Ursula Jeanette

Born: April 27, 1915

Memories of Ursula (Sella) (Martens) Peters

Ursula will be 87 years old April 27, 2002.

Every Christmas morning there was a bowl filled with fruit, nuts, and candy at each of our places at the table. We never hung up stockings on Christmas Eve. One Christmas we got one gift for all four of us. It was a small metal Victrola that you cranked up. There were also some records to play!

The Christmas after Papa died (I was 7 years old), I got a doll and Margaret got two, but they were smaller. These came from Grandma and Grandpa Martens. The doll was made in Germany, and Judy has it now. It will be 80 years old this Christmas 2002.

We decorated our tree with cherries on a wire and rope candy. One year Dick got under the tree and ate the cherries and the rope candy!

We went to grade school in Pound, 1st through 10th. We walked to Coleman for my 11th grade. For my 12th grade Johnny Sievert picked all of us up in the morning and brought us home for lunch then back again. Mom paid him to do this.

After Papa died, Grandma and Grandpa Martens gave us the house. We still owed them $2,000, but they gave it to us. Mom worked at the grocery store and got $40 a month.

I started working at the restaurant in Pound. That is where my lemon pie recipe came from. There were slot machines in there, and the salesmen would come in and play them for a long time. When they left, Unice and I would play, and we won quite a few times!

Margaret went to Stevens Point and got a two-year teaching degree. She lived with Uncle George Martens (he was a lawyer) and took care of his eight children for room and board!

Lawrence went to Green Bay Badger Business College and then went to work for Frigo cheese factory in Pound.

Richard went to Oshkosh and got a business degree and then he went into Service.

The day I got married, July 29, 1939, Frigo's burned down. We spent the first hour after the wedding watching them haul stuff out of the building. Lawrence spent all day down there!

Grandpa Brault died in April 1915. I think it was from diabetes. Grandma Brault came to live with us at my dad's insistence. They owned the hotel in Coleman. Grandma did the cooking and she taught me how to make bread. She also did a lot of hand quilting. Judy has one of her quilts! Grandma Brault bought Mom her first gas stove with her first old age check (now called Social Security). She lived with us until her death in October 1940. She was 81 years old.

These are from my memories of growing up.

AUNT SULA'S 90th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION:



MORE PICTURES TO COME...Doesn't she look wonderful for 90????
Here are wonderful pictures from Joan 5/19:







92nd BIRTHDAY PHOTOS

Ursula's 95th Birthday Celebration:

A WONDERFUL GIFT and A HEART- FELT THANK YOU to the PETERS FAMILY

Oftentimes, I wonder where my talent and interests in Art evolved from. Why did I have a strong yearning to sew, quilt,weave,sculpt, write, play musical instruments, and a never ending quest for knowledge? I remember my mom with the pump-action Singer sewing machine making/patching and doing some hand sewing but she never quilted to my knowledge but I have always loved fabrics and saw a class on Channel 11 on quilting many years ago and that is how I started. And, like all my projects, I had to read, collect books and just know everything about quilts. I even envisioned someday possibly doing art quilts and publishing, but life has a way of rearranging our life plans. My goal now is directed toward family - a most wonderful adventure in knowing myself thru our family.

Judy had mention some years ago about a quilt that Great Gramma Hermine Brault had made and that she had and for years, I just wanted a picture, but more importantly to feel it. I just knew that I would revisit Hermine making the quilt in her time. The Peters Family presented this quilt to me at Aunt Sula's 90th Birthday in my absence and my daughter just delivered it to me on Sunday. I want to thank the Peters family from the bottom of my heart. This is such a treasure. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I wanted to reconstruct the quilt as it originally was but Judy suggested I make something for each of my sisters to share the quilt with the family. There are 25 squares and I will make something wonderful for each of my sisters to preserve the memory of Hermine and Peters Family gift. This will always be a family treasure.

Judy provided a little history of the quilt. The quilt was made for my mother in 1937. Sharen and I had it on our bed as a summer quilt for as long as I can remember!!!We would love it if you made a pillow or something else from the remainder of the squares. Mom says she can remember a bunch of ladies who would come over and make quilts. Oh to be back in those days!