MABEL LULA BALDER
(née LARRABEE)

Born: March 19, 1889   McPherson Twp., Blue Earth, Minnesota
Died: October 28, 1968    West Park County Hospital, Cody, Park, Wyoming
Burial: November 2, 1968    Riverside Cemetery, Cody, Park, Wyoming


Parents:
 
 
Occupation:
 
Marriage:
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alvin Willard Larrabee
Emmaline G. Goodwin
 
Housekeeper; worked in a sewing room in Red Lodge, Montana
 
Reuben "Rube, Ruby" Leo Balder
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
       
Notes: Mabel was born in McPherson Twp., Blue Earth, Minnesota on March 19, 1889. She grew up in Ronneby, Minnesota
  and attended the State Normal School in Mankato, Minnesota from 1907-1911 where she completed high school and obtained a teaching degree.

She taught at a country school in Canada for two years and then moved to Fromberg, Montana in 1915.

Mabel married Reuben Leo Balder on July 7, 1915 in Billings, Montana. Reuben was also from Minnesota.

Reuben and Mabel 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.

Mabel and Lillian moved to the home of Charley Collins and Mabel worked as a housekeeper for Charley as he had lost his wife in a house fire and had five small children to raise. Mabel worked there for approximately 14 years. During part of that time she also worked in a sewing room in Red Lodge, Montana. Mabel car pooled with several ladies from the Fromberg area and they drove back and forth to Red Lodge.

In 1943, Mabel moved to the Cody, Wyoming area to live with her daughter, Lillian Dixon and family. She lived with them on the Northfork of the Shoshone River for 13 years and the Southfork of the Shoshone River for 12 years where the Dixons farmed.

Mabel died in the West Park County Hospital in Cody, Wyoming on October 28, 1968 from pulmonary embolus -- a blood clot to the lungs. She was 79 years old.
by Marlene Armentrout

Ancestry: The Balder Line [through marriage]
   
Register of Birth Record for Mabel Lula Larrabee

Marriage Certificate of Reuben L. and Mabel Balder (née Larabee)

Certificate of Death for Mabel L. Balder

Billings Gazette Obituary of Mabel Balder

The Cody Enterprise Obituary of Mabel Balder

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Last modified: January 13, 2013
Copyright © 1998-2013 Rae Stimler Bordua. All rights reserved.

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