My grandmother did not have an obituary. At the time of her death she was 100 years old and all of her friends and siblings had died.
Emily was the daughter of John Baptist Forster and Agnes Homa. She was one of seven children: Charles, Emily, Maria, Gustave, Ernest, Ernestine, and Agnes.
She also had a half brother, Justin James Forster. After her mother died her father remarried Mary Martinelli and they had a son Justin. It appears that Justin's stepfather adopted him and took on the surname Pinaire.
She married Thomas Raoul Ritter (1889-1941) on 11 Jun 1917 in San Francisco, CA. They had two children: Ralph and Dorothy. After Tom died, she had several foster children. She later adopted Paul Thomas Wheeler.
=======================
Forster Family Notes by Nancy Posey (grand daughter of Emily Ritter)
The Forster family lived on Corbett Avenue, San Francisco, until 1904. When the twins Ernest and Ernestine were born, they were sick a lot and the doctor told John and Agnes Forster to move to a warmer climate so that the children could get well. They moved to French Camp in 1904/05. John maintained /rented an apartment on Steiner Street near Divisadero because he stayed in San Francisco for several weeks at a time and would go home on the weekends.
In French Camp, Gamma (Emily) who was about 13 years old drove a horse and cart to Stockton, about nine miles from her home, to sell beans. She remembers being so embarrassed when she had to bring a cow to a neighbor to be bred by a bull.
John Forster also used a horse and cart to carry his paint to the San Francisco Presidio. He was employed as a private painting contractor and painted for the U. S.
After her mother died in 1908. Gamma stayed with the Priest family for several months in San Francisco. One of the Priest family's relatives was a female osteopath doctor.
About 1909, John Forster asked Gamma to watch the younger children. She remembers staying at his apartment for two nights and she told him "No." She felt she was too young to be watching young children. She left and got a job in Corde Madera watching children then went to St. Helena and then back to Corde Madera over the next three years (1909-1912/13). She remembers going to the dances in Larkspur, joined the Native Daughters of the Golden West for six months. This is where she met my grandfather, Tom Ritter. Gamma said she was real lonely and told Tom she wanted to be a nurse. Tom said he knew a doctor that could help her get in to German Hospital (later changed to Franklin Hospital and is now the Ralph Davis Hospital)
Back then, the nurses were not like the nurses of today. They were like maids and had up to twelve patients to care for. The days were twelve hours long. When Gamma would go out with Tom Ritter, she would fall asleep because she was so tired.
When John Forster died, her brother Charlie called her to give the news. Her sister Mary Forster came from Berkeley and both of them traveled to Stockton where Charlie met them. Mary Sander, John's second wife, had two children from a previous marriage when she married John. Her brother Ernest and his new bride Lola spent their honeymoon at Gama's house. Ernie and Tom stayed up all-night and played pinochle.
Gamma said her sister Agnes used to come over the house before she died in 1930. Gamma never spoke German again after her mother died.
Ernie and Lola lived in Santa Cruz and she never saw them.
============================
HISTORY OF EMILY K. FORSTER RITTER FAMILY (1982)
As written by Emily K. Forster Ritter and transcribed by her grand-daughter, Nancy Poppin Umland on March 17, 2000 (Note, punctuation will be corrected as well as fragmented sentences only if the personality of Emily is not destroyed)
First, In my family there were seven children: Charlie, Gus, Ernest, Emily K., Mary, Agnes and a twin girl named Ernestine, who was a twin to Ernest. My mother's name was Agnes Homa Forster.
Now my mother was burndth up in French Camp. The house was set a fire by Ernest and Agnes. She was 38 years and pregnant. My father at the time was a painter in San Francisco, CA and came home every two weeks. There was no insurance on the four-room house. We lived five miles from Stockton CA and on the road towards Modesto CA. I went to school in French Camp, CA. After my mother died I lived with a Dr. lady on Divisadero St near McAllister St. I went to Hamilton Evening School at night and one year of high school at night. I worked in many family homes caring for children until I went in training to be a nurse. I trained at German Hospital and made my self real young to enter the hospital. I met your Dad, Dorothy, at a Native Sons event in Vallejo, CA. He was living with his sister Edith and her two children Dudley and Lillian McPherson. I was a Native Daughter. I forgot I was born in Farmington, CA. I came to San Francisco, CA as a small baby and we lived on Corbett Avenue, near Twin Peaks for many years and when the twins were sick all the time the doctor says move where it is dry and warm. So we went on the San Joaquin boat to Stockton and then to French Camp. We had 13 or 14 acres of ground mostly fruit trees, one cow, one horse and one goat. We were terrible farmers and didn't know how to milk the cow or goat. Poor animals.
Now of the family. First, After my mothers death Charlie went to live at a Serum Farm in Stockton CA and close to French Camp and is still there, but the Doctor died and he lives alone there as the doctor when he died gave him the land. The doctor's name was Dr. Sorensen, I believe. Charlie has a son, Wesley and a daughter, Erylene. I don't know how many children either have. They all live in Stockton, CA. I don't ever hear from them -strange people. He was married two times and divorced both.
Now Mary my sister, she was married with two children. One died and Robert McEachern is her oldest son. I never see him. He is married and may live in Albany, CA??
Now Agnes, youngest sister died at the age of 23 years with a hip injury. She was single at time of death but engaged to marry.
Ernest was a twin to Ernestine. Ernestine died at one year old and Ernest died from a automobile accident age 32 or 34 years. He was married and had lived in Santa Cruz, CA. His wife remarried and lives in Stockton. She was a Italian girl from a large family.
My father John Baptist Forster and my mother Agnes Forster's graves are in Stockton, CA. Which one I do not know. Charlie knows where. I think his address may be Charlie Forster either Stockton CA or French Camp, in care of Dr. Sorensen, RFD CA. This is only a guess. I don't know as I never hear ever from him as he was a heavy drinker. He cares less about me. He is eighteen months older than me. I don't know if he is still alive or not. My father died a month after I was married. My stepmother and I were never friends.
My father died with a heart attack. My stepmother had two children: George and Mary. George worked for San Francisco Muni and had a injury and died from it. He was married. His sister lives in Sacramento CA. I used to hear from her, but not any more. She has a daughter.
Now Dorothy, here is Lillian's daughter Marilyn's address: Mrs. Marilyn Johnson, Lucerne CA Lake County RFD Zip 95458
Write to her, she may know something of your cousin Jack Dunn and Marjorie or something of your Dad's affair. She was Lillian's daughter. Lillian married Wayne Eachus of Lake Port, CA, Lake County. She was divorced and remarried and had twin daughters and I never saw them or even heard of them before or after Lillian's death. Lillian died of breast cancer before your Dad died. We never told him as he loved her so much. It would have made him sicker. She visited him while he was sick. Her brother Dudley came to live with us on 10th Avenue where you were born and Lillian also when I was married one month. His name is Dudley McPherson and works in Vallejo, CA in the shipyards and retired early because of a heart condition. He lives across the Berkely or Oakland side. I never hear of them ever, real strangers.
By the way your Dad's father wasn't alive when we got married nor his step-mother Caroline. She is at Cypress Lawn. Ernest, my brother, is laid out in the Italian cemetery in Colma CA.
This is all I know.
God bless you.
Mother Ritter.
Dot, I forgot my Uncle Charlie. My father's brother didn't have any children. As I mentioned before, both brothers came here as deserters of the army in Germany. Charlie was 14 and my father John age 15 years went in to farming in raising cattle near Farmington (Hanford) CA. Later on he and Brother Charlie went in the painting business. They didn't see eye to eye so they separated and each went in business by themselves as painting contractors. Those days they got $3.50 a day. Ha-ha. Now look at prices. Then when my dad quit painting and remarried, he worked in the Presidio San Francisco painting at a government job for $75.00 a month. Then he quit and moved with my stepmother to our farm and did farming and that is where he died. He died a month after I was married. My sister Mary and I went to his funeral. I didn't get any of the property, nor any of us, as my stepmother changed his will for herself. That's all and final.
Mother
Emily was the daughter of John Baptist Forster and Agnes Homa. She was one of seven children: Charles, Emily, Maria, Gustave, Ernest, Ernestine, and Agnes.
She also had a half brother, Justin James Forster. After her mother died her father remarried Mary Martinelli and they had a son Justin. It appears that Justin's stepfather adopted him and took on the surname Pinaire.
She married Thomas Raoul Ritter (1889-1941) on 11 Jun 1917 in San Francisco, CA. They had two children: Ralph and Dorothy. After Tom died, she had several foster children. She later adopted Paul Thomas Wheeler.
=======================
Forster Family Notes by Nancy Posey (grand daughter of Emily Ritter)
The Forster family lived on Corbett Avenue, San Francisco, until 1904. When the twins Ernest and Ernestine were born, they were sick a lot and the doctor told John and Agnes Forster to move to a warmer climate so that the children could get well. They moved to French Camp in 1904/05. John maintained /rented an apartment on Steiner Street near Divisadero because he stayed in San Francisco for several weeks at a time and would go home on the weekends.
In French Camp, Gamma (Emily) who was about 13 years old drove a horse and cart to Stockton, about nine miles from her home, to sell beans. She remembers being so embarrassed when she had to bring a cow to a neighbor to be bred by a bull.
John Forster also used a horse and cart to carry his paint to the San Francisco Presidio. He was employed as a private painting contractor and painted for the U. S.
After her mother died in 1908. Gamma stayed with the Priest family for several months in San Francisco. One of the Priest family's relatives was a female osteopath doctor.
About 1909, John Forster asked Gamma to watch the younger children. She remembers staying at his apartment for two nights and she told him "No." She felt she was too young to be watching young children. She left and got a job in Corde Madera watching children then went to St. Helena and then back to Corde Madera over the next three years (1909-1912/13). She remembers going to the dances in Larkspur, joined the Native Daughters of the Golden West for six months. This is where she met my grandfather, Tom Ritter. Gamma said she was real lonely and told Tom she wanted to be a nurse. Tom said he knew a doctor that could help her get in to German Hospital (later changed to Franklin Hospital and is now the Ralph Davis Hospital)
Back then, the nurses were not like the nurses of today. They were like maids and had up to twelve patients to care for. The days were twelve hours long. When Gamma would go out with Tom Ritter, she would fall asleep because she was so tired.
When John Forster died, her brother Charlie called her to give the news. Her sister Mary Forster came from Berkeley and both of them traveled to Stockton where Charlie met them. Mary Sander, John's second wife, had two children from a previous marriage when she married John. Her brother Ernest and his new bride Lola spent their honeymoon at Gama's house. Ernie and Tom stayed up all-night and played pinochle.
Gamma said her sister Agnes used to come over the house before she died in 1930. Gamma never spoke German again after her mother died.
Ernie and Lola lived in Santa Cruz and she never saw them.
============================
HISTORY OF EMILY K. FORSTER RITTER FAMILY (1982)
As written by Emily K. Forster Ritter and transcribed by her grand-daughter, Nancy Poppin Umland on March 17, 2000 (Note, punctuation will be corrected as well as fragmented sentences only if the personality of Emily is not destroyed)
First, In my family there were seven children: Charlie, Gus, Ernest, Emily K., Mary, Agnes and a twin girl named Ernestine, who was a twin to Ernest. My mother's name was Agnes Homa Forster.
Now my mother was burndth up in French Camp. The house was set a fire by Ernest and Agnes. She was 38 years and pregnant. My father at the time was a painter in San Francisco, CA and came home every two weeks. There was no insurance on the four-room house. We lived five miles from Stockton CA and on the road towards Modesto CA. I went to school in French Camp, CA. After my mother died I lived with a Dr. lady on Divisadero St near McAllister St. I went to Hamilton Evening School at night and one year of high school at night. I worked in many family homes caring for children until I went in training to be a nurse. I trained at German Hospital and made my self real young to enter the hospital. I met your Dad, Dorothy, at a Native Sons event in Vallejo, CA. He was living with his sister Edith and her two children Dudley and Lillian McPherson. I was a Native Daughter. I forgot I was born in Farmington, CA. I came to San Francisco, CA as a small baby and we lived on Corbett Avenue, near Twin Peaks for many years and when the twins were sick all the time the doctor says move where it is dry and warm. So we went on the San Joaquin boat to Stockton and then to French Camp. We had 13 or 14 acres of ground mostly fruit trees, one cow, one horse and one goat. We were terrible farmers and didn't know how to milk the cow or goat. Poor animals.
Now of the family. First, After my mothers death Charlie went to live at a Serum Farm in Stockton CA and close to French Camp and is still there, but the Doctor died and he lives alone there as the doctor when he died gave him the land. The doctor's name was Dr. Sorensen, I believe. Charlie has a son, Wesley and a daughter, Erylene. I don't know how many children either have. They all live in Stockton, CA. I don't ever hear from them -strange people. He was married two times and divorced both.
Now Mary my sister, she was married with two children. One died and Robert McEachern is her oldest son. I never see him. He is married and may live in Albany, CA??
Now Agnes, youngest sister died at the age of 23 years with a hip injury. She was single at time of death but engaged to marry.
Ernest was a twin to Ernestine. Ernestine died at one year old and Ernest died from a automobile accident age 32 or 34 years. He was married and had lived in Santa Cruz, CA. His wife remarried and lives in Stockton. She was a Italian girl from a large family.
My father John Baptist Forster and my mother Agnes Forster's graves are in Stockton, CA. Which one I do not know. Charlie knows where. I think his address may be Charlie Forster either Stockton CA or French Camp, in care of Dr. Sorensen, RFD CA. This is only a guess. I don't know as I never hear ever from him as he was a heavy drinker. He cares less about me. He is eighteen months older than me. I don't know if he is still alive or not. My father died a month after I was married. My stepmother and I were never friends.
My father died with a heart attack. My stepmother had two children: George and Mary. George worked for San Francisco Muni and had a injury and died from it. He was married. His sister lives in Sacramento CA. I used to hear from her, but not any more. She has a daughter.
Now Dorothy, here is Lillian's daughter Marilyn's address: Mrs. Marilyn Johnson, Lucerne CA Lake County RFD Zip 95458
Write to her, she may know something of your cousin Jack Dunn and Marjorie or something of your Dad's affair. She was Lillian's daughter. Lillian married Wayne Eachus of Lake Port, CA, Lake County. She was divorced and remarried and had twin daughters and I never saw them or even heard of them before or after Lillian's death. Lillian died of breast cancer before your Dad died. We never told him as he loved her so much. It would have made him sicker. She visited him while he was sick. Her brother Dudley came to live with us on 10th Avenue where you were born and Lillian also when I was married one month. His name is Dudley McPherson and works in Vallejo, CA in the shipyards and retired early because of a heart condition. He lives across the Berkely or Oakland side. I never hear of them ever, real strangers.
By the way your Dad's father wasn't alive when we got married nor his step-mother Caroline. She is at Cypress Lawn. Ernest, my brother, is laid out in the Italian cemetery in Colma CA.
This is all I know.
God bless you.
Mother Ritter.
Dot, I forgot my Uncle Charlie. My father's brother didn't have any children. As I mentioned before, both brothers came here as deserters of the army in Germany. Charlie was 14 and my father John age 15 years went in to farming in raising cattle near Farmington (Hanford) CA. Later on he and Brother Charlie went in the painting business. They didn't see eye to eye so they separated and each went in business by themselves as painting contractors. Those days they got $3.50 a day. Ha-ha. Now look at prices. Then when my dad quit painting and remarried, he worked in the Presidio San Francisco painting at a government job for $75.00 a month. Then he quit and moved with my stepmother to our farm and did farming and that is where he died. He died a month after I was married. My sister Mary and I went to his funeral. I didn't get any of the property, nor any of us, as my stepmother changed his will for herself. That's all and final.
Mother
My grandmother did not have an obituary. At the time of her death she was 100 years old and all of her friends and siblings had died.
Emily was the daughter of John Baptist Forster and Agnes Homa. She was one of seven children: Charles, Emily, Maria, Gustave, Ernest, Ernestine, and Agnes.
She also had a half brother, Justin James Forster. After her mother died her father remarried Mary Martinelli and they had a son Justin. It appears that Justin's stepfather adopted him and took on the surname Pinaire.
She married Thomas Raoul Ritter (1889-1941) on 11 Jun 1917 in San Francisco, CA. They had two children: Ralph and Dorothy. After Tom died, she had several foster children. She later adopted Paul Thomas Wheeler.
=======================
Forster Family Notes by Nancy Posey (grand daughter of Emily Ritter)
The Forster family lived on Corbett Avenue, San Francisco, until 1904. When the twins Ernest and Ernestine were born, they were sick a lot and the doctor told John and Agnes Forster to move to a warmer climate so that the children could get well. They moved to French Camp in 1904/05. John maintained /rented an apartment on Steiner Street near Divisadero because he stayed in San Francisco for several weeks at a time and would go home on the weekends.
In French Camp, Gamma (Emily) who was about 13 years old drove a horse and cart to Stockton, about nine miles from her home, to sell beans. She remembers being so embarrassed when she had to bring a cow to a neighbor to be bred by a bull.
John Forster also used a horse and cart to carry his paint to the San Francisco Presidio. He was employed as a private painting contractor and painted for the U. S.
After her mother died in 1908. Gamma stayed with the Priest family for several months in San Francisco. One of the Priest family's relatives was a female osteopath doctor.
About 1909, John Forster asked Gamma to watch the younger children. She remembers staying at his apartment for two nights and she told him "No." She felt she was too young to be watching young children. She left and got a job in Corde Madera watching children then went to St. Helena and then back to Corde Madera over the next three years (1909-1912/13). She remembers going to the dances in Larkspur, joined the Native Daughters of the Golden West for six months. This is where she met my grandfather, Tom Ritter. Gamma said she was real lonely and told Tom she wanted to be a nurse. Tom said he knew a doctor that could help her get in to German Hospital (later changed to Franklin Hospital and is now the Ralph Davis Hospital)
Back then, the nurses were not like the nurses of today. They were like maids and had up to twelve patients to care for. The days were twelve hours long. When Gamma would go out with Tom Ritter, she would fall asleep because she was so tired.
When John Forster died, her brother Charlie called her to give the news. Her sister Mary Forster came from Berkeley and both of them traveled to Stockton where Charlie met them. Mary Sander, John's second wife, had two children from a previous marriage when she married John. Her brother Ernest and his new bride Lola spent their honeymoon at Gama's house. Ernie and Tom stayed up all-night and played pinochle.
Gamma said her sister Agnes used to come over the house before she died in 1930. Gamma never spoke German again after her mother died.
Ernie and Lola lived in Santa Cruz and she never saw them.
============================
HISTORY OF EMILY K. FORSTER RITTER FAMILY (1982)
As written by Emily K. Forster Ritter and transcribed by her grand-daughter, Nancy Poppin Umland on March 17, 2000 (Note, punctuation will be corrected as well as fragmented sentences only if the personality of Emily is not destroyed)
First, In my family there were seven children: Charlie, Gus, Ernest, Emily K., Mary, Agnes and a twin girl named Ernestine, who was a twin to Ernest. My mother's name was Agnes Homa Forster.
Now my mother was burndth up in French Camp. The house was set a fire by Ernest and Agnes. She was 38 years and pregnant. My father at the time was a painter in San Francisco, CA and came home every two weeks. There was no insurance on the four-room house. We lived five miles from Stockton CA and on the road towards Modesto CA. I went to school in French Camp, CA. After my mother died I lived with a Dr. lady on Divisadero St near McAllister St. I went to Hamilton Evening School at night and one year of high school at night. I worked in many family homes caring for children until I went in training to be a nurse. I trained at German Hospital and made my self real young to enter the hospital. I met your Dad, Dorothy, at a Native Sons event in Vallejo, CA. He was living with his sister Edith and her two children Dudley and Lillian McPherson. I was a Native Daughter. I forgot I was born in Farmington, CA. I came to San Francisco, CA as a small baby and we lived on Corbett Avenue, near Twin Peaks for many years and when the twins were sick all the time the doctor says move where it is dry and warm. So we went on the San Joaquin boat to Stockton and then to French Camp. We had 13 or 14 acres of ground mostly fruit trees, one cow, one horse and one goat. We were terrible farmers and didn't know how to milk the cow or goat. Poor animals.
Now of the family. First, After my mothers death Charlie went to live at a Serum Farm in Stockton CA and close to French Camp and is still there, but the Doctor died and he lives alone there as the doctor when he died gave him the land. The doctor's name was Dr. Sorensen, I believe. Charlie has a son, Wesley and a daughter, Erylene. I don't know how many children either have. They all live in Stockton, CA. I don't ever hear from them -strange people. He was married two times and divorced both.
Now Mary my sister, she was married with two children. One died and Robert McEachern is her oldest son. I never see him. He is married and may live in Albany, CA??
Now Agnes, youngest sister died at the age of 23 years with a hip injury. She was single at time of death but engaged to marry.
Ernest was a twin to Ernestine. Ernestine died at one year old and Ernest died from a automobile accident age 32 or 34 years. He was married and had lived in Santa Cruz, CA. His wife remarried and lives in Stockton. She was a Italian girl from a large family.
My father John Baptist Forster and my mother Agnes Forster's graves are in Stockton, CA. Which one I do not know. Charlie knows where. I think his address may be Charlie Forster either Stockton CA or French Camp, in care of Dr. Sorensen, RFD CA. This is only a guess. I don't know as I never hear ever from him as he was a heavy drinker. He cares less about me. He is eighteen months older than me. I don't know if he is still alive or not. My father died a month after I was married. My stepmother and I were never friends.
My father died with a heart attack. My stepmother had two children: George and Mary. George worked for San Francisco Muni and had a injury and died from it. He was married. His sister lives in Sacramento CA. I used to hear from her, but not any more. She has a daughter.
Now Dorothy, here is Lillian's daughter Marilyn's address: Mrs. Marilyn Johnson, Lucerne CA Lake County RFD Zip 95458
Write to her, she may know something of your cousin Jack Dunn and Marjorie or something of your Dad's affair. She was Lillian's daughter. Lillian married Wayne Eachus of Lake Port, CA, Lake County. She was divorced and remarried and had twin daughters and I never saw them or even heard of them before or after Lillian's death. Lillian died of breast cancer before your Dad died. We never told him as he loved her so much. It would have made him sicker. She visited him while he was sick. Her brother Dudley came to live with us on 10th Avenue where you were born and Lillian also when I was married one month. His name is Dudley McPherson and works in Vallejo, CA in the shipyards and retired early because of a heart condition. He lives across the Berkely or Oakland side. I never hear of them ever, real strangers.
By the way your Dad's father wasn't alive when we got married nor his step-mother Caroline. She is at Cypress Lawn. Ernest, my brother, is laid out in the Italian cemetery in Colma CA.
This is all I know.
God bless you.
Mother Ritter.
Dot, I forgot my Uncle Charlie. My father's brother didn't have any children. As I mentioned before, both brothers came here as deserters of the army in Germany. Charlie was 14 and my father John age 15 years went in to farming in raising cattle near Farmington (Hanford) CA. Later on he and Brother Charlie went in the painting business. They didn't see eye to eye so they separated and each went in business by themselves as painting contractors. Those days they got $3.50 a day. Ha-ha. Now look at prices. Then when my dad quit painting and remarried, he worked in the Presidio San Francisco painting at a government job for $75.00 a month. Then he quit and moved with my stepmother to our farm and did farming and that is where he died. He died a month after I was married. My sister Mary and I went to his funeral. I didn't get any of the property, nor any of us, as my stepmother changed his will for herself. That's all and final.
Mother
Emily was the daughter of John Baptist Forster and Agnes Homa. She was one of seven children: Charles, Emily, Maria, Gustave, Ernest, Ernestine, and Agnes.
She also had a half brother, Justin James Forster. After her mother died her father remarried Mary Martinelli and they had a son Justin. It appears that Justin's stepfather adopted him and took on the surname Pinaire.
She married Thomas Raoul Ritter (1889-1941) on 11 Jun 1917 in San Francisco, CA. They had two children: Ralph and Dorothy. After Tom died, she had several foster children. She later adopted Paul Thomas Wheeler.
=======================
Forster Family Notes by Nancy Posey (grand daughter of Emily Ritter)
The Forster family lived on Corbett Avenue, San Francisco, until 1904. When the twins Ernest and Ernestine were born, they were sick a lot and the doctor told John and Agnes Forster to move to a warmer climate so that the children could get well. They moved to French Camp in 1904/05. John maintained /rented an apartment on Steiner Street near Divisadero because he stayed in San Francisco for several weeks at a time and would go home on the weekends.
In French Camp, Gamma (Emily) who was about 13 years old drove a horse and cart to Stockton, about nine miles from her home, to sell beans. She remembers being so embarrassed when she had to bring a cow to a neighbor to be bred by a bull.
John Forster also used a horse and cart to carry his paint to the San Francisco Presidio. He was employed as a private painting contractor and painted for the U. S.
After her mother died in 1908. Gamma stayed with the Priest family for several months in San Francisco. One of the Priest family's relatives was a female osteopath doctor.
About 1909, John Forster asked Gamma to watch the younger children. She remembers staying at his apartment for two nights and she told him "No." She felt she was too young to be watching young children. She left and got a job in Corde Madera watching children then went to St. Helena and then back to Corde Madera over the next three years (1909-1912/13). She remembers going to the dances in Larkspur, joined the Native Daughters of the Golden West for six months. This is where she met my grandfather, Tom Ritter. Gamma said she was real lonely and told Tom she wanted to be a nurse. Tom said he knew a doctor that could help her get in to German Hospital (later changed to Franklin Hospital and is now the Ralph Davis Hospital)
Back then, the nurses were not like the nurses of today. They were like maids and had up to twelve patients to care for. The days were twelve hours long. When Gamma would go out with Tom Ritter, she would fall asleep because she was so tired.
When John Forster died, her brother Charlie called her to give the news. Her sister Mary Forster came from Berkeley and both of them traveled to Stockton where Charlie met them. Mary Sander, John's second wife, had two children from a previous marriage when she married John. Her brother Ernest and his new bride Lola spent their honeymoon at Gama's house. Ernie and Tom stayed up all-night and played pinochle.
Gamma said her sister Agnes used to come over the house before she died in 1930. Gamma never spoke German again after her mother died.
Ernie and Lola lived in Santa Cruz and she never saw them.
============================
HISTORY OF EMILY K. FORSTER RITTER FAMILY (1982)
As written by Emily K. Forster Ritter and transcribed by her grand-daughter, Nancy Poppin Umland on March 17, 2000 (Note, punctuation will be corrected as well as fragmented sentences only if the personality of Emily is not destroyed)
First, In my family there were seven children: Charlie, Gus, Ernest, Emily K., Mary, Agnes and a twin girl named Ernestine, who was a twin to Ernest. My mother's name was Agnes Homa Forster.
Now my mother was burndth up in French Camp. The house was set a fire by Ernest and Agnes. She was 38 years and pregnant. My father at the time was a painter in San Francisco, CA and came home every two weeks. There was no insurance on the four-room house. We lived five miles from Stockton CA and on the road towards Modesto CA. I went to school in French Camp, CA. After my mother died I lived with a Dr. lady on Divisadero St near McAllister St. I went to Hamilton Evening School at night and one year of high school at night. I worked in many family homes caring for children until I went in training to be a nurse. I trained at German Hospital and made my self real young to enter the hospital. I met your Dad, Dorothy, at a Native Sons event in Vallejo, CA. He was living with his sister Edith and her two children Dudley and Lillian McPherson. I was a Native Daughter. I forgot I was born in Farmington, CA. I came to San Francisco, CA as a small baby and we lived on Corbett Avenue, near Twin Peaks for many years and when the twins were sick all the time the doctor says move where it is dry and warm. So we went on the San Joaquin boat to Stockton and then to French Camp. We had 13 or 14 acres of ground mostly fruit trees, one cow, one horse and one goat. We were terrible farmers and didn't know how to milk the cow or goat. Poor animals.
Now of the family. First, After my mothers death Charlie went to live at a Serum Farm in Stockton CA and close to French Camp and is still there, but the Doctor died and he lives alone there as the doctor when he died gave him the land. The doctor's name was Dr. Sorensen, I believe. Charlie has a son, Wesley and a daughter, Erylene. I don't know how many children either have. They all live in Stockton, CA. I don't ever hear from them -strange people. He was married two times and divorced both.
Now Mary my sister, she was married with two children. One died and Robert McEachern is her oldest son. I never see him. He is married and may live in Albany, CA??
Now Agnes, youngest sister died at the age of 23 years with a hip injury. She was single at time of death but engaged to marry.
Ernest was a twin to Ernestine. Ernestine died at one year old and Ernest died from a automobile accident age 32 or 34 years. He was married and had lived in Santa Cruz, CA. His wife remarried and lives in Stockton. She was a Italian girl from a large family.
My father John Baptist Forster and my mother Agnes Forster's graves are in Stockton, CA. Which one I do not know. Charlie knows where. I think his address may be Charlie Forster either Stockton CA or French Camp, in care of Dr. Sorensen, RFD CA. This is only a guess. I don't know as I never hear ever from him as he was a heavy drinker. He cares less about me. He is eighteen months older than me. I don't know if he is still alive or not. My father died a month after I was married. My stepmother and I were never friends.
My father died with a heart attack. My stepmother had two children: George and Mary. George worked for San Francisco Muni and had a injury and died from it. He was married. His sister lives in Sacramento CA. I used to hear from her, but not any more. She has a daughter.
Now Dorothy, here is Lillian's daughter Marilyn's address: Mrs. Marilyn Johnson, Lucerne CA Lake County RFD Zip 95458
Write to her, she may know something of your cousin Jack Dunn and Marjorie or something of your Dad's affair. She was Lillian's daughter. Lillian married Wayne Eachus of Lake Port, CA, Lake County. She was divorced and remarried and had twin daughters and I never saw them or even heard of them before or after Lillian's death. Lillian died of breast cancer before your Dad died. We never told him as he loved her so much. It would have made him sicker. She visited him while he was sick. Her brother Dudley came to live with us on 10th Avenue where you were born and Lillian also when I was married one month. His name is Dudley McPherson and works in Vallejo, CA in the shipyards and retired early because of a heart condition. He lives across the Berkely or Oakland side. I never hear of them ever, real strangers.
By the way your Dad's father wasn't alive when we got married nor his step-mother Caroline. She is at Cypress Lawn. Ernest, my brother, is laid out in the Italian cemetery in Colma CA.
This is all I know.
God bless you.
Mother Ritter.
Dot, I forgot my Uncle Charlie. My father's brother didn't have any children. As I mentioned before, both brothers came here as deserters of the army in Germany. Charlie was 14 and my father John age 15 years went in to farming in raising cattle near Farmington (Hanford) CA. Later on he and Brother Charlie went in the painting business. They didn't see eye to eye so they separated and each went in business by themselves as painting contractors. Those days they got $3.50 a day. Ha-ha. Now look at prices. Then when my dad quit painting and remarried, he worked in the Presidio San Francisco painting at a government job for $75.00 a month. Then he quit and moved with my stepmother to our farm and did farming and that is where he died. He died a month after I was married. My sister Mary and I went to his funeral. I didn't get any of the property, nor any of us, as my stepmother changed his will for herself. That's all and final.
Mother
