Benjestorf - New Information

Benjestorf
by
Donald W. L. Roddy
© 2003
© 2006
From Research by:
Heinrich Schneehage
Erving Benjestorf
Douglas E. Lustig
James W. Nelden
Donald W.L. Roddy

Benjestorf
Johann Heinrich Pfennigstorf
ca 1740 ~ ????
Johann Heinrich Pfennigstorf [or possibly Pfennigsdorf], my great-great-great-great
grandfather, was a shepherd in the vicinity of Barsinghausen, in the Electorate of Hannover in
the middle of the 18th century. The Pfennigstorf family did not originate in Hannover, but
probably emigrated from the area east of the Elbe River which formed the eastern border of
Hannover. This area was in the High German language region. Johann Heinrich
Pfennigstorf married Ilse Marie Lampen, my great-great-great-great grandmother, on 10
July, 1768, in Hannover-Linden. They had at least one son, also called Johann Heinrich
Pfennigstorf.
****
Johann Heinrich Pfennigstorf [aka Penjestorf & Benjestorf ]
28 Oct 1768 ~ 28 Jan 1838
My great-great-great grandfather, Johann Heinrich Pfennigstorf, called Heinrich, was
born at Barsinghausen, near Hannover on 28 October 1768. Instead of becoming a shepherd
like his father, Heinrich was apprenticed to a cobbler and learned the shoemaker’s trade.
On 14 July, 1789, when Heinrich was twenty years old, French peasants stormed the
Bastille and the French Revolution was under way. The revolutionists freed the serf’s,
suspended the “tithe” and did away with the feudal system in France. They also did away
with King Louis XVI on 21 January, 1793. Within a few months of Louis’ execution, Austria,
Prussia and Great Britain formed a military coalition with the intent of forcing the French to
re-establish the monarchy. The First Coalition War followed. Prussia was badly beaten in
a battle during the war and signed a separate treaty with the French in 1795. The northern
German principalities were then recognized by the French as neutral territory.
Heinrich Pfennigstorf may have seen an opportunity to make some money by
becoming a sutler, selling equipment, such as shoes, to the coalition army during the First
Coalition War. He also may have sold shoes to refugees trying to get out of the path of the
war, and who’s only means of transportation was on foot. It is hard to imagine one cobbler
working alone being able to amass much money during the two years the war lasted, so
perhaps Heinrich contracted with other cobblers in the area for shoes which he sold to the
military at a handsome profit. Whatever the source of his income, he is reported to have
amassed a “ small fortune” by the time the Prussians withdrew from the war in 1795.
Sometime between 1795 and 1797, Heinrich came to Osterwald O/E, a small farming
community northwest of the city of Hannover. He apparently liked the area and went to work
making and repairing shoes there. Perhaps the locals were reluctant to do business with a
foreigner [ Pfennigstorf was a foreign sounding name to them since it was a High German
name and the locals spoke Platte Deutsch, or Low German]. Since Pfennig, which means
penny in High German, was Penje in low German, Heinrich modified his name to Penjestorf,
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presumably to facilitate doing business with the locals.
Eventually, Heinrich met a local girl, Catharine Marie Feistke, who was the
daughter of a poor farmer, Jobst Heinrich Feistke, and his wife, Ilse Magdalene Haase
[Catharine’s family name underwent a gradual change to Feesche over the next twenty or
thirty years]. Marie, as she was called, had been born in Osterwald on 12 March, 1775.
Near the end of August in 1797, Heinrich went to the local pastor, Ernst Tatter, to discuss
posting the banns for his upcoming marriage to Marie. When Heinrich introduced himself to
Pastor Tatter he used the Low German version of his name, but he spoke with a High German
accent which made the initial “P” of Penjestorf sound like a “B” to Pastor Tatter who thought
his name was Benjestorf, and that is what he wrote in the official Church Record Book. So
it was written and so it remained! On 10 September, 1797, Heinrich married my great-greatgreat
grandmother, Catharine Marie Feesche, using the name “Benjestorf“.
After their marriage, Heinrich and Marie lived in her parents shack at #48, Osterwald
O/E. It is probable that Marie had no living brother’s at the time of her marriage, and that
her parents turned their house over to their daughter and her new husband with the condition
that they be allowed to live there also and be provided with meals and care in their old age.
This was a common practice in Hannover at that time. Heinrich set up his cobbler shop in
the house and operated it there for the next nineteen years. He also worked full time farming
the small amount of land available to him and continued to save as much money as he could.
Not long after Heinrich and Marie were married, the French violated the neutrality of
the northern German States, and Prussia re-entered the war. Prussia and France alternately
occupied the Electorate of Hannover a number of times over the next several years. In 1806,
Napoleon formed the “Kingdom of Westphalia” out of several northwestern German
principalities, including part of Hannover. He appointed his brother, Jerome Bonaparte, as
King of Westphalia. The remaining part of Hannover was annexed as part of France.
It is likely that during the brief existence of the Kingdom of Westphalia, serfdom, the
tithe and legal restrictions prohibiting the sale of aristocratic land to commoners were
abolished in Hannover. Whether these new laws remained in effect after Napoleon’s defeat
in 1813 is uncertain, but it was probably pretty hard to put the “genie back into the bottle”.
Prussia occupied Hannover for a short time after Napoleon’s defeat, and claimed it as
a province, but The Congress of Vienna in 1815 made Hannover an independent kingdom.
King George III of Great Britain and Ireland, formerly elector of Hannover, also became the
King of Hannover.
In the meantime, Heinrich continued to operate his cobbler business, and by working
long, hard hours and living very frugally, he was gradually able to increase his wealth. One
of the largest farming estates in Osterwald was the Vollmeierhof of Johann Christian Röhr;
Hof #38. Vollmeier Röhr was an alcoholic and as a result of his drinking he had run the
estate into bankruptcy. In December of that year Vollmeier Röhr agreed to sell his rights to
the Vollmeierhof to Heinrich for 1765 Thaler [about $1260]. The estate consisted of about
26 ½ Morgen [roughly 20 acres], in bits and pieces scattered around the community of
Osterwald O/E, with the largest piece being three Morgen, and most of the rest in half Morgen
bits. The land included some wheat fields, and pastures, but also peat bogs, moors and brush
land. In addition to the right to use the land and pass it on to his descendants, Heinrich took
on the obligation to make an annual payment [forever] to the aristocrat who controlled the
land.
By virtue of his purchase of the Vollmeierhof, Heinrich gained the title of Vollmeier, a
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person of considerable influence in the farming community, and several steps up the social
and economic ladder from his former position as a Kötner. Heinrich had to keep his nose to
the grindstone and continued to live frugally in order to run the estate and make the annual
payment. In his spare time, Heinrich also continued to operate his cobbler business from the
manor house, mostly during the winter when there wasn’t much farm work to do.
During that period in Europe, there was a great deal of agitation by the middle class
and to some extent the peasants, for social, political and economic reform. Agrarian reform
was long overdue since about 95% of the useable land was controlled by 5% of the
population. Virtually all the people who actually worked farms were tenant farmers, paying
a tithe and other feudal obligations and services to the aristocratic landlord who controlled
the property they farmed. Finally, in 1825 in Hannover, a major program of land
redistribution was started. All the farming community land that had previously been
common pasture, forest and “boundary land” was distributed to the upper tiers of farmers,
the ones who had hereditary rights to their farm. While this left the poorer farm laborers
and “squatters” with nowhere to go, it greatly increased the area of land held by those with
hereditary rights.
Along with the title Vollmeier, Heinrich also gained the right to pass both the title and
the estate on to his heir. When the commons and boundary land were redistributed,
Heinrich’s share was about fifty Morgen, composed primarily of meadows and woodland,
which nearly tripled the size of his estate.
Heinrich continued to live very frugally, work two jobs [i.e. farming and shoemaking]
and save his money. He spent a great deal of time and energy developing his new land;
clearing brush, cutting woodlots, and planting hedges around the borders of his property.
And, of course, in the winter he continued to make and repair shoes. No doubt his sons also
did their share of work on the farm.
In addition to working his farm and running his shoe business, in 1827 Heinrich
apparently started building a new Kötnerhaus [a small farmer’s house] on the Kötnerstelle lot,
the poor farmer’s place Marie had inherited from her parents. Since their eldest son, Johann
Heinrich Christian Gerhard Benjestorf, married the next year, I assume it was built as a
wedding gift for the newlyweds.
Heinrich didn’t relax and enjoy the fruits of his labor until a few short years before his
death in Osterwald on 28 January, 1838, exactly three months after his sixty-ninth birthday.
After his death, it is likely that his eldest son and his wife moved out of the Kötnerhaus and
moved into the main manor house. Marie probably turned the property over to her son, but
continued to live at the manor house and receive board and care from her son and his wife.
My great-great-great grandmother, Catharine Marie Feistke~Benjestorf, died fourteen
years after her husband on 12 September, 1852, at seventy-seven years of age.
Heinrich & Marie had eight children, all of whom were presumably born in
Osterwald:
1] Johann Heinrich Christian Gerhard Benjestorf, born 31 July, 1798. He
married Marie Dorothee Rathe in 1828. He inherited the Vollmeierhof.
2] Johann Christian Benjestorf, born 27 July, 1800. He died when he was just ten
days old on 6 August, 1800.
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3] Sophie Dorothee Margarete Benjestorf, born 19 August, 1801. She married
Dietrich Dahle, a small farmer, in 1832.
4] Catharine Dorothee Benjestorf, born 12 April, 1804. She married Anton Böfer
in 1831. [See page 76]
5] Margarethe Marie Benjestorf, born 5 May, 1807. Margarethe married Johann
Heinrich Klingemann.
6] Johann Heinrich Friedrich Benjestorf, born 15 November, 1810. He became
my great-great grandfather. [See below]
7] Johann Heinrich Christian Daniel Benjestorf, born 15 December, 1814.
[See page 68]
8] Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Benjestorf, born 5 August, 1819. He died on 25
September, 1841 on the Ruhr River.
.
****
Johann Heinrich Friedrich Benjestorf
15 Nov 1810 ~ 12 Mar 1883
Johann Heinrich Friedrich Benjestorf, my great -great
grandfather, was born in Osterwald, Hannover, on 15 November 1810.
He was born at the Kötnerstelle #48 and lived there until he was six
years old when his father purchased the Vollmeierhof. Attendance at
the church school for half a day in the morning was mandatory for
children six to fourteen [although there is no evidence to show that the
law was enforced], so Friedrich probably started school while still living
at the Kötnerstelle.
At the time of his first Holy Communion, when he was around
fourteen years old, Friedrich would have started his formal
apprenticeship, learning the shoemaker’s trade, probably from his father.
Sometime in 1840, about two years after his father’s death,
Friedrich married my great-great grandmother, Luise Cathrine Dorothea
Hanne Deeke, who was born in Lutter near Neustadt am Rübenberge, on
12 October, 1819. Since his eldest brother had inherited the Vollmeierhof,
and moved out of the Kötnerhaus where he and his wife had presumably
been living, Friedrich and his new wife moved into it.
Friedrich and Dorothee had 5 children:
1] Sophie Marie Elisabeth Wilhelmina Benjestorf, born 27 March, 1843. In
1888 she married Fritz Hansing, a postman from Neustadt.
2] Christian Friedrich Heinrich Benjestorf, born 16 December, 1846. Friedrich
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married Marie Luise Dorothee Wietgrefe in May, 1871. Marie was born in 1850.
Friedrich died in 1898 when he was fifty-two. Friedrich and Marie had two sons:
a] Johann Heinrich Friedrich Paul
Benjestorf was born in Osterwald on 19
June, 1871.
b] Friedrich August Wilhelm Benjestorf was
born in Osterwald on 17 June, 1884. He
married Dora Gießelmann, who was born
on 12 August, 1892. Dora died about 1961
and Wilhelm died about 1971. Wilhelm and
Dora had a son;
Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Benjestorf. He married Erna
Kahle in 1939. Wilhelm and Erna Benjestorf had a son;
Wilhelm Benjestorf. Wilhelm married Renate Hemm
in 1972. Wilhelm is a teacher at the Otto Bremmer
Vocational-Technical School in Hannover.
***
3] Heinrich Benjestorf, my great grandfather, was born 16 December, 1849. He
immigrated to America in 1870. [See page 7]
4] Dorothee Eleonore Sophie Benjestorf, born 7 June, 1852 [See page 60]
5] Wilhelm Benjestorf, born 23 January, 1859 [See page 64]
****
In the summer of 1866, during the “Seven Weeks War” between Austria and Prussia,
the Kingdom of Hannover was invaded by Prussia, and annexed as a province. Apparently
Friedrich vocally opposed the Prussian rule and advised young men of the village, including
his own sons, to avoid being drafted into the Prussian Army by fleeing to America. He was
said to be well informed about America through correspondence with people who had
immigrated to America, and books he had read about the country. Friedrich’s second son,
Heinrich, my great grandfather, took his words to heart and immigrated to America in 1870.
In the winter of 1883, Friedrich Benjestorf became ill, and fearing that he would die
without leaving a will, he requested a lawyer come to his home and record his last will and
testament. The lawyer arrived at the Benjestorf cottage on 12 March, 1883. He
subsequently recorded the following document with the Neustadt Court:
Testament of Friedrich Benjestorf in Neustadt am Rubenberge Court
12 March, 1883.
In the home of the small-cottager, Friedrich Benjestorf, No. 48, Osterwald u.E:
Having been invited by means of a telegraph in order that the court may itself record
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his last will & testament in his home, way was made hither to the home of the small-cottager,
Friedrich Benjestorf.
The same was found in the room sitting on a chair on the bare earth, feeble and visibly
ill, but a conversation with him showed him to be in full possession of his mental faculties.
Mr. Benjestorf thereupon repeated his request for recording of his last will and
testament and, after having his request granted, gave the following to be heard as his last
will:
§1 For my heirs I list each of my five children:
1. Minna, married to the mailman, Fritz Hansing in Neustadt am Rubenberge,
2. Friedrich
3. Heinrich
4. Doris, married to the “farmhand” Schneehage in Osterwald u.E., and
5. Wilhelm
§ 2 Concerning the apportionment of my estate I direct the following:
1. My daughter, Mina, has already received from her parental estate the sum of 400
Thaler (1200 Marks) and she shall receive another 50 Thaler or 150 M, written one
hundred fifty Marks
2. My son, Friedrich, shall receive for his inheritance and financial settlement from
the estate the sum of 400 Thaler (1200M, written twelve hundred Marks).
3. My son, Heinrich, has already received 400 Thaler (1200M, written twelve hundred
Marks), and he shall let this sum be charged to his inheritance and he shall receive
nothing further from my estate.
4. My son, Wilhelm, shall likewise receive for his inheritance the sum of 400 Thaler
(1200 M, written twelve hundred Marks), and therewith be fully compensated from
the parental estate.
5. My daughter, Doris, married to the “cowhand”, Heinrich Schneehage, in
Osterwald u. E., shall inherit and receive my whole remaining estate, in particular
all of my real property in the Osterwald and Heitlinger “Field-mark”, likewise as
well that in the ...?...-bog covered piece of marshland that is now being farmed
from the cottage-place # 48 in Osterwald.
§ 3 My daughter, Doris, moreover, shall be obliged after my death, to my wife, Dorothea,
born Deke;
1. To pay (to her) within a year the sum of 400 Thaler (1200 M, written twelve
hundred Marks), and to guarantee her the following “elders share”:
The small room and the bedroom which lies next to it in the residence house
at # 48, which is to be kept in a heatable condition and insofar as it is not, the floor
must be covered.
These dwellings, however, my wife shall furnish as needed. If she cannot
stand living with my daughter or her husband, she shall be entitled to have her
[own] place in the workers' quarters.
2. Annually the sum of 100 Thaler (300 M, written three hundred Marks), payable in
advance on a quarterly basis. In case the old lady chooses to live alone, as long as
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she eats at the same table with the young people, she shall receive an additional (?)
annual “pension” of 12 Thaler (36M, written thirty-six Marks).
3. Free medical and pharmacy care
4. Free clothing
5. Free heating.
6. If the pensioner chooses to live alone she shall be provided ½ liter of milk each
day.
7. If the pensioner moves to live alone, she can take the required furnishings,
including required kitchenware with her. She is entitled to cook from the
landlord's flock, and in this case (that she lives alone) she is still entitled to do so.
8. From the farm a goat, and indeed the best of those on hand, will be supplied, and a
proper stall and required fodder for it shall be provided free.
§ 4. In case any of my above listed heirs should die before me, their heirs shall receive their
share as provided by law, and I still only want to add that my daughter Doris has to pay my
existing unpaid debts.
§ 5 Any of my children who should contest this will shall be disinherited of his share.
§ 6 Herein lies my last will and testament .......
***
Johann Heinrich Friedrich Benjestorf died that same day, 12 March, 1883, when he
was about eighty-two and a half years old. My great-great grandfather had almost literally
waited until the last possible minute to make out his will.
His wife, Dorothea, died about four and a half years later on 21 November, 1887.
*******
Heinrich Chris(tian?) Benjestorf
16 Dec 1849 ~ 16 Jun 1923
Heinrich Benjestorf, my great grandfather, was born in the
Kingdom of Hannover at the Kötnerstelle #48 in Osterwald O/E, on 16
December, 1849.
Heinrich probably started school when he was six, and attended
school for half a day in the mornings. Once a child started school, it
was typical that he was considered old enough to take on
responsibilities around the farm, so he probably had regular chores to
do once he got home from school, such as cleaning stables, weeding
the vegetable garden and herding small animals such as sheep, goats or
geese.
When Heinrich was fourteen or fifteen, his academic career would have been over,
and the typical teenager would have been apprenticed to a master craftsman to learn a trade.
Heinrich learned the family trade of shoemaking, probably from his father.
In 1866, when Heinrich was 17, the Prussian Army invaded the Kingdom of Hannover
and sent their king, Georg V [the blind king] into exile. Before the Prussian invasion,
Hannover had a universal military training law which required all young men to serve one
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year active duty in the army followed by a six year reserve requirement. Draftees were
selected periodically by lot, and their names were posted in newspapers and on public bulletin
boards. Many young men had emigrated illegally rather than serve in the army. The
Prussians continued the draft requirement, and the resentment at being forced to serve in the
enemy’s army must have caused even more young men to evade the draft.
Passports and emigration permits were required for anyone to emigrate, and draftees,
of course, couldn’t get either. Stiff fines and jail sentences were imposed on those caught
helping draft dodgers get out of the country. However, if there is a Thaler in it, someone
will find a way to get around the laws. Many shipping agents and “heralds” [free-lance
individuals who sold ship tickets, etc, without a license] would obtain forged documents or
overlook their absence for the right price.
Sometime in the fall of 1870, according to family tradition, Heinrich and one or more
cousins stowed away on a ship bound for America. Heinrich’s father had probably given him
an advance on his inheritance of 1200 Marks prior to his departure, a princely sum of money
in those times. Heinrich Schneehage, in a letter to Helma [Benjestorf] Jester, stated that one
of the cousins’ names was Böfer. My mother, Lucille Benjestorf Roddy~Smith was told that
his name was “Cousin Chris”. Whether they actually stowed away or simply left without
legal permits is open to question. One person could probably have stowed away, but two or
three being able to sneak aboard unnoticed seems improbable. Bremen was the closest port to
Osterwald, and therefore the most likely port of departure. Heinrich arrived in the United
States at the port of New York, on 27 December, 1870, according to a letter he wrote to his
sister, Doris. He had probably corresponded with his cousin, Wilhelm Böfer, who had
immigrated to St. Louis, Missouri, two years previously. In any case, he made his way to St.
Louis, Missouri, and got a job as a shoemaker there. Soon after his arrival in the United
States Heinrich anglicized his name to Henry. He received his US citizenship in 1871
according to the 1900 US Census. 1
Henry met Mathilde Gellenbeck in St. Louis, sometime after
June, 1872. She was only sixteen or seventeen at the time, and was
working as an “upstairs maid” for the Anheuser Busch family. Since
Henry’s cousin, Chris Benjestorf, was a brewer by trade, it is possible he
was working for the Busch brewery and somehow met Mathilde through
his work and Henry may have met her through Chris. Henry and my
great grandmother, Mathilde Gellenbeck, were married on 15
September, 1874, in St. Nicholas Catholic Church in St. Louis,
Missouri. Henry was raised a Lutheran but converted to Catholicism
to marry Mathilde. Mathilde was seventeen years old at the time of
the marriage. Henry personally made Mathilde’s wedding shoes for her.
Wilhelm Böfer and Elisabetha Gellenbeck were witnesses to the marriage. Wilhelm Böfer
was Henry‘s Benjestorf cousin who had preceded him to the USA. Elisabetha Gellenbeck
was probably Mathilde’s mother, but may have been her older sister who had immigrated to
America in 1869.
Henry and Matilda lived in the St. Louis area for eight years, part of it sharing the
same address with Henry’s cousin, Christian Böfer. Henry eventually had his own
1 In a letter to his sister, Doris, probably written about 1903, Heinrich stated that he had filed his first citizenship
papers in 1874 and got his final citizenship papers in 1888. Official records of the 7 th Judicial Court in Otter
Tail County, Minnesota, show that he received his citizenship on 1 June, 1887. His initial filing of intent to
become a citizen was filed at the St. Louis, Missouri, Criminal Court.
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shoemaker’s shop in St. Louis. Their first three children were born in St. Louis. While in
St. Louis, Henry survived a case of small pox, but his health was poor afterward. The family
doctor recommended getting out of the pollution and crowded conditions of the city, so in
December, 1882, the Benjestorf family headed west [actually northwest], as many Americans
were doing at that time. They may have stopped for a time near Grinnell, Iowa, but soon
continued on to the town of Perham, Otter Tail County, Minnesota and may have actually
lived in the town for a year or two. Their fourth child, Emma, was born in (or near)
Perham, Minnesota on 14 October, 1883. No later than July of 1885 they moved onto 120
acres of land near the settlement of Richdale about 4 miles southeast of Perham in what
became Pine Lake Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota, and started the improvement
procedure required to file for a homestead. The Benjestorf’s were among the first settlers in
Pine Lake Township.
On the way to Perham, Henry and his family may have traveled west with a group of
fellow Germans [Christian Benjestorf may have been among them]. That was the usual
practice, and they all tended to settle in the same locale. A website run by Otter Tail County,
Minnesota, Genealogy lists Henry Benjestorf among approximately 80 original land owners
in Pine Lake Township. It is interesting to note that in the 1905 State census over 20% of the
population of the township had been born in Germany! Henry and his family homesteaded
120 acres in the South half of the SW quarter and the NE quarter of the SW quarter of Section
26 in Township 136N of range 38W of the 5th Principal Meridian in Minnesota. Henry had
originally claimed the usual 160 acres, but 40 acres of the claim was located on land reserved
for local and state government use. After "’proving" the land and living on it for the required
five years Henry received a patent [Original Title from the BLM] to the property on 3 July,
1890.
Six of Henry and Mathilde’s remaining seven Children [Alex, Oscar, Hugo, Edward,
Walter & Albert ] were born on the Homestead in Otter Tail County where the family
remained until April, 1903. On 3 April, 1897 their last child, a daughter, Helma, was born in
New York Mills, Minnesota, which is located on the east side of Otter Tail County, on the
opposite side from Perham. Perhaps Mathilde stayed with friends or relatives there to be
closer to medical help if needed for the birth [Mathilde was 40 at the time]. The 1900 US
census shows the family still living in Pine Lake Township.
Henry Benjestorf was instrumental in getting elementary school district #184
organized in Richdale on 3 January, 1884. The school was known as “The Benjestorf
School” for a time and later became known as Pine Hill School. The school House was built
in the northeast corner of Section 27, not far from the Benjestorf property. Henry was on the
first school board and served as clerk of the School Board for nine years. The school had
twenty-three students and one teacher in 1889 and 1890. On 13 April, 1953, the students
were all transferred to School District #44 in Perham and the old Benjestorf School House
was abandoned. All that remains of the school today is the foundation and a few bricks
scattered around in a wooded area near the top of a hill.
In addition to his work on the School Board, Henry also served as a Justice of the
Peace for two years, tax assessor for four years and was Chairman of the Township of Pine
Lake for four years.
In 1899, members of a radical Russian peasant religious sect, called Dukhobors, were
allowed to immigrate to Canada. The Dukhobors had originated in Russia in the
seventeenth century. The main theme of their religion was the rejection of ALL authority,
including the government and the Bible, and the belief that everyone’s actions should be
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guided by direct divine revelation. This resulted in a strong resistance to taxes, education,
the draft and laws in general on the part of many Dukhobors. Of course, this resulted in
official persecution by the Russian government. Through the efforts of Leo Tolstoy, the czar
was persuaded to allow the Dukhobors to emigrate. The Canadian government, looking for
settlers for the plains provinces, offered them land in Saskatchewan on very favorable terms
as well as exemption from the draft. British Quakers took up a collection and funded the
emigration. Seventy-five hundred Dukhobors arrived in Canada in 1899.
The Dukhobors were noted for nude protest pilgrimages, as well as going on periodic
rampages of burning and dynamiting their own, and their neighbors’ property as well as
government buildings to demonstrate their total contempt for worldly goods and authority.
Apparently some of them had received a revelation that Jesus would return [to Saskatchewan]
in 1903, and bands of them roamed the Canadian Midwest in search of Christ.
In April, 1903, Henry moved most of his large family to start a new homestead near
Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. He probably heard that Canada had opened up some land
for homesteading and saw an opportunity to sell his property in Minnesota, and get another
160 acres "free". He and his son-in-law, Frank Morganroth, made a trip to Saskatchewan in
December, 1902, to check out the available land before committing to the move. Henry
convinced his cousin, Christian Benjestorf and his family of six, who had lived in Grinnell,
Iowa, but had recently moved to Richdale, Minnesota, to join him and his family when they
moved to Saskatchewan. Henry also persuaded his married daughters, Mina Lustig and
Emma Morganroth and their families to join him. Henry’s two oldest children, “Tillie”
Balzer and Henry Benjestorf remained in the United States.
On 17 March, 1903, Henry sold his homestead to a neighbor, Albert Liermann, for
$3,500. Early in April that year the families loaded all their worldly possessions, including
livestock, into leased railroad cars and went to Yorkton, Saskatchewan, where they planned to
homestead. When they arrived, the weather was horrible, one of the rainiest springs on
record, there was literally no room at the inn, and all the choice homestead land in the
immediate vicinity of Yorkton had already been taken. To make things even more
interesting, there were the Dukhobors.
The nearest available homestead land was
about 40 miles to the west of Yorkton near the
village of Fenwood. Henry staked out 160 acres in
the southwest quarter of section 24, of Township
24, Range 8, W. 2. His Cousin, Chris Benjestorf,
homesteaded the northwest quarter of the same
section, so had adjoining property. The following
year, Henry’s son, Alex, who was only eighteen at
the time, started his own homestead on the northeast
quarter of the same section. Henry’s daughter,
Emma, and her husband, Frank Morganroth,
homesteaded about a mile to the south. His
daughter, Mina, and her husband, William Lustig
claimed a quarter section about three miles west of Henry’s.
In April, 1904, the settlers in the township petitioned for a school for their children.
Greenbush School District was created. For $600 a one acre piece of land was purchased and
a one room log school house was built. Henry Benjestorf and two other men made up the first
school board for Greenbush School. It is interesting to note that Henry’s property was not
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 10
Benjestorf

located within the new school district.
Apparently the Canadian government only required four years residence to obtain title
to a homestead. In order to receive title to his homestead, Henry became a Canadian citizen
in 1906. Canada recognizes dual citizenship, so Henry also retained his U.S. citizenship.
Henry, Chris, Frank Morganroth and William Lustig all received title to their homesteads in
1907. Alex Benjestorf received title in 1908.
Sometime before 1912, Henry apparently purchased the quarter section of land
directly to the south of his homestead from the Manitoba North-West Railway.
Around 1915, Henry decided to get out of the pioneering business [He would have
been sixty-six years old in 1915 ~ a good age to retire]. He probably sold his homestead to
his cousin, Chris Benjestorf. He left Mathilde, who was ill at the time, on the ranch while he
went to southern California where his son, Henry, had settled, to check it out. He then sent
for Mathilde and they eventually settled in Long Beach, California. During the next few
years many of their children also moved to southern California.
After Chris Benjestorf died, one of his sons took possession of Henry’s homestead and
the quarter section to the south of it, and Chris’ grandsons, Christian and Kenneth Benjestorf,
continue to farm it to this day. 2
Henry and Mathilde bought a house at 822 Sunrise Boulevard on
Signal Hill in Long Beach, California, but they frequently visited their sons
who had settled in the San Bernardino area. In 1920, their son Walter and his
extended family lived in a house they rented next door. Henry and Mathilde
were visiting their son, Edward Benjestorf, in Colton, California, early in
1923, when Henry became severely ill. He was apparently too sick to travel
back to Long Beach, and he stayed at his son, Ed’s, house while Ed’s wife,
Kathleen May England~Benjestorf, nursed him. He died 16 Jun, 1923, in
Colton, California, of chronic kidney failure.
Henry was cremated on 19 June, 1923, at Mt. View Cemetery in San
Bernardino, California. Presumably Mathilde kept his ashes until her death
on 23 February, 1935. His ashes are said to be interred with the body of
Mathilde who is interred in Sunnyside Mausoleum, Crypt 0105-tier J, maintained by Forest
Lawn Memorial Park Mortuary, located at 1500 E. San Antonio Drive, Long Beach,
California.
*******
*****
***
*
2 The property was actually sold by one of Chris’ other sons, but after several years Christian and Ken Benjestorf
were able to repurchase it.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 11
Benjestorf

Descendants of Henry Benjestorf and Mathilde Gellenbeck
Henry Benjestorf and Mathilde Gellenbeck had eleven children, all born in the United
States:
1 · Matilda Benjestorf
21 Sep 1875 ~ 8 Jul 1956
Tillie was born on 21 September,1875, in St. Louis, Missouri.
When she was seven years old her parents moved the family to Otter Tail
county, near Perham, Minnesota, to start a homestead. She grew up on the
homestead, and while her parents were still living there she married E. Carl
Balzer in or near Perham about 20 December, 1898. Tillie may have met
Carl while on a trip to St. Louis, but it seems more likely that they met
while Carl was visiting his parents near Perham.
Carl Balzer was the half brother of William
Lustig, Tillie’s brother-in-law, and the son of John
and Mina Balzer who had a homestead in Otter Tail
County. Carl was born about 1877 in Schlemmin
Village, Franchborg Parish, Germany. Carl studied horticulture in
Germany and later in France, then, about 1896, he immigrated to the
United States where he got a job for the St. Louis, Missouri, Park
Department.
Tillie and Carl may have lived in St. Louis, Missouri, for a short time after their
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 12
Benjestorf

marriage, but they soon moved to Perham and then, about 1901, they settled in Spokane,
Washington, where Carl started a large nursery. He became the City Florist for Spokane and
later became the first Supervisor of Parks for the city of Spokane. Tillie and Carl chose not
to go homesteading in Canada when her father moved there.
In his public life Carl anglicized his name to “E. Charles Balzer” and was usually
referred to as “E.C. Balzer”, but he was always called “Carl” by his Benjestorf relatives.
Apparently no one knows what the E. stood for. Although Mathilde’s Benjestorf relatives
always called her “Tillie”, she was apparently nicknamed “Mary” by her immediate Balzer
family.
When Carl became Supervisor of Parks he was provided with a house, an ugly barnlike
structure, in Manito Park, which is now Spokane’s main park. Carl was a major force
behind building the park into what it has become today. He also founded the once famous
zoo in the park. Carl resigned as Supervisor of Parks on 23 December, 1909, probably under
pressure from the city park board, although his son, Norb Balzer, later wrote a newspaper
article which claimed that Carl had resigned voluntarily because he wanted to get involved in
real estate and had even found and solicited his own replacement, John Duncan. According
to Tony and Suzanne Bamonte in their book, Manito Park, a Reflection of Spokane’s Past,
the city park board was unhappy with Carl’s independent style of managing the park, and
some members of the board used the pretext that Carl had no formal education to push for his
replacement. Interestingly, his replacement, John Duncan, had no formal education either.
Carl did get involved in real estate speculation and bought a whole block of apartment
buildings which he operated for several years before he sold them. The area was known as
“the Balzer Block”. After Carl’s resignation as Superintendent of Parks, his replacement,
John Duncan, refused to live in the Superintendent’s house in the park and the building was
demolished by the city.
Carl provided work in his nursery and/or his real estate business for some
of Tillie’s brother’s when they first entered the work force, including Howard
Benjestorf and Hugo Benjestorf.
In their later years, Tillie and Carl bought a “winter home” in Hemet,
California, to get away from the Eastern Washington winter weather. They
would frequently visit Benjestorf relatives in California during the winters and
they also made frequent visits to Mexico that lasted for two or three months.
E. Carl Balzer died at his winter home in Hemet, California, on 6
December, 1953. He is buried in Spokane, Washington.
After Carl died Tillie may have moved in with her daughter, Elsie, who lived in the
Los Angeles area. Tillie died on 8 July, 1956, in Long Beach, California. She is also buried
in Spokane.
Tillie and Carl had three children;
a. Norbert Charles Balzer, their son, was born on 13 October 1899, in or near
Perham, Minnesota. Norb learned the nursery business from his father and
eventually had his own Nursery in Spokane after he completed
college. For many years he wrote a gardening column for a
Spokane Newspaper.
Norb married Georgia H. Harris. Georgia was born on 1
January, 1904. Norb Balzer died in Spokane on 19 April, 1984.
Georgia died on 28 January, 1993.
Norb and Georgia had only one child;
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 13
Benjestorf

i. Charles Balzer. Charles lives in Spokane.
b. Walter William Balzer was born about 1900, probably in Perham, Minnesota.
He worked in his father’s nursery as a teenager and young man then started his
own Nursery in Spokane after he completed college. Even though his health was
steadily declining, Walter worked in his nursery business until the day he died. He
died in 1961 and is buried in Spokane next to his parents.
c. An unidentified Balzer child was born in Spokane about 1904 and probably died
in infancy or early childhood.
d. Elsie M. Balzer was born in Spokane on 13 May, 1905. Elsie was
an adventurous fun loving person and became an airline
“stewardess” in the early days of commercial aviation. Elsie
married a man named McGlasson but the two never had any
children. Elsie died of cancer in the Los Angeles area on 2
November, 1976.
e. Frank Edward Balzer was usually called Edward. He also used the name “A.
E. Balzer”. He was born in Spokane on 4 October, 1912. Edward attended
College, and opened his own Nursery in Spokane like his brothers. He married
Eleanor W. Wosepka in Spokane. A. E. Balzer died in Seattle, Washington, on
13 May, 1992. Eleanor died on 10 June, 2004, in Puyallup, Washington. 3
Edward and Eleanor had two daughters;
i. Bonnie Balzer who became a professor at Washington State University.
ii. Elenor Balzer who was a school teacher.
****
2 · Henry Benjestorf
3 Oct 1877 ~ 21 Jun 1917
Heinrich Benjestorf and Mathilde Gellenbeck’s second child, Henry, was born in St.
Louis, Missouri on 3 October, 1877. In December, 1882, he traveled with his parents from
St. Louis to Otter Tail County, Minnesota, where his father homesteaded and where most of
his siblings were born.
Around 1898 Henry “kidnapped” Miss Elizabeth Luisa Wendt from her home in
Richdale, Minnesota, by climbing up a ladder to her bedroom window, and the two eloped.
3 The death dates of A. E. Balzer and his wife are both somewhat speculative since the Washington Death Index
does not provide enough information to positively identify the deceased.
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Benjestorf

Luisa was born in Berlin, German Empire, in January, 1880, and was about
eighteen years old at the time of her elopement. Henry worked as a day
laborer, probably mostly on farms. The couple lived in Richdale or Perham
for a couple of years but they moved to Idaho soon after their first child was
born. In Idaho Henry worked as a carpenter. When his father moved his
large family to Saskatchewan in 1903, Henry and Luisa remained in the
United States.
Henry and Luisa moved from Idaho and headed south until they
stopped in Redlands, California, where one or more of their
children may have been born. They later moved to Colton,
California, where Henry was a building contractor for several years.
Later still they moved to Long Beach, California. Luisa may have become a
cosmetics model for Max Factor.
Henry died on 21 June, 1917, in Long Beach, California, from a heart attack while
fishing with a friend in a small boat. He was only 39 years old. Henry is buried at Sunnyside
Cemetery, 1095 E. Willow, Long Beach, California.
Luisa remarried sometime after 1920.
Henry and Luisa had at least five children, but information on them is very sketchy 4 :
a. Elizabeth Benjestorf, born on Valentine’s Day, 1899, in or near Perham,
Minnesota. She married [Charles ?] and had two daughters:
i. Helen, who married Newt Curley. 5
ii. Elise, who married Leslie Frolich.
***
b. “Tillie” Benjestorf was probably born around 1900, perhaps in Idaho. Tillie
married Harry Webster, and they lived in Long Beach, California. Harry and
Tillie appear to have been financially successful because in their later life they had
a second home in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, which they visited
frequently. Tillie and Harry had two daughters;
i. Muriel Webster was born in California. She married and had two
daughters.
Muriel divorced her first husband and married her second cousin, Alex
Benjestorf, Jr., the son of her great uncle, Alex Benjestorf. Muriel and
Alex had no children.
ii. Evelyn Webster was born in California.
***
c. Elsie Benjestorf was born on 9 May, 1902, in Idaho. She married the son of a
French Canadian Widow named Madeline De Tremauden who had immigrated to
the United States with her children in 1926. Her son, Gilles, may have been
Elsie’s husband, but since he was nine years younger than Elsie was it seems more
4 According to a newspaper obituary they had six children; one son and five daughters.
5 This Helen may not have existed. Information about Helen is from the memories of a Benjestorf relative who
may have confused her with Henry and Luisa’s daughter, Helen, who married Chester N. Kerley.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 15
Benjestorf

likely that there was an older son who did not appear in the 1930 census. Elsie
died in Orange County, California, on 9 November, 1981.
d. Helen Benjestorf was born in Idaho on 3 April, 1909. Helen married a man
named Kerley, possibly Chester N. Kerley 6 who was born in Texas on 17 June,
1907. Chester Kerley died in Santa Clara County, California, on 27 September,
1967. Helen Benjestorf~Kerley died in Orange County, California, on 28
January, 1983. Helen and Chester Kerley may have had two daughters;
ii. Frances V. Kerley* was born in Texas .
iii. Geraldine Kerley* was born in Texas.
b. Robert Lavern Benjestorf, Henry and Louisa’s only son, was
born in Colton, California, on 18 January, 1916. As a teenager
and young man Robert worked for his uncle, Alex Benjestorf’s,
dairy farm and hay business. Robert married Thelma, who was
born on 28 April, 1924. Around 1948, Robert and Thelma left
Southern California and moved to Guemes Island, part of the city
of Anacortes, Washington. Robert worked for a saw mill for a
while in Anacortes but had the opportunity to work for a machine
shop. He liked the working conditions and pay at the shop better
and made a career of it.
Robert’s wife, Thelma, died in Anacortes in June, 1986. Robert died on 30
April, 2004, at his home on Guemes Island, Anacortes, Washington. Robert and
Thelma had three Children:
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 16
Benjestorf
***
i. Julie Benjestorf. She married Howard Berry. They now live in Everett,
Washington.
ii. Geri Laverne Benjestorf. She married a man named Glasscock, and they
lived on the Oregon coast.
Geri died in Coos County, Oregon on 6 April, 1998.
i. Theodore, Benjestorf. Theodore became a commercial fisherman. He
was on a panel of technical advisors when the state of Hawaii rewrote their
pelagic fishing regulations in 2000. He married Elizabeth Armstrong.
Theodore and Elizabeth eventually divorced, and Theodore subsequently
married Pamela Wendling. They, too, are now divorced. Theodore
Benjestorf was last known to have been living in Honolulu, Hawaii, with
his third wife, Cindy. A letter sent to his last known address was returned
marked “Unknown at this address”.
Theodore and his first wife, Elizabeth, had two sons:
6 * A Helen and Chester Kerley and their two daughters lived in Pecos City, Texas in April, 1930. There is not
enough information to positively establish that this was Helen Benjestorf’s family.

Ø Sundance Benjestorf, born in Washington. Sundance followed
the family trade working on a commercial fishing boat for about ten
years. Looking for a little more stability in his life, he now works
for a real estate firm in Bellingham, Washington.
Ø Leif Benjestorf, also born in Washington. He and his family live
in the Bellingham, Washington area. I have received no reply to a
letter or e-mail sent to him.
Theodore and his second wife, Pamela Wendling, had a daughter:
Ø Brooke Benjestorf, who was born in Washington. Brooke is now
attending college in Bellingham, Washington.
***
3 · Mina Benjestorf
12 Nov 1879 ~ 11 Nov 1966
“Minnie” was the third and last of Heinrich Benjestorf and Mathilde
Gellenbeck’s children to be born in St. Louis. She was born 12 November,
1879. In December, 1882, the family relocated to a homestead near Perham,
Minnesota, where Minnie grew up.
Minnie married William Lustig in Perham in1898. Minnie and
William’s first child, Albert, was born in April, 1900, in Perham,
Minnesota. Sometime after their son’s birth, Minnie and William
moved to Spokane, Washington. When Minnie’s father decided to go
to Canada to homestead in April, 1903, he persuaded Minnie and
William to accompany him to Saskatchewan. They returned to
Perham in preparation for the move to Canada. Three months before the move to Canada,
Minnie gave birth to her second child, Olga.
In Saskatchewan, William and Minnie homesteaded the Southwest quarter of section
22 of township 24, about three miles due west of Minnie’s parents’ homestead. In 1907, four
years after the move to Canada, Minnie and William’s third child, Myrtle, was born in
Melville, Saskatchewan.
Minnie and William Lustig divorced in 1909, while they were still living in Canada 7 .
Fourteen years later, in 1923, Minnie married Sam Amunsen. The marriage may have taken
place in Canada, since Minnie remained there until at least 1919. It is also possible that by
the time of her second marriage, Minnie had permanently returned to the United States.
Sam Amunsen died in1935. That year Minnie moved into her daughter, Violette’s,
house in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and lived there for the rest of her life. Her youngest
7 Minnie may have established a residence in Minnesota to get a divorce. It literally required an act of
Parliament to get a divorce in Canada.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 17
Benjestorf

daughter, Myrtle, had died the previous year.
Minnie’s first husband, William Lustig, died in 1946, in Perham, Minnesota.
Minnie died the day before her eighty-seventh birthday on 11 November, 1966, in
Minneapolis.
Minnie and William Lustig had three children:
a. Albert Lustig, who was born in Perham, Minnesota, on 15 April,
1900. His parents moved to Spokane, Washington, when he was
quite young. Sometime before Christmas, 1902, his family
returned to Perham in preparation for a move to homestead in
Canada. They moved to Fenwood, Saskatchewan, in April, 1903,
and he remained a Canadian resident for the rest of his life.
Albert married Mary Fisher in Melville, Saskatchewan, on 7
August, 1921. Mary was of American Indian descent and was born
in the District of Wolsley, Northwest Territories, in the File Hills, on 10 April,
1895.
Albert Lustig died in Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, on 26 January, 1980.
Mary died on 6 January, 1998, three months short of one hundred-three years old,
in Fort Qu’Appelle.
Albert and his wife, Mary, had six children………………............ [See page 50]
***
b. Olga “Violette” Lustig was born in Perham, Minnesota, on 13
January, 1903. When Olga was three months old, her parents
moved their family to a homestead near Fenwood,
Saskatchewan, Canada. Olga grew up on the homestead on
the Canadian prairie, and lived there until she was at least
sixteen. Olga and her cousin, Clarence Bamping, were
witnesses at the marriage of their aunt, Helma Benjestorf,
to Conmee McLellan in November, 1919.
In the aftermath of World War I, Olga had to deal with
widespread anti-German sentiment while looking for
her first job. She decided to drop the stereotypical German name, Olga, and
started calling herself Violette. Around 1922 Violette married a professional
boxer, Eddy Cochran. Vi and Eddy apparently lived in or near Lariver,
Manitoba, and their only child was born there on 9 March, 1923. Eddy Cochran
died around 1932. After Eddy died, Vi apparently moved to Minneapolis,
Minnesota. In 1934, she married Joseph A. DeRosia in Minneapolis. They
continued to live in the Minneapolis area for the remainder of their lives.
Violette and Joe had no children, but Joe DeRosia adopted Violette’s son, Ray.
Joe died in Wayzata, Minnesota, a suburb west of Minneapolis, on 23 August,
1992.
Olga Violette Benjestorf died on 7 January, 1998, in Wayzata.
Vi wrote an interesting article about her grandparents, Henry and Mathilde
Benjestorf, for a local newspaper. [see The Wolves Had Four Legs]
Vi and Eddy Cochran had one child:
i. Raymond Cochran~DeRosia, born in Lariver, Manitoba, Canada, on 9
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 18
Benjestorf

March, 1923. Ray’s father died when Ray was about nine years old, and
his mother moved to Minneapolis where she married Joseph DeRosia. Joe
DeRosia adopted Ray, and so he became Ray DeRosia.
Ray had a troubled marital history. He and his first wife, Wanda, had
five children, then were divorced. Ray then married Joan, a younger
woman, who was born 9 July, 1940. Ray and Joan had a son, but then
divorced. Ray then married his third wife, Esther. Ray and Esther
apparently had no children. They lived in Plattsmouth, Nebraska.
Raymond DeRosia died five days before his seventy-sixth birthday, on 4
March, 1999, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was buried in the National
cemetery at Leavenworth, Kansas.
Raymond and his first wife, Wanda, had five children, none of whose
names are known to me at this time.
Ray and his second wife, Joan, had one child:
Ø J.R. DeRosia.
****
c. Myrtle Lustig, Mina Benjestorf and William Lustig’s third child, was born in
Melville, Saskatchewan, in 1907. Myrtle contracted an illness during her
childhood, possibly polio, which left her physically handicapped. She died in the
Minneapolis, Minnesota, area on 18 October, 1934 when she was only twentyseven
years old.
*****
***
*
4 · Emma Benjestorf
14 Oct 1883 ~ 28 Sep 1967
Emma was born in or near Perham, Minnesota, on 14 October,
1883. Her parents may have been living in the town of Perham at the
time. Since only 5 years residence on a piece of land was required to
“prove” a homestead, they probably had not moved onto the homestead
before 1885.
Emma grew up on the Benjestorf homestead near Perham, and
would have been not quite 20 years old when her parents moved to
Canada. Emma married Frank Morganroth in Minnesota before her
parents moved to Canada in1903, probably around 1900 when she
would have been seventeen. By the time Emma’s father decided to move to Canada, Emma’s
first child had been born. Henry Benjestorf convinced Emma and Frank to accompany him
on his new pioneering adventure to Saskatchewan in April, 1903. 8 In Canada, Frank
Morganroth filed a homestead claim for a quarter section about a mile to the south of Henry
8 Actually, Frank Morganroth may have been instrumental in influencing Henry to homestead in Canada. A
Newspaper article in the Perham paper in December, 1902, said that Henry Benjestorf, Frank Morganroth and a
third man, had returned from looking at the land around Yorkton, Saskatchewan, and had announced their
intentions of moving there “in the spring”.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 19
Benjestorf

Benjestorf’s homestead. He received title in 1907.
About the same time the Morganroth’s started their
homestead, Fred Bamping, who had immigrated to Canada from
England, homesteaded on the quarter section immediately to the
east of them. Fred’s parents were Ann Catherine Embley and
Fredrick George Bamping, a prosperous coach painter in
England. Fred Bamping was born in Altringham, Cheshire,
England, on 2 October, 1871. He and his brother, Frank, had
recently immigrated to Canada. Frank Bamping had a
homestead to the east of Fred’s.
Emma and Frank Morganroth were not getting along well, and in the summer of 1906
Emma took her son, Clarence, and moved to Spokane, Washington, where she stayed with her
sister, Tillie, and Tillie’s husband, Carl Balzer. While in Spokane she worked as a
housemaid. When she had been in Spokane long enough to establish residency, she filed for
a divorce, and petitioned the court for sole custody of her son, and also for the legal right to
resume using her maiden name, Benjestorf. The grounds for the divorce were that her
husband was a “professional pool player”, and had not supported his family. The divorce
was granted on 30 August, 1907, and the court granted her full custody of her son, Clarence,
and her petition to resume her maiden name.
After her divorce, Emma returned to Saskatchewan, and on 5
May, 1908, she married her next door neighbor, Fred Bamping.
The marriage took place in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, and Emma
indicated that she was a widow on the marriage license! Frank
Morganroth continued to own his homestead, but he later moved
back to Perham, Minnesota.
My mother, Lucille Benjestorf, lived with the Bamping’s
during the school week once she started school.
Sometime around 1929, after all her brothers except Oscar had
moved to California, Emma , Fred and their two youngest children
also moved to southern California. Emma, Fred, and their two
children lived with Emma’s brother, Hugo, and his wife and four
children in their small house in Colton, California, for a while until
they could get their own place. Fred Bamping died in Long Beach on
the night of 13 October, 1938, while working as a night watchman on
a WPA project. He had noticed someone stealing bricks and had run
a block or two to inform his supervisor and get help. After
confronting the alleged thief and arguing with him, Fred collapsed
and he died en route to the hospital.
Emma later married Bert Dale. They soon divorced and by
the late 1950’s she was married to John Fitzpatrick.
Emma died on 28 September, 1967. She is buried beside Fred Bamping in Long
Beach, California.
Emma Benjestorf and Frank Morganroth had one child;
a.Clarence Morganroth was born in the United States, probably in Perham,
Minnesota, on 30 March, 1902. His parents took him to homestead in
Saskatchewan when he was very young, and he grew up on a wheat ranch their.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 20
Benjestorf

When he was five years old his mother divorced his father and
married their next door
neighbor, Fred Bamping. Clarence grew up thinking his
surname was Bamping and didn’t learn about
his biological father until after his mother died
when he was about sixty-five years old. Both of
his children use the name Bamping. When his
mother and stepfather moved to California,
Clarence stayed in Canada.
Clarence married Luella “Ella” Olson
and they had two children:
i. Norma Bamping. Norma married a man named Biggs and they have at
least one child:
Ø Dennis Biggs.
***
ii. Burnice Bamping. Burnice lives in Canada but has
obtained his US citizenship based on his father’s citizenship
through his biological father.
***
Emma Benjestorf and Fred Bamping had two children;
b. Hazel Bamping, born near Fenwood, Saskatchewan on 22 January,
1909. Hazel grew up on her parents’ wheat farm, and accompanied
them when they moved to southern California around 1929. Shortly
after her family moved to San Bernardino, Hazel relocated to Long
Beach where she found a job as a live-in maid.
Hazel married Otto Holland on 25 May, 1932. Otto was born in
Missouri on 11 December, 1904. He died in Kern County,
California, on 16 December, 1976.
Hazel died in Bakersfield, California, on 8 April, 2000. She and Otto Holland
had two children;
i. Larry Holland. At last report Larry lived in Nevada.
ii Kenneth Holland who was born in California. He
married Patricia Lee Stubblefield in 1974. She was
born in California. They had two children;
Ø Andrew Scott Holland was born in California.
Ø Kathryn Lee Holland was also born in California.
Kenny and Patricia divorced and he married Penny Sue Bush. Penny
was born in Michigan. Kenny and Penny live in Bakersfield and have no
children.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 21
Benjestorf

c. Fredrick Clayton Bamping was born near Fenwood,
Saskatchewan, on 4 October, 1917. He lived on his parents’
farm until he was about 12 years old when they moved to
southern California. He and his family stayed with Emma’s
brother, Hugo Benjestorf, in Colton, California, for a while until
his father, a British/Canadian citizen, could get permission
from the US Immigration Service to live permanently in the
United States.
Clayton married Margie Heath in Long Beach, California, in 1939. They
lived in Long Beach for many years. Clayton and Margie later moved to Fresno,
California. Clayton Bamping passed away in Fresno on 6 October, 2004, just two
days after his 87 th birthday.
Clayton and Margie had five children:
i. Margie Jo Bamping was born California. She married Manuel “Jerry”
Martinez. They live in Fresno near Margie Jo’s parents in Fresno.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 22
Benjestorf
***
ii. Thomas Clayton Bamping was born in California.
iii. Richard Andrew “Andy” Bamping was born in California.
iv. John Fredrick Bamping was born in California.
v. Maudie Rae Bamping is married to Ron Smith.
*****
5 · Alexander Benjestorf
16 Dec 1885 ~ 5 Jul 1963
Alex was born 16 December, 1885 on his parents homestead in Otter
Tail County, Minnesota. When he was 17 he moved with his parents to
Saskatchewan to farm wheat and start another homestead. When he was
eighteen years old he started ‘proving his own homestead in the North East
quarter of the same Section that his father had homesteaded, and he received
patent on the NE quarter of Section 24 in Township 24, Range 8, W2 near
Fenwood, Saskatchewan in 1908 when he was only twenty-two years old.
Sometime around 1910 or 1911 Alex left the homestead in Canada
and moved to Colton, California, perhaps to visit his brother, Henry. Alex did
not sell his homestead at that time, and it is not clear who was left in charge of it. Alex’s
brother, Hugo, actively managed the farm, presumably in a “sharecropper” capacity, after his
marriage to my grandmother, Daisy England, in 1915, and perhaps he was left in charge of it
when Alex left.
In Colton, Alex went to work for the Hollow Hill Dairy Farm which was owned by
G.W. Wilder. The farm was an experimental one, and had special purebred cows. By 1912

or 1913 Alex was in charge of running the farm, and used to go on cow buying trips all over
the USA.
Around the same time Alex was put in charge of the dairy, he married Golda Frances
Buffington. They were married on the 29th of June, probably in 1913. Alex registered for
the draft in 1917, and claimed exemption from the draft because of dependents [his parents
were claimed as dependants as well as his wife and children] and also because of his
occupation as superintendent of a dairy. Alex and Goldie continued to live in Colfax until
about 1925 when they moved to Hynes, California, where Alex operated another dairy.
Sometime before 1930 Alex and Goldie bought land at 304 S. Bloomfield in Norwalk,
California and started their own dairy. While there, Alex became a hay broker, and that
became his main business. He eventually operated a fleet of about ten “Diamond T” trucks
hauling hay.
From 1935 to 1936 Alex was the president of the Southern Region of the FFA.
Alex & Goldie used to visit his nephew, Howard & Angie Benjestorf, in Campbell
River, B.C., often. Goldie loved the fishing there, and used to catch a lot of them.
In the 1950’s, Alex received a letter from a Benjestorf cousin in Germany, Heinrich
Schneehage, who had been doing genealogical research on the Benjestorf family. The two
exchanged numerous letters, most of them in German, and the Schneehage’s visited Alex and
his family around 1956.
Alex finally decided to retire, and in 1963 he and Goldie sold the property on South
Bloomfield and bought a small house in Norwalk. Alexander Benjestorf passed away in his
sleep on 5 July, 1963, before they could move into their new house. He was seventy-seven
years old.
Goldie moved into the smaller house in Norwalk and lived there until her death on 11
May, 1975.
Alex and Goldie had seven children:
a. Leon S. Benjestorf, born 12 May, 1915, probably in Colton, California. While a
boy, in the days before bicycle helmets, Leon was involved in a bicycle accident
and suffered a severe head injury which caused some brain damage. The results
of the brain injury were similar to a stroke, and Leon gave the impression of being
somewhat clumsy and slow witted for the rest of his life. Leon Benjestorf died in
Washington State on 3 May, 1976. Leon and his wife, Alice Ward, had two
children.
i. Richard L. Benjestorf was born on 28 February, 1941. He died in San
Jose, California on 10 October, 2002.
ii. Kay Lynn Benjestorf was born in California. She married a Mr.
Randolph.
***
b. Alexander Benjestorf, Jr., Alex and Goldie’s second child, was probably born in
California. According to Winston Benjestorf, Alex Jr. started a chain of “corn on
the cob” roadside stands and is said to have done quite well with them. Alex
married Fern Dilling~(Heflin?). Alex and Fern divorced and he married Muriel
Webster who was his cousin, Tillie Benjestorf Webster’s, daughter. Muriel had
been previously married and had two daughters by her first husband. She and
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 23
Benjestorf

Alex had no children.
Alex Jr. and Fern had three children:
i. Sharon Lee Benjestorf was born California. She married John Van
Zant.
ii. Karyl Ann Benjestorf was born on 11 June, 1945. Carol Ann married a
man named Hinde and had two young children when she died of a drug
overdose on 2 October, 1969.
iii. Terri Sue Benjestorf was born California.
***
c. Edward Oscar Benjestorf, Alex and Goldie’s third child was born on 7 May,
1919, probably in Colton, California. He was always called Oscar and used Oscar
E. Benjestorf as his signature. Oscar died in Los Angeles County on 16 July,
1963.
In the spring of 2003, Oscar’s wife, Betty, was still alive and living with her
daughter, Sandy, in Seal Beach, California. Oscar and Betty had two other
daughters.
I am still waiting for Betty’s response to a questionnaire I sent her.
d. Clarence D. Benjestorf was born on 11 October, 1920, probably in Colton.
Clarence and his wife, Pauline, had one son and a daughter. Clarence had three
daughters by a second wife, Diana Brilliant. Clarence invented and patented a
variable weight/variable center of gravity casting float to be used with fishing
tackle.
Clarence Benjestorf died on 24 November, 2001, in Bellflower, California.
e. Catherine B. “Kate” Benjestorf was born in California. She was Alex and
Goldie Benjestorf’s fifth child. Kate married Jim Bracket. They currently live
in Fresno, California.
Kate and Jim had three children 9 :
i. Dennis Bracket was born in California.
ii. Susan Bracket was born on 2 December, 1952. Susan died in Tulare
County, California, on 26 March, 1989.
iii. Margaret K. Bracket was born in California.
***
f. Margaret Frances Benjestorf, Alex and Goldie’s sixth child, was born in
California. In February, 1949, Margaret was a model for Bullocks in Los
Angeles. A friend set up a "blind date" with Frank Milton Console who worked
9 Kate Bracket has indicated that there are some errors in the information about her children, but I have not heard
anything more from her since she was hospitalized in 2004.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 24
Benjestorf

and lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and was in town on a
business trip. Unfortunately, the friend forgot to tell
Frank about his "blind date", and he brought his own
date along! Frank was able to overcome this
ignominious start, and he and Margaret were married
a little less than a year later in Los Angeles. Frank
was born in California.
After their marriage Frank was transferred to
Bakersfield and they lived there for about a year and a half. In
1951 they moved to Santa Barbara, California, where Frank
worked as an appraiser for Santa Barbara Savings Bank. They remained in Santa
Barbara for nearly forty years until Frank retired in 1990. After Frank’s
retirement they moved to Penn Valley, Nevada County, California where they still
live.
While in Santa Barbara, Margaret & Frank adopted two sons:
i. Anthony Richard Console, born 19 March, 1955. He was adopted when
he was only 7 days old. A few years ago, Anthony was diagnosed with
congestive heart failure. Continuing to live his life to the fullest, Anthony
went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to help a friend operate a yacht repair
shop. While in Mexico he contracted a bacterial infection from which he
never recovered. He returned to Nevada County in the spring of 2002, and
when his condition didn’t improve he was hospitalized.
Anthony died on 22 July, 2002. Anthony had three children and a
grandson.
ii. Stephen Alexander Console was born in California. He was only 5 days
old when he was adopted. Stephen now lives in Colorado.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 25
Benjestorf
***
g. Helen “Juanita” Benjestorf, Alex and Goldie’s sixth child, was born 7 July,
1930, probably near Norwalk, California. Juanita married Jacob Mulder, and
they were living in Tacoma, Washington, when she died on 2 February, 2000.
Juanita and Jacob had at least two daughters;
i. Cheryl L. Mulder. Cheryl married a Mr. Lewis. They were last reported
to be living in Yakima, Washington, and had two children;
Ø Tracy Lewis
Ø Stephen Lewis.
***
ii. Francie H. Mulder. Francie and her husband, Mr. Amos, were living in
Sumner, Washington, in 2000.

Juanita and Jake also had a granddaughter:
Ø Kimberly Brian. I have not been able to determine which of
Juanita’s daughter’s is Kimberly’s mother.
v Kimberly has a daughter, Mickayla Boyd.
***
6 · Oscar Benjestorf
27 Oct 1887 ~ 18 Oct 1957
Oscar was born on the Benjestorf homestead in Otter Tail County,
Minnesota on 27 October, 1887. In April, 1903, when he was 15, his
parents moved the family to homestead a wheat farm in Fenwood
Township, Saskatchewan, about twelve miles northwest of Melville.
The Benjestorf farm house in Saskatchewan was a small building
made of poles and "chinked" with clay. The attic probably served as a
bedroom for the children, and perhaps the whole family. [See photo
taken ca 1983 on page 10].
In 1905, when he was 18, Oscar moved to Washington State, and went to work for his
brother-in-law, Carl Balzer, his sister Minnie‘s husband. Carl operated a large nursery
business in Spokane, and Oscar’s job was probably related to the nursery business or possibly
the city park system of which Carl was the supervisor. Oscar apparently didn’t work for Carl
very long because he soon went to work for the Northern Pacific and Colorado Southern
Railway, in what capacity I‘m not sure, but he may have gone through a training program to
become a train engineer. In 1908, three years after he went to the United States, he returned
to Canada and took a job with the Canadian National Railway as an engineer working out of
Melville, Saskatchewan. Oscar continued to work for the Canadian Railway until his
retirement sometime after 1952.
On 15 May, 1915, Oscar married Marie Wilhelmina Haas in
Melville, Saskatchewan. [Marie used the German pronunciation of her
name ~ Ma ree uh]. Marie had a daughter by a previous marriage,
Wilhelmina “Minnie”, who was born on 18 December, 1907. Although
Oscar never formally adopted her, Minnie used the Benjestorf surname
while attending school. Minnie ran away from home when she was about
thirteen years old, and didn’t see her mother again until she was a
married adult.
Apparently, Oscar and Marie lived in a house in “downtown” Melville for a year or so
after their marriage. My grandmother, Daisy England~Benjestorf, stayed at Oscar and
Marie’s house in Melville when my mother, Lucille Benjestorf, was due to be born in
February, 1916.
Oscar and Marie's only child was born at the log farmhouse located on the Alex
Benjestorf homestead in Fenwood Township a few miles northwest of Melville in 1919.
Apparently Oscar and Marie had moved into Alex’s old house for a few years before moving
back to a house in Melville early in 1921.
After Oscar retired from the Railroad, he and Marie moved to a farm they bought near
Love, Saskatchewan [located about 80 miles east-northeast of Prince Albert]. They lived
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 26
Benjestorf

there a few years until Oscar developed cancer and they had to move to Saskatoon to be close
to appropriate medical facilities.
Oscar Benjestorf died in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on 18 October, 1957, at 70 years
of age. He is buried in the Saskatoon Cemetery. Marie died on 19 December, 1980, and is
also buried in Saskatoon.
Oscar and Marie had only one child:
a. Howard Frederick Henry Benjestorf was born in the original farmhouse on Alex
Benjestorf’s homestead near Fenwood, Saskatchewan.
Howard’s parents lived in the old farmhouse for only a short time then moved
back to Melville when he was about a year old.
Howard attended school in Melville, and in his teens he worked
part time in Mr. Wasil’s General Store after school and full time during
summer vacation. Howard enjoyed the outdoor activities, such as hunting,
fishing, skating, and hockey, available to a boy growing up in a small town on
the Canadian prairie.
Howard continued to work for Mr. Wasil for a while
after he completed his schooling. During that time, he met a young
lady from Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Angeline Mary Kryski. Angie
and Howard were married in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1941, a
month before Howard’s twenty-second birthday. Angie was not
quite twenty-one. Before his marriage Howard had spent some time
in southern California working for his uncle, Alex Benjestorf.
Very shortly after their marriage, Howard left Angie in Saskatchewan while he
went to southern California to take a job driving hay trucks for his brother Alex.
He had planned to take Angie with him but there was some problem with the US
immigration officials. Canada had been at war since 1939, but the United States
was still officially neutral when Howard went to California. However, that
December the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States entered
World War II. Within two months of his arrival in the United States, Howard
received a draft notice from Uncle Sam. Howard was drafted into the American
Army, but before being shipped overseas he arranged for his return to Canada
where he spent the rest of the war in the RCAF.
In the Canadian Air Force Howard became a gunnery instructor teaching Air
Force personnel to operate the machine guns in the gun turrets of Canadian Air
Force bombers. Howard got to see a lot of Canada during his Air Force tour; he
was based all over Canada, from Prince Edward Island in the Canadian Maritime
provinces on the east coast, to three different bases in Ontario, to the wild west in
Calgary, Alberta, and to his final base on Vancouver
Island, B.C. While Howard was being transferred all
over Canada, Angie followed him and worked as a
secretary on the bases where Howard was stationed.
Howard and Angie fell in love with the beauty and
natural resources of the Canadian west coast, and after
Howard was discharged they decided to make their
home in Courtenay on the east coast of Vancouver
Island.
The logging industry is a major business in British
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 27
Benjestorf

Columbia, so Howard bought a truck and got into the log hauling business. As his
business picked up he was able to buy more trucks and hire more drivers. Howard
spent nearly forty years in the log hauling business and retired in 1984 at the age
of sixty-five.
After his retirement, Howard and Angie enjoyed their leisure time fishing,
hunting and traveling in their motor home to such exotic places as southern
California, etc. They also made some overseas trips to Australia, Hawaii and
Europe. In recent years, Howard and Angie have slowed their pace a bit. They
now live in an apartment in Campbell River, still on the east side of Vancouver
Island, and they still enjoy walks along the waterfront and making short trips on
Vancouver Island. Their son, Michael, and his family also live in Campbell
River, and Howard and Angie also enjoy visiting with them.
On 12 July, 2001, Howard and Angie celebrated their sixtieth wedding
anniversary.
Howard and Angie have three children:
i. Berna Dean Benjestorf was born in British Columbia, Canada. Dean
now lives near Perth, Australia.
ii. Beverly Anne Benjestorf was born in British Columbia. When
she was in her late teens, Beverly’s cousin, Gary Benjestorf,
came up from California to visit her family. Beverly went back
to Colfax, California, with Gary to meet and visit Gary’s
parents, Winston and Ann Benjestorf. While in Colfax, Beverly
met Gary’s best friend, Cary William Huppert, and three weeks
later they married.
The marriage didn’t last long, and a few years later they
were divorced. Beverly and Cary are still friends. Beverly and
two friends, Keith Sawyer and Luna Louise J, now live in a small
apartment in San Francisco, California.
Beverly is largely responsible for getting me started on this Benjestorf
family history project. She sent me a copy of the family pages in Aunt
Helma’s “bible”, and also a copy of a letter from Heinrich Schneehage
outlining most of the information I have presented here about the
Benjestorf ancestors in Germany.
iii. Michael Benjestorf was born in British Columbia,
Canada. Michael married Ruth Depew, and they and
their children live in Campbell River, not far from
Howard and Angie.
Michael and Ruth have three children:
Ø Brittany Benjestorf was born in British Columbia.
Brittany graduated from High School in June, 2002 and
is now attending college.
Ø Nicole Benjestorf was born in British Columbia.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 28
Benjestorf

Nicole competes in ice skating events.
Ø Alexander Benjestorf was born in British Columbia. Alex plays
hockey, and also enjoys fishing. He recently became a member of
the prestigious “Tyee Club” of Campbell River by catching a thirtytwo
pound salmon, unassisted.
***
7 · Hugo Benjestorf
4 Aug 1889 ~ 31 Jul 1963
My grandfather, Hugo Benjestorf was born on 4 August 1889, on his
parents’ homestead in Pine Lake Township, Otter Tail County, near
Perham, Minnesota. He was the seventh child of Heinrich Benjestorf and
Mathilde Gellenbeck. In April, 1903, when he was thirteen, Hugo's parents
moved their family from Perham to start a new homestead near Fenwood,
Saskatchewan, Canada.
Hugo learned to play the violin as a child or young man, and he and
his brother Ed used to play for local dances in the Fenwood area. According
to both Joan and Jeanette Benjestorf, all the Benjestorf children played
some sort of musical instrument at the insistence of their father. It is hard
to imagine being able to locate a music teacher in the pioneering environment of the late
nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries. Perhaps Henry or Mathilde, or both, were
musically talented and taught their children themselves.
Hugo met my grandmother, Daisy Ellen England, through her friendship with
his sister, Helma, and his brother, Albert, who may have attended school with her.
Daisy’s father owned a homestead about ten miles from the Benjestorf’s.
Hugo and Daisy apparently eloped and were married at Coeur d'Alene,
Idaho, USA, on 5 October, 1914. Daisy was born in Tadworth, Surrey,
England, on 3 June, 1898, and was just barely sixteen at the time of their
marriage. Hugo was twenty-five. The marriage license shows them as
being residents of Medical Lake, Spokane County, Washington. Medical
Lake was a resort town at the time and is located about fifteen miles west of Spokane. They
may have actually stayed at the home of Hugo’s sister, Tillie, and her husband, Carl Balzer in
Spokane. It is likely that Hugo worked for Carl in his nursery for a
while after his marriage.
Sometime before 1916, Hugo and Daisy returned to
Fenwood, Saskatchewan, and moved into the original log house
on Alex Benjestorf’s homestead on the NE quarter of Section
24, and worked the farm for him. Alex had already moved to
southern California by that time. Hugo probably received a
percentage of the annual profits from the farm in addition to living
quarters.
When their first child was due, Daisy stayed with Hugo’s
brother and sister-in-law, Oscar and Marie Benjestorf, at their house in Melville, because it
was warmer, and perhaps because there was a doctor nearby.
Lucille Benjestorf remembers that her father built a house out of milled lumber
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 29
Benjestorf

[instead of the logs she was used to] on the Alex Benjestorf property
when she was a little girl, and they subsequently moved out of the log
home and lived in the new house. It seems that Hugo’s brother,
Oscar, and his wife may have moved into the older house after Hugo
and his family moved into the new one.
In the late winter or early spring of 1923, perhaps motivated
by his father’s illness or death, Hugo, his wife and three daughters
boarded a train at Melville and immigrated to Colton, California.
Hugo was the last of Henry and Mathilde Benjestorf’s sons to leave
the homestead in Saskatchewan. His brother Oscar remained in
Melville and made a career with the railroad. His sister, Helma, who
had married a local homesteader, Conmee McClellan, stayed on the
farm for a few more years, as did his sister Emma.
In Colton, Hugo and his family lived with his brother, Edward, who lived on the
Hollow Hill Dairy, until they could find their own house. Hugo got a job working in the PFE
Railroad repair yard in San Bernardino, California, and rented a house closer to downtown
Colton.. In the 1930 Census his job description was “Carman” in the “Car Shops”. He also
continued to play the violin for weekend dances.
After her initial appearance as a skinny little kid, Daisy blossomed into
a strikingly attractive young woman. Hugo became extremely jealous and
insecure about his relationship with his young wife. She would accompany
him to the weekend dances where he played the fiddle, and after dancing the
first dance with him, Hugo expected her to stay seated quietly in a corner for
the rest of the evening while he played in the band. If she dared to dance with
anyone else he would become furious. Daisy was never one to sit back and
bite her tongue, and frequent arguments inevitably ensued. Daisy finally got fed up and
sometime around 1930 they separated. After the separation, Daisy continued to live in the
house in Colton. Hugo moved to San Bernardino. They were divorced sometime between
1932 and 1936, possibly in Nevada. The emotional strain caused by the financial insecurity
occasioned by the start of the Great Depression in 1929, probably also contributed to the
breakup of their marriage. Daisy used to have a saying; “Love flies out the window when the
wolf is at the door” [for those of you who are too young to be familiar with the expression
“the wolf is at the door”, it meant that a person was so impoverished he didn’t know where
his next meal was coming from].
In San Bernardino, Hugo married a second time to Mary Stiles, a divorcee with a
grown son, Henry Stiles. Mary owned an old, two story house on Fifth Street, and she and
Hugo lived in it until her death in 1958. After his marriage to Mary, Hugo took custody of
his two youngest daughters, Ada Joan [Joannie] and Evelyn. Daisy continued to raise her
two eldest girls, Lucille and Virginia.
According to Lucille and Joan Benjestorf, Hugo was a member of a
western style band that played at local dances, and also started doing regular
appearances on a San Bernardino Radio Station. The group became quite
popular and started getting offers for out of town engagements. “The Sons of
the Pioneers” as the group was called, eventually made it “big time” and became
one of the most popular western musical groups in America during the 1940’s
and early ’50’s. When the group started going on the road on a regular basis,
Hugo chose the security of his nine to five job working for the city of San
Bernardino Department of Parks, rather than the long-shot chance that the
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 30
Benjestorf

group might actually be a financial success. 10
Early in 1940, Hugo and Mary adopted a baby girl, Darlyne Marie Schmidt, who
Hugo nicknamed “Dolly” and who has been called that ever since. As Hugo and Mary aged,
Dolly started spending more and more time at her step sister, Joan‘s, house until it was finally
decided that Dolly would live with Joan and Art Mathews full time.
Mary died in San Bernardino on 25 April, 1958. After her death, Hugo continued to
live in the house on Fifth Street, but was drinking heavily and not taking care of himself. His
daughter, Joan, would prepare meals for him and deliver them to him at his house, but when
she returned the next day she would find the food uneaten. Joan finally checked him into the
Patton Hospital Alcoholic Center. After his recovery he lived with Joan and her family.
Hugo continued to play violin at the Pioneer Club dances. At one of the dances he
met Tomasita, a divorcee. Hugo and Tomasita married and lived in Tomasita’s house near
Redlands, California. Their relationship was highly volatile, and on a number of occasions,
after an argument, Hugo would call his daughter, Joan, who would pick him up and take him
to her house where he would stay until he and Tomasita got back together again. Hugo and
Tomasita soon divorced.
Hugo met his fourth wife, Eulah, at another dance. According to Joan, Eulah was
one of the best things that ever happened to Hugo. Hugo and Eulah remained happily married
until Hugo’s death on 31 July, 1963. He died at home of a cerebral hemorrhage. His
remains were cremated and his ashes were deposited in the grave of his second wife, Mary, at
the cemetery at Waterman and Highland Avenue in San Bernardino, California.
Hugo and Daisy England had four daughters:
a. My mother, Lucille Daisy Benjestorf, was born at the home of her Uncle, Oscar
Benjestorf, in Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Ceille spent her infancy and early childhood as a member of a pioneer family
on the Canadian Prairie. When her mother took her home after her birth in
Melville, Ceille lived in a log cabin built by her uncle, Alex Benjestorf, about eight
or nine years previously. There was no running water, and no indoor toilet. The
family survived mostly on what they could raise themselves, and which they stored
in a grain shed or root cellar for use during the winter. Hugo hunted to provide
meat for his family. Rain barrels were set under the eves to catch and store
rainwater for washing and other jobs requiring a large amount of water. The
family income was from the sale of the wheat they raised, and the crop was only
sold once a year. Ceille says they only made a trip to the general store in
Fenwood after the crop was sold, at which time they bought all the canned goods
and other staples they would need for the coming year. The trip to Fenwood was
in a horse drawn wagon.
One winter evening, Ceille and her parents had been somewhere in their sleigh
and were returning home after dark when the horse got a little too frisky and upset
the sleigh, throwing all the occupants into the snow bank. Ceille’s sister, Ginger,
was just a baby and had been bundled up in a blanket and was sound asleep. After
the upset they couldn’t find Ginger! Even with a lantern, the white baby blanket
10 The official history of The Sons of the Pioneers, which was founded by Leonard Slye [later known by his
screen name, Roy Rogers] makes no mention of Hugo Benjestorf among the list of original members of the
group. Neither does it mention that the group ever played on a San Bernardino Radio station although they did
do regular broadcasts from an Ontario, California, station.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 31
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lended into the snow so well it took several panicky minutes of searching before
they finally located her.
Ceille remembers the first time she ever rode in a car. One of her cousins had
a boyfriend who got a car and drove over to show it off. Ceille was there when he
showed up, and the boy gave all of them a terrifying ride around the back yard at
about twenty miles an hour, the fastest Ceille had ever traveled in her life!
Ceille’s father played the violin at local dances, and sometimes Ceille would
go to the dance with her parents. She learned to dance the Charleston on stage at
the dance hall so the audience would toss coins to her.
Lucille started school in Canada, probably in 1922 when she was six and a half
years old. She cannot remember the name of the school she attended in Canada,
but thought it might have been the Greenbush School. Although her grandfather
had been on the Greenbush school board, the Benjestorf farm was not located
within the Greenbush school district. Once Ceille had started school, she used to
live with her aunt, Emma Bamping, during the school week, presumably because it
was closer to the school. However, the Bamping farm was no closer to the
Greenbush School than the Benjestorf farm, and it was not in the school district,
either. I have recently discovered that both Clarence and Hazel Bamping attended
the Dawn School, as did Alfred England, Daisy’s brother. The Dawn school was
in an adjacent township and only about three miles from the Bamping farm. I
believe my mother probably attended the Dawn school.
The school had only one room and of course, only one teacher. In the winter
it was heated by a wood or coal burning “pot belly stove” that sat in the center of
the classroom. The teacher passed by the Bamping farm on the way to school and
would give Ceille and her cousin, Hazel, a ride to school in his buggy or sleigh,
depending on the weather. Hazel was several years older than Ceille, and Ceille
says they always covered her up with a heavy robe, including her head, supposedly
to protect her from the cold, but Ceille always thought it was because Hazel and
the teacher were carrying on some kind of flirtation and didn’t want her to see
them.
In the late winter or early spring of 1923, when Ceille was seven years old, her
parents put the family on a train and relocated to Colton, California. They left
Fenwood before the end of the school year.
In Colton, Ceille’s family stayed with her Uncle Ed and Aunt May Benjestorf
in their house at the Hollow Hill Dairy for a month or so until her father could find
work and rent a house of their own. While staying there, all the Benjestorf
children came down with the measles.
Ceille’s father got a job working for the PFE Railroad repair shop in San
Bernardino. The family moved into a small rental house closer to downtown
Colton, and Ceille resumed her education in the first grade at Lincoln School, in
Colton.
About the time Ceille started the eighth grade, the stock market crashed and
the Great Depression started.
Shortly after Ceille started high school, her parents separated, and her mother
went to work for one of the school teachers, Mrs. Hemphill, as a full time
housekeeper. Mrs. Hemphill’s house must have been very large, because Aunt
May was also working for the same teacher at that time. Perhaps the teacher,
whose job was apparently secure, took pity on them and hired them both to
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provide them with some source of income. Ceille dropped out of high school so
she could take care of her younger sisters while her mother was working.
Sometime late in 1932 or early 1933 Ceille was invited to her father’s house in
San Bernardino to meet his second wife’s son, Henry Stiles.
Henry was in the army and was home on a pass. He brought a
friend, my father, Donald Francis Roddy, with him. Ceille
apparently liked Don better than Henry. They dated for a
short time, then in 1933, Don and Ceille drove to Yuma,
Arizona, in Don’s Model “T” roadster and got married.
Ceille’s mother and her youngest sister, Evelyn, went with
them and rode in the rumble seat.
Don and Ceille continued to live at Ceille’s mother’s house for a year or so,
and Don worked as an assistant to Ceille’s uncle, Edward Benjestorf, in his job as
school janitor. The pay was very low. It seems likely that there was no “assistant
janitor” position at the school, and Uncle Ed may have been paying Don out of his
own meager paycheck.
Don was a “Jack of All Trades”, but his main trade was house painting. Life
with Don Roddy turned out to be very nomadic. Ceille and Don moved
frequently, looking for work, and lived all over the west coast, from National City,
California, near the Mexican border, to Puyallup, Washington, almost to Canada,
for the next fifty and a half years. Don died on 1 December, 1983, while
they were living in Atascadero, California.
Don’s life was not a financial success, and he died leaving Luci, as
she was then being called, with nothing but an old, worn out, mobile home, an
old broken down car, and a very small pension from the painter’s union and
a small monthly check from Social Security. This income has been
supplemented by a regular monthly check from her eldest son, and an
allotment from her grandson who is in the navy. Luci continued to live in
the mobile home for several years after Don’s death, but was finally
persuaded to move into a low income retirement apartment. She sold the mobile
home for less than $2000.
In 1997, after living at the apartment for a few years, Luci married Roy Smith,
also a resident of the apartment complex. They pooled their resources and got a
larger apartment in the same complex. A year or two later they moved to a low
income apartment complex in San Luis Obispo, California, where they remained
until Roy’s failing health forced him into a nursing home. Since Luci could not
afford the cost of the apartment on her income alone, she moved into a mobile
home on her grandson, Mark William’s, property in the village of Saginaw, near
Cottage Grove, Oregon. Mark’s property is situated adjacent to Luci’s daughter,
Carol’s, property, so Luci was surrounded by relatives to visit her and watch over
her.
Several months after moving to Saginaw, Luci experienced a “mini-stroke”
and was hospitalized for several days. It was decided that Luci needed full time
assisted living care, and she now resides in the Coast Fork Nursing Center in
Cottage Grove, Oregon. Since she has been living in the nursing home Luci
suffered another, more serious stroke, and is now unable to walk without the aid of
a “walker”.
Cottage Grove is only a couple of miles from Saginaw, and Luci’s daughter,
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 33
Benjestorf

Carol, visits her frequently, some times two or three times a day.
Her grandchildren, Randy and Mark live nearby and they, too, visit
her. Luci would rather not have to be in a nursing home, but she at
least doesn’t feel deserted by her family.
Don & Lucille had four children, one of whom died shortly after
her birth. [See Donald Francis Roddy in The
Roddy’s section]
b. Virginia Henrietta Benjestorf was born 14 May, 1918, on her
Uncle Alex Benjestorf’s homestead near Fenwood, Saskatchewan, Canada.
In the late winter or early spring of 1923, when “Ginger” was about
five years old, her parents moved their family to Colton, California, where her
Uncle Ed and Aunt May lived. After staying at Uncle Ed’s house for a while,
Ginger’s father found a job and rented a house closer to downtown Colton.
A few years after they moved to California, Ginger’s parents separated.
After their father remarried, Ginger & her older sister, Lucille, stayed with
their mother while the two younger sisters stayed with their father.
In the early 1930’s Ginger married Jim Stoddard, and had a daughter, Donna
Lee, by him. Jim turned out to be an abusive husband ( he is said to have become
angry at Ginger while hunting and knocked her out with his rifle butt and
abandoned her in the woods [according to Lucille Benjestorf]). This resulted in
separation and divorce, and somehow Jim got custody of their daughter who was
still just a baby. Ginger never saw or heard from her daughter again until Donna
was in her late teens.
Later, Gin married Robert Thomas Burgess and had two sons by him. Some
time around 1945 or 1946 that marriage also ended in divorce.
After divorcing Bob, Gin met and married Ralph Wood.
They lived in the San Diego, California, area for the rest of her
life.
Several years ago, Gin, who had been a heavy smoker for
much of her life, developed emphysema. She spent many years
constantly on oxygen which essentially confined her to their
mobile home. More recently, Ralph found it necessary to move
her into a nearby nursing home, where he visited her daily.
Virginia Henrietta Benjestorf died around seven AM on 12
November, 2002, at the nursing home in Santee, California.
Ginger and Ralph had no children. Ralph continues to live in his
mobile home in Santee.
Virginia Benjestorf and Jim Stoddard had a daughter:
i. Donna Lee Stoddard was born on 26 March, 1935, in California. Donna
Lee's parents had a very bitter divorce while Donna was still a baby. Her
father somehow got custody of her but she was raised primarily by her
paternal grandmother who always told Donna that her mother was dead!
When Donna was in her early teens her father, Jim Stoddard, was
reportedly arrested on a statutory rape charge, and allegedly committed
suicide while in police custody.
In her middle or late teens, after her grandmother’s death, Donna was
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 34
Benjestorf

looking through some of her grandmother's papers and learned that her
mother was still alive. She and her boyfriend went looking for her mother.
When she did find her, her mother refused to let the boyfriend spend the
night in the house with her, so Donna "took off" and never saw her mother
again until she herself was a grandmother!
In the mid 1970’s, Donna was living in Grass Valley, California, when
she and her mother finally got together again. It was a grand reunion,
because not only was her mother there in the house with her, but so was her
mother’s mother, Daisy, her own daughter Cheryl, and Cheryl’s baby
daughter… five generations of women under one roof. Someone
contacted the local newspaper, and a photographer was sent over to the
house to record the event for posterity.
Donna was working as a waitress in a restaurant/bar in a small town in
the northern California foothills and one night a fight started in the bar. A
gun was fired and Donna was shot in the abdomen! She survived the
injury, but with serious internal damage.
Donna died on 31 July, 1992, while living in Marysville, California.
Donna had several children, including some son’s and her daughter,
Cheryl. At this time I do not know their names or whereabouts.
****
Virginia Benjestorf and Bob Burgess had two sons:
ii. Delmer Robert Burgess was born in Oregon. When Delmer was very
young his parents moved to the Sacramento, California, area where they
stayed for a short time. They later moved to a rural residential area called
The Rabbit Farms, near Puyallup, Washington. The family stayed there
until 1945, and then moved to Pine Grove, California, a very small town in
the foothills east of Sacramento.
While at Pine Grove, Delmer’s parents had marital problems which led
to their divorce.
Delmer enlisted in the Air force in 1956, when he was eighteen. After
Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas,
Delmer became a radar technician and maintained GCA equipment for the
Air Force. After he got out of the Air Force in 1959, Delmer worked in
the construction business in southern California for about
three years.
Around that time, Del married Melody Carolyn Waits.
Melody was born in Illinois.
In 1962, Del went to work for the GTE telephone
company in the greater Los Angeles area. In 1974 he was
transferred to Gold Beach, Oregon and has lived there ever
since. Del is now “semi-retired” and operates his own
telephone repair and installation business and plays a lot of
golf.
Delmer Burgess and Melody Waits have two daughters:
Ø Sherry Lee Burgess was born in California.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 35
Benjestorf

Ø Christine René Burgess was born California.
***
iii. Kenneth Hugh Burgess, Gin and Bob’s second son, was born in
California. His family moved to the Puyallup, Washington, area not long
after his birth, and they lived there until around 1945, when they moved to
Pine Grove, California. His parents divorced, and he and his brother went
to the San Diego area with their mother.
Kenny was in the Air Force from 1957 to 1960 and worked on
electronic equipment at a remote base in Turkey.
After leaving the Air Force, Kenny went to work for
Pacific Bell Telephone Company in southern California as
a cable splicer. He later transferred to Mountain Bell in
Montana. While in Montana, Ken married Terry Lynn
Ehret in 1981. When Mountain Bell became US West,
Ken transferred to Oregon. Ken has been living in
Phoenix, Oregon, near Medford, for about twenty years.
About 1982 Ken was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, and
underwent a course of Chemo-therapy and radiation treatments. The
treatments seemed to be effective, but about four years later he had a
relapse. Another course of chemo and radiation therapy had the same
results. Finally, about ten years ago, in Seattle, Kenny had a bone marrow
transplant from his brother, Delmer. The treatment seems to have worked
and he is in good health at this time.
Kenny and Terry have three sons:
Ø Kenneth Hugh Burgess, Jr. was born in California. Ken has two
children:
v Vickie Burgess
v Kenny Burgess
***
Ø Ron Del Burgess was born in California. Ron has two children:
v Andrew Burgess. Andrew was born around 1983. He
recently joined the Army and is training to be a Ranger.
v Toni Burgess. Toni was born about 1984. She presently
works at a grocery store in Medford.
***
Ø Gary Wayne Burgess was born in California. Gary has one son:
v Rand Burgess. Rand was born about 1988. He presently
attends High School.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 36
Benjestorf

****
c. Ada Joan Benjestorf, Hugo and Daisy’s third child, near
Fenwood, Saskatchewan, Canada, where her parents operated a
wheat farm. Her birth certificate shows she was born on the NE
quarter of section 24; Alex Benjestorf's homestead. Her father,
Hugo, had been operating Alex's farm for a number of years prior
to her birth. Joan has been told she was born in her Uncle Oscar
Benjestorf's house. Oscar may have lived in Alex’s house for a
few years when he wasn’t living in Melville. Mrs. Conmee
McLellan (Aunt Helma Benjestorf) was in attendance at the
birth, and Aunt May (England) Benjestorf was also present in the house.
Joan tells a story told to her by her mother that her sisters, four year old Lucille
and two year old Virginia had been playing upstairs at the time of her birth.
When the two came downstairs it was discovered that Lucille had used the
contents of the chamber pot to "style" Gin's hair ! Aunt May wanted to spank
Lucille, but Aunt Helma thought it was funny and wouldn't let her.
Joan’s family moved to Colton, California, during the first half of 1923. They
initially stayed with her Uncle Ed and Aunt May on a dairy farm near Colton.
Joan lived in Colton until after her parents separated and her father moved to
San Bernardino. After her father remarried, he took Joan and her younger sister,
Evelyn, to live with him. Her two older sisters, Lucille and Virginia, soon
married, and her mother moved to Nevada.
Joan started the ninth grade in San Bernardino after her parents' separation, and
graduated from High School there. After High School she attended a "Beauty
School" and graduated as a beautician.
Joan met Arthur Alva Mathews at a "Woodmen of the
World" picnic in Riverside, California. On their first date they
went to a Rodeo in San Bernardino. Joan and Art were married
in Nevada in 1941.
About 2 years after their marriage Art was drafted into the
Army and sent to Europe for the duration of WWII. While
Art was in Europe, Joan rented out their house and moved
back in with her father and his second wife, Mary. While
there, she worked in a beauty shop and used the rental
income to double up on her house payments. By the time Art returned at the end
of the war, she had paid off the house mortgage!
Sometime in the early 1950’s, Joan and Art took on the responsibility of
raising their father's adopted daughter, Dolly, who had been spending an
increasing amount of time at Joan and Art’s house as her step parents aged.
At some point Art & Joan bought a new house next door to their
original home. They continued to own the old house and rented it out.
After Art died in 1982, Joan stayed in San Bernardino for a while but sold
the old rental property. Several years later she sold the other house and
moved to Santa Barbara, California, near her cousin, Jeanette Benjestorf and
her husband, Paul Jillson, where she stayed for about four years.
Joan’s son, Vaughn, had became a minister and was transferred from
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 37
Benjestorf

Hawaii to Longview, Washington, so in the spring of 1999 Joan decided to move
to Longview to be near him and his family. Vaughn transferred to Yakima,
Washington, in the summer of 2002.
As of May, 2003, Joan was still living in Longview, Washington, and said she
was tired of moving and planned to stay there for the rest of her life. Joannie
experienced a stroke in the fall of 2005 and now lives in a nursing home in
Longview.
Ada Joan Benjestorf and Arthur Mathews had only one son:
i. Vaughn Mathews was born in California. Vaughn spent his entire
childhood living in the same house, his parents’ home in San Bernardino,
California.
Vaughn graduated from Pacific High School in 1966. After high
school, Vaughn enrolled in a two year vocational school operated by the
Santa Fe Railroad and learned to be a boilermaker. During that time,
Vaughn became involved with the Diablo’s, a Hells Angels style
motorcycle ”club” in the San Bernardino area.
Vaughn married Vickie in San Bernardino around 1969. After
completing his training as a boilermaker, Vaughn got a job establishing a
Steel Fabrication operation in Arizona. While they were living in
Arizona, Vickie left Vaughn.
Vaughn returned to California and went to work in Anaheim for the
same company that he had worked for in Arizona. While in Anaheim,
Vaughn started attending church on a regular basis and was saved.
One day, while visiting his parents’ in San Bernardino, Vaughn,
who had been doing some serious soul searching, felt compelled to kneel
before an alter and dedicate his life to the service of the Lord. At the
instant this event occurred he happened to be in his parents’ bathroom, and
the only thing vaguely resembling an alter was the toilet seat. Vaughn
knelt before the toilet and dedicated his life to Jesus.
Interestingly, Vickie, who had ended up in Kauai, Hawaii, had also
become a born again Christian after leaving him.
Vaughn went to Kauai to try to save his marriage, but things did not
work out between him and Vickie. While in Kauai, Vaughn started his
training as a minister. Before he had even completed his training he
opened a Mission Church in Lihue, and persuaded many young people to
accept Christ as their savior.
While he was in Kauai, Vaughn met Barbara Weber, and the two
were married there in 1975.
Shortly after his marriage to Barbara, Vaughn was
assigned to his first church as an ordained minister. The
church was one that had been established on the north
shore of the island of Oahu, with high hopes of saving
large numbers of souls among the local people. The
previous minister had been disappointingly
unsuccessful in bringing people into the church, and
on Vaughn’s first Sunday sermon, there were only
four people in attendance, Vaughn, his wife,
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 38
Benjestorf

Vaughn’s supervisor and mentor, and his wife. With the lack of
membership, the position of pastor of the church did not receive a salary,
and Vaughn had to work full time to support his family while also doing
the Lord’s work full time. Miraculously, with the help of God, Vaughn
was able to turn the church around and membership swelled in the two
years he was pastor there.
In June, 1977, Vaughn’s grandmother, Daisy England~Osborn
passed away in Rialto, California, and Vaughn was asked to give the
eulogy at her funeral service. It was the first time I had heard Vaughn
speak as a minister, and I was very favorably impressed.
Vaughn and Barbara’s next assignment was to another church with
membership problems, in Kona, on the “Big Island” of Hawaii. Vaughn
was pastor at the church in Kona for four and a half years, and again was
able to significantly increase the membership.
Around 1982, Vaughn and Barbara were transferred back to the
mainland USA. By then he had gained a reputation as a minister who
seemed to thrive on reversing membership problems in troubled churches.
Again he was assigned to such a church, this time in Longview,
Washington. The attendance at his first sermon in Longview was forty
people. In the twenty years he was pastor at Longview, the church
membership ballooned. In August, 2002, Vaughn and Barbara were again
reassigned to a church in Yakima, Washington, The Christian Life Center.
Again, Vaughn was sent to a church with a chronic problem of decreasing
membership. In the few months Vaughn and Barbara have been in
Yakima, the membership has already started to climb.
Vaughn and his first wife, Vickie, had one child:
Ø Mikah Mathews was born in California. When Vaughn and
Vickie separated, Mikah stayed with her mother. At last report
she lived somewhere in Missouri.
***
Vaughn Mathews and Barbara Weber have three children, all born in
Hawaii:
Ø Joel Isaac Mathews was born in Hawaii. Joel married Christy
Carns. Joel and Christy have one daughter:
v Nevaeh Mathews.
***
Ø Jesse David Mathews was born in Hawaii.
Ø Leah Lani Mathews was in Hawaii.
****
d. Evelyn Benjestorf was born on 28 November, 1924, in San Bernardino,
California. Evelyn was born about a year and a half after her parents moved from
Canada to Colton, California. When she was about five or six her parents
separated. Her mother retained custody of her two oldest sisters (Lucille &
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 39
Benjestorf

Virginia), while Evelyn and her sister, Joan, lived with her father after he
remarried.
Evelyn married Richard Shaddox in Yuma, Arizona, in 1943. Evelyn
developed lung cancer which Metastasized to her brain. She died four years
after her marriage at 2:30 PM on 25 June, 1947, within 24 hours of being
admitted to the San Bernardino Hospital. She was not yet 23 years old. Her
husband, Richard Shaddox, says her doctor had been treating her for arthritis, and
didn’t even know she had cancer until after her death!
Evelyn was buried in the southeast corner of Lot 6, Block 1, of the Hermosa
Cemetery, in Colton, California. Her grave is in the Shaddox family section of
the cemetery. Although Richard Shaddox remarried many years ago, he and his
wife, Yvonne Asher, still visit Evelyn’s grave several times a year and place
flowers on it.
****
Hugo Benjestorf and his second wife, Mary Stiles, adopted a baby girl:
d. Darlyne “Dolly” Marie Benjestorf, who was born in
California. Darlyne’s mother, Sarah Butterfield, ran an ad in
the San Bernardino newspaper for someone to take care of her
baby during the day. Hugo and Mary answered the ad and
after bringing her baby to their house a few times, Sarah
dropped her off one day, and didn’t return to pick her up.
Darlyne’s father, Jake Schmidt, who lived in Victorville,
California, and was financially unable to raise Darlyne, learned
that Sarah had abandoned their daughter, and made arrangements for friends to
raise her. When Hugo and Mary heard about the arrangements, they asked if they
could adopt Darlyne instead. After thinking it over for several days, he agreed to
let them adopt her.
Hugo thought Darlyne looked like a “little doll”, and nicknamed her
Dolly, a name she still uses.
As Dolly grew older she started spending more and more time at her
stepsister, Joan‘s, house. Finally, when Dolly was about twelve years old she
moved in with Joan and Art full time, and Joan became her
“surrogate mother”.
Dolly married her business partner, Dale Moody. Dolly
and Dale lived in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where they owned and
operated Eagle Land, Inc., a real estate company that specializes in
selling land in Wyoming. Dolly and Dale enjoyed traveling and
seeing new places and they had made trips to several foreign
countries in recent years.
Dale developed cancer, and when the pain became
unbearable he took his own life on 25 April, 2005.
Dolly has four children from previous marriages:
i. Bryan R. Land. Bryan is a cable contractor and lives in Sonoma,
California. Bryan and his wife, Laura, have two children;
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Benjestorf

Ø Kyle Land .
Ø Collin Land .
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 41
Benjestorf
***
ii. Crystal M. Land. Crystal is the Dean of Education at Head Royce
School in Oakland, California. She is married to Will Miller who is a
CPA. Crystal and Will have two children:
Ø Zack Miller.
Ø Haley Miller.
***
iii. Lisa Ann Pritichard. Lisa is married to Scott Holtzer, a college
professor. They live in De Soto, Missouri.
Lisa and Scott have two children:
Ø Iris Holtzer.
Ø Gillian Holtzer.
***
iv. Jana Webb. Jana is unmarried and works in Portland, Oregon, as an
esthetician, and massage therapist.
****
8 · Edward Benjestorf
18 Sep 1891 ~ Oct 1963
Uncle Ed was born on the homestead in Otter Tail County,
Minnesota, on 18 September, 1891. In April, 1903, when Ed was not
quite twelve years old, he moved with his parents to start a new homestead
near Fenwood, Saskatchewan.
William James England, an immigrant from
England, had a homestead a few miles from Ed‘s
parents. Ed married William England’s daughter,
Kathleen May England, on 2 June 1919 11 . Aunt
May was my grandmother, Daisy England’s, sister.
In the summer or early fall of 1920, Uncle Ed
& Aunt May moved to Colton, California, where they stayed for a while
with Ed’s brother, Alex, who was manager of the Hollow Hill Dairy
owned by the G.W. Wilder family. Ed and his family were offered a
11 There is some question about the year of their marriage. I assume it was in 1919 because their only child was
born the following year.

house on the Dairy farm, and they stayed there for a number of years.
Ed initially had a job working at a pumping station for the local water company. The
dampness in the pumping station affected Ed’s health, and he finally had to quit. Ed was
offered a job working on the dairy, which he accepted. A family named Cooley was
affiliated with the dairy in some capacity, and Ed and his family were “adopted” by the
Cooley’s.
Ed later took a job as gardener for the High School at Colton. Ed continued to work
for the High School throughout the Great Depression, and though the job didn’t pay very
much, at least it provided a steady income.
Soon after the start of World War II, Ed and May moved to Rialto, California, where
they opened a small general store, Benjestorf’s, on Riverside Avenue in the main shopping
district of Rialto. The Benjestorf’s store specialized in sewing supplies.
Uncle Ed died on 2 October 1963.
Aunt May contracted cancer and passed away on 19 October, 1986.
Edward Benjestorf and Kathleen May England had only one child:
a. Jeanette Benjestorf was born in Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Jeanette's parents moved from Melville to Colton, California,
when she was still a baby. After working for the local water
company for a while, her father got a job at Hollow Hill Dairy
which was being managed by his brother, Alex Benjestorf. The
job included living quarters on the dairy. The Cooley family,
who were associated with the dairy, “adopted“ the
Benjestorf’s and treated them like members of their own
family. Jeanette is still very close to the surviving Cooley
children. At a very young age (around 1 year old, ± 6 months) Jeanette was struck
by polio. She spent much of the first eleven years of her life in the Shriner’s
Hospital in San Francisco. She has been physically disabled ever since, and has
been confined to a wheel chair for most of her life. In spite of her handicap,
Jeanette always seems to have a cheerful, uplifting disposition.
Jeanette lived with her parents in Colton and then Rialto, California, until both
of them had passed away. She helped her parents run their general store in Rialto.
After her mother died of cancer, Jeanette was determined to get off welfare,
and got a job as a clerk for a Church in the San Bernardino area. While she was
working at the church, a high school class mate, Paul Jillson, contacted her while
looking up former classmates of his. A few years later Paul and Jeanette were
married. As I write this, Jeanette & Paul are living in Goleta near Santa Barbara,
California.
Jeanette has been a virtual goldmine of information about the Benjestorf,
Gellenbeck and England families. She told me about Beverly having Aunt
Helma’s “bible” and provided me with her address as well as the names and
addresses of many other Benjestorf relatives I’ve contacted during this project.
*******
9 · Walter Benjestorf
8 Jun 1893 ~ Dec 1981
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 42
Benjestorf

On 8 June, 1893, Walter Benjestorf was born on his parents
homestead near Perham, Otter Tail County, Minnesota. In April, 1903,
when he was not quite ten years old, his parents took him to Saskatchewan
with them to homestead a wheat farm near the village of Fenwood.
During The Great War, Walter was an orderly in a hospital in Winnipeg
where he met a nurse, Anne King. Anne was born in England on 21
February, 1892. Walter and Anne married in 1918, and not long
afterward they moved to Colton, California. By 1920 they were living in
Long Beach, California, in a rental house next door to Walter’s parents. Annie’s sister and
brother-in-law, Emmy and Maxwell Herbert and their children lived with them. Walter was
working as a carpenter at the time. In 1925 Walter and his family were in Lane County,
Oregon. By 1930 they had moved to Palo Alto, California, where Walter was a milk
salesman. Walter and his family later moved to Colfax, California, where Walter operated a
"Wimpy's" hamburger stand located a short distance out of Colfax on the road to Grass
Valley. He also worked as a cook at the Wermeir facility for the mentally ill, which was
located near Colfax.
After he retired, Walter and Annie moved to Santa Cruz, California. Annie died
there on 11 January, 1968.
After Annie’s death Walter married Edna Mae Massey. 12 Walter died in Santa Cruz
in December, 1981.
Edna Mae died 11 May, 1993.
Walter Benjestorf and Anne King had two children, one of whom died as a young
child;
a. Winston K. Benjestorf was born at Hollow Hill Dairy near
Colton, California, after his parents moved there from
Saskatchewan, Canada.
Winston worked on his Uncle Alex Benjestorf’s dairy
farm in Norwalk, California, for a while as a young man. He
later owned a Volkswagen shop, and got involved in off road
racing all over the west coast. He owned a construction
company in Colfax.
Winston met his wife, Lois
Fairfield, when she came into his
father's "Wimpy's Burger" restaurant
while he was working there as a
young man, and he says it was love at first sight. They were
married in 1942.
In March, 2002, Winston and Lois had recently
moved from Colfax to Applegate, California.
Winston had a long battle with multiple cancers, and
also had to have open heart surgery in recent years. When I
met with him in the spring of 2002 he seemed in good
health and was working on rebuilding a deck that needed upgrading to comply with
the building code.
12 Based on verbal information from a Benjestorf family member. There may be some confusion about the
name.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 43
Benjestorf

I visited Winston early in my research into the Benjestorf family history, and at
that time I had not yet heard of the family name change from Pfennigstorf to
Benjestorf. Winston told me a story he had heard, presumably from his father, which
contained a kernel of the truth about the Benjestorf name;
According to the story Winston had heard, my great grandfather, Heinrich, was
a Scotsman trying to do business in Hannover. His real name was Henry Benje or
Benjes or some such name, and his business was not doing well because the locals
didn‘t want to deal with a foreigner. Some German friends suggested he change his
name to a more German sounding one, so he modified it to “Benjestorf“. As the
story goes, the strategy worked and Heinrich became a wealthy man, but all his wealth
was confiscated by “the Kaiser“. Presumably that is why he came to America.
There are several obvious problems with the story, not the least of which is that
Heinrich emigrated to the United States when he was only nineteen or twenty and it is
very difficult to see him being able to “become a wealthy man” at that age in the
socio-economic environment that existed in mid nineteenth century Hannover.
However, the key elements of the story fit in very nicely with that of Johann Heinrich
Pfennigstorf.
Since visiting Winston in March, 2002, I have learned that both he and Lois
are now living in a nursing home.
Winston Benjestorf and Lois Fairfield had five children:
i. Gary Benjestorf was born in California.
When he was about twenty-two Gary visited his Benjestorf relatives in
British Columbia, and brought his cousin, Beverly, back with him to meet
his parents. Beverly ended up marrying Gary’s best friend, Cary
Huppert.
Not long after that, Gary joined the navy and served on the USS
Johnson until 1969.
Gary is a retired minister, and served as a chaplain for a local law
enforcement agency for seventeen years.
Gary is married to Bonnie Jean Magie who was born on 22
March, 1946. Gary and Bonnie have three children:
Ø Stephen Robert Benjestorf was born in South Carolina.
Ø Tracy Ann Benjestorf was born in California. Unlike her brother, Jason,
“Traycee” rebelled against her religious upbringing and had some serious
problems as a teenager and young adult. She became involved in an
abusive relationship and finally called on her parents for help. Her parents
arranged for her to move to a safe location in the Midwest where she found
a job.
One evening while driving home from work, Traycee had an intense
spiritual experience, and accepted Christ as her personal savior. She
subsequently attended Asbury College, a Christian school.
Ø Jason Bradley Benjestorf was born in California. Jason is also a minister
and he and his wife, Patricia Elizabeth Durnell, have a ministry in
Superior, Wisconsin.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 44
Benjestorf

Jason and Patricia have three children;
v Hannah Noelle Benjestorf.
v Josiah Benjestorf .
v Naomi Elizabeth Benjestorf.
***
ii. Gayle Marie Benjestorf, Winston and Lois’ second child, was
born in California. Gayle’s married name is Poppen.
iii. Lizbeth Ann Benjestorf was born in California. Liz is married
to David Morgan.
iv. Debra Jean Benjestorf was born in California.
v. Stephen Eugene Benjestorf was born in California.
****
b. Kenneth N. Benjestorf, Walter Benjestorf and Anne King’s second child, was
born in San Bernardino County on 20 March, 1922. He died in Lane County,
Oregon, on 4 November, 1925, when he was only three years old. According to
his brother, Winston, he died from some sort of disease.
*****
10 · Albert Benjestorf
23 Mar 1895 ~ 6 Feb 1984
Albert Benjestorf was born on the homestead in Pine Lake Township,
Otter Tail County, Minnesota, on 23 March, 1895. Along with most of his
siblings he went to farm wheat near Fenwood Village, Saskatchewan, Canada,
with his parents in the spring of 1903 when he was eight years old.
Albert was in the Canadian Army during WWI. He traveled by train
from Regina to Halifax, then boarded a troop ship which left Halifax on 17
April, 1917, and arrived in Liverpool, England, ten days later on 27 April. In
England Albert was assigned to a Canadian Forestry
Corps base near Farnham, Surrey. Albert became a
"teamster" while in the army, and he was initially
assigned to duty working with horses, but he was soon
attached to the motor pool and learned to drive the "new fangled" trucks.
His unit's duties seemed to consist mostly of "public service" type
projects in England. He never had to go to the continent.
While he was in London on a pass, Albert looked up Louisa
Eliza Sissen, the sister of a Fenwood neighbor, Edith Sissen Carter.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 45
Benjestorf

Louisa was born in Manningtree, Essex, on 2 September, 1896. She was working in London
during the war. Louisa used to visit Albert on the weekends, bringing him “care” packages
and cigars. Albert married "Lou" on 26 November, 1918, in Manningtree, Essex, England.
Albert and Louisa returned to Canada on the vessel "Tunisian" which sailed from
Liverpool, England on 14 August, 1919, the summer after the war ended. They traveled third
class. Louisa was very pregnant during the trip and gave birth to their first child, Stanley, not
long after they arrived in Fenwood, Saskatchewan.
Back home in Saskatchewan Albert worked as a farm laborer for his neighbors and
older brothers.
Less than three months after their second child was born, Albert and Louisa joined the
Benjestorf exodus to southern California. They entered the US at East Port, Idaho, by train
on 4 May, 1921. Albert and Louisa continued to southern California and settled in Torrance
where Albert worked as a longshoreman on the San Pedro waterfront.
Albert and my grandmother, Daisy England, were friends before Albert joined the
army, and they remained good friends throughout her life. Albert and Lou used to visit my
grandmother when she lived in Rialto, California, during the 1950’s ~ 70’s.
Albert’s wife, Louisa Sissen, died from heart failure on 12 December, 1977, while in a
convalescent home in Bellflower, California.
Six years later, Albert Benjestorf also died in a convalescent home in Bellflower,
California, on 6 February, 1984. He was buried on 10 February in Rancho Palos Verdes
Cemetery, Los Angeles, California.
Albert Benjestorf and Louisa Sissen had four children:
a. Stanley Clemence Benjestorf was born near Fenwood, Saskatchewan on 3
October, 1919, about a month and a half after his parents returned to Fenwood
from England. After his sister, Winnie, was born, his family moved to southern
California and settled in Torrance. Stanley married LaVere Louise Welke on 5
April, 1946.
Stanley died in Bellflower, California, on 3 October, 1993.LaVere has been
extremely helpful in my Benjestorf research, and has sent me a wealth of
information and photographs. She now lives in Bellflower, California
Stanley and LaVere had one son:
i. Ronald Stanley Benjestorf was born in California. Ron married Ching
“Pat” Mei but he and Pat are now divorced. Ron lives near his mother in
Bellflower, California.
***
b. Winona Coralie Benjestorf was born in Melville, Saskatchewan, on 12 February,
1921. Her parents moved to southern California when she was less than three
months old. Winnie married Alan Walker in March, 1940. They lived in San
Pedro, California. Winnie divorced Alan on 22 September, 1947. After her
divorce, Winnie married William Darnell who died around 1963. They never had
any children. After William’s death Winnie married Arthur Rodriguez who died
before she did.
Winona died on 12 August, 1988 in the Los Angeles area.
Winona Benjestorf and Alan Walker had two children:
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 46
Benjestorf

i. Patricia Walker was born in California.
ii. Tom Walker was born in California.
***
c. Eugene Wilbert Benjestorf, Albert and Lou’s third child, was born in San Pedro,
California, on 24 September, 1924, a few years after his parents moved to
California.
Gene served in the navy during World War II. After the War, Gene married
Jean Elizabeth Surber on 17 August, 1947, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sometime
around 1956 Gene and Jean moved to Ontario, California.
Gene’s wife, Jean, provided me with research information in
the form of an updated copy of her daughter, Denise’s, genealogical
research forms. I am sad to say that Jean passed away, on 15 April,
2003, before I had completed the first edition of this book. I was
looking forward to her reaction to this history.
Gene is in poor health, and I have been told that he will now be
living with his daughter, Paula Benjestorf Bailey.
Gene Benjestorf and Jean Surber had four children, two of
whom died in infancy:
i. Unnamed baby boy Benjestorf who apparently died on the day he was
born in February, 1949, in San Pedro, California.
ii. Denise Anne Benjestorf was born in California. Denise has not yet
married, and lives in Rancho Cucamonga, California.
Denise has helped me with a lot of family history information,
including her own genealogical research data and a copy of the article, The
Wolves Had Four Legs, by Violette Benjestorf DeRosia.
.
iii. Paula Jean Benjestorf was born in California.
Paula married Edgar Wayne Bailey in 1969.
Paula and Wayne have two children;
Ø Patricia Jean Bailey was born in California. Patricia
married Jason Cory Leever.
Patricia and Jason have four children;
v Kyle Leever.
v Ryan Leever.
v Erin Leever.
v Emma Leever.
***
Ø Wayne Eugene Bailey was born in California. Wayne married
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 47
Benjestorf

Robin Nelson in 1992, but the marriage lasted only a short time.
Wayne is now married to Carleen Murillo, and they live in
Fontana. Wayne and Carlene have twin boys;
v Michael Bailey.
v Mathew Bailey.
***
iv. Richard Eugene Benjestorf, Gene and Jean Benjestorf’s last child, was
born 22 December, 1954, in Lynwood, California. Richard died four days
after his birth.
****
d. Shirley Benjestorf, Albert and Louisa Benjestorf’s last child, was born on 17
August, 1937, in San Pedro, California. Shirley married Bruce Arthur Young on
18 June, 1955, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bruce was born in rosebud, South Dakota,
on 23 August, 1935. They initially lived in Torrance, California.
Bruce Young died on 6 August, 1985. Shirley died in Rapid City, South
Dakota, on 9 June, 2003.
Shirley and Bruce had four children:
i. Mike Young was born California.
ii. Larry Young was born in California.
iii. Annette S. Young was born in California.
iv. Leslie Young was born in California.
****
11· Helma Benjestorf
3 Apr 1897 ~ 27 Nov 1991
Helma, Heinrich and Mathilde’s last child, was born in the
small town of New York Mills located on the east boundary of Otter
Tail County, Minnesota on 3 April, 1897. When she was 6 years old
her parents left the homestead in Otter Tail County and moved the
family to homestead a wheat farm in Fenwood Township, about 30
miles northwest of Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Helma married a neighboring farmer, Conmee McClellan, on
20 November, 1919, when she was twenty-two years old. Helma’s
niece, Olga Lustig, and her nephew, Clarence Bamping were witnesses
at the wedding performed by Reverend S.H. Sorkissian. After their
marriage, Helma and Conmee probably lived with his parents in a very basic log cabin.
Helma attended at the birth of her niece, Ada Joan Benjestorf, at Helma’s brother
Alex’s house in November, 1920.
When her parents and most of her brothers moved to southern California around 1920,
she and Conmee stayed in Fenwood. On the 12 th of June, 1929, Helma divorced Conmee
McClellan in Reno, Nevada, and moved to Long Beach, California . [According to Beverly
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 48
Benjestorf

Huppert, Aunt Helma saw "Con" again when he was "...very old. Like maybe his 100th
birthday"]. Helma later moved to Daly City, California, where she lived for the remainder of
her life.
Helma married George Jester in Reno on 4 October, 1930. Helma and George
remained married until his death on 13 February, 1965.
After George died, Helma married Glen Howell in Daly City on 5 March, 1966. They
remained together until he, too, died on 21 May, 1972.
Notes in Mathilde Gellenbeck Benjestorf’s “family bible” 13 which was in Helma’s
possession when she died, and a letter to Helma from Heinrich Schneehage, plus her own
notes on her siblings provided much of the initial information available about the Benjestorf
line when I first started this project.
Heinrich Schneehage apparently visited Helma on a trip to America in the mid or late
1950's, and possibly again in the early 1960’s.
Helma was very close to Howard and Angie Benjestorf's family and visited them often
in Canada. Beverly Benjestorf~Huppert was Aunt Helma's "caregiver" during her terminal
illness. Helma died on 27 November, 1991 in the San Francisco Bay area.
Helma had to have an appendectomy and hysterectomy in 1917 when she was only
twenty years old and as a result had no children.
*******
*****
***
*
13 The “family bible” turns out to have been a German language “home medical book”, published in 1876, which
the Benjestorf’s probably bought before leaving St. Louis to homestead in Minnesota.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 49
Benjestorf

The Descendants of Albert Lustig and Mary Fisher
Albert and Mary Lustig had six children, twenty-two grandchildren, thirty-three great
grandchildren, and so far three great-great grandchildren:
1 · Morris William Lustig
18 May 1922 ~ 17 Feb 1968
Morris William Lustig was born in Melville, Saskatchewan, on 18 May, 1922.
Morris joined the Canadian military in 1940 shortly after the start of World War II,
when he was eighteen. Morris apparently liked the military life and continued with a military
career for the rest of his life.
In 1941, Morris married Mildred Edith Patterson. Mildred was born in Birch Hills,
Saskatchewan, on 22 December, 1921.
Morris William Lustig died of cancer while on active duty on 17 February, 1968, and
was buried at the military cemetery in Calgary, Alberta, with full military honors. He was
only forty- six years old.
Mildred returned to her birthplace, Birch Hills, near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and
died there on 29 November, 1987.
Morris and Mildred Lustig had three children:
a. Morris Allan Lustig born in Saskatchewan.
Allan married Freda Gale Burnett in St. John, New Brunswick, ca 1965.
Freda died in an automobile accident on 6 April, 1994.
Allan and Freda had three children:
i. Frederick Allan Lustig was born October 3, 1966. He died on 27 May,
1972 when he was only five years old.
ii. William Morris Lustig was born in Ontario.
William lives in Calgary, Alberta, and is not yet married.
iii. Dawn-Marie Mildred Lustig was born in Alberta. Dawn-Marie is in the
Canadian military and lives with a friend, Robbie Stephane Robertson, in
Quebec.
Dawn-Marie has a daughter and is expecting another child in May,
2006:
Ø Tonia Marie Mildred Lustig was born in New Brunswick.
***
After Freda’s death, Morris Allan Lustig married his second wife, Doris
Elaine Blair, in 1995, in New Brunswick. Doris was born in New Brunswick.
Allan and Doris live at Waasis, New Brunswick.
*****
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Benjestorf

. Terrance Lustig was Mildred and Morris William Lustig’s second child.
Terrance married his wife, Anna, in Manitoba in 1971. Terry is a farmer and
Anna is a nurse in Neepawa, Manitoba..
c. Richard Bret Lustig.
Richard married Corrine in Saskatchewan.
Richard and Corrine have two children:
i. Victoria Lustig.
ii. Sean Lustig.
*******
2 · Doris Lustig
1923 ~ ca. 1927
Albert and Mary Lustig’s second child, Doris Lustig, was born in 1923 and died when
she was about four years old, around 1927.
*******
3 · Jean Pearl Lustig
16 Nov 1924 ~ 21 Nov 2002
Albert and Mary’s third child, Jean Pearl Lustig, was born in Melville, Saskatchewan,
on 16 November, 1924.
She married Peter J. South in Melfort, Saskatchewan, in 1944. Peter was a
Veterinarian from Salmon, Idaho, and the couple lived in Idaho after their marriage. They
divorced in 1974.
After her divorce, Jean married Robert Bondy in Seattle, Washington, in 1992.
Robert died on 28 January, 2000. Jean passed away two and a half years later on 21
November, 2002
Jean Pearl Lustig and Peter South had four children:
a. Valerie South was born in.
Valerie married Frank Hasy and they live in Sandy, Utah.
b. Pamela Dawn South was born in Idaho.
Pam married Chris Mattalianio and they lived in New Jersey. They moved to
Portland, Oregon, in July, 2003, where Chris became the General Director of the
Portland Opera.
Pam and Chris have a daughter:
i. Ava Daniel Mattalianio was born in New Jersey.
***
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Benjestorf

c. Randal Peter South, Jean and Peter South’s third child, was born in Idaho.
Randy married Debra Yrazabal in Mountain Home, Idaho. The couple has
four children:
i. Ryan South was born in Idaho.
ii. Jared South was born in Idaho.
Jared lives with his friend, Amanda Denning, in Boise Idaho. They have a
child:
Ø Trystan South was born in Idaho.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 52
Benjestorf
***
iii. Kimberly South was born in Idaho. Kimberly has a twin sister.
Kimberly graduated from High school in 2003.
iv. Kiley South was born in Idaho.
Kiley and her twin sister both graduated from High School in 2003.
***
d. Jamie Jeanine South, Pearl and Peter South’s fourth child, was born in Idaho.
Jamie married Rick Synder. After the birth of two children, Jamie and Rick
divorced.
Jamie married Mark Cowper at Mermaid Waters, Queensland, Australia.
Jamie and Rick Synder had two daughters:
i. Jennifer Synder.
ii. Rebecca Synder.
*****
4 · Lloyd Albert Lustig
Still living
Albert and Mary Lustig’s fourth child, Lloyd Albert Lustig, was
born in Saskatchewan.
Lloyd married Ila Edna Sproule in Saskatchewan in 1947. Ila was
born in Saskatchewan.
Lloyd has been a manager of a Safeway store, a store owner, and
“Lottery ticket traveler”. He is now retired and he and Ila live in Prince
Albert, Saskatchewan.
Lloyd and Ila have six children:

a. Greg Lloyd Lustig was born in Saskatchewan. Greg is a meat cutter and lives in
Vernon, British Columbia. He lives with Ida Marie Fensom, who is Doug
Lustig’s sister-in-law. Ida was born in Saskatchewan. She is a lounge manager.
Greg and Ida have no children.
b. Sandra Michelle Lustig was born in Saskatchewan.
In 1971, Sandra married William Alexander Sinclair, in Prince Albert,
Saskatchewan. Bill was born in Alberta. Sandra has worked in the retail
business including assistant manager at Irene Hill. Bill is a Claims administrator
responsible for western Canada, for a Canadian insurance company.
Sandra and Bill have two children:
i. Ryan Alexander Sinclair was born in Saskatchewan. Ryan married Julie
Ann Loundy in 2000. Julie is a nurse and Ryan does instrumentation in
the oil fields. They live in Edmonton.
ii. Tanya Michelle Sinclair was born in Alberta.
Tanya works as a manager for Boston Pizza, in Edmonton, Alberta.
***
c. Vicki Lynne Lustig, Lloyd and Ila Lustig’s third child, was born in
Saskatchewan. Vicki works as a secretary for the water department. Vicki lives
with a friend, Everett Robert Graham, in White Rock, British Columbia.
Vicki has a daughter:
i. Kirsten, who was born in British Columbia.
***
d. Gary Brent Lustig was born in Saskatchewan. Gary works at a wood mill in
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and lives with his parents, Lloyd and Ila Lustig.
e. Timothy Lustig was born in Saskatchewan. Tim works as a framer in the
building industry and lives in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan with his friend, Betty
Lou. She manages a dry cleaner.
f. Shelley Anne Lustig, Lloyd and Ila’s youngest child, was born in Saskatchewan.
Shelley married an underwater welder, Chris Sjursen in 1998. Shelley raises
American Staffordshire Terriers. They live in Tofield, Alberta.
Shelley and Chris have two children:
i. Emily Schae Sjursen was born in Saskatchewan.
ii. Olivia Dane Sjursen was born in Alberta.
*****
5 · Gordon Henry Lustig
Still living
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 53
Benjestorf

Gordon Henry Lustig was Albert and Mary Lustig’s fifth
child. He was born in Saskatchewan. Gordon married Maureen
Ellen Davison in Saskatchewan.
Gordon was an “automotive traveler’, owned an automotive
business, and owned a service station. He is now retired and he and
Maureen live in Tisdale, Saskatchewan.
Gordon and Maureen have six children:
a. Randal Gordon Lustig was born in Saskatchewan. Randy married Colleen
Margaret Kolb in 1975. Randy is a hair dresser stylist. Randy works for
Syncrude Canada, Ltd. At Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Randy and Maureen have three children:
i. Brea Kimberly Lustig was born in Alberta. Brea is a hair stylist like her
mother.
ii. Adam Randal Lustig was born in Alberta, Canada. Adam is an
electrician.
iii. Dylan Mathew Lustig was born in Alberta. Dylan was still attending
school at the time of this writing [in 2003].
***
b. Kevin Peter Lustig, Gordon and Maureen Lustig’s second child, was born on 10
July, 1954, in Salmon, Idaho. He died eleven days later on 21 July, 1954.
c. Laurie Anne Lustig was born in Saskatchewan. Laurie married a plumber,
William Charles Schmitt, in 1987. Laurie is a secretary at the hospital. They
live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Laurie and Bill have two daughters:
i. Kaitlin Dawn Schmitt was born in Saskatchewan. Kaitlin is a vocalist.
ii. Alisha Marie Schmitt.
d. Kathryn Dawn Lustig, Gordon and Maureen’s fourth child, was born in
Saskatchewan. Kathryn married Michael Albert Hellyer in Saskatchewan, in
1977. Mick is a plumber. He was born in Saskatchewan. Kathryn is a teacher at
a school for the hearing impaired. She and her family live at Kelowna, British
Columbia.
Kathryn and Mick have three children:
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 54
Benjestorf
***
i. Sarah Meghann Hellyer was born in, Saskatchewan. Sarah married
Craig Andrews in British Columbia.
Sarah and Craig have one daughter:

Ø Taylor Drew Andrews.
***
ii. Reighan Susanne Hellyer was born in Saskatchewan. Reighan was born
deaf, possibly a manifestation of a genetic defect which shows up about
every five generations in the Gellenbeck family line. Reighan graduated
from High School with Honors in May, 2003.
iii. Joseph Hellyer, was born in Saskatchewan. Joseph is still in school and
likes sports.
***
e. Maureen Evelyn Marie Lustig, Gordon and Maureen Lustig’s fifth child, was
born in Saskatchewan. Maureen married Bernard Alan Boyes in Saskatchewan.
Bernie works for Syncrude at Fort McMurray, Alberta. Maureen is studying to be
a nurse and is in her third year of training.
Maureen and Bernie have three daughters:
i. Caley Maureen Boyes.
ii. Camille Rae Boyes.
iii. Aiden Sanara Boyes.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 55
Benjestorf
***
f. Shannon Rae Lustig, Gordon and Maureen’s youngest child, was born in
Saskatchewan. Shannon married Kenny Neinaber in 1993. Kenny is the
manager of McDonalds at Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.
Shannon and Kenny have three children:
i. Blake Kenneth Neinaber.
ii. Brandon Neinaber.
iii. Logan Neinaber.
*****
6 · Douglas Edward Lustig
Still living
Douglas Edward Lustig, the youngest child of Albert Lustig
and Mary Fisher, was born in Saskatchewan. Doug graduated from
High School at Rosetown, Saskatchewan, in 1950, and went to
work at Grahams Brothers Hardware store. In 1951 he became the
hardware manager at the Co-op. In1958 Doug married Laura
Madeleine Hill in Saskatchewan. Doug later became General
Manager at Vanguard Co-op and continued in that position until

1973.
In 1973 Doug bought an IGA grocery store in Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan and
went to work for himself. He and Laura operated the store for eight years and sold it in 1981.
After selling the grocery store, Doug went to work as a traveling salesman for Alpine Imports
until 1985 when he retired. He and Laura live in Fort Qu’Appelle. Laura owned a flower
shop in Fort Qu’Appelle which she has sold. She now works as a receptionist in a dentist’s
office.
Doug provided me with about 99% of the information I have about Mina “Minnie”
Benjestorf’s descendants.
Doug and Laura had three children:
a. Tracy Lynn Lustig was born in Saskatchewan. Tracy married Claude Beaulieu.
Claude works at the Co-op store in Fort Qu’Appelle. Tracy owns a hairdressing
shop, Klassic Kuts, in Fort Qu’Appelle.
Tracy and Claude have a daughter:
i. Sierra Rae Beaulieu completed fourth grade in 2003.
***
b. Brent Douglas Lustig was born in Saskatchewan. Brent married Josey
Bakenstzos. Josey has a degree in child care and works at Daven School, in
Regina, Saskatchewan. Brent is a Kinesiologist, and is manager of western
Canada for NRCS Disability Management Solutions in Regina.
Brent and Josey have one child:
i. Kai Raine Lustig.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 56
Benjestorf
***
c. Douglas Edward Lustig, Jr., Doug and Laura’s last child, was born on 27 June,
1970. He lived only two days and passed away on 29 June, 1970.
*****
***
*

The Benjestorf Höfe
On 6 December, 1816, my great-great-great grandfather, Johann Heinrich Benjestorf,
started the process of purchasing the rights to the Vollmeierhof #38, in Osterwald O/E, in
what had recently became the Kingdom of Hannover. The estate was one of the largest in
Osterwald, and consisted of about 26 ½ Morgen [about 20 acres ±] 14 consisting of several
small pieces of farmland, pasture and woodland scattered around the village. The previous
tenant, the Vollmeier Christian Röhr, had taken to
excessive drinking and allowed the estate to go
deeply into debt. Vollmeier Röhr agreed to sell his
rights to the estate for 1765 Thaler [a German silver
coin]. The purchase price was to be paid in Spanish
Pistole, a gold coin, at an exchange rate of five
Thaler to one Pistole. The deal was completed on 7
May, 1817, and Heinrich assumed the rights and
responsibilities of a Vollmeier. He and his wife,
Marie, were able to move out of the little farmer’s
shack they had been living in for nearly twenty years,
and move into the relative luxury of the
Vollmeierhof.
Starting in 1825, the village common and the border lands between fields were divided
up between the hereditary estates as a part of an agrarian reform program, and Heinrich
eventually received about 50 Morgen of mostly pasture and woodland as his share of the
redistribution of land, which nearly tripled the size of his estate.
About two years after the increase in his estate, Heinrich decided to build a new house
on the old Kötnerstelle #48 lot where he and Marie had spent so much of their life together.
It is not clear whether the old shack was torn down, or perhaps had burned, or was left
standing and the new house built beside it. The house may have been built as a wedding gift
for his eldest son, Johann Heinrich Christian Gerhard Benjestorf, who married Marie
Dorothee Rathe in 1828, the year after Heinrich started building the new house.
When Heinrich died on 28 January, 1838, Heinrich Gerhard, as the eldest son,
undoubtedly inherited the Vollmeirhof. A formal arrangement would have been made
allowing Heinrich’s widow to continue living at the Vollmeierhof, with a binding
commitment to provide her with meals and a small percentage of the profits from the harvest,
and nursing care if she needed it. She was sixty-three years old when her husband died.
It is also possible that Heinrich Gerhard and his wife took possession of the
Vollmeierhof several years prior to his father’s death, with similar arrangements. This was a
common practice in Hannover at that time. In either case, Heinrich Gerhard’s eldest son
would probably have inherited the Vollmeirhof when Heinrich Gerhard died on 15 August,
1874. The chain of inheritance of the property is speculative, because I have found no
documentation for it. The present owner of the Hof is Karl Benjesdorf. It is my
understanding that his family changed the spelling of their surname about fifty years ago for
unknown reasons. I have not been able to establish contact with Karl yet.
14 A Morgen was a variable measure of cropland area. It represented the amount of land expected to produce a
certain volume of crop, so the more productive the land, the less area per Morgen.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 57
Benjestorf

Once Heinrich Gerhard was established in the Vollmeierhof, his brother, Johann
Heinrich Friedrich Benjestorf, my great-great grandfather, who was the next eldest son,
moved into the Kötnerhaus at #48 Osterwald O/E. In 1840, two years after his father’s death,
he married my great-great grandmother, Luise Catherine Dorothee Hanne Deeke. All five
of their children, including my great grandfather, were born at the small farmer’s cottage #48.
Friedrich and Dorothee spent the rest of their lives living in the Kötnerhaus. They worked
hard and saved their money and were able to acquire additional property in the Osterwald
area.
In 1862, Heinrich sold a small farm lot, which was just across the street from his
father’s house, to Louis Bährens. In 1863 Louis built a brick house on the lot and he and his
new wife, Henrietta Wilhelmina Bruns moved into it. On 14 May of that year their first
child, Wilhelmine Bährens, was born. When Wilhelmine was about seventeen years old she
married Friedrich Benjestorf’s youngest son, Wilhelm. By virtue of his marriage to
Wilhelmina, Wilhelm became the heir to the Bährens’ property. Because Louis Bährens was
a baker and he operated his bakery from the house it soon came to be called the “Bäckers”.
The property is still referred to by that name by Benjestorf relatives even though it has been
nearly a century since it last served as a bakery. Wilhelm’s great grandson, Heinrich
Benjestorf, is the current owner of the “Bäckers”. During a recent remodeling of his house,
Heinrich discovered the old Baker’s oven which had been concealed during an earlier
remodeling. [See page 64]
In 1869 or 1870 my great grandfather, Heinrich Benjestorf, left Prussia illegally and
immigrated to America, to avoid being drafted into the Prussian army. Because of this he
would not have been able to return to Hannover without facing a jail term. His father may
have given him 400 Thaler [1200 Marks] prior to his departure as an advance on his
inheritance.
When Friedrich Benjestorf died on 12 March, 1883, the Kötnerhaus would
customarily have gone to his eldest son, Christian Friedrich Heinrich Benjestorf. For
whatever reason, Friedrich did not inherit the Kötnerhaus. He had married Marie Luise
Dorothee Wietgrefe in 1871 and perhaps he had already inherited his father-in-law’s property
or was first in line to do so. The next in line to inherit the Benjestorf property should have
been my great grandfather, Heinrich Benjestorf. Since he had fled the country illegally he
would not have been able to return to Hannover to claim his inheritance.
Friedrich and Luise’s eldest daughter had already married the postman, Fritz Hansing,
and they probably were already living on his parents’ property, or perhaps Fritz just preferred
his job as a civil servant over being a farmer. So, that left only the youngest daughter,
Dorothee Eleonore Sophie Benjestorf, or her twenty-four year old brother, Wilhelm
Benjestorf, to claim the Kötnerhaus. Since Wilhelm was in line to inherit the Louis Bährens
property, the Kötnerhaus went to the youngest daughter, Dorothee, who had married Heinrich
Schneehage of Osterwald a few years previously.
Dorothee and Heinrich Schneehage lived in the Kötnerhaus #48 for thirty-six years
until they sold it in 1919, after the end of The Great War [World War I]. They used some of
the money from the sale of the house to send their son, Heinrich, to a university, and the
family moved to Hamburg. The little Kötnerhaus caught fire in 1924 and burned to the
ground. The lot stood empty for many years, but there are now two small buildings on it.
[See page 60]
*******
*****
***
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 58
Benjestorf

The Schneehage Descendants
Dorothee Eleonore Sophie Benjestorf, the fourth child of Johann
Heinrich Friedrich Benjestorf and Luise Cathrine Dorothea Hanne Deeke,
was born at her parents’ home at the Kötnerstelle #48, in the farming
community of Osterwald O/E, in the Kingdom of Hannover, on 7 June, 1852.
Dorothee’s sister, Minna, was nine years older than she was. By the time
Dorothee was five years old, her sister, Minna, had probably entered the
work force as a maid at a larger farm in the area.
Dorothee also had two older brothers, Friedrich, who was five and a
half years older, and her favorite brother and playmate, Heinrich, who was only two and a half
years older than she was. Dorothee and Heinrich remained very close throughout their lives,
even though Heinrich immigrated to America when Dorothee was only seventeen or eighteen.
They kept informed about each other’s lives by mail.
Dorothee also had a younger brother, Wilhelm, but he was born late in his parents’
marriage, and was seven years younger than Dorothee. Her relationship with Wilhelm was
probably more like a baby sitter than a sister.
Around 1874 Dorothee Benjestorf married Heinrich Wilhelm
August Schneehage who was born in Schulenburg on 23 December,
1839. Heinrich was a koppelknecht [farm hand] who drove
thoroughbred horses to and from Spain for a local horse breeder. When
Dorothee’s father died in 1883, Dorothee inherited the small house and
the farm land it served. Doris, as her husband called her, and Heinrich
Schneehage lived in the small farmer’s cottage at #48 Osterwald O/E for
the next thirty-six years. In 1919, the year
after The Great War ended, they sold the
Kötnerstelle. With the money they got from the sale of the farm
they sent their son, Heinrich Schneehage, to a university. Doris
and Heinrich may have moved to Hamburg directly after they
sold the Kötnerstelle, or they may have lived somewhere else in
Germany for a time.
Heinrich Wilhelm August Schneehage died on 12 January,
1921, probably in the Hamburg area. Dorothee Eleonore Sophie
Benjestorf died in Hamburg on 1 July, 1937. Both were buried
near Osterwald by the graves of Doris’ parents. The graveyard has since been destroyed by
developers!
Dorothee Benjestorf and Heinrich Schneehage had at least one
child:
a. Heinrich Schneehage, was born while his family lived in the
Kötnerhaus, on 4 November, 1882. Heinrich spent his
childhood and early teen years on the small farm in
Osterwald, and had fond memories of those times.
Heinrich may have been the first of the Benjestorf
descendants to attend an institution of higher education. He
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attended the university in Bonn, and became a school teacher. He finished his
career in education as a high school principal in Hamburg.
In 1924, Heinrich married Mariechen Sehstädt in Hamburg. Mariechen was
born in Hamburg on 21 August, 1896.
Heinrich became interested in learning about his family history, and spent
many years doing genealogical research. Heinrich Schneehage owned a house in
Hamburg during World War II. One night in July, 1943, Heinrich lost his house
and most of his genealogical research records during an allied bombing raid. The
following eyewitness account describes the conditions in Hamburg that night:
Excerpt from:
To Destroy a City:
Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences
in World War II
by Hermann Knell
(Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2003)
“On the night of July 27, 1943, 728 Allied bombers arrived over the German city of
Hamburg at one o'clock in the morning. Ten thousand tons of high explosives and incendiary
bombs were dropped on several districts of the city. The late W.G. Sebald explained what
followed in his recently published book, On the Natural History of Destruction (2003):
Within a few minutes, huge fires were burning all over the target area, which covered
some twenty square kilometers, and they merged so rapidly that only a quarter of an hour after
the first bombs had dropped the whole airspace was a sea of flames as far as the eye could
see. Another five minutes later, at one twenty a.m., a firestorm of an intensity that no one had
ever before thought possible arose. The fire, now rising two thousand meters into the sky,
snatched oxygen to itself so violently that the air currents reached hurricane force.... The fire
burned like this for three hours. At its height, the storm lifted gables and roofs from buildings,
flung rafters and entire advertising billboards through the air, tore trees from the ground, and
drove human beings before it like living torches. Behind collapsing facades, the flames shot
up as high as houses, rolled like a tidal wave through the streets at a speed of over a hundred
and fifty kilometers an hour (about 95 mph), spun across open squares in strange rhythms like
rolling cylinders of fire. The water in some canals was ablaze. The glass in the tramcar
windows melted; stocks of sugar boiled in the bakery cellars. Those who fled from their airraid
shelters sank, with grotesque contortions, in the thick bubbles thrown up by the melting
asphalt.... Horribly disfigured corpses lay everywhere. Bluish little phosphorous flames still
flickered around them; others had been roasted brown or purple and reduced to a third of their
normal size.... Other victims had been so badly charred and reduced to ashes by the heat,
which had risen to a thousand degrees or more, that the remains of families consisting of
several people could be carried away in a single laundry basket.
That night in this one raid alone, more than 45,000 men, women, and children were killed in
Hamburg. Half the houses in the city were destroyed, and more than a million Germans had to
flee into the surrounding countryside.”
***
Miraculously, Heinrich survived the raid, but, except for what remained in his
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memory, he had to start his genealogical research over from scratch.
One of the most difficult questions Heinrich tried to answer was where the
name Benjestorf came from. No matter how hard he searched, the only people he
could find with the Benjestorf name were all very close relatives of his. One day
in 1944 he finally got a critical break and was enlightened by a message from the
Barsinghausen Parish Offices.
[See Benjestorf ~ Origin and Evolution of a Family].
Heinrich’s mother frequently asked him to promise that he would stay in
contact with his relatives in America, but two World Wars made it extremely
difficult to keep his promise. After World War II ended, Heinrich was able to
trace some of his Benjestorf relatives in the United States, and established a
correspondence with his cousin, Alex Benjestorf, in southern California, and his
cousin, Helma [Benjestorf] Jester, in San Francisco. In 1959, Heinrich and his
wife, Mariechen, were able to visit Alex and other relatives in California. They
may have also made another trip to America shortly before Heinrich’s death on 19
February, 1965. Heinrich’s cousin, Albert Benjestorf, and his wife, Lou, visited
him in Hamburg in 1964.
Mariechen passed away in Hamburg on 7 March, 1991.
Most of the information I have learned about the Benjestorf families in
Germany came from Heinrich Schneehage’s paper on the Benjestorf name, and
from a letter Heinrich wrote to Aunt Helma just before Christmas in 1956. It is
impressive to note that Heinrich accomplished his research without the aid of a
computer or the internet, two developments that have greatly simplified
genealogical research. I recently read a short article which pointed out that the
average household in America [in 2003] has more computing power at its disposal
than was available in the whole world in 1965, the year that Heinrich Schneehage
died!
Heinrich Schneehage and his wife, Mariechen, had two children:
i. Wolfgang Schneehage, born in Hamburg on 20 October, 1924. Wolfgang
became a dentist in the Hamburg area. Wolfgang married Margarete
“Gretel” Lisolotte Wilhelmine Steffan in1954, in Hamburg. After his
retirement, Wolfgang also became interested in genealogy. He donated
some of his father’s papers to the Niedersachsen State Archives.
Wolfgang Schneehage died on 2 May, 2000, in Hamburg.
Gretel is now seventy-eight years old and lives near Hamburg,
Germany, near her two sons. She also has a vacation home in Gromitz on
the Baltic Sea.
Wolfgang and Gretel had three children:
Ø Frank Schneehage doing volunteer dental work in
Thailand. Frank married Andrea Holst. Frank and
Andrea are now divorced, but still friends. Both live
near Frank’s mother near Hamburg.
Frank and Andrea have two children:
v Laurie-Marie Schneehage.
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Benjestorf

v Kolja Schneehage, a son.
***
Ø Folker Schneehage is an architect in the Hamburg area. He has
designed some of the public buildings in Hamburg. Folker is
married to Angela Andresen. Folker and Angela also live near
Folker’s mother’s home in Hamburg.
Folker and Angela have two children:
v Mitja Schneehage, their son.
v Lenya Schneehage, their daughter.
****
Ø Imke Schneehage, Wolfgang and Gretel’s
daughter, was born on 15 November, 1961.
She married Harry Ohs and they lived near
Koblenz. On the night of 26 March, 2000,
Harry was driving Imke and their daughter to
Hamburg to visit Imke’s parents. Harry
momentarily fell asleep at the wheel on the
auto-bahn near Köln. Imke was killed in the
ensuing accident, and Harry and their daughter, Alexandra, were
both hospitalized.
Imke and Harry had only one child:
v Alexandra Ohs lives with her father near Koblenz, but
visits her grandmother often, both at her home in Hamburg
and at her summer home in Gromitz.
****
ii. Dorothea Schneehage, Heinrich and Mariechen’s daughter, was born on
28 February, 1926, probably in Hamburg. Thea moved to Canada around
the 1950’s and married Roy Blair. She and her husband lived in Repdale,
Ontario, Canada, for a number of years.
Dorothea passed away on 3 November, 1982, in Toronto, Canada. Her
husband, Roy, now lives in Vancouver, B.C.
*******
*****
***
*
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Benjestorf

O/E.
The Descendants of
Wilhelm Benjestorf and Wilhelmina Bährens
Wilhelm Benjestorf and Wilhelmina Bährens had seven children:
Karl Benjestorf
5 Nov 1881 ~ 4 Jan 1941
Karl Benjestorf was born on 5 November, 1881, almost certainly in Osterwald
Karl died of blood poisoning on 4 March, 1941.
***
Dora Benjestorf
17 Jul 1884 ~ 4 Mar 1959
Dora Benjestorf was born on 17 July, 1884, probably in Osterwald
O/E. Dora married Wilhelm Schröder on 23 December, 1906.
Dora Benjestorf died on 4 March, 1959, at the age of seventy-five.
Dora and Wilhelm Schröder had at least one child:
a. Alfred Schröder, who’s wife’s name was Annemarie.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 63
Benjestorf

*******
Heinrich Benjestorf
21 Aug 1886 ~ 1974
Heinrich Benjestorf was born in Osterwald O/E on 21 August, 1886. He
grew up in the house his father and mother had inherited from
Louis Bährens. Heinrich married Marie Evers, and since his
older brother had passed away before his father did, Heinrich
inherited the house when his father died in May, 1944.
Heinrich’s wife, Marie, died in 1967, and Heinrich
Benjestorf died in 1974.
Heinrich Benjestorf and Marie Evers had two children:
a. Heinrich Benjestorf II was born in Osterwald O/E on 3 November, 1927.
Heinrich also grew up in the “Bäckers”.
b. He married Frieda Stelzer, who was born in East Prussia. Heinrich inherited
the “Bäckers” when his father died in1974.
c. Heinrich did not get to enjoy his inheritance very long, because he died three
years later on 11 March, 1977, at only fifty years of age.
Heinrich’s wife, Frieda, was still living and in good health when we visited
with her in October, 2004.
Heinrich Benjestorf [II] and Frieda Stelzer had three children:
i. Heinrich Benjestorf III was born in Niedersachsen,
Federal Republic of Germany. Heinrich inherited his
father’s house and presently resides there.
Over the years, the small farming village of
Osterwald has grown to meet neighboring villages, and
is now a part of the Garbsen-Osterwald suburb a few
miles northwest of the city of Hannover. The original
house number of the “Bäckers” has been changed to
#286, and the street it stands on has been named
Hauptstrasse [Main Street]. The photograph of the
Wilhelm Benjestorf family was taken at the back of the
house where Heinrich now lives.
Heinrich worked for many years as a machinist in a small factory near
Garbsen-Osterwald. He recently lost his job at the factory and has started
his own business repairing industrial machinery on a contract basis. When
we visited in 2004 Heinrich was building a machine shop and a small store
to sell cutlery in an unused building located at the front of his house. In
his spare time Heinrich rides his motor cycle, plays with his new dog, Luci,
and enjoys participation in a group called “the Gentlemen’s Whiskey
Convention” which is similar to the SCA, but tries to recreate the American
frontier life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. [The picture of
Heinrich shows him dressed as his “persona”, “Big Ben Benjestorf”].
Heinrich also shoots old fashioned muzzle loader rifles with the Osterwald Gun
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 64
Benjestorf

Club.
In 2002 Heinrich had the opportunity to make a trip to America with a group
of his friends. They rented a car and made a grand tour of the “old west” part of
the United States starting at Chicago, then along the Canadian border to Mt.
Rushmore, then through Montana, Wyoming and points south and west all the
way to Las Vegas, Nevada. They returned via the Grand Canyon and then back to
Yellowstone and the Little Bighorn. A major undertaking. Heinrich had made
arrangements to meet our mutual cousin, Jason Benjestorf, in Wisconsin, but
because of car problems they fell behind schedule and he wasn’t able to meet with
him.
In 2004 Heinrich and his friends made another trip to the USA and checked
out Las Vegas, San Francisco, Utah and Yellowstone National Park.
Heinrich has not yet married, and has no children that he knows of. J
ii. Inge Benjestorf was Heinrich and Marie’s first daughter. Inge married Klaus-
Dieter Jünemann. They live in a house which Heinrich built for them on the
back of his property. Inge and Klaus-Dieter have two sons:
Ø Lars Jünemann has not yet married, but is in imminent danger of doing
so.
Ø Jörn Jünemann married Nicole Rueckwald in 2003. Jörn and Nicki
live in an apartment that Heinrich made for them upstairs in the main
house. They do not have any children yet. At last report Nicki was
expecting her first child in the summer of 2006.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 65
Benjestorf
***
iii. Christine Benjestorf, Heinrich and Frieda’s third child, married Gert Krueger,
and they also have two sons:
Ø Nils Krueger.
Ø Benjamin Krueger.
*****
b. Marieluise Benjestorf, Heinrich and Marie Evers’ second child, was born in Osterwald
on 18 March, 1930. Marlies, as she was called, married Conrad Bretz who was born in
Moldavia, Russia.
Marlies died of cancer around 1979.
Luise Benjestorf
26 Jan 1889 ~ ????
Luise Benjestorf, the fourth child of Wilhelm Benjestorf and
Wilhelmina Bährens, was born on 26 January, 1889, probably in

Osterwald.
Luise married August Feesche [possibly a cousin].
*******
Fritz Benjestorf
18 Apr 1891 ~ 1952 *
Fritz Benjestorf was born on 18 April, 1891, most likely in Osterwald.
Fritz died of a heart attack. *There is contradictory information
concerning the date of his death. One source says he died in 1952, and the other
source says 21 January, 1956.
*******
Henni Benjestorf
13 Dec 1893 ~ ????
Henni Benjestorf was born on 13 December, 1893, probably in
Osterwald.
Henni married Heinrich Mühlenbrink.
*******
Wilhelm Benjestorf
23 Jan 1896 ~ 1917
Wilhelm “Willi” Benjestorf was born on 23 January, 1896, probably in
Osterwald.
Willi died on the Russian front during The Great War, sometime in 1917.
He was twenty-one years old.
*******
*****
***
*
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Benjestorf

Who Was Cousin Chris?
When my mother, Lucille Benjestorf, was a child, she was told a story about when her
grandfather, Heinrich Chris Benjestorf, came to America. She was told that he and a cousin,
Chris, had stowed away on a ship bound from Germany to the United States.
Heinrich Schneehage repeated essentially the same story in a letter to Helma
[Benjestorf] Jester in December, 1956, except he identifies the cousin as “… called Böfer…”,
with no reference to whether Böfer was a given name, a surname or a nickname.
In his formal paper about the origin of the Benjestorf name, Heinrich Schneehage
states that “Heinrich Benjestorf ... with others immigrated to America in 1869/1870”.
One of the mysteries I have been trying to solve ever since I started researching my
Benjestorf ancestry is who, exactly, was Cousin Chris.
I thought I was close to solving the mystery when I discovered that one of the
witnesses at the marriage of Heinrich Benjestorf and Mathilde Gellenbeck on 15 September,
1874, was Wilhelm Boefer [the German “ö” is regularly anglicized to “oe“]. Perhaps Cousin
Chris was actually Cousin Wilhelm? A few days later, I discovered that there was also a
Christian Boefer in St. Louis around the same time. Christian married Emma Wagner in St.
Louis on 26 November, 1872. Aha! I thought for sure I had found Cousin Chris.
But that still didn’t answer the question of how he was related to Heinrich, and who
his parents were.
Later, I discovered David Benjestorf living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Up until
the day I received an E-mail reply from David, every single Benjestorf I had been able to
contact or trace had been a descendant of my great grandfather, Heinrich Chris Benjestorf. I
was very surprised to learn that David was not descended from Heinrich, and had never heard
of him. Several e-mails later, I made the interesting discovery that David’s father, Erving,
had been born in Saskatchewan. Even more surprising, he was born on a farm near the tiny
village of Fenwood, the nearest settlement to the farm where my mother spent her early
childhood. Eventually I learned that David’s great grandfather came from Germany, and had
come to Canada from Grinnell, Iowa. His name was Chris Benjestorf! Coincidences do
happen, but come on now! This was getting to be a little bit spooky.
After several e-mail exchanges with David, David’s father, Erving, sent me a tax roll
map of the township where he had grown up and where his brothers still farm. Imagine my
surprise when I saw that Chris Benjestorf’s quarter section homestead was bounded on the
south by Henry Benjestorf’s homestead and on the east by Alex Benjestorf’s homestead! I
may have jumped to conclusions, but I was sure I had finally found Cousin Chris. In fact,
when I mentioned the situation to some of the older Benjestorf relatives, they did recall that
“Cousin Chris” had a farm right next door. The map also shows the location of the farms of
other Benjestorf relatives, such as the Bamping’s [Aunt Emma], the Lustig’s [Aunt Minnie],
and Conmee McLellan [Aunt Helma].
Unfortunately, no one among David’s living relatives seemed to know who Chris
Benjestorf’s parents were.
Chris Benjestorf was said to have been born on 1 August, 1850, presumably
somewhere in the Kingdom of Hannover. Chris’s name is shown as Christian on an
application for corrections to his son, Albert’s, birth certificate; his death certificate shows his
name as Christopher. His tombstone calls him Christian. Perhaps significantly, the original
version of Albert’s birth certificate shows his father’s name as “Heinrich C. Bengerstrof “
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 67
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[sic]. Presumably, Chris came to America when he and his cousin, Heinrich Benjestorf,
“stowed away” on a ship from a Baltic port [most likely Bremen] to the United States. I
suspect they didn’t actually stow away, but emigrated illegally using forged exit documents.
. From their arrival point on the east coast they would have made their way over the
Appalachian Mountains to the Ohio Valley, then down the Ohio River to the Mississippi and
thence to St. Louis, Missouri.
Heinrich was a shoemaker back in Hannover, and he soon found work as a cobbler in
St. Louis. Chris had been a brewer in Hannover, and presumably found suitable work also,
perhaps at the Anheuser Busch brewery. Neither men spoke English when they arrived in the
United States. Educated speculation brings us this far. From their arrival in St. Louis around
1870 until late in 1882, I can only make a wild guess. Apparently, Chris left St. Louis, about
the same time as his cousin, Henry, did in December, 1882, or possibly a little later. I do
know that Chris Benjestorf filed for a homestead adjacent to Henry’s in Otter Tail County,
Minnesota about the same time that Henry did. However, Chris never made any
improvements on the property and probably lived with his cousin for as long as he was in
Otter Tail County.
Sometime before 1890, Chris left Otter Tail County and eventually settled in or near
the small farming town of Grinnell, Iowa. Chris probably married Rosa Kathleen Heppki
sometime around 1889 ~ early 1891, based on the birth of their first child in December, 1891.
Rosie, as she was called, was born at an undisclosed location in Germany on 17 February,
1865. Family tradition says they were married in Grinnell, Iowa, where their first child was
born, but I have seen no documentation to substantiate the place or date of either of those
events. Chris was forty years old in 1890, while Rosie was only twenty-five. It is
conceivable that Chris had been married previously, and it is possible he may have had
children by a previous wife. 15
The earliest documented location I have seen for Chris Benjestorf is his son, Albert’s,
application for correction to his own birth certificate which was filed sometime after 1939.
The application indicates that Albert was born in Grinnell, Iowa, on 6 January, 1893. The
1900 US Census shows Chris as a ditch digger in Grinnell, Iowa. Family oral tradition
indicates that all but one of Chris and Rosie’s children were born in Grinnell, Iowa, and that
the family came to Saskatchewan directly from Grinnell. Their last child was born in
Fenwood, Saskatchewan.
Shortly before I wrote this I received a package of documents and photographs from
Erving Benjestorf. In a note he remarked that he has a copy of Albert Benjestorf’s records
from the Fenwood school. This record suggests that the Chris Benjestorf family may have
moved to Davenport, Iowa, shortly after the time of the US Census on 1 June, 1900. In any
case, Albert was in school in Davenport on 21 December, 1900, when he withdrew from
school. He also was in the Richdale, Minnesota, school on 11 March, 1903, when he left
that school just prior to moving to Canada. Richdale is a small settlement near Heinrich
Benjestorf’s homestead. Based on this information I have come up with the following
somewhat speculative scenario on the movements of Chris Benjestorf and his family:
Chris Benjestorf either accompanied his cousin, Heinrich Benjestorf, to Otter Tail
County when he left St. Louis in December, 1882, or followed him there shortly afterwards.
15 This might explain a mysterious entry in the Pine Lake Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota, Birth
Records: on 11 January, 1886, an un-named male child was born to a “Henry & Anna Bengersdorf “(sic). The
father was from “Europe” and he was a farmer. Perhaps this was a child of Chris and an unknown first wife,
Anna (note the name used on Chris’ son, Albert’s, birth registration: “Henry C. Bengerstrof”).
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 68
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Both men staked out adjacent homestead claims near the settlement of Richdale. Chris may
have married a woman named Anna, most likely after he had moved to Otter Tail County, but
possibly earlier when he was still in St. Louis. If so, then he would have been the father of
the baby boy born in Pine Lake Township on 11 January, 1886. There is no name shown for
the child, so it is possible that it died the same day it was born. It is also possible that Anna
Benjestorf died during the childbirth, or sometime in the next three or four years. It is
interesting to note that the child’s birth wasn’t registered until almost a year later on 8
January, 1887.
Chris probably left Richdale, Minnesota, after January, 1887. Sometime before the
end of 1891 he met and married Rosa Heppki. Chris and Rosie may or may not have been
married in Grinnell, Iowa. Their first child, Mary, may or may not have been born in
Grinnell. Sometime before the birth of their second child, Albert, in January, 1893, they
settled in Grinnell. They probably stayed in Grinnell until sometime after the births of their
next three children then they probably moved to Davenport, Iowa, during the summer or early
fall of 1900.
The Benjestorf’s remained in Davenport until around Christmas, 1900. Perhaps Chris
received a letter from his cousin, Heinrich, which encouraged him to move back to the Otter
Tail county area. Or perhaps plans were already afoot to make the move to Canada, and the
move to Richdale was simply a staging move. Whatever the reason, Chris and his family left
Davenport sometime shortly after Christmas, 1900. They may have moved directly to
Richdale, Minnesota, or it is possible they settled for a while at some other location.
Sometime before early 1903, Chris had moved his family to Richdale where he put his kids in
school. It seems likely that their sixth child, Henry Benjestorf, who was born in March,
1902, was born in Otter Tail County, Minnesota. Chris and his family may have lived with
my great grandparents while they were at Richdale. On 11 March, 1903, Chris checked his
kids out of the Richdale School, and he and his cousin, Heinrich Benjestorf, started loading all
their worldly possessions, including livestock, into leased boxcars. By early April, both
families were in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, looking for a place to stay. The nearest available
homestead land was 30 or 40 miles to the west of Yorkton near the settlement of Fenwood.
Chris and Heinrich staked claims on adjoining quarter sections of land in the Fenwood
area. Four years later, they received the patent on their homesteads. Heinrich moved to
southern California around 1916, but Chris Benjestorf spent the rest of his life farming his
quarter section homestead.
Chris Benjestorf died on his farm on 30 December, 1917. He is buried in the
Fenwood Village Cemetery. Chris’ wife, Rosa Kathleen Heppki, died in the Yorkton
Hospital on 27 May, 1935. She rests beside her husband in the Fenwood Village Cemetery.
***
So, the Big Question remained unanswered. Who were Chris Benjestorf’s parents?
To even have a chance to answer that it would be helpful to know what his real name was.
The apparently earliest document with his name on it shows it as Christian Benjestorf.
However, that document appears to be a request for changes to the original birth certificate of
Albert Benjestorf and it is neither signed nor dated. Preprinted on the application form is a
reference to “ Section 2406, Code of Iowa, 1939...”, therefore the application must have been
filled out in 1939 or later, twenty two years after Chris’ death, and also after the death of his
wife. The changes requested are “Correction of spelling in the names of child, father and
mother: 1] change Albert Bengerstorf to Albert Benjestorf, 2] change father’s name from
Henry C. Bengerstrof to Christian Benjestorf,
and 3] change mother’s name from Rosa Herpp to Rosa Heppki.”
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Obviously, the clerk who recorded the original birth data couldn’t spell very well, and
wasn’t even consistent in his misspelling of Benjestorf. But, to misspell Christian as Henry
C. is stretching the definition of “spelling errors” a bit far. I believe it highly likely that
Cousin Chris’ original name was Heinrich Christian [or perhaps Christoph] Benjestorf. Most
people in Germany received three or four given names, but usually only used one of them,
and not necessarily the first one, except on formal occasions. Even if Chris had used
Heinrich, or Henry, as his name, once he started living in close proximity to his cousin by the
same name, he was probably called Chris to avoid confusion. It seems likely that none of his
children even knew what his full name was.
At first I thought the relationship between Cousin Chris and my great grandfather
could have been anything from first cousin to second, third or fourth cousin, or more, which
made trying to narrow down his parents exceedingly difficult. However, once I read
Heinrich Schneehage’s paper on the origin of the Benjestorf name, I realized that if Chris’
name was Benjestorf, he had to be a first cousin. Any more distant cousin’s would carry the
Pfennigstorf name. Chris’s father had to have been one of Heinrich Benjestorf’s uncles.
That immediately narrows it down to the following list:
1. Johann Heinrich Christian Gerhard Benjestorf. He was born in July, 1798, and
would have been fifty-two when Chris was born.
2. Johann Christian Benjestorf. He was born 27 July, 1800, and died ten days later. That
definitely lets him out!
3. Johann Heinrich Christian Daniel Benjestorf. He was born 15 December, 1814, and
would have been thirty-six when Chris was born.
4. Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Benjestorf. He was born on 5 August, 1819, and drowned
in the Ruhr River when he was barely twenty-two, on 25 September, 1841, nine years
before Chris was born.
So, that narrowed the search down to only two possibilities; Johann Heinrich
Christian Gerhard Benjestorf, and Johann Heinrich Christian Daniel Benjestorf.
The mystery remained unsolved. Both men would have been alive and able to have
children at the time of Chris’ birth. Both men included Heinrich and Christian in their given
names. I had a gut feeling that Christian Daniel was Cousin Chris’ father. Gerhard would
have been fifty two when Chris was born. Not an impossible age to have children, but pretty
late in a marriage to be having a kid.
Schneehage doesn’t mention specifically whether Daniel married or not, and of course
he makes no mention of any children. However he drops a tantalizing hint in his discussion
of that generation of Benjestorf’s: He says that all three of the [surviving] sons established
families and remained in Osterwald. He also refers to the youngest as “Christian”, and tells
us that Christian became a master cooper. Schneehage identified each line of descendants of
these three men by nicknames as if he intended to discuss each line at length, but
unfortunately he elaborated only on the “Farmhand line”. Perhaps he had data on the other
lines that may surface someday. 16
***
Post Script 2006: Gretel Schneehage, the widow of Heinrich Schneehage’s son, was kind
enough to make a trip to Osterwald and Hannover three summers ago and do some research in
16 In October, 2004, I visited Gretel Schneehage at her home near Hannover. I discovered in her father-in-law’s
papers a document which apparently deals with the other Benjestorf lines. I have not yet translated it.
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the Osterwald Church Records for me. She discovered that Johann Heinrich Christian
Daniel Benjestorf had a son named Johann Heinrich Christian Benjestorf who was born in
Osterwald on 1 August, 1848. He was usually called Chrissel or Chris. He immigrated to
America in 1870! Voila! Cousin Chris!
***
Chris Benjestorf and Rosa Kathleen Heppki had seven children:
a. Mary Benjestorf, was born 23 December, 1891, probably in Grinnell, Iowa. She
married Sam Anderson. She died in March, 1955.
Mary and Sam had four children:
i. Baby boy Anderson, died shortly after birth.
ii. Eileen Anderson.
iii. Rose Anderson.
iv. Eleanor Anderson.
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***
b. Albert Benjestorf, born 6 January, 1893, in Grinnell, Iowa. He married Emma
Miller on 7 January, 1930. Albert died on 15 March, 1971, in the Yorkton Union
Hospital.
Albert and Emma had ten children, all born in Fenwood, Saskatchewan:
i. Violet Benjestorf, born 16 October, 1930. She died in infancy.
ii. Eileen Benjestorf married Clarence Grubb. Clarence has been in a
nursing home for several years. Eileen lives in Fort Qu’Appelle,
Saskatchewan.
iii. Betty Benjestorf married John Perdue and was last known to be living in
Lebret, Saskatchewan.
Betty and John have a daughter:
Ø Charlene Perdue.
***
iv. Kathy Benjestorf married David Frew. They were last known to be
living in Vancouver, B.C.
v. Christian Benjestorf is single and is working the Benjestorf farm in
Fenwood, Saskatchewan.
vi. Joyce Benjestorf married Andy Chupa. They live in Vancouver, B.C.
Joyce and Andy have two sons:
Ø Brian Chupa.

Ø unknown Chupa.
***
vii. Gordon Benjestorf married Joan Swab and they live in Vancouver, B.C.
Gordon and Joan have three children:
Ø Leanne Benjestorf.
Ø Laurie Benjestorf.
Ø Dan Benjestorf
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 72
Benjestorf
***
viii. Erving Benjestorf is married to Carol Wolfe and
they live in Sherwood Park, Alberta. Erving is
researching Benjestorf family history and we have
exchanged information.
Erving and Carol have three children:
Ø Sherry Benjestorf.
Ø Michelle Benjestorf.
Ø David I. Benjestorf. David and I have exchanged a large number
of e-mail messages and several packages of genealogical
documents over the last year or so, trying to discover the tie in
between his great grandfather and mine. David is a barrister
[lawyer] at the Edmonton, Alberta, law offices of McLennan Ross,
LLP. The following is extracted from a biographical sketch on the
McLennan Ross website: "David attended Minot State University in
North Dakota where he obtained a degree in Honours Finance
(Summa cum laude), and Stavropol State University in southern
Russia where he received an associate degree in Russian studies.
He received a bachelor of laws from the University of Alberta in
2000, articled with McLennan Ross, and was admitted to the
Alberta Bar in 2001."
"Over the course of the last nine years, David has enjoyed a
variety of work experiences, including an internship with the
United States Senate and numerous positions in the oil, gas and
construction industries."
In his spare time, David plays rugby with “The Olden
Bearristers”, the University of Alberta Alumni team.
***
ix. Kenneth Benjestorf, the ninth child of Albert Benjestorf and Emma Miller
is unmarried and he and his brother, Christian, farm the Benjestorf property
in Fenwood.

x. Ruth Benjestorf is unmarried and lives in Vancouver, B.C.
***
c. Edith Benjestorf, the third child of Chris Benjestorf and Rosa Heppki, was born
on 22 February, 1895, in Grinnell, Iowa. Emma married Jim Messinger. She
died at Kelvington, Saskatchewan, on 18 March, 1948.
Edith and Jim had five daughters;
i. Ethel Messinger.
ii. Ida Messinger.
iii. Alice Messinger.
iv. Doris Messinger.
v. May Messinger.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 73
Benjestorf
***
d. Bertha Benjestorf, the fourth child of Chris and Rosa, was born on 9 May, 1897,
in Grinnell, Iowa. Bertha married Richard Renneberg. She died on 10 January,
1942, in Kelvington, Saskatchewan.
Bertha and Richard had seven children:
i. Arthur Renneberg.
ii. Bernard Renneberg.
iii. Marjorie Renneberg.
iv. Billy Renneberg.
v. Helen Renneberg.
vi. Walter Renneberg.
vii. Richard Renneberg.
***
e. Walter Benjestorf, born on 2 September, 1899, presumably in Grinnell, Iowa. He
married Christina Sumour. Walter died on 15 June, 1963, in Melville,
Saskatchewan.
Walter and Christina had no children.
f. Henry Benjestorf, supposed to have been born in Grinnell, Iowa, on 21 March,
1902, however there is a good chance he was born in Richdale, Minnesota.
Henry married Helen Sikora. Henry died around 1976 ±5 years.

Henry and Helen had one daughter:
i. Sharon Benjestorf.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 74
Benjestorf
***
g. Nora Benjestorf, Chris and Rosa’s last child, was born in Fenwood,
Saskatchewan, on 10 May, 1904. She married Jack Young. Nora died prior to
1982.
Nora and Jack had five sons:
i. Donald Young.
ii. Henry Young.
iii. Jack Young [Jr.].
iv. Robert Young.
v. Leonard Young.
*******
*****
***
*

The Böfer Boys:
In a letter to my great aunt, Helma Benjestorf Jester, in 1956, Heinrich Schneehage
stated that “A cousin of your father [i.e. Heinrich Benjestorf], called Böfer, also went to
America”.
When I first read Schneehage’s letter, I assumed that “Böfer” was the cousin Chris
who my mother was told stowed away with her grandfather, Heinrich Benjestorf, when he
came to America. However, I wasn’t sure whether Böfer was a first name, a family name, or,
perhaps, a nickname. A few months later I was introduced to the internet as a genealogical
research tool, and through that I established contact with my Gellenbeck cousin, Ellen
Hennessy. She sent me a copy of the St. Nicholas Catholic Church marriage record of my
great grandmother, Mathilde Gellenbeck, to Henry Benjestorf in St. Louis on 15 September,
1874. One of the witnesses at that marriage was Wilhelm Boefer [“oe” is normally used as
an English substitute for the German letter “ö”].
My immediate reaction was that I had found “Cousin Chris”, only his name was really
Wilhelm. I still had no idea how he was related to my great grandfather, or who his parents
might be.
A day or two later I was using the LDS Familysearch.com genealogical website and
discovered that there was also a Christian Boefer in St. Louis around the same time, who
married Emma Wagner on 26 November, 1872. This seemed even more likely to be “Cousin
Chris”. Perhaps he and Wilhelm were brothers and they both came to America with
Heinrich.
Subsequent developments have cast doubt on my initial assumption that one of the
“Böfer Boys” was cousin Chris, however, it seems likely that at least one of them, probably
Wilhelm, was the “… cousin called Böfer…” that Schneehage mentioned.
Months later, I established contact with Heinrich Benjestorf [III] who lives in the old
“Bäckers” house in Osterwald. He sent me a copy of Heinrich Schneehage’s paper on the
origin of the Benjestorf name. In it I discovered that my great grandfather’s aunt, Catharine
Dorothee Benjestorf had married Anton Heinrich Böfer, a blacksmith at Schloß Ricklingen.
At last I had found a connection between the Böfer’s and the Benjestorf’s.
Unfortunately, at the time of the original writing of this section, I had been unable to
find any documentary evidence connecting Wilhelm or Christian Boefer to Dorothee and
Anton Böfer. However, the fact that Wilhelm Boefer was witness to Heinrich Benjestorf’s
Marriage is strong circumstantial evidence that they were somehow related. The connection
to Christian Boefer was a little more tenuous. Christian may not have been a close relative to
Wilhelm. However, given the fact that he married about two years after Heinrich and his
cousin/s came to America, and in St. Louis at that, and the fact that Boefer is a rather
uncommon name, I would be surprised if they don’t turn out to have been brothers.
I have found several Boefer’s on the internet, most of them in the St. Louis, Missouri,
area, one in Florida, and three in New York City [two of those are police detectives, probably
a man and wife team]. I was able to get an address for the Florida Boefer and I wrote him a
letter some time ago, but have so far received no response from him. I will have to try to find
an address for one of the Boefer’s in St. Louis next.
I have been able to find information about the descendants of Wilhelm [William]
Boefer, but after Christian’s marriage to Emma Wagner in 1872, Christian seemed to have
disappeared into thin air. His wife, Emma, died in St. Louis, Missouri on 20 July, 1943.
Emma’s obituary mentions that she was the wife of “the late Christian Boefer”, and they had
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 75
Benjestorf

one surviving daughter, Adelaide Boefer. I had been unable to find any trace of Christian in
the seventy-one year interval between his marriage to Emma and her death.
***
Update, 2006: In the summer of 2003 Elaine and I made a two month trip through
Canada and much of the US doing genealogical research. In St. Louis I established contact
with Alan Boefer [he pronounces it BAY fur]. He was contacted a few years previously by a
distant cousin in Austria who had done extensive genealogical research on the Böfer family.
The cousin sent Alan a hand drawn Böfer Family tree going back to the sixteenth century.
Alan also had a book that had been written by a relative with many of the details of vital
events in the lives of many of the Böfer/Boefer ancestors and their descendants. I met with
Alan and his father, Ralph, at Alan’s home and examined the Family Tree chart and I was
able to confirm that Catherine Dorothee Benjestorf and Anton Heinrich Ludwig Böfer were,
indeed, the parents of both of the “Böfer Boys”, Christian and Wilhelm.
*******
The Descendants of
Catherine Dorothee Benjestorf
And Anton Heinrich Ludwig Böfer
Catherine Dorothee Benjestorf, the fourth child of Johann Heinrich Pfennigsdorf
[Benjestorf] and Catharine Marie Feesche, was born in Osterwald, Hannover, on 12 April,
1804, during the French occupation of Hannover. She married the blacksmith, Anton
Heinrich Ludwig Böfer, usually called Heinrich, about October, 1831, in Schloß Ricklingen,
a town near Osterwald. Heinrich was born in Schloß Ricklingen on 9 February, 1801.
There is some mystery concerning Catherine Benjestorf~Böfer; Osterwald records
indicate that she immigrated to the United States on 14 March, 1867, but the Böfer family tree
indicates she died in Schloß Ricklingen on 8 October, 1889. Perhaps she didn't like it in
America and returned to Hannover, or perhaps she was just visiting family in Germany when
she died. Her Husband, Heinrich Böfer died about seven months later on 12 May, 1890, also
in Schloß Ricklingen. Christian Boefer traveled to Germany and back during the summer of
1880. Was he, perhaps, escorting his parents back to Germany or just going back to the “old
country” for a visit?
Catherine Benjestorf and Heinrich Böfer had at least seven children:
1. Heinrich Christian Ludwig Wilhelm Böfer was born in Schloß Ricklingen in the
Kingdom of Hannover on 19 August, 1833. He married Dorothea Eleonora
Sophie Prinzhorn in Schloß Ricklingen on 22 April, 1864. Dorothea was born in
Schloß Ricklingen on 18 August, 1834. She died in Schloß Ricklingen on 10
February, 1889. Heinrich Böfer died in Schloß Ricklingen on 11 July, 1903.
2. Marie Dorothea Böfer was born in Schloß Ricklingen on 9 December, 1835.
She married Heinrich Christian Conrad Siemer, who was born in Schloß
Ricklingen on 2 September, 1834.
3. Friedrich Heinrich August Böfer was born on 12 December, 1837, in Schloß
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 76
Benjestorf

Ricklingen. He died in Schloß Ricklingen when he was only three years old on 28
February, 1841.
4. Christian Friedrich Ludwig Böfer was born on 16 January, 1840, in Schloß
Ricklingen. Instead of learning the family trade of blacksmithing, he became a
musician. Chris Böfer may have came to America at the same time as his brother,
Wilhelm, did in February, 1868, or he may have came a year or two later. He was
definitely in St. Louis by 1 June, 1870, when he was sharing a house or an
apartment with his brother and a forty-eight year old widow, Hennetta (?) Heusler,
and her ten year old daughter, Laura. Christian’s occupation was shown as
Musician and his brother’s was Blacksmith. Christian Boefer married Emma
Wagner on 26 November, 1872, in St. Louis, Missouri. Chris was a professional
musician and had a job with the St. Louis Orchestra for a number of years.
At the time of the 1880 Census, Christian and Emma Boefer and their two year
old daughter, Adelaide, lived at Emma’s mother’s house at 1902 Gratiot Street in
St. Louis. In addition to Emma’s mother, Catherine Wagner, Emma’s sister,
Anna Anthis, and her daughter, Emma Anthis, lived in the house. Christian and
his wife appear to have been living there since before 1875.
Christian Boefer apparently made a round trip to Germany in the summer of
1880. He returned from Hamburg to New York aboard the Vessel Gellert on the
25 th of August, 1880.
Christian may have been a partner in the Boefer & Kruse Brewery located at
the northwest corner of 24 th and Walnut in Kansas City, Missouri, in the late
1800’s. The Brewery was owned and operated by a Christian Boefer and Charles
Kruse. The Kansas City Directory shows Christian’s residence at the same
address as the brewery. Perhaps significantly, Christian Boefer did not appear in
the Kansas City Directory after the 1889-1891 edition.
Christian Boefer died at the St. Louis City Hospital on 9 October, 1891. He
was only fifty-one years old.
Emma Wagner died a widow on 20 July, 1943, in St. Louis, Missouri. She
was eighty-eight years old.
Christian and Emma Boefer had two children:
a. Bertha C. Boefer may have been born sometime around 1873. She died
in St. Louis on 27 January, 1875.
b. Adelaide Boefer was born in St. Louis in March, 1878. Adelaide married
a Mr. Rhode around 1898, but was apparently separated from her husband
and living with her mother and grandmother at 6622 Seventh Street by
1900. She and her husband had divorced by the time of the 1910 Census
and Adelaide was using her maiden name and she was working as a
druggist at a drug store. Adelaide was still living with her mother at 6622
but the street name had been changed to Alabama Avenue. She was
working as a postal clerk at the Post Office, a job she was still working at
in 1930.
Adelaide apparently never remarried and continued to live with her
mother until Emma’s death in 1943.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 77
Benjestorf

***
5. Christian Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Böfer, Catherine and
Heinrich Böfer’s fifth child, was born in Schloß Ricklingen
on 4 February, 1842. 17 The Böfer’s came from a long line
of blacksmiths and Wilhelm no doubt learned the blacksmith
trade as an apprentice to his father. Wilhelm departed
Germany for America on his twenty-sixth birthday in 1868,
two years before his cousin, Heinrich Benjestorf, did.
Wilhelm anglicized his name to William Boefer after his
arrival in the United States. William’s brother, Christian, may have accompanied
him to America. They shared the same address in St. Louis in 1870. William
may have influenced Heinrich Benjestorf to come to America, and almost certainly
influenced his decision to settle in St. Louis. William Boefer married Emilie
Hoyer [probably originally Heuer] in St. Louis on 23 January, 1872. Emilie was
born in the Kingdom of Hannover in 1850.
On 15 September, 1874, William Boefer was a witness to the marriage of his
cousin, Heinrich Benjestorf, to Mathilde Gellenbeck at the St. Nicholas Catholic
Church in St. Louis.
In St. Louis William continued to earn his living as a blacksmith and
eventually opened his own blacksmith shop at his home at 18 th and Singleton
Street. By 1880 he was manufacturing tools and the 1890 St. Louis City
Directory shows him as the President of the B. Roth Tool Company which was
located at the northeast corner of Market and 18 th Street.
On 7 January, 1891, Emilie died at their home at 1723 Singleton in St. Louis.
She was only 40 years old.
The next year William Boefer married Elise Bartheis. Elise was born in
Germany in 1857 and immigrated to the United States when she was about twentyfive
years old. Although her obituary states that Elise was the mother of a list of
William Boefer’s children, it appears from their birth dates that all of them were
actually the children of William and his first wife, Emily.
For some reason William and his family do not show up in the 1900 Census,
but by 1910 they had moved into a large house at 1011 Dolman Street. Since
only two of William’s children were still living with them, the Boefer’s rented
their extra rooms to six lodgers. William identified his occupation as
“Superintendent of Tool Manufacturing”.
At 12:30 on 6 September, 1918, William’s second wife, Elise Bartheis died at
her home at 1011 Dolman Street.
William continued to live in the large house at 1011 Dolman Street with some
of his children including his daughter, Emily, and her husband, Ewald Denner,
who was a tool maker. By January, 1920, William Boefer, then sixty-six, had
retired.
William Boefer died in July, 1924. His remains are burried in the St. Mathews
Cemetery on Bates Avenue in St. Louis. A family gravestone commemorates the
graves of both of his wives and two of his children, Emilie and John Boefer.
17 There is a discrepancy between Wilhelm’s birth year as recorded in the Church records, 1842, and the
information in the Boefer Family History book which shows 1847. This was probably a transcription error
where the two was mistaken for a seven. Other information supports the 1842 date.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 78
Benjestorf

William Boefer and Emilie Hoyer had at least eight children;
a. William Boefer, Jr. was born on 19 September, 1873, in St. Louis,
Missouri. William married Clara Johanna Schoenberg in St. Louis on
18 March, 1896. Clara had been born in St. Louis on 9 November, 1876.
William became a lathe operator, probably in the tool factory run by his
father. He later became a machinist and by 1920 he was a “Stationary
Engineer” at the Belcher Hotel and Baths laundry, a job he continued to
work at until his retirement. William and his family had also moved into
a new house at 2031 Rutger Street by that year. Clara’s mother,
Wilhelmina Schoenberg, lived next door.
William Boefer died on 7 June, 1949, in St. Louis, Missouri. His
wife, Clara, died on 29 August, 1967.
William Boefer and Clara Schoenberg had four children:
i. Adolph Carl Boefer was born in St. Louis on 19 April, 1897.
Adolph married Berta Klinger on 16 October, 1920, in St. Louis.
Berta was born on 23 August, 1892, and died in St. Louis in
August, 1973.
Adolph Boefer and Berta Klinger had three children;
Ø Eleanor Ann Boefer was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 27
July, 1921. Eleanor worked as a secretary for an
insurance company after high school. She wanted to attend
college, but was never able to. She married William
Anderson Nelden in St. Louis on 12 September, 1942.
William was born in Parkdale, Oregon, in 1916. Eleanor
died on 10 December, 2002.
Eleanor Boefer and William Nelden had two children;
v Margaret Louise Nelden married Ned Joseph
Wantz in 1968.
Margaret and Ned have one child;
t Michelle Nichole Wantz recently married
Brian Richardson.
***
v James William Nelden, Eleanor and William
Nelden’s second child, was born in Ohio. James
graduated from the University of Missouri with a
Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering and is a
Registered Professional Engineer in Illinois.
James married Betty Jean Kaufman in Illinois,
in 1977.
James Nelden and Betty Kaufman have two
children;
t Angela Louise Nelden.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 79
Benjestorf

t Jamie Luanne Nelden.
***
Ø Nancy Helen Boefer, the second child of Adolph Boefer
and Berta Klinger, was born in Missouri. She married
Harry Albert Auchter probably late in 1954. The
Auchter’s had two children;
v Ruth Elaine Auchter married James Allen Daniel
in 1983.
Ruth and James have two children;
t Christopher James Daniel.
t Jonathan Mark Daniel.
***
v Mark Albert Auchter married Cassia Ann
Kummrow.
***
Ø Ralph Eugene Boefer was the third child of Adolph Boefer
and Berta Klinger. He was born in St. Louis on 24
October, 1928. Ralph married Marcella Heckert on 6
January, 1951.
Ralph Eugene Boefer passed away on 19 December,
2004.
Ralph and Marcella had four children;
v Carol Ann Boefer married Robert Allen Ruh.
Carol and Robert have three children;
t Andrea Marie Ruh.
t Jonathan Robert Ruh .
t Christopher Allen Ruh.
***
v Joyce Marie Boefer, Ralph and Marcella’s second
child, married a Naval Officer, David Harold
Thieman. David was a submariner and has recently
retired as a Navy Captain. He had been attached to
the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island,
during the same time period that my son, Kim
Roddy, was attached to the War College.
Joyce and David have three children;
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 80
Benjestorf

t Kimberly Sarah Thieman .
t Megan Marie Thieman.
t Jennifer Lynn Thieman .
***
v Alan Carl Boefer, the third of Ralph and Marcella
Boefer’s four children, joined the Coast Guard and
was based in Hawaii and Alaska. After he got out
of the Coast Guard he studied horticulture and was
employed by the St. Louis Botanical Gardens. He
now works for a large Power and Gas company in
St. Louis.
Alan has provided me with a copy of the Boefer
Family History which has provided almost all of the
information I have about the Böfer/Boefer families.
Alan married Nancy Jean Knese. Alan and
Nancy have two daughters;
t Katherine Corinne Boefer.
t Amy Christine Boefer.
***
v Peggy Lynn Boefer, Ralph and Marcella Boefer’s
last child, married Paul Glendin Justis, Jr. in 1986.
Peggy and Paul have two children;
t Benjamin Paul Justis.
t William Justis .
*****
ii. Gustav Emil Boefer, the second child of William Boefer and Clara
Schoenberg, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 11 September,
1902. Gustav married Naomi Belle Pollard in Topeka, Kansas,
on Christmas day, 1924. Naomi was born in Tennessee on 7 May,
1903. She died in an automobile/train collision in St. Louis on 22
May, 1975. Gustav died in St. Louis on 7 August, 1991.
Gustav and Naomi Boefer had two children;
Ø Betty Irene Boefer married James Lynn Keller.
Betty and James had three children;
v Chedra Lynn Keller married John Patrick
Billingsley.
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Benjestorf

Chedra and John had two children;
t Rachel Christine Billingsley.
t John Weston Billingsley.
Second Edition ~ March, 2006 82
Benjestorf
***
v Khristopher Lynn Keller, Betty and James Keller’s
second child, married Rachel Leigh Livingston and
they had two children;
t Casey Lynn Keller
t Ryder Lynn Keller
Khristopher lost his first wife and remarried to
Terri Lea Storer. Khristopher and Terri have one
child;
t Ryan James Keller
***
v Gretchen Lynn Keller, the last child of Betty and
James Keller, married Warren Wayne Lee. They
had no children at the time of the printing of the
Boefer Family History.
*****
Ø Shirley Ann Boefer, the second of Gustav Boefer and
Naomi Pollard’s children, married William Herbert
Stahlheber in 1951. Shirley and William had one child;
v Sharon Ann Stahlheber married Lee Benson
Mulder.
*******
iii. Florence May Emily Berth Wilhemena Boefer, the third child of
William Boefer and Clara Schoenberg, was born in St. Louis,
Missouri, on 25 May, 1905. She married George John Brenner
on 2 March, 1935. George was born on the Fourth of July, 1904.
He died on 13 March, 1992. Florence died on 2 June, 2002.
Florence and George had one child;
Ø George John Brenner, Jr., called “Jack”, married Claire
around 1965. George and Claire had three children;

v Linda Elaine Brenner.
v George John Brenner, III.
v Michael Thomas Hudson Brenner .
Jack and Claire divorced and he married Saundra
Huauber in 1985. George and Saundra apparently had no
children.
*******
iv. Irene Wilhemena Boefer, the fourth and last child of William
Boefer, Jr. and Clara Schoenberg, was born 25 November, 1907, in
St. Louis, Missouri. Irene contracted Scarlet Fever and died when
she was only six and a half years old on 15 May, 1914.
***
*
b. An unnamed infant was born to William Boefer, Sr. and Emilie Hoyer on
23 February, 1876. It died the same day before it could be named.
c. Alex Boefer was the third child of William Boefer, Jr. and Emilie Hoyer.
He was born in St. Louis in 1877. Family tradition says that Alex moved
to California and drowned.
d. Albertina “Tina” Boefer was born in St. Louis in February, 1880. She
was William and Emilie’s fourth child. Tina married J. Stutzenbach.
e. Another unnamed Boefer infant was born to William and Emilie and
died on 19 April, 1883.
f. Johnny Boefer, William and Emilie’s sixth child, was born in St. Louis
about 1886. He was mentally retarded. His sister, Emily, cared for him
in later years.
Johnny Boefer died at 9AM on 3 February, 1945. He resided at 5179
Ross in St. Louis at the time of his death. Funeral was conducted at Schnur
Funeral Home and he was interred at St. Mathews Cemetery.
g. Henry Adolph Albert Boefer, William and Emilie Boefer’s seventh child,
was born in St. Louis on 17 October, 1887. In 1910 Henry was living
with his father and step-mother and was working as a stenographer. In
1917 when he registered for the draft he was thirty years old and still living
with his father at 1011 Dolman Street. By that time he had changed jobs
and was a Postal Clerk at the St. Louis Post Office, a job which he
apparently held until he retired.
Henry Boefer died in August, 1979.
******
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Benjestorf

6. Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Böfer was the sixth child born to Catharine Dorothee
Benjestorf and Anton Heinrich Ludwig Böfer. He was born in Schloß Ricklingen
in the Kingdom of Hannover on Christmas day, 25 December, 1844. At an
undetermined time, probably around 1866 when the Prussians invaded Hannover,
he immigrated to Austria and settled in the town of Ebenthal in northeastern
Austria [now in the state of Niederöstereich ... Lower Austria]. Ebenthal is about
20 miles northeast of Vienna. Sometime around 1878, Heinrich Böfer married
Anna Bauer. Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Böfer died in Ebenthal, Austria on 14
January, 1908.
Heinrich Böfer and Anna Bauer had two children;
a. Dora Böfer was born in Ebenthal, Austria, on 20 April, 1879. She died in
Vienna, Austria, on 24 December, 1936.
b. Ludwig Heinrich Böfer was born on 8 September, 1888, in Ebenthal,
Austria. Ludwig married Rosa Kirschke sometime before 1917. Around
1922 or earlier, perhaps in the aftermath of The Great War, Ludwig and
Rosa immigrated to Argentina and settled in Buenos Aires. In Buenos
Aires Ludwig met a young lady, Maria Schmidt, who was born in
Tameschburg, Banat [now Romania], on 6 January, 1898.
Exactly what happened next is a little difficult to say because of
apparent typographical errors and ambiguities in the Boefer Family History
which I received from Alan Boefer. The History states that Ludwig “...
met Maria Schmidt Dec 09, 1926 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.” However,
it then goes on to say that Maria had three children by Ludwig Böfer
starting in September, 1923! Obviously there is a typographical error
there somewhere. I suspect the meeting took place in December, 1922.
The report makes no mention of a divorce from Rosa or a marriage to
Maria, leaving me with the impression that Maria Schmidt was Ludwig’s
long-term mistress while he continued to remain married to his wife, Rosa.
On the other hand, Maria is said to have had only one child by Ludwig and
it was born in 1917, so perhaps they did divorce or he deserted her and
lived full time with Maria Schmidt. There may have been laws in
Argentina, a predominantly Catholic country, which did not permit
divorce. In any case, Ludwig apparently acknowledged Maria’s children
as his and they all used the Böfer surname.
Ludwig Heinrich Böfer died in Buenos Aires on 25 April, 1943.
Unless it is another typographical error, Rosa Kirschke and Maria Schmidt
both died on the same day, 10 December, 1960, in Buenos Aires.
Ludwig Heinrich Böfer and Rosa Kirschke had one child;
i. Gustav Böfer was born on 1 August, 1917, presumably in
Ebenthal, Austria. Nothing more is known about Gustav at this
time. He may have died as an infant or young child.
Ludwig Böfer and Maria Schmidt had three children;
ii. Ludwig Anton Böfer was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 9
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Benjestorf

September, 1923. He married Maria Noller on 4 January, 1952,
in Buenos Aires. Ludwig died in Buenos Aires on 17 October,
1991. He and Maria Noller had three children;
Ø Elisabeth Böfer married Dieter Rickert in Hamburg,
Federal Republic of Germany, in 1988. Dieter was born in
Argentina.
Elisabeth Böfer and Dieter Rickert have one child;
v Isabel Rickert .
***
Ø Martin Böfer, Gustav and Maria’s second child, married
Patricia Rojo.
Ø Astrid Böfer married Jorge Fulian Fontana in Argentina.
*******
iii. Wolfgang Amadeus Franz Böfer, the second child of Gustav
Böfer and Maria Schmidt, married Agnas Brunhilde Thiel.
Wolfgang and Agnas have two children;
Ø Walter Böfer married Ana Maria Braun in 1988. Shortly
after their marriage they moved to Switzerland.
Walter and Ana Böfer have two children;
v Cornelia Böfer was born in Switzerland.
v Andreas Wolfgang Böfer was also born in
Switzerland.
***
Ø Hugo Böfer, Wolfgang and Agnas’ second child, married
Ana Maria Ines Mehrwaldt in Argentina, in 1986. Hugo
and Ana Böfer have two children;
v Jesica Böfer .
v Federico Böfer.
***
iv. Ana Maria Dorothea, Ludwig Heinrich Böfer and Maria
Schmidt’s third child, married Marcelo Alfredo Carsalade in
1958. Ana and Marcelo have two children;
Ø Marcelo Carsalade.
Ø Analia Carsalade married Jorge Saullo Analia and Jorge
have a son;
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v Patricio Saullo.
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