| Parents:
Marriage: Occupation: |
Carl Balder Maria Ratter Mary Lusius Farm laborer [Source: Source: NA Film No. T9-0615, p. 169A] Section foreman for the Northern Pacific Railroad in Clear Lake [June 20, 1910 to Oct. 17, 1910] |
| Children: | Amelia "Milly" M. | Feb. 24, 1886 | † Feb. 23, 1946 |
| Alfred "Fred" Frank | Aug. 9, 1887 | † Apr. 15, 1962 | |
| Emil Gustave | June 21, 1889 | † Feb. 23, 1957 |
| Widowed: | Abt. 1900 |
| 2nd Marriage: | Maria "Mary" Kampa |
| April 23, 1900 | |
| St. Lawrence Catholic Church | |
| Duelm, Benton, Minnesota | |
| Children: | Ervin Michael | Sept. 15, 1902 | † Sept. 1986 |
| Margaret Mary | 1907 | † Feb. 26, 1932 | |
| Mary | June 11, 1911 | † June 11, 1911 | |
| Infant | May 18, 1913 | † May 18, 1913 | |
| Joseph Louis | Oct. 20, 1918 | † Feb. 25, 1929 |
| Notes: | August lived in Neudorf, Germany, before he moved to America. He immigrated with his parents and siblings on the passenger ship "Saxonia" which sailed |
| from Hamburg on April 20, 1870 and
arrived in New York on May 6, 1870.
At the time of the 1880 United States census, August was 20 years old, single and living with his parents and brother Robert on the family farm in St. George, Benton county, Minnesota where he and his brother worked as farm laborers [Source: NA Film No. T9-0615, p. 169A]. There is a second listing for August in the 1880 census, which shows him being 20 years old, single and working as a railroad laborer. In this case he was living in Avon, Stearns county, Minnesota with 48 other railroad laborers, 3 male cooks, and 1 boarder for railroad laborers (including his cousin, Jacob Abfalter) [Source: NA Film No. T9-0634, p. 511A]. At the time of the May 9, 1885 Minnesota state census, August was 25 years old and living with his parents, brother Carl Balder Jr. and his wife and 2 children in St. George, Benton county, Minnesota. On Sept. 23, 1910 when he was 50 years old, Gust was living in Palmer with his second wife Mary Kampa Balder, their children Ervin (age 7) and Margaret (age 3), along with Gust's three children from his first wife: Millie (24 years), Fred (22 years), and Emil (21 years). Gust worked as the Section Foreman for the Clear Lake Station of the Northern Pacific Railway Company until he resigned with satisfactory service on Oct. 17, 1910. His employment application described him as 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighing 160 lbs. with blue eyes and dark hair. His previous experience was listed as: "Until April 1908 farming in Benton & Sherburne Counties Minnesota "Men who will certify to this are F. Henkemeyer, merchant Clear Lake Minn.
"April 1908 to present worked as laborer and foreman on Section for NPRwy" At the time of the 1930 federal census, August was 69 years old and living with his wife Mary and son "Irving" in Tanner, King county, Washington. They owned their own home which was appraised at $3,000 [$30,000 in 2001 dollars] [Source: NA Film #T626-2505, p. 2A, E.D. 376, Image 0934]. August was working as a farmer and his son was a "looptender" in a logging camp. The family did not own a radio.On February 26, 1932 water was running heavily on the roads in north central Washington, but they were all open except Blewett Pass. Rain fell steadily in Wenatchee all morning. Severe flood conditions were forecast in Snohomish county, north of Seattle. The Sultan river, tributary of the Skykomish, rose six feet in eight hours the previous day and was steadily approaching flood stage. The Snohomish and Stillaguamish rivers were also rising. Rains were continuing and the higher temperatures melted much snow on the lower levels of the Cascade foothills. The Washington State Highway Patrol reported that the flood damage was the most serious in years. Despite the heavy rain of the previous two days, Seattle still lacked two inches of normal rainfall from January 1 to that date, due to a number of clear, dry days. Unbeknownst to local residents at the time, logging debris began to clog a culvert installed by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railway during the construction of a bridge beneath a 175-foot berm over Boetzke Creek designed to carry runoff from the mountainside through to Boxley Creek. The growing obstruction created an artificial dam that would burst under enormous water pressure from the torrential rain and snowmelt. August's son Ervin was with Gust's 48-year-old son-in-law, William R. Blades, near the bank of Snoqualmie River when they heard a thundering commotion and saw the deluge of icy water and debris speeding toward their homes in Edgewick. They sprinted up a hill, barely dodging the landslide of mud and wreckage. August and his wife Mary were in the yard of their home when the tsunami hit the hamlet. The old folks raced for shelter to an outbuilding but were entangled in the upsurge and borne away. Justice of the Peace Ira Moore had been sick in bed and was being ministered to by his wife, Ermina, when the flood uprooted their small house and transported it away as well. While walking up the path to the Moore home where his car was parked, 32-year-old Elwood Clagett and his wife, Mary, were caught in the open when the surge struck. Clagett was cast aside and later found unconscious upon a ridge. As son Ervin and son-in-law William worked their way back toward Edgewick, they found Gust pinned beneath the ruins of a shed. He was alive but seriously injured. Disturbingly, they found that the Blade house, with daughter Margaret and two baby daughters inside, had disappeared in the cataclysm. She was found crushed to death with her two infant daughters among the logging debris hundreds of yards down Boxley Creek. It took a week before the remains of Gust's wife were located and retrieved. The body of Mary Clagett was never found. It was determined by the King County coronor's inquest that these deaths were a result of extraordinary events. The King County Sheriff's investigation uncovered negligence in construction of a culvert by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railway (The Milwaukee Road), and as a result the Edgewicke residents filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court against the railway for damages. A universal settlement totalling $35,000 was reached on Nov. 3rd and from that Gust Balder received $3,750 for the loss of his wife. Gust died in Washington state on July 8, 1937 at the age of 77. |
| Ancestry: | The Balder Line |
| The Johann "Hans" Kempa Line [through marriage] | |
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