As of January in 1920
my 40-year-old great grandfather
Jacob Hofferber
was in Montana with wife
Kathryn (Katie) and seven children.
Four of their children
were born as Germans in Russia
from which they immigrated.
My grandfather was born in Calgary
in 1913
on their way to Montana.
Jacob, his wife, four children,
and his 65-year-old mother-in-law
traveled on the S.S. Gerona
— a Cunard passenger ship —
from Southhampton, England,
to Quebec, Canada, in 11 days
from June 12 to June 23 in 1913.
Katherine gave birth to my grandfather
less than two weeks later
during their journey across Canada.
Katherine lived 89 years,
more than twice Jacob’s lifespan,
as he passed in 1923
at the age of 44
from sudden heart failure
while working in an orchard
near Wenatchees, Washington.
He may have been sick,
someone suggested,
as he was taking his lunch
when he keeled over… gone.
Katherine remarried not long after
with a half dozen children in her care
but her new husband, Koch,
didn’t get on well with Benjamin,
who left to live with an older brother
in Billings, Montana.
My father, Kenneth Hofferber, in the arms of his father, Benjamin Hofferber, in 1935.
