|--------Balthasar NICLAUS (1793, Germany - 1854, Germany) | |---------Balthasar NICLAUS (1831, Germany - 1900, Iowa) | | | |--------Maria Anna BöHNER (1796, Germany - 1862, Germany) | |------Joseph John NICKLAUS (1871, IL - 1926, Iowa) | | | | |--------Gregor SCHMITT (1805, Germany - ) | | | | |---------Margaretha SCHMITT (1838, Germany - 1872, Illinois) | | | |--------Margaretha NEUGEBAUER ( - ) | Ernest Ray ``Ernie'' NICKLAUS (1911 - 2004, Iowa) | | |-------- | | | |--------- | | | | | |-------- | | |------Anna Regina OSTENDORF (1881, Germany - 1976, Iowa) | | |-------- | | |--------- | |--------
Here are some of Ernie's memories about various Nicklaus relatives, as recorded by Brenda Nicklaus in 1998:
Ernie's dad (Joe) died when Ernie was 14. He remembers his dad as
being a quiet man, and says his dad never gave any of the boys a
spanking, but they all minded him, and none of the boys ever learned
to tell a lie. Ernie says his mom used to tell him that he took after
his dad, because Ernie didn't talk much. Ernie says he just learned
to talk to people in the last 20 years or so.
Ernie's mom Anna (Ostendorf) Nicklaus came over from the northern part
of Germany when she was a young girl. She spoke low German, and his
dad Joe's family spoke high German, so Ernie says that German was
never spoken in their house.
Ernie's mom had four boys. She always wanted a girl. One time when
Ernie was little, his hair got kind of long and was curly, and the
boys all had their picture taken. His mother showed it to someone,
and they said they thought she had four boys, who was the little girl
in the picture. Shortly after that, he was playing out in front of
the house and someone passing by said what a cute girl that was.
Ernie's dad Joe heard that, and said that's the end of that, and he
took him right downtown to the barber shop and got his hair cut. It
always seemed like one of the little neighbor girls was around the
house, and this pleased Anna. There was one neighbor girl across the
street named Josephine who was always with Ernie's mother. Ernie's
dad Joe had named the little girl. Her mother was trying to figure
out what to name her, and Joe said, well you ought to name her
Josephine, so they did. Josephine was born in the fall, and Ernie's
dad died that next spring of diabetes. He had been sick for a couple
of years.
Most of what Ernie remembers hearing about Balthasar is from what his
mother told him. She hadn't married Joe yet when Balthasar died, so
what she knew was what Joe told her. She told him that Balthasar was
killed by the gas from a hard coal stove, and that his wife survived a
couple weeks and then died too. Ernie also knew about Balthasar's
first wife Margaretha dying in Illinois, and he had been over to visit
the grave this past summer. Brenda asked if he knew what she died of, and
he said no, but after thinking a while, he said it could have been TB,
but he didn't really know.
Ernie also remembers his dad's cousin George Nicklaus, who was
nicknamed Black Diamond George. His eyes were really bad, and watered
a lot, and Ernie remembers asking his mother why. Anna told him that
George lived with his dad above a store downtown, and there was a
fire, and George's dad was in the apartment, so George went in to try
to save him, and he got him out, but George's face was burned, and his
eyes were harmed by it. George's dad didn't survive.
When Ernie's parents got married in 1902, one of the things his dad,
Joe, brought with him from his parents house was a mirror. Ernie
still has the mirror in his living room. He also has a rocking chair
that his parents got when they got married.
There was a stained glass window in the old Catholic Church in
Parkersburg that had the name ``Nicklaus and family'' on the bottom.
It was the farthest South window on the East side of the church.
Ernie wondered what happened to it when they tore down the old church.
(Brenda also asked Fred about this, and he told her that yes, the
window had been there, and that no one knows what happened to it.)
Ernie liked sports, and remembers being over at his uncle Thole
Cramer, Sr.'s house a lot as a child. Thole and Sophie lived on the
corner just to the West of the Congregational Church in Parkersburg
(the house is no longer there). Thole, Sr. also liked sports, and
Ernie remembers that one time Thole got some tickets to a ball game in
Waterloo (baseball, I think), and took him and some of the boys. They
thought that was a great time. Ernie liked to play basketball.
Ernie's family grew up in a house about three doors west of where he
lived as an adult on Railroad Street. That first house is no longer standing. When
Ernie's brother Joe got married, he needed a place to live, and Ernie
bought the house he has now, and Joe and Mary Ann lived in it for many
years.
When Ernie's dad died, his two oldest brothers, Joe and Harm, quit
school to help support the family, but they wouldn't let Ernie quit
school. They knew he was smart and wanted him to finish. So Ernie
got a job helping the school janitor before and after school for 2
dollars a week.
Ernie says when the teachers would ask a question in school,
everybody's hands went up because they wanted to answer it, but he
never raised his hand. So every once in a while, the teachers would
ask him the answer, and he always had it. He says it didn't take them
long to figure out he was just quiet, but he really knew the answer.
Ernie says he and his brother Ralph were physically different in just
about every way. Ernie was small, and Ralph was big and muscular.
Ralph had light hair, and Ernie's was black. Ralph had a little pug
nose, Ernie didn't. Ralph's eyes were light blue, Ernie's were dark
blue. But they always got along good together. Somebody came into
the meat market once, and Ralph told them that Ernie was his younger
brother, and they wouldn't believe him because they looked so
different.
After Ernie finished school, he went to work for his brother Ralph in
the meat market.
After Ralph died, Ernie helped Ralph's wife Laura run the meat market
for a few years, but then she got remarried and decided to move to
Minnesota, so the meat market was sold, but Ernie continued working
there for the new owners. Laura and her second husband, John Hempen
lived in Morris, Minnesota, and are buried there.
Ernie's oldest brother Joe was a plumber for many years, and then
finished up working at Borden Soy Processing in Waterloo. He died of
a heart attack.
Ernie remembers Peter B. Nicklaus coming into the meat market a lot,
and he always wanted to stop and talk with Ernie a long time.
Elizabeth (Nicklaus) Heger was in the same grade in school as Ernie,
but she got real sick one year and had to stay out of school, so she
graduated a year after Ernie. Ernie graduated in 1929.
Ernie remembers Marie (Nicklaus) Scallon working in the town library
when she was young.
Ernie's mom (Anna) wanted to name him Ray, but his grandma Ostendorf
said that his name should be Ernest, after his uncle Ernest Ostendorf.
His grandma won out in the end, but his mother gave him the middle
name Ray.
Anne Cramer and her sister Margaret ran a dress shop in Waterloo.
When Anne was about 80 years old she got married. She had been seeing
Doc Lambert (who was a dentist --- Ernie didn't know his first name)
for a while, and they decided to get married and moved to Des Moines,
and were going to do some traveling.
Thole Cramer, Jr.
{After Ernie told this all to Brenda, Brenda talked
with Fred Nicklaus and Fred noted that it was Thole Sr. who had
the clothing store, not Thole Jr. as Ernie had said.}
ran a clothing shop on the main street where
Stewart's Antiques is now (in 1998 at 225 Third Street, Parkersburg).
George Nicklaus' pool hall was in the south half of what is now the
True Value Hardware Store and V and S Variety. It is two doors north of
Stewart's Antiques today. (In 1998, the address of the hardware store
is listed as 219 Third Street. The hardware store occupies what used
to be two buildings, and the present door into it is in the north
half, so presumably the pool hall sat at 221 Third Street. The
Falcon's Nest at 223 Third Street currently sits between the hardware
and Stewart's antiques.)
Sources for this individual: @S89@ @S111@
