Santa
Clara County
Biographies
MRS. WILHELMINA D'ABLAING LANGE
The proficiency attained by many of the string instrument enthusiasts in San Jose can be traced to the skill of one of the town's foremost musical instructors. Mrs.Wilhelmina d'Ablaing Lange, member of a family representing the nobility and culture of the Dutch nation, and established in San Jose as early as 1872. The worthy immigrant, in whose brain was stored a thorough knowledge of the complexities and grandeur of European court life, was none other than Baron William George Henry Ludwig Frederick d'Ablaing von Giessenburg, chamberlain to the King of Holland. Baron d'Ablaing was born in Holland, educated with the care and thoroughness befitting his station, and as a young man stepped out of beaten grooves into the ownership and management of a large coffee and tea plantation in Sumatra, a location which presented great opportunities to the energetic Hollander. He became prominent in its government as well as material development, holding among other offices that of justice of the peace. He married into an English family long identified with the East Indies, and at the head of which was General Rickett, a native of England, and in the service of his country on the islands. Mrs. d'Ablaing was born in England, and before her marriage was Anna Louise d'Inio, a daughter of an Englishman whose wife was a native of Sumatra. She became the mother of three sons and three daughters, of which Mrs. Lange, born in Sumatra, was the fourth. Baron d'Ablaing returned to Holland after many years of success in Sumatra, using his large fortune to promote the welfare of his family and in extensive travel throughout Europe. He returned to Holland during the German and French war of 18870, and in 1872, for state and other reasons, came to the United States, hoping to regain his lost health under the clear skies of California. However great the contrast from his life of adventure, he gave no sin of discontent, for after a year spent in San Jose he turned his attention to nature and the soil, purchasing among others the Reynolds ranch and erecting the home of oriental architecture now occupied by his daughter. Here he lived with his many colored memories to keep him company and his new found ambitions to spur him on, apparently happy, and assuredly successful, until his death in 1878, at the age of sixty-five. The same number of years was attained by his wife, who death occurred in 1901.
Baron d'Ablaing gave his children superior educational advantages, and Wilhelmina had a private tutor. She later took a course in a well-known European school. Early in life she showed particular aptitude for music, especially for string instruments, in which she excels. Her training on the zither left nothing to be desired, her instructor being Franz von Paula Ott, of Munich, Germany, one of the foremost in his line in the world. In Ellensburg, Wash., Miss d'Ablaing was united in marriage with Augustus Frederick Lange, of German extraction, but born in Nebraska, and who was a large grain rancher in the state of Washington. Mr. Lange died in Helena, Mont., March 25, 1889, leaving three children, Eugene Alexander, Gerrit and Estelle Augusta Rosalie. Both sons are now deceased. Mrs. Lange still owns twenty-three acres of her father's old homestead on the Almaden road, four miles from San Jose, but rents this and lives in the residence occupied by the family practically all of the time since coming to the west. Her success as a teacher of mandolin, zither and guitar, has long since passed the experimental stage, for she possesses both the skill of the performer and the patience and adaptiveness of the ideal instructor.
Transcribed
7-2-15 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California
by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 673-674. The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Marilyn R. Pankey.