Skip to main content

Hedges, Bertha, 1887-1978

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1887 - 1978

Biography

Bertha Gotter Hedges was born in 1887 near Scranton in Greene County, Iowa, to Tabitha Linn and Frederick Gotter. Bertha Gotter's mother was originally from Pennsylvania; her father was a German immigrant. Tabitha and Frederick Gotter settled in the Iowa coalmining town of Angus/Ripley, where they owned a coal mine before moving to nearby Willow Township where they farmed. They had five daughters and three sons. Their oldest daughter Millie died of appendicitis in 1895; their son Caleb died of influenza at Fort Logan, Colorado, in 1918. Bertha Gotter attended country school in Willow Township, Greene County. She later attended school in Denison, Iowa. She trained as a milliner and managed a millinery business in Scranton and kept house for her brother, Caleb Gotter, before marrying Charles Hedges in 1911. The Hedges purchased the family farm in Greene County, where they raised three children: Mildred, Howard and Horace. Their oldest daughter Mildred was born with a cleft palette for which she received surgery in Omaha and Chicago. Mildred Hedges died in 1935 during her freshman year at Simpson College when she tripped over a staircase railing and fell eighteen feet to her death.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Bertha Hedges papers

 Collection
Identifier: IWA0846
Abstract

A talented seamstress and milliner, Bertha Gotter Hedges was born in Greene County, Iowa, in 1887.

Dates: 1870-2014