52 Ancestors #31: Elizabeth Peterson, my Aunt Betty

     Elizabeth Peterson was born Frances Elizabeth Peterson on 23 Jul 1920 in Fort Worth, Texas.  She was named Elizabeth for her mother, Elizabeth Hudson and her great grandmother, Elizabeth Buck. I don't know where the Frances came from, though. Her father was Walter L. Peterson, at the time a Physical Education Director with the YMCA. The family moved to Detroit and from there to Chicago where Walter entered McCormick Seminary to become a Minister. So Betty (as she was called by the family) would've seen her father follow his conscience and her mother work hard to support his choice. A pattern she followed in her own life. The Seminary happened during the Depression and Betty was sent for a year to live with her mother's parents in Fort Worth which she was not happy about. She graduated from High School in Bessemer, Michigan and earned her tuition for college by living with families and cleaning their homes.

     Around 1941, she attended a Christian Peace and Justice Conference and met David Dellinger. The two recognized their shared commitment to peace and social justice and soon were engaged to be married. Her father married them in his church in Seattle on 4 Feb 1942. After the wedding they hitchhiked across country to live in a Christian Community in Newark, New Jersey. I find it quite remarkable that she was willing to do that. In 1943 Dave was convicted of draft evasion due to his pacifist convictions and sentenced to three years in a Maximum security prison.  Betty was pregnant with their first child who was born 2 Jan 1944. He was named Evan Patchen, the Patchen being for their friend, the poet, Kenneth Patchen. He has been known as Patchen for his entire life as far as I know. Can you imagine your first child being born while your husband is in jail not for any crime but for a personal belief?

    Sometime in here she converted to Catholicism, I don't know if Dave did as well or not. They had four more children, Raymond, Natasha, Daniel and Michelle. They lived in a pacifist community in rural New Jersey where they published and printed Liberation magazine. Elizabeth worked, went to school and raised her family.  She taught on an Emergency certificate while completing her Bachelor's Degree in Education. While on the farm she baked bread, raised chickens, cows and pigs and tended a vegetable garden. She also cleaned people's houses and sold her bread to raise money for the children's music lessons.

     In the 60's her husband was very active in the anti-war movement, culminating in his being one of the famous Chicago 7 in 1968. It must have been very stressful to have watch your husband in court and see your young daughters screaming at the judge and being carried out of court by the marshals.

     In the 70's they moved to Brooklyn, New York. Elizabeth got involved in the Women's Liberation movement.  She insisted on being Elizabeth not Betty (this was hard for her family to do, we'd been calling her Betty all her life!). She went back to her maiden name, Peterson, and didn't want to be known as Dellinger any more.  She moved into her own apartment in the same building that Dave lived in. This is really all I know, told to me by my father and mother but it seems like a pivotal time in her life. She also got her Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education and worked as a social worker and consultant.

    In 1981, she and Dave moved to Peacham, Vermont. This was a quieter life although they both gave talks around the country.  She worked as a teacher and volunteered for Hospice and sang in the Church choir. In 1982' she visited me in San Francisco and met my daughter.  In 1985' her brother Jack died and she, her brother Wally and my sister and I all were together for his Memorial Service. In 1988' her son Raymond died in Berkeley and she and Dave visited me after the Memorial Service. These visits were all special to me because she was such a lovely person it just made you happy to be with her.

    In his last years Dave battled Alzheimers and that was hard on her.  He died in 2004. My sister, children and I attended his Memorial Service in New York City and were able to spend some time with Elizabeth. She reminded me a great deal of her mother, my grandmother. She was warm, fun, and alive, and very very sweet! She said she was thinking of writing her autobiography, to tell her side of the story. I really hoped she would because it would've been well worth reading! However, she died (with "beauty and grace" according to the Caledonian Record) on 17 Sep 2009 at the age of 89. Near the end of her life she joined the Unitarian Universalist Church in Oneonta, New York.  This would've made her brother, Jack, and his ex-wife, Margaret (my parents)very happy!

     Here is what the Caledonian Record said about her in the obituary they published on 23 Sept 2009:

"Elizabeth wanted to be remembered as a worker for peace and justice, a caretaker for others, and who considered every human being her sister and brother...Her strength, vitality, beauty, courage, generosity and commitment to social justice and peace among many other things, will stay in our hearts, minds and actions forever."

52 Ancestors # 30: David Dellinger, Pacifist, Activist, Chicago 7 member and my Uncle Dave

     My Uncle Dave was famous for being a Pacifist, an Activist and one of the Chicago 7. You can read quite a bit about him and his life including his autobiography, "From Yale to Jail". However, this blog post is about him as a member of my family and thus, much more subjective.

     David Raymond Dellinger was born 22 Aug 1915 in Wakefield, Massachusetts. (I recall seeing that Raymond was his middle name because I recognized it as the name he gave his second son and as his father's name.  However, I can't find any document which has the name as his middle name right now. I'm including it as I remember seeing it but it could be wrong.) He was the son of Raymond Pennington Dellinger and Marie Elizabeth Fiske. His father was a prominent Republican lawyer, a friend of Calvin Coolidge and a member of the Masons in Wakefield. One of his obituaries calls David "a child of patrician privilege". His father was born in North Carolina and came from a long line of men of that state, starting with Johannes P. Dellinger who immigrated there from Wurttemburg, Germany in 1750. His ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and three of his grandfather's older brothers fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. An interesting lineage for one who dedicated his life to anti-war causes.

     David was an outstanding long distance runner and high school athlete and enrolled in Yale in 1933. It was the height and he was embarrassed by the elitism there.  He spent his vacations traveling as a hobo which he considered on the job training. He graduated Yale Phi Beta Kappa and won a scholarship to Oxford University.  He attended there and then returned to Yale for graduate study and thence to Union Theological Seminary to study for the ministry. On his way to Oxford he went to Spain and drove an ambulance behind Loyalist lines, he also toured Germany under Hitler. His personal commitment to non-violence came during his time at Yale.  The story is that during an after-football game melee he hit a young man and knocked him unconscious. He pledged that "he would never hit anyone again and forswore all violence"(New York Times Obituary 2004/05/27). So the scene was set for his career as a pacifist.

     In 1940 as WW II was beginning in Europe, the U.S. ordered men to register for the draft.  Dave with seven other seminary students refused.  This is even though they were assured that they would receive ministerial deferments. The eight men were expelled from the seminary and Dave was tried for draft evasion, convicted and sent to Danbury prison for a year.

     Not long after his release he met Frances Elizabeth ("Betty") Peterson at a Christian "Peace and Justice Conference". According to Elizabeth it was love at first sight. They shared a life commitment to work for social justice and they were married by her father, Presbyterian Minister, Walter L. Peterson at his church in Seattle, Washington on 4 Feb 1942. My father, her brother Jack, and mother signed their marriage certificate. After the wedding they hitch-hiked cross country to live in a Christian Community in Newark, New Jersey. That is pretty radical for a honeymoon!

     In 1943, with America at war, David again refused to report for pre-induction physical. He was arrested, convicted and sent to Lewisburg, a maximum security prison.  Elizabeth was pregnant with their first child, Evan Patchen, who was born 2 Jan 1944. He was released three years later and continued to protest, against the bomb, against the Korean War and eventually against the War in Vietnam. In the late 40's to early 50's he was part of a radical commune in New Jersey where he published the magazine Liberation. I remember my father visiting there and saying that his sister was living without modern conveniences and working hard there. They had four more children born in 46, 49, 52 and 56.

     In 1967, I was going to Antioch College which was full of people against the War.  That summer I went to my Grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary. My Uncle Dave and his family were there. He was charming and everyone loved him (except my father who said he disagreed with his politics and the way he had made his sister's life unnecessarily hard). In October 1967 I went to a major peace march called in Washington, D.C. I was standing in a crowd of thousands of young people to listen to speakers.  Suddenly the speaker was my Uncle, Dave Dellinger. I  was a little surprised, the charming Uncle I had met was telling the crowd to burn their draft cards and march on the Pentagon. I marched to the Pentagon and there met my cousin Raymond who was a marshal, controlling the crowd.

     In 1968, Dave was one of the organizers of the protests outside the Democratic Convention in Chicago. As is well known this turned into armed battles in the streets. Dave and six others were arrested and charged with "conspiring to start riots". They became known as the"Chicago Seven". All were young except Dave. There was a famous point in the trial whee he was being silenced by the Judge and his daughters (my cousins Tasha and Michelle) screamed "Leave my Daddy alone". The Marshals then started to carry them out of the courtroom at which point Dave broke free, sprang through the crowd and put himself between the Marshals and his daughters. You can read all about this trial elsewhere, suffice it to say, it was shocking to the family. However, for years whenever anyone from the 60's found out that he was my uncle they were always impressed!

     After this he continued to publish magazines, write. lecture and carry on protests. He went to China, North Vietnam and Czechoslovakia. In the 70's he moved to Peacham, Vermont and wrote several books, taught and lectured. At the age of 85 he hitchhiked to Quebec to participate in the protest against the North American Free Trade Agreement. He died in Vermont on 25 May 2004.

     As a note, in 1988 Dave and Elizabeth came to the Bay Area for the funeral of their son, Raymond, who had died of cancer.  They came to visit at the Church of Scientology in San Francisco where I worked as a Minister. As we talked Dave mentioned that they had met L. Ron Hubbard when they were living in New Jersey around 1950 and they had a copy of Dianetics, his book. I think he said that he had autographed it for them. But they hadn't read the book. Mr. Hubbard has said that you can't disseminate to someone with a solution and Dave had one, a political solution.

     On October 23, 2004, a memorial service was held for Dave at St. John the Divine in New York City. My sister and I and my two children attended. There were over 1000 people there (top estimate was 1500) with such people as Pete Seeger, Ossie Davis and Tom Hayden speaking as well as many family and friends. It was very moving and Pete Seeger led us in singing We Shall Overcome. My children were surprised that I knew all the words but I still remembered them. We saw the family many of whom we had never or only rarely met. Dave was famous in his public life, in his private life he was a loving husband, father, grandfather and uncle.

     In his biography, The Life and Times of a Non Violent Revolutionary, by Andrew E. Hunt, he quotes Dave as answering the question "What would you like to be remembered for?" as saying "...I would like my children to feel they were glad I was their father. I would like some people to remember me for having taught them...that the things that seem to separate us from our fellows are nothing compared to the things that unite us with all humanity. I would like if anything to think that maybe somebody learned that from me, because to the best of my ability I refused to be a star or a hero."

52 Ancestors # 29: Nils Johan Almquist: Coming to America

     Nils Johan Almquist (or Almqvist) was born on 1 April 1825 at Hylte, Almesakra, Jonkoping, Sweden. His father, Anders Niklasson Almquist, was a "hemmansgare" or a free farmer who owned his own farm, called Hylte. His mother was Ingrid Danielsdotter. Nils was the youngest of eight children. On 22 Sep 1850, at the age of 25, he married Anna Charlotta Johansdotter. She was from the nearby village of Sodra Ving.

     Nils and Anna Charlotta had a farm called Hallen in Brunn, another village not far from either Hylte or Sodra Ving. They had the following children: Johan August born 1851, Anders Wilhelm Ludwick born 1852, Hulda Josefina born 1857 and Emelie Maria born 1859.  He is listed simply as a farmer.  The 1860's in Sweden were a period of famine and apparently all did not go well for Nils.  The family story is that he wanted to emigrate to America but Anna Charlotta did not want to go. He was determined to go, though, so one day he left with the children and without his wife.  She sent the police after him and they caught up with him in Goteborg as he was about to get on the boat.  The police told him that he could go but the children had to stay. So he left for America while his children went back to their mother.  the Swedish Emigration records give his date of departure as 14 Jun 1864, sailing from Hamburg, Germany. They give his occupation as "Landtmann" which I believe means farmer (land meaning land or farm). I found him on the New York Passenger lists arriving on 15 Aug 1864 on the ship Nord. The family story goes on to say that he met and married another woman on the ship to America. He did marry again but I find no evidence that he met or married her on the ship.

     In 1865 he is recorded in the Minnesota State Census in Dahlgren, Carter Co., Minnesota, with a family next door to one that his brother, Anders, was boarding with. In  1869 he married Anna Elisabet Finstad in Ramsay Co, Minnesota. In the 1870 Census he and Anna (called Sahra in the Census) and their son, Claes, as living in Swan Lake, Meeker Co. his son Johan had already come to America but left for Texas by 1870. His second son came before 1880 when he married Julia Kneeland and lived in Cokato, Wright Co., Minnesota.  His daughter, Hulda, arrived in 1881. Emelie stayed in Sweden. By the 1880 Census Nils and Anna were living in Dassel (the new name for Swan Lake) with their three sons, Claes Alvin, Gustaf Emil and Nils E. I have not been able to determine if he ever actually divorced Anna Charlotta. Her Swedish records name her as divorced but I am not sure if that is from him or a later marriage. I'm sure he felt he was divorced whether he had the official papers or not.

     I don't have his exact death date, family records say it was about 1893.  He died at his home in Dassel.  His sons from his second marriage continued to farm the land for the rest of their lives. He had quite a number of descendants and his decision to move to America proved to be a good one for most of the family! It must have been quite a wrenching change for him to come as he did leaving his family behind. I'm sure he was happy to have 3 of his children join him as well as to start a new family in his new country.

52 Ancestors #28: Monica Remondini, almost an ancestor

     Monica Remondini was my great grandfather, Frank Stefani's, fiancee when he left Sporminore, Austria then, for America. Here is her story as far as I know it plus quite a bit of speculation on my part!

     She was born Cunegonda Monica Remondini on 2 Feb 1869 in Sporminore, then Sudtirol, Austria. I never heard of the name Cunegonda and she didn't seem to use it but it appears in her baptismal record. Her parents were Giovanni Remondini and Teresa Gabrielli.

      According to the family story she and Francesco Stefani (Frank Stefani) were engaged to be married before he left for America.  Frank came to America in May of 1885 or 1886. After arriving in America he wrote to Monica and told her that he was releasing her from the engagement because he had been so sick the entire boat trip to America that he couldn't face doing it two more times(once to go back and get her and once to bring her back to America). Her picture was found in the drawer of the night stand next to his bed after he died. He also had a handkerchief embroidered with her initials.

     This is rather romantic so, naturally, I researched her. I found that she married Frank's cousin, Guilio Wegher, on 14 Apr 1888. Guilio was the son of Frank's mother's brother. Monica and Guilio had 8 children, none of whom were named either Francesco or Giovanni. Recently, when my sister and I visited Sporminore,

 we found Monica's gravestone which said that she died in 1931. These are the facts.

     Here is my speculation.  Monica was quite beautiful as seen in her photos. Perhaps the prettiest girl in town of her age.  Guilio and Francesco may have been rivals for her hand. Or simply Guilio was in love with her himself and took the opportunity to snap her up when Francesco bowed out and may well have already been romancing her while Francesco was gone.  To me Monica could simply have said, "no problem, Frank, I'll come to you!" The fact that she didn't suggests that Guilio was already on the scene. So, that is my speculation on it. I don't suppose we'll ever know!

52 Ancestors #27: Walter Leonard Peterson, Presbyterian Minister

     Walter Leonard Peterson was my grandfather, very dear to me, so I hope that I can do him justice here!
He was born Alvin Walter Leonard Peterson but the Alvin was not used to my knowledge and he was always known as Walter. He was born on 8 October 1890 at Dassel, Meeker, Minnesota, the son of Adolph Peterson and Hulda Almquist. His parents were born in Sweden and immigrated to America with their parents, Adolph in 1869 and Hulda in 1881. Hulda came to America to live with her father who lived on the farm next door to the one Adolph lived on with his parents. They had five children of whom Walter was the fourth. Throughout their lives the brothers and sisters were always very close.

     Walter spoke only Swedish until the age of 6 when he first went to school. The teacher didn't like Swedes and boxed his ears when he spoke Swedish. He was told that only English was spoken in school so he learned English rapidly! He spoke Swedish as well for the rest of his life. His mother would often tell the story (and later Walter would tell it) of how the pastor came to visit one time and laid his hand on Walter's head (Walter being a little boy) and said, "This one is going to be a Minister." This proved prophetic. In his autobiography, "Celebration of a Life", Walter says, "Later, in his High School years, came another milepost in his life. A disappointment in love made him question whether life was worth living. After brooding over the problem for a time, he came up with the resolution: 'I will live my life to prove to the world the reality and practicalness of Christ and His way of life!'". This was quite a goal to have set for one's self!

     The family moved to Boyceville, Wisconsin when Walter was 10. He went to High School in Menominie, Wisconsin and finished it at Central High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He went to College for a Year at the University of Colorado in Boulder, which is where I found him in the 1910 U.S. Census with his profession given as "Salesman Furniture Store". He homesteaded with his brother, John, in Montana, living on the land and working it for three years to gain ownership.  He then turned it over to a neighbor for share cropping and went to American College in Chicago.  Here he majored in Physical Education.

     It was at American College that he met the love of his life, Elizabeth "Bessie" Hudson.  She also was majoring in Physical Education. He told my sister and I that he saw her in her Physical Education outfit and was bowled over, he knew he wanted her to be his wife. The only problem was that he was engaged to a girl back home.  He liked the girl but wasn't really in love with her, it was more her idea than his.  And it was very much her mother's idea that they should marry. Walter broke up the engagement but then he heard that the girl was very upset.  So he went to see her mother and told her that he would do what was right and marry her daughter if the mother felt he should.  However, he told her they would have to live in the city. The mother didn't want her daughter to live far away in the city and asked if Walter was in love with someone else.  He said, yes.  So she agreed that he shouldn't marry her daughter. Walter left with the ring he had given the girl which he took to Tiffany's and applied it toward a ring for Bessie. Walter and Bessie were married on 17 Aug 1917 at her parents' church in Fort Worth, Texas.

     Walter and Bessie were married almost 65 years. Here is what Walter writes about her in his autobiography: "Central in the richness and fullness of life for Walter was his life mate, Elizabeth.  Ever since he met his 'dream girl' at College sixty years ago, their life has been an unbroken romance.  Her constant love, understanding, readiness to adjust to his ever new situations, and tireless, efficient care for him through every hardship and illness, has been phenomenal."  In 1977, I attended their 60th Anniversary.  Walter toasted his wife saying how glad he was that he had been able to spend the last 60 years "with his sweetheart". I asked them what they attributed their long marriage to and they said, "Communication, they could always communicate and sort out any difficulties between them."

     After they married they first lived in Troy, New York where Walter worked for the YMCA. It was WW I, Walter deplored the war and didn't want to fight on moral and religious grounds.  Bessie was afraid for him as there was tremendous social pressure to go to war.  So, she made him wear his YMCA uniform when out on the streets and he soon joined the Army YMCA.  They were stationed in San Antonio, Texas where Walter was born. From there they went to Fort Worth where Elizabeth, "Betty", and John, "Jack", were born. They moved to Detroit continuing to work for the YMCA until in the early days of the Depression he was let go with most of the employees. At this point, Walter decided to go to seminary and become a Minister. He went to McCormick Seminary, the University of Chicago and Chicago Theological Seminary. He worked part time and Bessie worked as well to back him up in this quest. I asked my grandfather once why , having been raised as a Lutheran, he became a Presbyterian Minister. He replied, "Because Bessie was a Presbyterian". Of course, why did I ask? To me this shows how much she meant to him.

     Walter had a long career as a Minister having churches in Bessemer, Michigan, Seattle, Washington and Tacoma, Washington.  He was the Executive of the Greater Spokane Council of Churches for ten years.  While there he sponsored a program for Bible Classes at 33 elementary schools and successfully fought in the courts to keep them going. During WW II, he defended the Japanese people who were uprooted from their homes in Washington and refused to fire his Japanese Secretary when threatened with violence if he refused.  After the war he accepted a project under the Council of Churches to host nine German Executives to come and study industry in America when the Spokane Chamber of Commerce was afraid to do so. During the turbulent race struggle of the sixties he marched with the blacks of Tacoma from the Baptist Church to City Hall to plead their cause before the City Council. I remember a photo of him leading the march in the Seattle Times on p.1. He lived his convictions as he decided to do when he was in High School. The people of his parishes loved him, as a child I attended at least two different dinners in his honor. I also remember going to one of his Church Services once, he gave a sermon on love which I thought was quite wonderful.  No "hellfire and brimstone" in his sermons.  In his last years he wrote me that he thought that when you died you were reincarnated "either here or on another planet." I thought this was a remarkable comment from a Presbyterian Minister.

     Walter always loved to visit family.  Wherever he went he would try to visit any relatives in the area.  He would embarrass Bessie quite a bit by just showing up without calling first.  When she suggested that they should call he'd say, "Why?They'll be happy to see me." I remember being on some of those visits, and, yes, they were happy to see him! He was proud of his Swedish heritage and told us stories of his family.  When, in the 8th Grade, I had to do a family history project he happily told me about my Swedish ancestors.  In 1957, he was able to go to Scotland on a Ministerial Exchange Program. This enabled him to visit Sweden where he met relatives and found the house his mother had been born in.  Recently, my sister and I followed his footsteps, visiting Sweden and meeting the daughters of the cousins he visited. I remember that he told us the "Swedish way to drink coffee" was to put a sugar cube in your mouth and then drink the coffee through it. I asked a Swedish cousin if this is true and he said that it is an old way, his grandmother used to drink it like that! When I was in High School and my own father lived far away after my parents were divorced. We had a Father-Daughter dinner. My grandfather escorted me to this. I was very proud to be seen with him and happy to have someone to bring to the dinner. In 1967 my sister and I drove with our grandparents to Chicago, Illinois for their 50th Wedding Anniversary. My grandfather drove 75 mph through the Rockies with Bessie saying "Slow down Walter!" the whole way! It was a wonderful trip!

     Walter and Bessie eventually went to a retirement home in Duarte, California, outside of L.A. It was a home for retired Presbyterian Ministers and Missionaries, so I found it much less depressing than retirement homes I have visited. The people there had lived their lives helping people and were vital interesting people. Eventually when they were growing infirm they put Walter and Bessie in different rooms.  This was because that way Walter would have incentive to get out of bed, get dressed and walk over to see Bessie and she would have incentive to get out of bed and get dressed and see him.  They would have lunch together every day.  Bessie died 12 May 1982 and he followed 7 months later on 14 Dec 1982. Two of the best people I ever knew, they were a real love story!