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?