Lois Katherine Field, part 3

After yesterday's post, I spent a little more time investigating Herman Carstens. Although I still don't know how my grandmother met him or why she married him, I do know more about Herman. He was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1911, when he was about 20 years old. He settled in South Dakota where he farmed his entire life. After marrying Lois Field at the age of 33, he married again in 1938 to a woman who was over 20 years younger than himself. He lived to the ripe old age of 98, as did his wife, Mildred. I also found a few of his relatives on FamilySearch:

So, how did Lois end up in Montana? Several years ago, I asked my mother this same question.

She said that Lois was divorced (a scandal in those days) and saw an ad in the newspaper asking for someone to marry. This wasn't unusual in the mid 1880's to the early 1900's -- there just weren't enough women in Montana to go around, so men would advertise for wives. Lois wrote to Karl, and he sent her a round-trip ticket by train from South Dakota to Montana. It was a three-day trip on a coal-burning train; Lois was very upset about the smoke that often filled the travel car. (She hated dirt and fumes -- later in her life, she kept towels rolled up against the wall where cigarette smoke would come from the apartment below her.)

When Lois arrived in Montana, Karl met her at the station. He told her that she didn't have to marry him just because she had come (he was a very considerate person), but she said that while they were there she might as well do it. He then dropped her off at home and went back to work; she cried for hours wondering what she had done. (I believe my mother still has the return ticket for the trip.)

Lois and Karl were happy together, and loved each other very much. Here is a picture of her holding her first child, my mother:

Lois never went back to Iowa again. Although she wrote her family on a regular basis, she never saw any of her siblings again in her life:

Millie May Field, Bertha Lora Field, Florence R. Field, Lois Katherine Field, and Otis James Field in Modale Iowa circa 1920. Florence died in an automobile accident; the other four all lived into their late 70's or more. 

Tomorrow...more about Lois's ancestors.