Monday, November 28, was the ninety-sixth birthday of Mrs. Dora Frahm, probably the oldest person and the longest continuous resident in Washington county. Although Mrs. Frahm was quite ill for a short time since her 95th birthday and only now is recovering from a broken arm, she observed her 96th birthday by receiving at her home her children (William, Otto and Fred Frahm and Mrs. May Rix) and other relatives and friends of this place and Blair. Her temporary physical disability has not impaired her mental faculties and she vivaciously entertained her guests until late in the evening on this occasion.

Mrs. Frahm came to Washington county in 1856, or 76 years ago, and except for a short time when she was employed in Omaha, has lived here ever since. When a young lady of 19 years she came to America, in 1855, and the following year became a resident of Washington county. The 76 years she has lived here more than covers the era that has machinized the world. It took the ship that brought her here more than three months to make the trip which now requires but five days. There were no railroads west of the Mississippi river, so she came from St. Louis to St. Joe by boat. At the latter place the boat sank and she came from there to the then struggling village of Omaha by stage coach. Near Omaha the coach tipped over and Mrs. Frahm sustained a severe cut on her forehead, the scar of which still remains. A student doctor sewed up the wound with common twine, but of course that happened long before the world was on speaking terms with germs, etc., so she survived. Her arrival here preceded the war (Civil War??) by five years and the invention of the telephone by twenty years. And of course three later contraptions such as autos, radios and airplanes are ultra modernistic, but do not daze this pioneer at all - - she has seen too much in her 96 years to be greatly awed by the works of man. And this present depression doesn’t depress her so much. The pioneer of her day were in a constant depression, so far as money was concerned - - - in fact there were long periods when literally none of them had money. And in spite of our boasted progress and smartness it is possibly and quite probably true that those pioneers got as much of more real satisfaction out of life than we of today with all of our mechanical devices do. Their lives were of necessity helpfulness to their community, and helping others has and never will be displaced as a major element in human happiness.

# 2 -Ft. Calhoun Chronicle 12 Oct 1933

Dorothea Rohwer Frahm was born in Nortorf, Holstein, Germany, November 28, 1836, and died in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, October 3, 1933, at the age of 96 years, 10 months and 5 days.

She was an orphan at an early age, and in 1855 she and a sister came to America to join another sister and brother who had preceded them. They set sail from Hamburg in a two-mast schooner on May 15 and after a perilous voyage arrived at New York Aug. 2, 1855. They remained in New York state a short time after which they left for Nebraska. They came as far as St. Louis by rail and from there were to proceed by steamboat up the Missouri river. The boat which they boarded sank and they were obliged to wait until the next day for another. At St. Joe, they changed their mode of travel to stage coach with unseen dangers lurking ahead. A thrill in the shape of a spill from an over-turned coach was the next cause for trial and tribulation. Dora suffered a severe cut on the forehead which was sewed up by a medical student with common twine. She always had the scar.

After crossing the river at Council Bluffs by ferry, the journey was continued by stage coach to Fort Calhoun. This was in the year 1857. Dora remained in Fort Calhoun and later spent a short time in Omaha. She was married to Henry Frahm of Fort Calhoun, November 27, 1860, by Rev. Henry Kuhns. They came to their farm near fort Calhoun immediately after their marriage and continued their residence there until 1902, when they moved to Fort Calhoun.

Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Frahm, three of whom died in their infancy. Mr. Frahm died in 1915. Three sons, William, Fred H. and Otto G., and one daughter, Mrs. May Rix, all of Fort Calhoun, survive, and together with six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, mourn the loss of a kind and loving mother.

Services were held October 5 from the home. Rev. Luther Kuhns, a son of Rev. Henry Kuhns, who performed the marriage ceremony for Mr. and Mrs. Frahm, officiated. Interment was made in the Fort Calhoun cemetery.

As is the case in the passing of every pioneer it is interesting to look back upon the changes that have taken place during Mrs. Frahm’s lifetime. She came to America one year before the first steamship crossed the Atlantic on the Hamburg American Line; she came to Council Bluffs ten years before the first railroad was built across Iowa; she has witnessed the advent of the telephone, the automobile, the airplane, and the radio. Mrs. Frahm had, to the end of her life, a remarkable memory and an unusual faculty for making vivid the sense of pioneer life. In her stories she stressed the joys along with the hardships and she preserved a feeling of gratitude for the good that had come to her. Her sense of justice and right has won for her the love and esteem of the community of whose history her life is so intimately a part.

Enterprise 5 Oct 1933

Oldest County Pioneer Dies At Ft. Calhoun

Mrs. Dorthea Frahm, Oldest In Point of Years In County, Answers Death Summons At Nearly Ninety-Seven Years. Came To County In 1860

PIONEER BORN IN GERMANY IN 1836

Mrs. Dorthea Elsbeth Frahm, oldest Washington county resident and pioneer settler passed away Tuesday night at her home in Calhoun. Had she lived until November 28th she would have reached her 97th birthday.

Born November 28, 1836, in Germany, Mrs. Frahm came to America May 15, 1855. She moved to Omaha from New York state in 1857 and married Henry Frahm in Omaha in 1860, when they moved to a farm near here.

The ship that brought Mrs. Frahm to the United States took more than three weeks crossing the ocean. She went by boat to St. Joseph, because there were no railroads west of the Mississippi. At St. Joseph, the boat sank, and Mrs. Frahm took a stage to Omaha. Near Omaha, the coach tipped over, and she suffered a severe forehead cut, which was sewed up by a student doctor with common twine. She always had the scar.

Her arrival in Calhoun antedated by 10 years the railroad; by 20 years, the invention of the telephone; and for such modern things as automobiles and airplanes, Mrs. Frahm was nearly the span of a lifetime ahead of them.

Her mental faculties remained alert to the end, but for the past year she had been confined to a wheel chair, the result of a broken arm which failed to mend. She had expected to live to one hundred and conjectured with neighbors about television, and technocracy; which she couldn’t quite understand. Her garden was her chief hobby.

She and her husband moved to Fort Calhoun in 1902, and he died in 1915. She is survived by three sons and a daughter, William, Fred H. and Otto G., and Mrs. May Rix, all of Fort Calhoun.

Funeral services will be held this (Thursday) afternoon at 2 from the residence.

Pilot Tribune 5 Oct 1933

MRS. FRAHM DIES AT FT. CALHOUN

County’s Oldest Pioneer, 96, Dies Tuesday After Lingering Illness

The oldest pioneer in Washington county and the longest continuous county resident, Mrs. Dora Frahm of Ft. Calhoun, aged 96, died at her home Tuesday after a lingering illness. She had been a resident there since 1855.

Mrs. Frahm was born in Schleiswig Holstein, Germany, November 28, 1836, and lived there until she was nineteen. At that time she came to New York, arriving thee in May, 1855. She came directly to Omaha.

She often recalled the hardships of her journey from the old country. It took the ship three weeks to cross the Atlantic ocean, a journey which is now often made in three days. From New York City she went by railroad to St. Louis, where the line ended. She then embarked on a Missouri river steamer for Omaha, but the boat sank at St. Joseph, so she was obliged to continue her journey by stagecoach. Then, just as she was outside of Omaha the stage upset and Mrs. Frahm was badly cut on the forehead, from which wound she had a permanent scar.

In 1860 she was married to Henry Frahm. To the union were born three sons, William, Fred H. and Otto G., and one daughter, Mrs. May Rix, all of whom survive the mother. Mr. Frahm died in 1915.

The editor of the Ft. Calhoun Chronicle, Frank C. Adams, once wrote: “Her arrival in town preceded the railroad by ten years, the Civil War by five years, the invention of the telephone by twenty years, and those more modern inventions as autos, radios and airplanes by the span of a lifetime.”

Mrs. Frahm was always interested in the progress of the world, and kept pace with modern inventions and ideas all through her life. Despite the fact that she was confined for a long time to a wheelchair as a result of several infirmities she declared that she was not an invalid, and her physical disability in no way impaired her keen mental faculties.

Funeral services for the aged Ft. Calhoun resident are being conducted this (Thursday) afternoon at two o’clock from the Frahm residence in Ft. Calhoun, with Rev. Lutheran Kuhn officiating. Interment will be in the Ft. Calhoun cemetery.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~