Chapter 11 - Boone County to Hamilton County 1884-1900

To review: Abraham Schmidt 1850-1928 came to America in 1876. He first married Katharina Nikkel and had a baby daughter "Tena" who grew up to marry Peter Karber.

Peter and Katharina "Tena" (Schmidt) Karber

 Abraham's first wife died so he took his baby Tena and moved 90 miles north to Boone County where he joined Johann J. Regier's church. He married Johann J's daughter and had two more children: Mary (who grew up to marry Jacob Hiebert) and Abraham A. (who changed his name to A.A. Smith).
And now:
 

Hamilton County, Nebraska 1884-1900

In 1879 Johann J. Regier helped establish a congregation with the fifteen families that arrived in Boone County with him.  Within three years, church membership had reached fifty families. But fear of intermarriage with the Roman Catholics and Lutherans who had settle around the Mennonite Brethren triggered plans to relocate. By 1900 the entire congregation had moved away, most of them to the Henderson community in York County, southwest of the city of York, Nebraska. (Henderson, Nebraska by Henderson Centennial, 1979, Hiebert Library, Fresno.)

The Schmidt family consisted of Abraham, 34, Katharina, 23, Abraham A. (A.A. Smith), 18 months, Mary, 2, and their half-sister Tena, 5. They joined the exodus south to Hamilton County in September of 1884.

They ended up not far from where Abraham had lived before with the Nikkels. The Nikkels lived east of the county line in York County. The Schmidts lived right on the county line of York and Hamilton, just two miles from Henderson.
When I started doing this research I was often confused by the names Boone, Hamilton, York, and Henderson. Hopefully, with these maps, you won't be as confused as I was. You can click on any picture to make it larger. 

 

 

Hamilton County map of Abraham's land on the border of Hamilton and York Counties

York County map (look at the left - Henderson is marked in red - Abe's farm is just over the border in Hamilton)

Abraham Schmidt bought 120 acres of Hamilton County land on June 7, 1884, before he actually moved his family 90 miles south from Boone to Hamilton. He bought it from his father-in-law Johann J. Regier for $2100. As the survey map shows, Johann J. had another 160 acres nearby; and so did Johann J.'s brothers Peter and Cornelius.

Across the street from Abraham's new property was a church built by Johann J. Regier's congregation. It was built in the traditional fashion. It had one side for men and the other for women. They even had separate cloakrooms.

Abraham did not sell his property up in Boone County before he left. Jacob Grau almost bought it on December 8, 1884 for $1500 but the deal fell through. Then, 18 months later, on March 15, 1886, he sold the farm to Mrs. Gerhardt Regier for $1400.

Wow, four years and he made a 300% profit! Who was this Mrs. Regier?

Mrs. Gerhardt Regier was Abraham's wife's aunt, and she immediately sold it to Heinrich Schmidt, also for $1400.

Heinrich Schmidt? Why didn't Heinrich buy it directly from Abraham? And we've been looking for Heinrich Schmidt, Abraham's older brother from the Kuban.
 Recently, I have found new information about Abraham's brother Heinrich. If you remember in Russia, Abraham's parents had 3 children - Abraham, Heinrich, and Katharina. Katharina married someone from Prussia and apparently moved back there. Abraham stayed single until after he arrived in the U.S.

But Abraham's brother Heinrich was married on December 25, 1865 to Katharina Friesen in Russia. They immigrated with their 2 boys in October 18, 1879 on the SS Oder to New York.

Did Abraham sell his land to an intermediary (his wife's aunt) to sell to Heinrich because he wasn't talking to him? Church records state that Heinrich Schmidt "disappeared". He "ist verschwunden". Did he just leave the church?

We do know that Heinrich's descendants are still alive. Maybe we will find out from them.

Now back to our story....

Abraham and Katharina Schmidt and their three children were joined the following year by a baby girl, Susanna, born Thursday, May 22, 1885 at 3 a.m. She was named after Katharina's older sister, Mrs. Peter (Susanna Regier) Unruh. (She is on the far right in the picture below.)

Next came Johann, or John, who was born on Friday, November 20, 1886. Although a second son was often named for his father's father (Heinrich in this case) perhaps they felt closer to Johann J. Regier, Katharina's father. He was closer to them in many ways. He lived nearby.  He sold them land cheaply and bought it back at full value. He was a leader in their church and their community. And, in January 1888, he gave each of his daughter from his first marriage $600. This was their share of his estate. (He then left everything else to provide for his young, second family with Maria Schellenberg Schmidt. For example, his daughter from the second marriage, Maria Regier, received 80 acres of land valued at $20,000 in 1918.)

Johann J. Regier Family - JJ. in center w beard - our Katharina to the right of him and Abraham Schmidt standing behind her - the inscription says it must have been taken around 1889 - that is his second wife, Maria Schellenberg to the left with their two young children - Maria and John S. - behind them

 This seems like a good place to stop. Next chapter will be about their farm life and the birth of Abraham's 3rd son - Heinrich or Henry.

Chapter 10 - York County to Boone County, Nebraska 1880-1884

To recap: In the last chapter, our gr-grandfather Abraham Schmidt, settled in York County, Nebraska with the Nikkel Family. He married the older of two daughters of landholder and fellow Mennonite Brethren Heinrich Nikkel. In 1880 Abraham's wife died 9 months after giving birth to Katharina "Tena". (Tena later married Peter Karber).
Abraham and his baby daughter and moved.

York county is the star to the bottom of the map; Boone County is the star above it.

Boone County 1880-1884

The same summer that Abraham's baby was born, the Johann J. Regier family arrived in Boone County, Nebraska. (The Regier Family Tree by Esther Regier Ediger and Elfrieda Hildebrandt) They were to become an important part of Abraham's life.

Abraham and his baby daughter moved north about 90 miles to Boone County, to join Rev. Johann J. Regier's congregation. JJ. Regier was 47 years old. He had land, a wife, three small children, a married daughter, and an unmarried daughter.

What didn't he have? A son to help on the farm.


On Thanksgiving, November 25, 1880, six months after Katharina Nikkel Schmidt's death, Abraham, 30, married J.J. Regier's second daughter, Katharina, 19. She became a step-mother to 15-month-old Tena.

A Mennonite Wedding of the 1800's

The marriage ceremony was a simple one. Katharina would have worn her Sunday dress, which was a dark, maybe even black, color. To lighten it up she put a white bow on her lapel and one on the groom as well. Katharina walked in with Abraham to be married, signifying her adult status, rather than being given away by her father. Two chairs were placed in front of the pulpit for the couple. The service was lengthy so they sat. There were no flowers or candles. And, in this case, there wasn't even a church building yet, so they were married at her father's house.

The service itself was very much like most of the church worship services. They had congregational singing, a period of informal prayers, several sermons and some songs by a choir.

Weddings, as well as baptisms and funerals, were important social events. Everyone in the church was invited. They lived in a "closed" community. Marriages did not take place with anyone outside the church. These ceremonies reaffirmed their unity and bonded them very tightly with each other. So it was important for the whole congregation/community to participate.

After the ceremony, the families filled the evening with poems, recitations, musical selections, short talks and visiting. No one danced, and the men and women stayed in their own separate groups, while the children played and the teenagers flirted.

They had to entertain themselves in those days. The men could be found out back playing horseshoes. The school-age children played "In and Out the Window" and "London Bridge". And the women visited while cooking, serving and cleaning up. Once the women had finished the chores, one of the women got the "Mennonite Hat" and placed it on Katharina's head as a symbol of her newly married status. The covering was made of lace with a large, flat bow on top. She would keep her hair covered for the rest of her life.

So they were married. When was my grandfather born? 
Now we're getting to the generation of uncles and aunts that many of us remember, either personally or from stories our parents have told us.


The Children and The Land - 1881


The following year, on Sunday, December 20, 1881, at 5 a.m., Abraham and Katharina's first child Maria Schmidt was born. In many European cultures, naming the children followed a traditional pattern. The first son was named for the father; the second son was named for the father's father and the third for the mother's father. The first daughter was named for the mother, the second for the mother's mother and the third for the father's mother.

The problem in this family was that everyone was named Katharina - the mother, the paternal and maternal grandmothers, the first wife, and there was already a step-daughter named Katharina. So they named the new baby for her maternal step-grandmother. They named her after Katharina's stepmother, J.J.'s young wife, Maria Schellenberg Regier. My mother talks about her Aunt Mary, born in 1881, who married Jacob Hiebert and moved to California.

The house was getting crowded by then, so the next year on May 17, 1882, Abraham and his wife and two daughers (Tena and Mary) moved nearby to their own land. Katharina's father, J.J. Regier, sold them 120 acres for $350. This was land that J.J. had bought from the railroad 3 years earlier for $429.38.

It was on this land that Abraham's first son was born on Monday, April 9, 1882, at 7:00 a.m. (Abraham's handwritten diary, owned by Hulda Langhofer, translated by Rosalie Schmidt Berg.) It should be no surprise that they named the baby Abraham. Often sons took their father's first name for their middle initial, thus Johann J. was the son of Johann, and Abraham's son Abraham became known as Abraham A. or A.A. He later became known as Rev. A.A. Smith. (see the earlier post about middle names in Mennonite and Amish families. Also, Mennonite Life, a magazine, p. 104)

But I thought the children were born in Henderson in York County!

Let's review: Abraham's first daughter, Tena, was born in York County, east of Henderson. Mary and A.A. were born while they lived in Boone County, north of York County. And the rest of the children will be born back near Henderson (the city.)

Next post will be in their life in York County.

Chapt. 9 - York County, Nebraska 1876-1880

Recap: Abraham Schmidt (our grandfather and great-grandfather) was 26 when he traveled from the Kuban in south Russia to the United States. He was single and left behind his parents' graves, and a brother and a sister, both with families. He traveled by railroad across the U.S. to Lincoln, Nebraska and then 60 miles west to York County.

Now:
Abraham ended his trip in York County, Nebraska. He didn't buy any land, but he did marry Katharina Nikkel, 21, daughter of Heinrich and Katharina Heinrich Nikkel. They were married on June 20, 1877, a year after Abraham's arrival.

Please note that names were spelled in a variety of ways in those days. With different native languages, with different educational levels, and less of a bureaucracy, people spelled names in the way they thought best.

Abraham's father-in-law was Heinrich Nikkel or Nickel. Since I can't find a published family tree to link to, I will give a brief genealogy on Abraham's first wife's family. You can skip this if you aren't interested. :)

Heinrich Nikkel was born on November 12, 1819. His wife Katharina Heinrichs was born on December 24, 1820. They were married in September 1841. Their first child to grow to adulthood, Katharina, was born on September 8, 1856. This family lived in the Molotschna Colony just like our Abraham Schmidt did. And just like him, when the Brethern started a new colony in the Kuban part of Russia, they all moved there in 1863.

And now they all moved to Nebraska at the same time.

"Heinrich Nikkel, laborer, his wife Katharina and two spinster daughters Katharina, 18, and Agneta, 15, were on the S.S. Wyoming which arrived in New York on June 26, 1876. (Brother in Deed to Brothers in Need by Clarence Hiebert, 1974.)

They girls were listed as "spinsters. Were they considered too old to be unmarried?

The American agent recording the names of immigrants may have felt that the girls were too old to be unmarried, but not the Mennonites. They promoted later marriage by stating that a person must be a church member in order to marry. They must be an adult in order to make the decision to become a church member and be baptised. This age was more often 21 than 18. (Women Among the Brethren by Katie Funk Wiebe, 1979, pg. 44.)

In the Mennonite Brethren Church, baptism was contingent upon a religious experience called "salvation". This was an emotional experience brought about usually during a revival meeting with daily preaching and reading of the Bible. The petitioner was asked to be able to tell the congregation the date, the place and the intensity of feeling of the experience and to be able to relate it to a Bible passage. The feeling was described as euphoric, and there was much joy associated with this conversion. Abraham was baptized on April 29, 1877, seven weeks before his wedding.

One to two weeks before the wedding, an announcement was made in church, telling of the commitment made by the couple and inviting everyone to the happy event. Unfortunately, this time the good news was marred by the death of Katharina Nikkel's mother on June 5, 1877.

Abraham and Katharina lived in her family home with her father and sister. They probably lived in a sod house. It was built by digging down four feet, building up the walls with sod and then putting 2-by-4 rafters across the top. These rafters were covered with bundles of long prairie grass making a thatched roof. As soon as the settlers could afford it, the sod house was replaced with a house of adobe brick. Sod houses were full of mice, bed bugs and fleas. The human dwellers fought the vermin by whitewashing the walls, having a fierce cat and making sure that the smoke from the fireplace went up through the thatch roof to kill the bugs. (Nikkel-Nickel Family of Prussia, Russia, U.S. & Canada by John P. Nickel, 1981, pg.13.)

A typical sod house of the 1880's in Nebraska (no relation)

On "August 9, 1979 at 10:30 p.m. a daughter Katharina, was born," wrote Abraham in his diary. But the mother never fully recovered. On "May17, 1880 at 2:00 p.m. she died." And Abraham moved again.

Next: Where to this time?