“His preaching was legendary.”

MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS AT ONE CHURCH!

A long-time pastor in South Dakota and the voice of a long-running Christian television program, Rev. Harold Salem, has died. He had celebrated his 99ᵗʰ birthday this past summer. He started his career as a pastor at the age of 23.

“His first job in June 1944 was at First Baptist Church in his hometown of Belle Fourche. He stayed there for a little over 13 years before he moved to Aberdeen where he spent the next 52 years and eight months as pastor at Aberdeen’s First Baptist Church. Salem started broadcasting his sermons on the Christian Worship Hour in 1979.”

Though he retired in 2010, he continued working on the television show, which was broadcast around the world.

“He loved what he did and was totally absorbed in his work. His preaching was legendary.”

ajh

Watertown Appleby Foley Grover Kampeska Pelican Rauville Waverly

I just had to make a hashtag out of it

WatertownApplebyFoleyGroverKampeskaPelicanRauvilleWaverly. All of the places #Grandpa #Fromke worked or lived, according to @SocialSecurity.

— ᴀᴀʀᴏɴᴊʜɪʟʟ 🤬 (@aaronjhill) November 7, 2017

I was looking through a genealogical database while at the local library the other day and decided to probe the Social Security Death Index.

In my grandfather’s file, there’s a long list of towns, places where he worked, I think. This is rather unusual. Most files only list one place, the last residence of the person.

Grandpa began working as a cashier at the age of 16 at a bank in Grover, South Dakota. It was called the State Bank of Grover. His older brother Herman worked there too. I think the bank went under in 1921, the same year as a robbery a la Bonnie and Clyde.

He worked in goverment for many years, first with the Works Progress Administration, then as the city and county auditor, in Watertown, South Dakota and Codington County. This may explain why his file is so thorough, because he was. Every year he helped many file their taxes.

I am assuming the list, chronologically, is backwards. It may also indicate where he and the family lived. Thus, his first job was at Waverly, where his parents lived for many years. Next is Rauville, where his parents were buried. I don’t know anything about Pelican. Kampeska is the name of the lake to the northwest of Watertown, and Grandpa owned a house there. His parents lived there for awhile. Next is Grover, followed by Foley and Appleby, two more places I know nothing about. And finally there is Watertown, where he lived and worked most of his life.

ajh

Name: Oscar Fromke
State of Issue: South Dakota
Date of Birth: Wednesday August 08, 1900
Date of Death: April 1976
Est. Age at Death: 75 years, 8 months
Last known residence:
City: WatertownApplebyFoleyGroverKampeskaPelicanRauvilleWaverly
County: Codington
State: South Dakota
ZIP Code: 57201
Latitude: 44.9156
Longitude: -97.1699

Name: Bernice Fromke
State of Issue: South Dakota
Date of Birth: Sunday November 03, 1912
Date of Death: February 1986
Est. Age at Death: 73 years, 3 months
Last known residence:
City: WatertownApplebyFoleyGroverKampeskaPelicanRauvilleWaverly
County: Codington
State: South Dakota
ZIP Code: 57201
Latitude: 44.9156
Longitude: -97.1699

Icy snowballs fall from the sky in South Dakota

Despite the progress in technology and civilization, places such as South Dakota remain harsh environments.

ajh

‘A devoted husband, a kind father, & a true friend’

Today while connecting up relatives on Find A Grave, I discovered a copy of my great grandfather‘s obituary. It’s probably from the Lake Preston Times, the paper serving the community where he lived and farmed. His son Everett, my great uncle, is still living, going strong at age 100. He looks just like him.

Unfortunately, his father George, as Everett explained to me a few years ago, had taken up a bad habit, passed on by his father Frank: chewing tobacco. Of course, today there are warning labels and such. But back then who knows how much they knew about the terrible consequences of tobacco. Sadly, the habit caught up with George Hay in 1941. It had taken his father Frank prematurely, too, in 1903.

In 1939, Everett had moved west, to Seattle. He was chasing after a girl, Grace, whose family had moved to Oregon. They were married the same year his father died. One day he got a call from his older sister Lois. She explained how sick there father was. So Everett packed up and returned home, taking over the family farm after his father had passed.

The move west would have to wait.

ajh

Wesley C.

This is my great-great grandfather‘s grave. Last time I was in South Dakota, I didn’t get a chance to visit this particular cemetery. The sun reflecting off of the stone makes it difficult to read. I can make out Wesley and a C. for Calvin, his middle name, but I don’t see his surname, George. It must be on another stone nearby. He died in 1922.

ajh

Uncle Herman

I discovered this image of “Uncle Herman” — actually my great uncle, Herman August Fromke — on Ancestry. I don’t remember ever having seen it before.

ajh

Herman, Pauline & Family

Herman Lentz and Pauline Fromke pose for a photo with their children.

It really is amazing what you can find online. My latest discovery is pics of family from my Mother’s side of the family, specifically my great-great aunt and uncle, Herman Lentz and Pauline Fromke. Someone added them to a family tree on Ancestry.

Herman Lentz as a younger man, possibly his engagement photo.

My Mom has talked in the past about being double cousins with a branch of the family in North Dakota. Pauline is the sister of my great grandfather, Albert Fromke, and Herman is the brother of my great grandmother, Augusta Lentz. The puzzle that is the family tree is coming together bit by bit. Albert and Pauline’s parents are Carl Fromke and Caroline Radde. Augusta and Herman’s parents are Ludwig Lentz and Marie Scharnofske.

What is particularly interesting to me is information on the family tree.

Herman was born in “Steitch, Germany.” I don’t know anything about this place. I don’t recall having seen it before. I’ll have to investigate the spelling and see if I can find a copy of the original source.

In 1880, at the age of 16, he is recorded as living in Wausau, Wisconsin, though I am not sure about the accuracy of this because he supposedly emigrated in 1883 or 1893. I’m guessing 1883 is the right year.

They were married in 1889, in Baltimore, Maryland, according to the source on Ancestry. Why Baltimore? There were some folks named Fromke living there going back to the 1840s.

These latest discoveries should provide excellent opportunities for further documenting the family tree.

ajh

Uncle Herman & The ACLU’s ‘Fight for Free Speech’

I wonder what Grandma Goodell thought about Uncle Herman supporting the ACLU, or if she even knew about it. He is listed as H. A. Fromke. He often, like his younger brother Oscar, used his initials rather than his first name. The pamphlet was printed in September of 1921.

ajh

June 3, 1945

This is a photo I’ve never seen before. I wonder what other gems are lurking out there long forgotten in someone’s attic that I’ve never seen and don’t know about. It’s a photo taken on my grandparents’ wedding day.

According to what my mother wrote on Facebook, starting with the back row, left to right, pictured are Betty — a good friend of my grandmother and the maid of honor at the wedding, her older brother Everett — who just celebrated his 100th birthday, the bride and groom — my grandparents, Ray and Marilyn, Everett’s wife Grace, and the youngest sibling of the five also named Grace. In the front row are my great grandmother, Geneva Estella Darling Hay, Marilyn’s older sister Azalea — known to some as Kay, and the pianist from the Lake Preston Methodist Church.

Apparently the wedding took place at the family farm just south of town, what their father George named Fair Haven Farm. The oldest sibling of them all, Lois, was pregnant at the time and didn’t attend.

ajh

More on Brother Albert

For a few years now I’ve made a point of trying to piece together my great-grandmother’s family by tracking down potential siblings.

One possible brother was Albert Lentz. I am convinced, after seeing an image of him online and the brief family pedigree someone added to Ancestry, that he is indeed an older sibling of my great-grandmother Augusta. He was born in 1842 in Prussia. A brief notice of his death appeared in the Los Angeles Times on March 31, 1921.

Albert married a woman named Wilhelmina Lange. She died in 1895 in Germantown, Codington County, South Dakota while giving birth. I don’t know if the child survived. He remarried at some point, and his second wife shared the same name, Wilhelmina. Her surname was Martins.

I will see what more I can find out about him. He may very well be the reason my great grandparents immigrated from Germany in 1887. He arrived years earlier. I will be looking up the details and sharing.

ajh