Grandma Barbara
~Her life and my memories~
My Mom and Grandma
From the time I was a little girl I had always accepted our grandma being in a wheelchair. It was just how it was-it went hand in hand. Perhaps it brought my curious mind as a young child to ask my mom why grandma always had one. As cousins and I got older, it was just how we knew grandma always was, whether we went to visit her or if she came to us.
Like me I am sure she was quite surprised at how quickly life turned the corner in terms of her health. Nobody expects to have something change their personal health so radically.
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about our Grandmother Barbara. When I experience stress (especially during this pandemic) it can seriously effect my disability and lead to falls. Thankfully no injuries but I can feel Grandma within me, telling me, "It's alright, you are okay, just pick yourself up and keep going, do what you have to do to make life bearable".
Despite having polio and having to be in a wheel chair, Grandma never gave up! Her strength, stamina & independence, tenacity along with the stubbornness are traits that I have seen in both myself along with our parents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins that have descended from Bruemmer/Cook line.
Now, Let us travel back to the early 1900's
Beginning in 1900, San Francisco dealt with the Bubonic plague also known as the black death which spread throughout California. By November 1908 San Francisco was finally declared plague-free. But how?
According to one historical site, the most popular theory of how the plague ended is through the implementation of quarantines. The uninfected would typically remain in their homes and only leave when it was necessary, while those who could afford to do so would leave the more densely populated areas and live in greater isolation. Not unlike the COVID pandemic situation.
April 18th the 1906 earthquake and fire. It may have flattened the city of San Francisco but never the attitudes of those who lived in the city and soon began to rebuild.
Below are some beautiful colorized versions of four stereoscope cards showing San Francisco after the earthquake. Stereoscope cards are somewhat akin to what view master discs are today. These cards were used in with a stereoscope viewer (see photo to the left). Long before computers and TV, collecting and viewing these were one of the forms of entertainment for the young and old, along with reading books, card games and the lost art of family conversation.
In 1911, the Cook family moves out of San Francisco to Cloverdale.
As an Iron Molder, the continual exposure to iron dust and welding fumes was increasing the risk of lung inflammation for Charles. Being more of a country man who wanted to farm and raise crops, the idea of moving up north to the area of Sonoma was quite appealing to Charles.
Nell was always a city girl having been born and grown up in San Francisco. Don’t know how much convincing it took Charles to get Nell used to the idea but they soon said goodbye to San Francisco and made their way to Cloverdale.
The year of our Grandma Barbara's birth.
The biggest headlines in the news (both local and world wide) during the year Barbara was born were as follows:
In 1912 there was a movement to create a greater San Francisco in which part of Alameda county including Oakland Piedmont in Berkeley and northern San Mateo County from San Bruno Northwards would become the boroughs of San Francisco with the city and county of San Francisco functioning as Manhattan based on the New York City model.
But this idea was defeated by the opposition! It was brought up again in 1917 1923 and 1928 but never was the plan implemented or to come up again.
THE TITANIC
These two advertisements from the SF Call newspaper show travel advertisements for the new ship called the Titanic. As you can see from the advertisement on the left, it was due to sail from New York on April 20th. However as we all know from history this would not be the case.
On April 15, the ship they said would never sink known as the Titanic hits a major iceberg and sinks. Of 2,200 passengers and crew (832 passengers and 685 crew members) it is estimated that 1,517 lives were lost.
The "Lux School for Industrial Training for Girls" opens the Book Club of California.
Miranda Lux endowed a school in 1894 to teach girls five subjects: sewing and textiles, cooking, health, art and retailing and merchandising.
The Lux School for Industrial Training for Girls opened in August of 1912 in facilities shared with the neighboring California School of Mechanical Arts also known as the Lick School.
In 1913, Lux dedicated its own building, on property bought from Lick and another nearby vocational school for boys, the Wilmerding School of Industrial Arts.
For much of its history, Lux shared its principal, George Merrill, with Lick and Wilmerding. Under the same head, the three consolidated many operations, but retained independent endowments, boards of directors and curricula until 1939. Lux operated until 1952, when it ceased operations.
A New Highway Is Opened!
William Howard Taft is the 27th President of our country and he is alright~as indicated in this sheet music song above!
It is the second week of November, Nell now 26, is pregnant with their fourth child.
The Cooks have quite the busy household in their new home in Cloverdale California. Daughter Evelyn is now age 5, her brother Edmond almost four and Eleanor two.
Believe it or not that time there were no hospitals close by for a woman to have the baby. There were two choices, depending upon the timing. To give birth at home with a local town physician and midwife or to have it in the hospital in San Francisco. This was verified by Jan Southard of the Cloverdale historical Society during my visit with her four years ago.
Jan explained to me that when pregnant women were close to their due date they were put on a train and sent to stay with San Francisco relatives usually having the baby at Saint Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco.
St. Mary’s hospital now known as Saint Mary’s medical Center is the oldest continuously operating hospital in San Francisco it was opened on July 27, 1857 by the sisters of Mercy. It withstood 1906 earthquake but was gutted by fire as shown in these two pictures below.
Our grandmother was born on November 16 at 6 PM. The attending physician was a doctor Charles M Paulson. He was assisted by a midwife whose name on the birth certificate is difficult to read.
Interestingly enough when you look at the birth certificate for grandma- the full name of the child is written as Josephine Barbara Cook. Although I’ve never been able to find any Ancestors named Barbara, I do know that the name Josephine comes from Nell’s Aunt Josephine Filben Benard.
It would not be until 1914 that the idea of a maternity hospital would be created. So in 1912, most babies were delivered at home with the aid of a doctor and midwife. 90% of doctors at that time had no formal education! Scary thought but true!
Grandma and her siblings were taught at the Cloverdale School. The school was built on land donated by J. A. Kleiser at West and School streets in 1890, and torn down in 1917. This picture above and others to follow are courtesy of "The Press Democrat" from their August 14, 2016 issue which looked at the history of Cloverdale back in the day.
The Cloverdale Reveille Newspaper was founded in 1878 and is oldest weekly newspaper continuously published under the same name in the state of California.
Many times, the Cook children and their school friends were featured in the newspaper. Everything from the honor roll, the plays and who was graduating from one grade to the next.
At one time, Cloverdale had no less that 4 newspapers when the Cook family first moved there.
Although Grandma and her sister Evelyn spent their later years in wheelchairs, they were both quite active both in sports and in the school plays!! Grandma loved basket ball as did Evelyn who also played baseball. Other Cook siblings also did sports and/or plays as well.
Below are some articles I have found from the Cloverdale Reveille on them. It is with great appreciative thanks to Jan of the Cloverdale Society for scanning the papers to be featured on the website called, Newspapers.com.
When Uncle Bill and I first met Jan four years ago, she told me that they were just in the process of scanning these papers. As you can well imagine, doing this is a very long and tedious process, especially starting with the year 1878 to 2004!
Below are articles from the years 1924 through 1931.
On Labor Day, 1924 a group of young people participated in the annual Redwood Pageant. The goal of the pageant was to make money for the preservation of the Redwoods and to make homes for children who had tuberculosis
Cook siblings also attended Cloverdale High School. Both Evelyn and Barbara participated in school sports and plays! Here are a few pages from the year books!
More Cloverdale Reville News articles from 1926 through 1931
AND NOW FOR
Cloverdale as it looked in 1905
Cloverdale as it looked in 1910
The Cloverdale
Free Library
Downtown Cloverdale 1920's
The Cook Farm and family photos
Taken in the back of the house in 1912 by either Nell or neighbor. Back of the photo reads: " Eleanore, Evelyn and Eddy with Dad"
THE COOK HOME~
As it looked like in their time.
During one of my ancestry/birthday vacations with Uncles Bill and Jeff, we spent a day in Cloverdale covering the various places I had wanted to visit.
Fortunately, Uncle Bill remembered the exact location of the Cook Family home and graciously pulled over to the side of the road, moving the car back and forth so I could get some good shots of the home. A year later I learned that the house had been torn down. I am ever so grateful to have had the chance visit the property and taken these shots below.
Above is a great photo of the Cook Family. In the back row is Nell, Edmund and Charles. Front row from right to left. Evelyn, Eleanore, Barbara, Eugene and Jeanette. Their baby brother Norbert had not yet been born.
Here are two pages of the High School year book which show Grandma. One is her Sophomore Class photo and the other the Honor Society!
Older sister Eleanore was studying to become a nurse, a field that also greatly interested our grandma. So upon graduation, Barbara went into nursing studying at the very hospital she was born at St. Mary's of San Francisco.
Then, on May 11, 1933, she came down with a case of appendicitis as reported by the Cloverdale Reville.
As we know from our family lore, Grandma Bruemmer did not stay in nursing school for very long. In 1935 she would meet her soul mate, Grandpa William John Bruemmer of St. Louis.
Grandma and Grandpa
holding our Aunt Barbara
Cousin Barbara once asked our grandma why she never remarried and she replied, "Your grandfather was my soul mate and no one could even measure up to what he was!"
THE HOUSE AT 100 SANTA MARGARITA
We all remember Grandma's house!! What fun it was to visit her, ride the stair mover, play in her garden or hang out by the pool.
Six years ago, I drove up to San Rafael to revisit this neighborhood and perhaps take some pictures. Instead I was deterred by this sign below.
Alas the camera stayed in the car, but through google, I was able to find a real estate site which had photos of the house from several angles.
One of the great things, Grandma loved about the house was the ability to garden in the front and along the right side of the house. Her fave flowers were chrysanthemums and dahlias.
Grandma was part of the Mum Society and would enter her flowers in the annual San Rafael Flower show. Below are several articles on the awards grandma won for her flowers.
Sitting on the floor , I closed my eyes and tried to visualize the inside of the house from my faded memories. I hope these memories perhaps bring some of yours with our Grandma Barbara!
Walking on the path, you would arrive at the big front door -but the door handle always stuck and it took quite a bit of a push and pull to get it to open. Once inside to the right was a big marble table, where the mail (outgoing and incoming) was put on along with several library books that included the famous Harlequin romance novels!
To the left, a small alcove next to the stairs where the TV set was and a basket with toys for us kids to play with.
On the right was was the sunny living room. In the center was grandma with her smile. Looking right between the fireplace and the window was the big black leather chair. On the immediate left of the room was a small table that had a black rotary phone on top. The couch was red velvet or perhaps that cover that went on it.
Over the fireplace was the famous Last Supper painting. On the mantle, you would sometimes see old family photos or graduation photos of her grandchildren. A big bay window is at the end of the room and in front of it and a small round table. To the left is a tall shelf full of trinkets/statues and vases.
Every time Mom and I came to visit, you would see Evelyn sitting at the round table playing solitaire!
Evelyn had a small red dog named Lulu and grandma had a black and white Boston terrier called Trixie. Once in a while the two dogs would get in the same room and then look out! Grrrrrrrrrrs and barks!
LULU TRIXIE
Making another left turn there is the dining room table. There may have been other paintings on the walls and at one end was a folding table with a picture of a bridge.
The kitchen cabinets were of a rather dull green. On the left there would be a small cabinet full of those dishes that grandma owned they were pink flowers and green leaves on them.
The floor may have been red I cannot recall or it could have been one of those floors that had different squares of colors. A small green table is on the right with a few chairs. Beyond that on the right is a big cabinet in the middle a sink.
Straight ahead is an old fridge and to the left is the big stove with the box of Quaker oats or cream of wheat on top. Many times Mom and I took her to doctor appointments and we would either get treated to lunch at McDonald’s which was not far from where grandma lived or we would have lunch at her house.
Lunch at grandma’s is one memory that stands out. Once in the kitchen, I knew exactly what was coming! Grandma would first wheel herself over to the drawer where the bread was kept and it was a rather sticky drawer that she had to pull hard and she would put the packet of wonder bread on the table. Then she would wheel herself over to the refrigerator where she would get that jar of miracle whip and the package of Velveeta cheese and that would be our lunch followed by fig newtons.
The funny thing is that as much as I hated those type of sandwiches as a little girl, I now love using miracle whip these days and as for Velveeta cheese it’s great to put on fried zucchini into an omelet.
Going through the kitchen before we get to the stairs, on the left there is a long hallway closet that seem to go on forever. It was full of coats, suitcases, boxes, rain gear etc. Quite fun to play in as little kids!
I recall going in this closet when grandma was getting ready to move over to the property in the back of Aunt Shirley‘ s house. Evelyn had already moved out so Mom and I helped with the packing.
As I went into the big closet I could hear from the other room grandma say, "Take whatever you would like to have". I found an envelope that said Campbell Soup, but for all the years that I have kept it I had no idea what connection it had into our family until I later learned that aunt Evelyn‘s first husband John Mannix worked for Campbell Soup as a distributor!!
There was also a record called music to strip by! I asked grandma, "Is there something that you’re not telling me?!" She had no idea where the record had come from but I later learned it was the something that Uncle Bill had bought quite a long time ago!!!
Now face the thickly carpeted stairs to the right. There was the lift the grandma used for many years was the best way for her to get upstairs and it was amazing how she was able to do it all the time. Once in a while she’ll let us kids right up and down on it which we all thought was great fun.
At the top of the stairs to the left was Evelyn’s room. Straight ahead with the big yellow bathroom and I remember this so clearly because it was fun to sit up higher on the toilet seat that grandma used all the time and as I would look along the bathroom there would be that huge can of Listerine.
Next to that was either one (or two?) rooms and then finally grandma’s room on the far right, with a little room of an attic upstairs.
My strongest memory of grandma is sitting with her and I would put my hand on top of the handle of the wheelchair she would put her hand on top I would put my hand on top and then we switch over switch over switch it over. It brought her a giggle and it always made me laugh.
Grandma was never up on the modern technology of the 1980’s and didn’t quite know how an answering machine worked. Once the parents and I got home, we would see the machine light blinking, you press play and all you would hear is "Mother" and then beep, because as we know you have to wait for the beep and then you can leave your message.
When our grandma turned 80 we all chipped in together to give her a party at her home and buy her a VCR, so she could rent videos from the library and always have something interesting to watch. However, thinking it was a toaster she asked where exactly do you put the bread in?!
Grandma Bruemmer, I miss you terribly but I am ever so grateful and appreciative of all the time we spent together! You were so very special and lived an amazing life!
