Peter D’s Henderson farm

While work progresson on the next Bullers in Molotschna post, I hope this revised version of an addition to the Buller Family Record will suffice for the moment.

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Aunt’s Maria and Sara write in the Buller Family Record:

Our dad, Peter P Buller, was born in Alexanderkrone, Ukraine, South Russia, on April 16, 1869. When he was two years old his parents moved back to Kleefeld, where they had lived before. In May 1879 they moved to the United States of America, arriving here in the latter part of June. As for food for their long journey, they packed toasted bread, ham, and coffee, They left Kleefeld, Russia, by wagon to Hochstadt, from there by train across Germany to Antwerpen, Belgium, then on the ship Vaterland of the Red Star Line. They went along the Schelde River to the North Sea, then through the English Channel and across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from there on train to York, Nebraska. That was as far as the railroad went at that time.

Mr. John Goertzen met them at the station in York (Mrs. Goertzen was a cousin to Grandmother Buller, a sister to Cornelius Quiring, father of our brother-in-law, Dietrich C. Quiring). Mr. Goertzen had come with team and wagon, so they finished their journey the way they had started, namely, by wagon.

The grandparents and their six children stayed with the Goertzens for about a week. During this time grandfather bought an 80-acre farm about 1¼ mile west from where Henderson now is. Dad grew to manhood on this farm.

In the summer of 1887 Dad helped build the railroad west of where the town of Henderson was to be started in the fall.

On January 12, 1888, the grandparents were in Henderson, and the depot agent came to the store and told the people to hurry home, for he had word that a big snowstorm was on the way. They hurried home and were able to get all their cattle into the barn before the storm arrived. It had started to snow the night before and had kept it up all day until in the afternoon. It had been a mild day, snow soft and fluffy at least 12 inches deep. There had been no wind during the snowfall, but at 3 o’clock in the afternoon the wind started from the northwest and a terrible blizzard took place. Many people were caught away from shelter and froze to death. Many of these were school children. The next day the temperature dropped down to 40° below zero.

This short account is packed with information, but for now we focus on the middle paragraph: Peter D’s purchase of a farm. Using historical records not available to Maria and Sara, it is possible to describe the location of the original Peter D Buller farm a bit more precisely than “about 1¼ mile west from where Henderson now is.” We begin with a map of the initial Mennonite family land-holdings, which were located in eastern Hamilton County (Farmers Valley Township) and western York County (Henderson Township).

Of the first thirty-five Mennonite families to settle in the area in 1874 (Peter D came five years later), thirty-four purchased land from the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad within the first year: twelve in Hamilton County and twenty-two in York County (Unruh 1964, 190–91).

John Unruh adds, “Within the settlement the Mennonite families crowded as close together as the alternating homestead lands permitted. In only two places did the Mennonite-owned land not connect at the corners with lands owned by other Mennonites. Relatives endeavored to select lands close to each other—four family heads purchased one section of land, cast lots to determine which quarter section each would buy, and then built their homes close together near the center of the section” (192).

Eventually, in 1887, the town of Henderson was established in the northeast corner of section 6 of Henderson Township, York County (see arrow).

Maria and Sara report that Peter D bought an 80-acre farm within the first week after arriving in 1879. Based on a 1916 map and an 1893 land grant, one can specify further that Peter D’s 80 acres were located in the northeast corner of section 12 of Farmers Valley Township, Hamilton County.

1. The 1916 map (above) clearly identifies a 160-acre farm in the northeast corner of section 12 as being owned by Peter Buller. Since Peter D died in 1897, this must refer to Peter P.


2. As one can see in the 1874 settlement map, section 12 is roughly “1¼ mile west from where Henderson now is.” More important, the land was not owned by any individual as of 1874. In all likelihood, it was owned by the railroad until Peter D purchased it.


3. According to a January 21, 1893, land grant (below), Peter Buller (which Peter is impossible to determine) was granted ownership of 80 acres in the south half of the northeast quarter of section 12 in township 9 north of range 5 (i.e., Farmers Valley Township).

Courtesy of the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management.
See the original scan here.

Based on the evidence, it seems reasonable to conclude that Peter D Buller purchased the north half of the northeast quarter of section 12 in the Farmers Valley Township in 1879, with the south half coming into the family’s possession in 1893 via a land grant. If the grant was made to Peter D, then presumably Peter P purchased or inherited the entire 160 acres. If the grant was made to Peter P, then one expects that the original 80 acres (north) was passed on to Peter either through purchase or inheritance, in order to keep the family farm intact.

Of course, numerous questions remain:

• Did Peter D purchase the original 80 acres from the railroad or from a private party?
• How much did he pay for the original purchase?
• Did Peter D pay cash or somehow secure a loan in order to make the purchase? Did he receive any funding from the larger Mennonite community?
• What crops did Peter D raise? What livestock did he keep?
• How does this all relate to that fact that Peter P moved to the Epp family farm when he married Margaretha in 1890 (see here)? Did he perhaps live on the Epp farm but work both that and the Peter D farm? 

Even if the answers to these and other questions remain fuzzy, one thing we do know is that the original Peter D Buller farm was located in section 12 of the Farmers Valley Township in Hamilton County, that it eventually came to include 160 acres, and that the land was acquired both through purchase and via a homestead land grant.

Source

Unruh, John D., Jr. 1964. The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Brings the Mennonites to Nebraska, 1873–1878, Part II. Nebraska History 45:177–206. Freely available online here (it is an interesting read).