The Kramers of Alder Slope

A Story of Loss, Grit, and the Quiet Strength That Helped Shape Early Enterprise

Submitted by: Lydia Kramer Hartwell, great-granddaughter

My great-grandparents, Johann and Elise Kramer, arrived in the Wallowa Valley in the autumn of 1882, weary from travel but full of the sort of hope only pioneers seemed to possess. They had left Bavaria a decade earlier, first settling near St. Louis before hearing about the “green valley beyond the mountains” from a traveling preacher. With three children and a borrowed wagon, they decided to push west.

A Hard Journey West

The Kramers’ trek was not an easy one. Family stories say that Johann walked nearly the entire distance beside the wagon so the children could ride. Elise, who was five months pregnant at the time, insisted on gathering herbs along the trail: chamomile, yarrow, valerian, saying, “A mother never knows what medicines she’ll need.”

Tragedy struck near the Snake River when their youngest daughter, Marta, fell ill. Despite Elise’s efforts, the little girl passed away before they reached the valley. They buried her on a cliff overlooking the river. My grandmother used to say Elise never again braided her hair without tying in a small ribbon of Marta’s favorite yellow.

Settling on Alder Slope

Johann purchased 160 acres on what is now Alder Slope, drawn to the steady water supply and the view of Ruby Peak. Their first winter was brutal. Snow came early and stayed late. Wolves circled the barn at night, and more than once the family woke to find drifts covering half the doorway.

But the Kramers endured.

Johann was a carpenter by trade, and his skills quickly spread by word of mouth. He helped build some of the earliest barns and houses around Enterprise, including the original meeting hall that doubled as a church and schoolroom. Elise tended a garden that seemed to grow in any soil, and she became known for her remedies, especially a cough syrup made from wild mint and bee honey.

Family Life and Community Bonds

Johann and Elise eventually had six children, though they raised only five to adulthood. Their sons, Louis and Frederick, helped tend cattle and break more land each spring. Their daughters, Anna, Clara, and little Ruth, learned sewing, reading, and the gentle art of Elise’s herbal medicine.

The Kramers believed strongly in community support. Their home was often a place where newly arrived settlers found warm soup, a temporary bed, or someone willing to help mend a wagon wheel. Johann also kept a small shed stocked with extra tools — “borrow, return, and build something good,” he would say. Many early families credited him with keeping them afloat during the lean years.

A Season of Sorrow

In 1895, when diphtheria swept through the valley, the Kramer family was hit hard. They lost their son Frederick, who was only twelve. Johann, devastated, carved the boy’s headstone by hand, a simple wooden marker with a small cross and the words, “Beloved of God, Beloved of Us.”

Elise, though grieving, nursed several neighboring children back to health. Local families spoke for decades about the way she moved from cabin to cabin, carrying warm broth and her small leather pouch of herbs. She rarely spoke of her sorrow, choosing instead to tend others.

A Legacy of Quiet Strength

Johann and Elise both lived long lives. Johann passed in 1916, Elise in 1924. Their descendants still live across Wallowa County today...ranchers, teachers, carpenters, and nurses. Many carrying names that echo their ancestors: Louis, Anna, Elise, and Ruth.

Our family often says the Kramers didn’t carve their legacy into stone;

they planted it, built it, lived it. Their strength was quiet, their generosity steady, and their roots run deep into the soil of Alder Slope.

When the wind moves through the valley, stirring the grass along the old homestead, it feels a little like the past whispering, “We endured. And because we endured, you are here.”