Henry Cornelius Is Born

April 24, 1931  At 3:30 in the morning we had Dr. Dione come.  And we were blessed with a baby boy. Mrs. H. H. Reimer and Aunt Johan Bartel assisted.  During the day sister Lena, Mrs. John H. Reimer, C. Dalkes, and Aunt K. B. Reimer came over.  It was very rainy and muddy. The roads were almost impossible to drive.

In the middle of a rainy night, the Siemens called Dr. Dione to come to their house for the birth of a baby.  At this time the babies of farmers were born at home, and the country doctor was on call day and night.  He would have driven over the muddy roads out to the Siemens and arrived to find a house full of people and anticipation.  Margaret’s sister-in-law, Margaret S. (Friesen) Reimer, and her aunt, Maria (Barkman) Bartel, were the midwives at the birth.  Sometime later that morning a baby boy, Henry Cornelius, was born.  He was named Henry for his maternal grandfather, Heinrich F. Reimer, and Cornelius for his father. 

Of course, the relatives had to come see the new baby.  Margaret’s older sister Lena, her sister-in-law Katharina (Heidebrecht) Reimer, her brother-in-law and sister Cornelius and Anna (Reimer) Dalke, and her aunt (and future-in-law) Mrs. Klaas B. Reimer came to visit.  The house would have been full of visitors and excitement as the Siemens welcomed another son into the family.