Our German Family Tree does not contain much information about today’s birthday boy, and what it does contain may be wrong. Gustav Adolph Bergt was born on February 18th. However, his year of birth is somewhat debatable. The GFT says he was born in 1860, which would mean today he would be 165 years old. However, his gravestone says he was born in 1861, and I think that may be correct, so he may just be 164 years old today. Gustav was the son of Adolph William and Gottlieben (Rauss) Bergt. In the 1860 census, Adolph W. was a pastor and living in Archbold, Ohio. That year’s census entry was submitted in July of 1860, and if Gustav was born in that year, he would have been a baby, but he is not included. I think this is evidence that he was born in 1861. However, I do think that Gustav was born when the Bergt’s were in Ohio.

In 1864, Rev. Bergt took a call to become the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. That is where we find Gustav in the 1870 census at the age of 9. That is another indication that he was born in 1861. You can see that 5 of the Bergt children were born in Ohio.

Gustav was confirmed at Grace Lutheran Church in 1875. This is the only church record we have in our GFT for Gustav. I have highlighted his name.

In 1879, Rev. Bergt took a call to a Lutheran Church in Table Rock, Nebraska, which is found in the southeastern portion of that state. Gustav was 19 years old when he is found in the 1880 census.

I do not think the Bergt’s were at that location for very long because Gustav would get married in Buffalo County, Nebraska in 1885. Rev. Bergt was a pastor in Amherst, Nebraska which is in Buffalo County. That county is found farther west in Nebraska, not far from where Interstate 80 is found nowadays. Now, we will take a look at the woman who would become Gustav’s bride.

Caroline Louise Hartmann was born on July 7, 1864. Caroline was the daughter of Frederick and Helen (Herzog) Hartmann. I believe that she was born in the state of New York. However, when the 1870 census was taken, we find the Hartmann’s living in the Damascus Township in Pennsylvania. Damascus was right on the border between New York and Pennsylvania. Caroline was 6 years old, and her father was a laborer. Caroline and her younger brother were said to be born in New York, and her youngest brother was born in Pennsylvania.

Prior to the 1880 census, the Hartmann family moved to Nebraska. In that year’s entry, they were living in the Maple Township in Dodge County, which is not that far from Omaha in the eastern part of the state. Caroline was a teenager, and her father was a farmer.

I do not think the Hartmann’s stayed there very long, because in a Nebraska state census taken in 1885, the family was living in Buffalo County where Gustav was living. Caroline was not in her parent’s household in that entry shown below because she got married in 1883.

Gustav Bergt married Caroline Hartmann on December 8, 1883. According to this Nebraska marriage record below, these two were married in Buffalo County. Perhaps they were married by Gustav’s father.

According to a family tree on Ancestry.com, this Bergt couple had 9 children. When the 1900 census was taken, there were 7 children in the their household. Gustav was a farmer in the Scott Township in Buffalo County. That was not far from the town of Amherst, although his father was no longer a pastor there.

In the 1910 census, Gustav was still farming in the Scott Township, and there were 5 children living with Gustav and Caroline.

The last census in which we find Gustav was the one taken in 1920. He was still farming in the same location.

I think that the Bergt’s moved to California in 1922. In a 1924 voter’s roll, we find Gustav and Caroline Bergt. Gustav is called a farmer in Terra Bella.

There is a Lutheran church in Terra Bella named Zion Lutheran Church. On that congregation’s website, it gives the following history. It mentions that German Lutherans were encouraged in the early 1900’s to move to this area of California. I think the Bergt’s may have been a Lutheran family attracted to this area.

Gustav Bergt died in 1927 at the age of 66. Caroline is found as a widow in the 1930 census. She was living with her daughter, Olga, who had married Adelbert Behrens. Adelbert was an orange grove farmer in Ducor, California.

Ducor is right down the road from Terra Bella, and it also has an interesting history. Ducor is a shortened form of the name it was originally given, Dutch Corner. The “Dutch” really represents Deutch, which means German. This was also a town that had some German roots, and quite possibly also Lutheran roots.

The last census in which we find Caroline was the one taken in 1940. She was a lodger in the Warren Hastings household. Warren was a grain farmer in Ducor, and his wife was a public school teacher. Caroline was called a housekeeper.

Caroline Bergt died in 1944 at the age of 80. Gustav and Caroline are buried together in the Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Terra Bella.

I have written several stories on this blog about people from Perry County who ended up in California. Add this one to the list.

Before I close, I want to tell a personal story. Back when I was a freshman at Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska, a buddy of mine, Ron Henschen, and I were recruited by a bunch of freshman girls who lived in Duerr Dormitory to coach their intramural softball team. On that team was a girl by the name of Janet Hillman. I remember that she was from Terra Bella, California, and I remember her saying that her father was involved in operating the Good Shepherd Lutheran Home of the West, which was a home for intellectually and developmentally disabled people. Her father, Paul Hillmann was a Lutheran teacher who later administered that home near Terra Bella.

Recently, I opened my Broadcaster magazine, Concordia, Seward’s alumni publication, and found an article about Janet. Janet was a Lutheran teacher who eventually made her way back to California and married a man by the name of Bill Cramer, who was a farmer in Hemet, California. Janet died recently in 2022, and her husband, in her honor, has established what is called the “Janet Hillman-Cramer Endowed Faculty Position in Elementary Education” at Concordia. I am displaying the article that was written in the Broadcaster below.

It sounds like Janet went on to a very interesting and fulfilling life in Lutheran education. I could be wrong, but I would bet that if Ron Henschen and I would have had the opportunity to chat with Janet prior to her death, she would have remembered those crazy weeks during that softball season back in 1969. We had a blast.