TIME LINE Chronology and foot notes; WALDEMAR G. KLEE, (Written by Gerald D. Klee, MD, Website Editor and a grandson of W G Klee)

WALDEMAR G KLEE (1853-1891)

Some dates are approximate, but no more than a year off at most.

 1853; Born in Copenhagen , Denmark in a highly educated professional family; youngest of three surviving children

 Trained in horticulture, botany and entomology in Denmark-

 1872- (Age 19) Emigrated to Chicago , USA and later to California

 1873 Struggling to develop a plant nursery in Chicago around the time of the Great Chicago Fire (This info is based upon a letter to his sister Elise.)

 1874, 1875 I have no information of his location during this time, but by 1876 (or sooner) he is in Berkeley , California

 1876 -1882 “Foreman” in charge of gardening University of CA , Berkeley , Agriculture Experimental Station: He actually designed and ran the experimental studies and published the results under his name.

 1882-1883,"...the U .S. Department of Agriculture employed Waldemar Goetrik Klee, a horticulturist at the University of California at Berkeley, to make a survey of the greater Southwest to determine the feasibility of a large-scale American date-growing industry. Klee spent the year 1882 traveling throughout the region. At missions from San Diego to San Francisco, he found North African palms, which decades before had been set out as seedlings by Spanish priests. He also discovered palms flourishing in Arizona , New Mexico , and the Big Bend country of Texas."

 1883-1884: After returning from his 1882-1883 survey of the greater southwest, (see above) he resumed his position as Foreman in charge of gardening University of CA, Berkeley, Agriculture Experimental Station and also taught botany to undergraduate students.

 1883 1890 -Published numerous scientific articles dealing with horticulture and entomology. His work laid the foundation for growing various types of fruit in California and for controlling, by biological means, the insect pests that attack the fruit.

 1883;“CULTURE OF THE DATE”WG Klee, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON , GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.  1883

 1884: Married Jane Barry, U C Berkeley, Class of 1881, 

3 children, Caroline Milicent Klee, 1885-1967; Frederick Valdemar Klee, 1888-1963; Bertel Bernard Klee, 1890-1967; Waldemar and Jenny founded a home they called the Gravenstein Ranch, where the family lived. http://www.letreb.com/2Stories/Founding%20Fathers.html

1884: Temporarily resigned his position in the UCA Agriculture Experimental Station in order to represent the California Horticultural Society at the International Exposition in New Orleans

 1884/5-1886 resumed his position at University of California, Berkeley, which included teaching botany to undergraduate students.

 1886- Appointed Inspector of Fruit Pests by the California State Board of Horticulture in 1886. In this position he made history as a "notable and pioneer entomologist". See below; 1888.

 1887; In 1887 The Santa Cruz Mountain Winery was incorporated for the purpose of making, aging, and putting on the market Santa Cruz County wines. The stockholders and directors were J.W. Jarvis, President; W.H. Galbrith, Secretary and Manager with F. McMullen, Mrs. H.P. Gregory, Ed Fitch ,Waldemar G. Klee  and H.M. Hanmore. Together they controlled 200 acres of grape production.

 1888; A Treatise on the Insects Injurious to Fruit and Fruit Trees of the State of California, by WG Klee, . Sacramento : State Office, J.D. Young, Supt. State Printing,  

WG Klee’s successful project to protect California’s citrus orchards from insect pests, based upon his research, “was apparently, the first such project anywhere that specifically sought, and found, ways of controlling insect pests by introducing other insects that preyed upon them.” This work led to WG Klee being cited in the Encyclopedia of Entomology among the “NOTABLE AND PIONEER ENTOMOLOGISTS http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:KwfQ-TvJPK0J:www.wkap.nl/prod/a/Highlights.pdf++NOTABLE+AND+PIONEER+ENTOMOLOGISTS+&hl=en

 1890; "Observations on Olive Varieties" by WG Klee AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, BERKELEY , CAL. Bulletin No. 85  

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Waldemar's approaching death from tuberculosis:  A 1990 letter from Waldemar’s wife, Jenny Klee to Waldemar’s older sister, Elise

  Jane “Jenny” Barry Klee, Mrs. W. G. Klee in 1890

  August 9, 1890; in a letter to Waldemar’s sister Elise in Denmark , Waldemar’s wife Jenny describes his profound illness due to tuberculosis, “consumption” as it was commonly called in the 19^th century. She concludes her letter with a touching tribute to him: “…These years of marriage have but deepened our love.  It is just as I wrote your mother, only the years would prove how much I loved him.  I wonder if he was as a boy, what he is as a man, unselfish, unassuming, loyal, and just to the last degree. Pray with me sister, that he may be spared to see his pretty baby boy a man, and to cheer his wife through all the intervening years.”

 1891: (exact date unknown) Waldemar died from tuberculosis during this year, leaving his wife, Jenny and his three children. Jenny died in 1898; the cause of her death is unknown to posterity.

The “pretty baby boy” Jenny refers to was my father, Bertel B Klee, who was born shortly before Waldemar’s death. Bertel and his father never had a chance to know each other. Gerald D. Klee (GDK)

AT SUNSET by Jane Barry, Class of 1881

 At sunset, hark, a low deep sound

Is borne across the placid bay,

And through the hills, and far around                                               

In echoes faint, it dies away.

A boom – the sunset gun

Is fired; the day is done;

 The purple shadows coming on                                   

Are deepening in the west.

  And homeward turns each white-spread sail,

As flies a wild bird to its nest;

The stir of day on hill, in vale,

In busy city thronged and pressed,

Is dying with the light,

The last rays linger bright                                                                        

On far-off clouds, and holy night

Descends, with welcome rest.                                                                    

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 "At Sunset", by Jane "Jenny" Barry, University of California, Berkeley, Class of 1881;  Published in College Verses http://www.letreb.com/1historyandgenealogy/CollegeVerses.htm

In 1884 Jenny Barry became Mrs. W G Klee.                                                                              

Beneficial and Injurious Insects; Waldemar Klee (1853-1891) Was an early founder of environmentalism and ecology in the United States.