My Mother’s Family

I shall return to my family’s move to Northern California at a later date. At the request of my sister-in-law, Linda, I shall take a slight detour and recount my recollections of my mother’s family. I apologize for the lack of dates, but I remember very few.

My maternal grandfather, Niels Nielsen, was born in southern Denmark. The story was that it was a part of the country that was German as often as it was Danish, and my grandfather left to avoid conscription into the Kaiser’s army. He entered the U. S. through Ellis Island. He made his way to San Francisco and, as I have mentioned in an earlier post, he owned and operated a drayage business there. Niels married my grandmother, Eunice Caltoft. Eunice was born somewhere in Sonoma County, California, of Danish parents.

My aunt Catherine was born in 1902, I think. My mother, Irma Marie, was born in 1904.

After the 1906 earthquake, Niels and family moved to Petaluma, California. There Niels bought and operated the bottling works for several years. After disposing of the bottling works, my grandfather purchased a forty-acre chicken ranch just outside of town on Magnolia Avenue.

Carl Westerberg, a retired ships carpenter, was the ranch foreman. He and his wife lived in a small house on the property. His crew consisted of two single men, typically parolees from San Quentin prison.

My grandfather was a member of and an officer of the Poultry Producers of Central California. This was a marketing cooperative selling eggs under the trademark “Nulaid”.

My grandmother was a founding member of the “Magnolia Heights Social Club” or some similar name with “Magnolia Heights” a prominent part of the name. The ladies from up and down Magnolia Avenue would gather at one or another of the ladies homes on a regular basis for tea and/or coffee. Like so many Danes, my grandmother was an excellent cook – especially pies, cakes, and cookies. So you can imagine the goodies that accompanied the tea and coffee. My grandmother had a rather large quilting frame and on occasion had a house full of ladies for a quilting bee.

Grandma and Granddad moved into a modest house at 506 Melvin Street in 1942, or about then. Aunt Catherine and her husband, Herbert Mikkelsen, moved onto the ranch and ran the operation for a short period of time before my parents bought the property.

In town, my grandfather continued to drive his Buick. He repeatedly scraped the right side of the car backing out of the garage.

Granddad died of a massive stroke. He had been standing on the back porch at 506 Melvin Street when he jerked violently backwards and fell about ten feet onto his back on the gravel driveway. I was there when it happened.

Aunt Catherine was my mother’s only sibling. She married Herbert and had two sons: Stanley Willis and Jon Keith. Jon is nineteen years younger than Stanley. When Aunt Catherine and family left the ranch they moved to Ferndale, California, where Herbert ran a sporting goods store.

The only extended family of which I am aware was several of Granddad’s brothers/cousins living in Hollister, California.

There were a number of people related by marriage, the exact connection of most I do not remember.

My Great Uncle Louis-in-law, Louis Lausten, whom I have mentioned earlier, was my grandmother’s brother-in-law. Louis sister, Cina (?), was married to Ted Ward, an Englishman. Ted and Cina had two children, George and Helen, neither of whom ever married. George was a very expensive dentist in San Francisco. He was a next-door neighbor of George Burns. I shall probably have something further to write about George Ward at a later date.

Somehow related were two Lausten brothers, Caltoft and Leonard. At one time Caltoft was an executive at American Can Company. I seem to recall that the two of them lived in Burlingame, California or close thereby.

Returning to Aunt Catherine’s family, the last I heard, Stanley was living in Eureka, California. I believe he has three sons, the oldest of whom is named Todd. I do not recall the other’s names. I lost track of Jon years ago.

And so you have been subjected to yet another rambling of an old man.