This is one of the shorter sketches in this series because the family is very small.
Margaret Stufflebeam was the last born of all the children of John E. Stufflebeam and the last born to his second wife Harriet Ostrander.
Margaret was born on 24 October 1843, Warren County, Indiana, where she grew up.
No marriage record has been found, but she married Anton Wenlin Berberich about 1882, possibly in Indiana, but probably in Missouri.
Anton was born c1846 in Prussia [Germany] and first appears in the 1870 U.S. census living in New York City, but apparently arrived in the early mid-1860s as he opened an Emigrant Savings Bank account on 23 October 1864.
Interestingly, Anton also served in the Civil War as a New Yorker under the alias of Carl Walter, found on his pension file application.
Neither Anton/Carl nor Margaret has been found in the 1880 census, but there are two marriage records for one William Walter to Margaret Stufflebeam dated 5 January 1864 AND 5 January 1884 in Warren County, Indiana. The 1864 date is correct, based on the Walter children’s births.
It seems Margaret wasn’t accurate on the 1900 census when she reported having given birth to one child with that child living or else the census taker didn’t ask.
In 1880, “Mary” Walter, 34, born in Indiana with parents born in Ohio, was living in Gentry County, Missouri. She was enumerated as a widow with three children at home.
Children: (Walter)
- Amanda, born c1866, Illinois; died between 1880-1900
- Charles, born c1870, Illinois; died between 1880-1900
- Miller, born c1873, Missouri; died 4 July 1954, Grays Harbor, Washington; married Mattie (Rhodes) Keeler, 16 December 1897, Greenwood County, Kansas. Although Miller’s obituary names a son, Paul L. Walter, born 1902, Paul is not at home with them in 1910. He is there in 1920 and he may be an adopted son since they had no other children. More work needs to be done to identify Paul’s mother.
What became of Amanda and Charles Walter is unknown, but both were seemingly dead before 1910. However, Miller is actually Miller OSTRANDER Walter and, in 1910, Anton, Margaret and Frank are all living with Miller and wife Mattie.
At that time, Margaret reported giving birth to six children with two living.
Since Anton and Margaret reported in 1900 that they had been married for 18 years, William might not be the same person as Carl Walter. However, it seems too much of a coincidence that Margaret happened to first marry a man with the same surname as her husband’s alias.
In any case, Anton and Margaret were the parent of just one son.
Child: (Berberich)
- Frank Lee, born 24 October 1883, Linn County, Missouri; married Bertha Ray, 22 August 1924, Centralia, Lewis, Washington.
Frank and Bertha were the parents of one daughter, June Lucile, born 19 June 1925, Washington. June married three times: (1) Henry Earl Suverkrubbe, c1947 (2) Earl Myron Whiteman, 27 May 1944, Bucoda, Thurston, Washington (3) Herbert Arthur Paetz, 26 September 1953, Douglas County, Oregon.
There are descendants of Frank and Bertha today.
Now, to finish up with Paul Lester Walter. UPDATE: It turns out that Paul was adopted from the Seattle Foundlings Home in 1904 when he was two years old.
Therefore, Paul and his descendants are not biologically related to the Stufflebeam family.