Granny's Diary

Christine Johanna Heisler Repschleger

20 Dec 1889 – 25 June 1987

Christine Repschleger is my maternal grandmother. I call her Granny. I spent a great deal of time with her when I was a growing up, and loved every minute. To me, she was the ultimate grandmother. She made me doll clothes, strung cording around her house so I could pretend wash and hang my doll clothes out to dry, had a kitchen equipped with ice cream bars, root beer, and homemade chocolate chip cookies, and kept a big welcoming candy dish full of malted milk balls or peppermint candy on the coffee table in her living room. She taught me to embroider, let me help make cinnamon rolls and cut out fabric for clothes from patterns she made herself. She played hymns and old-timey songs for me on the piano in her sewing room, and covered me with sweet smelling powder after my bath when I was lucky enough to get to spend the night with her. She reserved the drawer in her china cabinet for me and kept it full of coloring books, crayons, cards and other little games. She took me with her to her little country church where she let me help prepare communion and wash the little communion cups. She told me stories of her childhood in Breslau, Texas, and her family – her mother and father, four sisters and three brothers.

When I knew Granny, she wore shirt-waist house dresses, and added sparkly pins and "ear-bobs" when she dressed up. She wound her long steel-grey hair up into a bun on the top of her head that she secured with hair pins and combs. She had false teeth that sometimes clicked when she ate, and she carried in her dress pocket when they became too uncomfortable. She had curly handwriting and used little circles to dot her "i's" and "j's" and made sweet little clucking sounds when she kissed me. Her Bible was always nearby and attending church was an important part of her life.

The photo of Granny as a beautiful little girl that now hangs in our hall used to hang over her piano. She told me she was mad when it was taken because she did not like the dress her mother insisted she wear. I have such good memories of that photo that when my Mom asked what things from her home I wanted to have when she passed, I quickly named that picture of Granny. Mom wrote "for Janis" on the back of the photo. It now hangs exactly where it was when Mom was alive.

You can guess, then, how thrilled I was to discover Granny's diaries in the things that Mother had stashed away in a big shopping bag on the top shelf of her closet. These diaries are full of mundane notes in Granny's curly handwriting with entries such as "went to church", "did the wash", "rainy day", and so forth with no commentary on how she felt or what she was thinking. There was one, however, that was different. This was a diary she kept in the months before her January 6, 1910, wedding day. The diary begins on May 20, 1909, and its last entry is on December 18, 1909. It tells the story of her courtship with Paw and her last few months as a young single woman in Lavaca County where I now live. What a treasure.

There were the mundane things but this time it was apparent how much time and effort wash day actually required and hints about the rhythm of her days. There were the little details of her life that I love knowing, like she called her mother "Ma" and "Momma", sewed for other women in town, and read the poem, "Lead Kindly Light" in church. And while there were no flowery words of young love, there were clues that helped me read between the lines about that exciting time of courtship and anticipation of marriage.

I learned that Granny was a popular young lady. Her diary begins when she moves "to town" - to Hallettsville from Breslau - when she was nineteen. She mentioned going driving with Julius, meeting Mr. Paul Fertch, receiving cards from Walter, and receiving candy and frequent calls from Mr. McNair, (apparently a persistent suitor). In July she traveled by train to Port Arthur, ostensibly to see Mary Repschlaeger, Paw's younger sister. While in Port Arthur, it appears that the courtship with "Willie" really begins. She mentions going for rides, to the theater and the pier, and attending "Holy Jumpers", an evangelical religious group that emerged in the 1890's, known for its acrobatic religious style. She took Paw lunch one day and keeps mentioning that she is having a glorious time. Love was obviously in the air.

After she returned home, the letter writing began. Granny mentions receiving letters, writing letters, and going to the post office to check for letters. As soon as she received a letter she wrote a letter in return. You can almost feel her excitement, anticipation and anguish when the time between letters was too long. I wonder what happened to those letters!

While she never says how Paw proposed or when they became engaged, she does mention telling something to Mr. McNair "straight up" late that summer. Soon after, she references making sheets and quilts, her wedding dress, underskirt and wedding bloomers. She writes about papering the kitchen and dining room and painting the floor - presumably in her mother's house in Hallettsville's West End where she and Paw were married.

I have wondered if Granny and Paw were ever really in love, as the only courtship story I heard was that Paw returned to Hallettsville to find a bride, and was told to pursue one of the Haeusler/Heisler girls. This story made me wonder if their marriage was one of convenience or necessity and not love. I knew them when they slept in separate bedrooms and fussed about each other. I know that there were marital indiscretions that must have been hard for Granny to bear. I asked Mother if she saw affection between her parents and she said yes - at times they seemed to be very much in love.

Granny's courtship diary tells me that she had other options and that she chose Paw. Life may not have unfolded as she imagined, but they spent 63 years together - and hopefully the happy days outnumbered the bad ones.Their marriage might not have been a storybook marriage, but whose is? I saw the ending, but am thankful for this glimpse of their happy beginning.

Record of Teny Haeusler and W. E. Repschleger's marriage in Hallettsville.