Dorothea Mathilda (Dorette Elise Auguste) TOLLE

My mother, Dorothea Mathilda Tolle, was born in New York on March 21, 1835. She went to San Francisco in 1853 together with her sister, who was rejoining her husband, who had shortly established himself in San Francisco as a gunsmith. She met my father and married him on October 28, 1855. From this love marriage, four daughters were born, in 1856, 1859, 1861, 1863, of whom I am the second one. My elder sister made an unfortunate fall at 3.5 years, and suffered femoral fracture. A second fall at 5 years led to osteomyelitis with purulent knee arthritis. She remained handicapped, to my parents' despair. After looking without success for help in California, my parents decided to consult Professor Nélaton in Paris and Professor Langenbeck in Berlin. With her four children and one of her sisters, my mother went by boat to Europe in 1866. In Paris, Nélaton did not give her much hope. She went to Berlin, where the child was treated for 1.5 years in a clinic before a stay at the Kreusnach thermal baths was advised.

During her stay in Germany, my mother had private lessons given to her handicapped child, while her other children were sent to school in Berlin. She also improved in German, and took French and music lesions. She also spent time with an American cousin who was married in the old university town of Göttingen.

She went back to America, disappointed by the lack of improvement of her child's health, despite all these sacrifices. Life took back its course in San Francisco. It was very comfortable. We were following classes at 'High School Valencia Street', which was very well organized for discipline and hygiene. It was a mixed school, with boys and girls sitting in two columns, but with separate playgrounds. At home, nothing was spared for our education, including a German teacher, a music teacher, a dance teacher, a drawing teacher and visits to the zoological garden. At 10 years, I could read German. I also received the Iliad and the Odyssey, Grimm's tales, Andersen's tales, which I read with passion.

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