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man‎James Elmer Martin‏‎, son of William Joseph Martin and Catherine Bridget Rooney‏.
Born ‎11 Dec 1871 Lakeville Township, Becker County, Minnesota, died ‎14 May 1953 Fergus Falls, Otter Tail County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Peter's Cemetery, Eden Valley MN‎, age 81 years
Baptismal sponsors: Hugh Rooney, Anna Egan.

James was working for the railroad in Wisconsin when he was 17. He learned to telegraph using the Morse code, and when the railroad was built through North Dakota he worked ahead of the crew. When the wires were first extended he got the orders from the dispatcher and delivered them to the workers. He stayed out west at least one year, about 1890, for which there is a record of him attending the Christian Brothers school in Seattle. He had a friend there, Maury Foley, with whom he considered going to the Alaskan goldfields. Maury Foley did go.

James had several stations throughout North Dakota, like Braddock and Nicholson, where the work of the Station agent– telegrapher did not consume all this time. He learned the trade of a barber and one village he had a barbershop in station. He had several inventions for which he obtained letters patents; he worked them out in those small villages where only two or three trains stopped daily.

After James return to Minnesota, he secured the position of station agent for the Soo Line Railroad at Kensington in Douglas County. His mother and father still lived there, as did younger brothers and sisters. James bought a house here and they lived here until 1919 after which they moved to Eden Valley, having secured the station agent position through a bid. He retired here in 1942.

James took a trip to North Dakota when his sister Margaret died in 1921, but no others very far until he retired. Then he and Jennie took the train to the west coast, down through California and across to Ft. Worth, visiting with sister and brothers, nieces and nephew and grandchildren.

The school, through eighth grade, was across the street from where they lived in Eden Valley.

James Martin and Jenny Anderson were married in Wilmer, August 20, 1904. Father O'Malloy, pastor at St. Mary's Church, officiated. At that time Father O'Malloy serving the mission church in Raymond Minnesota as well. Jenny had taught school at Raymond for the 1903-04 year. Previously she had taught at Kensington where James was stationed and where they went to live after their honeymoon.

In a letter shortly before their marriage, James Martin told Jennie Anderson that he had secured a traveling pass, a ticket from Kensington to "Detroit," so that as part of their honeymoon they could see Detroit where his life started.

James was the last of my (Pete Tintes) grandparents to die in May of 1953. He was a Junior in High School and was playing baseball in Brooten when the hearse brought his body from Fergus Falls State hospital where he had died.

James retired in 1940 at the age of 69 and wrote a couple of articles about his career as a Depot Agent for the Soo Line railroad, which were published in the Eden Valley Journal. Pete was only 4 at the time but can remember visiting him at the depot and especially being fascinated with the telegraph machine. The candy he gave Pete won a few points too.
He loved to read and Pete has a number of his books including a history set on the United States published around 1900. He invented a number of gadgets and being a terrible driver he built a roundtable to turn his car around near the garage so he could drive in and out. He made fly killers with a rubber band attached to a gun like stick, which worked well in the garage where he spent a lot of time and had pictures of his relatives on the walls. Many of these pictures were a bit damaged and few were labeled.
After Jenny died in 1945 he lived alone for a few years and would buy more ice cream than he would eat so when Edna went to clean house for him she often brought some home. Mr. and Mrs. Hubert, Pete's Agriculture teacher, lived with him and cared for him for some years. As dementia set in he would start little fires in the oil burner and paint trees white as far up as he could reach.
Living for a while in a rest home in South Haven didn't work as it was close to the tracks and when trains came by he knew he was on the wrong side of the track and would start walking for Eden Valley.
After he retired in 1940 most of the livestock shipping was done by truck so he dismantled the stock yards and hauled the 3"x12"s home two blocks on a wheel barrow and cut them up by hand to burn. At that time he had a wood burning stove.

Rights conducted for James E Martin
May 21, 1953, Eden Valley Journal

Funeral services were conducted Monday, May 18, by Father A. R. Filbin at the Church of St. Peter for James E. Martin, who died Thursday evening, May 14th.
Mr. Martin was born December 11th, 1871, at Detroit Lakes, to William and Catherine Rooney Martin. At the time of his retirement in 1941 he had worked almost 50 years for the railroad, serving station agent at Eden Valley for 22 years.
In August, 1904, he married Jenny Anderson of New London. She preceded him and death, as did one son and one daughter. Surviving him are a sister, Mrs. John Shaw, Ft. Worth, Tex.; and one brother, Thomas of St. Paul; three children: Mrs. Jack Sattler (Gervaise) of Minneapolis, Elmo of St. Cloud and Mrs. Tom Tintes of Eden Valley; also 18 grand children and two great-grandchildren.
Pallbearers were Leo Lorenz, Lloyd Bischof, Lawrence Rothstein, Richard and Joseph Bischof and George Rome.
Relatives from a distance to attend the funeral included Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Martin and Mabel Gaffney of Alexandria, Mrs. Joseph Wirtzfeld of Underwood, N. D.; Mr. and Mrs. James Gaffney of Glenwood; Robert Martin and Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Egan of Minneapolis.

Married ‎20 Aug 1904, age 32 years
St. Marys, Willmar, MN
(married 42 years) to:

womanEugenia E "Genevieve, Jennie" Anderson‏, age by marriage 23 years
Born ‎28 Feb 1881 Tronigne, Halland, Sweden, died ‎30 Mar 1947 Eden Valley, Meeker County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Peter's Cemetery, Eden Valley MN‎, age 66 years

Children:

1.
woman‎Lois Adelaide Martin‏‎
Born ‎19 Oct 1905 Kensington, Douglas County, Minnesota, died ‎30 Jan 1948 Los Angeles County, California Event Description: St. Peter's Cemetery, Eden Valley MN‎, age 42 years
Eden Valley Journal 11/3/1927 Miss Lois Martin passed the state board examination as a registered pharmacist recently. She received the high average of 93 %. Miss Martin is a graduate from our local high school and the first from this village to graduate from the U. of MN as a pharmacist of the fair sex. Her future plans are not perfected. We congratulate Miss Martin & wish her success as an apothecarian.

Lyle Martin: "Lois Martin graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1926. After her internship in the Mark Pharmacy at Fosston, Minnesota and passing the state boards, she was a registered pharmacist. She practised her profession at Lakeville, Minnesota before returning to Minneapolis where she worked at the Jacobson Pharmacy. In 1932 she became ill with tuberculosis and spent several years in the Glenlake Sanatorium. After the disease was arrested (there was no cure then) she returned to her profession for some years. After two more bouts and stays at the sanatorium she moved to Long Beach, California where she died in 1948."

We have scanned (in 2013) about 70 letters from Lois to her sister Edna written between 1923 and 1940. They were in the possession of Pete Tintes's widow in Willmar. Though Lois had TB, Pete Tintes lists the cause of death as pneumonia and hemorrhage.

2.
manLeroy Anthony Martin‏
Born ‎29 Oct 1906 Kensington, Douglas County, Minnesota, died ‎28 Feb 1931 Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Peter's Cemetery, Eden Valley MN‎, age 24 years, buried Eden Valley, Meeker County, Minnesota
In 1906 there was a smallpox epidemic in Kensington, and James sent Jennie and Lois by train to his parents where LeRoy was born. He and his sister Lois were then baptized in the St. Anthony of Padua church before they all returned to Kensington. Tom and Margaret Martin were LeRoy's sponsors.

LeRoy continued to work with the Soo Line Railroad after he graduated from high school, first in Eden Valley, then in Minot, North Dakota and River Falls, Wisconsin.

LeRoy MARTIN

From the Eden Valley, Meeker County "MINNESOTA JOURNAL," March 5, 1931. Front page center

Large Attendance at LeRoy Martin Funeral Yesterday

POSTAL CLERK WHO SUCCUMBED IN MINNEAPOLIS BROUGHT HERE FOR BURIAL BRINGS SHADOW OF SADNESS OVER VILLAGE.

The death of LeRoy Martin occurred at Minneapolis, at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, February 28th. Circumstantial motives surrounding the unfortunate case remain cloaked in mystery.
Deceased was home in Brooten, October 29, 1906. He was a graduate of Kensington grade school and graduated from the Eden Valley high school on June 1, 1923. In 1926 he attended the University of Minnesota. He was united in marriage to Miss Salome Rothstein at St. Paul Cathedral in the year 1926, and to this happy union three children were born, Richard, Joan, and Patrick, who survive him, together with his wife, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Martin, three sisters, Lois, Mrs. Thos. Tintes, and Gervaise, and one brother, Elmo, of this village.

Funeral services were held from St. Peter's Church in this village on Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock, the Rev. H. G. McCall officiating at the requiem Mass, and interment in the parish cemetery. Active pall bearers were six of his co-workers from the postal department: AI Dargay, Albin Stenquist, Louis Blick, Clifford Carlson, Alvin Peiffer and Harold Lucking.
A very large crowd attended the funeral.
LeRoy was formerly employed in the Eden Valley Journal printer.
It is with a heavy heart that we publish this of the sad fate to the memory of one who was taken away in the prime of life. His death has brought the bitter cup of sorrow to the lips of surviving relatives and friends and to the broken hearted family, who sit in sorrow where his footsteps shall never again find echo, we extend our deepest heartfelt sympathy.
Besides the pallbearers other co-workers from the Minneapolis post of fice in attendance at the funeral were: Arthur Rudquist, Phil King, Arnold Chielik, Roy Westling, Matt Hanington, Anthony Schaeffer, S. Swanson, Lyle Martin.
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Martin, and Geo. Toomey of St. Paul; Mrs. J. Gaffney , son Jas., and daughter Mildred of Glenwood; Mrs. Will Martin, and Richard Martin of Sedan; Dr. and Mrs. J. A. Roy of Red Lake Falls; Mr. and Mrs. Leo Brandley, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Eckerson, Mrs. G. Brandt, Donald, Jack and Helen Brandley, all of St. Cloud.

CARD of THANKS
May we take this means of expressing our sincere gratitude to the many friends who have proffered their sympathy in our bereavement. We thank them also for the beautiful floral tributes and spiritual bouquets.
Mrs. LeRoy Martin and family, Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Martin & family, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Tintes.

Pete Tintes's recollections: This death needs to be explored more fully. He was shot by the police but why has remained a mystery. A rumor said he was going to rob a station where people paid rent or something. The other side says he was dropping off rent when the police showed up and he wanted to get away from there and ran. We will never know but that was the time of the trigger happy police trying to enforce prohibition and the early stages of the depression results. He had a job in the Post Office so was far better off than most people at the time.
Growing up I knew a bit about the family since LeRoy's wife Salome and her second husband Ed Ficker were my god-parents. I do not recall ever meeting either of them since by the time I can recall anything they had moved to California where Salome died and Ed remarried again.
Given the times the manner of his death was never spoken about in our family. That was one of those family secrets. I was in the Major Seminary; home for mid-year vacation and starting to work on genealogy when Dad told me about it so I started looking at the journals.

Further note: Ambrose Gaffaney told David Gaffaney that LeRoy was shot while robbing a bank.

3.
womanEdna Winnifred Martin‏
Born ‎5 Jul 1908 Kensington, Douglas County, Minnesota, died ‎31 Aug 1993 Stearns County, Minnesota‎, age 85 years, buried Eden Valley, Meeker County, Minnesota
Lois remembers Edna for her books and homemaking skills. Edna attended the University of Minnesota for three years after Eden Valley high school. She married Thomas Tintes and they lived on the Tintes farm two miles east of Eden Valley until 1955 when they moved into town. After Thomas's death in 1964, she lived in the home where she lived with her parents and siblings 1919-1928.

Edna was quite interested in the family history and was the original one to type up all the letters from James Martin and others in Canada to William J. Martin in Minnesota.

Graduated pre-medicine, U of M.

4.
manElmo Arnold Martin‏
Born ‎27 Jan 1911 Kensington, Douglas County, Minnesota, died ‎8 May 1990 Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: Assumption Cemetery, St. Cloud MN‎, age 79 years

5.
womanGervaise Marian Martin‏
Born ‎13 Dec 1923 Eden Valley, Meeker County, Minnesota, died ‎1 Feb 1989 Robbinsdale, Hennepin County, Minnesota Event Description: Ft. Snelling National Cemetery‎, age 65 years, buried Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota
Gervaise (Geri) Martin Sattler, age 65 died February 1, 1988 at North Memorial Hospital. Funeral services and internment in Fort Snelling Cemetery were held Monday, February 6.

Geri was born December 18, 1923, to James and Jennie Martin in Eden Valley. She graduated from EVHS in 1941, and attended the College of St. Catherine for two years. She enlisted in the WAVE's in 1943 and served in the Navy until November 1946. She was stationed at Norfolk.

Geri and John (Jack) Sattler were married in Washington D. C. August 19, 1945. Jack, a Marine, was an Eden Valley classmate. After three years in the South Pacific, he was stationed in Washington. When they were discharged they returned to Minnesota and have lived in Minneapolis and Crystal.

Geri is survived by husband, Jack, four sons, Michael, Robert, Patrick, and John Leo, and two grandchildren, one brother, Elmo Martin in St. Cloud and sister, Edna M. Tintes in Eden Valley.