By Doug Boilesen (grandson of Anna), 2018

 

Anna Ellen Ender Vogt Barr was born on April 7, 1884 in Elba, Nebraska.

Her mother, born in Sweden, was Bertha Johnson Ender. Her father, Christian Ender, was born in Switzerland.

Anna "Entered into Rest" May 29, 1959 in Elba, Nebraska.

A "Cotesfield Item" for February 28, 1902 in the St. Paul Phonograph Press noted that "Frank Vogt of Fairdale has rented Mr. Chinn's farm formerly occupied by Fred Jeffries and moved in Saturday."

A "Cotesfield Item" for March 28, 1902 in the St. Paul Phonograph Press: "Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Vogt who were married Wednesday of last week, have moved in with his brother Frank Vogt."

April 18, 1902 "Mr. and Mrs. Frank Vogt have been visiting at the parental home in Fairdale the past two weeks." - St. Paul Phonograph Press

The August 28, 1903 St. Paul Phonograph Press "Elba" report stated that "Frank Vogt was building a new house."

May 13, 1904 St. Paul Phonograph Press "Elba Neighborhood News": "Frank Vogt and his wife and Fred Vogt and his family spent Sunday with E. Vogt.

"September 23, 1904 St. Paul Phonograph Press - "Fred Vogt and family and Mrs. Frank Vogt and children took in the Farmers' picnic.

"Ernest and Frank Vogt and wives "attended the A. O. U. W. picnic in St. Paul Saturday." - June 7, 1907 St. Paul Phonograph Press

Frank died February 23, 1914 leaving two sons (Ray and Chris) and one daughter (Fay). The Phonograph, Obituary, February 26, 1914

 

Anna and Frank had three children: Ray (May 12, 1901), Fay (March 22, 1904) and Chris (November 4, 1907).

Circa 1910 RPPC unposted with note on back "Anna V. now aint we cute" - unconfirmed but believed to be Ender farm with Christian Ender holding the hammer, Anna standing on left with white cap and unknown on right but perhaps sister Sarah (see back porch and windmill of Christian and Bertha photo with grandchildren used for identification of this location.)

 

Anna's older sister's marriage, Sarah "Tae" to Frank Vogt's brother Ernest W. Vogt ended in divorce according to The Howard County Herald October 1,1925 article on Ernest's death and his "addiction to the use of intoxicating liquor" (Ernest Vogt b. Aug 1, 1879 to Sept 27, 1925) (1)

Anna was an active member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union and as a young girl Betty remembers going to some meetings with her mom, her aunt Sarah (Tae) Vogt and her sister Faye (Mrs. Ericksen).

 

This Meditation was sent by Betty to her mother sometime in the 1950's. Anna wrote that she loved it. After Anna passed according to Sister Bev our mother had it taped to the inside of her kitchen cabinet.

June 1955 at Fair Oaks, California at Mary Lindsay's home - Bertha and Christian Ender children: W.S. Ender, Margaret 'Margie' Olson, Mary Lindsay, Sarah Vogt and Anna Barr.

Doug Boilesen "My Grandmother, Anna Barr" - Popular Culture and other memories

I don't have many memories of my grandma Barr's farmhouse as I was not yet five when they moved to town (Elba) after selling their farm which was near Cotesfield.

Their Elba house, however, I do remember. It was a square, two bedroom single story white house on a large lot (about an acre) with only one other house on their "block." They had a garden with potatoes, green beans, peas, and sweet corn, two red mulberry trees that I can remember being harvested by placing a bedsheet under each and shaking its branches so that the berries dropped (staining the sheet). There were several wooden sheds in the back of the property for farming implements, tools and a chicken coop. A stump used as a chopping block was also out there to be used if chicken was to be on the dinner menu. A large oil drum was used for disposing of anything that needed to be burned, probably weekly. I always hoped we'd be there when that burning took place.

There was a large pile of corn cobs probably 30 feet from the front door that was fuel for the cast iron cookstove in the kitchen.

The cinnamon rolls, cookies and bread from that oven remain the smells that I delightfully remember about that house since my grandmother seemed to always be baking just prior to our arrival. My grandmother's bread, preserves and butter also made me a toast eater for life. But to make toast I had to be supervised since each side of their electric toaster needed to be pulled down to turn the bread over and toast the other side, a process that exposed the electric coils. If the toast got burnt my grandmother told me to eat it because it would be good for my vocal cords and make me a better singer.

There were many Mason jars in the pantry filled with pears and peaches that would be served with breakfast or as a dessert. We ate at their oak table that also had more leaves that could be added with fold-out legs which supported the extended leaves if there was to be more than six people.

A large oval framed photograph of my grandmother's parents was on one wall in the parlor and on the other wall was a large print of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." Under that print was their oak buffet where some pictures, cards and decorative pieces would be displayed. A nine-inch ceramic fish was a nick-nack ornament on the buffet or on the bedroom dresser.

They had running water in the kitchen but no indoor plumbing for the bathroom so the outhouse was always an adventure that I didn't like. A wall telephone was in the parlor but I don't remember the longs and shorts of their number. A table radio was in the kitchen and they got a TV around 1956. There was no phonograph in their house but my grandmother did buy the local church's pump organ for $8 when the church decided to switch to a piano for its services. I was taking piano lessons and my grandmother wanted to have this organ in their house so that I could play for her when we visited. They had a piano when Mom was growing up but didn't have it when they moved to Elba.

Dad installed their new linoleum for their kitchen by jacking up the iron cookstove and then rolling the linoleum under the stove. When they did get their TV I know my grandmother enjoyed "The Lawrence Welk Show," "The George Gobel Show," "The Bob Cummings Show" (aka "Love that Bob"), "I've Got a Secret," and "Art Linkletter's House Party." My grandfather liked the boxing shows and "Gillette Cavalcade of Sports."

My grandmother was a life-long reader of the Bible and don't know much about other books she read. However, one of her books I know she considered a favorite was "Art Linkletter's Kid's Say the Darnest Things."

In the 1950's they had subscriptions to the Sunday Omaha World Herald newspaper, the Nebraska Farmer, The National Geographic, and the St. Paul Phonograph newspaper. I probably saw my first Old Farmer's Almanac at their house.

On their front door they had a "If I'm not home leave a message box" with a pencil and paper inside it. I never saw any messges in that box but remember at one point National Geographics maps had been cut into message size notepaper for the box. I must have made some comment about that since she started saving those maps for me.

Almost exactly like the one in my dad's parents house there was a china cabinet/desk in their parlor and some Big Little Books from the 1930's and 1940's such as Tarzan and Little Orphan Annie. In the 1950's I know they subscribed to the Sunday Omaha World Herald newspaper and that for many years they had a subscription to the St. Paul Phonograph newspaper. My Sunday Comics reading had been limited to the Lincoln Journal so it was at my Grandpa and Grandma Barr's where I was introduced to Gasoline Alley, Li'l Abner, and Joe Palooka which I read while sitting in their mission style platform rocker.

I slept on their green sofa couch with flannel sheets when we visited them in the winter. My grandmother embroidered and I remember pillow cases with a colorful flower or other design on it.

They never had a large Christmas tree but the ones I remember had tinsel and a few bubble lights, candy canes and some glass ornaments. My grandmother always put out her clear plastic gum drop tree which she decorated with gum drops and then left a few at its base like Christmas presents. I've always had a sweet tooth and loved those gum drops. Grandmother's brother Willy in California would send almonds and oranges to for Christmas and I know that during the time my mother was growing up it was a special event to receive their annual box of fruit and nuts from California and Uncle Willy.

 

My mom liked to tell stories that she heard or experienced while growing up and some of those are in her Other Stories Growing Up section. One story that isn't told is about what my grandparents called the "Blizzard of '88." Although both of my grandparents were not yet four or in school, the impact of the "Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888 in Nebraska was something talked about for many years and recalled by my grandparents. It was embedded in popular culture as an event that was completely unexpected but deadly.

The weather had a daily impact on farmers with success or failure dependent on rain and always with the risk of violent storms of wind or hail that could destroy the crops; they needed a growing season without grasshoppers, crop disease or fires. Banks, big business and the economy could change everything (and too often not for the better for farmers) so annually crops needed to be harvested without incident and then sold for a fair price.

My grandmother experienced many changes through the decades even though she lived her entire life in Howard County, Nebraska. The introduction of the telephone, automobiles, phonographs and recorded sound, movies, radio, television and print media like magazines altered what she saw, heard and could do.

Consumerism changed what and how goods were produced and sold. She went from churning her own butter to buying it at the local store. The Rural Electrication Act brought electric lights and power to her homes. She went from an icebox to a Frigidaire; from beating the rugs to vacuuming; from a scrub board and large, metal laundry 'pan' to an electric washing machine (although always a clothes line for drying); from Mason jars of fruit to canned foods from the market but I'll always remember the peaches and pears she would continue to 'can.' And the preserves and jams she made were always great on my toast. I can still picture the rows of those Mason jars and smile when I remember that most young Americans have no idea about home canning and preserving anything. It also reminds me of a World War I poster that I saw when doing some research about Uncle Sam that shows "preserving" as being a patriotic act.

 

 

An article in Serious Eats identified what the author Maggie Hoffman considered the "best jams and preserves in the USA" in 2020 and even wrote that "we're in something of a golden era: today's jams are better than they ever were before." I find that to be a good reminder about the power of nostalgia, the recognition of how much sugar my grandmother actually used in her preserves, and some other of my own questionable recollections about "the good old days."

Some of the life-changing events experienced by my grandmother, of course, weren't the "good old days." Her first husband Frank Vogt died suddenly in 1914 leaving her a widow with three children; Frank's mother, Mrs. Lulu Vogt, was murdered on July 5, 1917 and Lulu's son-in-law Allen V. Grammer was convicted of the crime accessor before the fact and executed on December 20,1920 along with the man who killed Lulu, Alson Cole. This was the first use of the electric chair in Nebraska; the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Great Depression and drought resulted in Anna losing her family home (which they called "River Ranch"); and World War II saw sacrifices and loss of friends and and relatives in the war. Fortunately for the family, however, Axel Boilesen did return at the end of the war and marry Anna's daughter Betty.

Anna Barr passed on May 29, 1959. She was 75 and I was nine years old. It was the first time I saw someone in an open casket. Mom didn't want me to attend the funeral so my cousin took care of me during the service.

Anna now lies next to Manley Barr and adjacent to the burial plot of Frank Vogt in the Elba Cemetery.

It's one of the cemeteries I try to annually visit.

 

 

Sarah ("Tae") Christina Eve Vogt (born Ender) was born on December 26, 1881, in Elba, Nebraska, to Christian Ender and Bertha Ender (born Erickson).

Sarah married Ernest William Vogt. Ernest was born on August 1 1879, in Nebraska. Ernest died on September 27, 1925. They had 3 children: Kenneth Vogt, Fern Adnelle Vogt Zavitka, and Eudean Vogt Lehn. Sarah lived on her farm near Elba until 1943 when she moved into Elba.

Sarah Vogt passed on March 22, 1974. Songs at her funeral were "Ivory Palaces" and "How Great Thou Art." (Note that Anna Barr's funeral also included "Ivory Palaces.")

The Phonograph Herald, March 27, 1974