Aunt Frieda—as a teenager (c. 1893)

Aunt Frieda—as a teenager

     The Flueckingers arrived in the U.S. in 1883, sailing up the Mississippi and then up the Missouri to just north of St. Joseph, Missouri (Amazonia). In 1891, young Emma, then about 18, traveled to the Lewistown area and soon married Fred Jenni. Two years later, Emma's aunt traveled to the area and married a German. In 1898, Frieda arrived in Lewistown and married Charles White.
     I call it the "Flueckinger marriage plan."

4-H

According to Wikipedia,

4-H is a global network of youth organizations whose mission is "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development". Its name is a reference to the occurrence of the initial letter H four times in the organization's original motto ‘head, heart, hands, and health,’ which was later incorporated into the fuller pledge officially adopted in 1927. In the United States, the organization is administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 4-H Canada is an independent non-profit organization overseeing the operation of branches throughout Canada. Throughout the world, 4-H organizations exist in over 50 countries; the organization and administration varies from country to country. Each of these programs operates independently but cooperatively through international exchanges, global education programs, and communications. 

. . . 

The foundations of 4-H began in 1902 with the work of several people in different parts of the United States. The focal point of 4-H has been the idea of practical and hands-on learning, which came from the desire to make public school education more connected to rural life. Early programs incorporated both public and private resources. 4-H was founded with the purpose of instructing rural youth in improved farming and farm-homemaking practices. 

By the 1970s, it was broadening its goals to cover a full range of youth, including minorities, and a wide range of life experiences. During this time researchers at experiment stations of the land-grant universities and USDA saw that adults in the farming community did not readily accept new agricultural discoveries, but educators found that youth would experiment with these new ideas and then share their experiences and successes with the adults. So rural youth programs became a way to introduce new agriculture technology to the adults. 

Club work began wherever a public-spirited person did something to give rural children respect for themselves and their ways of life and it is very difficult to credit one sole individual. Instances of work with rural boys and girls can be found all throughout the 19th century. In the spring of 1882, Delaware College announced a statewide corn contest for boys, in which each boy was to plant a quarter of an acre, according to instructions sent out from the college, and cash prizes, certificates, and subscriptions to the American Agriculturalist were rewarded. In 1892, in an effort to improve the Kewaunee County Fair, Ransom Asa Moore, President of the Kewaunee Fair, the Agricultural Society, and Superintendent of the Kewaunee County Schools in Wisconsin, organized a “youth movement”, which he called “Young People’s Contest Clubs”, in which he solicited the support of 6,000 young farm folks to produce and exhibit fruits, vegetables, and livestock. The fairs were very successful. In 1904, while working for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and trying to repeat what he had successfully accomplished in Kewaunee County over a decade before but with different intentions, "Daddy" R.A. Moore convinced R.H. Burns, then Superintendent of Schools of Richland County, Wisconsin, to have the Richland County Boys and Girls organize and assist in a corn-project activity to help market and distribute improved seeds to the farmers in the state of Wisconsin (and beyond). 

A. B. Graham started one of the youth programs in Clark County, Ohio, in 1902, which is also considered one of the births of the 4-H program in the United States. The first club was called "The Tomato Club" or the "Corn Growing Club". T.A. "Dad" Erickson of Douglas County, Minnesota, started local agricultural after-school clubs and fairs also in 1902. 

Jessie Field Shambaugh developed the clover pin with an H on each leaf in 1910, and, by 1912, they were called 4-H clubs. Early 4-H programs in Colorado began with youth instruction offered by college agricultural agents as early as 1910, as part of the outreach mission of the Colorado land grant institutions. 

The national 4-H organization was formed in 1914, when the United States Congress created the Cooperative Extension Service of the USDA by passage of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914[;] it included within the CES charter the work of various boys' and girls' clubs involved with agriculture, home economics and related subjects. The Smith-Lever Act formalized the 4-H programs and clubs that began in the midwestern region of the United States. Although different activities were emphasized for boys and girls, 4-H was one of the first youth organizations to give equal attention to both genders (cf., erstwhile Boys Clubs of America). By 1924, these clubs became organized as 4-H clubs, and the clover emblem was adopted.

6-18-42 Great Falls Trib

9-13-42 Great Falls Trib

11-8-42 Great Falls Trib

12-23-42 Great Falls Trib

11-3-43 Great Falls Trib

11-3-43 Indep Record

11-8-43 Montana Standard

11-25-43 Independent Record

11-25-43 The Montana Standard

6-2-46 Montana Standard

9-19-46 Great Falls Trib

8-17-47 Billings Gazette

1-6-58 Billings Gazette

4-11-71 Billings Gazette

Future Farmers of America

     “Future Farmers of America,” a youth organization that promotes agricultural education, was founded in 1925, at Virginia Polytechic Institute, as “Future Farmers of Virginia.”
     The organization's founders were responding to a fear that interest in farming was on the wane: "The roots of FFA originate from a time when boys were losing interest and leaving the farm."
     The organization went nationwide in 1928.
     According to Wikipedia, the organization’s motto is, “Learning to do, Doing to learn, Earning to live, Living to serve.”
     FFA members compete in events—as individuals or in teams.
     A decision to restrict women occurred at the national convention of 1930. Girls were finally allowed to join FFA in 1969.

* * *

     Floyd Jenni was recognized by the organization in 1943. By 1947 he was involved in FFA's collegiate leadership.

3-26-43 Billings Gazette

Why Amazonia? (They have monkeys)

I'm guessing this is from about the 1870s: train wreck in Amazonia, MO

     When the (Samuel/Anna) Jennis arrived in America in 1869, they soon settled in Amazonia, MO, a farming community.
     It's pretty sleepy. A village, really.
     Why did they settle there? —Aside from the fact that these immigrants traveled up the Missouri River (Amazonia is on that river), I just don't know.
     There's some circumstantial evidence that they eventually sought to escape Amazonia. After all, Samuel and Anna's sons, Frederick and John, left, in the early 1880s, for something better in the west. They eventually homesteaded in "Cottonwood," Montana (Beaver Creek/Lewistown).
     In about 1882, family head, Samuel, left Amazonia for New Orleans—evidently planning to collect the rest of the family when he set up there. According to one family account, he was never heard from again, so, since, by 1884, Frederick (and John) were flourishing in Montana, they invited mom (Anna) (and some of their siblings?) to move to Montana. She lived in eldest son, Frederick's, cabin, which was improved for the occasion. She died there, of pneumonia, two years later.

Locating Amazonia: on the Missouri, just north of St. Joseph,
which is north of Kansas City, MO

Old Andrew County map

     There are indications that the Flueckingers also settled in Amazonia—or at least in Andrew County, MO, where Amazonia resides. There's evidence that the Flueckingers and the Jennis knew each other. Perhaps there was a minor Swiss community there.
     The Andrew County website offers these historical factoids:

     A divided county during the Civil War, Andrew sent troops to both sides. In Aug., 1861 come 1500 from Andrew and other counties joined the pro-Southern Mo. State Guard at Camp Highly in eastern Andrew County while others joined a large Union cap in adjacent Gentry County. In 1861, Union troops seized “Northwest Democrat,” a pro-Southern newspaper, in Savannah and troops from Camp Highly seized the “Plain Dealer,” Union newspaper. Raiding Guerrilla bands overran the county through 1863. 

     Andrew County’s glacial plains support fertile livestock, grain, and fruit farms. In the county are One Hundred and Two and Platter rivers and forming its west border are the Nodaway and Missouri. In 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped on an island the mouth of Nodaway and members of fur trader Wilson P. Hunt’s 1811 Astorian expedition wintered near the river’s mouth.

     The state historical society offers this unhelpful remark:

     In the early days there was a village near the site of Amazonia known as Boston (q.v.). No information concerning why the name was changed to Amazonia when the present town was laid out could be found. It is said that the founder selected the name for its euphonious qualities. 

     Elsewhere, they explain:

Amazonia (q.v.) was at one time called Savanah Landing, presumably because it was the nearest town to Savannah [the County seat] on the Missouri River.

     I've been looking for images of Amazonia. Here's what I've found. Not much.

The United Methodist Church of Amazonia

Evidently, this is a hay ride to a pumpkin patch in Amazonia.

Amazonia and Wooldridge, MO: flood of 2011

Flückigerei*

An unidentified farming family

     Central to the Jenni saga—to which this blog is dedicated—are Fred Jenni and Emma Flueckiger, who married and produced many children, including Fred Jenni, Jr.
     The Fred & Emma marriage is somewhat of an enigma, perhaps because Emma died so young (in 1906, age 33).
     Pfft, and she was gone.
     We know a bit about Emma. Her parents were Friedrich J. "Fritz" Flueckiger and Anna Marie Scheidegger, who immigrated to the US, from (the vicinity of) Bern Switzerland, to Amazonia, Missouri in 1883. They sailed on the ship Suevia to New Orleans, "then up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers" (according to Ancestry.com bio of Anna Scheidegger).

The Suevia. "The Suevia was a passenger steamship built for the Hamburg America Line in 1874. It was assigned to transatlantic crossings between Hamburg, Germany and New York City, USA and played a role in German immigration to the United States." (Wikipedia)

     Emma would have been ten years old at the time.
     Eight years later (in 1891), she traveled to Lewistown, Montana, where she married Fred Jenni, son of Samuel.
     My guess is that the Sam Jennis and the Fritz Flueckigers of Amazonia, Missouri, knew each other; I'm guessing that their relationship had something to do with Emma (and Frieda's) marriages in Lewistown, MT, of all places.
     The Lewistown area was, of course, where the three Jenni sons happened to settle. It was a pretty obscure location.

* * *

     But yet another woman named Flueckiger was married in Lewistown at about that time (1893): Anna Barbara Flueckiger:

According to this Ancestry.com "bio," this Flueckiger married Frederick (or "Ferderand") F. Hoffman on August 15, 1893.
     In tiny Lewistown!
     That's no coincidence.
     According to the bio,

• Anna Barbara Flueckiger was born in Hutwyl, Bern, Switzerland, in 1858. —Emma Flueckiger and her father were also born in Hutwyl.
• She arrived in the U.S. in 1883. —That's the same year that Emma's family arrived.
• Anna gave birth to a son (Fritz), in Lewistown, in 1905.
• By 1908, Anna and her family seemed to be farming in Salisbury, Maryland (Fred Hoffman perhaps died that year). 
• Anna eventually died in Salisbury, in 1945

     My hypotheses: (1) Anna Barbara was part of the "Fritz" Flueckiger family group that traveled to Missouri in 1883 (steamin' up the Mississippi, then the Missouri). Further, (2) she settled in Amazonia—or at least in Andrew County, Missouri. (3) Upon learning of Emma's marriage to one of the prosperous "Jenni boys" up in wild Montana, the families made arrangements for Anna Barbara to marry one of Fred and John's German-speaking associates, viz., Mr. Hoffman. ([4] Ditto for Emma's sister, Frieda, who married Mr. White in 1898.)
     The backdrop: (5) things were lousy in Amazonia, Missouri. (I did a little checking; the weather in Missouri was especially cold from 1879-1882.)

* * *

     There's one further alleged factoid mentioned in the bio:

1923: Death of Brother: Her brother Friedrich J. "Fritz" died on April 17, 1923, in Rushville, Nebraska....

     Well, that answers that question, I guess: Emma and Anna were connected all right; Anna Barbara Flueckiger was Emma Flueckiger-Jenni's aunt.
     It was all in the (extended) family.

* * *

     Who was Frederick F. Hoffman?
     He was a German, born in 1864, arriving in the U.S. in 1880.
     Some records indicate that he died in 1908, in Maryland. On the other hand, this 1910 Maryland Census record suggests otherwise:

     This document suggests that Frederick was still alive in 1910. Go figure.

     Incidentally, it also indicates that "Fritz," the son, was adopted (in Montana).

     I'll see what else I can find about Herr Hoffman.

* * *

     —Incidentally, just in case it isn't clear, these early Jennis (and Hoffmans, et al.) primarily spoke German (i.e., the dialect of German spoken in Bern). In their Montana households, I suspect, English was strictly a second language, at least for the first (the foreign-born) generation.

     Many of these pioneers (e.g., Fred and John Jenni) were occasionally local school officials. Imagine: the head of the local school, barely literate, with a heavy German accent. (I recall the slight oddness of my own father, c. 1963, taking over our local Cub Scout Pack (later: Boy Scout Troop)—with his slight German accent [in his case, his odd Germanisms were more noticeable than his accent]. Everyone just accepted it. Only in America!)

     And, unsurprisingly, these German-speaking people tended to associate, to work together, to form mini-communities. Such was the case in Cottonwood (Beaver Creek), in the early years. The likes of Fred Jenni created, I think, small Germanic (or Swiss) colonies. Naturally, that faded since the kids invariably spoke good (American) English, thus pushing German to the periphery.

* * *

     One more thing: I have a hypothesis. It's that, by the early 1880s, things were going badly for the Flueckigers of Amazonia. (That's my hypothesis #5.) We know that young Fred—followed by young John—left Missouri for Montana in 1881 or 1882 (they'd been there since '69). And we know that Samuel, age 53, left Amazonia for New Orleans in 1882, planning to collect his family once established there.

     A search for greener pastures? (An escape from decidedly brown pastures? Both?)

     Who knows. <end>

"He was never heard of or from again" (Whatever became of Samuel Jenni?)

New Orleans, long ago

     My folks are from Germany. They—especially my mother, who fled the advancing Russians—used to tell me about the numerous “displaced persons” (“DPs”) in Europe after the war. Millions of people were desperate to find relatives and other loved ones. A system was set up in which those who (hopefully) were sought announced, at special viewing stations, their locations and contact info. Many people were eventually united in this way; but many people never found their loved ones. Not even after many years. That’s pretty horrible.

* * *

     One of several mysteries concerning the early Jenni clan is this one: Whatever happened to Samuel Jenni? 

     Samuel, with his family, were the first Jennis (in our saga) to immigrate to the US (in 1869). They settled in Amazonia, Missouri (Andrew County) and seemed to remain there, more or less. But in 1882, Samuel evidently left the family to explore prospects in New Orleans. He never returned.

     I have two questions: (1) why exactly did Samuel go to New Orleans? (2) How exactly did he die? 

     According to the Heritage book of Central Montana, p. 166, 

     Some records identify Samuel's death date years after 1884—as late as 1887. (The Ancestry.com "bio"  asserts that Samuel died "about 1887.")

     In a part of the Heritage book that discusses Frank Kalin (p. 183), we find a brief reference to Samuel Jenni's trip to New Orleans:

     Note that this writer erroneously (?) identifies Samuel's wife as "Elizabeth." All other references to Samuel's wife that I have found indicate that she was named "Anna" (Anna Segessenmann, b. 1820), and she died in her son Fred's home in January of 1886 of pneumonia. 

     But if otherwise correct, this account suggests that Samuel went to New Orleans in 1882. 

     Was he not heard from again? Did letters from him stop at some point in 1884, suggesting that he had died then?

        Page 452 of Heritage offers this:

     This account seems to imply that Anna journeyed to Montana because she learned (?) that Samuel had died. Or did she infer that he Samuel likely died, owing to his sudden failure to write?

     I have come upon this info from Descendants of Meinrad Franz Kalin:

This appears to be a version of the Heritage account above, but it adds something: "Their father, Samuel, went to New Orleans, Louisiana that year, planning to return for his wife and children, but he was never heard of or from again."
     Well, if he was never heard "of or from" again, how account for the factoid (if it is a factoid) that he died of yellow fever? Either the family was simply in the dark concerning Samuel's fate or they had speculated that yellow fever took him. —Unless, of course, we contemporaries have access to that factoid, perhaps through Ancestry.com. Ancestry does indeed refer to Samuel's death, by yellow fever, but it refers to no supporting document.
     I've sought newspaper reports of Samuel's death in New Orleans—from 1884 to 1887. The only thing of possible interest I've found is this:

7-18-87 Times-Piquayune (New Orleans)

     I could find no followup report.

     If Samuel did die in 1887, he would have been about 58 years old (he was about nine years younger than his wife, Anna).

P.S.:

     I consulted the History of yellow fever, by George Augustin (1905). According to Augustin, New Orleans has often been the location of outbreaks and epidemics—e.g., the epidemic of 1878. During that year, New Orleans had a population of 210,000 and suffered 27,000 cases of yellow fever. There were 4,046 deaths, which is remarkable, to say the least.

      The following year, there were 48 cases and 19 deaths. 

      1880: 2 deaths  

      1881: no deaths 

      1882: no deaths 

      1883: 1 death 

      1884-8: no deaths 

      1889: 1 death 

      Etc. 

      These figures are confirmed elsewhere. 

      Samuel Jenni left for, and likely arrived in, New Orleans in 1882, a year in which there were no yellow fever deaths. According to official records, there was only one more death of yellow fever in New Orleans between 1883-1888—namely, the 1 in 1883. It would seem unlikely that Samuel was this one victim. 

     If, as at least one family historian suggests (see above), upon leaving Missouri in 1882, Samuel was never heard from again, then his assumed death would likely have inspired speculation. Given New Orleans’ notoriety as a locus of yellow fever epidemics—the last one occurring only a few years prior—family members might have speculated that Samuel was taken by yellow fever. 

     But, given the record above, I doubt that that is how he died, if he died in New Orleans. 

     No?

P.P.S.: I did find a followup report to the 7-18-87 news story, though it isn't very helpful:

7-19-87 Sat Review, Hutchinson Kansas

     Also, it turns out that the incident occurred in Pittsburg, not in New Orleans. 

     So it's back to the drawing board.

New Orleans, 1880s?