George's Story

Copyright © 2010 by George Baumli

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ISBN: 978-1-4502-4936-2 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-4938-6 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-4937-9 (hbk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 10/20/10

Contents

Dedicated to

Acknowledgments

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1

Arrivals From Switzerland

Chapter 2 The Arrival Of The Baumli Children

Chapter 3 George’s Childhood In Marble

Chapter 4 George’s High School Days

Chapter 5 Out of High School, Now, What Do I Do ?

Chapter 6 You Are In The Army Now

Chapter 7 Out Of The Army And Headed For College

Chapter 8 Done With College, And Off To Work

Chapter 9 Our Red Bluff Experiences

Chapter 10 Life In The Fast Lane In Los Angeles

Chapter 11 Working With Mexico In El Paso

Chapter 12 Back To Sacramento With The State Water Contractors

Chapter 13 Retired In Texas, Traveling, And With The Grandkids

Dedicated to

My loving grandchildren.

May they gain from the good that I have done

And, smile at the other.

Acknowledgments

My loving wife, Mary Jo, my sisters, Esther (Baumli) Sanchez

and Rose (Baumli) Razzano and my good friend, John Perocco,

reviewed and made constructive comments,

which enhanced the early portions of this book.

Preface

This is a true story of the youngest of eleven children born to Swiss parents in Marble, Colorado. The story covers the immigration of the family to the United States, settlement in Basalt and Marble Colorado and raising of a large family in the early 1900s.

George, the eleventh and baby of the family tells his story. Like all his siblings, he was born at home, without a doctor. He was born in 1929 in Marble, Colorado and finished the eighth grade there. His Dad, Jacob, worked in the Marble quarry and in 1931 helped quarry the block of marble for the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetary. The story of George’s childhood was typical of those who grew up in the rugged mountains at an elevation of 8,000 feet. Well, maybe it is not so typical. He had adventures that few today can imagine. One was killing a wild groundhog with rocks and trying to cook it on a rusty shovel and eat it.

He went to high school in Glenwood Springs, Colorado and had a fun filled four years. George was too small to play varsity football, but he did play basketball and got involved in his share of mischievous activities.

Following high school, and not having the money for college, he worked in various trades, including: railroad yard worker, carpenter’s helper, auto mechanic’s helper, sawmill worker, cattle and sheep ranching hand, railroad section laborer and heavy equipment operator. His story tells of these experiences in a thoughtful and humorous manner.

Then, he was drafted into the US Army and was sent to Japan and Korea, rising in rank from Private to Sergeant First Class. He spent nine months in Korea in 1952 in the field artillery fighting the North Koreans and the Chinese during the Korean War. His stories tell of his adventures in an artillery battery and the comradre that he continues to share with his buddies today.

Taking advantage of the GI Bill, he attended the University of Colorado and came out with a wife, son and a BS Degree in Civil Engineering. He put those skills to good use, working for the California Department of Water Resources. He rose to the level of Principal Engineer, having key roles in the planning, design and construction of the State Water Project, one of the largest and most successful water projects in the world.

Then, for a change, he accepted a high level position with theUS Section, International Boundary and Water Commission in El Paso, Texas, dealing with water problems between the United States and Mexico. His story tells of his experience working with the Mexican engineers, learning to speak Spanish and living on the border.

Enticed by a prestigious offer, he returned to Sacramento, California as General Manager of the State Water Contractors. The SWC is a private, non-profit corporation responsible for coordinating and overseeing water deliveries to over 20 million people through the State Water Project. His story gives insights how California dealt with one of its worst droughts. During the most critical year of that drought, he had a key role in arranging for the State Water Project contractors to buy about $100 million worth of water from farmers, paying them not to grow crops, thereby freeing the water for use by the SWC. Then he retired, after 38 years in the water resources development and management field. But, he wasn’t quite through. He served as a consultant for the World Bank, helping develop a water resources plan for the Government of the Philippines.

Now that he is retired, he spends his time with his wife, Mary Jo and the five grandkids. He and Mary Jo have been married 56 years. This story is rich in describing the trials and tribulations of raising three sons and watching them grow into successful businessmen.

George’s woodworking hobbies and golf keep him occupied when not with the grandkids. Of the eleven children, only George, Esther and Rose remain.

The reason for George’s Story is to provide information to the grandkids so they will know the details of their family and hopefully build on the family heritage.

Chapter 1

Arrivals From Switzerland

The Baumli family originated in Switzerland. The history of the family has been traced back to 1753. George has a detailed listing of the Baumli geneaology, but it is too voluminous to include in this book.

Josef, the first Baeumli of record, was born in 1753. He married Sekunda Schwarz in 1757. They had three children:

Lukas

Blasius

Marie Ursula

Lukas married Maria Anna Scwarb in 1782. They had six children:

Franz Kaspar

Fridolin

Peter

Lukas

Meinrad

Helena

Franz Kaspar married Petronilla Jaggi in 1848. They had thirteen children:

Martin

Barbara

Maria Agatha

Karolina

Maria Anna

Theresia

Elisabetha

Aloisia

Markus Georg (Hey, there was another George in the family)

Johann Evangalis

Joseph Fridolin

Simon Adolf and Johann Nepomuk

Martin married Catherina Luchsinger in 1879. They had five children:

Franz

Jacob (George’s Dad)

Anna

Catherina

Verena

The photo shows Anna Baeumli Hefti on the left and daughter Anna Hefti. Circa 1950.

Part of the Luchsinger family migrated to Basalt, Colorado in the late 1880s and were some of the town’s earliest residents. They began ranching and raising a large family. Jake Luchsinger was the eldest. He and his siblings, Mike, Carl and Elsie were like part of the Baumli family.

Beginning with Jacob, the first Baumli to immigrate to the United States, the spelling of the last name was changed from Baeumli to Baumli, although the family for years used umlauts (two small dots) over the a. The Swiss/German name Baumli means little tree. You all know the name tannenbaum is Christmas tree in German.

Jacob Baumli, from Mitlodi Glarus, Switzerland, arrived at Ellis Island on 1 February 1903 at the age of 22 years. He was a passenger on the French ship La Lorraine, departing from the French port Le Havre. Jacob played the French horn (Aktiv) in a Swiss band. I have a large framed photograph taken in July 1900 showing Jacob and 28 other members of Harmoniemusik-Gesellschaft Glarus

We believe that the band came to the United States in 1903 and played a number of engagements. When it came time to depart, Jacob decided to stay. In effect, ‘he jumped ship’, becoming the first and only illegal immigrant in the Baumli family. He overstayed his visa, never going back to Switzerland. He boarded a train and headed west.

He spent time working on a dairy farm in Arizona and was in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake. That earthquake, 7.8 on the Richter Scale, occurred at 5:12 a.m. on April 18. It killed 3,000 people (the same number that were killed by the terrorist attack on 9/11/2001) and left 300,000 homeless. He seldom talked of the event other than saying It was terrible. He left San Francisco and settled in Basalt, Colorado, where his cousins, the Luchsingers, lived. The Luchsinger name was changed by the family to Lucksinger because that is the way everyone spelled it. Both spellings are on head stones in the Basalt, CO. cemetery where they are buried.On 21 July 1906 Jacob Baumli filed an application of Naturalization-Declaration of Intention to become a U.S. Citizen. This was filed in the Third Judicial District rict of the Territory of Arizona. The application signed by Jacob states: … I do declare on oath that it is bona fide my intention to become a Citizen of the United States of America, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to all and any foreign Prince, Potentate, State and Sovereignty whatsoever and particularly to The Republic of Switzerland.The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, Division of Naturalization issued his Petition of Naturalization" on 14 June 1919 at the District Court of Eagle County Colorado. Wow! this was thirteen years after he filed the application. Talk about bureaucracy. I obtained a copy of his application and petition from the District Court of Eagle County in September, 2006. This was a hundred years after he filed his application. Basalt is in Eagle County.

By letter, he invited Marie Bosshard of Switzerland to come to the United States and he would marry her. Marie Elizabeth Bosshard, age 20, arrived at Ellis Island on 4 November 1907. She was a passenger on the French ship La Gascogne, also departing from Le Harve.

She traveled from New York to Basalt by train-not speaking a word of English. She was raised by her Grandma in Mitlodi Glarus, Switzerland. Apparently, they were well off, having electricity and running water in the home. I haven’t yet determined the details of how Marie became a naturalized U.S. Citizen.

The photo shows her maternal grandparents, Jacob Bosshard and Maria Grau on their wedding day, 14 March 1885 and her brother, Jacob Bosshard. Jacob Bosshard was in the Swiss Army. All Swiss males have to serve two years in the Army.

Chapter 2 The Arrival Of The Baumli Children

Jacob and Marie were married in Aspen, Colorado on 22 November 1907. It was an all day trip by team and wagon from Basalt to Aspen. Jacob worked for a while at a fish hatchery and then settled on a cattle ranch near Basalt, where they began a family of eleven children. They had nine children in Basalt and then moved to Marble, where Rose and George were born. As of this writing, Esther Sanchez of Colorado Springs, CO. Rose Razzano of Craig, CO. and George of McKinney, TX. are the three remaining of the eleven Baumli children.

Jacob and Marie became close friends with the Jake Frieler family that lived along the Frying Pan River, upstream from Basalt. We had many visits with them, always involving catching big fish from the river and having a shot or two of whiskey around an evening campfire. Of course, the Lucksingers always welcomed us, treating us to fresh corn in the summer and other goodies.

My mother, Marie, told us how she learned to speak English. She connected with a high school teacher, who wanted to learn German. They used the Sears Catalog as the text book. At the beginning of World War I, the family phased out the German language because anyone that spoke German was labeled a sympathizer. When I grew up, the Sears Catalog also served a valuable purpose in the outdoor privy. I found out that slick pages and freezing weather are not a good combination. Marie (we called her Ma) told of her first trip to the outdoor privy in Basalt, where she encountered a big tom turkey near the outhouse. She was petrified, never have seen a turkey before. When he gobbled, she retreated to the house, thinking it was some kind of wild animal of Colorado. She said, If I had the money, I would have gone back to Switzerland.

Jacob was a small man in stature, about 5’ 4’’, and weighing no more than 140 pounds. He had black hair and brown eyes. He was wiry and strong. I remember that his teeth had a yellowish cast from smoking a pipe, coffee and lack of brushing. He later got false teeth. Marie was about 5’ 6" tall. She had blonde hair and brown eyes. She was a remarkable woman. She never complained about not feeling well or being too tired to keep a loving watch on the kids. And, giving birth to eleven children at home itself was amazing.

Jacob and Marie had eleven children, the first of whom was William, born 2 November 1908. Unfortunately, he died 5 May 1910 at the age of 16 months. Apparently, he discovered and ate a toxic chemical, which was used to poison rats. The paper in Eagle reported that it was Strychnine, but some of the family said it was Arsenic. William is buried in the Basalt cemetery. We were unable to find the grave in our search in 2006.

The second child, Edwin Martin Baumli was born in 17 January 1910. Ed was a healthy and bright boy. He was the role model for the family and I learned much from him. He kept me in line. He finished high school in Basalt and lived a long and successful life. He married Mildred Mae Thurston of Hotchkiss, Colorado on 7 October 1937. They had three children, Jane, Susan and Fred.

The photo with