| His parents | Married 1/21/1920 | |
Great Grandfather Peter Anthony Meyer |  ND | Great Grandmother Lottie Ethel Wiltse |
| Ancestor 10 (1010) 7/11/1893 - 5/10/1957 | Ancestor 11 (1010) 3/18/1897 - 4/27/1985 |
Peter and Lottie probably met near Rugby (Pierce County), ND. Rugby prides itself as being the geographic center of North America, so they were as landlocked as possible! Lottie had grown up there since about 1910. Peter started out his adult life as a farmer in Pierce County. Lottie was already a widow by the age of 21. She had married Leonard Larson in 1915. They’d had one daughter, Lenore (1918-2001), before Leonard succumbed to pneumonia in 1918.
Peter and Lottie were then married a year later. Their eight children together were Laverne (1921 – 2008), Delbert “Bud” (1923 – 1969), Loretta (Fagerland, 1925 – 2007), Wayne (1927 – 2014), a daughter who is still alive, Vernon “Vern” (1933 – 2006), Yvonne (1936 – 1998), and Yvette (Yvonne’s twin, 1936 – 2020).
Peter lost the farm to bad weather in 1930 and had to auction off his property. He moved to nearby Pleasant Lake (Benson County) to assume a high management position at a coal mine, a post he held for three decades. The job took him to tiny Noonan (Divide County) in 1942.
Coal mining is a dangerous profession. It took quite a toll on this family. Peter lost his life on the job when his pickup truck slid into a mud pit. Bud (left, photo above) was later killed in an accident that, as I understand it, involved a runaway coal cart on the railroad tracks.
As you can tell by now, Lottie suffered many premature losses. In fact, she lost both of her parents by the time she was 35, two husbands by age 60, one son, and eventually all nine of her siblings. The grief took a toll on her. She is one of the earliest ancestors for which we have something of a psychological profile. Loretta wrote: “She was a nice person, but she had too much to do with nine children and not much money. She never had any time for just herself.” Dad remembered her saying many times that she was “worried.” “Worried about what, Grandma?” they’d ask. “Just worried.” He remembers her going in for electroshock therapy sometimes, a treatment for depression.
That being said, Peter and Lottie’s children and grandchildren remember them glowingly. My dad remembers dropping by his grandmother’s house every day on the way home from school. He loved her macaroni, which she served in milk.
Loretta wrote the following about her parents in a memory book that she gave to me as a teenager.
“My dad was a happy person, and he made everything all right. [From him,] I learned to like people and to try to be a nice person. It was very important to him to have nice daughters. I remember once there was a severe snowstorm, and my father set out on foot to get my sister who he knew was on her way home. My sister arrived home, but my dad found shelter in an empty house, and he didn’t get home until the next day. We had no way of knowing where or how he was. It was a hard night. We didn’t go to bed at all.
“Mother taught us to be ladies, which I appreciate. Also, I think she taught me to be a good mother. She was always there for us. I remember my mother getting hurt when trying to catch a moving car that Bud & I were in. She hurt her knee very badly.”
I remember a few visits with Lottie (Great Grandma Meyer) when I was a child, but I did not know her well. Peter and Lottie still have many grandchildren and even one living daughter who remember them better. If you are related, then of course you are welcome to join us at our Meyer Facebook Group!
