Amalia Gies Weber
Amalia Gies Weber was born April 17, 1881 to John Conrad Gies & Anna Marie Willmann. She was born in Walter, Gouvernement Saratow, Russisches Kaiserreich. She was the oldest child of eight total children. She met Conrad Weber while living in Russia and and they married in January 1899. Amalia then came to the United States in 1902 with her husband Conrad, one of their children and Conrad's parents. They came to New York, and then took a train to Ritzville, Washington. They then took a horse drawn wagon to Quincy, Washington.
Amalia was described in an article " Mrs. Weber (Amalia Gies Weber), wife of Conrad Weber, mother of Hannah Weber, was one of the most delightful German ladies in the community. She though quite a bit of me and I of her, and I always tried to wait on her when she came to the store. I wanted to learn German in the worst way. I would always make it a point to try to talk German to Mrs. Weber if I could and she to me. She came in the store one day and gae the order of what she wanted and I don't know why, but I misunderstood her and brought her three rolls of toliet tissue. Well, we didn't sell much toilet tissue in the store but I thought that was what she said. So I put it on the counter. When I did, she said "Oh, my goodness Dale! No, we use the Sears Roebuck!!"
A story written by Amalia's husband Conrad describes her parents in their later years. "My wife's father was tailor in Ritzville and made pretty good money and decided to go back. They said that if they did not like it they would come back. They went back and he took sick with a slow cancer. Then the war broke out in Russia in 1912. He died and left the mother and two daughters but they could not get back before he died. They did not know that they might have come through a neutral country like Sweden so they had to stay and go through that Revolution. One girl got married. At one time they wanted to draft the father to the communist side. Finally in 1920-21 the people starved there by the thousands. They had some Russian money and got 75 from the Polish like and could not get further., They stayed in a German settlement there. They finally got some tickets, paid the way from there to Quincy. They got as fas as Moscow and found the quota was filled for that year. They went back to this border town again, got in contact with some Germans in Canada, some Mennonites who go them to Canada. I had to have some one in Canada to take them from the train, some relative., It so happened that a relative of ours at Sumas had known my wife's folks before they went back and he went to B.C. and met the train. I went to Vancouver to the American consul and I was told that if they came through the back door they could not go out through the front door. Their passports read only to Canada too,. If it had read through Canada to the U.S. they might have come. He gave me the address of the old Russian Consulate still in Seattle. I went there and got passports for them for $4.00. I sent that to them. It so happened that a boy from Ritzville who was working there who could speak the English and German wrote and got the tickets but they had to stay there in Canada for 6 months. They she came here for 6 months and it passed pretty quick. I worked through Frank Bell and CC Dill and they got us another extension of 6 months. Then we had to apply for a quota and we tried not to ask too many to come from Canada... we later had to apply and get the last two over. When it got settled up here the women folks got acquainted and like it better. The church helped."
The family had 6 children, two born in Russia and four after they arrived in the United States. Amalia and Conrad were married almost 60 years prior to her death in 1958. They farmed in the Quincy area until both Conrad and Amalia's deaths. Amalia passed away in 1958 in Quincy, Washington and Conrade passed away in 1969 in Wenatchee, Washington. They are both interred in Quincy Valley Cemetery, in Quincy, Washington.
The world Amalia knew
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