We Had to Live: We Had No Choice...

By Glen Thomas Hierlmeier

We Had to Live is the true story of five generations of the Sewell family, beginning with the immigration of Thomas Sewell from London, England in 1773 through the end of my Mothers life, AnnaDell (Sewell) Hierlmeier. The story relates trials, tribulations, and victories, as Thomas sailed to America as an indentured servant aboard a slave ship, then as he gained his freedom by serving in the Revolutionary War under General George Washington. The story moves on with the family, as they become true American pioneers, into The Ohio Territory when Thomas is granted land in Ohio for his service in the War. Thomas sons and families continue their westward adventure into Indiana, then due to changing government policies, forced to leave Indiana for Wisconsin after WW I. Wisconsin is where the story of my Mother and Father begins and ends in tragedy and triumph through the family business, Glen n Anns Cozy Inn, in Madison, Wisconsin. In the end, all is lost to my Mother but her honor, her tender heart, and her iron will. Those are her legacy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469140827

Glen Thomas Hierlmeier

The author graduated from the United States Air Force Academy, then earned an MBA at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Wisconsin, and completed studies in Advanced Cost and Economic Analysis at the Air Force Institute of Technology. His active duty during the Viet Nam War, and early military assignments on the manned Orbiting Laboratory and the design phase of the F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft provided insights into the workings of the military and developed a keen interest in military history. These experiences served as a unique foundation for this novel as well as a previous companion novel, Honor & Innocence, Against the Tides of War. After leaving the Air Force in 1974, Glen returned to his home state of Wisconsin where he joined the First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee, and attended the Rutgers University School of Executive Bank Management. In 1979, he moved on to become President and CEO of MGIC Development Corporation, followed by several real estate development and management companies. Glen retired in 2009 to devote full time to his grandchildren and his writing. He resides with his wife, RuthAnn, in Bakersfield, California.

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Copyright © 2012 by Glen Thomas Hierlmeier.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2011963168

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

Author’s Notes

Acknowledgements

Prologue Beginning at the Beginning

Part 1 Becoming American

Chapter 1 Thomas Sewell, Indentured Servant

Chapter 2 Manifest Destiny

Chapter 3 Botetourt County, Virginia

Chapter 4 Westward—Virginia to Ohio!

Chapter 5 Hoosier State Connection

Chapter 6 George Michael and Anna Adella Sewell

Chapter 7 Anna Adella (White) Sewell

Chapter 8 Back Home in Indiana

Chapter 9 Liverpool and Munich to Medford

Part 2 The Struggles

Chapter 10 The Good Old Days

Chapter 11 A Gift for Sam-I-Am

Chapter 12 Enough Is Enough

Chapter 13 Looking for Home

Chapter 14 Dad’s Odyssey

Chapter 15 A Golden Crown

Chapter 16 The Rose

Chapter 17 Reunited—No Flowers to Tend

Chapter 18 Long Journey Home

Chapter 19 Bernice Beulah (Sewell) Ireland

Chapter 20 The Wabash Cannonball

Chapter 21 Tragedy in Gilman

Chapter 22 Dreams on Hold

Chapter 23 Mad City Diary

Part 3 Glen ‘n’ Ann’s Cozy Inn

Chapter 24 Glen ‘n’ Ann’s—The Beginning

Chapter 25 Dreams Delayed

Chapter 26 Hank Goes to War

Chapter 27 Glendon Joseph Hierlmeier

Chapter 28 First Son . . . Last Son

Chapter 29 Last of a Generation

Chapter 30 Memories from Wisconsin

Chapter 31 Diamonds for Dollars

Chapter 32 Reunited Sadly

Chapter 33 Loving Judie

Chapter 34 Nagawicka Revisited

Chapter 35 Hero Meets Hero

Chapter 36 Priscilla and Lisa Marie

Chapter 37 Life Lessons

Part 4 Weary Road Home

Chapter 38 A New Era

Chapter 39 Polkabilly

Chapter 40 The Summit—1966

Chapter 41 The Nitty Gritty

Chapter 42 The End

Epilogue Time and Chance Happen to Us All

Bibliography

Endnotes

Author’s Notes

A family history is difficult to portray; seldom does anyone have the presence of mind and the time, or the inclination, to record even the significant events of the life of a family, much less the sometimes long periods between major events that serve as important linkages. Even more rarely are the emotions of the characters recorded for posterity, and it is even less likely to find a family history recorded over generations. The exceptions to this condition would include the lives of the rich and famous, lords and kings, and the infamous, whose lives are investigated and documented to a minutia. Thus, we can know all that could be known of the kings and queens of England, Alexander the Great, the Kennedys of Massachusetts, Madonna and Elvis, or the sinister lives of Julius Caesar or Hitler; but the history of an ordinary family is elusive.

It has become increasingly popular to trace one’s ancestry on a myriad of Internet-based services. These depend largely on public records of births, deaths, marriages, real estate transactions, newspaper articles, and military records but provide virtually nothing about how people thought and felt as the significant events of their lives flowed like a rushing river through their lives. People tend to remember the highs and lows but usually record little of the emotions that attended them. The more generations pass, the less there remains to give evidence to the joys, sorrows, and personalities; thus an entry in a memoir of a deceased family relative, written just one generation removed from the actual event, coldly records the tragic death of a very young child:

Sometime before they came to the Mississippi River, the baby died, and was buried along the way.

Not a word about how the baby died, how the family wept and mourned; not a word to describe the baby or lament the loss of hope; not even a name.

Gaps—there are gaps and gaps and gaps. One generation lives in England or Germany, the next in Virginia, then Ohio, then Indiana. We have official records of real estate purchases and sales, births and deaths, and a few news clippings but virtually nothing to provide even a clue about why the family undertook many very arduous, treacherous, and lengthy journeys that presented unknown dangers and death along the way. We have nothing to suggest what circumstances led to such difficult decisions as boarding a three-masted sailing ship for an ocean passage; packing a horse-drawn wagon and a few riding horses; and leaving home by treading down a mud road, hacking through wilderness, rafting down a river, or being pulled on a raft upstream. What compelling attraction of a new and yet unseen place must there have been? What serious matter did they wish to leave behind them? People don’t just embark on such journeys casually. These are the gaps. There are no answers; the untold answers lie in memories left behind in the shadowy twilight mist rising mystically from the graves of generations, lingering in everlasting limbo.

Our heritage is far richer when the dead are not left to lie quietly forgotten; rather, we are blessed and encouraged when we remain connected with the deceased through our memory of them and our knowledge of their joys and sorrows, their victories and defeats. Their spirits can inspire us in our daily lives and support us in difficult times. They are the foundation upon which our lives are built.

Perception and memory are strange companions—each believes the other is perfect. Over long years and difficult lives rife with emotion, the further one is removed by time from events, the closer perfect perception and memory seem to become until each of us believes we perceived events correctly and remembered them accurately. The truth, of course, is that our perceptions are willowed, slanted this way and that by our own points of view and opinions, and memory plays tricks on all of us. As for myself, I can’t say whether I remember the early events of my life or if what I really remember are the movies and the photographs of events rather than the events themselves or the stories I’ve heard—stories that themselves are burdened with misperception, fading acuity, and the bias of the storyteller.

Alas! Each of us has our own opinion. We cling to our personal version as if our interpretation is critical to the consistency of our lives, without which consistency we would have to reorder ourselves; and we aren’t willing to go there, fearful of where it may lead, comfortable with our own view, however correct or incorrect it may be. We can make what we want of the truth, how our mind makes sense of events and determines our emotional reactions. John Milton in his book Paradise Lost opined of truth as follows: The mind is its own place, and of itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven. It is my hope that this book does more of the former and less of the latter. My desire is to find a bit of heaven in the hell of life’s tribulation—the joy amid the sorrow.

So . . . this is decidedly not a family history. It is a narrative—a story told to honor those whose legacy we inherited. I claim no ownership of the truth or a unique perspective. I did not intend to accurately and completely trace the ancestry of the family; there are others much more capable and disposed to do so. Rather, it is a story of a family in turmoil and about the people who lived it. I have endeavored to record an account of the significant events that shaped the family and the lives of the people, of how they did or didn’t grow. I have used all the documented facts available along with the limited testimony of the few still living who can offer first—or secondhand testimony. I certainly do not have all the facts, but I have tried to remain true to those I do have. Where there are gaps or differing versions of events, I have tried to find corroborating evidence or testimony. In some cases, due to the lack of information, I have had to use what appeared to me to be the most probable account of events or the reactions of people. In some cases, where there is simply no information to go on, I have attempted to create a plausible set of circumstances that may be representative of what may have occurred; all for the purpose of telling an effective story that fairly represents what the family has endured and gives a glimpse into who the people really were. That is really the purpose of the story—to know the people.

For example, Thomas Sewell, the first Sewell of our family to come to America, was born in Liverpool, England, in 1751; that is confirmed by public records. However, we have no confirmed information or even hearsay information about Thomas’ parents or the circumstances of his birth and youth in Liverpool, or how or why he made the difficult journey to London, or why he later chose to become an indentured servant and to make the long and death-defying transatlantic voyage to America (we have records of his passage)—and in winter no less! Lacking important details, I offer some plausible possibilities based on what history has recorded about the England of the mid-eighteenth century and the world events of the time. These historical accounts contribute to the telling of the story, with the sole purpose of trying to portray the character of Thomas Sewell in an historical context based on what we know of his life, and the lives of those who followed on a road with its many forks.

Above all, this is a story about an American family that experienced the progress of America from the American Revolution through the advent of our governance, our socioeconomic systems, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, and into modern times. My goal is to record the essential major events for present and future generations, ultimately allowing the reader to feel he or she knows the people who lived this story and that knowing them will have a positive impact on their lives. It is a story far deeper in tragedy and richer in triumph of the human will than I had dared to imagine when I first began this narrative journey!

Acknowledgements

It would not have been possible to write this book without the diligence and passion of numerous family members who have spent untold hours researching and recording the events on which this story is based. I am grateful to my Mother’s sister, Aunt Bernice Beulah (Sewell) Ireland, and to Bernice’s daughter, Helen Bernice (Ireland) Knoblock, and Bernice’s son, Marion Bud Ireland, Jr. Their enthusiasm for preserving the Sewell family legacy was the fuel that resulted in igniting the flame in my sisters, Shirley Jean (Hierlmeier) Bateman and Patricia Lee (Hierlmeier) Brooks to record our Mother’s story before she passed away in 1993 that led to the eventual writing of this story. Without the record they created, this story would not have been possible.

My brothers, Henry Glendon Hank, and Lawrence Larry were indispensable for their memory of events from the early days of their lives. I thoroughly enjoyed our journey down memory lane together, and helping them remember details of events they thought they had forgotten. Hank deserves special recognition as the one living person who lived nearly the entire span of the generation of our parents, Glendon and AnnaDell Hierlmeier, and experienced it all.

My wife, RuthAnn has been my inspiration through the many days when I was so overcome with emotion flowing from vivid memories of tragic events from long ago that I could not write. Her support and encouragement were vital. Of course it was also very helpful that she is a writing instructor and English teacher with a Doctoral Degree from the University of Southern California, and always willing to listen to my passages, recommend improvements, and provide emotional support. Thank you.

To all of the family who through the years have remarked, Someone should write a book about this family! Thank you. I heard you. Here it is. Enjoy!

Prologue

Beginning at the Beginning

I am Glen Thomas Hierlmeier, the fifth son and tenth child of the thirteen children of Glendon Joseph Hierlmeier and AnnaDell (Sewell) Hierlmeier. I was born August 27, 1945. The following is an account of the circumstances in the world and in my family that were encountered around the time of my birth.

By 1939, the Great Depression had been declared over, and about the same time, World War II had begun in Europe. Initially, the United States strongly avoided entering the war but soon began supplying war materials for our European allies. As the United States increased production for the war effort, the American economy was stimulated, but the upturn would be short-lived. Soon there would be shortages as our overburdened conventional manufacturing was replaced by the wartime effort and material shortages became severe, leading to the sacrificial rationing of nearly everything, including food.

For the Hierlmeier and Sewell families, there was little difference in the economic distress of the Depression and the shortages brought on by the war, which the United States officially entered on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. World War II would rage on in Europe and the Far East for nearly four more long, long years at an immense cost of human life. Mercifully, the war was officially ended with the signing of the armistice with Japan on August 14, 1945; Germany had surrendered in May, 1945, and Italy in September 1943. The war left the world in economic chaos and left families around the globe mourning the deaths of loved ones; over 60,000,000 people were killed worldwide, including 420,000 Americans.

These incredibly tragic world events marked a significant turning point for people everywhere in the world. After having been tossed and turned by the overwhelming events of the Depression and the war, the fortunes of Americans slowly began to improve as the economy was refocused on peacetime growth. The fortunes of the Hierlmeier family began to improve also, pulled along by the rising tide of optimism and employment. The change was dramatic, and the lives of the Hierlmeier family were so greatly impacted that it could be viewed as the end of one generation struggling against circumstances beyond their control and the beginning of another generation within the same family finally beginning to experience the benefits of the American dream of prosperity. In a sense, my next older brother, Larry, born in 1940, could be considered the end of the first generation within the family, a generation that began with the birth of Henry Glendon (Hank) in 1927 and included the eight children born by 1940, Larry being the latest. Born five years later as the war ended, I would be considered as the beginning of the second generation of four more children, ending with Patsy in 1950.

There were other major factors that contributed to the distinction between the older group of siblings and the younger. In 1942, the family had moved to Madison, Wisconsin, from Medford, Wisconsin, to deal with a tragic event in my sister Marilyn’s life; and in Madison, fortune had begun to shine. Employment opportunities were better, and soon, hard work and Providence would bring about a business. Times of odd jobs that paid poorly, when they paid at all, during the Depression and the war were in the past. Thus, in a very real sense, I could be viewed as the first of the second family, born into more prosperous and less desperate times. Within the next five years, I would be joined by three more sisters, Ann, Shirley, and Patsy.

The eldest son is in a unique family position for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he is firstborn and witness to the entire family saga from his earliest childhood memories to the passing of his parents. I was incredibly fortunate in compiling the information for this story to have my brother Hank (Henry) to rely on for critical parts of the story. His keen insight and remarkable memory, even today at the age of eighty-four, were indispensible. Often we would begin discussing one event, and he would make a passing comment that revealed yet another event that had seemingly been completely overlooked but revealed a rich, new testimony of events that otherwise may have been lost forever. Hank is both the eldest son and the eldest sibling. As of my writing, our next five siblings—Jack (Wayne), Phylis, Ginger (Virginia), Bob (Robert), and Marilyn—have all passed away, leaving a huge gap in all our lives. Hank was born in 1927; the next living sibling is Joey (Beverly) who was born eleven years later, in 1938, so Hank alone is alive to recall firsthand the events of the Great Depression years.

While my father was a great and unique influence in my life, my mother, AnnaDell, unquestionably had the greater impact, so I have chosen to write the family story based principally on her ancestral line, the Sewells. It seems most appropriate to do so inasmuch as, like any daughter, she is the end of the ancestral line for the very distinguished family bearing her maiden name. It is the son’s honor to carry his surname forward to the next generation; daughters lend their ancestry to their husband’s. In my mother’s case, she served with a dual distinction as the end of her Sewell ancestral line and the last of her generation in the Sewell chain to pass away. She represents an unusual finality—so in a real sense, this story is not only her final chapter but the end of her branch of the Sewell family.

The earliest confirmed link in the Sewell ancestry is Thomas Sewell, born in Liverpool, England, in 1751. Thomas immigrated to America in December 1773, arriving during the winter of 1774. He settled in Botetourt County, Virginia, near modern-day Roanoke. He married Hannah Keller there in 1780.

The following is the Thomas and Hannah Sewell ancestral line traced five generations to my mother, AnnaDell Sewell, who was born July 19, 1909, in Ijamsville, Indiana:

AnnaDell Sewell Ancestry

Thomas Sewell—born 1751, Liverpool, England

(Hannah Keller) died 10/13/1834, Pike County, OH

William Sewell—born 1781, Botetourt County, VA

(Sarah Ward) died 1838, Pleasant Township, IN

William Sewell Jr.— born 6/15/1819, Kanawha Count, WV

(Sarah Letitia Brown) died 10/15/1909, Ijamsville, IN

George Michael Sewell—born 7/28/1869, Paw Paw Township, IN

(Anna Adella White) died 8/6/1950, Laketon, IN

AnnaDell (Sewell) Hierlmeier—born 7/19/1909, Ijamsville, IN

(Glendon Joseph Hierlmeier) died 12/20/1993, Madison, WI

Henry Glendon Hierlmeier—born 3/21/1927, Gad, WI

(Virginia Jean Grosskreutz)

Wayne Joseph Hierlmeier—born 8/13/1928, Medford, WI

(Patricia Jane England)       died 8/25/1990, Tampa, FL

Phylis Virginia Hierlmeier—born 6/24/1930, Medford, WI

died 11/20/1931, Fort Myers, FL

Virginia Dell (Hierlmeier) Nelson—born 5/2/1932,

Columbia City, IN

(Roger Nelson)         died 7/22/2004, Oregon, WI

Robert Allen Hierlmeier—born 9/15/1935, Medford, WI

died 1/28/1964, Tampa, FL

Marilyn Rose Hierlmeier—born 2/20/1936, Medford, WI

died 9/19/2002

Beverly Jane (Hierlmeier) Appleyard—born 5/9/1938, Medford, WI

(David Appleyard)

Lawrence Hierlmeier—born 3/15/1940, Medford, WI

(Judie Carlson)

Glen Thomas Hierlmeier—born 8/27/1945, Madison, WI

(Jerilyn Voss)

(RuthAnn Rohda McCormick)

Ann Louise Hierlmeier—born 10/20/1946, Madison, WI

(Paul Schmelzer)

(John Capadona)

(James Dalbec)

Shirley Jean (Hierlmeier) Bateman—born 12/13/1947, Madison, WI

(Myles J. Standish III)

(Bob Brown)

(Steve Bateman)

Patricia Lee Hierlmeier—born 12/4/1950, Madison, WI

(Mark Irwin)

(Minton Brooks)

The Hierlmeier ancestry in America dates back only three generations to John D. Hierlmeier, who was born in rural Bavaria, Germany, near Munich, on July 10, 1860. In 1882, John married Anna Buechel, who was also born in Bavaria (on March 21, 1859). Together they immigrated to the United States in 1887 along with five of their children. They were granted citizenship in 1905. John and Anna had three more children