| Notes |
- North Tonawanda NY Evening News - 2/12/1972
When you get to be 100 years of
age, you have a lot of memories -
some happy- some sad.
But Mrs. Emilie Buchhardt of
253 Sommer St., North Tonawanda
is one of the happiest, wittiest
centenarians we've ever met. Her
100th birthday is tomorrow - just
the day before Valentine's Day.
And to her family, she's the best
Valentine of all.
First the sad news. On Jan. 4,
Mrs. Buchhardt fell in her home on
Sommer Street and has been
hospitalized at DeGraff Memorial
Hospital since then with a broken
hip.
"I just can't wait to get back
home," she confided. "For the
first time, I really miss doing
housework!"
Until she broke her hip, Mrs.
Buchhardt did all her own housework,
"except the washing" - she
let her daughter and daughter-inlaw
take care of that minor detail.
During an interview with her,
Mrs. Buchhardt recalled her early
days at her parents' home at 3542
Niagara Falls Blvd., Town of
Wheatfield.
" I was the 'tomboy' of the
family," she laughed, pointing to
the barn beside the recently-taken
picture of her family home. "I
used to drive the horses on the hay
wagon during haying season -
right into that barn."
"During the summer months, I
used to love to sit out on the front
porch - it wasn't enclosed then -
and play with the neighbor kids."
During the years that Mrs. Buchhardt
grew up as Miss Emilie
Beitz at 3542 Niagara Falls Boulevard,
the road was known as
"Sawyer Creek Road."
The meandering creek was filled
with water lilies in the spring, she
recalled. "I used to pick large
bouquets of them and sell them for
10 cents a bunch at the railroad
stop along the creek."
She attended St. Paul's German
School until she was confirmed -
"about seventh grade, I think,"
Mrs. Buchhardt said. Sometimes,
when the winter weather was bad,
she attended the schoolhouse on
Niagara Falls Boulevard which is
now a Catholic shrine.
Her brother, Albert, taught in
this school and admonished her,
she said, "behave yourself, and
don't be so funny, I don't want to
have to scold you!"
At home the Beitz family -
three of Emilie's sisters, her
brother and father and mother -
all spoke German. "That is, until I
attended Albert's school and
learned English."
Romance entered her life when
she was about 17 and young
William J. Buchhardt of Nash
Road began courting her.
"Sometimes, he walked to se^
me and other times he took me for
buggy-rides," she recalled with a
mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
"He really had the most up-to-date
buggy around."
Four years later, on Dec. 19,
1893, she and young William were
married in the front room of her
family home on Niagara Falls
Boulevard.
"The very next day, we moved
to 253 Sommer St. and I've lived
there ever since, she said. Her
husband passed away in 1930.
Her son and daughter, Mrs.
Elmer Pagel and Arnold Buchhardt
live in separate apartments
in the same house with their
mother at 253 Sommer St. Her
granddaughter, Mrs. John
Woloszyn and her four children
live right next door. Another grandchild,
Robert Buchhardt and his
wife and three children live in
Eden, N.Y.
Besides her seven great-grandchildren,
each of her
grandchildren have four foster
children who call Mrs. Buchhardt,
"Grandma."
A gregarious person, Mrs. Buchhardt
"had friends all over the
place," she says. Until recent
years, she was one of the most
active members of the sewing
circle and Ladies Fellowship at
Friedens United Church of Christ.
"And I loved to play euchre,
pinochle, canasta and bridge," she
says. Most of these she gave up as
club activities at about.90 years of
age because there were no more
club members left alive.
Her room at DeGraff Memorial
Hospital reflects how well loved
Mr. Buchhardt is by many. It is
filled with get-well cards, birthday
cards - and she was adorned with
a gigantic double orchid corsage
grown and presented to her by two
friends, Mr. and Mrs. Matthew
Cyran of Christiana Street.
And one of her proudest
possessions is a special congratula
tory letter for her 100th birthday
signed by President Richard
Nixon, himself. Another high note
of her celebration is a telephone
call she received Thursday from
an old school chum, Mrs. Ella
Krull Fritz, 94, whom Mrs. Buchhardt
recalls as a "cute little girl
in school that I used to take care of
during lunch hour and recesses."
"How life really is," she says
"just depends on keeping your
sense of humor."
ALSO
North Tonawanda NY Evening News - 5/21/1973
BUCHHARDT - Emilie A
Buchhardt, 101. of 253 Sommer
St.. North Tonawanda,
Saturday (May 19, 1973) at
DeGraff Memorial Hospital.
She was a lifelong resident of
North Tonawanda and a
member of Friedens United
Church of Christ.
Wife of the late William
Buchhardt who died in 1930, she
is survived by a daughter. Mrs.
Elmer C. Pagel of North
Tonawanda; two grandchildren.
Robert A. Buchhardt
of Eden. N.Y., and Mrs. John P.
(Carol) Woloszyn of North
Tonawanda; seven greatgrandchildren
and one greatgreat-
grandchild.
Friends may call from 2 to 4
and 7 to 9 p.m., at the Wattengel
Funeral Home. Inc.. 307 Oliver
St.. North Tonawanda. where
funeral services will be held
Tuesday at 1 p.m.. the Rev.
Howard F. Cramer Jr.
officiating. Burial in Elmlawn
Cemetery.
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1872 - 1973 (101 years)