Christine Wanner Nuffer

Back (l-r): Ida, Joe, Louise, Clara, Anna, Fred, Bertha  Front: Christina, Laura, Preston, Charles

This is a biography written of Christina (Christine in her record in the first line) Wanner Nuffer by her daughter Louise.  I have maintained her grammar and spelling in the biography.  I have written of Charles and Christina previously.  Here is August’s autobiography.

My Mother, Christine, Wanner was born 30 March 1872 in Holzgerlinger, Germany.  She was the daughter of Johann Georg Wanner and Anna Maria Schmid.  She was the second child of a family of ten children.  Mother started school at the age of seven in 1879 and graduated at the age of fourteen in 1886 in Greengrant (Gruenkraut), Germany.

The gospel message was brought to her parent’s home in Germany by the Mormon Missionaries.  My grandparents joined the church and came to America 18 Jun 1893.  Mother was twenty-one years old then.  She was baptized on the 26th of January 1894 in Mapleton, Idaho by Heber Taylor.  She learned to speak English by talking to other people.  Her parents settled in Glendale, Idaho.  There is where she met my father Charles August Nuffer, he was living in Mapleton with his parents.  Mother did some housework for people before her marriage.  She didn’t get much money, what she earned she had to give to her parents.  My parents were married 1 Feb 1894 in the Logan Temple by W. M. (Marriner Wood) Merrill.

Father had built a rock house and they moved right in about all the furniture they had is what Father had made from boxes and other wood.  In those days they got along fine with the few things they had.

Mother always made the best of everything.  She also believed the best of everyone.  She was kind and loved her children very much.  Mother was a good homemaker and did all the sewing and knitting for her family.  She loved to do things for others.  She believed in bringing up her children by teaching them to pray and by always taking them to church.

Father was busy making a living for the family, he worked hard to secure the necessities of life.  Wood was used for fuel and Father had to get this from the canyons.  Kerosene lamps provided the lights for the house.  Father and Mother often visited the sick and sat up nights with the dead and helped lay them away.

They lived in their first house over thirteen years and seven children were born there.  In November of 1907 they moved to Preston.  For the first few years they had much sickness, Father, Clara and Annie had Typhoid Fever.  This worked a hardship on Mother as she had a young baby also.  Mother promise the Lord that if He would bless her husband to get better that she would let him go on a mission.  She was true to her word and in the spring of 1910 he left to go on a mission to the Eastern States for two years.  Mother was left to care for nine children including Laura who was the baby only two months old.  This took much courage for Mother and was a hardship but she never complained.  With the Lord’s help and the help of friends and relatives she got along the best that she could.  When Father came home from his mission they had to start all over again, by borrowing money to buy a farm.  It took a long time for them to get out of debt.

Father and Mother always took the time to go visiting relatives in the early days.  They would travel by horse and buggy.  They also liked to go fishing.  When her sister Pauline died they took Cyril (Crossley) the youngest boy and took care of him for two years.  When Annie died 25 Jan 1928 there came another big responsibility for Mother that of taking care of her two youngest children, the twins Barbara and Beverly.

Mother was set apart as a Relief Society teacher 30 April 1916 by N. S. Geddes and she retained this position until the time of her death and she was faithful in her duty.

She and Father worked on the Genealogy Committee for years going into the homes helping people prepare their family group sheets for their own use and to sent to Salt Lake.  They were very interested in Temple work and made many trips to Logan doing this work for their ancestors and others.

Father and Mother were active in their German Speaking Latter Day Saint organization until World War I.  Racial feelings at that time made it necessary for the organization to be discontinued.  Many times our parents used to practice singing Germany Hymns in the home.  Preston and Laura were born in Preston, Idaho and the rest of us in Mapleton, Idaho.  Mother died 10 August 1940 on my sister Clara’s birthday.  She is buried in Preston Cemetery.

Funeral services for Christina Wanner Nuffer were held August 14th, at 2:00 P.M.  The pall-bearers were Donald Hansen, Max Hansen, Keith Winn, Devon Winn, Donald Cummings, & Leon Nuffer.  Admiring friends and relatives assembled at the Second Ward Chapel to pay a final tribute to Christina W. Nuffer.  Scores of floral tributes were added testimony of her many admirers.

Services were conducted by Bishop Howard Hall and interment was in the Preston Cemetery.  Mrs. Christina Wanner age sixty eight died Saturday August 10th at her home of a tumor of the spine.  She had lived in Preston for thirty three years.  Surviving are her husband, three sons, and five daughters, six brothers and sisters, George and Fred Wanner of Preston, Gotlob B. Wanner of Inkom, Idaho, Mrs. Louise Bodero and Mrs Mina Bodero of Logan, Utah, and Mrs. Mary Wagstaff of Ogden.  Mrs. Nuffer reared two of her grandchildren, Barbara and Beverly Cummings with the help of her daughter Louise Nuffer Roberts.