Granddaughter portrays her grandmother for students

On May 5, Auguste Hellwinkel, or rather, her granddaughter, Debbie Byers, will teach students about Hellwinkel's life after she came to Carson Valley in 1906.

"Oh ja," said Byers in the German dialect she learned from her grandmother. "I tell dem when I come over on the boat dere. Oh, and I got so seasick on dat boat dere."

Student Day at the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center is an opportunity for youth to learn more about the history of the Valley, free of charge, the first Saturday of every month.

Byers and her mother Alice Haase were both born and raised in the Valley. Byers' grandmother, Auguste Hellwinkel met her grandfather, John Hellwinkel Sr., in Carson Valley after he immigrated here in 1910. The couple owned a dairy on Centerville Road.

Byers said at a reunion in 2002 more than 200 family members attended.

"Four of my grandmother's sisters immigrated here," she said. "All of my grandfather's family came here."

Byers talked Monday while sitting in the museum, where her two sisters and brother went to school when it was Douglas County High School.

Byers, the youngest of the four, attended school once the new building was constructed behind the museum, which now houses Carson Valley Middle School. She was one of a graduating class of 34.

Byers, who was wearing her grandmother's blue hat, demonstrated that she is not only proficient in speaking with a German accent, but also can do English and Southern dialects. She learned German while growing up with her grandmother, who lived from 1892 to 1978 and is buried in the Garden Cemetery, and also from audio tapes she made of her grandmother just before she died.

"My grandmother had a half-sister who was still living (in Germany in 1978)," said Byers. "I thought, 'we'll tape (her grandmother) and take the message over to her.' I didn't even know if we'd be able to find her.

"I had my grandmother reminisce about when she came over here on the boat and when she and my grandfather were courting. It was fun."

The Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center is located at 1477 Highway 395, Gardnerville.

Guided tours for students, led by different costumed guides each month, will be offered at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. Saturday. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. On Student Day, students and their accompanying adult will be admitted free.

Regular museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Museum entrance fees are $3 for adults, $2 for ages 6-18, and historical society members and children age 5 and younger are free.

For more information call 782-2555.