Tobias and Lydia Guenthner
Tobias Guenthner, son of Adam Sr., came to the United States with his parents in 1893 at the age of two. He grew up on a farm in the Mannhaven area.
Lydia Kilber, daughter of Adam Sr., came to the United States with her parents in 1911 at the age of 15. She began working for the Benjamin Stoeltings at Expansion and later worked at the Loy Hotel in Stanton.
In 1914, Tobias and Lydia were married at Luther Gemeinde Church near Mannhaven. They farmed in that area until 1948 when they retired and moved into Hazen. Their home place is the farm where Leavard Sailer now lives and owns Happy Acres Trailer Park [1988]. Most of their land was lost to the government for a very poor price when the dam was built.
The children never lacked for pastime. They would livetrap skunks and keep them in a shed until the price on pelts went up. Then they would kill them and sell the pelts. They also enjoyed the rather dangerous sport of tearing down the steep hills on the farm at breakneck speed with the sled and horses. Miraculously, neither the children nor the horses were ever seriously injured. This sport took place summer and winter and, of course, only when their parents weren’t home. Their was an old highchair downstairs with wheels on it. They would take turns, with one sitting in the chair and the other pushing it as fast as they could around the room. This fun was put to an end when dad took the wheels off the chair.
Christmas 1938 was a joyous occasion with the birth of another baby. The joy soon turned to sadness when the baby boy became very ill, with the weather too bad to get a doctor. Knowing there was little hope, and with the baby not yet baptized, Lydia held him and Tobias baptized him. Baby John died in February. The weather was too bad to get out, so they kept the body in the living room until the weather cleared and Tobias took it to the undertaker with the sled.
After they retired, they lived in Hazen. Tobias died in 1969. Lydia continued to live in Hazen until 1983 when she entered the Beulah Nursing Home, where she died in 1986.
~Source: Hazen Jubilee book, 1913-1988
Tobias Guenthner, b. 1891; d. 28 May 1969
Lydia Kilber Guenthner, b. 13 Aug 1895; d. 08 Apr 1986
~Both buried in St. Matthew's Ev. Lutheran Cemetery
The children of Tobias & Lydia Guenthner:
Lorraine, born in 1915; married George Kruckenberg
Ervin, 1917-1958, married Irene Galster
Valinda, born in 1918, married Herb Reich, later Claude Droste
Otto, born in 1921, married Frieda Adolf
Elthor, born in 1922, married Emma Rogers
Anna, born in 1924, married Eugene Oster
Ruth, born in 1928, married Oscar Heine and later Herb Oster
Bennie, born in 1929, married Henrietta Loning
Reuben, born in 1934, married Janice Swanson
John, born 17 Dec 1938, died in February 1939
~Source: Hazen Jubilee book, 1913-1988