This blog series is adapted from a memoir by Beatrice Zweber Mahowald of New Market. Her grandson, Pat Mahowald, compiled her autobiography with photographs and family research. Beatrice took over the household management on her family’s farm at age 15, after the death of her mother and the marriages of her older sisters. It has been slightly edited from the original for clarity. Part I can be read here ,Part II is here, and Part III is here.
My husband’s father [Nicholas Mahowald] died December 1911. He was the first person to be buried from our new church at New Market on December 22, 1911, so in 1912 the Mahowald family moved to New Market. My husband was seventeen years old then. George used to work with his father when he wasn’t in school. His father did cement work, so George went on with his father’s trade.
George supported his widowed mother, sisters, and brothers till two weeks before we were married. His mother said he could keep the last two weeks wages before the wedding, and I’m sure that wasn’t a big check. There were nine living children in the Mahowald family. George was the second oldest.
A few weeks before the wedding, I went to Holm and Olson’s in St. Paul and ordered all my flowers. My bride’s bouquet, the bridesmaid bouquets, the men’s flowers, the lily for the ringbearer, and the basket of flowers for the flower girl. I paid for them and told them to mail them on the noon train to Elko, Minn. on June 16th, the day before my wedding. My brother went to meet the train, but there weren’t any flowers left off. We thought they would come on the evening train, so my brother Alex went back to the depot. That train arrived at 7:30 PM and there were still no flowers. He came back and he was really afraid to tell me, so we telephoned to Holm and Olson’s. I don’t know how we even go ahold of them at night, but they said they had mailed out the flowers on the noon train on June 16th. They said if someone would come to St. Paul and get the flowers they would make up a new order and have them ready at midnight. I would have to sign a paper saying that I didn’t get the flowers. because they were going to trace them.
I went to bed but I didn’t sleep. I cried all night. The next morning when I came downstairs my cousin was already working in the dining room, and she said look at the beautiful carnations they sent along extra because they knew you felt bad. Holm and Olson wrote me a letter after the wedding and they said the flowers went to Ecko, Minn. instead of Elko, Minn. I never did find out if the flower shop put on the wrong address or if the railroad made the mistake.
Beatrice and George’s wedding party. Image courtesy of Pat Mahowald.
On June 17, 1919 I was married in New Market Catholic Church by Father Siebert. My cousin Margaret Zweber was bridesmaid, my cousin Sue Zweber was maid of honor, my brother Alex and Anton Mahowald were best men. My niece Helen Hauer was flower girl and my nephew Wilfred Zweber was ring bearer. I was twenty-one years old and my husband was twenty-four when we married.
It was on a Tuesday, a nice sunny day. In the afternoon there was a storm all around us, but it didn’t rain at New Market. We had a very small wedding, we only invited my husband’s mother, his brothers and sisters, my brothers and sisters and their families for dinner and supper at the house. There waere also three uncles and five aunts. My friends waited on table.
In the evening we had a very large crowd at the free wedding dance. The Metropolitan Band from Minneapolis played for our dance from nine o’clock in the evening till four o’clock in the morning. This band cost us sixty dollars. The dance was in the New Market town hall. Most of the crowd stayed till the band went home. So, it was almost morning when we got home. I got about an hour and a half of sleep before I had to get up and make breakfast and get the house cleaned up after the wedding. There was a lot to clean.
We didn’t go on a honeymoon. People didn’t go on a honeymoon those days. We didn’t even have time to have our wedding picture taken until the second day. We had our picture taken at St. Paul. We drove with two cars because there were quite a few of us.
The third day after my wedding I washed clothes all day. The boys took my pictures while I was hanging up the wash. I had sheets, tablecloths, and lines and lines of clothes and such large pieces. I have pictures of my wash in my album.
A short time before my wedding, Dad said, “Why don’t you stay here and work for us? We have to get someone and you might as well stay.” He offered me a dollar a day. I stayed and worked just like I always did, canning, cooking for threshers and silo fillers, for company, and everything that came along. George did cement work in summer but in winter 1919 he sawed wood with a man, they would saw fire wood for farmers. I’m sure he didn’t earn much money for that.
Beatrice and Aelred. Image courtesy of Pat Mahowald.
I worked at home for eleven months till May 1920. Then we moved to Lakeville because we were building a house there. It was to be ready the later part of August, and I was expecting my first child. He was born September 2, 1920. The doctor said he weighed ten pounds, but he guessed that because the doctor didn’t carry a scale. We named him Aelred Alexander.