Individual Details

Ramona (Heiken) Mayer remembers her grandmother Gesine as "a woman who liked to be out of doors. She was almost 70 by the time I could remember her. Grandmother always had a beautiful garden. She kept the weeds around the outside yards and orchard clean with her scythe. She cured her own beef in the smokehouse. I remember the dried beef hanging in one of the rooms upstairs. She made her own wine from the grapes in her garden. We all had to drink some of it at her family dinners but she would water and add sugar to the wine served to the children. Aunt Mary lived with grandmother and all of the duties were divided. Mary did all off the cleaning of the house (thirteen rooms and a bath). She also did all of the fancy baking and mowed the lawn. Grandmother did the general cooking, baked bread and did all of the other outside work. Grandmothers coffee was definitely the best I ever drank. We always drank coffee at midmorning and tea in the late afternoon (of course this was always loaded with milk for me).
Grandmother spoke broken Low German and reverted to Low German entirely in her later years. She would get so frustrated with me for I had completely blanked out the language after I started school. She also became hard of hearing in later years so we had difficulty communicating with each other.
My parents and I lived in four rooms of this large house of grandmothers from March 1930 until March of 1933. I can vaguely remember some of my escapades there as a small child. Grandmother always insisted that I wear a straw hat and I hated wearing anything on my head ( I still don't like to). I stuffed the hat into a magazine rack and it was missing for days. I don't remember why but I kicked one of my shoes into the wallpaper paste while they were hanging wallpaper. My Dad was a big tease and I think at his suggestion I called Aunt Mary an old maid. She didn't like that too well and came after me with a hairbrush. Also remember all of the visits from Aunt Mary's gentleman friend, Herman Lange. Herman brought me small sacks of candy and called me Chicko. I don't remember this but I was told that my parents called me Chickee."

Birth	1 Sep 1863	Germany, Ostfriesland, Reepsholt
Immigration	4 Feb 1888
Marriage	8 Jan 1893	St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Monticello, Jones, Iowa, United States - John Christoph Balster
Census	1925	Monticello, Jones, Iowa, United States
Census	17 Apr 1930	Monticello, Jones, Iowa, United States
Death	16 Sep 1954	Iowa, United States

Spouse	John Christoph Balster (1869 - 1914)
Child	Arend Balster (1894 - 1976)
Child	Mary Katherine Balster (1895 - 1964)
Child	Anna Margaret Balster (1897 - 1936)
Child	Robert Heike Balster (1900 - 1983)
Child	Louise Gesina Balster (1902 - 1940)
Child	Ludwig (Louis) Christopher Balster (1904 - 1920)
Child	Johanna Helen Balster (1907 - 1937)

Father	Heyke / Heike Heyen (1823 - )
Mother	Wübke Maria "Mary" Wiemers (1830 - )
Sibling	Gesche Catharina Heyen (1854 - )
Sibling	Johanna Margaretha Heyen (1856 - )
Sibling	Johann Heinrich Heyen (1857 - )
Sibling	Sophia Helena "Helen" Heyen (1859 - 1926)
Sibling	Anna Maria Heyen (1861 - )
Sibling	Johann "John" Heyen (1865 - 1953)
Sibling	"son (Sohn)" Heyen (1867 - 1867)

Notes