Climbing the Mountain page 7 Reminiscences of Margaret Wuerflein Klammer (1891-1985) Written in 1976, her 85th year Go to Beginning Go to Ending Return to Home page

Writing to a girlfriend about it, she at once wrote to come back, there was a good job waiting. So back I went to Esther- ville, this time to banker Frank Rhodes. They were all nice to me except the wife. She wanted to be a big lady. She was snob- bish but we got along fine. I also went to the Lutheran church when there were services, all German, of course. I made quite a few friends and since I could talk English now, we got around and had good times. By this time we were at the age where 'fellows' was a big topic with the girls, and we often got to wondering whom we would marry. It is said marriages are made in heaven, but in a poem I once heard two lines said: "A woman finds either her heaven or her hell on the day she becomes a bride." Now it happened that the Rhodes had a cottage at Orleans on Spirit Lake and would spend time there in the summer. It was a mile north of Spirit Lake town, which was between North and Middle Lake Okoboji, where pleasure boats went way back to West Okoboji. There was some trouble in the Lutheran Parishes and the old pastor resigned and in August of 1911 a young preacher by the name of Albert Klammer, fresh out of the Seminary, came out and took over. Of course, everyone came to church the first time he preached. I also walked up from Orleans to see and meet him, never dreaming I would marry him some day. Our marriage must have been made in heaven, for why would I have come all the way from Germany and be at Spirit Lake through a quirk of fate just at that particular time? At any rate, that's the way it was. He stayed one year, resigned, and spent the money he had saved to attend the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. I don't know if he got any smarter. We had become engaged before he left and we lived on correspondence. When he came back in June of 1913, he was broke and without a job, but we were naive enough to get married on June 18, 1913, on what little I had saved, at the cottage of the Frank Rhodes. The cottage was named "Sleepy Hollow". We got a call to Rapidan, Minn. and that's where we began. (I always enjoyed it at the lake and found a couple of girl friends and we had many good times together. I wonder if they are still alive. The name "Sleepy Hollow" is out of Washington Irving's story of the Catskill Mountains and Ichabod Crane, the headless rider. The name 'Ichabod' is from the Bible.) The Lord was with us through trials and tribulations on our climb up the mountain. Though we stumbled often, He always helped us up again. And so we went on, step by step, ever higher and nearer the goal. God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. We never did get rich until time to retire, when the congre- gation here in Frankenmuth gave us several collections, which we put away. We never owned a house nor other property, except the necessary household goods. Times were often hard, especially as the family grew rapidly. With the help of God we raised six boys and four girls and gave them all a good education.