Louisa Kloepfer
The following references to Louisa Kloepfer are from "Joys and Tears of Yesteryears" by Anna Luneman Baldwin ,1975:
It was not until the boys grew up and went out to work at about 12 years of age that more money started to come in. Every dollar, every penny earned was turned over to their parents. Boys in the family were preferred over girls, not only due to their earning ability but also their skill in helping their fathers on the ranches. You will note that nature seemed to take care of that, too; among the many friends and neighbors that I write about here in these pages there are almost always more boys than girls. However, when another girl did come along as in the case of Mary, born in 1862, Louis and Elizabeth were very happy. Then in 1863, Louisa was born. The rest of their children were boys with the exception of a baby named Elizabeth, born in 1872. She died in infancy and was buried on the ranch. The other children were Louis, born in 1865; Chris, 1869; Frank the next year and George in 1875. The Kloepfer family had eight boys and five girls.
Even with many settlers moving into the Webber Creek District, it was many years before there was the necessary quota to establish a school. This was due in part to the early drop-out age of the boys and to the girls who remained in school but a few years longer unless they aspired to become teachers. In that case they stayed in school until they graduated and perhaps had a few years of high school training. Drop-outs were not frowned upon in those days as they were needed on other farms to earn money for their parents. The Kloepfer children, Fred, Bernard, Louisa, and Mary were walking that long distance to Pinchem to attend school. It was a long and tiresome trip back and forth each day. Adelaide, the oldest, did not attend steadily as she tired too easily and bed rest was necessary at times.
George Kloepfer’s christening day was a full one as folks renewed their acquaintances with old friends and schoolmates. The Kloepfer girls were lovely young ladies now and they caught some appraising glances and not entirely from the ladies. The three girls were slender and medium height. Adelaide, the oldest, was the only one inclined toward plumpness. Her hair coloring was dark brown, almost black. Mary, the next oldest, was a blonde while Louisa had light brown hair. Elizabeth must have realized that sparking days were just around the corner and the swains would soon come calling. Looking at this in retrospect, one might equate this with a coming out day just as surely as if they were presented at a cotillion ball.
The girls were dressed in the latest fashion in ginghams which they stitched on a newly-acquired Singer which Louisa had purchased with her first pay when she was working in Placerville. This afforded the two budding debutantes, Mary and Louisa, the opportunity to attend the country dances or socials which were held from time to time. Many a girl or boy, for that matter, could not take in an affair due to lack of a party dress or shoes. Adelaide did not attend these dances for another reason. Her physical handicap prevented any such exercise as dancing or sitting in a hay wagon bumping along the rough roads. Perhaps she had become interested in the young man from Saint Louis and this precluded any desire to check dancing partners to ultimately find a life partner.
The girls were dressed in the latest fashion in ginghams which they stitched on a newly-acquired Singer which Louisa had purchased with her first pay when she was working in Placerville. This afforded the two budding debutantes, Mary and Louisa, the opportunity to attend the country dances or socials which were held from time to time. Many a girl or boy, for that matter, could not take in an affair due to lack of a party dress or shoes. Adelaide did not attend these dances for another reason. Her physical handicap prevented any such exercise as dancing or sitting in a hay wagon bumping along the rough roads. Perhaps she had become interested in the young man from Saint Louis and this precluded any desire to check dancing partners to ultimately find a life partner.
Louisa met a young man by the name of Fred Rahmer at one of these dances. He called at the ranch later to meet and talk with the Kloepfer boys, but really to see Louisa and perhaps make a date for later. It was on one of these times that he met Mary who was about eighteen. Later when he came down on Sundays from Placerville, where he worked as a butcher, the family was puzzled. Was he calling on Louisa or Mary? It soon became apparent that it was Mary who interested him. He would borrow the delivery wagon to drive down and if Mary was not at home, the day was a complete loss for him. Later Fred began to write to Mary to avoid the uncertainty of not finding her home, but in waiting for an answer there was oft times an unavoidable delay. (Oh, the present joys of Alexander Graham Bell’s true miracle.) He mentioned in one of his letters that he was disappointed on a previous Sunday when he drove down only to find that she was working for the Hodges across Weber Creek. He went on to say that he wanted to "borrow a horse from Frank Luneman and ride over, hut it was getting late. " (I have never learned who the Hodges were.) Fred also mentioned "Alex and Margaret Jacobsen and Herman and Mrs. Dunker were there. I had nothing to say. They must have thought that I was funny. " Well, it is anyone’s guess that Fred was more than a little lovesick. In another letter, written a year or so later, he wrote "Arnold Heidtmann, a friend of Louisa’s, was there, " and judging from his letter, Fred thought that Arnold was very cool to him and he writes, "Perhaps he thinks that I am interested in Louisa. I can’t think why he got mad at me unless it was unfounded jealousy" and he goes on to say "Mary Kloepfer is the only girl that I ever cared about-not Louisa whose company I liked at times, hut otherwise she was indifferent to me then as now. " So we learn from this that they had their little love problems, even as you and I.
We will now leave Mary with her off again, on again romance, for a while and since Louisa was the next to marry we will learn about events that led up to her altar date. It was usually the boys farm duty to take loads of grapes to market during the month of September. One year the older boys had much manual labor to perform on the place so it became Louisa’s task. It was no problem for her, she was happy to do it. She took one of her younger brothers along as she drove a team of horses pulling the buckboard, the bed of which was loaded with Mission grapes, to a building that was once a mill, then used for a grape depository, situated on the main street in Shingle Springs. The grapes were picked from the large orchard back and to the north of the house. Louisa would drive the team by the way of the Four Corners and then down the road to the little town. Macaroni Road, which is now called Springvale, was not yet built. This would have eliminated two steep hills which are somewhat modified today, and also shorten the distance by well over a mile.
The brother took over the reins as they neared Shingle Springs while she primped a bit in order to look and act the part of a lady as she did not wish a certain young engineer who worked at the winery to see her in any role less than that. Yes, times have certainly changed.
Arnold Heidtmann, the engineer, was an émigré from Germany in 1865 when he was 16 years old. He worked as a grocery clerk in New York for some time before coming to California. Louisa had met him at several dances and again when she drove to Shingle Springs and he eventually came calling on her. The family approved of him and this courtship culminated in their marriage in 1884 at the family home. Their first home was ‘ in Sacramento where Arnold was engineer on a riverboat. Later they moved to Filbert Street in San Francisco where Fr. Gualico, the pastor from Placerville who married them, was then pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul. Sometime later, they bought a two-story house on Humboldt Street, which was then located to the east of the County Hospital and parallel to 23rd Street. Humboldt Street, with several surrounding ones, are no longer in existence, having given way to a huge giant, the James Lick Freeway which needed the space to wind around the foot of Potrero Hill on its way to Army Street and the peninsula.
Descendants of Arnold Heidtmann and Louisa Kloepfer
1 Arnold Heidtmann Born: in Germany
+Louisa Kloepfer Born: 1863 in El Dorado County, California Married: 1884
2 Arnold Heidtmann
2 Louise Heidtmann
+Fred Mack
*2nd Husband of Louise Heidtmann:
+Jack Daley
2 George Heidtmann
+Ethel Glenn
2 Adelaide Heidtmann
+Daniel Flanagan
3 Danny (Buddy) Flanagan II
+Dorothy Carlson
3 Alice Cooper Flanagan
+McConnell
2 Mary Heidtmann
+Jack Daly
3 Joanne Daly
+Charles (Chuck) Griffiths
2 Elizabeth Heidtmann Born: August 04, 1891 Died: September 1978
+James Fenton Born: June 11, 1891 Died: January 1974
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