882, Mina (Wilhelmina?) was born sometime between 1881 (per SSDI age at death) and 1883, Carl was born April 3 1885, and Frieda was born November 20 1886. Frieda told her children that her family came to the United States when she was two, about 1889. The story continues that she almost fell overboard into the Atlantic Ocean during the two week or longer voyage. A sailor grabbed and saved her. No one remembers which ship they came on.
Although Wilhelmina Ertel had two sisters in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Ernst brought his wife and children to Dayton, Ohio, because his half-brother, Fred BRUNNER was living there. Fred came to Dayton, Ohio first doing carpentry work on Barney and Smith railway cars. Later he worked for Muth Brother's Moving, and moved to Belmont, Ohio. He had a son, Paul BRUNNER, and two or three daughters. In Dayton, they lived on Nassau Street, the east end.
1893
Ernst and his family lived in Dayton and Lewisburg, Ohio. In 1893, on July 3, Bertha was born. It is possible that the child Ernst who died young was born between Frieda's 1886 birth and Bertha's, in 1893, but it is only speculation since the gap in child birth seems unusual for Wilhelmina. Herman Mark was born June 15 1895, and the last baby, Edward George, was born October 5 1897. Wilhelmina was then about 34 years old.
1903
The eldest daughter, Mina, was a cook for a HARBINE family before her marriage, when she was nearly 20. The first of the children to marry, her wedding was September 1903. Mina's husband, Edward STEILN, was born in 1877 so he was about 26. He worked in Dayton at the City Water Works. They had no children, but her obituary indicated that they had adopted two STEILN children: Mrs. Ed HUNE and Margaret STEILN. In their later years, after "Minnie" had a goiter removed, she gained quite a lot of weight. Eventually she became bedfast with paralysis. Ed cared for her at home. He liked to exercise and boasted about his good health and stamina. He and Minnie had a huge German Bible, which may have been the Ertel family Bible. Ed had a nephew, Dudley DORSEY, born around the end of 1942 in Dayton.
1905
On February 13 1905, Frieda ERTEL married Charles M. ZIMMERMAN, born August 16, 1881. He was 23 and she was 18. They had met in Dayton. In 1906, their first child, and Ernst and Wilhelmina's first grandchild, Emma Edna Wilhelmina ZIMMERMAN, was born on her Grandma Wilhelmina's birthday, August 23, in Logansport, Indiana. By the time Frieda and Charles' second child, Charlotte, was born on July 22 1908, they had returned to Dayton. Emma was not well; the two year old contracted polio around 1908. John Ernest was born March 23 1910, and their last child, Dorothy, was born March 5 1913. The ZIMMERMANs lived at Pritz and Lorain Avenue (912 Lorain) in Dayton. Frieda is said to have made good turtle soup and apple pies.
1915
Carl ERTEL married his wife Lilly (last name unknown) on January 15 1915. Lilly had been born November 22 1892, so Carl was 29 and Lilly was 22. They met when Carl broke his leg and was hospitalized at Bethesda Hospital (Cincinnati?) but there was only room in the Maternity ward where Lilly (I think) was a nurse. Their first child, Ruth Naomi was born June 26 1916 in Ohio. Dorothy Elizabeth was born December 2 1917.
Ernst and Wilhelmina had their neighbers, the William SWANKs, send a telegram to Ed STEILN on St. Nicholas Avenue in Dayton on November 25th 1915 to tell them that the ERTEL house in Lewisburg, OH had burned.
1918
By 1918, Ernst and Wilhelmina were living at 44 Bolton Street in Dayton. They also at some time lived on Xenia Avenue in Dayton, and later at 1225 Waterfliet Avenue, at the corner with Hazel Street, where Wilhelmina was living in 1926 when she died.
There had been a family disagreement over whether to be Roman Catholic or Lutheran. I think the BRUNNERs wanted the ERTELs to be Catholic. Frieda's family remained Catholic, but the others - Mina, Carl, Bertha, Hermon, and Edward - were Protestant. Carl was a Methodist minister, from sometime in the 1910s to his death in the 1950s.
WW1
In 1917, the United States had declared war on Germany. One of the effects of first World War on German Americans was to make other Americans question their loyalties. Apparently there were many who, like Wilhelmina, continued to speak German and not English. Also, if Ernst's family was typical, German Americans married other German Americans and went to German speaking churches. Carl began his ministry preaching in German. Because of the war, it became necessary for him to learn to preach in English.
According to his obituary, at the time of his death in the 1950s, Carl "had been the pastor of the Mulberry, O., Methodist church, near Milford, O., for the last two years. He had held other pastorates in Methodist churches in Indiana and Ohio in the 41 years of his ministerial career." I don't yet know about his training for the ministry, but his first two daughters were born in Ohio, and his last two daughers (Grace 1923 and Helen 1926) were born in Michigan.
When America entered the war, Carl was already 32 and was not drafted. But younger brothers Herm was 22 and Ed was 20. Herm was registered on June 5 1917. Ed was registered on August 24 1918. On November 11, 1918, Ed wrote his mother at 44 Bolton Street, Dayton, from Cincinnati:
"Ge filleuft zum Carl schen.Liebe Mutter:
Bin gut angekommen. Cincinnati tut yabillieren so das man nickt laufen oder horren kan.
Edward.
Liebe."
On November 13, 1918, Ed (I think) wrote his mother from Louisville, KY. On January 14, 1919, Wilhelmina wrote Ed at the U.S. Naval Ordinance Plant in South Charleston, WV.
1919
Early in 1919, twelve year old Emma ZIMMERMAN was very ill with Bright's disease of the kidneys. Her sister Charlotte said that "in those days, there was no thought of mother allowing Emma to be sent or taken to the hospital." Emma's Aunt Bertha, who was 25, was in nurse's training at Bethesda Hospital at the time, and took a 6 month leave of absence to stay with Emma at nights. Carl's wife, Lilly, was also a nurse, and Charlotte, who was almost 11 when her sister Emma died (July 13, 1919), became a nurse when she grew up, as did Carl's daughter Dorothy Ertel STEINBACH, who was 2 in 1919.
1923
The first event in the ERTEL family in the "roaring 20s" was the birth of Carl and Lilly's third child, Grace Alice on Oct 16 1923 in Michigan. The next event was 28 year old Herman's marriage, on May 28, 1924, to 21 year old Elizabeth "Betty" MEISNER. Betty was born on August 22, 1903. Separated from her family, she later found her brother's family in Kirchner, Ontario.
1924
The next month, on June 24 1924, Bertha was married to Walter Louis DOENCH. Walter was born January 16 1890, and was 34 when he married 30 year old Bertha, a nurse. Bertha met Walter at the Van Buren Methodist Episcopal Church. She had gone through 7th grade in Dayton, then worked at the Gem City Shirt factory. In 1918, she started her nurses training at Bethesda Hospital, taking some time out to nurse her niece, Emma ZIMMERMAN, in 1919, and graduated in 1921. Walter worked at National Cash Register (NCR) in the tool room. He was a talented trombone player, and participated in the Shiners marching band. In the 1920s, Walter offered musical instrument lessons and repair from their house. In the 1930s, he started a Schick razor repair shop. Their only child, Walter Charles DOENCH, was born May 25, 1925 in Dayton.
1926
The year 1926 brought changes. Right after her 18th birthday, July 22, 1926, Charlotte ZIMMERMAN who already was staying at St. Elizabeth Hospital, entered the convent to become a Catholic sister and begin her nurse's training. On Ed's birthday, October 5, 1926, Louise WESTBY wrote her sister (I believe), Wilhelmina ERTEL from New Bedford Massachusetts, saying "Mother died at 4 a.m. this morning". And on December 29 1926, Wilhelmina ERTEL died. She had had vericose veins, enphazima, and euremic poisoning. She was buried in Memorial Park, Dayton. (Her obituary said she was 67, which would indicate her birth year to be about 1859 rather than 1863, or else the obituary was in error.) The undertaker sent his bill to Ernst on January 3 1927.
1927
On January 6 1927, Ernst wrote his will. (Ernst died in March, July, or August of 1927 or 1928.)
Herm and Betty's first child, Betty Lois ERTEL, was born August 16 1927 in Dayton. Herm owned land on Springboro Road, in Morain Township of Montgomery County, west of the road and south of Holes Creek. With a house, barn, and several acres of land, he raised chickens and horses at various times. Herm was a machinist at the National Cash Register (NCR) in Dayton. Betty was talented at decorating and keeping house.