Matrilineal Monday--Montana, WWII and a Schlitz Sign: the young married life of Vickie and Harry Buerer

Harry, Vickie, and Peggy Buerer

My maternal grandparents yearned for the mission field in Africa. This longing led them to Wheaton College, and I firmly believe this desire brought them together in marriage. They married on September 7, 1940, at College Church in Wheaton, and I think they would have left for the Belgian Congo on September 8 if they could have. But the mission board counseled them to wait.

World War II raged on in Europe during this time, and my grandparents needed a visa from Belgium to enter the Belgian Congo. Unfortunately, the Belgian government was in exile, and my grandparents didn't know where to apply. Harry and Vickie decided to live in California to wait. But then Harry lost his job as a carpenter. Pastor Paul Jackson, the minister of Harry's boyhood church, recommended Harry take a job as a minister at a small church in Polson, Montana. So Harry and Vickie packed their belongings into a trailer they built and drove to Montana with their newborn daughter, Peggy (born on June 20, 1941 in Modesto.)

First Baptist Church, Polson, MT

The First Baptist Church of Polson, MT, had one room with a parsonage of four small rooms that had no bathroom and one faucet of cold water in the kitchen. They received $10 a week from the Sunday offering, but if less came in, they had to accept what had been tithed. One week during the winter brought a little over $3. Because the salary was so small, Harry and Vickie decided to leave the church in Montana because it wouldn't cover the birth of their next baby (my mother.) They packed up and headed back to Illinois, stopping at least once a day to fix a flat tire. Harry got a job in Chicago in a defense plant and enrolled in the Moody Bible Institute for evening classes. They found an apartment in Villa Park over a tavern. My grandmother writes "We didn't need a night light because there was a big red Schlitz sign outside our bedroom window. A jukebox in the tavern played constantly until the tavern closed each night at 2:00 am. The two songs we remember hearing over and over again were "I'm Dreaming Tonight of My Blue Eyes" and "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." My mother, Nancy, was born on April 15, 1943, and Harry and Vickie moved back in with Vickie's parents. 

Parsonage in Polson, MT. Harry and Peggy

Harry and Peg. Polson, MT

Harry, Nancy, Peg. Polson, MT

Nancy and Peg

Nancy and Peg. Polson, MT

Harry, Vickie, Peg & Nancy Buerer. June 13, 1943

The church in Polson couldn't find a pastor and asked Vickie and Harry to return. They made arrangements with the Montana Baptist Fellowship and became missionaries with them. This time, Vickie and Harry were well compensated, bringing in $125 a month. They stayed in Montana another year and left in May 1945.

Finally, five and a half years after they married, Harry and Vickie received their visa for the Belgian Congo and flew across the sea to Africa. Where more adventures awaited...

Matrilineal Monday: my grandparents, Victoria Emma Prinzing and Harry Forrest Buerer

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Vickie Prinzing and Harry Buerer

When I discuss family history with others, I find most people, whether it be distance, family relationships, or other factors, know about one side more than the other. I probably saw my maternal grandparents less than 10 times in my life. They lived in California, and we lived in Pennsylvania. We didn't talk much on the phone, as long distance was expensive during my childhood. But I did maintain a kind of "pen pal" relationship with my grandmother, and I got to know her better that way.

I already talked a little about my maternal grandfather, Harry Buerer. But I haven't touched much on my grandmother, Victoria Prinzing.

With all due respect....my grandmother was kind of a pain in the butt.

She definitely had an opinion on the "right" way to do things and the "wrong" way to do things. When she and I corresponded during my girlhood, she wrote me back at one point and told me my letters to her needed to be at least 10 sentences long. No hair hanging in your face, and no saying "Geez" (because it sounded too much like Jesus.) And god help you...GOD HELP YOU...if you you picked up your dessert fork and began before she did. She'd call you out at a holiday dinner in such a way that made you want to shrink under the table.

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My grandmother, Victoria Prinzing, when she graduated from York Community High School in Elmhurst, IL.

And while I struggle to find information on Hannah and my paternal side, I'm not at a loss for research on the maternal. My grandmother documented every single sneeze. She kept diaries, letters, and family trees that would make any family historian jump up and down with glee. And through these I can  begin to understand (or at least attempt to know) the human being my grandmother was. 

My cousin asked my grandparents for their family histories when he was in high school. My grandfather promptly wrote him back a one page story of his life as a farm boy in Modesto, California, picking and drying apricots and peaches most of his young life (except for a year when he battled typhoid fever.) My grandmother wrote three typed pages single-spaced about her upbringing and adulthood.

Born in Chicago on January 11, 1918, my grandmother's birth kept my great grandfather from the draft into World War I. (People joked my great grandparents should have named her "weatherstrip" because it kept him out of the draft.) Her parents bought a house in Elmhurst, a suburb of Chicago, in 1922, before Elmhurst even had paved roads. She graduated fourth in a class of 250 from York Community High School and went on to study English Literature at Wheaton College, graduating in 1940.

Vickie came from a very devout Christian family. Her Aunt Viola Elsie Anderson and Uncle Anton Christianus Anderson, served as missionaries in the Belgian Congo. My great great grandfather, Fred Prinzing, acted as the secretary of the Congo Gospel Mission. Vickie grew up typing letters and stuffing envelopes for the Mission and soon found a desire for her own venture to Africa.

My grandparents met at Wheaton, and Harry also expressed a desire to go to Africa. (My grandmother describes my grandfather's relations as "a nominally Christian family.") My grandfather proposed, and the Congo Gospel Mission accepted them before they even graduated. But the mission board recommended they wait a year after being married to go overseas.

And wait they did. World War II, a trip to Montanta, children, and other factors halted their plans. But eventually, their quest for Africa happened. And all is told in my grandmother's diaries. 

To be continued....

Vickie Prinzing and brother

Harry F. Buerer

Vickie Prinzing and brother, Wheaton College

Harry Buerer and Vickie Prinzing

Who was my great great grandfather? My search for F.B. Vines

Many family trees start with information given by relatives, stories and facts passed down from generation to generation.  One such story told again and again focused on my paternal great great grandmother, Nancy Collins.  (Nancy belongs to my paternal grandmother's line, not related to Hannah.)  The story constantly reiterated about her was that she had five kids and never married.  My family said he was a judge, and I knew the man's name:  Brown Vines.  After finding Hannah on Ancestry.com, I set out my search for my great great grandfather.

I didn't have much trouble finding Nancy Collins in 1880 when she was 16 years old; on page 16 of the census marking District 8 in Washington County, Tennessee, she lived with her father and mother, Calvin and Mary, and her sister.  I did a search for Brown Vines and didn't really come up with much, but I figured if they eventually had children together, they probably lived near each other.  And my guess paid off:  page 18 of the District 8 census shows a Brownlow Vines living on a farm with his father and mother, Andrew and Lucretia, and his five siblings. 

At this point, I knew I was on to something.  However, the next available census doesn't show up until 1900.  One of the most discouraging things facing genealogists researching the late 19th century in the United States is the absence of the 1890 census.  The 1890 census, taken in June 1890, was the 11th census taken in the U.S.  You can read more about the fate of the 11th census here and here, but to make a long, complicated story short, a fire broke out at the National Archives on January 10, 1921, and subsequent flooding destroyed much of the information.  So I have a 20 year gap in their lives, but I still can take the information given in the 1900 census and make some sense of it.

In 1900, Nancy still lived with her parents, and five grandchildren have joined the household:  John, Lottie, Henry, Pearl, and Elizabeth.  Her family appears on page 14.  On page 13, the record shows Brown still living with his parents.  Again, they still live very close to each other.  In 1910, the story stays pretty much the same:  both close neighbors and living with their parents. 

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Nancy Collins, her parents, and her five children in 1900.

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Brown Vines and his family in 1900.

Before I go further, I just want to state the obvious:  having five children out of wedlock between 1880 and 1900 could not have been well accepted by society.  Even today single women face a stigma of having a child without a partner.  When I first heard of my great great grandmother and her situation, my young, former evangelical mind went awry.  In other words, I judged her.  I figured she had to be a woman of loose morals and character.  Shame on me.  Shame on me for adding to the oppression of women.  I hope I never do it again.

Discovering and researching documentation can clear up misconceptions and can sometimes send you on a different path to clear up confusion.  First, I have found no documentation supporting the rumor Brown Vines was a judge.  All of the census records state "farmer" as his profession.  When researching your family history, documentation is essential in making claims.  If you can find no proof, you have to chalk it up to hearsay until otherwise noted.

Finding Brown Vines's death certificate answered some questions, raised more, and offered perspective.  First, he had gotten married by the time he died.  And he died relatively young, even for 1915.  And his death certificate reveals alcoholism and cirrhosis of the liver contributed to his death. 

So here's the obvious question:  why did Nancy Collins and Brown Vines never marry?  Maybe there  was an economic disparity between the families.  Maybe one or more of the families didn't approve.  Or maybe Nancy loved a man enough to have five children with him but refused to marry and live under the same roof as an alcoholic.  The answer will probably never be found.  I think she did have to be brave with her circumstances, and it looks like she made the best of what life dealt her.

When I initially began this idea for a post, I thought I had all the information out there.  Then my cousin told me he had Brown Vines's will, and I couldn't wait to get a hold of it.  This document is fascinating.  Completely fascinating.  And it reveals a lot about his character.  His will is extensive and goes on for pages.  He owned a lot of property in Tennessee and North Carolina and had specific instructions on how to handle each piece.  First, he bequeaths money to his ailing father for his care in his father's last years.  Second, he gives all five of his children $1,000 in real estate (equal to about $23,000 today.)  One of the things I love, love, love about him is he makes sure the property given to his daughters does not fall into the control of their husbands:

I give and bequeath to Henry Collins, John Collins, Lizzie Collins, and Pearl Collins, children of Nancy Collins, each one thousand dollars ($1000.00) in real estate, the same to be selected and purchased for them by my executor the title to which shall be vested in there, respectively, for life and, in fee, at their death to their respective children.  The estate given to the said Lizzie and to the said Pearl, respectively, shall be constituted a separate estate to each free from the control of her husband and not subject to his debts or obligations.  The purpose being to provide for each of these persons a home so long as each may live that will descend at death, to his or her children as the case may be.

But two sections of his will stand out and give insight on who Brown Vines really was.  First, he seems to have had a rift with his nephew, Silas, and wants to make sure Silas gets absolutely nothing:

The Bayless farm, referred to in Item number (7) of Paragraph VI hereof is not to be sold except in this way, to wit; it is to be valued or appraised at $3000.00, and included at that price in one of the five equal parts herein specified. This said farm ...I give and bequeath to my brother L.J. Vines for the term of his natural life; and, at his death, in fee to his heirs as Tenante-in-common, share and share alike.  Except that his son, Silas Vines, shall have no interest, share, lot, part, or parcel thereof, and if the other heirs shall undertake or attempt to divide or share with (illegible) Silas, there, this devise to them shall become and be void and shall revert to my estate to be distributed equally amongst the other beneficiaries of this will.  The cash part of said share shall be, at the option in of the said L.J. Vines, invested in real estate and the title taken in the same form and manner, so far as the law permits, as I have fixed the title to the Bayless tract.  If the said L.J. Vines (illegible) to have (illegible) stipulated, then, my executor shall loan the same upon good and sufficient, security, collect and pay the interest thereon to said L.J. Vines during his life; and, at this death, pay the principal to his heirs, share, and share alike, excepting the said son, Silas Vines, who shall have no interest, share, lot or parcel therein.  And the same penalty herein as above set out to those who may undertake to divide with him.

But the best part of the will lies in the section about the secret safe.  What I wouldn't give to know what hid inside of it! 

There is in my safe at home a secret written agreement between me and W.E. Uptegrove, which is valuable.  It is not my desire to give publicity to that secret private agreement; but it is of much importance and represents great value to my estate.  I bequeath and direct that my executor stand in my shoes and represent me with reference to that agreement and distribute the proceeds thereof in the same way that the balance of my estate has hereinbefore been bequeathed and devised. 

Nancy Collins never married and lived to be 88 years old, dying in 1952.  I hope her years were happy.  I only have one picture of her taken in her later years.  What I wouldn't give to listen to her stories.