Grandmother Bertha Kison

Bertha Kison was born in Ritzville, Washington on October 18, 1893 to Friederick Kison (age 32), and Rosina Radke.

The Kison family was one of the founding families in Eigenheim and came from Kulm, probably about 1861, the year when Eigenheim, Bessarabia was founded.  They would  have had a farm there since the Germans had moved there to take advantage of the land offered by the Russians to populate and develop to put the idle land to use.  When they emigrated to Ritzville, Washington, they aquired land in Lind just south of Ritzville, and farmed, most likely growing wheat which the land was well suited for.  It is still a major wheat growing area.

Growing up on the farm near Ritzville, Bertha did not have a full education, and had to learn a lot of her reading and writing skills on her own.  An education for girls was not considered of much value, and she had plenty of duties at home, and those were the skills considered important for young farm girls who were expected to marry and stay in the home.  This did not prepare her well for having to earn a living outside the home.

Bertha married Reinhold Reich in the Salem Church in Ralston, Washington (Just south of Ritzville).  They moved to Spokane and had three children together, Alma Bertha (1913-2003), Elmer Reinhold (1914-1986), and Rose Marie (1918-?).

Note that Reinhold Reich changed his name to Rich before they were married, and all the children carried the name Rich.  (Rich is the English translation of Reich.)

Bertha was widowed in 1939, and lived alone, supporting herself by working as a scullery maid at a restaurant (working in the kitchen cleaning pots and pans and dishes) and cleaning homes for the wealthy Spokane families.  She married Emanuel G. Siewert (1897-1955) on July 18, 1946 in Spokane, and sold her house on 12th Avenue and moved into a large house that Emanuel had, along with his six children, Roy-25, Leona-22, Nora-21, Vera-17, Verna-?, Calvin-13. The youngest of the three, Lee Calvin Siewert, a son, tragically died at about 16 after drowning while swimming at Liberty Lake.

After Emanuel passed away, she sold the Siewert house and moved into a smaller home where she lived until Ben and Alma built a duplex in the Spokane Valley where she had her own home, just across the hallway from Ben and Alma.  Living together that way, Ben and Alma were able to look after her, share evening meals, and drive to church together at the German Baptist Church in Spokane on Arthur Street, which became a North American Baptist Church after the German name was changed.  She lived in the duplex with Ben and Alma until her passing in 1991.   Bertha died on February 12, 1991 in Spokane, Washington at the age of 97.

The Arthur Street Baptist Church was established for the area's Germans, and all services were in the German language.  Later, there were services in both German and English, with the older German members having a service in the basement, while the English language services were in the upper floor.  For several years Bertha's brother Simon preached the sermons for the German members. When the services were changed to English from German, this was a very traumatic period for the church.  Many members left the church over the issue.  Among those leaving was the Tobert family (Grandmother Schmidt's family) that moved their membership to a church in the Spokane Valley.

Bertha's oldest daughter Alma Bertha Rich (my mother) graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane.  Alma later went to business school to learn secretarial skills.  She had wanted to attend college, but that was out of reach financially at that time.  She married my father Benjamin Gustav Schmidt, and they had three children, Robert Ben Schmidt, Helen Marie Schmidt, and George Raymond Schmidt (myself).

Bertha's son Elmer graduated from Lewis and Clark high school in Spokane, as did Alma and Rose Marie.  Elmer joined the navy in WWII and spent some of his service time in Florida, where he met Caroline.  They returned to Spokane after he left the service.  Afterward, Elmer became the industrial arts teacher at Lewis and Clark for many years, teaching wood and metal working and drafting.  He also took side work as a brick layer.  One of the buildings for which he laid the brick was the new church that was built in Spokane for the North American Church, that replaced the old Arthur Street Baptist Church.  My brother Bob and I spent some time helping him by hauling bricks and mortar to the scaffolding where Elmer was working.

Bertha's youngest daughter Rose Marie went to work for the War Production Board (WPB) during WWII in Washington, D.C.  She married her boss Walter Barry, and they moved to Dallas, Texas.  Walter managed a farm machinery business there as part of Minneapolis-Moline.  Walt had a son from his previous marriage that lived with them.  Rose Marie and Walt had two children, Wayne Paul Barry (WPB), and Beverly.  Both still live in Texas.