The Marshfield Times, Marshfield, WI, Friday, October 17, 1902

GOV. LA FOLLETTE AT GOLDEN WEDDING.

Dodgeville, Wis., Oct. 11. - Gov. and Mrs. R. M. La Follette attended the golden wedding anniversary reception of Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Stratman, Sr., last evening. Mr. and Mrs, Stratman are among the earliest settlers of Dodgeville. Mr. Stratman has been one of the builders of this city and county. He at present conducts one of the leading wagon and carriage manufacturing plants in Southern Wisconsin and is one of our best citizens, many times holding important offices of trust, now being one of the city aldermen. Mr. Stratman was born in 1832 and Mrs. Stratman was born in 1831 in Cronenberg, Rheinland, Germany, in one of the most thickly-settled parts of the upper valley. They were raised in the same parish, brought up in the same church, confirmed and taken into the church by the same pastor, Rev. W. Hastert. They were married in 1852, and in 1853 they came to America and after a three months' trip landed in Galena, Ill. They resided in Galena about six years when they moved to Dodgeville, just after the election of Lincoln. Mr. Stratman made his native country a visit in 1892, when his aged mother of 92 years was feeble and afterwards died. He is the last survivor of seven children. Mr. Stratman has always been a Republican. They have four children living, G. E., F. W., G. W. Stratman and Emma, now Mrs. W. H. Thomas.

Leigh Larson note: A picture of the Stratmans also appeared with the article.

The WWI Draft Registration Report dated September 12, 1918, shows George Washington Stratman (age 41) is a Wheelwright and is living at 406 N. Jefferson St., Monroe, Green Co., WI. He is married to Maude Stratman.

Appleton Post-Crescent, Appleton, WI, Tuesday, April 19, 1938

Foreign Service Lions Club Topic

Waupaca Organization Hears Address by Glenn A. Abbey

Waupaca - Glenn A. Abbey, of the United States diplomatic service, was the principal speaker at the Lions club Monday noon at Hotel Delevan. Mr. Abbey was introduced by his brother-in-law, Almo Larson, at whose home he was a week end guest. Mr. Abbey's talk was of "The Foreign Service of the United States." Foe 13 years Mr. Abbey, a native of Dodgeville, Wis. and a graduate of Georgetown university, has been engaged in the American consular and diplomatic service. For two and one-half years he was stationed at Haiti, three years in the high commission in South Africa, located at Johanesburg and Pretoria. He was in Nicaragua a short time following the earthquake and in Venezuela four years. For a little more than a year he was in the service in Paraguay then at Buenes Aires and Paraguay, returning April 6 from Buenes Aires. Mr. Abbey was also a junior delegate to the Chaco peace conference. He is now doing special detail work with the department of state at Washington, D. C., where he will be stationed for two or three years. While in Waupaca Mr. Abbey was a guest at the home of his sister, Mrs. Almo Larson. He left Tuesday morning for Eau Claire where he will be the guest of another sister. Other week end guests of Mr. and Mrs. Larson were Mrs. Ida Abbey, Dodgeville; C. P. Abbey, San Antonio, Texas; Mrs. L. H. Anderson, Eau Claire; Wilbur A. Larson, Watertown; Miss Marion Stratman, Madison; Mrs. Maude Stratman and Harold Indestad, Waupaca. 

Appleton Post-Crescent, Appleton, WI, Wednesday, May 15, 1940

Waupaca - Mrs. M. Stratman will leave Thursday for Madison where she will visit her daughter, Miss Marian Stratman, who will leave that city May 20 for San Francisco from which place she will sail for Honolulu. Miss Stratman expects to be gone one year and will be employed as a surgical nurse in Queen Mary's hospital.

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Wisconsin Rapids, WI, Wednesday, July 8, 1942

Proposal to Mine Ore in Cemetery Rejected

Dodgeville, Wis. - Permission to work a vein of zinc and lead ore discovered by prospectors beneath the East side cemetery here was denied the Stratman Brothers' Mining Co. last night by the common council. Vote on a proposal by the company to pay the city a royalty on tonnage taken from a vein if permitted to work it was 5 to 1 for denial. A citizens' committee appeared before the council in opposition to the mining.

The Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, WI, Friday, October 3, 1986

Stratman, Mrs. Maude

DODGEVILLE - Mrs. Maude Stratman, age 104, died on Tuesday, September 30, 1986, in a Waupaca nursing home. The former Maude Abbey was born in Richland County on December 10, 1881. She was married to George Stratman, and was a Dodgeville and Monroe resident for several years. She was a member of the United Methodist Church. She was preceded in death by her husband, George; two sons Dallas and George; a grandson; and a great-grandson. She is survived by a son, Donald, Dodgeville; a daughter, Mrs. Marian Egelus, Las Vegas, Nevada; nine grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren; and 30 great-great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held on at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, October 4, in the LULLOFF-PETERSON FUNERAL HOME, Dodgeville. Reverend Verlyn Harr will officiate. Burial will be in East Side Cemetery. Friends may call on Saturday, October 4, at the funeral home from 10:00 a.m. until time of service.

Sonoma News, Sonoma, CA

Obituaries

Helene F. Stratman - Navy League president

12/05/03 - Helene F. Stratman made a peaceful transition from this world at home in Sonoma on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2003, with her loving family close to her side. She was 81, but looked far younger. Helene's passing came just days after a traditional Thanksgiving with her three children and their families, where many special and touching moments were shared. A woman of strength and determination, she will be forever missed as a loving mother, role model, devoted friend and leader. Helene was a 10-year resident of Seven Flags and active in many community groups. She was best known in Sonoma Valley as president and founder of the Vineyard Council of the Navy League. She enjoyed organizing activities such as excursions on-board U.S. Coast Guard vessels, private tours of Air Force bases and visits to the California Maritime Academy. Helene also served as a docent with the Sonoma Valley Historical Society at the Toscano Hotel. She was a member of Women of the Moose, Ladies Auxiliary of Veterans of Foreign Wars, Sons of Italy and other groups. Up until recently, Helene worked at Advanced Instruments Hearing Aid Center on Broadway. Before moving to Sonoma, Helene was a 30-year resident of Marin County where as a single mother, she worked full-time in medical office management and raised her children. Prior to founding the Vineyard Council, Helene served as executive officer of the Carpenter Division of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps in San Rafael and then as commander of the Sea Cadet Pyro Division in Petaluma. In these posts, she organized programs for young people interested in the sea services. Working with young people was a longtime avocation that spanned three decades, beginning with Civil Air Patrol (CAP) in San Francisco and Marin County. Ultimately achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel, Helene was commander of San Francisco CAP Squadron 86 from 1975 to 1981 and was also "Outstanding Information Officer" for the Marin Air-Rescue Composite Squadron 4. Born Aug. 23, 1922, Helene grew up in New York and Europe, traveling with Swiss-American parents who developed new concepts for watches and earned several patents for innovative designs. After settling in New York City, marrying and having children, Helene and her family moved to San Francisco in the early 1960s. Her first husband died in action in World War II, and her second husband was a World War II and Korean War veteran who died in 1974. Helene is survived by daughter Jeanne Slominski and her husband, Ron, and grandson, Jesse "Moses" Slominski of Petaluma; daughter Teri Shore of Sonoma; son, George W. Stratman and his wife, Susan, and granddaughter, Emma, of Ramona; nephew Richard Lawson and his wife, Judith, of Alabama and their children; and cousin Hildegard Maag and husband, Willy, and extended family of Zurich, Switzerland. Arrangements were handled by Duggan's Mission Chapel. A celebration of Helene's life will be held 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Jan. 3, at the Seven Flags Clubhouse in Sonoma. RSVP to Teri Shore, terishore@mindspring.com, or 938-3469. Donations may be made to Valley of the Moon Hospice Team, 735 Broadway, Sonoma, CA 95476; or the U.S. Navy League Sea Cadet Corps, Pyro Division, U.S. Coast Guard Training Center, Petaluma, CA 94952.

Helene Stratman-Thomas was born on May 13, 1896 in Dodgeville, Wis., the daughter of Helena Emma Stratman and Warren H. Thomas, a local grocer and businessman. She grew up amid a blend of folk music in her predominantly Cornish town — German folk songs and English game sounds at home, and Welsh hymns from a nearby church. After high school, Helene taught school in Monticello and Brooklyn before earning a business degree from University of Wisconsin–Madison. She worked at an investment firm in Minneapolis for about eight years, and then returned to Madison to complete her B.A. and M.A. degrees in music. In 1930, she was hired at UW to teach music theory, conduct the women’s chorus, and later work as the business manager for the Pro Arte string quartet. She lived with her brother, Warren K. Stratman-Thomas, a renowned malarial research pharmacologist. Together they were avid genealogists, and she was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1940, her music career found a new trajectory. Professor Leland Coon asked her to head the Wisconsin Folk Music Project, a government-funded effort to record music from the state’s diverse population. That summer she embarked on the first of three major collecting trips. Until then her training was chiefly classical, yet quickly she warmed to the task. After the government-sponsored collecting trips, Stratman-Thomas recounted her travels in a radio series on Wisconsin Public Radio and gave lectures on folk music throughout the state. She also devoted a summer to surveying the state’s Cornish music. In the fall of 1948, Stratman-Thomas married A. J. (Pat) Blotz, a Dodgeville man she had known her entire life. She continued to teach music theory and began writing a book about Wisconsin folk music. Stratman-Thomas retired from UW–Madison in 1961. She died Jan. 11, 1973 at the age of 76. Shortly after Helene’s death, her husband asked Harry Peters to complete the Wisconsin folksong book project. Folk Songs out of Wisconsin was published in 1977. Since then there have been other attempts to bring her work to light, including Judy Rose’s 1983 radio series, Wisconsin Patchwork, and the companion book by Leary. In 2001, the Library of Congress released Folk Music from Wisconsin, a 22-track CD of Helene’s recordings. With a heavy recorder and a thin budget, UW–Madison music professor Helene Stratman-Thomas and recording technician Bob Draves rolled down Wisconsin roads in search of folk music. The year was 1941, a time when many first-generation immigrants and big lumber camp veterans were still alive and performing. The two traveled from town to town — “The average speed was 70 miles an hour,” Bob would later recall — covering thousands of miles to put down records in all regions of the state. Within a few years it would become impossible to capture such voices and experiences. Much of what Helene caught on those precarious shellac discs have never been recorded before or since. The trip marked the beginning of Helene’s six-year folk song collecting effort that would result in the preservation of nearly 800 performances representing more than thirty ethnic and regional groups. The copies of the recordings are housed at the Mills Music Library at University of Wisconsin–Madison and the originals are part of the Library of Congress’s Archive of Folk Culture, the largest collection of American traditional music in the world. The Helene Stratman-Thomas Collection of ethnic music recordings is especially rich in the songs of French-Canadian, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, Cornish, and German immigrants. It also contains the music of Native American groups (in particular the Ho Chunk); occupational songs by lumberjacks, sailors, miners, railroadmen, and cranberry pickers; and Appalachian music performed by Kentuckians who settled in northern Wisconsin. At a time when American folk music collecting centered on mainly Anglo- and Afro-American songs, or regionally focused works on Cajuns, Hispanics, and various American Indians, Helene’s work stood apart. She was open to all kinds of musical expression, which enabled her to record everything from Czech and Bohemian brass bands to Norwegian hardanger and Polish goraly fiddlers. Other never-before captured tunes came from psalmodikons and tamburica quartets, Oneida choirs, Welsh Gymanfa Ganu singers, and Swedish, Norwegian, Hollander, and Luxembourger balladeers. Temperamental equipment and unpredictable performers made for extremely precarious conditions. “I’m surprised we got anything good at all because this was so primitive,” Draves told Simply Folk’s Judy Rose in a 1983 interview. When exposed to air, the purple coating around the aluminum recording discs would quickly harden so they had to remain tightly covered until performers were ready. Diamond needles that cut the records had to be sharp, yet any accidental touch against the aluminum and the needle was destroyed. Each disc only afforded 4 ½ minutes of recordings, which meant that singers had little room to dally or make mistakes. But there were forgotten lyrics and other blunders, as well as some awkward moments. A cuckoo clock and church bells were just of few of the stray sounds that made it onto the discs. When it came to lusty ballads, singers might clam up in front of the female song catcher. In turn, Helene would step out of the room and let Bob record those songs that “ain’t exactly fitten for a woman to hear.” A music theory teacher and women’s choir conductor, Helene fell into the work of folksong collecting. Yet her ability to develop instant rapport with almost anyone made her a natural. “She was a very loveable person,” Draves recalled, “a warm person who could become very interested in you.”

Pauline Joan Ludwig, 80, long time resident of Cable, passed away Saturday, October 28. She was born on January 6, 1926 to Paula and Frederic Stratman. Pauline grew up in Dodgeville, WI and later raised her family in Lincoln, NE before moving to Cable. Pauline was a lively community citizen of Cable. She was office manager for many years at Rasmussen & Sons, Inc. Pauline was an active member of the United Church of Christ, and participated in Women’s Fellowship and the Homemakers. Pauline took great pride of being a gourmet cook.  She was a member of the Gourmet Club of Cable. She enjoyed entertaining people with her great home cooked meals prepared with the produce from her own garden. She absolutely loved gardening. She baked delicious pies, cakes, and goodies to share with the community.  A night would not be complete without a hand of cards or a game of dominos. Her favorite games were scrabble and the card game “500” that were played often with her family and friends.   It was often that Pauline and her good friend of 14 years, Tom Brilla, would be seen dancing the night away at various events. They were selected as Prom King and Queen at the Community Prom sponsored by the Hayward High School. In addition, they both enjoyed leading wildlife hikes around Cable/Mason countryside for the Cable Natural History Museum.  Pauline traveled the world.  She had the opportunity to see many places on her own, but also with the program, Elderhostel.  Some of her travels included Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Hawaii, Alaska, and Seattle. Pauline contributed to the community of Cable to the fullest. She was the volunteer coordinator for the Cable Natural History Museum and a board member of the Cable Sewer project. She donated her time as well to many efforts such as the Forest Lodge Library and the American Birkebeiner. In addition, she took part in the Wisconsin Bookworms, the Penpal program and was the treasurer for the Arts and Academic Achievement Club in the Drummond School District. These were just some of the efforts Pauline was involved in, but there were many more. In all venues, Pauline advocated for her core values of justice, compassion, affirming diversity, environmental protection, health care, education and peacemaking.  She appreciated very much the support of her loving community. Pauline was preceded in death by her parents, and brother, Frederick “Fritz” Stratman. Survivors are her daughter, Ellen Jensen of Seattle, WA; son, Jim (Donna) Ludwig of Tasmania, Australia; sister-in-law, Georgene Stratman of Madison, WI; niece, Annette (Terry) Stratman-Durrer of Verona, WI; granddaughter, Laura Jensen of Bellingham, WA; and two grandsons Reid and Blair Ludwig of Tasmania, Australia. A memorial service will be held in May 26, 2007 at United Church of Christ in Cable. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to United Church of Christ, PO Box 279, Cable, WI 54821 or Solar Cookers International, 1919 - 21st Street #101, Sacramento, CA 95814.