Thanks to Mary Henrichson for sending fully updated information on Matilda’s family. I have added it all to the Buller Family Record, which you can now download from the link in the earlier post here.
I made one other addition to the BFR to simplify navigation: page 2 now contains direct links to the pages for each of Grandpa and Grandma’s children. From those pages you can navigate forward to kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids or backward to the Grandpa and Grandma, Peter P, Peter D, and David.
If you would like your family information updated, please email the information, and I’ll put it in the queue.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
Kjenn Jie Plautdietsch?
Few, if any, of my generation of Bullers can answer yes to the question posed in the title. However, I believe that all (or at least most) of Grandpa and Grandma’s children would say, “Jo! Ekj kjann Plautdietsch!”
As I recently learned, Low German (aka Mennonite Low German) was the language of choice on the Buller Lushton farm at least until the 1940s, even though everyone also had to know and speak English in order to attend school, converse with non-Mennonite neighbors, and the like. If any of that generation would like to tell stories about growing up bilingually or phasing out the use of Low German after the onset of World War II, please email me your reminiscences, and I will post them for all to share.
But back to the language. If you know a little modern German, you might be able to make out the meaning of the response above:
There are a number of online resources to introduce you to our ancestral language or to enrich your understanding and experience of it.
3. Film
Plautdietsch to English dictionaries are available online here and here (the second one seems to me the better of the two).
The Plautdietsch website here lists and describes a number of written resources for learning the language. The entire website is worth exploring for the wealth of audio, video, online, written, and social resources (e.g., conversing with Plautdietsch speakers via Skype) that it lists and describes.
Paul Joyce maintains a website providing links to various German dialects, including Plautdietsch here.
There is even a Plautdietsch Facebook group, where one can connect with other speakers and share graphics such as:
Feel free to add in the comments section any other Plautdietsch resources that you know of—or to tell stories related to your experiences with Low German and English during the 1930s and early 1940s.
As I recently learned, Low German (aka Mennonite Low German) was the language of choice on the Buller Lushton farm at least until the 1940s, even though everyone also had to know and speak English in order to attend school, converse with non-Mennonite neighbors, and the like. If any of that generation would like to tell stories about growing up bilingually or phasing out the use of Low German after the onset of World War II, please email me your reminiscences, and I will post them for all to share.
But back to the language. If you know a little modern German, you might be able to make out the meaning of the response above:
- Jo! = Ja! = Yes!
- Ekj = Ich = I
- kjann = kennen = to know
- Plaut + dietsch = platt + Deutsch = Low (flat) German
There are a number of online resources to introduce you to our ancestral language or to enrich your understanding and experience of it.
1. Psalms, Proverbs, and the New Testament in Plautdietsch
2. Plautdietsch Music
John C. Klassen provides audio recordings of and sheet music (PDF) with lyrics for over a hundred hymns and songs such as “ Mien Jesus ekj leew die” here.
Bible Gateway offers both text and audio files of the entire New Testament in Plautdietsch. To read John 1, click here. To see what other biblical passages are available, click on the Bible Book List drop-down menu circled in red in the screen shot below.
You can also listen to audio readings of biblical texts in Plautdietsch by clicking on the speaker icon below the Related Resources bar. To hear John 1 now, click here.
2. Plautdietsch Music
John C. Klassen provides audio recordings of and sheet music (PDF) with lyrics for over a hundred hymns and songs such as “ Mien Jesus ekj leew die” here.
3. Film
Surprisingly, the Jesus film can also be watched in its entirety with a Plautdietsch soundtrack. See here.
Shockingly, searching for “Plautdietsch” on YouTube returns nearly five thousand different videos, including a Low German rap song that must be seen to be believed (see also an acoustic version of the same as well as the always-popular “I Wish I Could Take a Bath”).
4. Learning and Cultural ResourcesShockingly, searching for “Plautdietsch” on YouTube returns nearly five thousand different videos, including a Low German rap song that must be seen to be believed (see also an acoustic version of the same as well as the always-popular “I Wish I Could Take a Bath”).
Plautdietsch to English dictionaries are available online here and here (the second one seems to me the better of the two).
The Plautdietsch website here lists and describes a number of written resources for learning the language. The entire website is worth exploring for the wealth of audio, video, online, written, and social resources (e.g., conversing with Plautdietsch speakers via Skype) that it lists and describes.
Paul Joyce maintains a website providing links to various German dialects, including Plautdietsch here.
There is even a Plautdietsch Facebook group, where one can connect with other speakers and share graphics such as:
Feel free to add in the comments section any other Plautdietsch resources that you know of—or to tell stories related to your experiences with Low German and English during the 1930s and early 1940s.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Bullers in Molotschna 3
As suggested earlier (here and here), Peter D Buller probably did not own any land in the Molotschna Mennonite colony from the time that he married Sarah Siebert (1866) until their journey to the U.S. (1879). Of course, this leaves unanswered questions about Peter’s status in the community, how he and his family lived, and what led him to move his family so much within a ten-year period.
Peter D’s father David remains similarly unknown: Where did he live after emigrating from Prussia to Molotschna around 1820? Where did he and his wife Helena Zielke live and raise their family in the 1840s? Were they landowners or landless? Were they even farmers, for that matter?
I would like to say that all these questions will be answered in due course, but in fact they won’t. All we can do is sketch roughly the lives of the Bullers in Molotschna by exploring the various contexts in which they lived, worked, and worshiped. Thus, the next few “Bullers in Molotschna” posts will look at four of those contexts, to help us understand more fully what life was like for our ancestors and what led Peter D and all but one of his brothers and sisters to undergo the long journey to North America. After delving into the geographical context of the Molotschna colony below, we will examine, in turn, the socioeconomic, historical, and religious contexts.
The area was steppe land, a grassland plains region with trees only along the rivers (sound a little familiar?). One descendant of Molotschna settlers recalls what his grandmother told him about this new land: “They came to a barren steppe … no tree, no bush, only tall, dry, bitter grass and prickly camel fodder grew on the dry, cracked ground” (Staples 2003, 3).
The southern edge of the Molotschna colony (Yushanlee River) was aligned roughly on the 47th parallel north (47.0º N), which places it significantly north, relatively speaking, of the Henderson area where Peter D later settled (40.90º N). Each degree of latitude equals 69 miles, so the northern location of Kleefeld would correspond to Bismarck, North Dakota.
The soil quality was not the best in the Ukrainian central steppe, but it was more than adequate for an agriculture-based economy, especially one focused on cereal grain cultivation. According to John Staples, the untilled area was covered with “a growth of feather grass intermixed with timothy, spear, and broom grass, wild oats, wild rye, and wild wheat” (2003, 6). David Moon adds that “the black earth (chernozem) of the [Ukrainian] steppes” was quite similar to the soil found in the North American Great Plains (Moon 2008, 205).
The climate was moderate (no doubt due somewhat to the influence of the Sea of Avoz and much larger Black Sea to the south), with average highs ranging from 21º Fahrenheit during January (the coldest month) to 70º in July (the warmest month). The average growing season (the time between the last spring frost and the first fall frost) was 180 days, a relatively long period (see Staples 2003, 8–10). Henderson, for example, has an average growing season ten days shorter.
The biggest challenge facing the peasant farmers of the Molotschna area was precipitation. The higher areas of the uplands received the highest average precipitation (up to 19.5" annually), but the lower, and especially southern, areas received substantially less, for example, 15" in the Yushanlee River area.
This last figure (15") is slightly below what the typical grain requires, but several additional factors complicated matters further (see Staples 2003, 6–7):
In spite of these obstacles, the Molotschna Mennonites generally fared reasonably well through a mixed-subsistence strategy that combined animal husbandry (mostly sheep but also cattle and horses), intensive gardening (around the village houses), and grain cultivation (primarily, unless I’m mistaken, the famous Turkey Red wheat that they later brought to the U.S.). Of course, not all was paradise, and the colonists did suffer through droughts, famines, severe blizzards, and Dust Bowl–like windstorms (“black blizzards,” Staples 2003, 9). Still, the Mennonite settlers fared no worse, and generally better, than most of those who lived around them.
Geography, of course, involves not just the characteristics of the land but also its location among other groups, and the Molotschna Mennonites were not the only people living in this area. At least four distinct groups lived on the edges and around the Molotschna colony and interacted with our ancestors in various ways (see further Staples 2003, xiii–xiv, 29–44).
To the north lay the state peasant land (shaded green in the map below) populated by Ukrainian and Russian peasants relocated into the Molotschna region because their original locales were too small to accommodate a growing population. These Russian Orthodox settlers were given smaller land grants than the Mennonites, and the land they were given was inferior to the Mennonite territory. The need to preserve agricultural land led to the development of much larger villages within this community than in all the other surrounding groups.
To the northwest of the Molotschna Mennonites were other German-speaking colonists (yellow area). The Mennonites were not the only group to be invited to emigrate to Catherine the Great’s newly won territory; Lutherans, Catholics, and other Protestants were also invited to settle the territory.
To the south of the German-speaking colonists (orange area) lived one group of Russian religious sectarians or separatists, the Doukhobors (the similar Molokans also lived in the Molotschna area). This group rejected the authority of the Russian state and the Russian Orthodox church. In spite of ongoing tensions, the Russian authorities allowed these separatists to settle in the Molotschna about the same time as the Mennonites.
The fourth people-group (purple area) is the most interesting: the Nogai Tatars. Historically this group stemmed from the Golden Horde led by Nogai Khan, a descendant of Ghengis Khan. The Nogai, who were Muslim and spoke a dialect of Turkic, were settled in the Molotschna region by the Russian government between 1792 and 1810 in an attempt to prevent their defection to the Turks, against whom Russia warred periodically during this period. The Nogai were seminomadic herdsmen who moved their flocks and herds through the Avoz Lowlands
Surprisingly, Molotschna’s Mennonites appear to have had the greatest interaction with the Nogai. The Mennonites and Muslims not only lived side by side (note especially how close Kleefeld was to Nogai land); they also played significant roles in each other’s economic lives. But all that must wait for another post. For now it is sufficient to understand and appreciate the Molotschna Bullers’ geographical context: they lived on the south edge of a steppe, adopted a mixed-subsistence approach to economic survival, and interacted with people who could not have been more ethnically and religiously different.
Staples, John R. 2003. Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1783–1861. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. All the posts on the Bullers in Molotschna are indebted to Staples’s publications. This book, a revision of his PhD dissertation, is available at Amazon, although now costing double what it previously did.
Peter D’s father David remains similarly unknown: Where did he live after emigrating from Prussia to Molotschna around 1820? Where did he and his wife Helena Zielke live and raise their family in the 1840s? Were they landowners or landless? Were they even farmers, for that matter?
I would like to say that all these questions will be answered in due course, but in fact they won’t. All we can do is sketch roughly the lives of the Bullers in Molotschna by exploring the various contexts in which they lived, worked, and worshiped. Thus, the next few “Bullers in Molotschna” posts will look at four of those contexts, to help us understand more fully what life was like for our ancestors and what led Peter D and all but one of his brothers and sisters to undergo the long journey to North America. After delving into the geographical context of the Molotschna colony below, we will examine, in turn, the socioeconomic, historical, and religious contexts.
The Geographical Context
As noted earlier, the Molotschna colony included within its boundaries approximately 500 square miles. It was bounded on the west by the Molochnaya River and fell mostly between the Tokmak River in the north and the Yushanlee River in the south. As shown in the map below, Mennonite-owned land also jutted to the south below the Yushanlee, in a rectangle roughly 8 miles wide and 28 miles long. This southern edge was also where the terrain gradually transitioned from the southern Avoz Lowlands to the Avoz Uplands stretching north. | |
|
The area was steppe land, a grassland plains region with trees only along the rivers (sound a little familiar?). One descendant of Molotschna settlers recalls what his grandmother told him about this new land: “They came to a barren steppe … no tree, no bush, only tall, dry, bitter grass and prickly camel fodder grew on the dry, cracked ground” (Staples 2003, 3).
 |
| The Molochtschna region in the area of the Molochnaya River. Photograph by Matvey Andreyev. |
The southern edge of the Molotschna colony (Yushanlee River) was aligned roughly on the 47th parallel north (47.0º N), which places it significantly north, relatively speaking, of the Henderson area where Peter D later settled (40.90º N). Each degree of latitude equals 69 miles, so the northern location of Kleefeld would correspond to Bismarck, North Dakota.
The soil quality was not the best in the Ukrainian central steppe, but it was more than adequate for an agriculture-based economy, especially one focused on cereal grain cultivation. According to John Staples, the untilled area was covered with “a growth of feather grass intermixed with timothy, spear, and broom grass, wild oats, wild rye, and wild wheat” (2003, 6). David Moon adds that “the black earth (chernozem) of the [Ukrainian] steppes” was quite similar to the soil found in the North American Great Plains (Moon 2008, 205).
The climate was moderate (no doubt due somewhat to the influence of the Sea of Avoz and much larger Black Sea to the south), with average highs ranging from 21º Fahrenheit during January (the coldest month) to 70º in July (the warmest month). The average growing season (the time between the last spring frost and the first fall frost) was 180 days, a relatively long period (see Staples 2003, 8–10). Henderson, for example, has an average growing season ten days shorter.
 |
| On the banks of the Yushanlee River, 10–15 miles east of Alexanderkrone. Photograph by yurasik67. |
The biggest challenge facing the peasant farmers of the Molotschna area was precipitation. The higher areas of the uplands received the highest average precipitation (up to 19.5" annually), but the lower, and especially southern, areas received substantially less, for example, 15" in the Yushanlee River area.
This last figure (15") is slightly below what the typical grain requires, but several additional factors complicated matters further (see Staples 2003, 6–7):
- Precipitation was often not received when needed (when grain seeds were germinating) but somewhat later, during May, June, and July.
- These are averages, which means that some years were drier than others. For example, during a fifteen-year period (1841–1855) in the village of Ohrloff (ca. 10 miles west of Kleefeld), precipitation fell below the 15.75" mark over half the time: eight years.
In spite of these obstacles, the Molotschna Mennonites generally fared reasonably well through a mixed-subsistence strategy that combined animal husbandry (mostly sheep but also cattle and horses), intensive gardening (around the village houses), and grain cultivation (primarily, unless I’m mistaken, the famous Turkey Red wheat that they later brought to the U.S.). Of course, not all was paradise, and the colonists did suffer through droughts, famines, severe blizzards, and Dust Bowl–like windstorms (“black blizzards,” Staples 2003, 9). Still, the Mennonite settlers fared no worse, and generally better, than most of those who lived around them.
 |
| Field near the Kurushan River almost directly north of Alexanderkrone. Photograph by Владимир Переклицкий. |
Geography, of course, involves not just the characteristics of the land but also its location among other groups, and the Molotschna Mennonites were not the only people living in this area. At least four distinct groups lived on the edges and around the Molotschna colony and interacted with our ancestors in various ways (see further Staples 2003, xiii–xiv, 29–44).
To the north lay the state peasant land (shaded green in the map below) populated by Ukrainian and Russian peasants relocated into the Molotschna region because their original locales were too small to accommodate a growing population. These Russian Orthodox settlers were given smaller land grants than the Mennonites, and the land they were given was inferior to the Mennonite territory. The need to preserve agricultural land led to the development of much larger villages within this community than in all the other surrounding groups.
 |
| People-groups surrounding the Molotschna Mennonite colony (lightly shaded area in the center). After Staples 2003, xviii |
To the northwest of the Molotschna Mennonites were other German-speaking colonists (yellow area). The Mennonites were not the only group to be invited to emigrate to Catherine the Great’s newly won territory; Lutherans, Catholics, and other Protestants were also invited to settle the territory.
To the south of the German-speaking colonists (orange area) lived one group of Russian religious sectarians or separatists, the Doukhobors (the similar Molokans also lived in the Molotschna area). This group rejected the authority of the Russian state and the Russian Orthodox church. In spite of ongoing tensions, the Russian authorities allowed these separatists to settle in the Molotschna about the same time as the Mennonites.
The fourth people-group (purple area) is the most interesting: the Nogai Tatars. Historically this group stemmed from the Golden Horde led by Nogai Khan, a descendant of Ghengis Khan. The Nogai, who were Muslim and spoke a dialect of Turkic, were settled in the Molotschna region by the Russian government between 1792 and 1810 in an attempt to prevent their defection to the Turks, against whom Russia warred periodically during this period. The Nogai were seminomadic herdsmen who moved their flocks and herds through the Avoz Lowlands
Surprisingly, Molotschna’s Mennonites appear to have had the greatest interaction with the Nogai. The Mennonites and Muslims not only lived side by side (note especially how close Kleefeld was to Nogai land); they also played significant roles in each other’s economic lives. But all that must wait for another post. For now it is sufficient to understand and appreciate the Molotschna Bullers’ geographical context: they lived on the south edge of a steppe, adopted a mixed-subsistence approach to economic survival, and interacted with people who could not have been more ethnically and religiously different.
Sources
Moon, David. 2008. In the Russians’ Steppes: The Introduction of Russian Wheat on the Great Plains of the United States of America. Journal of Global History 3:203–25.Staples, John R. 2003. Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1783–1861. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. All the posts on the Bullers in Molotschna are indebted to Staples’s publications. This book, a revision of his PhD dissertation, is available at Amazon, although now costing double what it previously did.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Saturday celebration!
Congratulations to Steve and Barb, celebrating the happiness of a shared life well-lived!
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Happy birthday, Darlene!
The amount of raw historical material tucked away in the corners and crannies of the Web boggles the mind; someone working twelve hours a day seven days a week couldn’t even begin to scratch the surface of all that is waiting to be discovered.
As proof, and also in celebration of Darlene Meinert’s birthday, I offer page A-10 of the (Lincoln) Sunday Journal and Star for July 31, 1932.
The readers of the Sunday Journal and Star may not have known that girl’s name, but we do. There really is no other reasonable explanation, given the date, the reference to Lushton, and the people named—it has to be Darlene!
Finding the announcement of Darlene’s birth is remarkable in and of itself, but it also raises an intriguing question: What other artifacts of the Buller family history lie buried on the Web waiting to be excavated?
As proof, and also in celebration of Darlene Meinert’s birthday, I offer page A-10 of the (Lincoln) Sunday Journal and Star for July 31, 1932.
Halfway down on the second column is a section entitled “Nebraska Vital Statistics,” which includes the announcement of the birth of a daughter to a certain Mr. and Mrs. C. Buller of Lushton.
The readers of the Sunday Journal and Star may not have known that girl’s name, but we do. There really is no other reasonable explanation, given the date, the reference to Lushton, and the people named—it has to be Darlene!
Finding the announcement of Darlene’s birth is remarkable in and of itself, but it also raises an intriguing question: What other artifacts of the Buller family history lie buried on the Web waiting to be excavated?
Friday, July 18, 2014
Photo of the day update
Dad (Carl) kindly provided some orientation to the photo shown below.
1. The photo was taken from east of the house, with the brooder house (number 2 in the aerial photo shown in the “Lushton farm 2” post) farther east.
2. The camera is pointing mostly north, rotated just slightly to the northwest.
3. The building visible behind Steve’s head is the brooder house (number 3 in the aerial photo).
4. To the left of that are the feed bin (number 4) and the end of the chicken coops (number 5).
Anyone have other pictures of the Lushton farm they would like to share?
1. The photo was taken from east of the house, with the brooder house (number 2 in the aerial photo shown in the “Lushton farm 2” post) farther east.
2. The camera is pointing mostly north, rotated just slightly to the northwest.
3. The building visible behind Steve’s head is the brooder house (number 3 in the aerial photo).
4. To the left of that are the feed bin (number 4) and the end of the chicken coops (number 5).
Anyone have other pictures of the Lushton farm they would like to share?
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Bullers in Molotschna 2
An earlier post (see here) suggested that what we know for certain about Peter D Buller hints at his socioeconomic status during the Molotschna years. Specifically, his movement from the village of Kleefeld to Alexanderkrone and then back to Kleefeld within the space of several years, followed by his emigration to the U.S. only eight years later, where he immediately bought 80 acres, imply that while Peter D lived in the Molotschna colony he was a farmer but not a landowner.
Surprising as this might seem to some, it corresponds well with what we know about life in the Molotschna colony. Two aspects of that life deserve special attention: the village-based social organization of Molotschna’s Mennonites; and the socioeconomic conditions created by historical events during the 1850s and beyond. The first aspect will be addressed in the post that follows, the second in a subsequent post.
As noted earlier, the Molotschna colony was organized around a number of villages located along the Molochnaya River on the west and its tributaries running east–west.
As can be seen in the map above and especially in the detail of Alexanderkrone and Kleefeld below, the villages tended to be rectangular. The Kleefeld map shows particularly well how villages were organized as a series of rectangular-shaped plots of land set perpendicular to the village’s main (and often only) street. Houses were located next to the street, the associated farmland extending behind.
Also of interest are the smaller plots located on the ends of villages. These areas provided housing (cottages) but little more for those who did not own land and who thus had to carve out a living as rent farmers, artisans, or laborers.
Of course, villagers owned more farmland than the plots that formed part of the village itself. In fact, according to Franz Isaac (Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten [Halbstadt: Braun, 1908], 72–73), in 1860 Alexanderkrone was associated with forty full farms that together accounted for 8,100 acres (202.5 acres per full farm); Kleefelds’s thirty-seven full farms plus six half-farms encompassed 8,662 acres (216.5 acres per full farm). Isaac also records that twenty-five landless families were associated with Alexanderkrone, thirty-eight with Kleefeld.
The point of all this is to show the connection between Molotschna village organization and land ownership. The number of full farms listed for Alexanderkrone and Kleefeld roughly corresponds to the number of “full” village plots (house plus land) that one can count in the maps above. It thus seems likely (although I have not yet been able to confirm this) that one did not own just a village plot; rather, one owned both that plot (house and land) plus whatever land outside of the village was associated with the plot. The total size of the two pieces of land would have been no less than 175 acres (the original size of the grant to each family), although it could be (and often was) more.
If this is reconstruction of village organization and its effects is generally accurate, then one can begin to understand why an ever-increasing number of Molotschna Mennonites became landless. Ownership of the land outside of the village was inextricably tied to ownership of a plot inside the village. If there were forty village plots, only forty people associated with the village would own land. If no one wanted to sell his entire holdings, the only option open to a potential land buyer was to move elsewhere, in hopes that another village might provide better opportunity or land would be available in a newly established village.
An additional factor compounded the problem: Molotschna Mennonites were prohibited by law from subdividing their 175-acre farms for distribution (through inheritance or sale) to anyone else. All full farms were to remain intact. Thus, a father with three sons and 200 acres was unable to divide the farmland equally between them; one son would become landed; the other two, landless. John R. Staples reports, “Already by 1834 almost half of all Mennonite families were landless, and by 1860, almost two-thirds were without land” (“Putting ‘Russia’ Back into Russian Mennonite History: The Crimean War, Emancipation, and the Molochna Mennonite Landlessness Crisis,” Mennonite Life 62.1 [2007]). The statistics for Alexanderkrone (38.5 percent landless) and Kleefeld (50.7 percent) are favorable by comparison, but that probably reflects the fact that these villages were relatively young in 1860; in time, the rank of landless families in these villages would also grow.
To bring it all back to the Bullers, Peter D’s move from Kleefeld to Alexanderkrone, then back to Kleefeld, and finally across the ocean to Nebraska are not the actions of a settled landowner. They seem more characteristic of someone looking to make ends meet any way he can. Because Peter D immediately turned to farming after arriving in the U.S., it is reasonable to conclude that he was either a rent farmer or a laborer in the Molotschna colony. A future post will sharpen this picture historically with a discussion of how forces outside the Mennonite community led first to prosperity for Molotschna rent farmers, then left them in full crisis mode when there was no longer available land to rent.
Surprising as this might seem to some, it corresponds well with what we know about life in the Molotschna colony. Two aspects of that life deserve special attention: the village-based social organization of Molotschna’s Mennonites; and the socioeconomic conditions created by historical events during the 1850s and beyond. The first aspect will be addressed in the post that follows, the second in a subsequent post.
As noted earlier, the Molotschna colony was organized around a number of villages located along the Molochnaya River on the west and its tributaries running east–west.
 |
| Map © William Schroeder, used by permission. For the original, see http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/Schroeder_maps/058.pdf. |
As can be seen in the map above and especially in the detail of Alexanderkrone and Kleefeld below, the villages tended to be rectangular. The Kleefeld map shows particularly well how villages were organized as a series of rectangular-shaped plots of land set perpendicular to the village’s main (and often only) street. Houses were located next to the street, the associated farmland extending behind.
 |
| Map © William Schroeder, used by permission. For the original, see http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/Schroeder_maps/059.pdf |
 |
| Map © William Schroeder, used by permission. For the original, see http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/Schroeder_maps/073.pdf |
Also of interest are the smaller plots located on the ends of villages. These areas provided housing (cottages) but little more for those who did not own land and who thus had to carve out a living as rent farmers, artisans, or laborers.
Of course, villagers owned more farmland than the plots that formed part of the village itself. In fact, according to Franz Isaac (Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten [Halbstadt: Braun, 1908], 72–73), in 1860 Alexanderkrone was associated with forty full farms that together accounted for 8,100 acres (202.5 acres per full farm); Kleefelds’s thirty-seven full farms plus six half-farms encompassed 8,662 acres (216.5 acres per full farm). Isaac also records that twenty-five landless families were associated with Alexanderkrone, thirty-eight with Kleefeld.
 |
| GoogleMaps satellite view of the village formerly known as Alexanderkrone (modern Hrushivka). The strips of land bordering and perpendicular to the main street are still visible on the left side of the photograph. The small structure circled in red is the windmill shown here. To access the GoogleMaps satellite view directly, click here. It appears that nothing remains of Kleefeld, which should be directly left of Alexanderkrone. |
The point of all this is to show the connection between Molotschna village organization and land ownership. The number of full farms listed for Alexanderkrone and Kleefeld roughly corresponds to the number of “full” village plots (house plus land) that one can count in the maps above. It thus seems likely (although I have not yet been able to confirm this) that one did not own just a village plot; rather, one owned both that plot (house and land) plus whatever land outside of the village was associated with the plot. The total size of the two pieces of land would have been no less than 175 acres (the original size of the grant to each family), although it could be (and often was) more.
If this is reconstruction of village organization and its effects is generally accurate, then one can begin to understand why an ever-increasing number of Molotschna Mennonites became landless. Ownership of the land outside of the village was inextricably tied to ownership of a plot inside the village. If there were forty village plots, only forty people associated with the village would own land. If no one wanted to sell his entire holdings, the only option open to a potential land buyer was to move elsewhere, in hopes that another village might provide better opportunity or land would be available in a newly established village.
An additional factor compounded the problem: Molotschna Mennonites were prohibited by law from subdividing their 175-acre farms for distribution (through inheritance or sale) to anyone else. All full farms were to remain intact. Thus, a father with three sons and 200 acres was unable to divide the farmland equally between them; one son would become landed; the other two, landless. John R. Staples reports, “Already by 1834 almost half of all Mennonite families were landless, and by 1860, almost two-thirds were without land” (“Putting ‘Russia’ Back into Russian Mennonite History: The Crimean War, Emancipation, and the Molochna Mennonite Landlessness Crisis,” Mennonite Life 62.1 [2007]). The statistics for Alexanderkrone (38.5 percent landless) and Kleefeld (50.7 percent) are favorable by comparison, but that probably reflects the fact that these villages were relatively young in 1860; in time, the rank of landless families in these villages would also grow.
To bring it all back to the Bullers, Peter D’s move from Kleefeld to Alexanderkrone, then back to Kleefeld, and finally across the ocean to Nebraska are not the actions of a settled landowner. They seem more characteristic of someone looking to make ends meet any way he can. Because Peter D immediately turned to farming after arriving in the U.S., it is reasonable to conclude that he was either a rent farmer or a laborer in the Molotschna colony. A future post will sharpen this picture historically with a discussion of how forces outside the Mennonite community led first to prosperity for Molotschna rent farmers, then left them in full crisis mode when there was no longer available land to rent.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Photo of the day
Most people I know have photos neatly arranged in albums or, more likely, stacked haphazardly in boxes, and every now and then they look through those photos and remember days and people (and pets) gone by. Wouldn’t it be great to share your photos and your memories with the rest of the family? If you agree, read on for ideas about preserving and then sharing your photos with others.
Paper, even high-quality photographic paper, fades and degrades and ultimately crumbles into dust. A digital image, however, will last nearly forever. It only makes sense, then, to convert all printed photos into digital images as soon as possible. If this is something you would like to pursue, there are two ways to go about it.
1. Send the photos to me and have me scan them. I promise to take good care of the photos while they are in my possession (scanning does not damage photos) and to return them to you using some sort of trackable shipping method.
2. If you have access to a computer with a scanner, you can also scan the photos yourself. Scanning is not terribly complicated, but you want to keep several things in mind:
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| Steve and his brother Goatboy on the Lushton farm, sometime in 1960 *** Whoever is able please clarify where on the aerial photo this photo was taken, which direction it is looking, and which buildings are visible in the background. *** |
Paper, even high-quality photographic paper, fades and degrades and ultimately crumbles into dust. A digital image, however, will last nearly forever. It only makes sense, then, to convert all printed photos into digital images as soon as possible. If this is something you would like to pursue, there are two ways to go about it.
1. Send the photos to me and have me scan them. I promise to take good care of the photos while they are in my possession (scanning does not damage photos) and to return them to you using some sort of trackable shipping method.
2. If you have access to a computer with a scanner, you can also scan the photos yourself. Scanning is not terribly complicated, but you want to keep several things in mind:
- Scan the photo in color mode, even if it is a black and white photo. This will preserve the feel and depth of the original better than scanning it in black and white.
- If your scanner allows you to choose the type of color settings, select CMYK if you have it, otherwise RGB.
- The first goal of scanning is to preserve the photo, so it is best to scan it at a high resolution, even though this creates a larger file. If possible, scan your photos at their actual size and 600 dpi (dots per inch). If you must scan it at a lower resolution, 300 dpi is acceptable.
- If you have options for saving the file, choose the tiff format first, or, if that is unavailable, jpeg (at the highest quality: 12). The tiff format will result in a larger file, but it will also preserve the scan with a greater degree of accuracy and depth.
- If, after scanning, you want to send me the high-resolution version, I can guide you in using a free (!) online file transfer service.
Once a photo has been scanned, it is ready to be used however you want (with a little adjustment): you can archive a copy on your computer hard drive, use it as your screen background, send copies to family and friends, and, I hope, share it with the rest of us on this blog.
If enough of us are willing to have our family photos scanned and shared, we might even create a Buller Archive that could be distributed to everyone who wants a copy on CD or, if needed, a DVD. This archival source might contain other items of interest, such as a copy of the Buller Family Record, reminiscences from family members, historical documents, and so on.
At the very least, I hope many of you will begin to look through your family photos and consider putting them into a digital format. Everyone who visits this blog would love to see your photos and share your memories—I know I would!
Saturday, July 12, 2014
C is for … C
Although I don’t remember exactly when the conversation took place, I recall well how it went:
Me: Why don’t you put a period after your middle initial when you sign your name?
Dad: Because it’s not an abbreviation.
Me: What do you mean? What’s your middle name?
Dad: I don’t have a middle name. I have a middle initial: C.
At the time I found the notion of someone having only a middle initial odd, sort of “backwoodsy” and “poor,” but since then I have learned that the practice has a long tradition in the Buller line and Mennonite history.
As you probably know, Grandpa and Grandma’s kids were given the names Matilda C, Esther C, Daniel C, Darlene C, Carl C, Wayne C, Ruth C, and Alma C. The C stood for Cornelius, Grandpa’s given name.
Likewise, Grandpa and most of of his brothers and sisters had a middle initial P, for their father Peter. The one known exception was Peter E, whose E presumably stood for his mother’s maiden name: Epp. Why would Peter E have been given that middle initial? It may be that the first Peter born into that family, who died eight days after birth, was known as Peter P (although the Buller Family Record [BFR] does not list any middle initial) and that, when Peter and Margaretha decided to name a second son Peter, they chose to give him a different middle initial.
Grandpa’s father Peter also had P for a middle initial because his father was likewise named Peter (D). Things become a little messier with Peter P’s siblings, since the BFR lists three children with no middle initial (Johann, Sarah, and Maria, who died at birth); five with P, representing their father’s name (Peter, Cornelius, Jacob, Heinrich, Abraham); one with S, probably for their mother Sarah’s maiden name, Siebert (David); and one with M, likely in memory of the Maria who died at birth (a second daughter named Maria).
Peter D’s father was named David, which explains his middle initial; the same is true for his two brothers (Benjamin, David), but the BFR lists no middle initials for his three sisters (Helena, Elisabeth, Maria). An online genealogical source for David Buller complicates matters further. Not only does it move Heinrich and Sarah from David’s second family to his first (which deserves its own discussion); it also lists all the boys as having “David Z” as their middle name + initial and all the girls as having “D Z” as their double middle initials. The Z is easily understood: it stands for Zielke, their mother Helena’s maiden name. Why the boys have their father’s full name plus their mother’s maiden name initial is less clear. Was this perhaps a standard convention in Mennonite circles during the mid-nineteenth century?
At any rate, the practice of giving Buller children only the middle initial of their father’s first name ended with Grandpa and Grandma’s kids (please speak up if you know differently). Too bad! As someone who has had several women point out that I have the “same” middle name as they do (spelled differently, of course), I think I would prefer to have C instead.
Me: Why don’t you put a period after your middle initial when you sign your name?
Dad: Because it’s not an abbreviation.
Me: What do you mean? What’s your middle name?
Dad: I don’t have a middle name. I have a middle initial: C.
At the time I found the notion of someone having only a middle initial odd, sort of “backwoodsy” and “poor,” but since then I have learned that the practice has a long tradition in the Buller line and Mennonite history.
As you probably know, Grandpa and Grandma’s kids were given the names Matilda C, Esther C, Daniel C, Darlene C, Carl C, Wayne C, Ruth C, and Alma C. The C stood for Cornelius, Grandpa’s given name.
Likewise, Grandpa and most of of his brothers and sisters had a middle initial P, for their father Peter. The one known exception was Peter E, whose E presumably stood for his mother’s maiden name: Epp. Why would Peter E have been given that middle initial? It may be that the first Peter born into that family, who died eight days after birth, was known as Peter P (although the Buller Family Record [BFR] does not list any middle initial) and that, when Peter and Margaretha decided to name a second son Peter, they chose to give him a different middle initial.
Grandpa’s father Peter also had P for a middle initial because his father was likewise named Peter (D). Things become a little messier with Peter P’s siblings, since the BFR lists three children with no middle initial (Johann, Sarah, and Maria, who died at birth); five with P, representing their father’s name (Peter, Cornelius, Jacob, Heinrich, Abraham); one with S, probably for their mother Sarah’s maiden name, Siebert (David); and one with M, likely in memory of the Maria who died at birth (a second daughter named Maria).
Peter D’s father was named David, which explains his middle initial; the same is true for his two brothers (Benjamin, David), but the BFR lists no middle initials for his three sisters (Helena, Elisabeth, Maria). An online genealogical source for David Buller complicates matters further. Not only does it move Heinrich and Sarah from David’s second family to his first (which deserves its own discussion); it also lists all the boys as having “David Z” as their middle name + initial and all the girls as having “D Z” as their double middle initials. The Z is easily understood: it stands for Zielke, their mother Helena’s maiden name. Why the boys have their father’s full name plus their mother’s maiden name initial is less clear. Was this perhaps a standard convention in Mennonite circles during the mid-nineteenth century?
At any rate, the practice of giving Buller children only the middle initial of their father’s first name ended with Grandpa and Grandma’s kids (please speak up if you know differently). Too bad! As someone who has had several women point out that I have the “same” middle name as they do (spelled differently, of course), I think I would prefer to have C instead.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Bullers in Molotschna
Before our family sailed to America and settled in Nebraska, several generations lived in the Molotschna Mennonite colony in the Zaporizhia Oblast (province) of modern-day Ukraine.
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| The approximate location of the Molotschna colony is highlighted in red. Modern Russia is located to the north and east. |
The Molotschna colony was located approximately 30 miles inland (northwest) from the Sea of Avoz, which itself is located to the northeast of the Black Sea. The colony comprised 324,000 acres, a rectangular area slightly more than 500 square miles in size. Molotschna was bounded on the west by the Molochnaya River, where the first villages were established, and thereafter expanded to the east along east-west tributaries: the Tokmak, Begemthsokrak, Kurushan, and Yushanlee (or Yushanly).
During the nineteenth century, the Molotschna area was a part of the Taurida province of the Russian kingdom ruled by Catherine the Great (born 1729, ruled 1762–1796) and her successors: Paul I (1796–1801), Alexander I (1801–1825), Nicholas I (1825–1855), and Alexander II (1855–1881). Catherine had won possession of a large area of southeastern Europe after her forces defeated those of the Ottoman Empire in the first Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774); Molotschna was a small part of this newly won region.
To solidify her hold on the territory, Catherine sought to populate it with loyal, or at least grateful, subjects. Thus in 1786 Catherine invited Mennonites in West Prussia (more on that later) to emigrate to Russia, with a promise of freedom and land: the Mennonites were free to govern themselves and to abstain from military service; in addition, each family would receive 65 dessiantines (ca. 175 acres) of land.
By 1789, the first Russian Mennonite colony was established in Chortitza, on the left bank of the Dnieper River (ca. 100 miles northwest of where the Molotschna colony was later established). Fourteen years later, after Catherine’s death and her son Paul I’s reaffirmation of certain Mennonite privileges, a second wave of emigration began—this time to the Molotschna area. Between 1803 and 1806, 365 Mennonite families traveled from West Prussia to the Molotschna colony. Emigration continued until 1835, by which time 1,200 Mennonite families (6,000 people) lived in the colony.
Nine villages were established in 1804 (Halbstadt, Muntau, Schönau, Fischau, Lindenau, Lichtenau, Blumstein, Münsterberg, Altona), with eight more added in 1805 and one in 1806. As the Mennonite population increased, new villages were founded, and the colony expanded eastward. As of 1863, sixty villages had been established throughout the Molotschna area. For a complete list, with acreages associated with each village, see the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
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| Map © William Schroeder, used by permission. See http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/Schroeder_maps/. |
The villages of greatest interest to us are Fischau (one of the original nine villages), Kleefeld (est. 1854), and Alexanderkrone (est. 1857). According to the Buller Family Record, David Buller was born in (West) Prussia in 1817 and came to Russia sometime between the ages of three and five (1820–1822). Thus, he was not part of the initial emigration to Molotschna but came sixteen or more years later.
At present we do not know where his family settled, although it is likely that David at some point made his home in Fischau, since several genealogies list that village as the 1847 place of birth for David’s second daughter, Elisabeth (see here). Other genealogies list Kleefeld as Peter D’s 1845 place of birth, but this is impossible, since Kleefeld was not founded until 1854. This mistake probably reflects the fact that the family was known to have resided in Kleefeld; that fact was simply misapplied to an earlier time.
At any rate, it is certain that Peter D lived in Kleefeld before moving to Alexanderkrone, where Peter P was born in 1869. The family returned to Kleefeld only two years later, in 1871, before leaving for the U.S. in 1879. How many other Molotschna villages our family might claim as our own is anyone’s guess. Equally a mystery is why Peter D moved from Kleefeld to Alexanderkrone and back to Kleefeld within the space of a few years, only to emigrate to the U.S. a mere eight years later.
Still, the family’s movements may give us hints about their station in life. One possible scenario is that David moved from Fischau to Kleefeld about the time the village was founded in 1854. If so, then one might reasonably think that he did so in order to secure his own land. If David was a landowner in Fischau, he probably would not have moved to Kleefeld but would have remained on his own property. The primary problem with this scenario is that we have no record of David living in Kleefeld. Further, one genealogy reports that David died in Waldheim, a Molotschna village in the northeast quadrant of the colony (see here).
In fact, David’s son Peter D is the only member of the family known with certainty to have lived in Kleefeld. Beginning from this known fact, it is reasonable to imagine that Peter D moved from Fischau to Kleefeld around the time of his marriage to Sarah Siebert in 1866; he was twenty-one at the time and would have wanted to establish his own household. Unfortunately, if Peter D’s goal was to secure land, he was probably too late (no village land would have been available twelve years after its founding). Consequently, it is not surprising that Peter D’s family moved from Kleefeld to Alexanderkrone two years after first arriving in Kleefeld, moved back to Kleefeld two years later, and undertook a monumental journey to the U.S. just eight years after that.
A future post will explore the socioeconomic realities of the Molotschna colony during this time, especially as they are reflected in known facts of the lives of our Buller ancestors who resided there. To anticipate that discussion, it seems most likely that Peter D was a farmer but not a landowner in the Molotschna colony, which ultimately prompted him to lead his family to the U.S. in search of a farm to call his own.
*****
The Zaporizhia Oblast is one of the Ukrainian provinces in which pro-Russian demonstrations took place during the first half of 2014. To read further about the Russian annexation of Crimea to the south and the Ukranian revolution and its aftermath, see here.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Wedding picture
Grandpa and Grandma were married on January 20, 1927. They were both twenty years old.
Thanks to Mary Henrichson for supplying the scan of their wedding photo. To download a higher-resolution version of this photo, click here.
Thanks to Mary Henrichson for supplying the scan of their wedding photo. To download a higher-resolution version of this photo, click here.
Monday, July 7, 2014
Lushton Lore
The Bullers have long been associated with Lushton, even before Grandpa and Grandma began farming a mile south of town (on which, see here and here). Grandpa’s father, Peter P Buller, was the first of our line to settle near Lushton, when, after his marriage to Margaretha Epp in 1890, he assumed responsibility for the Epp family farm two miles north of Lushton (the southeast quarter of section 11 in the map below).
Our family’s direct association with Lushton continued for over seventy-five years, with Grandpa and Grandma and several of their grown children living in and around Lushton at various times. Because Lushton is the setting for so much of the Buller family history, it seems worthwhile to spend a few minutes exploring Lushton’s own history, as told by T. E. Sedgwick in York County Nebraska and Its People (Chicago: Clarke, 1921), 475–76:
“Lushton is built on section 25, township 9, range 4, in Henderson Township and was surveyed and built in the spring of 1888 [thus, only two years before Peter P took over the Epp farm], when the railroad came through to McCool Junction from Sutton. The board or village trustees were A. Holmes, chairman; M. W. Straiter, A. Cookus, M. D. Calkins, T. C. Williams, with Ed Allison as clerk and Homer Hager as treasurer. The Kansas City & Omaha was put through here in the spring of 1887. The first general store was built in Lushton by Dorsey Brothers, who came down from Arborville. They operated this store but one year, when they sold to Dailey & Farber, who carried on the business for about ten years. In the summer of 1887 Mr. Albert Holmes built a general store building and in connection with his store took charge of the post office, which he conducted until a little more than three years ago [i.e., 1918], when on account of ill health he sold to Howard Dearing, who, in partnership with his mother, Mrs. E. T. Dearing, operated the store for a short while, when they sold out to Jacob Epp & Son. Mr. Holmes had always been identified with the business interests of the village and was greatly missed by the people of the community when he passed away after a short illness. Mr. William Babcock was also in the mercantile business for several years. In the fall of 1887 the farmers were highly elated over having a grain market at their very doors, the first grain being brought in at that time. In October, 1887, J. J. Burras and C. N. Kincaid of Lincoln organized the first lumber company and were soon ready for business. That business was soon purchased by Mr. M. B. Thompson, who had helped to shovel the first load of grain in Lushton, and it was successfully operated by him for a number of years, and was finally taken over by the Yost Lumber Company. The first hardware store in Lushton was built and operated by C. B. Walters; Edward Moore ran the first drug store. William Cookus put in the first blacksmith shop, but at present has relinquished the pounding of iron for more convenient work. The first hotel was a two-story frame building on the east side of the main store, and was built and operated by Mr. William Walters. The State Bank of Lushton was the first and only bank in Lushton, and was organized in the spring of 1887 by George and Tom Clawson. Although a small town, the ladies knew the magnetism establishment, so Mrs. Susan Daily started a shop and sold millinery for a good many years. In 1888 the first elevator was built and operated by Will R. Vanderburg.
“The United Brethren Church was the first church to grace the village of Lushton, and it was moved in from the country.
“The store operated by Daily & Farber was later bought by M. W. Strater, who was a successful merchant, full of ambition; he was one of the liveliest merchants of his time. In February, 1913, he retired from business, having sold out to Franz Bros., who have also been very successful. Early on the morning of March 5, 1913, the people of Lushton were awakened from peaceful slumber by a call of fire. The entire town was in danger, but luckily through the change of wind only one block of the business section was burned to the ground. The buildings demolished were a restaurant, hardware store, cream station, and millinery store. Several other buildings were damaged. However, the citizens were not to be discouraged. On the corner lot a large brick building was erected in 1915 by the firm of Jacob Epp & Son, who are operating a successful mercantile establishment. The population of Lushton is about two hundred; it is in the midst of a thriving farming district. Besides its two general mercantile stores it now has two hardware stores, two cream stations, a drug store, a furniture and undertaking establishment, a meat market, a barber shop, central office, confectionery, garage and livery, lumber yard, school house, large, neatly kept hotel, which has just been opened again, a new blacksmith shop, recently erected by Mr. McNutt. Lushton has had two churches, but for the past year services were held only in the United Brethren Church. These churches are kept up by the Needlecraft Society, Ladies Aid and Missionary Society. Just at present the ladies are very enthusiastic workers in the Red Cross, and this little chapter has done some very good work. The men also have their amusement in the commercial rooms, where they may play checkers, dominoes and chess, and there is also a library in connection with it. The Modern Woodmen also were well represented by many good times. The band gives concerts every Saturday evening during the summer months from the band stand in the center of town. Through the winter the community has usually had a lecture course held in the United Brethren Church.
“The business men of Lushton are a live bunch. Mr. E. Le Bar, the druggist, came to Nebraska from eastern Iowa about forty years ago. Jacob Epp & Son started in business in Lushton in 1915 and have built a fine brick building, 70x30, with modern front.
Lincoln & Tharp have a thoroughly up-to-date hardware and harness establishment. Emmitt Lincoln is the son of the veteran merchant of McCool. Clifford Tharp came to Lushton from Chicago. Franz Brothers have been in Lushton for five years. J. M. Sigrist came in 1901. Six years ago he went up to Theadford, Thomas County, and homesteaded, but returned to Lushton and bought the furniture and undertaking establishment of Y. R. Miles, the Lushton representative of Metz & Hitchcock of York.
“P. K. Moore, who has lived in Nebraska forty-four years, helped organize the Bank of Lushton, with G. W. Post, E. G. Wightman, C. A. McCloud, now president; T. L. Robinson, cashier. J. H. Yost Lumber Company owned the only yard in Lushton. Hynes Grain Company have Bud Smith as their resident manager. W. P. Cookus can really claim to be the pioneer of Lushton; he built the first frame house, opened a blacksmith shop on April 18, 1887, and can remember all of the country from Grafton to Lushton as a corn field when he came.
“Lushton’s business roster in 1920 showed:
*****
This account begins to sketch Lushton’s history, but there is much more to be told. Future posts will provide a fuller picture, including accounts of a bank robbery in broad daylight, a murder-suicide not far from town, Lushton’s winning baseball team, and the town’s ongoing battle with fires in the business district.
Our family’s direct association with Lushton continued for over seventy-five years, with Grandpa and Grandma and several of their grown children living in and around Lushton at various times. Because Lushton is the setting for so much of the Buller family history, it seems worthwhile to spend a few minutes exploring Lushton’s own history, as told by T. E. Sedgwick in York County Nebraska and Its People (Chicago: Clarke, 1921), 475–76:
“Lushton is built on section 25, township 9, range 4, in Henderson Township and was surveyed and built in the spring of 1888 [thus, only two years before Peter P took over the Epp farm], when the railroad came through to McCool Junction from Sutton. The board or village trustees were A. Holmes, chairman; M. W. Straiter, A. Cookus, M. D. Calkins, T. C. Williams, with Ed Allison as clerk and Homer Hager as treasurer. The Kansas City & Omaha was put through here in the spring of 1887. The first general store was built in Lushton by Dorsey Brothers, who came down from Arborville. They operated this store but one year, when they sold to Dailey & Farber, who carried on the business for about ten years. In the summer of 1887 Mr. Albert Holmes built a general store building and in connection with his store took charge of the post office, which he conducted until a little more than three years ago [i.e., 1918], when on account of ill health he sold to Howard Dearing, who, in partnership with his mother, Mrs. E. T. Dearing, operated the store for a short while, when they sold out to Jacob Epp & Son. Mr. Holmes had always been identified with the business interests of the village and was greatly missed by the people of the community when he passed away after a short illness. Mr. William Babcock was also in the mercantile business for several years. In the fall of 1887 the farmers were highly elated over having a grain market at their very doors, the first grain being brought in at that time. In October, 1887, J. J. Burras and C. N. Kincaid of Lincoln organized the first lumber company and were soon ready for business. That business was soon purchased by Mr. M. B. Thompson, who had helped to shovel the first load of grain in Lushton, and it was successfully operated by him for a number of years, and was finally taken over by the Yost Lumber Company. The first hardware store in Lushton was built and operated by C. B. Walters; Edward Moore ran the first drug store. William Cookus put in the first blacksmith shop, but at present has relinquished the pounding of iron for more convenient work. The first hotel was a two-story frame building on the east side of the main store, and was built and operated by Mr. William Walters. The State Bank of Lushton was the first and only bank in Lushton, and was organized in the spring of 1887 by George and Tom Clawson. Although a small town, the ladies knew the magnetism establishment, so Mrs. Susan Daily started a shop and sold millinery for a good many years. In 1888 the first elevator was built and operated by Will R. Vanderburg.
“The United Brethren Church was the first church to grace the village of Lushton, and it was moved in from the country.
“The business men of Lushton are a live bunch. Mr. E. Le Bar, the druggist, came to Nebraska from eastern Iowa about forty years ago. Jacob Epp & Son started in business in Lushton in 1915 and have built a fine brick building, 70x30, with modern front.
“P. K. Moore, who has lived in Nebraska forty-four years, helped organize the Bank of Lushton, with G. W. Post, E. G. Wightman, C. A. McCloud, now president; T. L. Robinson, cashier. J. H. Yost Lumber Company owned the only yard in Lushton. Hynes Grain Company have Bud Smith as their resident manager. W. P. Cookus can really claim to be the pioneer of Lushton; he built the first frame house, opened a blacksmith shop on April 18, 1887, and can remember all of the country from Grafton to Lushton as a corn field when he came.
“Lushton’s business roster in 1920 showed:
| Bank of Lushton | Lincoln Tharp Hardware Co. |
| Dearing, H. P., restaurant | Prest, Dr. J. E. |
| Franz Bros., general merchandise | Smith, Glenn, Implement Co. |
| Haynes Grain Co. | Van Wickle Grain Co. |
| High School | Walters, Wm., meat market |
| Le Bar, C. R., drug store | Yost Lumber Co.” |
*****
This account begins to sketch Lushton’s history, but there is much more to be told. Future posts will provide a fuller picture, including accounts of a bank robbery in broad daylight, a murder-suicide not far from town, Lushton’s winning baseball team, and the town’s ongoing battle with fires in the business district.
Friday, July 4, 2014
Happy 4th! Happy 50th?
I suspect that this picture of Grandpa and Grandma was taken about the time of their fiftieth wedding anniversary in early 1977. If you know differently, please email me the details so I can correct the record.
There is no great purpose to this post other than to use the holiday as a pretext for mentioning other days of celebration, such as anniversaries (Grandpa and Grandma celebrated fifty-three of them) and birthdays (happy birthday, Darlene Connelly)—both of which are listed in the sidebar to the right. If I miss any special days or have them wrong, please let me know.
In that vein, please correct your copy of the Buller Family Record to show Wayne Martens’s birthday as 27 July, not 29 July.
There is no great purpose to this post other than to use the holiday as a pretext for mentioning other days of celebration, such as anniversaries (Grandpa and Grandma celebrated fifty-three of them) and birthdays (happy birthday, Darlene Connelly)—both of which are listed in the sidebar to the right. If I miss any special days or have them wrong, please let me know.
In that vein, please correct your copy of the Buller Family Record to show Wayne Martens’s birthday as 27 July, not 29 July.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Lushton farm 2
Thanks to Dad (Carl) for sending me the aerial picture below, probably taken sometime between 1958 and 1960. The photo looks to the northwest; the corn rows above the north shelterbelt are oriented north–south. For additional background on the Lushton farm, see here.
Grandpa owned the south half of the quarter (80 acres), half of which he bought for himself (1927?) and half of which he received as a gift from his father (Peter P). The north half of the quarter was owned by Grandpa’s older brother Peter, who bought 40 acres from their sister Anna to go with his own 40-acre holdings. The dividing line between the two parcels of land was the north shelterbelt.
The green space between the two shelterbelts was a pasture; the curve of the terraces is still visible in the photograph. Both the terraces and the north shelterbelt were intended to slow down erosion as much as possible. The mid-1930s were the Dust Bowl years, and soil conservation was a significant concern. The north shelterbelt contained five half-mile-long rows of trees, stretching from the east boundary of the quarter to the west boundary. The shelterbelt was planted as part of the Great Plains Shelterbelt (under the Works Projects Administration). The federal government funded the planting of the trees; the property owner was responsible for their care after that. I have it on good authority that Grandpa paid the younger kids 25¢ (or possibly 35¢) a row to hoe weeds from among the trees. Not everyone spent his earnings wisely.
The house (1) was built in 1897, thus before Grandpa and Grandma bought the farm. Square nails were used in its construction.
Directly east of the house was a brooder house for young chicks not yet ready for life in the regular chicken coops (5). A second brooder house (3) was located directly north of the white one.
Between the north brooder house and the chicken coops was a feed bin (4). As its name implies, it held feed for all the livestock. It had to be filled three or four times a year.
If I understand correctly, the chicken coops (5) were two buildings joined by a central walkway; to the west stood a small white granary (6) and a corn crib (7).
A machine shed (8) was south of the chicken coops, with an elevator (9) that Grandpa had built to the south of it. Several small buildings (10) were located west of the machine shed and elevator, and the barn (11) was on the south end of the farmstead.
Please email me with any corrections to the above or further details that you would like to share with everyone else.
Grandpa owned the south half of the quarter (80 acres), half of which he bought for himself (1927?) and half of which he received as a gift from his father (Peter P). The north half of the quarter was owned by Grandpa’s older brother Peter, who bought 40 acres from their sister Anna to go with his own 40-acre holdings. The dividing line between the two parcels of land was the north shelterbelt.
The green space between the two shelterbelts was a pasture; the curve of the terraces is still visible in the photograph. Both the terraces and the north shelterbelt were intended to slow down erosion as much as possible. The mid-1930s were the Dust Bowl years, and soil conservation was a significant concern. The north shelterbelt contained five half-mile-long rows of trees, stretching from the east boundary of the quarter to the west boundary. The shelterbelt was planted as part of the Great Plains Shelterbelt (under the Works Projects Administration). The federal government funded the planting of the trees; the property owner was responsible for their care after that. I have it on good authority that Grandpa paid the younger kids 25¢ (or possibly 35¢) a row to hoe weeds from among the trees. Not everyone spent his earnings wisely.
The house (1) was built in 1897, thus before Grandpa and Grandma bought the farm. Square nails were used in its construction.
Directly east of the house was a brooder house for young chicks not yet ready for life in the regular chicken coops (5). A second brooder house (3) was located directly north of the white one.
Between the north brooder house and the chicken coops was a feed bin (4). As its name implies, it held feed for all the livestock. It had to be filled three or four times a year.
If I understand correctly, the chicken coops (5) were two buildings joined by a central walkway; to the west stood a small white granary (6) and a corn crib (7).
A machine shed (8) was south of the chicken coops, with an elevator (9) that Grandpa had built to the south of it. Several small buildings (10) were located west of the machine shed and elevator, and the barn (11) was on the south end of the farmstead.
Please email me with any corrections to the above or further details that you would like to share with everyone else.
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