Tonia Walvoord was said to look like her neice, Louise Walvoord shown in this picture.
Tonia Walvoord was born on December 10, 1851. She was the third child of Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Jan Walvoord. Her father died when she was just four-years-old.
When Tonia was a young child (probably after her father’s death), a childless couple wanted to adopt her. But her mother, Anna Maria, would not part with her. This family, named Kesel, had money. They finally disposed of their wealth by giving it to neighbors.
Tonia was always spoken of as possessing a fine Christian character. Tonia’s sister Delia told her niece Louise Walvoord, “You look like Tonia, but you’ll have to be good to be like her.”
Tonia’s grave marker (center with hand) in the Walvoord Cemetery in Cedar Grove, Wisconsin. She died at age 22 from Tuberculosis.
Tonia was engaged to marry Louis Judson Eggerichs, who had come from Germany to America after his sister Henrietta Elise (Mrs. Henry Walvoord) was living here. But Tonia had a long illness and finally died of quick consumption (tuberculosis) on July 18, 1873 at the young age of twenty-three. Louis, her fiance bought the gravestone for her grave. Louis later married Adeline Lawson.