Friedrich Gustav Ruth and Johanna Elwers Ruth

F. Gustav Ruth’s first wife was Johanna Elwers, born 31 August 1855 in Neenah, Wisconsin.  When he got to America, Gustav was going to Janesville, Wisconsin, where a friend of his lived.  Fate intervened in his life, and he fell asleep on the train, missing his connecting train at Milwaukee.  He slept through Oshkosh before the mistake was discovered.  The conductor put him off the train at the next stop, which was Neenah.  He didn’t have any money left to buy a ticket back to Janesville and he knew no English in this strange land.  He had been an apprentice tailor in Germany so he found work in a tailor’s shop in Neenah.  There he learned to speak not only English, but also Norwegian.  After about five years, he met the young lady who was to become his wife.  They were married on December 15, 1872 and started out their married life in Neenah.  Three sons were born to them there: Gustav Carl, Born 19 September of 1873; Friedrich Emil, born 28 February 1876; and Adolph Heinrich, born 26 January 1877.  Unfortunately, as so often happened in those days, Gustav Carl died before he was six months old.  The other two boys lived, however, and later in his life F. Gustav often Joked, “I got my boys in Neenah, but I had to come to Clintonville to get my girls.  In fact, seven girls were born there to this marriage: Marie or Mayme, Emma, Lena, Dora Elisabeth, Clara, Alma and Johanna.  Again, three of them, Emma, Lena and Johanna, did not live to adulthood.  How blessed we are to live in a day with good medical attention.  From this photo, F. Gustav was a carbon copy of is father.  There’s not a dime’s worth of difference in their looks.