Well known Moltke Farmer
Dead
from Exhaustion While Trying to Return Home in
Saturday's Blizzard, March 9, 1918.
Friends endeavored to persuade him from making attempt to get home
The surrounding country and this locality was shocked early Sunday morning by the news sent to Rogers City notifying Sheriff Bruder that his cousin Fred Bruder, one of the most highly respected and well known farmers of Moltke township, had been found dead in the snow on the farm of August Tulgetski at Moltke corners.
Fred O. Bruder had come to Rogers City early Sunday morning with a load of logs which he was hauling to the landing at the railroad tracks. Like many other farmers who had come to town that day, he had little thought of the raging blizzard which came up a short time before noon and steadily grew worse until it developed into a gale blowing at a rate of sixty miles an hour carrying with it a blinding snow storm. There were few farmers living close to town who attempted to get back home but the majority of them decided to stay with friend or relatives for the night as the storm did not seem to cease. The terrific wind and vast amount of snow which fell drifted the roads to such extent that traveling was practically impossible and very dangerous. Friends and relatives tried to persuade Mr. Bruder to remain in town over night but he seemed anxious and so confident that he could get back home that he and William Tulgetske left the city at about five o'clock, at a time when the storm was reaching its worst.
They returned to Moltke
via
the much winter-traveled log hauling road and after several hours of
difficult
traveling and nearing exhaustion, reached the corners known as the
Moltke
corners where William Tulgetske was to leave Mr. Bruder as his home was
but a short distance from there and on a road away from that....
indecipherable
......... Mr. Bruders ....indecipherable.
usually taken towards his
home. Mr. Tulgetske endeavored to get Mr. Bruder to put up his
team
and stay over night with his uncle August Tulgetske, who runs a general
store at the corners, as the storm had grown so bad that further
progress
for travel was almost impossible. Mr. Bruder told William
Tulgetske
he thought he would do this but upon considering that he was but a mile
from his own fireside and family, evidently thought he would make the
effort
to reach his home. William Tulgetske left Mr. Bruder at the
corner
and little did he think at that time that it would be he who would find
his friend and companion within a short distance from his own home the
following morning, dead in the snow, overcome from the effort he was
making
to get to his home.
It appears that after they had separated at the corner, Mr. Bruder had gotten off the road and driven to the farm of August Tulgetske and in the blinding snow storm and deep snow was entirely lost as to his whereabouts. He had driven into the orchard which covers a part of the farm and realizing his situation unfastened his team from the sleigh, singled the team from each other and even tying the driving lines on the shoulders of each horse thinking no doubt that in this manner he would get back to the home of August Tulgetske where he would stay until the storm abated.
Awaking at an early hour Sunday morning to do his chores about the farm, William Tulgetske, who had left Mr. Bruder at the corner the night before, was amazed upon looking towards his uncle's farm, to see a horse standing near the orchard and upon closer observation saw that another one was partially buried in the snow but a short distance away and from all appearances they looked like the team belonging to Mr. Bruder. Upon investigation he was horrified to find his friend and companion of the night before lying dead and nearly completely covered with snow within a rod of both horses who were still alive but the one lying in the snow showed signs of weakness from the exposure it had been through. He at once hastened to his father's home and telephoned Sheriff William Bruder, who with the coroner Basil Larke drove to the scene as soon as possible.
Examination of the body and the surroundings as were found by Mr. Tulgetske plainly showed the untimely death of Mr. Bruder was purely a matter of complete exhaustion in his attempt to get to safety from the storm that the coroner found no reason to summon a jury and ordered the body removed to his home.
Mr. Bruder was one of the well known and most popular farm's of Presque Isle County and his entire life had been spent in the township of Moltke where he owned a fine farm and was comfortably located. Mr. Bruder was a hard worker and usually busied himself in the winter season by doing small lumbering contracts and he was in pursuit of this labor when he met his tragic death.
The deceased leaves to mourn his untimely departure a wife and six children, ranging in ages from infancy to twelve years and there are also a large number of relatives as there is hardly a family in the township of Moltke to whom he was not related.
The funeral services were
held
this afternoon from the Moltke Lutheran Church and burial will be in
the
family lot adjoining this church to which he had been a member all of
his
life. The sympathy of the community is extended to the family of
the deceased in this hour when this dark cloud has shadowed a life of
sunshine
which was at its height with a happy family and at a time when living
was
most dear to all of them.
-------------------------------
MRS. BRUDER IS TAKEN BY DEATH, 1925
Mrs. Augusta Bruder of Moltke township, passed away Monday, December 21st following an illness of several years. She was forty-one years of age at the time of her death and was a life long resident of the Township, in which she had been born.
Seven years ago, Mr. Bruder suffered death in one of the fiercest blizzards of the winter that year. He succumbed to the cold on his way home from Rogers City and since his death Mrs. Bruder's health has steadily failed.
She leaves to mourn her
loss,
her aged parents Mr. and Mrs. John Schaedig, Sr., five daughters, Mrs.
Emil Peltz Jr., Adeline, Elsie, Agnes, and Johanna, and one son
Erhardt.
She had seven brothers and six sisters.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descendants of Johann Friedrich Bruder of Prussia
Unidentified Presque Isle County Photographs
Photo of Erhardt Bruder and Irene Tulgetske's Wedding
Photo of Johanna Bruder and William Pauly's Wedding
Photo of Agnes Bruder and Fred Vogler
Photo of Adeline Bruder and Alfred A. Karsten Adeline Bruder Karsten
Photo of Adelia Bruder and Emil Peltz Adelia Bruder Peltz
August Ferdinand and Kerolina Wilhelmine (Hamann) Bruder
Otto Friedrich and Augusta (Schaedig) Bruder
Wilhelmina,
Augusta,
and Louisa Bruder