Diederich, John William

Other Events:

• 1880 Census: 1880, Stanton, Stanton, Nebraska, USA
• Obituary: 2 Jan 1931; The Ladysmith News

Notes:

Family History Researcher:
JOHN WILLIAM5 DIEDERICH (JOHANNES4, JOHANN NICOLAUS3, CORNELIUS2 DIEDERICH S, PETER1) was born 11 May 1847 in Town of Lawrence, Brown County, Wiscons in, and died 25 December 1930 in Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wisconsin a nd is buried in Riverside Cemetery near Ladysmith.. He married (1) CECIL IA VAN DER HEYDEN 13 June 1878 in DePere, Brown County, Wisconsin, daught er of JOHN VAN DER HEIDEN and JOSINA MANDERS. He married (2) WILHELMINA V AN DER HEYDEN 15 April 1890 in De Pere, Wisconsin, daughter of JOHN VAN D ER HEIDEN and JOSINA MANDERS.

John William Diederich (1847 - 1930)
Cecilia Van der Heyden (1856 - 1887)
Wilhelmina Van der Heyden (1868 - 1936)
John William5 Diederich (John4, Johann Nicolaus3, Cornelius2, Peter1) w as born 11 May 1847 at Town of Lawrence, Brown County, Wisconsin, the four th of the known children of John and Anna (Clasen) Diederich. His bir th is recorded in Brown County birth records, v 1, p 459, as Jean Dietric h, son of Jean Dietrich and Ann Classen.
He died 25 December 1930, age 83, of acute myocarditis at Ladysmith, Ru sk County, Wisconsin. The funeral was held ___ December 1930 at Our La dy of Sorrows Roman Catholic church at Ladysmith and he is buried in the C atholic section of Riverside cemetery near Ladysmith. See Rusk County dea th records, v 6, no. 1283. His death certificate tells when and where he d ied and the cause of his death. His obituary was published in The Ladysmi th News on 2 January 1931, p 1.
He married, first, Cecilia Van der Heyden 13 June 1878 at S t. Mary's Roman Catholic church, De Pere, Brown County, Wisconsin. Revere nd William DeKelver presided. Witnesses were Nellie Van der Heyden and Mat hias Diedricks The marriage is not recorded in the marriage register of t he church. The marriage of Jon diedricks (sic) and Cecilia Van der Heyd en is recorded in Brown County marriage records, v 8, p 156, and this reco rd provides the names of the priest and the witnesses.
Cecilia Van der Heyden (Celia, Cena, Cina, Youza? Cynthia?) was born 4 Feb ruary 1856 at Stiles, Oconto County, Wisconsin, the daughter of John and J osina (Manders) Van der Heyden. Her parents were living at Stiles when s he was born but there is no record of her birth in Oconto County birth rec ords, but her gravestone gives the date of her birth.
She died 22 May 1887, age 31, at De Pere of complications following the bi rth of her fifth child, George Joseph, on 4 May. The funeral was held _ __ May 1887 at, probably, St. Mary's Catholic church at De Pere and s he is buried in Mount Olivet Catholic cemetery there, next to her son Geor ge Joseph who died the following August, and her husband's parents. The re is no record of her death in Brown County death records nor is there a ny record of her death in the records of St. Mary's Catholic chur ch at De Pere, but her gravestone gives the date of her death.
John William Diederich married, second, Wihelmina Van der Heyden 15 Apr il 1890 at St. Mary's Catholic church, De Pere. She was his first wife's s ister. At the time of their marriage, he was 42 years old and she was 2 1. The Liber Matrimonii et Defunctorum (marriage and death book) of St. Ma ry's Catholic church at De Pere contains this entry for 1890 on p 264, whi ch has been translated from the Latin: "15 April joined together in matrim ony Joannes Diederick and Wilhelminan van der Heiden. Witnesses were Josep hus van der Heiden and Nina van der Leest." The entry was signed by the Re verend Joannes Verstegen, pastor at that time. The entry also recited th at a dispensation had been granted from the impediment of a collateral rel ationship in the first degree which existed because of the prior marria ge of John Diederich to Wilhelmina's sister. This marriage is also record ed in Brown County marriage records, v 10, p 444.
Wilhelmina Van der Heyden (Minnie) was born 4 September 1868 at Town of Ro ckland, Brown County, Wisconsin, the daughter of John and Josina (Mander s) Van der Heyden. See also Brown County birth records, v 2, p 157. Her bi rth is also recorded in the baptismal register of St. Mary's Catholic chur ch at De Pere, p 60, for 1868, as follows: "Baptized Sept. 4th an infant b orn today, daughter of Joannis van der heyden and Josina Manders, marrie d. Named Wilhelmina. Sponsors: Joannes Van der Lienden and Catherina Van d en berg." It is signed by the Reverend W. A. Verboort, pastor at the time.
Wilhelmina died 21 December 1936, age 68, of acute dilation of the heart a nd hypertension, at Ladysmith. The funeral was held ___ December 1936 at O ur Lady of Sorrows Catholic church and she is buried next to her husba nd in Riverside cemetery. Her death is recorded in Rusk County death recor ds, v 7, no. 604 which tells when and where she died and the cause of h er death.

Cecilia Diederich's gravestone reads:

In Memory of
Cecilia
wife of
John Diederich, Jr.
Born
February 4, 1856
Died
May 22, 1887

George J.
Son of
J. & C. Diederich
Born
May 4, 1887
Died
Aug. 11, 1887
John William Diederich, who went by his initials, J. W., grew up on his pa rents' farm in the Town of Lawrence but was also trained as a carpenter a nd cabinetmaker.
When his father died in 1874, he inherited a one-eighth undivided intere st in the farm. In 1879, he sold his share of the farm and moved his fami ly to Stanton Precinct, Fillmore County, Nebraska to establish a homestead .
The Census reports of Fillmore County for 1880 show that his sister Mary w as living in his household and that his brothers Antone and Joseph and the ir families were nearby neighbors. However, the effort to establish a home stead was not successful. Their home was made of sod, carved from the so il of the prairie. Winters on the open prairie were fiercely cold and win dy and the summers were very hot. Swarms of insects ate the crops. His ba by daughter Anna, born in January 1880, died in August. J. W. and his brot her Antone stayed in Nebraska about two years and then moved back to Bro wn County, Wisconsin. Their brother Joseph and sister Mary remained in Neb raska, however.
After his first wife Cecilia died and he remarried, J. W. resided for a wh ile at Marshfield, Wisconsin and then for several years at Oshkosh, Wiscon sin.
While in Oshkosh, he worked as a carpenter. After construction of the two- story drug store building at the corner of Main and Algoma Streets was com pleted in the fall of 1899, he had no further work in sight. Arnold Verhye n, an agent for the Hein Land Company and the husband of Jane Van Der Heyd en, a sister-in-law, persuaded him to buy a 160-acre farm in the Town of G row, Rusk County, Wisconsin for $640.
The Hein Land Company had cut the pine off the land but it was not truly c leared since the stumps and the hardwood trees remained. J. W. paid for t he land with $300 of his savings and $340 borrowed from Frank Crabb, husba nd of another sister-in-law, Petronella Van Der Heyden. They moved in Octo ber.
At the turn of the century, Ladysmith was named Warner but a man named Smi th offered to build a paper mill there if the town were named after his wi fe. Thus it was renamed
Ladysmith. What was then the community of Deer Tail was similarly renam ed Tony -- for Tony Hein. The Diederich farm lay between these two communi ties -- about three miles from Ladysmith and four miles from Tony.
J. W. Diederich served as chairman of the board of supervisors of the To wn of Grow for several years.
Years later, his son Charles, who was four years old when his parents mov ed to Rusk County, described the first winter. "Dad and Bill (John Willia m, Jr.) built a two-story log house before winter set in. They killed a de er and hung him from a tree limb so the wolves couldn't get at him. We a te off that deer all winter.
"In the Spring, we put in a few acres of turnips and rutabagas on new clea red land. Dad built a school house on Joseph Crabb's land for $800. (Jose ph Crabb was a brother of Frank Crabb.)
"Each year we cut wood to pay our taxes and to buy horses, cattle and mach inery. We made maple syrup each spring. We ate venison, rabbits, partrid ge and chicken, pork and usually a steer. We raised potatoes, carrots, oni ons, peas and beans for the table and corn, barley and oats to feed the st ock.
"We had a double row corn planter and cultivator, a McCormick corn-bind er and chopper, a burr mill to grind dry grain crops, and two gas engine s. John William, Jr., was accidentally killed by a saw rig driven by o ne of those gas engines.
"We had many large hemlock we sawed into lumber. Some of the large maple w as shipped to Minneapolis. Most hardwood was cut into 16" lengths and so ld at Ladysmith. I hauled two loads a day on the horse sleigh, generally.
"Saturday, we usually took butter and eggs to market. The Hull & Stelsm an store had regular weekly customers who took the butter which mother p ut into two and three pound rolls. The hotel took any surplus from them.
"In the Spring, leeks tainted the milk unless we kept the cows out of t he pasture for a few weeks. We bought a silo and fed silage, hay and gra in to them then.
"There was no wagon road through from Tony to Ladysmith so we built one th rough the swamps using logs, poles, rock and brush, covered with clay a nd soil from the side ditches we dug for drainage. We called those roads ' corduroys.' They were pretty rough in most places for lumber wagons but wh en covered with gravel, not too bad. They were good sleigh roads in the wi nter. Snow was plentiful.
"Quite often, we walked to town on the Soo Line tracks. If we had a hea vy load like a sack of sugar, the railroad section foreman would bri ng it to Campbell's Mill, a spur or siding where the logging road cross ed the tracks midway between Ladysmith and Tony."
In 1917, J. W. retired to Ladysmith. He auctioned off his personal proper ty for $4,000 and sold the farm to R. E. Meyers for $8,000. R. E. Meyers p aid $3,500 down and gave a mortgage for the balance. Later, E. L. Jay assu med the mortgage but it was never paid off. In 1939, his daughter Theres ia Frances (Diederich) Van Horne paid E. L. Jay $500 for a quit-claim dee d, paid the delinquent taxes, and took over the farm. She sold in it 1950.
For about two months before his death, J. W. suffered from septic arthrit is in his right knee joint. He passed away on Christmas morning in 1930 wh ile his family was attending 5 a.m. mass.
His wife Minnie died a few days before Christmas in 1936. She had walked t hrough snow from her home to the E. L. Jay home, a few blocks away, in a f ruitless attempt to collect a some money on the farm mortgage. E. L. Jay r efused to pay anything. Angry and frustrated, she began to trudge home thr ough the snow. Her obituary, published on page 1 of the Ladysmith Ne ws on 21 December 1936, completes the story: "Monday evening Mrs. Diederi ch walked to the E. L. Jay home a few blocks away and on the return she fe lt very tired and stopped at the Harry Strop home to rest. She mentioned t he fact that she was tired and immediately afterwards collapsed and was de clared dead on the arrival of a physician. Death was attributed to a hea rt attack, Mrs. Diederich having had a chronic heart ailment for several y ears." According to her death certificate, she died of "acute dilati on of the heart and hypertension."
John William Diederich and his first wife, Cecilia had five children.
Children of JOHN WILLIAM DIEDERICH and CECILIA VAN DER HEYDEN are:
i. JOHN WILLIAM6 DIEDERICH, b. 19 June 1878, De Pere, Brown County, Wiscon sin; d. 05 January 1918, Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wisconsin; m. MARIE ALBER TINA PORTMAN, 30 November 1916, Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wisconsin.
ii. ANNA C. DIEDERICH, b. 15 January 1880, Stanton Precinct, Fillmore Coun ty, Nebraska; d. 10 August 1880, Stanton Precinct, Fillmore County, Nebras ka.
7. iii. ANTON FRANCIS DIEDERICH, b. 29 April 1881, Stanton Precinct, Fillm ore County, Nebraska; d. 01 August 1916, St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesot a.
8. iv. MARY PETRANELLA DIEDERICH, b. 29 March 1883, De Pere, Brown Count y, Wisconsin.
v. GEORGE JOSEPH DIEDERICH, b. 04 May 1887, West De Pere, Brown County, Wi sconsin; d. 11 August 1887, West De Pere, Brown County, Wisconsin.
Children of JOHN WILLIAM DIEDERICH and WILHELMINA VAN DER HEYDEN are:
vi. THERESIA FRANCES ANNA6 DIEDERICH, b. 16 September 1891, Marshfield, Wo od County, Wisconsin; d. 1980; m. (1) JOHN NORMAN HARRISON PATRICK VAN HOR NE, 24 November 1938, Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic church at Ladysmith, Wi sconsin; m. (2) WILBUR NEWTON MCNEIL, 12 October 1968, Our Lady of Sorro ws Catholic church at Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wisconsin.
9. vii. JOSEPH CHARLES DIEDERICH, b. 29 June 1895, Oshkosh, Winnebago Coun ty, Wisconsin; d. 17 August 1993, Stevens Point, Portage County, Wiscons in and is buried in St. Paul's Catholic cemetery at Bloomer, Chippewa Coun ty, Wisconsin.
10. viii. VIOLA CECELIA DIEDERICH, b. 26 June 1897, Oshkosh, Winnebago Cou nty, Wisconsin; d. 06 February 1939, Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wisconsin.

1880 Census:
John Diederich 33
Cecillia Diederich 23
John Diederich 2
Annie C. Diederich 8/12
Mary A. Diederich 28

Obituary:
His obituary was published in The Ladysmith News on 2 January 1931, p 1.

John married VanderHeyden, Cecilia 13 Jun 1878, De Pere, Brown, Wisconsin, USA. Cecilia (daughter of VanderHeyden, John and Vandenberg, Josephina) was born 4 Feb 1856, Stiles, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA; died 22 May 1887, De Pere, Brown, Wisconsin, USA. [Group Sheet]

John married VanderHeyden, Wilhelmina 15 Apr 1890, De Pere, Brown, Wisconsin, USA. Wilhelmina (daughter of VanderHeyden, John and Vandenberg, Josephina) was born 4 Sep 1868, Rockland, Brown, Wisconsin, USA; died 21 Dec 1936. [Group Sheet]

Anton married Rasmussen, Anna Sophia Aft 1910. Anna was born Abt 1892; died Abt 1949. [Group Sheet]

Mary married Arts, Henry John 17 Jan 1905, Tony, Rusk, Wisconsin, USA. Henry (son of Aerts, Peter Johannes and Tiesen, Johanna) was born 28 Dec 1876, De Pere, Brown, Wisconsin, USA; died 28 Jul 1947, Ladysmith, Rusk, Wisconsin, USA. [Group Sheet]

Theresa married Vanhorne, John Norman Harrison Patrick Aft 1906. John was born Abt 1888; died Abt 1963. [Group Sheet]

Joseph married Yost, Alice Florence Aft 1918. Alice was born 19 Jun 1900, , , Iowa, USA; died 7 Dec 1985; was buried , St. Paul and Saint Jude North Catholic Cemetery, Bloomer, Chippewa, Wisconsin. [Group Sheet]

Viola married Kapp, Joseph Charles 14 Feb 1917. Joseph was born 12 Feb 1890; died 3 May 1953. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Death Record - Civil: 29 Dec 1999

Notes:

Death Record - Civil:
Name: Irene E. Anheir
Birth: 26 Jul 1905
Death: 29 Dec 1999
Civil: Wisconsin

Irene married Anheir, Francis Joseph Aft 1923. Francis was born 3 Oct 1898; died 3 Mar 1988. [Group Sheet]

John married Unknown, Mary Theresa [Group Sheet]