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Johan Wubben

Johan Wubben, husband of Martha Evelyn Keeler Wubben (second wife), and son of Rambert Wuebben (of Lorup, Germany) and Margareta (of Ruebbel, Germany) was born Jan. 15th, 1848 in Lorup, Germany.

The following is text from a typewritten memoir (c. 1974) by his daughter-in-law, Neola H. Wubben. All typos and handwritten corrections are reproduced. [This editor's notes are in red.]

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Neola H. Wubben
for HHW & PDW

YOUR PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS AS I KNEW THEM

     I did not know your paternal grandparents until after your grandfather was retired. I write of them with a limited knowledge, but in an effort to point out similarities and dissimilarities between them and my parents as I observed them. your grandfather Wubben came to this counry alone from Germany when practically an adult, lived in non-German communities and married non-German women. He was converted from Catholicism to Protestantism by the silent influence of a Quaker family with whom he lived for a time. What type of life Grandfather Wubben and his first wife had together I don't know, whether or not he carried out the then prevalent German tradition of male dominance. Your grandmother Wubben had deaconness training as a nurse, whereas your grandfather had a very limited education. Here you see the opposite of what was truewith my parents. Also your grandmother was employed as a deaconness, lived in urban communities, principally Chicago, and was over thirty before she married; which was over twice as old as my mother wen she married. She had been making decisions for herself, felt capable of doing so, so did. Father Wubben was already retired when I met him, and his wife was definitely the one who was the dominate one. Both were devout Christians, strong fundamentalists, and deeply devoted to the church. Father Wubben's faith was the shouting, happy kind, which often embarrassed his wife when they were ina group. She was far more serious and matter of fact. Though, in the modern sense of the term their marriage would probably not have been classified as a happy one, it had their deep, religious devotion, and desire to be worthy parents as unifying forces. It was their common interest in the church that brought them together in the first place. Father Wubben could not resist the girl with the black deaconness bonnet and the white bow.

     Your father has said his parnets were sometimes too rigidly strict, especially his mother, but he always respected their integrity of character. They lived true to what they believed, and were strictly honest. Unfortunately they did not realize many others did not live by this code, and had some [here, the word "unfortunate" is typed out] bad financial losses in late life.

     My parents, having come to the U.S. when young, learned to speak English very well. Father Wubben's English was liberally sprinkled with German words. but, ironically, he could not carry on a conversation in German. He never said this, that, these, and those, but used "dis", "dat", "dese", and "dose". His Js were Ys, so in his regular morning family devotoions he read of Yacob, Yames, and Yesus. He was overjoyed when one of his sons became a minister, and would introduce him to strangers as, "Dis is my son. He's a fine boy." Mother Wubben was equally pleased, but not as exuberant. That Father Wubben could be a contractor for building homes with his limited education is truly amazing. What could he have done had he been trained in mathematics or other subjects needed in building trades! When in Chicago with your dad he was greatly interested in the structure of the tall buildings, and sometimes stopped to count the stories. Always Christ and the church was foremost in his mind. He couldn't understand why sometimes women turned their backs on him when he approached them on ther street and asked them about their faith. He didn't think he was being "fresh". Mother Wubben could chide him saying, "Father, you ought to know better". My father had a strict Calvinistic faith, but I never knew of his speaking of it to strangers.

     Yes, there were similarities betwee your maternal and paternal grandparents, but there were also great difference. Both went through many hardships and both lived true to what they believed was right. Father Wubben took his honesty so seriously that when a man for whom he ahd done some work accused him of dishonesty he had a nervous breakdown and couldn't work for a year. The move to Paonia from Colorado Springs when your dad and his two brothers were young was made to take the sons to what their parents felt was a more "wholesome" rural environment as opposed to the "wicked" city one. Financially this move was a fiasco, as fruit harvests, sometimes bad, on rented property could not be compared to steady carpenter work at good wages for the times.

     My parents-in-law seemed to accept me well. However, I would have found it difficult to have them live with us for almost four years, as my parents did. Though my mother dominated my father then, she still had enough of her inferiority complex in her that she let me run my home as I wished. Father never mixed in my regime, and I don't believe Father Wubben would have. Mother Wubben was so wrapped up in her youngest son she would have found it difficult to remain in the background, having a more aggressive nature.

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My Father-Johan Wubben

by John Hubert Wubben
Feb.20, 1974

     The only written record of my father's early life is a baptismal certificate written in German and translated for me by Mr. Gus Guigas, Paul's father-in-law. The original certificate and the translation are attached hereto. By it we know thathe father was born in Laup or Lonup, Germany, on Jan. 15, 1848, and was christened the next day. His father was probably an owner of a farm. The only other written source of information of his early life is a certificate of intention to become an American citizen dated Nov. 5, 1872. This states that he migrated from Bremen, Germany, and arrived in the United States on Aug.28, 1866. The document s from Marion County, Ind. I have in my possession, somewhere, a letter he wrote me while I was in Chicago (1919-20). It is the only letter he ever wrote to me or to my two brothers, for he could not write English very well. The rest of this account is from my memory.

     He was brought up as a Catholic and attended Catholic schools in Germany. He told often of the severity of discipline meted out to offenders. Punishment included sitting on a hot stove, holding bricks out a arms length until from sheer exhaustion they were dropped. He was once knocked from his seat by a cuff on the ears that left him deaf for a while. His father threatened to thrash the teacher, but was convinced by the priest not to do so.

     Probably he was quite mischievous, for he refused to do the penance prescribed by the priest for some sin; so he was not given absolution. This almost broke his mother's heart, for she took that to mean that he had done something very terrible. The penande he refused to do was to stay home at night for three months.[to be continued 05-27-04]

Also online:

by John Hubert Wubben
My Brother EUGENE PAUL WUBBEN (April 26, 1974)
My brother- Horace Jay Wubben (May 24, 1974)

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