| Parents:
Occupation: 1st Marriage: |
Edward Balder Catherine Mary Voerding Farm laborer in general farming [Source: 1910 Federal Census, St. George Twp., Benton Co. MN, p. 4B] Blacksmith working at Blue Front Blacksmith Shop Mabel Lula Larrabee July 7, 1915 Billings, Montana by Ray Anderson, Justice of the Peace Witnesses were Horace R. Smith and E. W. Colton |
| Children: | Bernard Alvin | Dec. 11, 1915 | † June 13, 1970 |
| Lillian Emmaline aka Lillian Kathryn Mabel | Aug. 22, 1917 | † June 8, 2012 | |
| 2nd Marriage: | Grace Rhodes (née Davis) |
| August 12, 1930 | |
| Billings, Yellowstone, Montana | |
| 3rd Marriage: | Florence White (née Heynemann) |
| April 30, 1938 | |
| Billings, Yellowstone, Montana | |
| 4th Marriage: | Marie Estella "Stella" LaFrance (née Giarde) |
| October 26, 1959 | |
| by Justice of the Peace | |
| Bonner County, Idaho | |
| Remarried/Renewed Vows: | Holy Family Catholic Church |
| January 1, 1966 | |
| Hillman, Morrison, Minnesota | |
| Notes: | Reuben was born on December 13, 1892 in St. Cloud, Minnesota. (His birth name was Robert Louis Balder; on the 1905 census |
| he was listed as Leo; on the 1910 he was listed as Ruby. Sometime between 1900 and 1905 he started
using the name Reuben Leo Balder.)
Reuben grew up in Benton County, Minnesota. He moved to Fromberg, Montana in 1915 as two of his sisters and their families were living in the area. Reuben married Mabel Lula Larrabee July 7, 1915 in Billings, Montana. Mabel was also from Minnesota. They lived on an old dry land farm several miles out in the country near Fromberg. Their only means of transportation was horse and buggy. Both of their children, Bernard and Lillian, were born on the farm. Reuben worked as a laborer at various farms around the area while living there. When Bernard was six years old, Mabel took him and Lillian back to Minnesota and spent the school year living with family so Bernard could attend school. Before the following school year, the family moved to Fromberg. They lived on a farm by the river and raised a beautiful crop of sugar beets; however, they froze in the ground and the crop was a total loss. As with many families, it was very difficult during the depression years. Reuben became discouraged with farming and went to work for Lon Caldwell at a blacksmith shop. Reuben and Mabel separated in 1928 and were divorced May 14, 1930. Reuben married Grace (Davis) Rhodes, the mother of five children, on August 12, 1930 and they lived in Billings where he worked at the Blue Front Blacksmith shop. They were divorced on March 16, 1936. He married Florence (Heynemann) White on April 30, 1938 and they later divorced. Reuben moved to Washington in 1941 and lived in the Yakima area for over twenty years. During that time he worked as a metal forger building boxes for beet trucks. It was there that he met his fourth wife, Maria Estella "Stella" (Gearde) LaFrance. They were married by a Justice of the Peace on October 26, 1959 in Bonner County, Idaho. Reuben and Stella moved back to the Hillman, Minnesota in 1965. They bought a home on the lake and spent their time fishing and enjoying the area. They were remarried in the Holy Family Catholic Church in Hillman on January 1, 1966. Reuben died in St. Gabriel's Hospital in Little Falls, Minnesota on October 3, 1966 of cardiac standstill. He was 73 years old. --by Marlene Armentrout, updated November 2017 At the time of the April 22nd, 1910 federal census, Ruby was 17 years old and living with the Joseph Landre family for whom he worked as a laborer on their farm in St. George Twp., Benton Co., MN. He stated he was born in Minnesota but both his parents were born in Germany. (However, his father was born in Germany and his mother was born in Minnesota.) He was able to read and write English. Reuben had a medium build, blue eyes and light brown hair. As of June 5, 1917, he was 23 years old, living with his wife and child and farming for John Bleavett in Fromberg, Montana. [Source: WWI Draft Registration Cards, 1917-18, Montana, Carbon County, Draft Card B] Reuben was a member of the Eagle Lodge, Toppenish, Wash., and of the Holy Family Parish, Hillman. |
| Ancestry: | The Balder Line |
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