successful Saturday

When I went to the historical society today, I didn't expect to come away with much -- I went up unorganized and unsure what I even wanted to find.

But I came away with a few gems. One of them is an article from a newspaper about my step-great-great-great-great-grandmother. It's a pretty fun story, so I'll include some of it.

"The deceased was a remarkable woman: as mother, wife and in her profession. She seemed to be selected as a special instrument by providence to help suffering humanity. She was born in the village Gnadenheim, Russia, in 1826, February 17, as the first child in the third marriage of a very poor shoemaker living in a little adobe house at the end of the village. From her earliest childhood the extreme poverty of her father gave her a training in self denial and in trusting God as her friend and guide.

"Her mother died early leaving three younger brothers in the care of the half grown girl and giving her directions which served her as a guidance for the following seventy years of hard work and many sad experiences.Her father's undaunted mind never permitted any hindrances to discourage him in the pursuit and realizations of his plans. And when the desire developed in his breast to study medicine he found away to leave his wife and children in Russia and to travel to Prussia to take a course in a medical college of Danzig.

"After that his life was devoted to his chosen profession, and being unable to procure nurses for his patients in most critical conditions, he would often take his daughter Justina who was only a mere child of 10 years of age and leave her in care of the dying.Often she has told us how her father sent her at te age of 11 with perfect strangers 20 miles away from home with directions and medicines to the deathbed of the father or mother of a large family, telling her to trust in the Lord and to do her best.

"She was married the first time August 21, 1845, with Isaac Bargen and began conjugal life with nothing but a willing hand to work and the hope that the Father of all would take care of her and her husband. The first few years they resided in a dugout with a sod roof and oiled wrapping paper for window panes.

"Financially conditions changed when her father, Dr. D. Loewen, died, some 40 years ago and her skill as obstetrician became known and appreciated in a large territory of 60 villages. Day and night her services were in demand after that and there was no day on which she did not come in contact with some suffering sister. And how tenderly she could work for them those can testify who have come to her in their grief.

"In 1878 the whole family came from Russia to Mountain Lake and here she continued in her professional work till the number of those children whom she received at their arrival into this world went up to over 11,000. The last child she assisted into life was her own grand child, on September 19, 1904."