A little context

Even those for whom the Henderson, Lushton, and greater York County areas are familiar may not know exactly where our family history took place, where it began and the road it followed. Having now seen Peter P and Margaretha’s barn and house, it is a good time to take a step back, or rather, to take a bird’s-eye view of the area, so we can flesh out, fill in, and refine our mental maps of the Buller family history.

The satellite photograph below offers the widest look, both geographically and chronologically. Easily identifiable left of center is the town of Henderson. The east–west road to the south is County Road 6. Follow that road a little over a mile west of Henderson (just past the first north–south road, which also is the boundary between York County and Hamilton County) and you will see the number 1: this marks the farm that Peter D and Sarah Siebert Buller (Peter P’s father and mother) purchased (80 acres) and homesteaded (80 acres) after they came to the U.S. in 1879.

Go to the next north–south mile to the west, then north 3/8 of a mile and you will see a 2. This is the Friesen Cemetery, where Peter D and Sarah were laid to rest, in 1897 and 1922, respectively (see further here).

Doubling back to Road 6, then east 4 miles, south 1 mile, east 1/4 mile, then south into the field leads one to number 3: the Franz farm where Grandma grew up. The number is just north of the building site, which looks only vaguely like it did when she was a girl. The house still stands, but it has an addition that obscures most of the original structure. No barns or other outbuildings seem to be left.

Number 4 is a little over a mile to the east-northeast. This is the Peter P and Margaretha farm, where Grandpa grew up and where the barn and house of the previous posts are still located. As before, the number is just north of the farmstead. If you want to visit the place on your own, go 4 miles east of the intersection of the Henderson Spur and Road 6, then south nearly 3/4 of a mile, and, finally, west on the driveway to the farmstead.

Our final stopping point on this map is the final resting place for many Bullers: number 5 marks the northwest corner of the Buller (actually, Mennonite) Cemetery. I never realized until several days ago that it is just south of the farm where Grandpa grew up. In fact, one has a clear view of the south end of the Peter P farmstead from the cemetery entrance.

After moving from the Peter D farm west of Henderson to the Peter P farm east of Henderson, our family turned south, as Grandpa and Grandma raised eight kids and a variety of critters on a farm south of Lushton. The photograph below includes two places already noted, to help you orient yourself: the Peter P farm (1) and Grandma’s childhood home (2). Lushton lies roughly 2 miles to the south (and slightly east) of the Franz and Buller farms (3), and Grandpa and Grandma’s Lushton farm is a mile and a half south of that (4).

That is probably enough context for one post. At some point in the not too distant future we will zoom in on Lushton, to mark the places where some of us lived so many years ago, then move in even closer with pictures of family landmarks taken earlier this month.

(BTW, it is still Thursday in Colorado, so this legitimately qualifies as the “tomorrow’s post” promised yesterday.)