Peter P and Margaretha’s farm(s)

I wonder how often plat maps of the York County townships were updated for country records or even for wider distribution. I also wonder if the York County Courthouse or the York Public Library maintains those historical plat maps, so one might be able to see who owned which pieces of land at various times. If anyone knows or is able to find out, please let me know. Now on to the real point of this post.

Earlier (here) we looked at a 1911 plat map for Henderson Township, where Grandpa and Grandma’s Lushton farm was later located. We did not mention that the same plat map shows where Peter P and family lived at that time. Follow the road 2 miles north of Lushton’s northwest corner, and you will see that P P Buller owned the southeast quarter and the west half of the northeast quarter of section 11 in Henderson Township. (Across the road to the east, in section 12, is a 240-acre farm owned by a Peter Siebert; we will return to him at some point in the future.)

This is the former Epp farm about which Maria and Sara commented that their mother (Margaretha Epp) had lived there her entire life before Peter and Margaretha moved to California in 1936. If you recall, when Peter P and Margaretha married in 1890, they took over the Epp farm, presumably from Margaretha’s father Cornelius Epp (who died in 1894) and mother Katharina Tieszen Epp (who died in 1896). It seems reasonable that the original Epp farm was the southeast quarter only and that Peter P purchased the 80 acres to the north of that farm—as well as an additional 80 acres in section 13 (the west half of the northeast quarter), but only an earlier plat map can confirm or correct that guess.

Not to be forgotten in all this is Peter P’s ownership of the original Buller farm west of Henderson: 160 acres in the northeast quarter of section 12 of Farmers Valley Township, Hamilton County (see here). Peter P’s father Peter D died in 1897, so the 1916 plat map shown in the earlier post must refer to Peter P as owner.

As owners of 480 acres in 1911 (320 acres in York County and 160 in Hamilton County), Peter P and Margaretha likely were well-positioned financially, perhaps not rich but certainly not impoverished. If nothing else, they farmed their own land, something that probably never would have happened back in Russia.

What is interesting to note is that Peter P and Margaretha did not rest on their accomplishments but consolidated their land holdings further over the next thirteen years. The evidence for this includes a 1923 plat map of Farmers Valley Township (Hamilton) and a 1924 plat map and Farmers’ Directory for Henderson Township (York), the latter two of which are pictured below.

The Farmers Valley plat map (which can be viewed here) shows that by 1923 the original Buller farm was now owned mostly by H. B. Alger, with 40 acres held by Mrs. J. Penner. Obviously, sometime between 1916 and 1923 Peter P and Margaretha sold the farm, presumably to finance the acquisition of farmland closer to their home in Henderson Township.

The plat map shows that Peter P now owned the entire east half of section 11. Sometime between 1911 and 1924 he purchased the 80 acres formerly held by G. Rempel. That was not all, however. The 80 acres of section 13 that he owned in 1911 had now grown to 120 acres, as he had added 40 acres to the south. The Farmers’ Directory that accompanies this plat map offers even further information.

The entry for Peter P reads as follows:

Buller, P. P. Wf. Margarita; ch. Margarita, Kathrina, Benjamin, Sarah, Klaas, Elizabeth, Cornelius, Maria, Peter, Anna and Henrich. P.O. York. O. 320 ac., sec. 11; O. 120 ac., sec. 13, and in Hays Twp., O. 80 ac., sec. 6; O. 40 ac., sec. 5.

What this says is that Peter P and Margaretha owned several pieces of land: 320 acres in section 11 and 120 acres in section 13 of Henderson Township—plus two pieces of land in Hays Township, which was immediately to the east of Henderson Township. As confirmed on the plat map of Hays Township below, Peter P owned 80 acres in section 6 (the north half of the southeast quarter) and another 40 acres in section 5 (the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter). This land was about two miles from his primary farm, which is a relatively close area in which to hold so much land.

All told, then, by 1924 Peter P and Margaretha farmed 560 acres of their own land, just 80 acres shy of a full square mile. What a change from Molotschna! There a full land allotment was roughly 175 acres in size. Peter P and Margaretha had more than three times that much land, and they could sell or divide it (or buy more) however and whenever they wanted. Both the amount of land and the freedom to dispose of the land however they wished far exceeded anything that would have been available to them in New Russia (where a land allotment had to be kept intact). The wisdom of their (and our) forebears’ coming to the U.S. truly is a source of both amazement and appreciation.

*****

Curious is the Farmers’ Directory listing for David S. Buller, Peter P’s younger brother who came to the U.S. on the S.S. Switzerland at the same time, when one compares it with the corresponding plat map. The entry reads:

Buller, David S. Wf. Margaretha; ch. Kathrina, Sarah, Maria, David, Margaretha, Anna, Martha and Emma. P.O. Box Henderson, Rt. 1. O. 160 ac., sec. 3 (26 [years in the county].) Breeder of White Wyandotte Chickens.

What is interesting is that the plat map lists Margaretha Buller as the owner of the southwest quarter of section 3. The most reasonable explanation is that in this instance the wife owned the land, not the husband. Perhaps she inherited it from her parents Gerhard and Katharina Dueck Epp? Now we really need to find an earlier plat map!