ALMA JULIA (KURTZ) BITSCHE
(May 21, 1893 - January 4, 1994)
ALMA (KURTZ) BITSCHE'S CHILDHOOD
First, a brief introduction (by John C. Bitsche)
Sometime around 1975, my sister Donna asked our grandmother (then about
82 years old) to help her with a school project in which each student researched
a relative's past. Grandma typed up an account for Donna, and I am very
grateful that my sister made copies of it to share with the rest of us.
Grandma made no mention of honors such as receiving the Papal Award Pro
Ecclesia-Et Tontifice (for the church) by Pope Pius XII in 1955. She chose
instead to focus on simple aspects of her early life--descriptions of a
life very different from how we grow up in today's world.
Initially I decided to publish it on my web site so that nieces, nephews,
cousins, etc, could enjoy it, but as I reread the account I realize it
may be interesting even to non-relatives who enjoy such glimpses from the
past. I should note that I made no spelling or grammatical corrections,
and I have a great esteem for the abilities of this woman who, in spite
of her limited opportunities for education, obviously made the best of
them.
And now, the account of Alma Julia (Kurtz) Bitsche
I was born on a farm about three miles northeast of a little town called
Clifton, Kans. on May 21, 1893. Those were the horse and buggy days and
we didn't get to go to town very often. We raised practically everything
we ate and used. We hauled our wheat and corn to town in a lumber wagon
and had it ground into flour and cornmeal. We raised our own vegetables
and fruit and hogs, cows and chickens for our meat and had our own milk,
butter and cream. We had a very good living and always plenty of it. We
burned wood and cobs in our cook stove and it was my job to carry in a
supply of corn cobs and wood every evening to last mother through the day
to cook with. In the winter we burned coal in our big Round Oak heating
stove. On the farm everyone helps with the work. I helped in the field
to till the soil, shock the grain, pitch the hay, husk the corn, feed the
stock, milk the cows, gather the eggs, feed the chickens, etc.
I had an older sister who helped mother in the house and since I had only
one brother older than I was, there was always so much more to be done
on the outside that I always helped my father. My father was a very good
farmer and took great pride in the appearance of his farm and buildings
and he was a very handy man. He had a forge and sharpened all the tools
for his neighbors. The forge was kept going by hand so I was the one who
always turned the grindstone and kept the forge going for him. He always
said I was his right hand bower. We lived two miles from school and at
that time children didn't start to school until they were eight years old.
I will never forget my first day in school. I had long, heavy, taffy colored
hair and some of the boys called me red headed turkey egg, because I was
also freckled. I fought with them before school took up and again at recess.
We had only one teacher and eight grades in one room. Each class would
go to the front of the room to recite. We sat on a long bench until we
were called upon to recite, then we stood. There were blackboards all across
the back of the room where we would put our problems on to explain or to
diagram our sentences on. My hair was so long that when it was braided
it hung through the crack of the seat and the boys who sat behind me used
to pull my braids between their toes. School took up at nine A.M. and dismissed
at four P.M. We had recess in the morning and again in the
afternoon. We had to carry our drinking water a quarter of a mile. We used
two buckets and a tin dipper and everyone drank from the same dipper. There
were between thirty and forty children in attendance every day. We played
base ball, andy over, and fox and geese. We used to put on plays, tableaus,
recite readings, sing songs etc. for our parents about three times during
the school year which lasted from the first of Sept. until the last day
of May. During the summer when we were not in school we went barefoot a
lot and everyone tried to have pretty feet and one way to keep them pretty
and white was to soak them in buttermilk. One evening my older sister and
I were soaking our feet in the five gallon bucket of buttermilk before
we carried it to the hogs. We had a board across the bucket and she sat
on one side and I on the other. She decided to get up and when she did
I went down and the bucket of buttermilk went over and run over me and
drenched my hair and clothes. Of course I screamed and everyone in the
house came running out into the yard to see what was wrong and when they
saw me they started laughing and laughed so hard the tears ran down their
cheeks. I was so mad at first but when they laughed so hard I laughed too
but I thought mother would never get the smell of that buttermilk out of
my hair. I was always a giggler and could always find something to giggle
about, especially in church or school, and that got me into more trouble
than anything I ever did. I think the most frightening thing that ever
happened in my life as a child was when I was eight years old, during the
summer. My sister and I were in the yard and we got to fussing and I went
in the house and hooked all the screen doors so she couldn't get in. Mother
had company and wasn't paying any attention to us and all of a sudden Clara
started screaming and running around outside the house and tried to get
in and couldn't. The shepard dog had gone mad and was chasing her and had
ahold of her dress skirt. Finally the lady who was visiting us got the
screen door unhooked and let her in and closed the door between she and
the dog and he tore the skirt completely off her new heavy calico dress.
She screamed so loud the neighbors a half mile away came on horseback to
see what was wrong. My father was on top of the new barn he was building,
he came down as fast as he could, picked up a heavy piece of 2 X 4 and
came to the house and got the gun and shot the dog on the front step. My
sister almost went into hysterics and has had bad nerves ever since. I
never again locked her out of the house. I was fourteen when I graduated
from the 8th grade but there was no chance for me to go to high school.
When I was seventeen my father sold the farm and we moved to Okla.
We lived in town and I started to highschool. I graduated in 1914 at the
age of 21 years. I then decided to work my way through college, so I started
to Okla. College for Women but at the end of the first semester I saw I
couldnt make the grade so I quit and took a Business course at the R.T.
Denbo School of Business. After graduation I got a job as bookkeeper in
a Seed House. In June of 1915 I married and kept books for my husband in
his business and helped to wait on trade between times. He and I worked
together in raising our family of nine children. We helped each other.
He would help prepare the fruit and vegetables for canning, help with the
children and we did everything together. We spent many happy fifty nine
years together, until God took him to his eternal home at the age of 93
years.
There were many good times during these years too. It wasn't all just
work. There were barn dances, picnics, taffy pulls, card parties, operas,
domino parties, skip to my Lou, Post Office, Plays, Christmas parties,
bicycle rides, horseback rides, buggy rides etc. We always
went to church on Sundays. My father would hitch the team up to the Surrey
and we would all eight pile in. There were six of we children. Three boys
and three girls. I was third in line. I have had a very happy life and
have never seen the person yet I would like to trade with. My children
are all married and living and I have 40 grandchildren and 13 Greatgrand
children. They are all very precious to me.
Grandma Bitsche
Donna, I find there are some things I didn't mention.
Our country school was goverened by a school board
consisting of three men in the district. They hired the teachers and saw
that they got the teacher paid and the building kept in repair, fuel bought,
etc. All of our farm machinery was horse power except the thrashing
machine. My father had the only steam engine and thrashing machine in the
neighborhood and thrashed for all of the neighbors. He would drive it from
one farm to the other until they were all thrashed. He also had a corn
sheller, a cider press, and a band saw that was run by horsepower but it
couldn't be moved so the neighbors had to bring their corn, apples, and
logs to our place to have them done. We had a large orchard and gathered
apples by the wagon load so my father would grind them, press out the juice
and put it in 50 gallon barrells to ferment and made it into vinegar. He
supplied all the grocery stores in Clifton with their supply of Apple Cider
vinegar. Mother used to supply them with her fresh, sweet country butter.
There was no refrigeration in those days so in order to keep the cream
and milk sweet my father built a long trough on the well platform which
was just outside our kitchen door. Our well was 65ft. deep and water real
cold. We had a large windmill and it pumped the water into the tank around
the 5 gal. Jars of milk and cream and as it overflowed the water was piped
down to the horse tank and hog pen. Mother sent the butter to town twice
a week and took duebills for it and with that she would buy all our shoes,
clothing etc. All our stores handled groceries and merchandise
such as piece goods, shoes, underwear, socks, mittens, handkerchiefs, etc.
Butter sold for 15¢ a lb. Coffee 3 pounds for a quarter,
pork sausage 3 lbs. for a quarter, wheat sold as low as 50¢ a bu.
Things were so different from what they are today. Neighbors visited together,
helped each other and were never too busy to doa good deed for each other.
They used to get together and piece quilts and knit and crochet and visit
all at the same time. There were no electric washing machines or sewing
machines. No gas or electricity. We did have a rural telephone by a local
company. Washing was done by hand on a rub board. We made our own soap
out of the cracklins after rendering our lard. It was cooked in a large
black iron pot outside with a fire under it of wood then lye and water
was mixed with the cracklins, skins etc. cooked to a certain
stage and not stirred too hard or too long then poured into a wooden frame
or sess it was called until it cooled enough to cut into bars. My sister
Clara has had many a blue ribbon on her pretty white soap entered in the
country fairs. I have lived through two depressions and have had three
sons over seas in the wars since World war II. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Two were
in WWII, and one in Korea.] My brother just younger then me was in
world war I. Those were sad and trying times. War is Hell. I hope and pray
there will never be another war. There have been so many improvements on
all lines of living except one and that is Love of God and Love of our
neighbor. There is too much greed and too much jealousy among people now
and we are living too fast, too wasteful, and too selfish and unless it
comes to a halt soon we are doomed for worse times ahead. Mankind has taken
too much out of God's hands and think they can do a better job but God
will not be mocked.
SAMPLING OF NOTES IN CARDS SENT BY ALMA (KURTZ)
BITSCHE
In November of 1992 when I received this, Grandma (then age 99) was still
faithfully churning out birthday cards, holiday cards, and letters to family
and friends:
Hi! John Charles!
Here are our Wishes for you today
and always.
Its time to rake leaves and pick
up pecans. Help!!! Old man Winter is in the air. 64° today and 34°
tonight, light wind. Pecans falling slow. Good hot soup or chili, or stew
weather! Florence cooking beef stew today. Smells lusious. All kinds of
vegetables.
Who does your cooking?
(nosey Grandma)
In 1993, there was a gathering of family and community to honor Grandma
on her 100th birthday. Considering the great numbers who turned out, it
is astounding to realize that probably every attendant later received nothing
less than the following Thank You card. Because the handwriting was still
quite steady, I suspect that Aunt Florence was doing the actual penmanship,
but I would not be surprised in the least to hear it was Grandma herself
(after all, she was able to drive a car until she turned 90!)
Dear John:
Thank you so much for your cute card
and for coming to my 100th Birthday Party and our Family Reunion at Chickasha,
OK, in June. Now that we are safely back in Bakersfield I am going through
my Guest Book and writing Thank You notes to all who signed it.
Time was too short for visiting but
Thanks for the Thrill of seeing your smiling face again.
your 100 year old grandma
Alma Julia Bitsche
OBITUARY FOR ALMA (KURTZ) BITSCHE
CHICKASHA DAILY EXPRESS, Friday, January 7, 1994, Chickasha, Oklahoma
Funeral Mass for Mrs. E.I. (Alma) Bitsche,
100, former Chickasha resident, will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Jan.
10, 1994, in Holy Name Catholic Church. Wake service will be held at 7
p.m. Sunday, Jan. 9, 1994, in Sevier Funeral Home.
She was born May 21, 1893, in Clifton,
Kan., the daughter of William A. and Sabilla Kurtz, and died Tuesday, Jan.
4, 1994, in Bakersfield, Calif.
Mrs. Bitsche's family moved to Walters
in 1909. She came to Chickasha in September, 1914, to attend Oklahoma College
for Women, now the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
She and Ed Bitsche were married June
22, 1915, in Chickasha. They were married 58 years. He preceded her in
death Jan. 22, 1974.
Mrs. Bitsche lived in Chickasha until
July, 1985, when she moved to Bakersfield, Calif., to make her home with
a daughter, Florence Greynolds.
Mrs. Bitsche and her husband owned and
operated Bitsche Nursery and Greenhouse from 1921 until 1959.
She was a member of Holy Name Catholic
Church, a charter member of the Catholic Daughters of America Court St.
Teresa #969, and was a member of the Catholic Women's Activity Group. On
July 30, 1955, she received the Papal Award Pro Ecclesia-Et Tontifice (for
the church) by Pope Pius XII, nominated by Bishop Eugene McGinnis.
Mrs. Bitsche was also preceded in death
by her parents, one grandson, three brothers and two sisters.
Survivors include five sons and five
daughters-in-law, John and Irene Bitsche, Bill and Mary Bitsche, all of
Chickasha, Bob and Rosemary Bitsche of Lubbock, Texas, Ray and Lee Bitsche
of Lawton, Charles and Geri Bitsche of Garland, Texas; four daughters and
two sons-in-law, Florence Greynolds of Bakersfield, Calif., Dorothy and
Elmer Russell of Weatherford, Martha and Marvin Sue of Muncie, Ind., Lorena
Denison of Aurora, Ohio; 41 grandchildren, 79 great grandchildren, nine
great great grandchildren; and a great niece she helped to rear, Florence
Burnett.
Interment will be in Holy Name Section
of Rose Hill Cemetary under the direction of Sevier Funeral Home.
FROM WHENCE ALMA CAME--info source: Alma (Kurtz)
Bitsche and family
First, a brief introduction (by John C. Bitsche)
Dad sent me a compilation of family history which I believe was organized
in the 1980's by my grandmother Alma Bitsche and her children. Note: this
is the same compilation
I mention within the page for Edward Ignatius Bitsche. I used the documents
to create the following section on the family tree, and I marked my own
direct line of ancestry by putting a "*" next to my ancestors' main name
listings and their name when listed as a child of another ancestor.
*Alma
Julia (Kurtz) Bitsche
*William A. Kurtz
| Born: |
25 Mar 1861 |
| Birthplace: |
Oregon, IL |
| Died: |
3 Feb 1945 |
| Died where: |
Chickasha, OK |
| Parents: |
George J. Kurtz and
Anna (Loos) Kurtz |
| Spouse: |
Sybilla A. Eberle |
| Married: |
|
| Married place: |
|
|
| Children: |
a son (name unknown to me), |
Clara, |
*Alma Julia, |
a son younger than Alma (name unknown, fought in WWI ), |
another son, and another daughter |
*Sybilla A. (Eberle) Kurtz
| Born: |
24 May 1861 |
| Birthplace: |
Lena, IL |
| Died: |
23 Jul 1929 |
| Died where: |
Walters, OK |
| Parents: |
|
| Spouse: |
William A. Kurtz |
| Married: |
|
| Married place: |
|
| Children: |
==LINK== |
*George J. Kurtz
| Born: |
2 Feb 1828 |
| Birthplace: |
Holland (exact town unknown) |
| Died: |
4 Feb 1902 |
| Died where: |
Oregon, IL |
| Parents: |
|
| Spouse: |
Anna Loos |
| Married: |
|
| Married place: |
|
|
| Children: |
Seven children including *William A. Kurtz |
*Anna (Loos) Kurtz
| Born: |
18 May 1839 |
| Birthplace: |
Valenstien, Luxembourg Germany |
| Died: |
5 Feb 1907 |
| Died where: |
Oregon, IL |
| Parents: |
|
| Spouse: |
George J. Kurtz |
| Married: |
|
| Married place: |
|
| Children: |
==LINK== |
See also
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Page Last Updated: Sept. 7, 1997