Theresia (Theresa) Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas Recktenwald and Elisabeth Weiand, was born on 17 December 1867 in Shakopee, Scott County, Minnesota. She was baptized on 5 January 1868 at ST. March Catholic Church in Shakopee. (Archives of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul) At that time, the Recktenwalds lived on a small farm near Little Six, Minnesota in Scott County.

When Theresa was a baby, the family moved to St. Cloud, Stearns County, Minnesota for a year and a half. In 1869, when Theresa was about 2 years old, the family moved to a farm in Hartford Township, Todd County, Minnesota.

Theresa’s father, Nicholas, died on 5 November 1873 in Hartford. The two oldest surviving children, John and Margaret, had left home by this time. Theresa’s mother, Elizabeth, and the rest of the children stayed on the Hartford farm. By 1875, however, Theresa’s sister, Katharine, had moved away and was living with her brother-in-law and sister, August and Margaret Sieloff, in Rockford, Wright County, Minnesota. By 1878, Theresa’s older sister, Mary, had married and moved out. By 1880 another sister, Anna Mary, had moved to Chicago.

On 18 January 1886, Theresa (age 18) married Joseph Turner Wales (age about 27) at Holy Angels Catholic Church in St. Cloud, Stearns County, Minnesota. (Baptism, Marriage and Death Records, Saint Cloud, Holy Angeles Catholic Church) Theresa and Turner had five children -- Milton Nicholas, Frances Louisa, Anna, Gulielmus and Theresia. Three of the children died in about a 12 month period -- Anna (age 2 years, 11 months) died on 21 December 1890; Guiielmus (age 7 months) died on 8 May 1891; and Theresia (age less than a year) died on 1 January 1892.

In addition to the untimely deaths of three of Theresa’s children,Turner (age about 33) died from consumption on 20 March1891 in St. Cloud. After Turner’s death, Theresa and her surviving children lived with her older brother, Nicholas Recktenwald, in St. Cloud.

On 21 October 1895, Theresa (age 27) married Peter Edward “Ed” LaMere (age 24), son of Louis LaMere and Marie Derosier, in Park Rapids, Hubbard County, Minnesota. (Minnesota Official Marriage System, 1850-2019) In 1900, Theresa and Ed, along with Theresa’s two surviving children from her prior marriage and the couple’s one-year-old son, Edward, were living in Hellgate Township, Missoula City, Missoula County, Montana. In 1901, the family moved to Great Falls, Cascade County, Montana. Theresa and Ed had 2 more children in Great Falls - Marie and Beulah. By 1919 Ed became justice of the peace in Great Falls.

On 15 February 1936, Ed died from a paralytic stroke in Great Falls. (Death Certificate) Ed was entombed at the Great Falls Mausoleum [Hillcrest Lawn Memorial Mausoleum].

Theresa died on 11 March 1943 in Great Falls. (Death Certificate) Her obituary reads: “Mrs. T. E. LaMere, Widow of Justice, Succumbs Thursday. Mrs. Teresa E. LaMere, 75, widow of the late Justice P. E. LaMere, died at a local hospital Thursday following an illness of more than a year. The funeral will be held from the O’Connor Chapel Saturday morning at 9 o’clock and at St. Ann’s Cathedral at 9:15, when holy mass will be celebrated. The body will be entombed in the Great Falls mausoleum [Hillcrest Lawn Memorial Mausoleum]. Friends will meet at the chapel this evening at 8 to recite the rosary. Mrs. LaMere was born Dec. 6, 1867, at Shakopee, Ill., and had been a resident of Great Falls for 42 years. For the last year and half she had made her home with a daughter, Mrs. John W. Cox of 1517 Central avenue. In addition to Mrs. Cox, she is survived by two other daughters, Mrs. Frank Palmer, 518 1/2 Central avenue, and Mrs. E. J. Burke of Portland, Ore.; a brother, William Recktenwald, St. Cloud, Minn., and five grandchildren, Lucille LaMere of Denver; Mardell LaMere, Donald McKnight, and Betty Ruth Cox, of Great Falls, and Lt. John W. Cox Jr., who is in the air corps in Australia. Members of the Women’s Benefit association, of which Mrs. LaMere was a member, will attend the funeral in a group.” (Great Falls Tribune, 12 March 1943)
Bio by K. O’Brien