This is the second chapter of "Ella and Agnes: The Story of a Family."
The first chapter was the Introduction.
Ella Reger was born on Christmas day of 1865 in Mankato, Minnesota[1] to Johannes (John) Reger and Josephine Reger (nee Fehrenbacher)[2]. Ella was their fifth child and the first to be born in Minnesota. Anna Mary, the eldest, was born in Pennsylvania in 1860 but died that same year. Catharine (1862), Joseph (1863), and Bertha (1864) were all born in Pennsylvania as well.
John and Josephine were German immigrants who met in Pennsylvania. John immigrated from the Kingdom of Wurttemberg in 1853 with his brother Anton, and the rest of his family followed a year later. Josephine immigrated from Baden with her parents and siblings in 1854. Both families settled in Cambria County, Pa. John and Josephine married on Feb. 15, 1859, at St. Benedict's Catholic Church in Carrolltown, Pa. In the 1860 Census, John was listed as a 28-year-old farm laborer with real estate worth $1500 and personal estate of $300[3]. This compared favorably with their neighbors, including Josephine’s parents who were two households above on the census. There were, in fact, many relatives living nearby from both families. It was a solid start for a young immigrant couple.
The American Civil War broke out just as John and Josephine were starting their family. Three of Josephine’s brothers were mustered into service, and one of them died of typhoid fever while serving[4]. John was mustered in as a private in Company C, Regiment 209 Pennsylvania Infantry on Sept. 1, 1864, and he mustered out May 31, 1865. Shortly after returning home, John and his family headed west to Minnesota. Josephine would already have been expecting Ella at the time.
Minnesota was frontier country in those days. This was right at the end of the Civil War and just three years after the Dakota War of 1862[5]. We know little about Ella's life at that time, but it may have resembled the way of life described by Laura Ingalls Wilder in her "Little House" children's books[6]; Ella was just a few years younger than Laura and they lived within 50 miles of each other in the 1870s. Laura and Ella were similar in other ways - both experienced multiple childhood moves, and each had only a single child - a daughter.
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| It is about 900 miles from Cambria County, PA to Rice County, MN. We have no record of how the Regers travelled to Minnesota from Pennsylvania. Many Minnesota homesteaders traveled west via a combination of rail and river travel. Horse and wagon then took them the rest of the way. |
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| After the Dakota War and the end of the Civil War, settlers began to move back into South Central and South West Minnesota. A large number of the these settlers were of German origin like the Regers and Farabaughs. The German settlers tended to cluster along the Minnesota River valley. Between 1865 and 1875, the Regers are linked to several different counties in this area (details below). |
Ella’s obituary is the only evidence of the Regers being in Mankato, Minnesota. We don’t know if the Regers actually lived there or if it was just the nearest community with a doctor. We do have evidence, however, that in the late 1860s to early 1870s the Reger family lived in Rice County, MN. When Ella’s brother
Rinehart was born in 1867 or 1868, they were living near Shieldsville in Rice County
[7]. The 1870 United States Census records the Reger family in the Wells Township of Rice County, in the region of the Warsaw post office
[8]. John is described as a farmer, but the value of his real estate is blank and he only listed $400 in personal estate. According to online family trees, Ella’s sister
Philomena was born in 1869 but died prior to 1870
[9]. These appear to have been hard times for the Reger family.
The Regers did not stay long in Rice County. The birth of Ella’s sister
Josephine on Feb. 16, 1871, was registered in Brown County, MN. Her birth record is in the section for births in Leavenworth Township (just Southwest of Sleepy Eye)
[10]. The birth of her sister
Mary two years later (1873), however, was not registered in Brown County, suggesting that they had moved again in 1872 or 1873. This is probably when the family moved to Renville County. Ella would have been six or seven years old at that time. Ella lived in Renville County for at least the next twelve years, and her parents lived there for twenty-five years.
When the Regers arrived in Renville County, there were already many of Josephine’s family members living there
[11]. Her sister Bertha had moved to Beaver Falls in 1869 with her husband Michael Kiefer, who was a shoemaker, and her brother Reinhart was also listed in the Birch Cooley Township of Renville County (just east of Beaver Falls) in the 1870 US Census
[12]. Leonard and Fred arrived in 1871
[13]. All three brothers homesteaded in Birch Cooley Township in the 1870s. By 1875 Josephine’s father Michael and step-mother Gertrude were also living in Beaver Falls
[14], and they seem to have moved there around 1872
[15]. The Regers arrived around the same time, and they homesteaded in Norfolk Township of Renville County. Their homestead was just a few miles north of both Leonard’s and Fred’s farms (see maps below). Ella thus had many aunts, uncles, and cousins living nearby as a child.
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| John Reger’s farm is shown on the Plat Book of Renville County, Minnesota, 1888 (Minnesota Digital Library). It is the SE ¼ of Sec. 32 in Norfolk Twp (in red - top) and the NW ¼ of the NE ¼ of Birch Cooley Twp (red - bottom). Joseph Reger’s farm is just East of his father’s (in purple). Josephine’s brothers Leonard (in blue) and Fred (in green) farmed just South in Sec. 9 of Birch Cooley (bottom). |
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| In 2019, we visited the farm that was homesteaded by John Reger. The young man who now owns it graciously showed us around. This photo is a view of the farm looking north from the road. |
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| We also made a visit to the old St. Patrick's Church cemetery in Birch Cooley township where we found the grave of Ella's sister Emma. The grave marker is in German and says "Tochter von J. & J. Reger gest. 1 Feb, 1880 ?Alter? 1 Jahr 5 Mon." (daughter of J. & J. Reger died 1 Feb. 1880 age 1 year 5 months) |
Ella had six more siblings who were born in Renville County:
Mary Rosianna (1873),
Johanna Josephine (1874),
Annie Agatha (1876),
Emma (1878),
Charles John (1880), and
Agnes (1881)
[16]. Emma died of measles in 1880 and was buried in St. Patrick’s cemetery in Birch Cooley
[17]. Charles was born just a few months later. He does not appear on the 1885 Minnesota State Census, and various other family trees list him as dying in 1882. He may have been impacted in utero by the measles virus potentially affecting his health as well. Ella was a teenage girl living at home at the time of her siblings' deaths, and she quite likely shared the responsibility of caring for them. The death of children was not uncommon at that time, but it must still have impacted Ella. Ella’s little sister Agnes was born in between those two deaths, and this also made an impression. It is probably not a coincidence that Ella eventually named her own daughter Agnes.
Another key event in Ella’s life was the double wedding on Oct. 19, 1885 of her siblings Bertha and Joseph to William and Catherine Duffey, who were also a brother and sister[18]. Ella was 20 at the time, and was the eldest child still living at home. The Duffeys were another homesteading family in Norfolk Township who lived not far from the Regers[19]. T
hey had moved to Renville County from Canada in the 1870s. Prior to their marriages, both Bertha and Joseph seem to have left Renville County, since neither were recorded on the 1885 Minnesota State Census conducted in April. However, William and Catharine Duffey were both still living with their parents in Renville County on that census, and both marriages were registered in Renville County. This means that Bertha and Joseph came home to marry locals whom they had known for many years.
Ella’s sister Catharine may also have gotten married between 1880 and 1885, but unfortunately there are no Minnesota marriage registration records for her. She is not listed with the family on the 1885 Minnesota state census, and if she was married by that point, she would have been recorded under her married name. Since we have no records proving a married name, most online family trees described her as "deceased after 1880".
Before we began researching Ella, all of the other online Reger family trees presumed her to be deceased after 1885 as well. They had no way of knowing what happened to her. One of our most exciting family history moments was when we confirmed that the Ella Sanders who died in Lethbridge in 1935 was the Ella Reger born in Minnesota in 1865. Initially, we just knew that Ella had died as Ella Sanders, but that her daughter was born Agnes Brown. We wondered if Brown was Ella’s maiden name and if she had been an unwed mother. We did find an Ella Brown with a daughter Agnes in the 1895 Minnesota State Census (more on this in later chapters), but had no way to prove that this was our Ella. Later, we found an online family tree that suggested that her maiden name was Reger, but gave no evidence. The other online trees that contained Ella Reger, daughter of John and Josephine, were blank after 1885. Eventually we found documents that linked John Reger to a daughter Ella Sanders in Whitla, Alberta (more on this later as well).
Eventually, we discovered a hand-drawn family tree that had been created in the 1970s by Ella’s grand-daughters Luella and Loretta. This tree confirmed Ella’s maiden name as Reger. Ironically, that family tree had been in our possession the whole time, hidden in an old trunk!
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| This hand-drawn family tree came to us in a collection of documents passed down through the family. We believe that it was created by Luella Shea and Loretta Sharpe in the 1970s (after the deaths of Donna and Danny). It identifies Ella’s maiden name as “Reger” and correctly states that she was one of 14 children. However, it incorrectly identifies her father as Louis Reger (instead of John) and does not give a name for her mother, Josephine. |
As we have progressed in our family history research, we have been able to verify much of what is on this tree with other documents. We also found several things that don’t match up with the official records, however. We will discuss those inconsistencies over the course of this story. In general, we observe that the left-hand side of this tree (the Herringtons and Sheas) is more easily verifiable than the right-hand side (the Regers, Browns, and Campions).
What are we to make of these inconsistencies? It is hard to say. Luella and Loretta were probably accurately reporting what they had been told. It may be that what they were told was inaccurate because of limitations in people’s memories. Some facts likely got mixed up or forgotten over the years. It may also be that some facts were not socially acceptable and that stories told for survival became part of family lore.
Notes:
Ella's birthplace and birth date are taken from her obituary; we do not yet have an actual birth registration or baptism record.
[2] The Fehrenbacher name was spelled several different ways once the family came to the States. Farabaugh was the most common, but Fernbaugh, Farenbaugh and Farnbach were other common variants.
[3] Digitized images of the United States Census records can be found at FamilySearch.org.
[4] Josephine's brothers Anselm, Bernard, and Charly Farabaugh all served with the Pennsylvania Volunteers. Bernard mustered in on June 25, 1861 and died of typhoid fever while in service as a private in Company A of the 40th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, 11th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves on Apr. 6, 1862 in Alexandria, Va.
[5] The Dakota War was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of eastern Dakota. Late annuity payments by Indian agents had caused increasing hunger and hardship among the Dakota. As tensions rose, the Dakota attacked settler communities in August of 1862, resulting in many deaths and causing many settlers to flee the area. Several military battles followed, including the Battle of Birch Coulee, a few miles South of where the Regers would later settle. The conflict ended with soldiers capturing hundreds of Dakota men, interring their families, and hanging 38 Dakota men in December 1862.
[6] Laura Ingalls Wilder described her life in Walnut Grove, MN from 1875-1877 in her book, On the Banks of Plum Creek. At that same time, Ella was living just a little north of Walnut Grove in Renville County.
[7] In Rural Cass County, The Land and People, published 1976, pg. 510, there is a profile of Rinehart Reger which says he was born Jan. 20, 1867 in Shieldsville, Rice County, MN. Later census records point to 1868 and his headstone also says 1868.
[8] When the Regers appeared on the 1870 U.S. Census, the family consisted of:
- John “Roger” (age 36), Wurttemberg, farmer
- Josephine (30) - Baden, keeping house
- Catherine (10) - Pennsylvania, attending school
- Joseph (8) - Pennsylvania, attending school
- Bertha (6) - Pennsylvania, attending school
- Ella (5) - Minnesota, home
- “Rinat” (Rinehart) (2) - Minnesota, home
- "Ocela" (Ursula) Reger (70) - Wurttemberg, retired housekeeper; (Ursula was John’s mother.)
[9] Philomena Reger appears in FamilySearch and in several Ancestry.com family trees. These trees are the only sources that we have for her birth or death.
[10] Josephine Reger’s birth record is on line 6 of page 9 of Book A of the Brown County Birth Records, available digitally in FamilySearch.
[11] We have written a more detailed account of the westward migration of the Fehrenbacher / Farabaugh family in a separate page on this blog (with a short introduction here).
[12] Reinhard Fehrenbacher is listed as "Reinhart Fernbuck" in the Birch Cooley district (in the FamilySearch "United States Census, 1870" database: 28 May 2021.
[13] Dates for Leonard and Fred Farabaugh's arrival in Renville County are taken from their obituaries.
[14] "Michael and Catharine Fernbaugh" are listed in Beaver Falls (in the FamilySearch "Minnesota State Census, 1875" database: 22 February 2021). Elsewhere, Michael's wife is listed as Gertrude, but perhaps Catharine was a middle name
[15] In 1895, "Michael Farnbach" declared that he had been in the state for 23 years (in the FamilySearch "Minnesota State Census, 1895" database: 22 February 2021). At the time, he was living with his son Reinhard's family in Bismarck township, Sibley County, Minnesota.
[16] We do not have birth records for any of the younger Reger children. Our initial source of birth years for them was the 1880 US Census. It lists:
- John “Roger” (age 47), Wurttemberg, farmer
- Josephine (36), Baden, keeping house
- Katrina (19), Pennsylvania, at home
- Bertha (16), Pennsylvania, at home
- Ella (14), Minnesota, at home
- Rinehart (11), Minnesota, at home
- Josephine (10), Minnesota, at home
- Mary R (8), Minnesota, at school
- Johanna (6), Minnesota
- Annie (4), Minnesota
- Charles (1/12) Apr., Minnesota
- John Reger (24), Pennsylvania, laborer, nephew
[17] The Mortality Schedule for the 1880 Census lists Emma Reger (2), born in Minn, who died of measles in February. (See picture of her headstone above.)
[18] Minnesota marriage registrations can be found online at the Minnesota Official Marriage System (moms.mn.gov/)
[19] Catharine Duffey's land can be seen in the top right corner of the plat map above (section 22 of Norfolk township, a few miles NorthEast of the Reger homestead.
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