Barssel, 1907 January 5 

Dear Anna,

It's been quite a while now that we did not see or  hear anything from
each other,  however, just recently   did our Pastor  tell  us that he
delivered a letter from your Pastor to your mother.  We find, from the
contents of this letter, that you moved from Iowa to  Minnesota.   How
did you manage such a move with your children?  We are very sorry that
you  were widowed so   early in your   life  and had   to  maintain an
existence  for yourself and your  children alone in a foreign country.
Everything is o.k.  with us. We have seven children. The  youngest one
is 13 years old and  my husband is healthy and  so is Grandmother.  My
aunt,   your mother, died peacefully  last  December the  29th.  As we
already had mentioned in  the letter to  your Pastor, she was for  the
last four years living here in the hospital.  We could not take her in
with us since our  house, even though we  made some changes, was still
too small.   Your Mother got  crippled  ever since she fell and  could
only move around  with the help of   crutches.  She could not  be left
alone in the house and to hire a nurse would be very expensive, so she
decided  to stay  in the Hospital  in  Leer.  This was a  considerable
expense as you are well aware of, and she was so determined to save as
much for you as possible.  That's why we took steps to move her to the
hospital here in town.  Dear  Anna,  please don't  think that we  were
after your money, we are reasonably well off  ourselves.  What is left
of  your mother's estate,  5000 Mark, is   deposited at  the Spaar-und
Darlehnskasse in Barssel. The funeral expenses and the Doctor have yet
to be paid.

The head Nurse at the hospital told me that whenever some of the
Nurses attempted to get some extra money from your Mother, her reply
had always been that she must save it for you.

Please send us a few lines again and let us know your address and how
you and hour children are making out.

The letter we sent to your Pastor was written by my oldest son.
Brother Heinrich went to ?Laubstuning? in Hildeshaussen.

Many regards, also from my husband. I remain with with love your cousin,

					Phenenna

Do you still remember the fun we used to have together in our childhood?

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The  above was an old  handwritten  letter sent to  Anna (Brueggemann)
Tiedeken.  It was  passed  down through  her  daughter Elizabeth, then
through Elizabeth's son Peter B. Nicklaus, then through his son Gerard
Nicklaus,   and currently (1997)    to Gerard's son, Dennis  Nicklaus.
Dennis had it translated  with  the help  of Harry  Ims  of  Waterloo,
Ontario in 1997.  The  original is written in the  old  german script.
Anna kept several letters by this same author.  Barssel is the name of
a city in northwest Germany.

An unmarried Phenenna    Elsen was the   witness  (maid-of-honor?)  at
Anna's  wedding  to Caspar  Tiedeken.  The author  here is a  niece of
Anna's step-mother, Gesina Maria Elsen. (And probably the same person)