Mathilda Wendel 

Note:

a) Mathilde Wendel was born August 18, 1862 near the Pedernales river on what was later the August Rabke place. She did not get much formal education but was able to read and write and loved and respected her teacher, Mr. Larsen. She spent her childhood days in the Pedernales area. Her father died when she was 2 years old. They were a poor family and every one had to work. For a while she made her home with her sister Martha Klett and her brother Adam. Later she went to Loyal Valley and worked for the Henry Keyser family. There she met Elias Rode and married him in her 18th year on June 30, 1881. She was able later to take care of her mother who died in her home.

Her name will never be found in a history book but her children will always remember her as a friendly and hospitable person. No matter then some one came to their home one of the first questions her husband would ask was "Have you eaten?" She did not have a refrigerator or ice box, but she cheerfully got her frying pan and prepared some ham or bacon and eggs, if there were no left-overs. And having ten children there were seldom any left-overs. There was always a room for one more at the table and no one was ever refused an over night lodging. In her early years she was a cheerful person and liked to sing.

Mathilda Wendel was married to Elias Rode on June 30, 1881. Eleven children blessed this union. They are Rebecka, Sarah, Seth, Sem, Enos, Regu, Thirza, Elam, Aaron, Obed and Eli.

When World War I came and two of her sons, Enos and Regu had to go into the army it cast a dark shadow over her life. By then she also had an "open leg" which was very painful. She spent the greater part of her last years in her rocking chair, by the window in her bedroom, next to the kitchen, where most of the family activities were. She had her sore leg propped up on another chair and her Starks "Gebet Buch" (Prayer Book) within reach on a little table next to her. She was never idle. She darned, patched, made button holes and knitted, and even sewed little garments by hand for her little grandchildren, whom she loved dearly.

It was a sad day in the lives of her family when they laid her to rest two months before her 63rd birthday. She dies June 19, 1925 and was laid to rest in the family cemetery near the place where she lived all of her married life.

Note:

1) Near the Pedernales River on what was later the August Rabke place.