HELGET

BIOGRAPHIE: Joseph Helget was born 10 Feb. 1978 to Wenzel Helget and BarbaraKiefner at 602 Front Street in the "Goosetown" section of New Ulm,Minnesota. In December of 1881 the Helgets moved to a farm in Section20 of Cottonwood Township on the Little cottonwood River. Joseph wasan only child. He had two brothers and a sister who died in infancy.Joseph grew to be over six feet tall. As a youth, Joseph attended theone room school house later known as the Dahl school located on Co.Road #24 about a mile from the farm. He loved the outdoors. The Helgetsowned a five acre wood lot on the Cottonwood River where FlandreauState Park Group Camp is now located. Joseph loved to spend time by theriver hunting and fishing.Mathilda Rewitzer was born 15 April 1877 to George Rewitzer andFranziska Grossman on a farm on Section 25 & 26 of Sigel Township. Shewas the forth of eight children. Mathilda went to school right next tothe Rewitzer farm. Mathilda grew up to be a very beautiful woman, talland dignified.The Helgets and Rewitzer lived very near to each other on adjacenttownships in Brown County, so it certain that Joseph and Mathilda kneweach other as children. They were married on 31 May 1898, Memorial Day.They had a difficult time getting flowers for their wedding because ofthe holiday.They lived together with Joseph's parents in the little farm house inCottonwood township. To this union five children were born, two ofwhich died in infancy, Emma 1898 and Alfred in 1905. Whilhelmine"Minnie" was born 7 June 1900, Josephine 21 May 1902 and Rosa on 9Dec. 1907.Life on the farm was very hard. Both husband and wife had to work inthe fields. Little tome off was taken for child birth. Infants were caredfor and nursed in the fields. Josephine and Minnie went to the DahlSchool. Josephine developed a bronchial condition, from which she neverfully recovered, while walking the long distance to school on the verycold winter days.On 20 may 1908 George Rewitzer, Mathilda's father, retired fromfarming and sold the farm in Sigel to Joseph Helget and moved to SleepyEye. In the Spring of 1909 disaster stuck the Helget family. Josephcontracted typhoid fever from some bad matter. Matilda battled thefever heroically by wrapping her husband in ice, but Joseph died on the8th of March 1909.Mathilda was unable to run the farm alone with three young daughtersand her already elderly father and mother-in-law to care for. Shedecided to rent out the farm and move to New Ulm. An auction was heldon the Helget farm on the 30th of March and much of the live stock andfarm implements and tools were sold to friends and neighbors. To gainadditional capital she sold her interest in the Cottonwood farm back toWenzel Helget for $2000 in December of 1909.The Helgets, Wenzel and Barbara, already in their 60's and Mathilda andher three small daughters, Minnie, Josephine and little Rose not yet twoyears old, moved to 227 No. Washington Street in New Ulm. The familymoved on the North side of New Ulm so that they could be near to Holytrinity catholic Church. The family was able to sustain itself from therent of the farm property. When the young girls all school at HolyTrinity they were only able to speak Böhmish, a Bohemian dialect ofGerman. They were not able to speak English or High German becausethey were brought up by their grandparents, Wenzel and Barbara. Thegirls all finished Holy Trinity Grade and High School and went on to Goodcounsel Academy in Mankato.On a hot summer day, the 30th of June 1916, Barbara passed at the ageof 78 of a sever attack of asthma. Wenzel was a lost and heart brokenman after the death of his dear wife and died shortly thereafter on 19June 1917 at the age of 74. There are no known photos of Wenzel orBarbara. Wenzel was described by his granddaughter Rose as a kindly manwith a head of pure white hair and a full white beard that she liked tobraid when she was young girl. She also recalled that he would take herto daily Mass, pulling her in a sled in the Winter time. She also recallsgoing to Trinity with him and playing 500 with all the older people. Shealso would go the neighborhood saloon everyday for grandpa Helget to geta pail of Beer. At the end of the day, Wenzel would have beer soup madeof beer and milk before he went to bed. he also would have a steady dietof sauerkraut, dumplings and pork.Minnie married Albert Veigel in 1922 and they live for a short time inChicago. They returned to new Ulm to open a small restaurant indowntown New Ulm that soon became famous for "those Bar-B-Q Ribs"and grew into the famous Veigel's Kaiserhoff. Minnie died in 1967 andher husband Albert in 1976. They had three children, Don, Geraldine andDolores.Josephine never married. She worked for a time in St. Paul as adomestic but never was cure of her bronchial condition that shedeveloped as a child. She died of pneumonia in 1941.On 25 of April 1932 Rose married Hugo Paulson, a St. Paul electricianwho was boarding upstairs of the Veigel's while working as aelectrician's foreman at Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm. They livedin St. Paul except for a short return to New Ulm when Hugo went intopartnership in an ill fated electrical business. He died on 16 June 1973after working as an electrician for over forty years. They had three sons,Gerald, Robert and Roger.In 1937 Mathilda then 60 years old married Frank Groebner, a widowerwho was previously married to Mathilda's first cousin Louisa Rewitzer,the daughter of Johan Rewitzer and Elizabeth Grossman, Mathilda'smother's sister. Louisa had died in 1935. They were married for sevenyears when Frank died on 3 April 1944. Mathilda continued to live aloneat the home 327 North Washington until about 1950 when ill healthforced her to retire to the Loretta Nursing home where she died on the15th of Feb. 1956.Mathilda's life was a life of almost constant care-giving. After herhusband died in 1909, Mathilda cared for her three small children and herhusband's parents, Wenzel and Barbara for nearly ten years until theydied. Barbara was be ridden for several years and needed constant careMathilda also took care of her niece Francis Hermer for seven years afterher mother, Mathilda's younger sister Katrina died during the WWI fluepidemic. After her mother, Franziska, died in 1925, Mathilda took in andcared for her father George until he died in 1932. Mathilda also cared forJosephine, her daughter, She was sickly most of her life, suffering froma bronchial condition that she developed as a child.Mathilda "Tillie" is remembered as a very kind person with an air ofsilent dignity. She always liked to work in her garden. He is rememberedby her grandson, Robert Paulson, as the person who passed on to him thevery rich German-Bohemian cultural legacy and also encouraged him topursue the field he loved most, music.

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