Matilda Ziebarth was born at West Sand Lake, New York in 1859. She traveled west with the Ziebarths and Fechners in their migration to Minnesota and finally to Dakota Territory. The territorial census for Minnesota places here in the town of Cordova in 1865. Today, Cordova remains a small community located southwest of Minneapolis. Ten years later, the family group had relocated to Lake Henry, Minnesota, 125 miles north and west of their home in Cordova. In between, the U. S. Federal Census locates her in the town of Sharon, Minnesota—clearly an unsettled time for the family as they searched for steady work and housing.
Around 1875 she met and married William Koehler, a German immigrant. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate any record of their marriage; the date I’ve assumed here is based on the birth of their first child, Charles, in 1878 in Minnesota. At the time, Mathilda would have been just 18. William was about 10 years older, just shy of 30 years old. They had two additional children: Frank, whose birth date is unknown, and Emma, born in Iowa in 1880. Clearly, the newly married couple were no more rooted than Mathilda’s parents.
Eventually, the Koehler family settled on a farm near Devils Lake, North Dakota. Matilda died some time in the 1890’s when her children were still all teen-agers or younger. She was buried at Devil’s Lake, but no record of her death or burial survive1Details of her death noted here were provided by Arthur Seebart in his book..
William did not remarry. Unable to run the farm and raise children alone, he and the children went to live with Mathilda’s bother, Frederick Ziebarth, who had also taken in his parents, Charles and Louise, as well as his brother William at the Ben Hall Place after the Selkirk Hotel disaster.
As was common on the frontier, the children were forced to take on adult roles: Emma did all the cooking and housekeeping and the two boys were put to work on the farm. By 1900, William Koehler had moved out of the house (or perhaps died). Charles, now about 22, was also living on his own.
Arthur Seebart recounts that Charles and Frank went to work in William Ziebarth’s construction business. In 1905, Emma married Vurely Shartle and moved onto the Shartle farm near Williston, North Dakota. Frank initially followed his sister to the western side of the state, then moved on to Moosejaw, Canada, where he married but otherwise dropped out of sight.
Charles Koehler never married. He stayed, more or less, with his Uncle Will as long as his uncle lived; even following him into retirement at Gilroy, California. Charles died there and is buried in Gavilan Park Cemetery.