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SOLOMON ISAAK Solomon Isaak, one of the leading business men of Eureka, being one of the well-known firm of Isaak & Krim Brothers, was born near Odessa, Russia, in the year 1865, and was the son of Gottlieb Isaak. He was born about one hundred miles west of the city mentioned, his father having taken up his abode there upon his immigration from Germany. In 1878, Gottlieb Isaak came with his family to American and located in what is now South Dakota. He took up government land ten miles east of the present town of Parkston, Hutchinson County, becoming one of the first settlers in the county and resided there for a period of eight years. While the family resided in the Parkston vicinity, Mr. Isaak tells with huge enjoyment of he was “boss syrup maker” of the neighborhood. The settlers planted sugar cane and had a mill for extracting the sweet juices, which were afterward boiled down into syrup or sorghum molasses. The boiling down process required expert attention and was an art which Solomon Isaak acquired and practiced with a good deal of pride. As his children were growing up and wanted land of their own and he felt better opportunities might be afforded them farther north in the territory, Gottlieb Isaak then removed with his family to Mercer County, North Dakota, where he engaged in farming and stock growing during the next seven years, then moving to Eureka. Solomon Isaak secured his elementary education in his native land and supplemented this by attending night school, the only opportunity afforded after the family came to the Territory of Dakota. However, he broadened his education through the associations and experiences of a signally active and successful business career. In 1888, Solomon Isaak initiated his independent career by engaging in farming in Mercer County, North Dakota, where he remained seven years. His place was fifty miles from the railroad and he preferred not to be thus isolated from civilization for a longer period, and he accordingly disposed of his live stock, rented his farm, and then came to South Dakota once more and took up his abode in Eureka. For four years he engaged in clerking in mercantile business. He next began buying and shipping live stock on his own account, continuing operations two years, meeting with gratifying success. He also began buying grain during this period. In 1900, he entered into partnership with John and Jacob Krim, under the firm name of Isaak & Krim Brothers. At the outset they purchased a grain elevator in Eureka, but later acquired two others, located at strategic points. In 1902, the firm also purchased the feed store of William Robb, in Eureka. Mr. Isaak exchanged his land in North Dakota for land in Franklin County, Washington, where he now owns a half section. He was progressive in his methods and was held in high regard as a citizen and business man. On the 22nd of December, 1889, Mr. Isaak was married to Miss Maria Mueller, who was likewise born in Russia and who came to America as a child. She was the daughter of Friederich and Christina Mueller, who resided in Leipzig, in what is now Romania, but then a part of Russia. Her experiences after coming to America might indeed be a thrilling store. The immigrant girl got employment in the family of a physician attached to the U.S. Indian service and naturally came in daily contact with the Indians, even learning a bit of the language. She thus came face to face with the people who were little but an unpleasant legend to most of the white settlers. The Isaaks were the parents of fourteen children. Surviving ones are: Dr. Richard Henry Isaak, Optometrist, Eureka; Lydia Pallviny, Portland, Oregon; Edwin S. Isaak, Manager of elevator, Hillsview, S. Dak.; Mathilda Mertz, Leonard, N. Dak.; Dr. Otto Isaak, Dentist, Tyndall, S. Dak.; Ann Nelson, Eureka; Theodore Isaak, Eureka; Hulda Travaille, Mitchell, S.Dak.; Erna Wenzel, Esther Isaak and Elaine Isaak, of Eureka. In 1920, Mr. Isaak retired from the elevator business, his son Walter J., assuming the responsibility of the same. Nearly all of the Isaak family were gifted with musical ability, a circumstance which provided much to the happiness and enjoyment of the family circle. For a time a family orchestra was maintained, appearing at public functions of various kinds, and playing concerts around the family hearth almost daily. Tragedy entered the happy family circle when failing health made it imperative for Walter, one of the younger sons, to seek the milder climate of Florida in 1935. Together with his wife, they journeyed to that state and had no sooner arrived than a most distressing accident brought death to Mrs. Isaak by drowning on January 21, 1935. The grief-stricken husband brought the body back for burial was himself violently ill soon after. Two months later he died, the best medical aid proving futile. The father has been in failing health since 1931, when an attack of arthritis halted his usual activities. Since 1931, he has been bed-ridden, but tenderly cared for by his wife, who is constantly with him. He smiles and maintains a cheerful disposition, chatting pleasantly with old friends who drop in to visit him. He feels he has lived a full life and a happy one despite the hardship attendant upon pioneer days ant the tribulations that destiny has decreed. ~Source: Article titled: HISTORY 1937—from a Eureka, S.D. publication Autobiography of Solomon Isaak Mr. Isaak was born at Odessa, Russia, on February 28, 1865. He came to the United States with his parents in the Spring of 1878. They came with a group of twenty-one families, landing in Yankton with a capital of fifty dollars in American money. In 1886, he moved to Dakota (North) with his parents, settling on a homestead about five miles south of Krem. There they built a fourteen by twenty sod house. They had heard that North Dakota afforded better farming opportunites and had brought all their belongings with them, including about one hundred head of cattle. Some of the pioneer neighbors of this locality were John Klein, William Richter, Daniel Schimpke, William Priebe and John Suess. One of the first means of earning money in this locality was by picking up the buffalo bones with which the prairies were strewn at this time. During 1886, 1887, and 1888, they sold about four hundred dollars worth of these bones. They were hauled to New Salem where they were sold to Henry Munn for twelve to fourteen dollars per ton. While picking buffaloe bones about five miles south of Berthold, N. Dakota, they found the skeletons of three human beings. These were not identified, but were picked up with the other bones and sold. Mr. Isaak relates the following incident which occurred in the severe winter of 1887-1888: “On the afternoon of January 12, 1888, Mrs. Koch, thirty-year old school teacher from Michigan, who was teaching school five miles north of Stanton, dismissed her pupils before closing times, as a blizzard suddenly arose. She told the pupils to rush over to Heinameyers, the place where she stayed, about seventy-five feet from the school house. The pupils arrived safely, but Mrs. Koch lost her way and fell into a river cut on the Knife River, where she remained without being found for two days. With a stick she kept poking the snow away so that she could get air. When she was found, they immediately rushed her to Heinameyers, where she received the best care possible at that time. She had to give up teaching, but lived for a long time after that. Her legs were terribly crippled and it was necessary for her to use crutches the rest of her life.” It took a two or three-day trip to haul grain the fifty miles to New Salem with horses or oxen. Wheat brought from thirty to fifty cents per bushel at that time. ~Submitted for posting by Fred S. Isaak Obituary of Mrs. Solomon (Maria) Isaak 1869-1952
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