The Tuttle girls, Bernice and Ellen, sent this photo [see below] postcard to a friend in Linton around 1915, judging from the style of their dresses. The young women were the daughters of Harvey B. Tuttle, called Josh, and Martha Elvena Gatzke. Their father, born in Charlotte, Eaton, MI on 04 January 1867, had served in the U.S. Army, and had transported prisoners from Ft. Yates to Leavenworth, KS to the Military Prison there, as well as to Washington, DC. Tuttle had also been a catcher on the U.S. Army’s championship baseball team and had traveled the country playing in exhibition games. Jerry Hart, a Winona saloon owner, served as pitcher, and they were unbeaten. He also was part of the Army presence at Sitting Bull’s death on the Grand River in 1890. In 1892, his Army service over, Tuttle went to Eureka where he worked in the grain warehouses.
In 1895, in Aberdeen, Brown, ND he married Martha Gatzke, who was born in Germany in 1875, of parents she described as Polish-Russian. She spoke German. In the winter 1898 they came to Emmons County, with their two daughters, settling on a homestead 13 miles west of Linton.
Ellen Tuttle, their oldest was born in 1897, and Bernice in January 1898, followed by Francis, born August 1890. Two more children followed, Aline, born in 1902, Harvey, 1906. Josh Tuttle’s widowed mother, Frances, lived with them in 1910. Josh Tuttle homesteaded until the end of his life, passing away in 1935. Martha Gatzke Tuttle died on 30 December 1952 in New Haven, Gratiot, MI.
Ellen Frances Tuttle, b. 6 September 1896, McPherson County, South Dakota; married Fred P. Badar, 3 April 1920, Emmons County; died 14 July 1998 Winter Garden, Orange County, Florida. Ellen and Fred had at least these children: Mildred, born 1926 in North Dakota; Sharon Joy, born 1932 in North Dakota; Kenneth, born 1933 in Linton. |