Emma Louise Stohler Sierra

Emma Louise Stohler was born December 12, 1895 in St. Louis, Missouri.  Her parents were Frederick Stohler and Katharina Eliza Maria Seitz (Zeitz).  Emma had two older brothers, Frederick and Adolph known as Otto.  The two younger brothers were Emil and Leo.

Emma's father bought a two-story hotel near the Mississippi River in St. Louis.  While growing up Emma would help clean the hotel after attending school all day.  Emma worked hard but still managed to read books for her pleasure.  She would get blisters on her hands from scrubbing the stairs that were painted white.  Emma's mother would tell her the blisters were from holding a book and not by work.  Emma also helped in the kitchen as meals were served in the hotel.  There was a bar where food was also served.  Emma's father drove a beer wagon drawn by horses and he earned $14.00 a week to help pay for the hotel.  This pay was considered very good in the 1890's.

Emma graduated from the 7th grade, which was equivalent to a high school education today.  She was very good in math and due to reading all the time had knowledge of most subjects.  Her brothers were pranksters and always teasing Emma and getting into trouble at school.  When starting one new school term, the teacher asked the names of the children.  When Emma gave her name the teacher said, "Oh no, how many more Stohler's are there?"  Emma was a good student and did not get into trouble at school.

About 1910 or 1911 Emma's father sold the hotel and the family moved by train to California.  Emma (my mother) told me that she was very scared on the train as she thought the Indians would attack at any time.  The family lived in the Bay Area near San Francisco probably Santa Rosa.  Emma went To San Francisco and lived while working as a telephone operator.  She became acquainted with Alma Sierra, also a telephone operator.  Through this friendship Emma met her future husband, Carl Sierra, the brother of Alma.

After a courtship Emma and Carl were married in San Rafael in Marin County.  Carl wanted to be married by a Catholic Priest, having served as an altar boy and raised Catholic, so he took Emma in the rectory to make arrangements about the ceremony.  The priest asked how much he was going to be paid which upset Carl and he answered, "Not one G__ D____ cent".  He took Emma by the arm and marched out slamming the front door so hard he broke the glass.  This was the last time Carl went to a Catholic Church again until his granddaughter, Cheryl, was

Christened in 1947, and once again in 1970 when his grandson, Douglas, was married.

Emma and Carl lived in Berkeley where their first child, Ruth Emma, was born.  The second child a boy, Carl Theodore, was born in Oakland.  Emma helped Carl Sr. at a rug cleaning business they owned in Berkeley.  The family moved to a ranch east of Santa Rosa where they lived until it was time for the children to start school.  They moved to Sacramento living a year or two here then moved to Southern California in Eagle Rock. Once again they returned to the East Bay buying a home in Berkeley.  Ruth graduated from Berkeley High School and then the family moved back to Sacramento where Carl graduated from high school.  They lived in Sacramento for almost two years and moved back to the east bay again.  They built a home in Castro Valley, where they lived for about 30 years.

Emma and Carl always talked of retiring on a chicken farm but due to Carl Jr. raising and racing pigeons while in high school, in Berkeley, they found pigeons have fewer diseases so they went into the business in Castro Valley.  This pigeon business was Emma's as Carl was still working as an interior decorator.  Emma kept books, ordered feed, collecting squab twice a week taking them to market and seeing to the needs of 10,000 birds.  Her business was very productive but confining.  It was one of the largest privately owned squab farms in California.  When it came to Social Security checks when retiring, Emma received the largest one as she had earned more than Carl had with her squab business.

The public school in Castro Valley bought their property in the 1960's.  The home, pigeon houses, barn, water tower and everything was sold and moved off the property.

They bought a new home in a subdivision in Fremont.  Carl worked in the yard all the time and had it landscaped so beautiful.  One day a man stopped his car and rang the doorbell and asked if Carl would consider selling the home.  After the man kept coming back to try to buy the house Carl was given such a good offer he couldn't turn it down.  Emma and Carl then bought another home in a subdivision in Union City.

Emma died of cancer in Union City on March 20, 1968 and interred in Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland.

Note:  I remember going camping with Mom and Dad as a kid so Dad could go fishing in a lake or a river.  Cousin Helen even went with us one summer.  The camping was not in a camp ground as sometimes we slept on cots in the open or even on a car seat that could be removed from the car.  This was in the late 1920's.  Emma cooked three meals a day over a camp stove. She sent the children out to collect wild berries and canned them in camp.  Other vacations would be visiting grandparents.  When they had the pigeon farm they could not take vacations, as the birds needed constant care.  In the 1950's they bought a travel trailer and put it on the farm.  They hired a man to live in it and help care for the birds.  He ate meals with Carl and Emma. They were then able to drive cross-country to visit their daughter and grandchildren in Georgia.  This was the first time Carl had ever been East of California and it had been 40 or more years since Emma had left St. Louis.

During early years operating the squab farm in Castro Valley, California, there was a big problem of flies being very prominent and very annoying. The University of California inspected the farm and suggested using a new product at that time to spray pigeon pens being DDT.  This was used for over 20 years with Emma doing all of the spraying.  DDT was taken off the market for being hazardous to your health.  I do believe the DDT was the cause of my mother's cancer.  Her cancer was in every bone and organ in her body. Her brain was not affected.