The Kitchen Garden Novice Follows Her Family Branches

The Zellers

My great-grandmother, Ella Dieckmann, married Oscar Zeller who lived on the corner, across the street in Wheatland, Iowa. I haven't discovered a great deal about my great-grandfather, Oscar. The Zeller family came to Wheatland from the Oxford Junction area. The 1880 US Census lists Oscar's father, Joseph Zeller as 48 years old at that time and having emigrated from Bavaria. Joseph's wife, Lena, age 39 at the time of that census, had also been born in Bavaria. Ellis Island records reveal that Joseph arrived on a ship named Jenny on July 22, 1865, manifest ID#00010492. His occupation was listed as a barber.

Joseph and Lena had four children, Theodore, Lillie, Joseph, and my great-grandfather, Oscar Zeller.

Grandmother Ruth Zeller Van Kirk recalled that her father owned a farm. When he and Ella's children were still at home, Oscar began to go blind. In those days, medical care was scarce and Oscar was travelling all over Eastern Iowa, looking for a cure. University of Iowa Medical Center actually pulled all of his teeth! Then at the age of 42 he developed appendicitis and died of a blood clot following surgery. He left Ella with four children to raise, Harold (Uncle Jones,) who was graduating from high school that year, Ethel (Aunt Midge,) Grandma Ruth, who was 8 years old at the time, and Darrell, (Uncle Darry,) who was only 18 months old.

I cannot imagine the grief for Oscar's young family. And after the funeral the unthinkable occurred. It had rained heavily the week of the burial. As the hearse turned up the dirt road to St. Paul's Cemetery in Wheatland, it became stuck in the rutted mud. The family watched in horror as the undertaker and funeral attendees struggled to push the hearse out of the ditch. In the months after that debacle, the entire Wheatland community underwent a fundraising campaign to pave the road out to St. Paul's Cemetery.

Great-Grandmother Ella sold the farm Oscar owned on a contract and raised her four children on the income from that sale. Those funds, combined with the food they raised in her vegetable garden, kept the family (and half of the depression burdened neighborhood) fed.

Ella Zeller set the example for strong women in my family. Although we never met, I know her through the stoicism of my grandmother, the grace of my mother, the resilience of my sister, and the steadfast pragmatism of my daughter.