William

I became part of the “Buenting Clan” in 1952 when I married Marvin, oldest son of William and Anna Buenting.  I was born in Ruthven, Iowa and grew up there, about 50 miles from the Buenting hometown of Pomeroy.

Since my new in-laws both came from rather large families (as compared to mine), I was amazed the first time I went to a family gathering.  And they did have one at my future in-laws house, just to get me “acquainted”.  Then there was the introduction to the famous Buenting reunion!  The first one I remember was so big it was held at the Manson Fairgrounds and Grandma Ollie was there too.  I remember her – and she even wore a hat to it.  Not a casual hat such as a straw hat to keep off the sun, but a hat like one would wear to church; what a lady.  This family gathering had LOTS of fellowship and FOOD. 

I regret that I never got to meet Grandpa Buenting.  And I really didn’t know much about him until years later when Aunt Frieda spent a weekend with us at our country property that we had just purchased in East Texas.  This was possibly in 1989/90. 

We enjoyed having Aunt Frieda so much and I asked her about her “growing up years” and what it was like.  She began to tell me stories about her parents and I was not only fascinated, but I began to visualize a very different picture of the family from what I had been told, much less imagined.

Grandma, who birthed 13 children, must have been pregnant most of those early years of her marriage.  How did she do it all, the housework, the cooking, gardening, and the farm chores.  Then along with the gardening in the summer came the canning so she could feed her ever enlarging family!  And it wasn’t until the 5th child that she finally got a daughter that could grow up to help her.  Two more daughters would finally make their entrance as #10 and #11 children.  (3 girls, 10 boys – wow!)

Grandpa Buenting was a “jack of all trades” it seems.  Not only a farmer, but a bee keeper, he planted and maintained an orchard and vineyard, wove baskets, was a trapper, an arborist, grafting trees for his orchard.  I’m told that Grandpa could move a swarm of bees from a tree to a hive with little protection and suffering no stings.

Grandpa always had time to love his family, holding those little ones on his lap.  I just wish that I could have met him and I regret not knowing Grandma better.