Today’s tale was instigated by a baby girl’s birth in Pocahontas on January 12th, but you will discover that this story mostly takes place elsewhere. It is also a story that presented me with a real research headache. So, make sure you have plenty of gas in your tank because we are going on a trip, with only a stop or two in this vicinity. We will get to the birthday girl later.

William Martin Timmermann was born in Germany on September 3, 1884. He was the son of Johann and Dorothea (Enkiing) Timmermann. William came to America when he was quite young, probably in 1889 when he was just 5. Not long after getting to this country, his mother died in 1891. When we find William in his first American census, his widowed father was a farmer in Papillion, Nebraska. Papillion is a city located just south of Omaha and nowadays would just be considered a part of the Omaha metropolitan area as shown on the map below. Another location on this map, Bellevue, will also be mentioned later.

William was 15 years old in the 1900 census. His father was a farmer in Papillion.

The 1910 census is where I ran into my research headache. Sometimes in my haste, I gloss over some of the details of some documents I think are part of the story, only to realize later, that I was barking up the wrong tree. Such is the case for this story. I located a Timmermann family with a son named William in the 1910 census. That family was living in the Dry Creek Township in Pierce County, Nebraska. I will display that entry below. William was 22 years old.

I would later find another family tree on Ancestry.com that had the Timmermann’s living in Gales Creek Township in Oregon in 1910. This William Timmermann was working on his father’s farm and was called 26 years old. 

Gales Creek, Oregon is located near Portland as you see in the map below.

It actually turns out that this entry from Oregon is the correct one for the character in this post. However, another fact slips into the story that once again points to William being in Nebraska a year later in 1911. Sometime in 1911, I figure that William Timmermann married a woman by the name of Tena Otten. First of all, several family trees on Ancestry.com say that William married a woman with the surname, Otten. I located a Nebraska marriage index that includes both a man named William Timmermann and a woman by the name of Tena Otten, with both of them getting married in 1911. I will point out that there are other documents that call this woman Marie Otten.

I think William Timmermann married Tena Otten in Nebraska in 1911. If so, he likely travelled back to Nebraska from Oregon to get married. There is evidence that his first marriage resulted in the birth of 2 sons, at least one of them born in Oregon, so I think he took his new bride back to Gales Creek. The 2 sons were born in 1912 and 1914.

William Timmermann had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. He was back living in Nebraska. He is given a Chalco address. The city of Chalco can also be seen on the map shown above. There is no indication on this form that William was married. His nearest relative is listed as Hugo Timmermann.

By the way, there is a World War I draft registration for the William Timmermann from Pierce County, Nebraska that we can look at. The one shown above has the correct day and year of the birth of the William Timmermann in this post.

That finally leads us back to the girl who is found in our German Family Tree with a birthday for today. Her name was Anna Rosine Ruehling, who was born on January 12, 1892, making today her 132nd birthay. Rosie was the daughter of Franz and Wilhelmine (Edlinger) Ruehling. Her baptism record is found in the books of Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. We can view an image of her baptism record here.

Rosine is found in the 1900 census for the Shawnee Township at the age of 8. Her father was a farmer.

I was unable to find Rosie in the 1910 census. I do know that she was not living with her parents. This may be the only clue to explain how Rosie became acquainted with William Timmermann. Perhaps she was at some point living near William, but I failed to find her either in Oregon or Nebraska in that year’s census.

William Timmermann, whose first wife either died or they were divorced, married Rosie Ruehling on November 9, 1919. This marriage took place at Zion Lutheran Church in Pocahontas. The church record for this event shown below indicates that William was from Papillion, Nebraska and Rosie was from Pocahontas.

A Missouri marriage license for this couple can also be viewed.

William took his new bride back to Nebraska, and it appears that this couple had 2 more sons. The 1920 census shows the Timmermann’s living in Papillion with the 2 sons born to William during his first marriage. One son was said to be born in Nebraska and the other in Oregon, but the next census will display that they were both born in Oregon. William was farming.

Next, we find the Timmermann household in the 1930 census with 4 sons, two which had been born in the previous decade in Nebraska.  This time, they were living in Bellevue, Nebraska where William was still a farmer.

The 1940 census shows William and Rosie with just 3 sons remaining in their household.

William had his World War II draft card completed in 1942. It shows him still having a Papillion address.

When the 1950 census was taken, we find that William and Rosie had made another move. They were living in Jackson, Missouri. That means they were back in the neighborhood where Rosie was born and raised. William and his son, Reinhold, were each laborers for a private individual.

William and Rosie Timmermann each died in 1961, William at the age of 76 and Rosie at the age of 69. These two are buried together in the Papillion Cemetery in Papillion, Nebraska.

I really do not know how a Nebraska farmer became acquainted with a Pocahontas girl. If you know the story, please share it in the comments. I would love to know.