Bertha Helene Heym was born 27 October 1849 in the small village of Schoenfeld bei Kreuzburg in Silesia.  It was located about 60 miles due east of Breslau. Her father, August Ludwig Heym, was the forester in that village and so was fairly important.  Each tree was numbered and kept pruned, and the animals of the forest were guarded.  Bertha’s mother was Karoline Friederiche Schubert Heym.  Bertha had two sisters, Ilga, who was five years older than she and Valeska, who died when she was five years old in 1851.  Bertha also had two brothers that we know of. L Julius was the oldest in the family, born in 1842. He became a dreher (one who turns the wine kegs) at a winery in Winterthur, Switzerland.  He never married and died in Winterthur in 1901.  Alexander was the other brother.  His wife's name was Mathilde and they had a son also named Alexander and perhaps more children.  Her brother, Alexander, was a machinist for the street car company in Breslau.  He died in 1899 after a heavy piece of equipment fell on him.  Sister Olga married Heinrich Wienskowski.  He was supposed to have been of the Polish aristocracy.  They had sons Oskar and Rudoplh, and a daughter, Valeska, who married Rudolf Yaegar.

Bertha was about 30 years old when she and Adolph were married.  Taking his young son, Adolph, Adolph and Bertha left for America.  At that time they did not need visas, passports, or emigration permits.  They simply bought steamship tickets and showed up at Ellis Island.  They never returned to Germany.  For sometime they stayed in New York City where their first child, Agnes was born there 13 June 1881. 

They moved to Pueblo, Colorado where Adolph worked in a smelter.  While there, three more children were born Julius in 1883, Louis in 1884, and Clara in 1886.  Shortly after the birth of baby Julius, the house they lived in Colorado was flooded and neighbors came and carried mother and baby out. When the waters subsided it left all their belongings coated with mud.

Next, they moved to American Falls, Idaho where Adolph worked on the section for the railroad.  Bertha ran the section house.  In those early days there was no restaurant in town, so if any travelers wanted to eat, they came to the section house and Bertha fed them.  While there the Teichert's became acquainted with two other Germans, Fred Steiner and Fred Tyler.  They both had homesteads in the Fort Hall Bottoms in Idaho. 

While in American Falls, another son, Herman Adolph, was born in 1887.  At one time Adolph considered moving his family to western Idaho or eastern Oregon,  but after looking over the situation, he returned to  take up a homestead in the Fort Hall Bottoms .

Adolph grew large vegetable gardens.  He made sauerkraut and dill pickles, and stored vegetables in a root cellar that carried the family over until spring.  They milked cows and sold butter and fryers in Blackfoot.  He also raised pigs, chickens, geese and ducks; cured pork and made his own sausage.  Adolf also helped other ranchers put up hay and his wages were about $20.00 a month.

Adolph enjoyed singing.  He was about five foot six or seven inches tall and was bald-headed.  He said he was bald at 28 from wearing the heavy German army helmets.  He must have had poor teeth as he had to scrape a raw turnip to eat it.  He was a strict disciplinarian with his children.  He also seems to have been somewhat hot-tempered.  In a letter from Alexander Heym, his brother in law, he is chastised for becoming angry over a debt that Alexander was trying to collect for him (years after leaving Germany).

 At one occasion he refused to send his children to school because some of the school boys took guns to school.  When these same boys came to the ranch to talk it over, he became angry and sent them away.

Before Christmas 1896, Adolf became ill after working in the fields and was unable to even unhook his team of horses when he arrived home. He went straight to bed.  He had always wanted to get a Christmas tree for his children, that Christmas that he finally got them one. Shortly after he became very ill and it was decided to take him to Pocatello for medical attention.  They were never a religious family,. Never spoke of God, but the night before he left, he lay in bed and sang hymns.  George Pugmire was a neighbor who had been explaining the Mormon religion to him for some time.  George took Adolph and Bertha in a wagon to Pocatello.  They had to ford Snake River which at this time of year was very deep and 300 yards wide.  On January 1, 1897, Adolph died in a hospital in Pocatello. This time, George Pugmire took the whole family back across the river to Pocatello for the funeral and burial.  

About three weeks after the funeral, Louis (12) and Herman (9) went in a wagon with a team to haul something.  When they got home and tried to unhook the team, Herman didn’t know what to do with the line.  He asked Louis to help him.  Louis had just unhooked one tug and came around to help, forgetting to go back and unhook the other tug.  When he went to lead the horses away from the wagon, with the tug still hooked, it scared the horses and they started running.  The tongue of the wagon hit Louis in the legs and knocked him down.  A wheel ran over his head, cutting a wide gash through his scalp.  Bertha was scared to death and didn’t know what to do.  There were no doctors around. so she sent one of the boys over to get Geroge Pugmire.  He sewed the scalp together with an ordinary sewing needle and thread.  It healed up just fine.

One day Fred Steiner came to the ranch and said to Bertha, “When is the wedding going to be? In four weeks? Or six weeks? “ She kindly refused.

At the time Adolph, Adolph's son, was already a man and working to help support the family.  In the spring Fred Tyler talked the family into going to Thomas for the summer.  They lived on one of his places and put in a crop of grain, alfalfa and potatoes and then harvested it for him.  While there, the family became well acquainted with the Petersons and several Parsons’ families.  These became lasting friendships and a stopping place on long wagon trips to Blackfoot and Pocatello. These families also visited them in the Bottoms

Shortly before Adolph died, he received an inheritance from Germany and another amount came shortly after his death.  It was deposited in the Buting Bank in Blackfoot and then the bank went bankrupt.  The family also traded at the Buting Store and owed a bill there.  However, they still had to pay the bill at the store, even though they lost all their money at the bank.

After Adolph’s death Sam and Willie Baugh bought land in the Bottoms and became good friends.  They brought their friends the Driscolls to meet the Teicherts.  In 1900 Martin Driscoll married Agnes Teichert.  Much later Richard Driscoll married Clara Teichert.  The Driscoll’s cousin, Minerva Kolhepp, married Herman Teichert.  Minerva was teaching school in Sterling.  Louis married Eulalie Page and Julius married Edith Armour, also teachers. 

During the Idaho years, there was correspondence with those left in Germany.  Uncle Louis Teichert sent clothes for the children and fabric from his store in Germany.  At one time Bertha thought of going back for a visit and taking Herman, but it never materialized.

Eventually Herman, Louis and Julius bought a house close to Sterling. Their mother and Clara lived there and it was there that Bertha died 23 January 1914.





















Another biography about Bertha


Bertha Helene Heym Teichert was born in Breslau, Poland on October 27, 1849 and died January 23, 1914 at the age of 65.  Agnes was the only child married at the time.  The boys Adolph, Julius, Louis, Herman and daughter Clara were still living at their home in Sterling when she passed away.  Bertha had a goiter, but would not consent to surgery, which may not have been successful at that time in their local hospital.  She said that she wanted to die whole in body.  Dr. M.D. MacKinnon from Aberdeen cared for her the best he knew. When her condition grew serious, Agnes went to help Clara with her mother’s care.  Agnes; children had either measles or small pox at the time so they were quarantined.  Agnes was fumigated to rid her of the germs in order for her to come to be with her mother.  Bertha literally choked to death as a result of her illness.  Agnes, Clara, Minerva, and Louis were with her at her passing.  Julius, Adolph and Herman were near by.  A funeral was held in the little church and Presiding Bishop O. E. Nilsson conducted the service, and their Lutheran minister was the speaker.   The cortege passed by the Driscoll residence in the pool, which was the local pool hall so the ill Driscoll children, Marguerite, Bertha (Biddie), and Martin (Bus) could see it.  Biddie remembers there were to kiss their grandmother goodbye. Aunt Kate McBride was caring for the children and she gave each one a clean handkerchief for a crying cloth.  Ada Pugmire, a close friend of the Teicherts’ and Driscolls’, was a mortician for Walker’s in Pocatello.l  Lshe came to Sterling to prepare grandmother Bertha for burial and brought a casket with her.  It was her wish that Ada do this for her.  Biddie distinctly remembers seeing the casket on a wagon when the cortege stopped by their home so the children could see it.  Julius said the body was put of the rain in Sterling and taken to Pocatello where she was buried beside her husband, Adolph Teichert Sr. Julius said they bought a ticket for her body just like they would buy a ticket for themselves to ride to Pocatello.
Julius at 98 years old, Herman, age 93, and Biddie Driscoll Beasley who talked to Marguerite and Lillian endeavoring to refresh their memories gave this information.  Marguerite was 10, Biddie 9 at the time of their grandmother’s funeral.  Lilliam remembered some of her mother’s conversations with. her.  All helped to piece the report together.  

Biddie remembers the weather for January was mild that year as she learned to ride a bicycle with Aunt Kate’s help while she cared for the kids during their mother’s absence from home.