Name/Title
Bertsch family: Gottfried & Katie (Weible) Bertsch, farmers in Herbert Township, Traill County, NDEntry/Object ID
2023.327.1Description
As shown in their family tree, Gottfried Bertsch and Katie Weible were both born in Dettingen an der Erms, Germany. On 26 April 1917, towards the end of WWI, Gottfried Bertsch married Katharina (Katie) Weible in Metzingen, Germany, which is located about 6 km (4 mi) west of Dettingen.
Gottfried and Katie Bertsch had two children Lena and Otto, in Dettingen before immigrating to the USA in 1924. Gottfried, Katie and children arrived in NYC in August 1924 and made their way to Hillsboro, North Dakota. They found employment on the farm of Hermann and John Grothmann, where Gottfried was employed as a farm hand. The Grothmann farm was located in Section 25 in Blanchard Township in Traill County, ND.
By 1930, Gottfried and Katie had purchased a farm in the SW Qtr. of Sect. 4 in Herberg Township, where they lived with their two children, Lena and Otto. In 1938, Gottfried and Katie had another son, Alvin Bertsch, who was born in Halstad, MN.
Gottfried and Katie Bertsch raised Lena, Otto and Alvin on their farm in Herbert Township.
Lena, born on 17 November 1917 in Dettingen, attended country schools in the Traill County townships near the farms where she lived by Blanchard and Hillsboro. On 20 March 1943, Lena Bertsch, age 25, married Albert John Beckman, age 31. After serving in WWII, Albert, Lena and their family lived and farmed near Borup, MN. In the mid-1950s, because Albert Sr suffered from emphysema, they began spending winters in Phoenix, Arizona. Albert and Lena had three sons. The first two, Albert Jr and David, were born while they still farmed by Borup, MN, and the third son, Joseph, was born in Phoenix, AZ. In the late 1950s, Albert and Lena Beckman sold their farm by Borup and permanently moved to Phoenix. Albert Beckman Sr only lived to the age of 67, passing away due to his emphysema on 18 December 1979 in the Veterans Hospital in Phoenix, AZ. Lena (née Bertsch) Beckman passed away on 21 June 2012, age 94, in Prescott, AZ.
As shown in the family tree, Otto Christian Bertsch, was born on 25 May 1923 in Dettingen, Germany. Otto was 1 year and 3 months of age, when he immigrated in 1924 to the USA with his parents and sister Lena. Otto attended a rural Herberg Township school and graduated from the eighth grade. He did not go to high school in Hillsboro, but learned farming from his father Gottfried, and started faming at the age of 18. He bought farmland in Section 26 in Hillsboro Township. On 14 May 1955, Otto Bertsch married Pearl Ostby in Fargo, ND. Pearl
had previously been married to Richard Lykken, and they had two children, Patricia and Randy Lykken, in Fargo. Otto adopted Patricia and Randy, and they took the Bertsch family name to become Pat Bertsch and Randy Bertsch. Otto and Pearl had three sons, Otto Jr., John and Leon Bertsch. Sadly, John Bertsch became ill with leukemia, and passed away, age six, in 1963. Otto is shown in a photograph taken in about 1980 with his surviving children. Otto and Pearl Bertsch divorced in 1982. Otto Bertsch married Sandy (née Stene) Scherfenberg in 1990 in Hillsboro, and they resided on a farm near Hillsboro. Otto had started a trucking business in 1959, which he operated for almost 50 years, retiring in 2008. Otto Bertsch passed away in 2012, age 89.
Gottfried and Katie’s second son, Alvin Bertsch, was born in 1938, 15 years after the birth of their first son, Otto. Alvin was born in Halstad, MN. Alvin grew up on the Bertsch farm located in the SW Qtr of Sect. 4 in Herberg Township, about 6 miles east of Hillsboro. Alvin went to elementary school in Hillsboro, but attended high school at the Northwest School of Agricultural in Crookston, MN. Alvin Bertsch married Shirley Mae Renner in 1961 in Ada, MN. Alvin and Shirley had five children, first two sons, Dan and Steven, and then three daughters, Leann, Gayle and Kara. A family photograph taken on their 60th wedding anniversary in 2021, shows Alvin and Shirley with four of their children, Leann, Gayle, Steven and Daniel. In 2013, after their children had grown and left to pursue their own careers and lives, Alvin and Shirley sold 10 acres of their farm that included the homestead and rented their remaining farmland to a neighbor.
Alvin and Shirley moved to West Fargo, ND. Shirley (Renner) Bersch passed away unexpectedly at home on 17 January 2023 (see obituary). Alvin Bertsch continues to reside in West Fargo.
For more information on Gottfried and Katie (Weible) Bertsch, see Chapter 18 (pages 275 to 304) in my book, "A family history for Katie (Koenig) and Adam Weible" (Catalogit Family History entry 2022.320.1). Jack LudwigAcquisition
Accession
2023.327Source or Donor
John A Ludwig
