A recently found record of her birth, in Russia, shows that Wilhelmina was born on July 20, 1871 in Sophiental, Bessarabia, Russia. She was the ninth child, of twelve, born to Dorothea (Wilske) and Martin Hermann.

In 1877, she traveled with her mother, father, five brothers, and two sisters from Russia to the United States. They arrived in New York on the ship Vaderland on May 17, 1877. From New York they traveled to Hutchinson County, South Dakota. Martin, her father, homesteaded on 160 acres next to the homesteads of his two oldest boys, Friedrich and Wilhelm. All three filed for their homesteads on the same day, January 26, 1887.

In 1887 Wilhelmina married Christian Konrad Reiswig in Scotland, South Dakota. In September of 1889, Christian and Wilhelmina purchased a farm of 160 acres in the SW 1/4 of Section 20, Wittenberg North Township, Hutchinson County, South Dakota. On November 23rd of that year, their first daughter, Louise, was born. By 1998, Christian and Wilhelmina had six children, all girls. In that year, the whole family moved to North Dakota by ox cart. They spent the Winter of 1898-1899 on a rented farm near Harvey, North Dakota. In the spring of 1899 they traveled to Lincoln Valley, North Dakota and homesteaded on a farm one mile to the west of Lincoln Valley.

In the fall of 1905, Christian started building a general store in McClusky, ND. It was opened in January of 1906. In that same year, the family moved to McClusky and lived in quarters above the store until 1910 when Christian moved the family to a farm three miles south of McClusky.

Christian was killed by lightning on that farm on June 28, 1912. After his death, Wilhelmina moved to McClusky where she had their fourteenth child in March of 1913. In about 1920 the family moved to Jamestown, North Dakota. In 1923 the family moved to Iowa City, Iowa, but within a year, moved to Fargo, North Dakota. Finally, in 1925 they moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota where Wilhelmina died on May 25, 1942.

If there was one thing that the Reiswig's liked, it was a picnic. Every year, those who could, attended a 4th of July Picnic which also celebrated Wilhelmina's birthday. In 1935, ten of thirteen of Wilhelmina's living children were at this picnic.

When Wilhelmina died, her family took her to the North Dakota Lincoln Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church for her funeral. She was then buried next to her husband, Christian, and her oldest daughter, Louise. After she was buried, the family sent money for a head stone and for some cement work around the Reiswig grave sites. Neither was ever done.

On July 9, 2005, her youngest daughter Ruth, and about twenty five other descendants and relatives, from all over the country, placed a gravestone to mark her grave. The gravestone reads: "In Loving Memory; Wilhelmina Herman Reiswig; 1868 - 1942".

At the time, this inscription seemed to be correct. Her birth record from Russia was not found until after the gravestone was placed. It now appears that Wilhelmina consistently said she was three years older than she actually was. It seems fitting, that she got the gravestone inscription that she wanted, instead of the correct one.