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Elizabeth Susan Traufler was a daughter of Nicholas and Anna (Koppes) Traufler. She was born September 26, 1867, near Hancock, Houghton County, Michigan. A year or so after her birth, the Traufler family moved to a farm near Luxemburg in St. Augusta Township, Stearns County, Minnesota. Little is known of her early childhood, except that she was raised in a strict Catholic family. It isn't known if she attended public schools near St. Cloud, or if she went to Benedictine schools for her education.
"Lizzie" was nearly twenty-one when she met a 25-year-old railroad brakeman named Michael...
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Elizabeth Susan Traufler was a daughter of Nicholas and Anna (Koppes) Traufler. She was born September 26, 1867, near Hancock, Houghton County, Michigan. A year or so after her birth, the Traufler family moved to a farm near Luxemburg in St. Augusta Township, Stearns County, Minnesota. Little is known of her early childhood, except that she was raised in a strict Catholic family. It isn't known if she attended public schools near St. Cloud, or if she went to Benedictine schools for her education.
"Lizzie" was nearly twenty-one when she met a 25-year-old railroad brakeman named Michael Stephen Mongoven – called "Steve" by friends. He was a son of Dennis H. Mongovan and Catherine Darcy, two Irish Catholic immigrants. Please read more about them in The History of Dennis Henry Mongovan. Trains regularly passed through St. Cloud, which is where Steve resided in 1888. The pair met, and a romance soon developed. On February 4, 1889, Steve and Elizabeth hopped the train east and crossed the state line into Wisconsin. Nearly five months pregnant, the two were married not in the Catholic Church but rather in a civil ceremony at Hudson, Wisconsin.
Four months and nineteen days after the wedding, the couple's first baby arrived. Elizabeth S. (Bessie) Mongoven arrived June 23, 1889, at Staples, Minnesota. Six siblings followed: Joseph William Mongoven (married Harriett J. Melquist), Henry James, John Nicholas, Edward Michael, Francis Dennis, and an infant girl (or boy, depending on the record) who died shortly after birth.
A railroader's lifestyle was difficult on his family – the work was inherently dangerous and a man's absence from home was the norm. While her husband traveled and was gone for days, Elizabeth kept house and raised their children. They relocated several times, which is evident by the birthplaces of their children. Bessie was born at Staples in 1889; Joe at St. Cloud in 1891; Hank at St. Paul in 1893; Jack at Camanche, Iowa, in 1894; Ed at Staples in 1898; Frank at East Grand Forks, Minnesota, in 1900; and the infant girl who died there in 1904.
Unfortunately, the 1890 census was virtually destroyed after a disastrous 1921 fire at the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C. Fortunately, city directories can help us figure out some of the places the Mongovens lived. The 1887-88 St. Paul directory shows "M.S. Mongoven; brakeman; St. P. M. & M. Ry." This was the St. Paul, Minneapolis, & Manitoba Railway, which merged with another company to form the Great Northern Railway. Steve lived alone at the time. An 1891-92 city directory shows "Michael S. Mongoven" living at 690 Burr Street in St. Paul and working as a brakeman for the St. Paul & Duluth Railway. The company eventually was bought by the Northern Pacific Railway. By this time, Joe Mongoven had been born and the family consisted of four. The directory finds Steve's older brother, Henry James, living at the same address and working as a brakeman for the same railway company. By 1893, Steve, Elizabeth, their children, and brother Henry J. had moved several blocks north to 691 DeSoto Street, according to the St. Paul city directory. Both were employed by the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, & Omaha Railway Company (called the Omaha Road), where Steve was a switchman and Henry was a brakeman. Son Henry J. arrived in St. Paul in 1893. The 1894 city directory says, "Mongoven, Michael S., moved to Clinton, Ia."
Steve's family had been having difficulties at their old farm in Camanche Township immediately south of Clinton. These are explained as fully as possible in The History of Dennis Henry Mongovan. Steve and Elizabeth brought their family back to Camanche to offer assistance. Their fourth child, Jack, was born there in December 1894, and the Mongovens are in Camanche under the family of "Mikel S. Mangorem" in the 1895 Iowa State Census.
The Mongovens left Iowa, moved back to Minnesota, and lived for a while at Staples. Son Ed was born there in August 1898, and Steve had risen to the position of conductor for the Northern Pacific.
Around April 1899 (according to the 1905 state census), the family moved to East Grand Forks, Minnesota. The 1899-1900 city directory places them near the Red River, on the east side of Water Street a block north of Alpha Avenue. The 1900 census was conducted on the 23rd of June. It has the family in East Grand Forks at 323 Water Street, one block east of the Red River. Steve was a conductor and Elizabeth, in her first trimester of pregnancy, certainly was busy with five children ages eleven and under. They had two lodgers, a 26-year-old NP brakeman, Charles Atkins, and Elizabeth's brother, Mike Traufler. He was a 20-year-old fireman on a boat (probably on the Red River). The 1900-1901 city directory shows the Mongovens on the west side of Water Street, three blocks north of Kirkland Avenue.
From their arrival at East Grand Forks, the family had been parishioners at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where Irish-born James F. Greene served as the first pastor. They could not have known how important this priest would become in their lives. The children, except baby Edward, attended Sacred Heart School, run by the Benedictine Sisters of Duluth. But the nuns decided to close their mission in East Grand Forks after the 1900 school year. Despite strong local clergy and parishioner support, the sisters didn't return for twelve years, when they re-opened Sacred Heart School at a different location. The kids went to public schools during the sisters' 12-year absence. Just before Christmas 1900, Elizabeth gave birth to Frank, her sixth baby.
Some of her grandchildren have said that Elizabeth was a stern, unhappy woman. But she wasn't always so. The Grand Forks Herald ran articles in a section dubbed "East Grand Forks Briefs." Highlighting social events across the Red River in Minnesota, a few of these mentioned Mr. and Mrs. Mongoven. One such article appeared February 9, 1900. A party had been held on the 7th for Tracy Steinbar, a German immigrant. Neighbors gathered at her home to support the young mother of two children, whose husband had died in 1896. Playing cards, especially progressive cinch (called "pedro"), was one of one of Steve and Elizabeth's favorite pastimes. As the festivities rolled on into the late evening hours, none of the revelers could foresee the enormous tragedy that would occur exactly four years later, on February 7, 1904, on the tracks in a North Dakota blizzard.
Elizabeth was also a member of the Altar Society of the Sacred Heart Church. This group of ladies took turns caring for the church altar, providing vestments, cloths, altar bread, altar wine, candles, and decorations. From time to time, they put on social events which helped to raise money for these church necessities. The article shown on the next page appeared in the Grand Forks Herald on February 21, 1900. Apparently Miss Mongoven – all the women were listed as "Miss" – had developed into quite the card shark, as she took home the first prize, a gold-lined jewel box.
The 1903 Minnesota State Fair was the 44th such affair. Held on the state fairgrounds in Hamline, between Minneapolis and St. Paul, the fair drew record crowds – around 50,000, double the previous year's total. It opened officially on August 31 at 11 a.m. with a speech from Senator Charles W. Fairbanks from Indiana. Steve and Elizabeth Mongoven had taken the Northern Pacific down to the twin cities and were among those who attended the fair. The Grand Forks Herald announced their trip in its September 5, 1903, edition. It is doubtful they heard the politician's speech, however, as he delivered it inside a large livestock tent and few were there to hear it. If newspaper accounts of the state fair were accurate, then the couple probably enjoyed their trip. It likely was their last.
The snow was twenty feet deep on February 5, 1904, near Lewiston, Montana, requiring a giant snowplow driven by four locomotive engines to clear it from the tracks. Conductor Mongoven's Northern Pacific train headed home from Pembina, North Dakota, in the midst of one of those snowstorms late Saturday afternoon, the 6th of February. It appears he had been wired and made aware that his newborn seventh child had died. His freight train – Extra East 660 – wended its way south toward East Grand Forks, where his grieving wife (who'd just lost a newborn baby) and children awaited him. Regrettably, as 660 chugged past Cashel, North Dakota, it stalled on the tracks in a snowdrift. The blizzard offered near-zero visibility, but Steve was a veteran conductor and knew what had to be done. He cut 660's engine loose from the freight train and edged it a few miles southwest to Grafton, where he informed an agent of his train's perilous situation and gave him its location. The agent then wired NP offices at Staples, where an official sent a telegram to agents at Pembina so a rescue train could be dispatched. Relief train no. 591 soon headed toward Grafton, around forty miles south. Meanwhile, Steve returned to his stalled train and decided to wait in the caboose with his older brother, brakeman Henry J. Mongoven. With no warning, at around four past midnight, relief train no. 591 slammed into the back of their caboose. At nearly 22-miles-per hour, the force of the collision instantly killed Steve and badly injured his brother. The relief train's conductor had mistakenly believed the stalled freight train was a couple miles further south toward Grafton than it was. He testified a day later that he hadn't seen 660's signal lights in the blinding storm.
Elizabeth's seventh child had arrived Friday, February 5, 1904. However, its birth certificate says February 9. There is also confusion concerning the baby's sex. The following should eliminate much of the misunderstanding. The birth date is clearly wrong. A flurry of newspaper articles appeared on Tuesday (Feb. 9). The Bismarck Daily Tribune stated: "(Conductor Mongoven's) little son, 4 days old, had died Saturday at noon, and (his) remains were awaiting the return of the father from his trip." The baby could not have been born on the 9th, because it died on Saturday, the 6th. The Grand Forks Daily Herald published an article stating the infant was born Friday (the 5th) and died Saturday (the 6th). Regarding the newborn's gender, the Bismarck paper mentioned above called the infant a "son." But the baby's birth certificate listed the sex as female. One can see that "or midwife" was crossed off, and the attending physician's name was given – Samuel H. Irwin was a Grand Forks, North Dakota, medical doctor. The word "male" also was crossed out, leaving "female" as the sex. It seems clear that the baby was a girl. Birth certificates are far from perfect – after all, the birth date on this one is incorrect – but they offer far more convincing support than do newspaper articles. The baby's death date is known in greater detail. Though no certificate exists, newspaper articles are in agreement that the infant died around 11 a.m. on Saturday (the 6th).
After her husband's fatal accident, Elizabeth was in poor shape physically and (even more so) emotionally. Indeed, doctors feared for her life for a couple days. Her infant's funeral had been put on hold until Steve's freight train – hauling, among other items, fish – could return home from Pembina in northernmost North Dakota, near the Canadian border. Of course, it never arrived.
A coroner's jury was summoned, visited the crash site on Monday, February 8, and came to a speedy verdict: Conductor Mongoven was at fault for supplying the agent with an incorrect location for his disabled train. Their decision was to be hotly disputed. Steve Mongoven's body was prepared for transport and arrived at the frozen NP depot in East Grand Forks on Tuesday, around 3 a.m. His brother, Henry J., was on his way to the NP hospital at Brainerd, where he began his eventual recovery. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's condition had grown worse. As a matter of caution, Father Greene had chosen to wait until Monday to break the news of her husband's death to her.
A sad, double funeral was held Thursday at the Church of the Sacred Heart. According to newspaper accounts, Steve was well-respected and liked by many in a community of nearly 3,000 and the funeral was well-attended. The pallbearers were members of the Order of Railroad Conductors, including D.F. Miller, W.H. Kelsey, W.H. McGraw, J.M. Cooper, C.F. Perry, and W.H. Schuyler. Family lore holds that father and his infant were placed in the same casket. Father Kenney of Grafton, Fr. Louis of Moorhead, and Fr. Hufsnagel of Crookston assisted Fr. Greene in a celebration of the Requiem High Mass. Elizabeth's brother, Fr. Louis Traufler, O.S.B., arrived from Bismarck to pay his respects and to offer comfort to his sister, niece, and five nephews.
After the Mass, the funeral procession crossed the bridge over the Red River and entered Grand Forks, North Dakota. It stopped at Calvary Cemetery, where Michael Stephen and Baby Mongoven were buried in section 8, row 5 of the cemetery grounds. A "Mongoven" granite marker was added many years later. The family plot now holds the remains of son and daughter-in-law, Henry J. and Alda (Driscoll) Mongoven, and wife and mother, Elizabeth (Traufler) Mongoven. Sadly, there appears to be no marker for Baby Mongoven.
Elizabeth had improved after one month, as mentioned in the Grand Forks Daily Herald (Feb. 16 and Mar. 6). Her six children ranged in age from fourteen (Bessie) to three (Frank). Since no railroad pension system was in place in 1904, all were left in need of financial assistance, so she filed a claim against her husband's railway company. The Walsh County coroner's jury had pinned the blame for the accident directly on Steve's alleged train location "error." But those who knew him didn't believe the verdict. Less than a week after the accident a newspaper interviewed Sacred Heart's Fr. James Greene, who vigorously defended his deceased friend and parishioner.
A conflict ensued in October over who would administer Michael S. Mongoven's estate. Henry James Mongoven wished to be made administrator of his brother's estate, but Elizabeth and Fr. Greene also petitioned the court for that privilege, responsibility, and duty. Judge Thoreson turned down Henry's request, and the widow and her pastor were appointed administrators.
Meanwhile, Fr. Greene pressed the Northern Pacific for a settlement on Elizabeth's behalf. Company officials were rumored to have offered her a $5,000 payment. In early November, Elizabeth and her pastor traveled by train to St. Paul to negotiate with several company officials who appeared eager to settle to avoid going to trial. On November 8, 1904 – nine months after her husband's death – the company settled Elizabeth's claim. No attorneys were involved. She received $7,000 and "other satisfactory concessions," according to the Grand Forks Daily Herald (Nov. 3 and Nov. 9). What would this be worth in today's dollars? In 2012, $7,000 was worth $202,710.
Though the settlement allowed Elizabeth to live a somewhat comfortable life, the dollars could never return her husband. She never recovered emotionally from the devastating deaths of February 1904. A granddaughter who lived with her once commented, "She was miserable, and nothing ever satisfied her." Another remembered "Nanny" as being "very stern."
Of course, her husband's death resulted in dramatic changes in the Mongoven household. Fortunately, Elizabeth received her family's support. Her brother, Mike Traufler, and his wife and children moved next door to them a few years after the train accident, as did her elderly parents. Father Greene of Sacred Heart also provided guidance for the children. The older ones, Bessie and Joe, got jobs in their early teens to help financially, and Elizabeth went to work at a clothing store to augment the amount she'd received in her settlement with the railway company.
It wasn't easy raising six kids – especially five boys! – in a tough town. The Grand Forks Herald ran daily articles chronicling local "misadventures."
The Grand Forks Herald announced on February 24, 1906, that "Mrs. M.S. Mongoven will depart Monday on a trip to Germany." Whether or not she actually embarked on this journey isn't known. Her brother, Fr. Louis, traveled to Germany and Luxembourg in November 1908, "on account of poor health," according to the Grand Forks Herald. No mention of Elizabeth's trip or of her return can be found in the newspaper, and there is no record of a passport application in her name. Ship passenger lists were checked, also, to no avail. It appears she stayed home. In 1905, Elizabeth started making real estate investments in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, perhaps using her settlement money. One of her properties was the Enright store building on the corner of DeMers and 3rd Street. She had purchased the place for $5,000 and sold it in April 1906 for $6,000 for a tidy 20% profit. Her buyer was the East Grand Forks Brewing Company – not surprising given the number of saloons in East Grand Forks. They had plans for a saloon and a grocery store. Elizabeth might have used those profits to build a small new home in Grand Forks, on University Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets. The Evening Times ran the article shown here on September 4, 1906. The same newspaper reported on November 26, 1906, that "Mrs. M.S. Mongoven is moving to her new residence on Sixth and University Avenue, Grand Forks." The Grand Forks Herald ran a small notice on January 25, 1907, verifying a real estate transaction in which Elizabeth had purchased lots 2 and 4 in Block 2 of Grand Forks from Ado D. Skinner and his wife for $13,400 – a considerable sum in those days. Another notice in the Evening Times on February 16, 1907, indicated that W.H. Kelsey had sold his house and lot in Block 9 of Budge and Eshelman's Addition in Grand Forks to Elizabeth for $1,300. Exactly how long she and the children lived in Grand Forks isn't known, but by the time of the 1910 census they were back in East Grand Forks.
The Ancient Order of United Workmen (A.O.U.W.) was the first fraternal group in the United States to offer death benefit life insurance to its members. The group was popular in the Midwest at the turn of the century, and Steve Mongoven might have been a member. The A.O.U.W. was a "males only" organization but had a "ladies auxiliary" called The Degree of Honor. Elizabeth was a member of that society. Officers were elected for the next year on December 3, 1907, and the results of the balloting appeared the next day in the Evening Times. Mrs. Mongoven won the office of Lady of Honor. She also was very active in the Grand International Auxiliary of the Brotherhood of Locomotive engineers, Grand Forks branch. In autumn 1907, the ladies from Grand Forks traveled to Crookston, where they were hosted by women of the Crookston branch in what the newspaper called "one of the most pleasant social functions of the season. Elizabeth also took great satisfaction in her participation with the Church of the Sacred Heart choir.
The 1910 census has the Mongovens back at 114 3rd Street South in East Grand Forks' 4th Ward, next door to the Traufler family. All five boys were present – Joe toiled at a wood planing mill, Hank made deliveries for a butcher shop, and the others presumably were in school. Bessie remained in Minneapolis, where she continued her work in the millinery business. The census indicates that Elizabeth remained the head of her household but wasn't working. However, she was active in community affairs. The May 2, 1910, edition of the Evening Times listed appointments made by the executive branch of the Women's Improvement League. "Mrs. Mongoven" had been named to the railroad right-of-way committee for East Grand Forks.
On St. Patrick's Day 1912, the Sacred Heart choir once again put on a play. Elizabeth and her children enjoyed playing roles in several of these productions in the early 1900s. The Grand Forks Herald called the play "one of love and intrigue, and…replete with comedy and dramatic situations. Elizabeth played one of the roles, that of Nance Tyson – a character old woman who was the wife of Buck, a Gypsy tinker, and the mother of Ginger, a gypsy waif and soubrette (a saucy, flirtatious, intriguing maidservant). From all appearances the play was successful, and most East Siders enjoyed it immensely.
Even with her railroad settlement and a few real estate holdings, money was tight for Elizabeth. So, in June 1912, the 44-year-old widow took a position at the Arneson Mercantile & Grocery Co. Engebret Arneson, a Norwegian immigrant, built his respected store into the largest of its kind in East Grand Forks. They advertised clothing, crockery, glassware, dry goods, and general merchandise. Elizabeth was hired as a clerk in the dry goods department and was employed there for a couple years.
In East Grand Forks for the 1920 census, Elizabeth lived in the home of her son-in-law and daughter, Earl and Bessie Burkhardt. The pair and their young family had moved from Crookston, and Elizabeth lived with them for most of her remaining years. The Burkhardts were at 319 North 4th Street, and the couple had three sons under the age of four. Elizabeth's grown sons, Hank (railroader) and Frank (day laborer), also lived in the household.
Elizabeth traveled often during the 1920s. She went to DeWitt, Iowa, in early July 1926, according to the newspaper announcement on this page. The town is about 20 miles east of George Mongoven's farm at Camanche, so she may have met the Flannery family while staying there in 1915. The article appeared in The Davenport Democrat and Leader on the 11th of July. After her visit, it appears she was off to New York once again to visit her brother, Fr. Louis, who by then was pastor at St. Benedict's Catholic Church in the Bronx. In 1927, Elizabeth still clerked at Ruetell Clothing Company. With son Frank, a storekeeper at the Red River Power Company, she lived with the Burkhardt family at 509 Allen Avenue in East Grand Forks.
The Great Depression was well underway when the 1930 census was conducted. Elizabeth, with the Burkhardts at Allen Avenue, clerked in the boys' clothing department at Ruetell's and was known as "Nanny" to four of her grandchildren.
It is difficult to determine where Elizabeth lived during the 1930s, but city directories offer a few clues. The 1932 East Grand Forks directory finds Elizabeth living with the Burkhardts at 509 Allen Avenue. The 1934, 1936, and 1938 East Grand Forks city directories show the Burkhardts at the same address, but Elizabeth isn't listed. The only Mongovens listed in East Grand Forks were Hank and Alda, at 114 South 3rd Street (1936) and 125 Elm Drive (1938). It is possible she lived with either (or both) of the families but wasn't listed in the directories, although she may have lived elsewhere.
If the deaths of her husband and baby weren't enough to break Elizabeth's heart, then the two she endured next may have been. First, her youngest brother, Mike Traufler, died June 11, 1938, under mysterious circumstances. His mangled body was found along the tracks near Cushing, Minnesota. The Northern Pacific conductor either fell from his passenger train or was tossed from it. Next, Elizabeth's youngest son, Frank, was electrocuted on the job at the Northern States Power Company in St. Cloud when he touched a wire conducting 32,000 volts. His death on September 26, 1940, devastated his mother.
According to the 1942 and 1945 city directories for East Grand Forks, Elizabeth lived with Hank and Alda at 125 Elm Drive during World War II.
Elizabeth turned eighty in 1947. Her granddaughter, Betty (Mongoven) Winek, recalled that Nanny sometimes lived with Ed and Agnes Mongoven and mended clothes for them. The 1948 city directory for Sioux Falls, South Dakota, shows that Elizabeth resided with them. But she was in very poor health. Later that year Elizabeth returned to the Burkhardt family in Minneapolis. A granddaughter commented decades afterward that Nanny had developed Alzheimer's disease, though her death certificate lists "generalized arteriosclerosis" as the underlying cause of death.
Elizabeth Susan (Traufler) Mongoven died August 24, 1948, at 9:20 a.m. in the Burkhardt home at 3645 Grand Avenue. Her body was prepared for burial at White Funeral Home in Minneapolis, and a rosary was said there at 8:15 p.m. She was taken to East Grand Forks, where a funeral was held at the Church of the Sacred Heart. Elizabeth was buried next to her husband and infant daughter in Calvary Cemetery at Grand Forks. |