Frida was born in Vorwerk Ahrensboeck in what was then the Duchy of Luebeck. Today that suburb is in the modern state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Frida had an open casket funeral; I was there. Her death certificate says that she was cremated. My sister remembers visiting a grave stone west of US 99.

Frida Ida Maria Stuhr was born 2 May 1884 in Germany. She received a sixth grade education in Germany, the equivalent of eight grade in the U.S.

A document in German made out in 1911 for Paula Johanna Erna Hartmann lists her mother, Frida, as from “Vorwerk Ahrensboeck”; there is such a place in Germany near the Danish border.

Since Frida's baptism was not found in Stockelsdorf, her family had apparently moved there from another parish prior to her confirmation in 1898. Most likely the previous town of residence was the Lutheran parish of Ahrensboeck, also part of the Duchy of Luebeck. This parish includes a number of smaller villages, including the Vorwerk [=suburb] of Ahrensboeck mentioned in the document I have for my mother. The Ahrensboek records are mostly available through the mid-1940s and also include a grave register and other historical records not usually available with filmed parish registers. Unfortunately the marriage records of the 1880s provide very little information concerning the families of the future couple. This is primarily due to the fact that the civil registry asked many questions about the bride and groom and their families, so it didnt seem necessary for the church to duplicate this effort.

The marriage entry for Frida's parents in the Ahrensboeck Lutheran parish register listed the journeyman carpenter Johann Heinrich Mathias Stuhr, batchelor in Barghorst, and Christina Maria Emma Glanert, single girl in Barghorst, with the marriage date of 15 Oct 1880, but no other information. Barghorst is another village in Ahrensboek parish.

Frida married Paul Hartmann in Germany. The Lutheran records of Stockelsdorf, a parish in the former Duchy of Luebeck, include the marriage of Frieda Stuhr to Friedrich Paul Hartmann on 25 Feb 1905 in the local parish church. Friedrich Paul Hartmann, a laborer in Ravensbusch [a village in this parish], son of the iron turner Carl Richard Hartmann there, and of Dorothea Johanne Maria Kauffmann, born on 26 May, baptized 17 July 1881, confirmed 22 March 1896 in Stockelsdorf, married Frieda Ida Maria Stuhr in Stockelsdorf, legitimate daughter of the carpenter Johann Heinrich Matthias Stuhr there, and Emma Christine Dorothea Glanert, born on 2 May, baptized on 2 June 1884, confirmed on 27 March 1898 in Stockelsdorf. The scripture given to the couple as a guide was John 13 verse 34.

Frida and Paul Hartmann had two girls within eighteen months while they lived in Stockelsborf by Luebeck, Germany. The two daughters of Paul Hartmann, Paula and Hertha, were born in the red brick house of their grandparents, Maria and Richard Hartmann. It was there that Paula and Hertha were cared for by their father and by their grandparents while their mother, Frida Stuhr Hartmann, attended the school for midwives (Hebammen) at Keil, Germany.

Paul was born Frederich Paul Hartmann in 1881 in Germany, the second son of Maria and Richard Hartmann. He received a sixth grade education in Germany, the equivalent of eight grade in the U.S.

Paul and their daughter, Hertha, emigrated to San Francisco, California, in 1911; they were sponsored by his aunt, "Tante Ida", who had "made a fortune" in Alaska and needed a handyman to care for some of her property at San Francisco.

Frida and their daughter, Paula, followed Paul to San Francisco three months later. Paul had already left the home of "Tante Ida" by this time and moved into a flat on Hyde Street. Here the girls started school and the family welcomed Fritz Hartmann, Aline and Carl Richter and later Paul's parents from Germany until they found their own housing. Paul worked on the waterfront for wages and sometimes set out crab traps in San Francisco Bay for the family's Sunday dinner.

Between 1911-1914 Paul's parents, Richard and Maria Hartmann, emigrated to San Francisco where they lived with their son, Fritz Hartmann, and their daughter, Aline Hartmann Richter, and their son-in-law Carl Richter.

In 1917 Frida and Paul Hartmann, because of the anti-German job bias, moved their family to Raymond, California. Paul could not get his customary work on the San Francisco waterfront because German nationals were seen as a security threat there during the First World War. Sometime after 1917 the Hartmanns and Richters all moved from San Francisco to share property outside of Raymond, California, owned by Paul and Frida. They later purchased several parcels of this land and built homes on them.

Paul and Frida Hartmann chopped firewood for sale and enlarged a one-room cabin. Paul worked successively in a gold mine at Grub Gulch, at the Raymond Granite Company as a crane operator, as well as starting a garden and later raising chickens, turkeys, a few cows and some hogs. An attempt at raising wheat on their land failed, but while the railroad ran and the granite quarries supplied jobs there was a local market for what the farm produced.

Frida canned fruits and vegetables from Paul's garden. Frida churned butter and made cream from the milk that Paul got from their cow. During their high-school years, the girls drove Billy, the horse, to Raymond where they delivered butter and eggs before starting their school day.

In 1923 Paul and Frida and the two girls, who had graduated from high school, returned to San Francisco to work.

Frida became ill after about a year of working as a pastry cook for the Pacific Telephone Company. She and Paul returned to Raymond to resume chicken raising, gardening, etc. Later Paul also worked at the McGilvray Granite Quarry. Upon their return to Raymond, both Paul and Frida became well-known in the area and were quite active socially; in later life they were faithful attendees at Grandmothers' Club meetings.

In later years the "ranch" was rather self-sufficient but it couldn't be left overnight without care. Paul had to milk the cow and Frida needed to make butter and cheese before the milk spoiled in the partial cool of an evaporative cooler. The chickens had to be fed. The garden needed water daily in the summer heat; every day or two Paul had to walk a quarter mile with a can of gasoline to start the water pump; the level of water in the two tanks had to be checked more often. The water pipes had to be insulated with gunny sacks against the frosts of winter and Paul had to fix any pipe that broke or leaked precious water. Paul did most repairs to his car and turned a hand pump to fuel it from a big drum of gasoline. Paul used his carpentry skills to mend the outbuildings so that the pigs and cow and calf and chickens stayed in and the cats and snakes stayed out. The garden that supplied fresh food in the summer and home canned food in the winter required frequent weeding and planting and harvesting.

Frida and Paul were both in their sixties when their house burned down. Their only telephone was near where the fire started, so virtually everything was gone before the rural fire department arrived. They lived with their daughter, Hertha, in Madera for a couple of years, then decided to rebuild the house. Paul and Frida lived in the garage while they rebuilt the house from the foundations up; only the patios and retaining walls of granite blocks survived the fire. Paula's husband, Bill, helped with the electrical work but Paul and Frida built the rest themselves. Paul did all the plumbing; arthritic knees or not, Frida and Paul climbed ladders to put the roof on. Paul built the kitchen counters and cabinettes unusually low for short Frida's comfort. They restored the fruit trees and Frida's roses in the upper garden and went back to planting vegetables in the garden downhill from the house.

Paul had diabetes in his later years; Frida took great care of his diet after that, weighing each portion for him and buying low-sugar canned goods rather than serving him her own preserved food canned from their garden; he did not require medication. Paul died in 1960 in a Madera hospital, a few days after suffering a heart attack.

Frida wanted nothing but to continue living "up home" at the ranch. Her children had to persuade her that she could not live there without Paul to keep the place running. She lived ten years after Paul died and never seemed contented.

Frida had an apartment at a retirement place in the valley for several years. She was even able to have a few of her roses out front. She lived with her daughter, Hertha, later, and then in a nursing home.

Frida Ida Maria Hartmann died 30 November 1970 in Clovis, Fresno County, California.