How did you deal with your grandparents dying?.
My mother’s parents were Ludvick Henry Matson, born October 13, 1888 and Tessie Jane Oliver Matson born September 16. 1886. Both were born in Vernon County Wisconsin near Viroqua, WI. The photo below is their wedding photo.
Very sadly, Tessie died on January 21, 1925 after a successful thyroid surgery at the Gundersen-Lutheran Hospital in LaCrosse, WI. She left seven children without a mother. My mother was Edna Virginia Matson, born on July 23, 1919 near Viroqua, WI. She was age five and child number five at the time of her mother’s death. So I never knew that grandmother and my mother had hardly any memories of her mother. My Grandfather, Ludvick, remarried twice after Tessis died. The photo below is the wedding photo with his second wife.
He and his second wife, Ella Lind Matson were married for thirty-two years. She died December 29, 1962.
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| Tillie Matson, Edna Groves and Ludvick Matson |
He married Tillie Matson a few years later who outlived him. He died April 2, 1974 in Sparta, WI and was buried in Leon, WI near his Sparta, WI farm. I did not attend his funeral as I lived 800 miles away in NE at that time. The photo below shows my mother, Edna Matson Groves with her father and his third wife Tillie. She was the Grandmother that taught me how to make lefse.
His mother was Marit (Mary) Tande Matson who was born in Lom, Oppland, Norway on March 22, 1869 and died May 14, 1952 near Viroqua, WI. She came to the United States in 1872 at age 2. She had married Matthias Johannes Matson who had been born July 2, 1859 in Sogne Og Fjordane, Norway and died February 1, 1925 which was 10 days after his daughter-in-law, Tessie Matson. I did not attend funerals for either of those Great-Grandparents.
My Grandfather, Ludvick, was the oldest of 16 children born to Matthias and Marit Matson. Twelve of those children lived into their adult years. The names of three of their very young children who did not survive were reused for children that were born in later years.
Two Matthias Matson family photos are shown below.The first photo was taken in 1910. My Grandfather, Ludvick, was the firstborn and is in the middle in the back row. The back row names are Anna Matson Walters, Ludvick, Andrew (drowned in 1927), next row: Mabel Matson Tryggested, Tina Matson Haase, John, Next row: Matthias, Lester, Edwin Victor, (Edna’s namesake), Marit (Mary), Front row: Lee and Leroy.
The photo below was taken in 1916. Back row left to right: Mabel, Anna, Ludvick, Andrew, John, Edwin. Next row: Lee, Matthias, Lester, Marit (Mary), Tina. Front row: Leroy, Evelyn Matson Tollefson and Emerald.
The photo below shows my parents with my Great-Grandmother Marit Matson. I think this photo was taken during a bridal shower for James Burton Groves and Edna Virginia Matson who were married in the front yard of my Dad’s home on June 7, 1941. My parents lived there after their marriage until November 1, 1948. I am not sure where Marit Matson lived at this time but it probably was with her daughter Mabel Tryggestad and her husband, Alfred, on a farm three miles west of Viroqua, WI.
The photo below is a four generation group that includes Ludvick Matson and his mother, Marit Tande Matson, plus his daughter, my mother, Edna Virginia Matson Groves who is holding me, Linda Louise Groves, in the front yard of our Viroqua farm home. I probably am three years old.
This is another photo of Marit Tande Matson, my Great-Grandmother. She died at age 81 but certainly has maintained her health and personal grooming in her later years.
Now I will turn to my Dad’s family to share a few photos. The photo below is the wedding picture of William Floyd Groves, who had been born on December 28, 1885 whose parents were of English and German origin and Amanda Sophia Isaacs, who had been born on November 15, 1881 to parents who had both been born in Norway. The wedding photo had been taken on November 28, 1910 in Billings, MT where they were married. Amanda had gone to Montana from her birthplace in Forest City, IA to become a homesteader. William Groves had been born on a homestead in NE before his parents returned to a farm outside of Viroqua, WI. William was working in MT when he met Amanda. They lived there for five years.
James Burton Groves, my father, was born in MT on October 26, 1913 and is the baby in the photo below.
When Bill and Amanda moved back to Viroqua, WI with their growing family, they farmed near Bill’s parents, Isaac Newton Groves, 1859 - 1937 and Ermine Brithomart Groves, March 26, 1866 - March 5, 1956. Isaac and Minnie Groves were married March 11, 1885 in Milwaukee, WI. Minnie was married two weeks before her 19th birthday. The newly weds apparently decided to become Homesteaders in Nebraska.
Their first child, my Grandpa Groves, was born in NE on December 28, 1885. He would live to be 96 years old and pass away in Viroqua, WI on February 24, 1982. I was living near East Troy, WI at that time so I was able to attend my Grandpa Groves’s funeral which was held at the same church in Viroqua, WI where his mother’s funeral had been 27 years earlier and at which I had also been in attendance.
Amanda Isaacs Groves lived 95 years and passed away in Viroqua, WI on December 27, 1976. I lived in Brooklyn, NY at that time and had just given birth to a baby girl several weeks earlier. I was for these reasons not able to attend her funeral. The picture below is Bill and Amanda Groves celebrating fifty years of marriage.
Bill and Amanda had four children. All the children sang and played a musical instrument. They formed a quartet and often played and sang at churches and other events that welcomed their entertaining music. The photo below shows this sibling quartet. L-R Hubert, Methodist Minister, Vernon, PhD Professor at Olivet Nazarene College, Mildred, Evangelistic ministry with her husband and musical children, Public School Educator and James, an innovative dairy farmer - my father. My father and all his siblings are now deceased.
My father had completed Normal School which was the degree program following high school education which prepared students to be classroom teachers. He did his student teaching and decided that the classroom was not the career path for him. He loved farming, had excelled in high school programs that taught new methods for field work, dairy cattle and hogs and he decided to stay in farming which was what he did for the rest of his life. He was ready to be in farming full time at about the same time as his Grandfather, Isaac Groves passed away in 1937. His Grandmother, Minnie Groves, stayed in a portion of her family farm home after her husband’s death and allowed my parents to live in the rest of the house.
My parents had married in 1941 and began having their family after that. Bill and Amanda Groves had decided to leave farming and move to Chicago where jobs were plentiful as many young men had joined the military and were fighting in WWII leaving job openings in Chicago. My father was exempt from the military as a farmer.
For a time, my Dad had farmed in partnership with his brother Hubert but Hubert had decided to leave farming and move to Chicago for education to become a Methodist pastor. Photo below shows James on the left and Hubert sitting on a new case tractor beside the Viroqua farm home.
So when I was born on December 7, 1944, I had a brother who was nearly three years old and I lived in the home where my Great-Grandmother Minnie Groves lived. My brother and I were often invited into the apartment portion of our house where we were entertained by the many stories our Great-Grandmother told about her days in Nebraska and other tales that we found riveting and exciting. I don’t remember the stories but I can visualize my spot sitting on a flour can on a window sill and my brother on a chair beside our Great-Grandmother. We loved those story times and I’m sure our mother greatly appreciated the babysitting service. Two more little girls had joined the family before I was three years old.
Just before my fourth birthday, a big change came for my family. My Great-Grandmother was going to sell her farm and move into the home of one of her daughters. My parents could buy the farm from my Dad’s grandmother or they could buy another farm elsewhere. My parents decided to buy another farm seventy-five miles from where we had been living. I would no longer be living where I could spend time with my Great-grandmother. It was the right decision for our family and it was also best for my Great-grandmother as she was needing additional care as an aging person.
This story started with the question: How did you deal with your grandparents dying? I have shared names and photos of my Grandparents and some Great-grandparents. I loved my grandparents but I did not have a very close relationship with any of them because we didn’t live too close to them or have the ability to visit them very often.
But I do know that I attended the funeral of my Great-Grandmother Minnie Cox Groves, my story telling babysitter. I was ten years old when she died. I was in fifth grade at Cross Ridge School, the one room elementary school which I attended for grades 1-8. I remember sitting in the church in Viroqua, WI for her funeral with my family. It was probably the first funeral I had ever attended. I remember being overcome with sadness during that service and began to cry real tears. I am quite certain that I knew that my Great-Grandmother had loved me and I knew that I would never see her again in my earthly life so I was sad. I also knew that my Great-Grandmother had a loving relationship with Jesus Christ and she was now in heaven where I would also be able to go when my life on earth ended. I am very grateful for the comfort of knowing that I will see my grandmother again when I join her some day in heaven. And I also will be able to be with all my other Grandparents who are now in heaven if their faith was based on the Biblical truth as stated in ...
Romans 10: 9
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
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