Grandpa William & Grandma Mary

As told by Emma C. Clawson (my dad's oldest sister) on 12/31/1976
Emma Caroline Lundgren Clawson b.8/21/1899 d.12/14/1979

William & Mary were my father's maternal grandparents.

This is about Grandpa (William, born Frederick William Polsfuss in 1849) and Grandma (Mary, born Anna Mary Molls in ?) Polsfuss. Grandpa had a long white beard and played the accordian - I used to love to hear him play. Grandma was the best cook I have ever heard of.

Their life was so different. Grandma was an orphan. When her mother died, Grandma and her brother were standing at the grave and some relatives took them home, and they stayed with them until grown up. Grandpa was supposed to have left Germany as he did not want to serve in Kaiser Wilhelm Army. So they met in New Germany, Minnesota, and married there.

All their children were born there - 10 or 12 I don't know which, but only three lived to adulthood...Emma, Laura (my mother) and Otto. Emma died leaving three children. Otto lived until 1960.

When Grandpa and Grandma lived on their farm, near Princeton, we used to go over there for Thanksgiving dinner in a sled and sing "over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go". They rented a farm and lived near us. Later they moved back to their own farm.

They were not a happy couple. Grandma was always crying about all her dead children. But I can always remember the wonderful things she cooked: tomato preserves, also vegetables, pickles, homemade sausages, and her famous coffee cakes.