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PIONEER MOTHER’S HISTORY (Mrs. William Priebe-written June 29, 1932, copy found as an insert in her funeral program) Wilhelmina Gross was born in Eigenheim S. Russia (her parents had migrated from Germany to Russia) on October 23, 1853, she was baptized and confirmed at the same place. In December 1872 she married Wilhelm Priebe. They immigrated to America in 1885 and lived in Scotland, S.Dakota for one year. There they both worked out and secured enough money to purchase a cow, two pigs, a wagon and a team of oxen which Mr. Priebe broke to drive. They made the wagon into a covered wagon and loaded their belongings and started with other home seekers for Hebren, N. Dakota. From there they went out looking for homesteads and settled in Mercer County about ten miles northwest of Stanton. Their first home was a hole in the ground covered with the top of the covered wagon. In this they found shelter until the sod house was ready. This first home cost them just $5.00. The first years were very hard indeed. During the winter they had just one gallon of kerosene, one bushel of potatoes, and one dollar’s worth of sugar. The Mother became ill from malnutrition and in order to revive her strength a liberal amount of the potatoes were baked for her. The children stood about the bed fighting for the peeling from the potatoes of which a liberal portion went to the youngest, a girl of two years. Although the Indians never harmed them, they had a good many scares. At one time they stayed in a cave for three days and nights when it was reported that the Indians were coming and on the war path. Some of their neighbors hid in straw stacks. If there was a worthy pioneer, then Mrs. Priebe was one. She was a wise, intelligent woman and went about as a midwife, until she became too old. In many cases the mothers had more faith in her than in a Doctor. Mr. Priebe retired from farming in 1919 and moved to Krem (a little inland town) where they lived until his death in 1926. After the death of her husband, she made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Gottlieb Miller. After his death she became weak and feeble and followed him in two years, dying July 3rd, 1928. They are buried at Krem in the Johnannas Germeide Cemetary. She left to mourn her death four children. Four of her children had died young. Her oldest daughter, Matilda, Mrs. Gottlieb Miller, died July, 1927. John Priebe, the oldest son lives in Lodi, Calif. She has seven grandchildren in Lodi, California and thirty-three in Mercer County. They celebrated their golden wedding at Krem four years before Mr. Priebe died. ~Submitted for posting by family descendant, Sharon Mueller Moats |
