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Death Notice:
John Harold Busig - Age 69, died Jan. 6, 1971, in Vancouver. Born June 11, 1901 in Fairbury, Neb. Lived 30 years in Vancouver area, residing at 8420 Lieser Ct., Vancouver, formerly of Parkdale, Ore. Widow, Bertha Busig at home. Sons, Harold and Kenneth Busig, both of Vancouver. Daughters, Mrs. Jack (Ruth) Lander of Ridgefield; Mrs. Donald (Delores) Helton of Vancouver. There are 13 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Brothers, William Busig, Sr. and Ervin Busig, both of Sterling, Colo. Sisters, Mrs. Mabel Pickell of Denver, Colo. and Mrs Emma Daniels of...
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Death Notice:
John Harold Busig - Age 69, died Jan. 6, 1971, in Vancouver. Born June 11, 1901 in Fairbury, Neb. Lived 30 years in Vancouver area, residing at 8420 Lieser Ct., Vancouver, formerly of Parkdale, Ore. Widow, Bertha Busig at home. Sons, Harold and Kenneth Busig, both of Vancouver. Daughters, Mrs. Jack (Ruth) Lander of Ridgefield; Mrs. Donald (Delores) Helton of Vancouver. There are 13 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Brothers, William Busig, Sr. and Ervin Busig, both of Sterling, Colo. Sisters, Mrs. Mabel Pickell of Denver, Colo. and Mrs Emma Daniels of Sterling, Colo. Was a retired machinist. Funeral services pending at Layne's Funeral Home in Battle Ground.
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CHARLES AND VICTORIA BUSIG (complete) (edited), by Inez Tompkins:
Charles Busig was born January 8, 1869 in Hannover, Germany, the son of August and Rosine Arberg Büsig. He came to the United States at the age of 18, in 1887, to evade the military service. He told me he saw piles of corn in Iowa and didn't know what it was as corn wasn't grown in Germany. He worked on farms to get farming experience.
Victoria Catherine Martin was born June 29, 1873, and came to the United States in 1878 from Ontario, Canada at the age of about 5 with her family. On March 24, 1892, Charles and Victoria were married at Swanton, Nebraska. Grandma told me all they had when they married were a few chickens and cows. The couple resided on farms near Fairbury and Grand Island and became parents of Bill, Emma, John, Ervin, Mabel and Ferne.
Emma told me her Mother's hair was so black that it had a blue shine and her eyes were almost black. No one else's hair had a blue shine and Emma was a little embarrassed as a child.
For a time they lived along the Blue River and the boys enjoyed fishing and swimming. Ervin said they had a big dog that once drug John out of the deep water and saved him from drowning.
They lived in a German community and went to a German school, in the early years. Ervin told of a man teacher who for punishment made them hold their hands out in front of them. He said if your hands drooped a little he would rap them with a ruler.
Ervin told about going to barn dances with his family. He loved the beer the old German farmers brewed in big wooden kegs. It was the best beer he ever tasted. The old farmers would guzzle the beer until they got going good, then they would throw their glasses in the corner and dance their cares away.
In 1917, the family decided to have a sale and move to Colorado. His Father put the results of the sale in his wallet and started packing. Then the wallet was missing. An honest person found the wallet and returned it, but you can imagine what was thought and said in the meantime.
The Busigs bought a farm six miles northwest of Sterling and lived in the granary until Mr. Busig could build a house. He was a very good carpenter and built a nice house, a large barn, garage and chicken house. By that time they had a Model T Ford. Ervin said his Dad never got used to driving the car, he would let up on the gas going up hill and give it the gas going downhill. Someone was always pulling him out of the ditch. Ervin and his Dad worked for a number of years at the sugar factory and Mr. Busig would walk to work and ride part way home and walk the rest of the way.
On May 2, 1919 Emma married Charles Daniels at Ft. Morgan. Emma worked in the schools and Charles worked for the railroad and they lived in Sterling, Both are gone.
Bill Busig married Blanche Hyde on April 14, 1925. They lived on a farm northwest of the home place. To them were born Naomi and Bill.
John Busig married Bertha Barton. They were parents of Harold, Kenneth, Ruth and Lorry. In the fall of 1934 they moved to Parkdale, Oregon where John had a garage and worked repairing cars. During World War II the family moved to Vancouver, Washington as John also worked in the shipyards.
Mabel married Miner Pickell of Tabernash when she was teaching there. They moved to Denver and Miner worked in the house building trade and taught his boys the trade. Mabel taught in Denver but gave up teaching because no way was she allowed to discipline the students. They were the parents of Warren and Allan of California, Charles, Paul and Mark all of Denver and Ervin of Castle Rock. Warren and Allan stayed in the building trade, Warren painting water tanks high in the air. Charles is sales Rep for car parts, Paul is a mechanic, Mark was lay out man for Pearl Mack, now doing appraisals and Ervin is a lawyer for the E.P.A..
Ferne worked for Western Union and married Walter Borer. They lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ferne moved to San Francisco but developed M.S. and passed away.
Ervin and I (Inez Tompkins) were married in September of 1935. Grandma hated to part with her last chick. He was her transportation. At 63 years of age she was carrying two buckets at a time of grain to feed her chickens, carrying their water and gardening besides doing her housework. In her spare time she was piecing pretty quilts. I don't think Grandma ever bought a blanket at the store. She made comforters out of the good parts of worn overalls, pants and whatever came her way.
If Grandma and Grandpa ever ate in a restaurant or short order place I never knew about it. Their daily meals might have been simple but they were on time and adequate. Emma told of one time growing up, she had a toothache so her Father took her to a dentist. When the dentist had fixed her tooth he charged her Father $5.00. Emma said her Father had a fit and never really got over spending $5.00 on one tooth.
Grandpa caught a lot of hell for things he did too. When he built the house in town he fixed a secret place in the basement foundation and kept money there. One day when an old friend from Oregon was visiting, Grandad got real congenial and showed Simon Richards this secret place. I don't think any of us knew about it until then, but before Grandma got through with him we found out about it.
Grandma Busig often told me she believed that children should be seen and not heard. Consequently Ervin was very timid as a child. He sort of out grew it but he was not comfortable socially. He referred to his Father as Cap, I always thought he meant Captain.
The boys were all very mechanical. A neighbor has said the boys would be all over the Model T Ford working it over and Grandpa would be trying to pry one of them loose to help him.
Ervin told that Bill was quite a swain in his younger years. He had a motorcycle with a side car and he was very popular with the girls.
In 1935 they sold the farm and started the move to town.
Grandpa built the house at 330 West Main in Sterling where they made their home.
Grandpa took care of his own yard until the last couple of years. He made one trip home to Germany before I knew him. At the family Christmas dinners he always said a prayer in German. He really enjoyed the family dinners. At age 92 he passed away on May 8, 1961. Grandma Busig really couldn't live alone so she went to the nursing home section of Logan County Hospital. She passed away on January 30, 1962 at the age of 89.
Their gravestone is a little north and east of the office building at Riverside Cemetery, Sterling, Colorado.
After Mabel read the story of the Busig family she wrote this, "I often think about my Dad and Mother being immigrants. I never knew how old Mom was when her Mother brought her from Canada. Her Mother must have been a very sufficient woman as she always seemed to have a farm. Emma told me that when we lived in Fairbury, Nebraska she would come to our house in her horse and buggy to sew for our family for a few days and then go home. I was too young to remember her, but wish I had known her. Dad, I guess, was willing to risk leaving country and family to avoid the German Army. I imagine there was an adventurous spirit also involved in that move."
Ervin spoke of an Uncle Bill Martin and said what a crack shot he was. In those days wild game often provided the meat for a meal. There used to be abundant rabbit, duck, geese, pheasant, squirrel and grouse.
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My Life (complete) (Written by Bertha in 1966 when she was 62, edited):
Lydia Koenig and Phillip Barton met in Greeley, Colorado and September 1, 1903 they were married. After their marriage they went to Crystal Spring, Pennsylvania, my fathers home. Then on December 3, 1904, I, Bertha, was born. Fifteen months later on February 28, 1906 my brother Charles was born.
In 1907 my parents left Crystal Spring for Sterling, Colorado, my mothers home town. I don't remember the trip, which was by train, but although I was only three I can yet recall my first Christmas in Colorado. We were living on my grandfather's (Peter Koenig) farm just east of town, between the railroad tracks and the Platte River (I believe the house is still there.)
A year of so later my parents acquired some homestead land about 20 miles southeast of Sterling. There was nothing on the land except a dugout, with a dirt floor, but we lived in it for several months, until, with the help of friends and neighbors (which were few and far between), Dad managed to put in a cement floor. Later he added a room above ground, which served as our kitchen and living room. My dad plowed the land with a one horse plow, bought some adjoining land and became a very successful farmer.
June 16, 1910 my brother, Rutherford, was born. I was six by then, had never enjoyed playing will dolls, but liked anything that was real and alive, especially babies, so helped a great deal in caring for the new arrival, but i still had to carry on with my share of the farm and household chores.
By the time i was eight my parents had acquired some cattle, so i learned to milk cows. Charles and I would drive the herd out to free pasture. Tired of walking two or three miles a day we broke a yearling steer to ride, and rode it one entire summer. The next season Dad bought us a pony, i guess the steer went to market.
After I finished grade school my folks moved to town. I lived at my uncle and aunts, Ed and Simon Koenig, most of the time I attended Sterling High School, as my parents went back on the farm. After graduation, I went back to school another year and took a post graduate course. In the meantime I had met a young man who lived west of Sterling. His name was John Busig.
It was January 18, 1925 that John and I were married and on October 17 that same year I became a mother. Our son, Harold Wayne was born at Mrs. Busse's maternity home. Ten months, a week and a day later on August 25, 1926 another boy arrived. We had hoped for a girl this time, so we didn't have a name for him, but finally decided on Kenneth Eugene. We were living on a dry land farm about eight miles west of Sterling and crops were not always good, but that didn't scare the stork away. On July 19, 1928 I went back to Mrs. Busse's for the third time. This time it was a little auburn haired girl, Ruth Evelyn, who we called Ruthie. She is now Mrs. Jack Lander. Again we hung out our white flag, but I guess the stork just didn't see it, because thirteen months later, August 21, 1929 I was back at Mrs. Busse's. This time another girl. We named her Delores Mae. She is now Mrs. Donald Helton. She is known as Lorry and she is still our baby. Mrs. Busse had told me if I were the first one to come back to her for the fifth time she would take care of me free of charge. Dr. Latta was the pediatrician for all four of our babies. (Here all four are on two horses, the four playing with a sled, Ruthie and Lorry.)
In the fall of 1934, when Colorado became part of the Dust Bowl we packed up our few belongings and moved our family to a place near Parkdale, Oregon, Oregon. Then later to Parkdale, Oregon near Mt. Hood.
It was while we were living at Parkdale that I lost my Dad. Phillip Barton died November 13, 1938 at the age of 58. Sometimes the death of a loved one, we sorrow at the blows life has dealt him and we wish he might have had a second chance, and so it was with him. I like to think that where ever he may be, I am still his one and only girl. My mother Lydia is living 20 miles south of San Francisco near Rutherford and his family and is a very young great grandmother of 82. (Lydia at 91 taken in January 1976.)
Pearl Harbor changed the face of the earth, and so it changed our lives too. The next fall (1942) we moved to Vancouver, Washington where John, Pop as we now call him, went to work in the shipyards and it wasn't long until Harold and Kenneth joined the Navy. After the boys left for war I went to work in a shopping center as manager of the bakery section. The girls were in high school and they helped in the bakery after school and on Saturdays.
It wasn't long after the war ended before the kids were all married. The grandchildren were arriving, about two a year, until there were twelve, nine boys and three girls. They are all near us except Lorry's family of two boys and a girl. They live in Auburn, Washington where Don has a mortuary and Lorry works part time in the hospital as a nurse. We usually manage to get them all together at Christmas time, what a time with ten teenagers. I have ceased trying to prepare big Christmas dinners (Christmas dinner 1949), instead we have cold meats, salads, snacks and desserts, with coffee and cranberry punch, usually on Christmas Eve or when the gifts are opened.
I have never had much time for hobbies and I don't like hobbies that cut us off from the world. I like sports and the competition they entail, so about ten years ago, when women all over the country began bowling, I too joined a bowling league. I'm still trying to maintain more than a 136 average. I also like to swim, but I'm no bathing beauty. I have always had a secret desire to try my hand at the easel, but as for my secret vices, I would rather keep them a secret.
Pop has retired, so now I have twice the man on half the income and as for him, instead of wine, women and song, it is fishing, social security, and television. When life gets monotonous we load up our little travel trailer and go to the beach or to the hills. Sometimes in the fall we go to Colorado and in the winter to Arizona or California. We like trailer traveling, especially when we can travel with friends and relatives, and hope to continue our journeys, but we intend to maintain our home in Vancouver, because we enjoy living near the children and grandchildren.
I have resolved to try to adjust myself to the fact that i am now 62 years old. There may be other resolutions I should make, and there are probably mistakes and personal faults I haven't mentioned, but this is a synopsis of the life I have lived thus far.
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Other Note: In a document entitled Railroad, it states, Fall 1934, Bertha & John Busig moved to Oregon, Charles (submitters note - referring to Charles E. Barton) & Florence (and Mardell and Maurice) also went to Oregon, but returned to Sterling the next spring.
During World War II, the Busig's lived at 5817 East 1st Street in the McLoughlin Heights in Vancouver, Washington.
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1920 Federal census:
Name: John H Busig
Home in 1920: Township 8, Logan, Colorado
Age: 18
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1902
Birthplace: Nebraska
Relation to Head of House: Son
Father's Name: Charles W Busig
Father's Birth Place: Germany
Mother's Name: Victoria Busig
Mother's Birth Place: Canada
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Sex: Male
Able to read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
Charles W Busig 51
Victoria Busig 46
William F Busig 23
John H Busig 18
Irvin F Busig 15
Mabel G Busig 11
Fern E Busig 9
1930 Federal census:
Name: John Busig
Home in 1930: Sterling, Logan, Colorado
Age: 28
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1902
Birthplace: Nebraska
Relation to Head of House: Head
Spouse's Name: Bertha Busig
Race: White
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
John Busig 28
Bertha Busig 24
Harold Busig 4
Kenneth Busig 3
Ruth Busig 1
Delores Busig 7/12
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John Harold Busig Family Tree
John Harold Busig died of an aneurysm.
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