The stories of our ancestors don’t appear in nice little books labeled “The Story Of —.” That would be too easy, but the stories are often out there. buried in primary research materials, written in little snippets that often appear out of context and out of chronological order. That story has to be gently and carefully grown from those primary materials, watered with a knowledge of the context in which the records were created, and fertilized with a thoughtful, careful analysis. And even then, we may not know the “real story.’ The records we have to utilize still only provide a partial glimpse into the past.
One has to take care to tell what is told by the records and leave the concoction of reasons and the scripting of family drama to fiction writers. Unless there is copious testimony or pension affidavits. In those cases, the script may write itself.
Such is the story of Volke Sartorius.
An 1892 Illinois newspaper account of Volke somewhat sensationalizes her early life and the reasons she was in an Adams County court in 1892. When one reads the newspaper account it is difficult to tell if the writer was a newspaper reporter or a frustrated novelist. There is much more to Volke’s story than the dramatized newspaper account written by an author who could not get past word play based upon the name of “Harm,” the father of Volke’s first child.
The reason why Volke appeared in that Adams County court in 1892 had little to do with that boyfriend from her past. It likely had quite a bit to do with the husband who died in his forties leaving Volke nearly broke with a family of eight children..
Much of Volke’s story can be glistened from the probate and estate files of her husband and her father. With the exception of her date of marriage, every detail in her story has been taken from the estate files of Herman Sartorius, Ulfert Behrens, and Ricka Behrens (Volke’s mother).
Volke’s oldest daughter, Reka, was born before her marriage to Herman Sartorius in October of 1872 in Adams County, Illinois. Reka likely lived with Volke’s parents even after Volke married. In 1883, fifteen years after their marriage, Volke’s husband Herman is dead, leaving his fortysomething wife with eight living children (Johanna, Gesche, Johan, Trientje, Heinrich, Antje, Ulfert, and Gustave), two small town lots, little personal property, and a sizeable debt. Volke’s father, Ulfert Behrens, was appointed administrator of her husband’s estate at her request. She had the legal right to oversee her husband’s estate as his widow. It’s possible her father, older and more financially set, would have had an easier time navigating the legal process and advocating on her behalf. Volke sold one of the town lots which was sufficient to settle the debt. She bought her own house from the estate as well, but likely used her unrealized widow’s award to pay for it, making the transaction a wash. Local Justice of the Peace and businessman H. H. Emminga appears as a witness on numerous documents for the Behrens and Sartorius families and is it highly likely that he helped the family negotiate through the financial problems following Herman Sartorius’ death.
Six years later in August of 1889 Volke’s parents, Ulfert and Fredericka Behrens, die within one day of each other. Volke’s daughter Reka is married by this time, but Volke is still a widow and at the time of her parents’ death has five children living with her under the age of fifteen. It is likely that money is still tight for Volke. Her father leaves her $500 cash in his will (the same amount is left to her sister).
With her father dead and her husband’s estate completely settled, Volke is appointed guardian for her minor children a month after her father dies. This appointment is apparently so she can file a claim for the wages of her children, Trientje and Henry, against the estate of her father. She also files claims for a missing promissory note she claims her father signed on his deathbed, the money that Reka’s Harm gave to Ulfert Behrens when he left town when Volke became pregnant, and for an additional amount she claimed was loaned by her to her father. The court awarded the full amount of money for her children’s labor. Her additional claims of $1035 were settled for $100. Volke’s claims against her father’s estate are for three amounts of $250 and one amount of $285. It is possible that that Ulfert’s bequest to Volke for $500 was for two of the $250 amounts. We will never know.
It is difficult to tell just how much Ulfert really owed Volke upon his death, if anything. The local newspaper thought it was scandalous that she asked for the $250 Reka’s father had given to Volke’s father nearly twenty years previously. It is easy to see why the paper thought it was somewhat scandalous for Volke to ask for that money given to raise Reka as Ulfert himself gave Reka $300 in his will.
It is also difficult to determine just what additional “drama” was going on behind the scenes. We only have the records left behind to tell the story. Volke was left with little when her husband died in 1883. It is easy to see that she may have been in a similar situation in 1889 when her parents died.
Just one record never tells the story.
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