Johann Ziemann and Susanna Lang

Johann Ziemann was born on January 10, 1834, in Brienne Bessarabia, Russia to Friedrich Ziehmann and Anna Rosina Haymann (the documents recording her last name are difficult to read—it could be spelled Heumann, Heimann, Neumann.) Johann Ziemann was the third son of ten children.

Susanna Lang was born November 3, 1837, in Brienne Bessarabia, Russia, to Peter Lang and his first wife, Wilhelmina Sperling. Wilhelmina died in the 1840s. Peter remarried to Lois (Louise) Jess and had several more children.

Johann and Susanna Lang’s engagement was announced on November 23, 1856. They were married December 13, 1856. He was 22 and she was 19.  To this union were born 13 children.  Only four children lived: Christian (the eldest), Rosina, Immanuel and Marie Magdalena (the youngest).  With their children, Johann and Susanna traveled to Bremen, Germany, crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the ship S.S. Saale.

Upon arriving at Port of New York in 1887, the family went to Scotland, Dakota Territory. Arriving in South Dakota with $500, Johann bought supplies—flour, wagon, three cows and three horses. One of the horses cost him $140. Johann and Christian filed their intention papers to become a citizen. Christian and his family stayed in Scotland, D.T. for an unknown time and reason. The horses and wagon brought Johann north to Mercer County, N.D. Locating about 16 miles north of the village of Hazen. Krem, N.D. was their post office at that time. He filed a homestead claim, and as the story goes, the family lived in a dugout for months, until they completed the sandstone, mud, straw house. The Hazen Star of June 24, 1937, reported that the Ziemann family lived with the Priebe family after their arrival until their house of sod and Missouri River cottonwood timber was built. After buying their equipment, their resources were low so they picked buffalo bones to exchange for groceries.

Later on Christian joined his father and filed a claim ½ mile east of his father. Rosina married Adolf Oster who farmed nearby. Marie Magdalene married Ferdinand Rahn, who farmed two miles due west of Johann’s homestead.

~Information gathered from two sources: Hazen 1913-1988 Jubilee Book and A Ziemann History by Cindy Highley & Peggy Renner Howell

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JOHANN AND SUSANNA ZIEMANN

John and Susanna (Lang) Ziemann came to Mercer County in 1887—Perhaps from the town of Brienne, Bessarabia, Russia. With them came their son, Emanuel, who was nine years old at the time; and two sisters, Rosina (Oster) and Magdalina (Rahn) and a married brother, Christian, who died in 1923.

John arrived in South Dakota with $500, with which he bought supplies—flour, wagon, three cows and three horses, one of which cost him $140. The horses and wagon brought them to Mercer County where they homesteaded 16 miles north of Hazen; Krem was their post office.

After buying their equipment, their resources were low so they picked buffalo bones to exchange for groceries. 

The Ziemann family lived with the Priebe family until their house of sod and Missouri River cottonwood timber was built.

~Information from the Hazen Star, June 24, 1937

~Source: Hazen, N.D. Jubilee book, 1913-1988

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