Valentine "Tine" Pfister

Funeral Mass for Tine Pfister Held Friday

Funeral mass was held Friday morning at 10:00 at St. Leo's Catholic Church for Valentine (Tine) Pfister, 90, who died January 18.

Casket bearers were six nephews, Jim P. Pfister, Jack P. Pfister, Richard G. Pfister, Charles P. Pfister, Henry Wasserburger Jr., Donald Olinger and Joe Pfister and Paul Pfister. Burial was in the Lusk Cemetery.

Valentine (Tine) Pfister was born January 25, 1880, with a twin sister the late Mrs. Albert (Maggie) Olinger. The family home was on Clark's Creek, about seven miles southeast of Junction City, Kansas. Valentine was named after his grandfather, Valentine Pfister, who had emigrated from Germany in the late 1840's to this German settlement at Clark's Creek.

In the summer of 1884 Mrs. John (Ella) Pfister brought her four children, Tine, Maggie, Jane and John with all their livestock and possessions, to Cheyenne where they were met by the father, John. John had come to the area near Silver Cliff in eastern Wyoming the year before so he and a brother-in-law, Ed Arnold, met this family in Cheyenne and the remainder of the journey to their new home was by covered wagon. This home was about six miles southeast of the present Manville in the northern edge of the wooded hills. The only light provided for their cabin was through burlap over the doors and the windows, and these were on the south. After a few years her the family decided that this country was subject to several more months of snow and winter than the flat lands to the east, so they again homesteaded adjacent to a grassy meadow along the Niobrara River about three miles southwest of the present Node Post office. Here the parents built a good ranch, the children increased to 13 over a span of years, and included three sets of twins.

In his early manhood Tine ranched with his brother Richard in the Mule Creek area. His married life was spent ranching on Indian Creek some12 miles east of the Hat Creek Post office. Most of the later years he worked for various brothers and sisters, and usually ran some cattle of his own. Since 1964 he resided with a cousin, Mrs. Earl (Eva) Farrington and her husband on a ranch-farm home about 12 miles south and west of Crawford, Neb. In September of last year he moved to Eventide Manor in Cheyenne, and had enjoyed good health until the middle of December.

Last summer Tine and his sister Jane Joy of Kaycee, Wyo. spent several days visiting their old family area on Clark's Creek, Kansas. Perry Saffell, a nephew of the late George Saffell of Lusk personally guided them to the old points of interest. Perry was very familiar with the area as he had lived in that area most of his life. The old Pfister stone house appears to have changed into a garage, while a larger and more modern stone house adjoins it. An old two room log cabin where Valentine's father John was born in 1857 (also the grandfather Valentine helped build this cabin and the late Russell Bradley of Lusk was born in the same cabin when it was later the home of the Bradley's) has been moved to a roadside park adjoining Interstate 70 about 4 miles east of Junction City . It is signed as a "Historical Church" since the German Lutherans held their first services in Kansas in this cabin. The Lutheran Historical Society raised the money to move and reconstruct the cabin, thus saving it from destruction.

Survivors include three sisters, Mrs. Henry Wasserburger Sr. of Hat Creek, Mrs. Andrew (Jane) Joy of Kaycee and Mrs. Frances Anderson of Long Beach, Calif.

Out of town relatives and friends attending the services were Mrs. Andrew (Jane) Joy of Kaycee; Dr. and Mrs. Charles Pfister of Sheridan; Mr. and Mrs. Robert McGee of Laramie; Mr. and Mrs. Donald Olinger of Cheyenne; Tom Arnold and Edward Arnold of Valentine; Dan Hanson of Kaycee; Mrs. Jim Serres of Harrison and Mrs. Rose Oschger of Chicago.

From the Tom Weigand Genealogy Collection
Tine Pfister Dies Tuesday

The Lusk Herald, January 23, 1970

Valentine (Tine) Pfister, who would have been 90 on Sunday, died in DePaul Hospital at Cheyenne Tuesday night. Rosary services will be at the Peet Chapel this Thursday evening at 8:00 and funeral mass will be at St. Leo's Catholic Church Friday at 10:00 a.m.

Mr.Pfister is among the latest of the genuine old-timers of this area. With his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Pfister, he came to the area some six miles southwest of what is now Manville in 1884. Pfisters traveled to Cheyenne by train and made the trip to their homestead in a covered wagon. That first winter their homestead shack only had burlap for a door. Later the family homesteaded southwest of Node, and later he ranched in the Mule Creek and Indian Creek areas.

Mr. Pfister had been living at Eventide Manor at Cheyenne since September and had been quite well until last month.
He and his twin sister, the late Maggie Olinger, were the oldest of 13 children. Three sets of twins were born into the family. Survivors include three sisters, Mrs. Henry Wasserburger Sr. of Hat Creek, Mrs. Andrew (Jane) Joy of Kaycee, and Mrs. Frances Anderson of Long Beach, Calif.

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