HP Buller farm 1

Recently we considered a photograph provided by Mark Dillon, a grandson of HP (Heinrich P) Buller (here), determining that it portrayed Grandpa Chris’s grandmother Sarah Siebert Buller and her father Johann Siebert. With this post we turn to another photo (there will be even more), albeit with a less clear idea of what is being portrayed.

The photograph above is clearly labeled on the back as the farm of HP Buller in Nebraska, so in that sense we do know what is pictured here. However, the question of which HP Buller farm it is (there were two, if I understand correctly) remains unanswered. Determining the date of the photo, even roughly, may help us further clarify where this HP Buller was located, since HP lived in Nebraska at two different times separated by several decades. All we can do is to try to sort through the bits and pieces of evidence at hand to make our best guess.

According to the Buller Family Record, HP was born 5 February 1882; on 3 October 1901, at the age of nineteen, HP wed Maria Janzen, who was HP’s senior by eight days. Their first child was born on 8 July 1902; their second followed in 1905, with others being born in 1907, 1909, 1913, 1916, 1919, and 1922. 

These dates are provided simply to set the background for the family’s history. If I have the story correct, HP and Maria lived in Farmer’s Valley Township, Hamilton County, during the first years of their marriage, until about 1913. They then moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, and lived there until sometime around 1925. Their next stop was the Mountain Lake, Minnesota, area (perhaps in Delft), where they lived for four to five years before returning to Farmer’s Valley Township in 1930 (perhaps slightly before), where they took over Maria’s family farm, her father David Janzen having died many years previously (1841–1907) and her mother Anna Braun Janzen passing that very year (1843–1930).

Although it is possible that HP and Maria lived on the same farm in the 1910s and the 1930s, it seems most likely that we are dealing with two different farms. Historical plat maps for Farmer’s Valley offer support for this hunch. We begin with what we (think we) know, with the farm from the 1930s.

A Farmer’s Valley Township plat map from 1923 offers our first clue, since it lists Anna Janzen as the owner of the north 80 of the southeast quarter of section 2 in Farmer’s Valley. 

Maria Janzen Buller’s mother was, as noted above, named Anna Janzen, and Maria’s father had died in 1907. Therefore it seems reasonable to imagine that this Anna Janzen was Maria’s mother. This hypothesis receives support when we notice that two 40-acre plots north of Anna’s were owned by Helena Janzen and Jacob D. Janzen, the names of two of Anna’s other children. Helena did not marry until 1922, so it seems reasonable to think that the property was still under her maiden name for the 1923 map. In short, we have every reason to think that this was the family farm seven years before HP and Maria moved back to Nebraska.

A 1916 plat map may shed further light on the situation. (Note also the Peter Buller farm in section 12 to the southeast.)

Here we note that the same pieces of property, now divided as two adjoining 80-acre plots, were owned by Heinrich D. Janzen. This was the name of another of Anna’s children, her third-born son (1869). According to the GRANDMA database, Heinrich (or Henry) died in 1919: three years after this plat map was made and four years before the 1923 one was made. It is not difficult to fill in the blanks: when David Janzen passed away in 1907, the family property passed to his son Henry, who owned and farmed it until he passed away in 1919. At that point his mother Anna Janzen took possession of one 80, and the other 80 was divided between two of his siblings. 

Presumably, then, when HP and Maria Janzen Buller returned to Nebraska in 1930, they took over the 80 acres that Anna owned between 1919 and her death in 1930. How long they lived there I do not know, although I should note that they rest close by in the Friesen cemetery (on the boundary between the Heinrich Janzen and John J. Friesen 80s), along with both sets of parents—Peter D and Sarah Siebert Buller and David and Anna Braun Janzen—as well as a number of other members of the immediate family.

Unfortunately, there are no known Farmer’s Valley Township plat maps between 1888 and 1916, that is, during the time of HP and Maria’s initial Nebraska residency (1901–1913), so we have no idea where the couple and their growing family lived during these years. It would seem reasonable to think that they lived somewhere close by their two sets of parents, but where that might have been we cannot say.

To bring this back around to the photograph with which we began this post, can we uncover any clues about when and where this photograph might have been taken? It seems best to leave that question for another day and another post. Of course, if anyone recognizes the house, barn, and farmyard, do not hesitate to let me know.