New genealogy information on the Bohm family website

Hello everyone and happy new year!

I have just added a set of genealogies to the Bohm family website. All three relate to Nick and Connie Opheim's Norwegian ancestors. The Bohm Family History website can be found at:

https://sites.google.com/site/bohmfamilysite/   

Enjoy.

Fred

Dwight's visit to Dewitt, November 2010

Our Trip to the State of Washington, 30 October--14 November 2010

Here are a bunch of photos from our Trip to Washington in early November. Included are images of Halloween in  the Spokane Valley with Freddy V and his sister Georgia, a meeting with Scott and Stuart at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, photos from some time in Vancouver with Larry and Vickie Hoehne and members of their family, a few shots of a drive up the Columbia River Gorge, as well as photos of our visit with Fred, Jennifer, Freddy V, and Georgia while we were in Spokane. For good measure, there are a couple of photos that include my old friend Chris Howell from PLU days.

Halloween in Spokane Valley, 2010

Georgia and Freddy go trick or treating. Click on the displayed photo to see more!

Visit to Fishers, Indiana, September 2010

Norma & Dwight with Mom & Dad at Dwight's graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1969.

This book describes one of the most horrific weather events ever to sweep across the Dakotas in living memory--the Blizzard of 1888, described by many as "the Children's Blizzard." Max Bohm, the brother of Fred C. Bohm, Sr., was born on January 13, 1888 during the height of the blizzard in Western Cass County, Dakota Territory.  At the time, the Bohm family lived in what could only be described as a homesteader's shack.  To get some idea of the ferocity of the blizzard and of what it must have been like to endure its ferocity, I would highly recommend this book.

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"The Children's Blizzard" is but one episode in a long grueling saga of "life on the prairie" at the end of the 19th century.  It is also a story that, once again, makes lies of the hollow promises offered up by the railroad companies of the day in their effort to populate land along rights of way with customers for their freight-hauling services.  The Northern Pacific, for instance, recruited land-hungry Scandinavians, Germans, Poles, and others with promises of good homesteads available for almost nothing, arable land, bumper crops, and a moderate climate, pleasant weather even!
     But what happened in 1888 was not the first bad winter storm to sweep across the plains; railroad and government officials had ample evidence available to them to demonstrate that fact. What happened at the beginning of 1888 was, however,the first really bad blizzard to strike Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming and Dakota after that monumental deluge of north European immigrants had crossed the ocean to take advantage of the great land rush on the northern Great Plains.
     One could go on. At a personal level, this book is a story of catastrophic personal loss by hundreds of families. No one will know for sure how many people--mostly children--perished on that January day. Estimates range between 250 and 500. The immediate cause for these deaths had to do with the fact that so many children were in school on January 12th, and when the cold front began to sweep down upon the high plains, the temperature dropped 18 degrees in three minutes. Concerned for their students' safety, teachers sent their classes home.  Many children had no transportation from their tiny one-room schools. They set out walking.  Many froze to death. Some were rescued by frantic parents. Some who set out to rescue children froze to death themselves.
     Author David Laskin is a fine storyteller and brings home the senselessness and tragedy associated with this disaster--a weather disaster that occurred, we need to remember, before the nation possessed any kind of reliable weather forecasting or modern warning systems. The telephone had not yet been invented, and telegraph communication was, at best, a rudimentary method for "getting the word out." If one wishes to understand the hardship and privation endured by the pioneers who settled the upper Great Plains, this is a fine place to begin.

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For anyone interested in a great general introduction into the history of Germany and Brandenburg Prussia this is a great place to begin.
Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin by Alexandra Richie


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


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New material on the Bohm family website

Hello everyone,

I have been adding additional material to the Bohm family website, including new material for those interested in the Opheim family, additional photos from the Bohm family before 1910.  In addition, Gladys Hill Bohm's autobiography is available once again and there are some maps and a bit of background information about Breitenstein, the little village in West Prussia where Herman Bohm grew up.  The web link is:

http://sites.google.com/site/bohmfamilysite/

Enjoy!

Fred