Esther (Bruckner) Janke Pictures
Esther was the second child of Lewis and Augusta Bruckner. She was born in 1898 and died at 99 in 1997 in Friendship, WI. Information about her life is included following the pictures.
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 Esther Bruckner at 10 from a glass negative
of a picture taken by her father
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 Fred & Esther Janke
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 Esther at 90th birthday with brother Walter
and sisters Annie (left) and Dorothy (right)
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 Esther at 91
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 Esther (Bruckner) Janke with family in 1988
Back Row (L-to-R): David Elmer, Marcia Elmer, Arnold Janke, Esther Janke,
Virginia Janke, Ellaine Janke, Murray Janke
Front Row (L-to-R): John Meyer, Valerie Meyer, Beverly & Barbara Janke
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Esther has told about when she was young and needed an appendectomy. Two doctors from Portage performed the appendectomy in the farm house on the kitchen table. She was given morphine for the pain and a nurse stayed at the farm with her for 10 days while she recovered.
In 1912 when she was 15 her father died. That meant that her mother had to take on a lot of the work that had been done by her father. This left Esther to do most of the caring for her brothers and sisters. She was in the 7th grade and had to drop out of school.
In 1917, when she had just turned 19, Esther married Fred Janke who lived on a nearby farm. Fred's folks had built a house just north of the farm and moved there leaving Fred alone on the farm. He told Esther he needed someone to do the house work on and help on the farm. Fred was born on that farm and lived there until he died in 1967.
Esther was a hard working farmers wife and an excellent cook. Friends and relatives remember many fine meals at the big table in her kitchen. She raised a lot of chickens, up to 500 at a time, and even once kept some chicks in an upstairs bedroom until a brooder house could be readied for them.
In 1919 their son, and only child, Arnold was born. When Arnold married a second house was built on the farm for Arnold and his wife Virginia. After his father died, Arnold continued to run the farm until he sold the farm in 1980 and retired. Arnold built a retirement home about a half mile north of the Janke farm. Arnold died there in 1998.
Esther liked listen to other peoples conversations on the telephone party line. Esther was known to pick up her phone and listen in on the conversations of others. The others could hear a click when another phone receiver was lifted. She was well known for her eavesdropping and sometimes a person on the line would say, "Esther, get off the phone".
Fred & Esther's house had a large kitchen with a big table in the middle. Esther cooked great meals and it was always a pleasure to eat there. She was especially good at baking pies. There was a couch and some other chairs in the kitchen and that is where company usually sat to visit. There was an nice parlor but it was only used if special company came.
In 1972 five years after Fred died Esther bought a small house in Oxford and moved there. It was right on highway 82 and just east of the downtown area. She did not drive and soon became a familiar sight walking around Oxford. Well into her 80s she cleaned the beauty shop each day after it closed. Esther also did mending for several families. She was well known for baking bread, cakes, and pies for people. Some she sold and some she gave away.
Esther's brother Arthur had left home at a young age and had refused any contact with his family. Esther was obsessed with making contact with Arthur who no one had seen or heard from since the 1920s. The then governor of Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson, was a friend of the family and he had Esther down to the Wisconsin governors Mansion for a weekend about once a year. Ester always loved that. The governor used his resources to get Arthur's address in Pasadena, CA. For a long time Esther wrote him frequent letters but Arthur never replied. Esther made two bus trips to California. At least one time she went to his house and knocked on his door. When Arthur answered the door she knew it was her brother but he denied being Arthur Bruckner and shut the door in her face. She was somewhat satisfied to have seen him but still wanted a normal relationship and she continued to write him letters. Arthur had never told his two daughters that he had a family in Wisconsin. While he never responded to the letters, Esther kept writing them. When Arthur was near death and in a nursing home his daughters managed his affairs and noticed the letters from Esther. They wrote to her to find out what the connection was and learned of their before unknown family. After Arthur's death his two daughters went to Wisconsin and were able to meet their Aunt Esther and their other living Aunts and Uncles.
In her mid 90s Esther started having memory problems and went to live with Arnold and Virginia on the farm. After a few months there she when to a nursing home in Friendship, WI in July or August of 1996 where she spent the last three years of her very long life.
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