Return to The Family of Oscar & Frances Berlin/Hagen Home Page

The births and history of the children of Oscar and Frances Berlin/Hagen up to the time they were married is covered in Section I, Chapter Two and Chapter Three. This chapter will cover those children after they were married and their families. Most of the offspring of these families are still living and I have serious doubts as to whether they would care for me to speak for or about them. Therefore, I shall only present my personal knowledge of my siblings. For the sake of privacy I shall only use first names of their children. At some future date perhaps a member of each of these families will want to continue this history by compiling and presenting genealogical data and personal information about their own families.

Arnim Gilner and Adeline Hagen were married December 14, 1931. In all the years that I have known them I have never heard anyone use the name Arnim. He was always known as Odd and it was normally written as Od so from here on I shall refer to him as Od. Reverend J. Glaeser married Od and Adeline. He had a room fixed up in his church home near Tunnel City, Wisconsin where he conducted weddings. He was the same minister who had married Od’s father and mother about 30 years before. After their marriage they lived with Od’s parents until the next spring, and then rented the farm that they finally purchased.

They had two children. Duane (Boog) born in 1932 and Delores (Laurie) born in 1934. Laurie and I have the same birthday, she was born when I was eight years old..

I have many pleasant memories of being with them on the farm. Od and Adeline were good farmers because they loved to farm. The farm consisted of 120 acres with 80 acres under cultivation. They worked side by side during the preparing, the planting, the growing and the harvesting of their crops. It was primarily a dairy farm, and the caring for the livestock and the milking was also a cooperative effort. Very seldom was one of them in the barn alone. They also had some separate interests. Each spring Adeline would purchase 300 baby chicks and raise them to the adult stage. Normally about half of the 300 would be roosters. She would sell these and some of the hens. There were always about 75 to 100 laying hens that produced an average of 30 dozen of eggs per week. Eggs during depression were selling at about 9 cents per dozen. Adeline said,

"It wasn’t much, but it kept food on the table".

Od had a team of large gray horses. One was a Percheron and the other was a Clydesdale. They were beautiful. He would have them hitched to the wagon, and if he pulled on the reins and yelled in a certain way they would both come up on their hind legs and paw the air with their front legs. Their names were Prince and Dick. They were a part of the family, and he loved to show them off.

Many nights after milking was done, Od would say,

"Let’s go down to Mill Creek and catch some fish".

Od, Duane (always called Boog) and I would dig some worms and fish until well after dark. I caught my first big fish with them, a sixteen-inch trout. Od and Boog were good fishermen. Od fished the trout streams around Monroe County until he was 91 years old. He caught so many that Adeline had to can them. They ate them during the winter.

After we moved to the Vandervort farm in 1935 I would ride Nellie, my pony, down to Od and Adelines and spend all day there. I would tie Nellie up to a pole in the front yard and many times I would go out and Nellie would be gone. The bridle was there but no pony. I always accused Od of taking off her bridle so that I would have to walk home. Many are the times that I walked down the road, bawling my eyes out because that damn Od took that bridle off and let my pony get away. Every time I got home there would be Nellie, standing down by the barn or out by the pasture eating grass. Od still says to this day that Nellie scraped that bridle off by rubbing her head against the pole, but I have never believed him. At least I am not going to let him think I did. I always say that he let Nellie go home so that I wouldn’t stay around all day.

Adeline often made pancakes and I loved them. These were not the little four or five inch size but were the size that covered an entire dinner plate. When I was about ten years old I bragged to Od that I could eat twelve of those pancakes and he bet I couldn’t. Adeline said, "I will cook them and then you will have to eat them because I am not going to throw them out". I started eating and I got through four of them when I decided that I had to go to the bathroom that, of course, was outside. I went to the outhouse, (that’s what we called a bathroom in those days), and I never went back into the house. I had to lie down before I could get over my stuffed feeling so that I could walk home. Adeline still says,

She was always tricking me on food. Mother used to make milk gravy that I decided I didn’t like because I didn’t like the way it looked. I was at Adeline’s one night for supper, and she had a dish of gravy on the table that looked just like it. She passed some to me and I said,

She said,

I wanted to be a Norwegian like my father so I gobbled it up and remarked how good it was. I found out a few years later that lefse was Norwegian but it was a flat pancake made without eggs. I didn’t care for the Norwegian flat pancake called lefse but I sure liked that lefse gravy. I even ate it at home.

In 1963 Od and Adeline sold the farm and moved to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Duane had a business in the Dells, and for the next five years Od worked with Duane. In late 1967 they returned to Tomah and moved into the home where they have lived ever since. Od spent his time working as a bartender in Wyeville, Wisconsin, fishing and making woodcrafts. Just about all of our grandchildren have a rocking chair that was made by Od. Adeline worked in the lunchroom at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran School, and did a lot of volunteer work at the church and the Tomah Care Center. It is tradition in their Lutheran Church that when someone dies the church bell is tolled once for each year that the person lived. Adeline has been the bell puller and still is even though in February 2002 she will be eighty-nine. She said,

They also have a garden each year in the backyard of their home. Among other vegetables they grow and harvest enough potatoes to last them all winter. In December 2001 Od and Adeline celebrated their 70^th Wedding Anniversary. Both of them are still active with very sharp minds, and they are always busy.

Adeline has been a great help to me with her vast amount of knowledge and stories about the family over the years. She remembers things that I have forgotten and it was only after listening to her reminisce that the information came back into my memory. There will be more of her stories in Section II and III when we write about the ancestors of Oscar M. Hagen and Frances L. Berlin.

Lester and Norma were married in the Our Savior Lutheran Church, West Salem, Wisconsin on Oct 1, 1940. This was just before the folks and I left to go to Illinois. I don’t remember this wedding, and Adeline doesn’t think that I was there. They had a reception and a dance after the wedding. They lived in the village of West Salem after they were married. A daughter, Joan (Joanie) was born in August 1941. In October of 1943 their second child, a son, Marlyn (Pudgie) was born.

Lester did various jobs but his main occupation was over the road truck driver. In 1951 Norma became ill with cancer. She lived and suffered with it for the next two years. Mother returned from Illinois to help Norma during the last six weeks of her life and Dad came to West Salem about two weeks before she died. She died July 3, 1953. A copy of Norma’s obituary follows as it appeared in the La Crosse newspaper:

 After Norma’s death, Les’s parents moved to his home in West Salem and cared for the children while Les was away. A couple that were very good friends of Les and Norma were Lorene Olson Hiles and her husband. Not long after the death of Norma, Lorene’s husband died. Later Les and Lorene were married. Lorene then took over the responsibility of raising Joanie and Marlyn until the children left home.

Norma is the one member of my family that I know the least about. I can remember her playing the accordion and working as a hired girl in other homes. I was never really very close to her during the time we were growing up. Then shortly after they were married we moved to Illinois. In 1951 I was stationed for a short time at Fort McCoy, which was between Tomah and Sparta and not far from West Salem. I visited a couple of times with Norma and Les during that time. I wish I had known her better.

Wendell and Gwenith were married November 19, 1942 in St. Mary’s’ Catholic Church in Tomah, Wisconsin. Their wedding dance was held in the Hollywood Dance Hall, which was near Wilton, Wisconsin. The only reason that I can think of was that Gwen’s parents lived near there at that time.

Wen and Gwen lived for a short time around Oakdale, Wisconsin but by 1943 they were back in the southern part of Wisconsin. In 1943 Wen and I worked on a dairy farm near Bristol, Wisconsin about eight miles from Antioch. This was a dairy where we had a large herd of purebred Holsteins and milked them three times a day. I worked only in the dairy barn and Wen worked outside in the fields. When I went into the Navy in August of 1943, Wen had already left the dairy farm and was managing a farm for Joe Petrowski (sp) who owned the Antioch Meat Packing Company. This farm was near Trevor, Wisconsin. After he left this farm he did various jobs such as working at the cork factory in Trevor, Wisconsin. About 1962 he went to work for Regal China in Antioch, where he was the kiln operator. Most of the time he worked nights putting in ten and twelve hour shifts. One of their specialties was the production of the Jim Beam liquor bottles. Wen had the responsibility of firing these in the kiln. These became famous throughout the world as collector items. He retired from Regal China in 1982.

Wen and Gwen purchased a home in Camp Lake, Wisconsin; date is unknown to me at this time. Through the years Wen and Gwen added two daughters and a son to their family. Rosemary was born in 1944, Darlene in 1946 and Wendell Edward (Butch) in 1952.

One of the things that Wen and Gwen loved to do for relaxation was to polka. There were several places in southern Wisconsin, especially around Kenosha where they and their friends would go on weekends. They both enjoyed telling me about the bands they had heard and the halls where they had danced.

Wen and Gwen celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on November 14, 1992. Actually the celebration was held in the summer of 1992 at the home of their daughter, Darlene. 

Not many years after Wen retired he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He spent the last six months of his life as a resident of Hospitality Manor in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Wendell Oscar Hagen died May 12, 1995.

This is the obituary as it appeared in the Kenosha News, Kenosha, Wisconsin, May 15, 1995.

After Wen died Gwen and Butch lived at the house in Camp Lake. Gwen died December 22, 1996 in Memorial Hospital, Burlington, Wisconsin

Wen and Gwen were members of the Holy Name Catholic Church in Wilmot, Wisconsin. Gwen was a kind, caring and compassionate person. She spent many hours helping Mother and taking care of the folks as they grew older. When Wen became sick she had a great deal of worry and trials in trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

Some of the things that I remember about Wen are his loyalty and the effort that he put into his work. It did not make any difference whom he worked for he had a tremendous loyalty to that person or company. He would give 110% of himself to every employer. He was also very honest. He would rather cheat himself than to cheat someone else. I remember an incident when he went to the bank in Antioch to cash his check. There was a line and after the teller had given him the money he stepped aside to check it. Noticing an error he went to the end of the line and finally arrived back to the clerk. He said,

The teller said,

Wen said,

The clerk was most apologetic and was quite anxious to rectify the error. I don’t think that I would have gone back into the line if it had happened to me.

The Reverend M. Z. Hovela married Shelly and Vera June 27, 1941 in the Tomah Methodist Church. They lived in Tomah until the early part of 1942. Even though Shelly was handicapped with what was called a clubfoot (one leg was shorter than the other one) he went into the Army on limited duty and was stationed in South Carolina. Vera went with him and on February 16, 1943 their son was born in Fort Starch Army Hospital, Charleston, South Carolina. He was named Avery, which was the name of his grandfather, Avery Ranney. Shelly was honorably discharged from the U. S. Army September 18, 1943, and they returned to Tomah, Wisconsin. Sometime in 1944 Vera and Shelly were separated, and she and Avery went to live with Mother and Dad at the Hernquist farm. Vera and Shelly were divorced September 16, 1946 in Waukegan, Illinois.

Sheldon Joseph Ranney died of cancer March 9, 1986 in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.

Vera taught elementary school in the Hickory, Grass Lake and Zion schools. All of them were in Lake County, Illinois. During the time that she was teaching she went to college in Chicago and then graduated from Wisconsin State Normal Teachers College. When the folks bought their house in Antioch, Vera and Avery went with them and rented the upstairs apartment.

In about 1947 Vera met Lieutenant Commander Cecil L. Smith. Cecil was the Director, Fire-fighting Training School, United States Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois. They were married June 13, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois.

After their marriage they lived in Antioch. Later they lived in Alexandria, Virginia where Cecil did a tour of duty as the Commanding Officer of the USS Sheldrake (AGS-19). This ship was a member of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. He then became Assistant to the Director of Training, PRNC. He was in this position for fourteen months when he was promoted to Commanding Officer of the Naval Reserve Training Center, Alexandria, Virginia. In the early 1960’s Cecil retired from the U. S. Navy and they purchased a home in Pleasant Prairie, a suburb of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Vera went back to teaching school. Cecil worked in an Antioch Bank as a security guard and volunteered his time assisting the volunteer fire department of Antioch. Both he and Vera spent a great deal of their time helping the folks, especially after Dad died in 1968.

Cecil and Vera had a daughter, Teresa, born in 1955.

Cecil L. Smith died of a massive coronary at their home in Pleasant Prairie on August 22, 1981. He is buried in Wood National Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Vera taught in the Zion school system and was well known for her ability as a teacher. Sometime in the mid 1970’s she was diagnosed with bladder cancer and had emergency surgery. After her recovery she continued to teach, and volunteered much of her spare time with the United Ostomy Association. Then in the late 1990’s she was diagnosed with lung cancer and had more surgery. This later developed into Lymphoma.

Vera Louise Hagen died September 13, 1991 at the Central Dupage Hospital, Winfield, Illinois. She is buried in Wood National Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Vera taught me many things as we grew up. Some of those I have already written about in earlier chapters. In Antioch we palled around together during the time between her divorce and her marriage with Cecil Smith. I admired her looks, her independence and intelligence.

Marlyn and Elsie were married November 11, 1943 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Marlyn was preparing to ship overseas, and when he did so, Elsie returned to Waukegan, Illinois. During the time that Marlyn was in the European Theater of operation Elsie went up to Tomah, Wisconsin and lived with Adeline and Od on the farm.

Marlyn went to England as a medical corpsman. He disliked this job because they did not allow him to carry a rifle, and he wanted to be with a total combat unit. When he got to England he volunteered for  the U. S. Rangers and was placed with the 5^th Ranger Battalion. A description of the D Day operations in which the 5^th Rangers took part appears below. Marlyn and I talked about this action in Christmas of 1946 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was in the hangar on the day in England that General George Patton made his speech to the troops, in which he said,

"Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You win it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

After the war Marlyn and Elsie moved to Minneapolis where he attended a school that prepared him as a commercial artist. Both Elsie and I have forgotten the name of the school and I have been unable to find it through research.

In about 1950 they returned to Antioch, where they bought the Antioch Advertiser. This was a weekly advertising paper that was distributed free throughout the area. After the paper was printed he would take them down to the folks and who ever was available was put to work folding papers so that they could be delivered the next day.

The picture on the left was written by Marlyn and presented in the Antioch Advertiser to honor her on Mother's Day.

During the time that they were in Antioch, Marlyn became a part of the community. He joined the Antioch Moose and served for one year as the governor of the lodge. In 1954 Marlyn sold the Antioch Advertiser. He and Elsie moved to Zion, Illinois where Marlyn established the Zion Advertiser. When this paper was merged with the Zion-Benton News, he continued as advertising manager. While on the Zion paper, Marlyn worked closely with the Zion Commercial Division of the Chamber of Commerce, creating and planning citywide sales. After leaving the Chamber, be was hired on two occasions by the Chamber to manage the annual Zion Home Show formerly held every April at Zion-Benton High School as a promotional and revenue producing event. After leaving the Zion paper, Marlyn worked briefly in the advertising department of J. Blumberg Inc. in Waukegan. He then went back into business for himself. He operated the Waukegan Advertiser. It was a weekly advertising paper with offices at 228 N. Genesee St.

During all of these events starting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Marlyn and Elsie produced seven children. Jerry in 1946 and Kathleen in 1948 were both born in Minneapolis. Deborah Sue 1950 was born in Waukegan. Marlon 1954, Wanda 1956, Chip Kevin 1959 and Lisa 1963 were all born in Zion.

Marlyn (Pudge) Wayne Hagen died January 5, 1966.

Pudge’s death was the most difficult for me. After all, in addition to, my father and mother, he was the one with whom I spent the first 12 years of my life. He was the one that I enjoyed the most as he either told or read stories to me. He was the one that I was most envious of when he would display some talent that I could not equal. He was the one that I hated the most when he would tease me or scare me with some of his tricks. He was the one that I loved the most when he would include me in his adventures. I miss him.

In Chapter four I stopped my life story at the point where I left the family to join the U. S. Navy in 1943. It is my intention to write a Section IV as my life story. That Section will also include information about the two families shown above.

This Section was finished in February of 2002. It covers the lives of Oscar M. Hagen and Frances Louise Hagen and the children born to that family. The only members of the family still living as of this date are, Adeline Hagen/Gilner and her husband, Arnim; Elsie E. Koenig/Hagen; and me, Dean Hagen, and my wife Virginia A. Snowberger/Hagen.

Other than my wife, Virginia and sister, Adeline, the following people assisted in obtaining information for this section. Elsie Koenig/Hagen and her daughter, Kathy; Avery and Teresa, son and daughter of Vera; Darlene, daughter of Wendell; Lorene Christianson, wife of Lester. I appreciate your help and I thank you.

The descendants of these families are left to carry on the name and traditions. It is hoped that within each of the individual families there will be at least one person who will research and continue the history of their family. A greater hope is that somewhere within these families there will be someone who will have an interest in genealogy that will continue the research of the entire family. My files are available to all who have that interest.

So ends Section I.

TOP OF PAGE

Return to The Family of Oscar & Frances Berlin/Hagen Home Page