By Albin Leo Dittli
The Hasler family wappen can be found in the church in Interlaken (1911 Deckengemalde Kirche Interlaken). The wappen or crest is a yellow rabbit or hare standing on its hind legs. It is facing left and is standing on a green field. The background is blue.
The Hasler family in Gsteigwiler can be traced back to Ulrich Hasler born in 1568 and his wife Ani Lauener born in 1570.
Peter Hasler and Anna Knecht
The Haslers are from the village of Gsteigwiler in Canton Bern. Peter Hasler was born in 1835 and his wife Anna Knecht was born in 1843. They had eleven children. The youngest was Magdalena, born 12 July 1885.
From their front door they had a view of the Jungfrau mountain. They were farmers, with a small plot of land and some cows. During the mountain climbing season Peter was a mountain climbing guide in the Bernese Alps.
They had four boys and seven girls.
Marianna, the oldest girl, went to France to live.
Magdalena was the youngest of the children. Magdalena's brother Fritz went to work in England. When Magdalena was 16 Fritz came home for a visit and told her "We have to get you out of this small village." So he took her to England were she worked for five years on a big estate. She also learned English there.
About 1907 Magdalena moved to the United States and worked in Philadelphia as a governess. The family she worked for once made a trip to Switzerland and Magdalena went along to care for the children. They visited with Magdalena's mother in Gsteigwiler. Note: This information was given to me by mt mother, Lillian Lanz. According to the Ellis Island records, Grandma came to The United States in January 1909 as a governess for an English family. My understanding, also from my mother, is that Grandma and Grandpa met in San Francisco when this family visited there. They fell in love and Grandma told the family that she was staying in San Francisco instead of returning to England with them. Perhaps this family spent some time in Philadelphia before going to San Francisco. See the article on Ellis Island for more details.
When Magdalena came to the United States she started using the name Madelaine instead of Magdalena. She also used the English selling of Haesler instead of the Swiss Hasler with an umlaut over the 'a'.
Later Madalaine moved to San Francisco and worked there as a governess till she married Gottfried Lanz. She and Gottfried met in 1910 at a Swiss picnic. They were married 24 September 1910, at 8 o'clock at 7 Central Avenue in San Francisco. Her nick name for her husband was Gody.
Soon after they were married they owned a creamery or grocery store on Judah Street in San Francisco. Madalaine ran the store while Gottfried worked a job in the printing business. Madelaine's daughter, Lillian, remembers crawling to the cookie container at the store.
Madelaine and Gottfreid were active members of the Swiss Singing Society. Together they had the lead parts in Der HerrIm Wuus. They played the parts of a mother and father. This was when their daughters were teenagers.
They also went on several trips with the Swiss Singing Society when they went to sangerfests in various cities. Two such places the went to were Vancouver and Salt Lake City. On the trip to Salt Lake City they took their grand daughter, Regina, with them. It was a surprise for Regina, as she did not know she was going until they picked her up to go.
Madelaine was an excellent cook, and especially enjoyed baking pies and Christmas goodies. Her gravenstien apple pies were extremely good. She and her husband hosted many nice dinner parties at their home.
She also enjoyed eating health food. Often her lunch would be cottage cheese with fruit, wheat germ, and molasses, or something similar. She often read Prevention magazine.
She loved the out doors and went on several camping trips with Gottfried and sometimes they took some of their grand children with them. Their grandson Albin remembers going camping with them at Mt. Lassen, Mono Lake, and Silver Lake (all in California). At Mt. Lassen all of them climbed to the top of the mountain with the rangers. Coming back down they slid from tact to tact on the snow.
One of Madelaine's favorite pastimes was gardening. At both their home on 32nd Avenue in San Francisco and at the cabin on the Russian River she kept a very nice vegetable and flower garden. At the river the assorted berries provided fruit for breakfast and dinner always included vegetables from the garden. The garden at the river occupied a full lot that they owned across the street from the cabin. What could not be eaten immediately Madelaine canned. They also dried some of the fruit, especially the prunes. Madelaine's husband helped her with the garden work.
Madelaine loved to listen to the weekly Sunday broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Her grandson, Albin, remembers listening to it with her Sundays mornings in the cabin on the Russian river.
In 1960 Madelaine and Gody took a trip to Europe in celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary. They sailed from New York on the ship Flandre. While on the ship, while crossing the Atlantic to Europe, Gody had a fatal heart attack.
After Gody's death she continued living in their home on 32nd Avenue for many years. She was very independent and always enjoyed it when one of her grand children would come over.
Eight months before she died she moved to a rest home by Laguna Hills in Southern California. There her daughters could visit her often.
She died 15 July 1973 in Laguna Hills, three days after her 88th birthday. During the thirteen years Madelaine lived after her husband died she missed him, but was sustained by a strong belief that it would only be a short time until she and her loving husband would be together again never again to be separated.
Information provided from my remembrances and from my mother.