Chapter 13 - Henderson, Nebraska 1887-1903

Recap: Abraham and his wife Katharina Regier Schmidt have moved from York County to Boone County and now back to Hamilton County in Nebraska over the past 10 years. They have five children and are living on their own farm outside of the city of Henderson, Nebraska on the border of Boone and York Counties.

This plat map shows A Schmidt's land on the right side.

Schooling
By now little Tena (Katharina), Mary (Maria J.), and A.A. were old enough to go to school. Until a schoolhouse was built in 1888, classes were taught in someone's home. But they only went for four months a year, from November to February, when the kids weren't needed on the farm.

The teacher was paid with eggs, meat, vegetables or labor. There were mixed feelings about education in many homes. They believed in the importance of education but also wanted to protect their children from bad influences. Not unlike today. They had always protected their beliefs by being self-sufficient and self-contained. Some parents limited the subjects their children were taught. The children were taught German by using the New Testament as the text and everyday math for use on the farm.

In this area Katharina Regier Schmidt was different. She was proud of the education that her children achieved. Eventually most of the boys had a college degree! This outstanding accomplishment was attained at a time when survival was the primary consideration in many immigrant homes. Even the daughters were educated, although not all graduated from elementary school. They all knew how to read and write in High German.

When Tena, Mary and A.A. could be spared from their chores, they walked to school at someone's house, like Jacob Friesen's or John Janzen's. When the snow was blowing and the road was slippery with ice, they hurried to get inside. Lessons began at 9 and ended at 4 with an hour for lunch and two fifteen-minute breaks. Copying, memorizing and reciting were the standard learning methods.

Of course, all grades were together. But grades were not divided by age. As students progressed they would move to the next level. If they had missed school to help at home, they stayed at the level that they needed to study. The children used slates because paper was so expensive. But slates were noisy and smelly. They were wiped clean with spit and a wipe of the sleeve.

First Schoolhouse in Henderson built in 1890

A few years later when public school was held for six months a year, almost all of the children attended three months of German school as well. The church established this school to make sure that the younger generation would be able to read Martin Luther's German Bible. German was still the language of the community of Henderson for church services, the newspaper and much of the the business.

Eventually, when the state law required nine months of school, time had to be found for German school. Everyone was busy in the summer and before and after school. The community found a solution by providing a German school for those who graduated from 8th grade. It became the first type of high school education in the Henderson community.

The Schmidt farm was across the street from the German School which was right next to the church.Only Abraham's oldest son, A.A. attended the German school before they moved to Oklahoma. However, eventually, all of Abraham's sons graduated from German school, and most from college as well.

Socializing
Besides getting together for baptisms, wedding and funerals, the community celebrated the holidays together as well. The first Children's Festival was started in 1889 on the 4th of July to give the Mennonites an alternate way to celebrate Independence day. The "Englishchers" celebrated the holiday with drinking and carousing.

The Festival was held on the farm owned by Abraham's father-in-law, Johann J. Regier. Events included talks on the missionary work that was going on in other countries and an auction of goods to raise money for the missions.

Isn't it amazing that within ten years of immigrating to a new land, these people were sending aid to foreign countries?

Favorite Mennonite Foods
Food was an important ingredient of any celebration, and summer was the time for a Mennonite favorite, watermelon. They were eaten cold from the stream or pickled. The small melons were placed in a barrel of water, salt, dill, grapevines and the pulp of some of the over-ripe watermelons. They were fermented for three weeks. Then they were ready to enjoy. Cucumbers were another favorite, as well as sauerkraut. Before canning with glass jars began in 1900, these picked foods preserved summer's produce for the winter.
Henderson Mennonites: From Holland to Henderson by Stanley E. Voth, 1982.

Drying in the sun was used to preserve apples, apricots and cherries. Gooseberries were put in bottles, the bottles were corked and then they were baked in the Russian oven. There was no juice with them. Later these fruits were steamed, fried or used in moos (stew) to liven up the winter meals.

Apples and potatoes were kept in a cool, dry place; however, some of the potatoes were buried below the frostline. Paper and straw were placed over the potatoes before the dirt covered them. In the spring after the frost was gone, they were dug up again almost as fresh as when they went in.

Called "roggenbrot", rye was a favorite bread. Fresh bread is good by itself but the housewives liked to bring their best spreads to the 4th of July celebration. Everyone had their favorites. The purists liked just the fresh churned butter on their bread while others liked wild plum jelly, apple butter, watermelon syrup, sugar cane syrup, molasses or honey.
Katharina taught her daughters to make verenike, which was a favorite food of their husbands according to their children. It was made like this, in case you want to try it.: The cottage cheese kettle was kept to the back of the cookstove. The clabber milk in the kettle was kept hot, but not boiling, in order to change it to curds and whey. The whey was drained to leave a dry cottage cheese. The cottage cheese could be eaten alone with salt and pepper. But if you made pockets of dough and stuff the pocket with cottage cheese and boil or fry them, then you have verenike.

Verenike

After lunch the women laid out a table of desserts with cakes, pies and big sour cream cookies. There was also tea and coffee but no alcohol. Before granulated sugar was commonly used, sugar came in solid cones. A person scrapped or broke off a piece to use. Tea or coffee drinkers held the piece of sugar between their teeth and let the hot beverage dissolve the sugar as they sipped it.

For entertainment, the children recited poems, Bible verses and songs that they had learned for the occasion. The Children's Festival was a yearly tradition until 1902.

A Funeral
In July, 1902 there was a late wheat harvest, so the festival was postponed. It was re-scheduled for July 11th. On July 8th Johann J. Regier, Katharina Schmidt's father died. On July 11th, they had the festival in the morning and Johann J. Regier's funeral in the afternoon.

As you can see by the number of people in attendance, Johann J. was a well-respected religious leader in the community. His advice was sought for local as well as religious matters. In 1895 he traveled back to Russia with his family. There was an outbreak of smallpox and two of his sons suffered for six weeks before they recovered. Eventually, they were able to continue their trip. J.J. preached and spoke at conferences and festivals in the Molotschna area including Hierschau the model village. The family returned home to Nebraska in 1896. Hierschau: an Example of Russian Mennonite Life by Helmut Huebert, 1986.

Following tradition, after he died, Johann J. Regier's wife, Maria Schellenburg Regier, and his married daughters, Susanna Unruh and Katharina Schmidt, washed his body and dressed him in his Sunday clothes. They laid his family-built coffin in the front room so that family and close friends could say goodbye. Services which included singing were held at the house.

After the family services the casket was placed on Abraham Schmidt's horse drawn funeral carriage. Abraham, as the oldest son or son-in-law, lined up the vehicles for the funeral procession. Johann J's brother, Peter Regier, a minister, was in the lead buggy. The hearse was next, followed by the family arranged in order by age.

The family and friends went to the church, where more services were held with much joyful singing. The pallbearers then took the open casket outside so that pictures could be taken of him surrounded by members of the congregation.

All the members of the congregation attended funerals as well as weddings. They took an active part in the service as well as helping to dig the grave to show respect for the deceased. The relatives sang hymns at the graveside to express their love and their belief in the hereafter. Everyone stayed until the grave was filled in.

Ed. note: We got ahead of our story. To review, in 1889 Henry Schmidt was born and the Children's Festival in Henderson began. Then we talked about favorite foods and J.J.'s funeral being the same day as the festival of 1902. But we can't skip those years in between because a lot happened including the birth of four more children and my grandfather Jacob.

Next: Family life in the Schmidt Household 1891-1898