Gertrude Diedrich

  General Notes:

Gertrude St.

Gertrude Diedrich, the second daughter of Peter Diedrich by his second wife, was born in Kaukauna and lived there all of her life until the time of her death, about 1879.

She married John Stovekin, one of Wisconsin's very early paper manufacturers, who erected a paper mill in Milwaukee in 1862. The mill was wrecked by a flood in the river and was never rebuilt, for Stovekin left that district and came to Kaukauna. About 1865 he built an addition to the flour mill in Kaukauna and installed paper machinery . This mill was afterward taken over by Colonel H. A. Frambach. In 1881 this mill located on the governement canal on the site of the present Union Bag and Paper Company, was destroyed by fire. John Stovekin platted the land known as the Stovekin Addition to the City of Kaukauna and named the streets after members of his wife's family. ⁶

  Noted events in her life were:

• Census: 1850 US, 12 Sep 1850, Kankanlin, Brown, (Kaukauna, Outagamie), Wisconsin, USA. ⁷
| 699 | 748 | Peter Diedrick | 47 | M | Farmer | 500 | Germany |
| 699 | 748 | ~~~~~ Diedrick | 41 | F | | | Germany |
| 699 | 748 | Elizabeth Diedrick | 22 | F | | | Germany |
| 699 | 748 | John Diedrick | 20 | M | Farmer | | Germany |
| 699 | 748 | Mary A Diedrick | 18 | F | | | Germany |
| 699 | 748 | Margaret Diedrick | 13 | F | | | Germany |
| 699 | 748 | Gertrude Diedrick | 7 | F | | | Wisconsin |
| 699 | 748 | Maria Diedrick | 5 | F | | | Wisconsin |
| 699 | 748 | Joseph Diedrick | 2 | M | | | Wisconsin |

• Census: 1855 Wisconsin, 01 Jun 1855, Kaukauna, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. ⁸
Heads of Families | Aggregate Population |
Amable Asline | 4 (White Male) | 3 (White Female) | 1 (Foreign Born) |
John Diedrich | 3 (White Male) | 2 (White Female) | 3 (Foreign Born) |
Peter Diedrich | 2 (White Male) | 4 (White Female) | 3 (Foreign Born) |
John Diedrich | 1 (White Male) | 2 (White Female) | 2 (Foreign Born) |
Henry Scherer | 2 (White Male) | 1 (White Female) | 2 (Foreign Born) |

• Census: 1860 US, 23 Aug 1860, Kaukauna, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. ⁹
1714 | 1678 | Peter Diedrick | 58 | M | Farmer | 1000 | 800 | Prussia
1714 | 1678 | Anna Diedrick | 51 | F | Housewife | | | Prussia
1714 | 1678 | Margaret Diedrick | 19 | F | | | | Prussia
1714 | 1678 | Gabriel [Gertrude]| 17 | M | [F] | | | Wisconsin
1714 | 1678 | Mary Diedrick | 15 | F | | | | Wisconsin
1714 | 1678 | Joseph Diedrick | 12 | M | | | | Wisconsin

• Cemetery: Holy Cross Cemetery, 10 Dec 1881, Kaukauna, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. ¹⁰  
GERTRUDE WIFE OF
† JOHN STOVOKEN †
1843 MOTHER 1881

• Obituary: The Kaukauna Times, 16 Dec 1881, Kaukauna, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. ³  
Death of Mrs. John Stoveken

Our people were saddened and shocked on Thursday morning last to hear that Mrs. Gertrude Stoveken, wife of John Stoveken had breathed her last at her residence in this village. Although sickness had been her lot for a week or more, no one expected that the end was so near. Mrs. Stoveken was a daughter of Peter Diedrich, an early settler of this town, and the first child born in Outagamie County. In 1867 she was married to John Stoveken, with whom she lived up to, and was 38 years old at the time of her death. She was also a sister of Mrs. Essler, of Buchanan, John Diedrich and Joseph Diedrich, of this village, and Mrs. Henry Sherrar, of Oconto. These with the husband and seven children, are the only immediate surviving relatives. The heartfelt sympathies of our people are with Mr. Stoveken and the seven motherless children, the oldest of which is thirteen years, and the thought of her being suddenly torn from them at this period is dreadful. The funeral was on Saturday, at 9 A. M. from the Catholic Church, and was largely attended, the remains being deposited in the Catholic burying grounds at this village. A good and true woman gone to the last resting place in high.

• Obituary: The Appleton Post-Crescent, 17 Dec 1881, Appleton, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. ¹¹  
Outagamie's First Born
 
Mrs. Gertrude Stoveken, the first white child born in Outagamie county, died after a brief illness at Kaukauna, on the 8th day of December, 1881, aged 38 years, leaving a husband (John Stoveken) and seven young children, and numerous other relatives.

Mrs. S. was a daughter of Peter Diedrich, who settled in Kaukauna in 1843, among the very first families to settle in the valley of the lower Fox, a man of sturdy integrity and marked industry.

Mrs. S. was a woman of energy, with a keen analytical mind, and comprehensive business faculties; and yet, withal, a tender loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, neighbor and friend. Her early death is a great loss to that community, as well as to her own family.

Gertrude married John Frambach Stoveken Sr. on 29 Oct 1867 in Little Chute, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. (John Frambach Stoveken Sr. was born on 15 Nov 1841 in Herkimer, Herkimer, New York, USA,^{12 13} died on 24 Feb 1926 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA ^{12 13} and was buried on 27 Feb 1926 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA ^{12 13 14}.) The cause of his death was Myocarditis, chronic.

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Wedding Ceremony: St John Nepomucene, 29 Oct 1867, Little Chute, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. ¹⁵

• Publication: (Handwritten date on clipping), 05 May 1882, Kaukauna, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. ¹⁶
- Miss Lizzie Diedrich, has returned from Oconto, and taken charge of the children of John Stoveken

• Publication: concerning the church altar used for their wedding, 12 Mar 1925, Kaukauna, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. ¹⁷
AN HISTORIC ALTAR
Isabelle Fox

To a lover of antiquities, the story of a little white altar and its wanderings, may be an interesting one.

When the Fox River Valley was a vast wilderness, the now thriving village of Little Chute was a mere speck on the horizon of civilization, that speck, a wigwam fifteen feet long and six feet high, built by an Indian woman for the Rev. Theodore J. Vanden Brock, a priest of the Order of St. Dominick, who left Holland in the early thirties to do missionary work among the Catholic population and the Indians scattered over the country.

In 1834 he was sent into the wilds of Wisconsin, by the Bishop of Detroit, settling in Little Chute, and thus the Cross was planted in the beautiful Fox River Valley. The wigwam served as church and residence for six months, during which time Father Vanden Brock, wilth the aid of Indians, built a church the timber being secured from the forest along the river bank. The roof was of bark, a split log was used as an altar, the sacred vessels were old treasures, unearthed at Rapids des Peres, having been buried there when the missionary fathers of St. Francis Xavier church, built in 1676 by Charles Alhanel, were massacred and the church burned by Indians.

During 1838 there came to Little Chute Antoine Mosseau and his son-in-law, Ephraim St. Louis and family, natives of Canasda, Marielle, Province of Quebec. Mr. Mosseau, a carriage maker and carpenter by trade, did not like the idea of a split log being used as an altar, and conceived the idea of making for Rev. Vanden Broek and altar and tabernacle, which he fashioned from the beautiful white pine from the forest surrounding the church. With tools brought front his home it was not a difficult matter. The altar and tabernacle, painted white, with gold trimmings and cross, was the pride of Father Vanden Brock's heart during the years he served as priest in Little Chute.

After the death of Rev. Vanden Broek in 1851, a new church was built and the altar was presented to Mrs. St. Louis, daughter of Mr. Mosseau and mother of Rev. Manus St. Louis, who was stationed at Phlox, Wis., where he built a small church, carrying the lumber on his back from a nearby forest for its erection. His parents removed to Phlox from Little Chute taking the altar and tabernacle with them and where it again did service in a mission church. Later when Rev. St. Louis was removed to Green Bay, he took the altar with him, leaving the tabernacle in Phlox, where it is held sacred by the people of the parish. On being transferred from Green Bay to Iron Mountain, Mich., he gave the altar to his sister, Mrs. Alex Grignon, when it was shipped to her at her home near the Combined Locks on the steamer Evelyn. At Mrs. Grignon's death it passed into the hands of her daughter, Mrs. Michael Maher.

After the destruction fire of Holy Cross church in 1916, Mrs. Maher gave the altar to Msgr. P. J. Lochman, pastor, for use in the chapel of the school house during the erection of the present handsome structure, and on its completion the Altar was placed in the chapel of the new church--on the right of the' main altar--a sacred reminder of the hardships endured by the missionaries in the dim and distant past.

Kneeling before this quaint little altar we see in imagination the backwoods church, the priest offer-

• Photograph: (church altar), 30 Apr 2006, Stiles, Oconto, Wisconsin, USA. ¹⁸
Mossau / Manseau, who owned the land in Kaukauna before Peter Diedrich was also, the craftsman who carved the first altar for Father Vandenbroek's church in Little Chute in 1837/1838.

This would have been the Altar at St. John's that Peter Diedrich and Joanna Jung were married. It is also most likely the Altar that John Stoveken Sr. and Gertrude Diedrich were married at in Kaukauna / Little Chute. Probably Scherer / Diedrich as well.

This altar seemed to have been lost after about 1930 after several well documented moves. It appears that a descendant of Manseau who I communicate with may have found the altar in a town called Stiles, WI based on a tip from an individual in Kaukauna who had a recollection of a side altar at Holy Cross being shipped to Stiles. Holy Cross was the last known positive location of the Altar.

It is very probable that the Altar was built on Manseau's property in Kaukauna that was later owned by Peter Diedrich and by John Stoveken.

Another curiosity. John Stoveken Jr and Margaret St. Mitchell were married in Phlox at the time the altar was located in Phlox by Father St. Louis who is the Grandson of Manseau. The world (at least Kaukauna and Northeastern WI) was indeed small in the mid 1800's.

[My only caveat is that the Altar has not been absolutely confirmed as being authentic (But it sure seems to match the appearance)]

  Marriage Notes:

I found a previous reference in one of John Stoveken's accounting books that the land being broken into lots in Kaukauna was in the name of the Estate of Gertrude Stoveken. (There must have been a legal reason for this). I have suspicion that John claimed bankruptcy in 1881 when the mill burned down without insurance. This may have been a way to keep the land assets protected from bankruptcy court. I have not checked the deeds yet, but believe that Peter Diedrich's property was already subdivided before 1870 between Gertrude and Joseph Diedrich. ¹⁹