Bertha (Peterson) "Mary" Wahl

  December 14, 1861 - February 25, 1938   

76 years,  2 months, 11 days 

Marriage:   August H. Wahl  - married on March 31, 1884

Children of Mary & August:
  Harry C. Wahl (1885-1915 /29 years)
Perry Goodwin Wahl (1887-1952 / 64 years)
Alma (Wahl) Satterlund (1888-1976 / 87 years)
Hilda Katherine (Wahl) Lind (1891-1977 / 85 years)
Henry Edwin Wahl (1893-1965 / 72 years)
Mabel Edyth (Wahl) Tellefson (1895-1971 / 76 years
Myrtle Wahl (1896-1906 / 9 years)
Roy Walton Wahl (1899-1997 / 98 years)
Clara Wahl (1900-1900 / 3 days)
Ralph Wahl (1902-1902 / 4 months)
Blanche (Wahl) Duncan (1903-1994 / 90 years)
Clifford Wahl (1906-1998 / 91 years)

Mary Wahl is a Great-Great Aunt of Jon Q. Peterson.  She is a sister to J.P. Peterson - J.P. is Jon's Great Grandfather. 

The following was taken from the book "Fifty Pioneer Mothers of McLean County", written in 1932 by Mary A. Barnes Willams.

Mrs. Aug. H. Wahl

Bertha Marie "Mary" (Peterson) Wahl 

Here is one who has had a full-time job - mothering twelve children. Her realm has been her home.  Seldom has she left it. She has had no other interest outside it.  She has traveled little and as the years have borne down heavily upon her, she has confined herself entirely within its walls.  She thinks travel is a rare privilege and she is glad her children and others have it, she prefers to do hers in a rocking chair at home.  Although her confines are narrow she is not, for she can understand humanity - sympathize with every creature - put herself into the personality of everyone.  She keeps herself well informed with her radio and reading.  She is majestic and imaginative and her understanding is as broad as the prairies on which she has lived so many years.

She has traveled and seen much and has scarcely been away from the yard in the last twenty years.  She has seen palaces and cathedrals in the snow on the large trees about the house.  She has seen the sunset behind the Rockies when the clouds have been piled up on the edge of the prairie.  She has seen the ocean billows in the rise and the fall of the prairie grass.  She has seen history in the making - three ugly wars flare up and die down.  She sent three stalwart sons, Perry, Henry, and Roy away in the late war, to face gunfire.  She has seen the feeble beginning of a raw state and the civilization that developed there and been part of the beginning and part of the growth.  She married young, bore twelve children, and buried four.  Anyone who has experienced all those things has traveled in spirit, although the body has been confined.

Mrs. August Wahl, came to Dakota territory as a bride in June 1884, with trunks of pretty clothes and house furnishings.  She had far different dreams and ideas of what her prairie home was to be than what it proved to be.  She has always had the greatest sympathy for the brides who had lived sheltered lives in eastern homes and came out here with high hopes, to live isolated in some crude shelter on the raw prairie.

Bertha Marie "Mary" Peterson was the fifth child in a family of four boys and four girls.  Her people were small farmers in Norway and immigrated to America in 1856.  Her father's sister lived in Minnesota and through her encouragement, they came there and made their first home. Ole and J. P. Peterson, the two oldest children were little lads then and their sister Atlantina Carolina Nicola, who was named for the ocean, ship, and captain, was born upon the high seas en route across.

The Petersons settled near New Ulm, Minnesota on a farm and lived there until the Indian outbreak in the summer of 1862.  They escaped the terrible New Ulm massacre by heeding the warning of a friendly Indian, who told the settlers to flee the country.  The Petersons hurriedly gathered some of their belongings and with their three little children, one of whom was "Mary", a baby of six months, left all else behind and struck out for Wisconsin in a wagon, none too soon.  Up and down the peaceful golden countryside of New Ulm, already ravaged by the hot winds of heaven, Little Crow and his young men murdered, burned, and tortured.  Hundreds of settlers were killed, many women and girls violated, captives taken, homes burned, crops destroyed.  All along the way they met fugitives with harrowing tales, stopped only to hear the beginning, plodded on beside the dead, the wounded, and the hideously maimed.  Other settlers swarmed out on the trails with their pitifully few belongings, hurrying on in darting, backward-looking confusion. One man of their old neighborhood told blood-chilling tales of what he saw of the massacre from the top of a tree where he was hidden. These incidents told later, left an indelible impression on little "Mary" that terrified her of Indians ever after.  The fear of them was one of her greatest trials on the prairies in the early years, when Sitting Bull was on his rampages.

The Petersons found refuge in a house with a settler near River Falls, Wis. They then moved onto a farm nearer Martell, where "Mary" grew to young womanhood.

When she was about three years old her father was paid $300.00 to serve time in the Civil War for one who was drafted.  He had brought the money, which was much needed, home to his wife in a wallet, and it mysteriously disappeared. An excited search began in which small "Mary" joined, saying - "You'll find It someplace, maybe." After a despairing half hour, it tumbled on the floor, from the waistband of innocent "Mary".

The mother, died of T. B. after being weakened from measles and childbirth, leaving seven children motherless.  "Mary" was then eight years old, and her oldest sister thirteen.  The father managed with the older children, to keep the home intact and the family together.  The sickly newborn babe survived the mother only a few short months.  "Mary" grieved over the loss of her sister, Clara, aged six, and her brother, Lorentz, aged eight, her playmates, who died from scarlet fever several years later.  In that day there was no quarantine and little was known of this virulent disease - how to check or treat it and when the epidemic struck that locality. there were many deaths among the children.

"Mary" had a happy, normal childhood, as she lived in the comfortable log and later, a frame house. set among the maple, basswood, and oak trees.  As a child, she roamed the nearby woods and swamps, found lady's slippers, Indian pipe and lilies in the swamps, wild honeysuckles and violets in the woods, picked strawberries in the meadows, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, and plums by the tubs and boilers full, and even cranberries while standing knee-deep in water. Then there were walnuts and hazelnuts to gather.  She loved school, a mile and a half distant. She was confirmed in the Lutheran faith. She learned early, by helping her older sister, how to do housework.  She was her father's housekeeper for many years. She was a fun-loving girl and enjoyed the singing school where they had spell downs, spoke pieces, and held debates.  She had her beaux, went to dances, picnics, on sleigh rides, and to parties. She had pretty clothes, many friends and an indulgent father.

Among the swains, there was one, August H. Wahl, who won her favor.  He was a handsome neighbor boy, but one who interested her little until she was grown.  He would come with his high stepping nags and shiny buggy and whisk her away through the country lanes to gay gatherings.

They had a double wedding on March 31, 1884, with their cousin Peter Knudtson and bride at the church, and a big dinner at home where her married sister now lived, followed by a chivaree in the evening. 

 J. P. Peterson had gone to McLean County, D.T. the year previous with the Hudson Colony.  August Wahl, then a single prospective man went also.  He filed on land in McLean County, some few miles north of Washburn, and returned to Wisconsin.  After Peter Knudtson and Aug. Wahl were married, they, with Geo. Wahl loaded a car with oxen, cows, provisions, seed, lumber, and machinery and accompanied it to their homesteads in April, to plant crops and build houses.  Aug. Wahl relinquished his homestead to his brother George and bought a pre-emption.

The two brides came out in June.  It was a tearful goodbye for "Mary", when she left the only home she had ever known, but there was the glamor of romance and the father's promise to soon follow, that eased the pain of parting.  They noticed the contour of the country after they passed Fargo and begin to feel that awe of the great open spaces - the prairies.

The eager young husbands, along with J. P. Peterson, awaited them in Bismarck, with horses and a spring wagon.  The trip up to J. P. Peterson's took the day and far into the early next morning. It was a joyous ride, over the prairies, which are their prettiest in June, and only one thing marred the pleasure of the trip - the mosquitoes, and they were terrific.  They rose in clouds from rank grass along the roadside. 

The Wahl's remained at J. P. Peterson's a month until Geo. Wahl's three-room cabin was completed, into which they moved and lived in until the following summer, when August Wahl, built a similar one on his own homestead.

Harry, the firstborn, after heroic efforts, was ushered into the world that second year, at his uncle's place, by Mrs. Ole Hammer.

The new house on the Wahl preemption, SE 1/4 Sec. 70, Twp. 145, R. 81 was large, well built, with a fine cellar underneath. The whole place was better equipped than the average.  Mrs. Wahl's father homesteaded near, spending several summers with them. 

The family and likewise the work increased with the years. Perry, Alma, Hilda, and Henry arrived in turn, with the neighbor women, either Mrs. Saby, Hammer, or Holtan officiating.  August Wahl's farming became extensive and left little time for other work.  Mrs. Wahl tended the garden and chored.  While it was hard work, it was a restful change from household tasks and the care of babies.  She was often alone and the old fear of Indians was always uppermost with her.  All the settlers were alarmed and on the watch at that time.  To allay his wife's fears, August Wahl denied any concern, but she knew better when she discovered a new hatchet under the bed.  Another time Mrs. Wahl was almost petrified with fear when afar off on the horizon, she noticed a large band of fast-moving objects and she almost shed tears of relief to discover on their approach, that it was some hundreds of antelope.

August Wahl sold his homestead to Wm. Benn and his brother in 1893, with the intention of returning to Wisconsin to help with his father's interests, but instead went into partnership with Axel Nelson and started a store in Washburn.  So the Wahl family moved into a small house east of the coulee, where Mabel was born; then, later into the Jacobson house, west of the coulee, where Mr. and Mrs. Wahl still reside.

After two years of partnership with Axel Nelson, August Wahl sold out his interest and clerked in Casselman's store for six months and then bought him out.  He was appointed postmaster on January 1, 1898, which office he filled for seventeen and a half years until his resignation because of poor health.  His store and post office were in the Merchants Hotel building until 1900 when he built a store, which burned down the same year.  Then he built the present Washburn Hotel and post office and discontinued the mercantile business.  Martin Holtan was his clerk, in the early years, and his daughter Alma his able assistant later.  The salary of the Postmaster was $25.00 per month when he was first appointed and $1500 per year with clerk hire, fuel, and lights when he quit.

During all these years. Myrtle, Roy, Clara, Ralph, Blanche, and Clifford were born.  You may know this mother was kept busy, with the endless round of work that a family of this size entails.  She wonders now how she managed to sew, mend and wash their little garments and keep them separate, how she kept them clothed and fed and cared for.  She knows she did not raise them by rule of book, scale, or vitamins, but by her natural-born mother wit.  Her method was a success, for she has found time somehow to share their confidences, listen to their little triumphs. and defeats, council with them, laugh and play with them and be their incentive and comfort always. Her children have all become splendid men and women of which she can be duly proud. 

Mrs. Wahl made three trips back to her old Wisconsin home.  She found many changes, but the greatest change she found in herself. She didn't like the old places as well as she had always dreamed of.  Houses were too thick.  Trees were too close and shady.  The air was too humid.  She felt hemmed in and wanted to see out more to far horizons. And said, "I belong to the prairie. That's home now."

The first death in the family was the eight-day-old infant, Clara, who died in a convulsion  Then the next born, Ralph, died when he was but two months old from dysentery.  She loved them both before they came and her heart and arms ached for their soft little bodies long after they were gone.

Myrtle was a pretty child of ten years, much interested in her school work when she contracted pneumonia and died in her father's arms a few days later.  Harry Conrad was a handsome young man in his late twenties, holding a responsible position at the courthouse when inflammatory rheumatism caused his death in 1914.  The heartaches were deep, for deep was the love, and only time has lessened the ache. 

The living children are
Perry G. of Albert Lea, Minn.,
Alma M., Mrs. Floyd Satterlund, 4234 43rd St. San Diego, Calif;
Hilda K., Mrs. Reuben Lind, Lake Hubert, Minn.,
Henry E., Washburn, N. D.;
Blanche and
Mrs. Mike Tellefson, 4230 Irving Place, Culver City, Calif.;
Roy W., Chula Vista, Calif., and
Clifford who is home at present with his worthy parents.
The Wahls have at present just as many grandchildren as they have had children, twelve.

Mrs. Wahl was happiest when she was cooking a meal and the whole family was at home - the long table spread with all their plates, the voices of her children at play in the yard coming into her.  All seemed right with the world then and she was happiest.

She has clung lovingly to her children and as each one has left the old home, it has hurt to take off a plate. This year the house has been too quiet and the table too long, without a single child.

She believes there should be a home for children to come to - and their children, a central place to which they can always bring their joys and sorrows, an old familiar place for them to return to on Sundays and holidays. 

The old Wahl home in Washburn stands amid its beautiful surroundings, so painstakingly cared for by the father who has planted a little of his heart in the flowers, trees, and shrubbery, and it reminds one of a mother with open arms.  It is there waiting for the children to come to it - like homing pigeons.  Within it is, "a mother, who is a mother still, the holiest thing on earth."

Photos below are of the pages of the book "Fifty Pioneer Mothers of McLean County".  The text was captured via Google Pixel Lens and copied above for an easier read. 

Kinstories (home)  -  Peterson Family (home)  -  Johnson Family  -  Susag Family  -  Flatau Family  -  Beckman Family
Granquist Family  -  Anderson Family  -  Stout Family  -  Walker Family  -  Morris Family  - Cauble Family