Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

Norma Jean Steinkruger has done a wonderful job on putting the Macon History Book together. I personally know she worked on this book for a long time. While going through some files from Veda Clements I found the following story. Although you can go to the Macon History Book and read this coverage I am going to reprint the life and times that Hermann and Gertje De Vries of this week’s article. I am not sure if any of their descendents live here in Franklin County today. I always find information on sod houses that catch my eye. After the story that will cover two weeks worth I will have a follow up on the placement of the sod houses.

“On July 12, 1885, the USS General Werder arrived in New York City on a voyage that had begun in Bremen, Germany. Among its passenger were Hermann de Vries (1844-1920 m. 1877), his wife Gertje Harms Poppen de Vries (1847-1930) and their four children: Fredrich Wilhelm Heinrich (1877-1956 m. 1903 Mary Grig (1875-1958), Antje Dorothy (1878-1959 m 1899 John Grusing (1873-1961), Harmon W. (1880-1952 m. 1908 Rose C. Trachsel, (1884-1966), and Tena (1882-1954 m. Carol Baumann, (1878-1943). Accompanying Hermann was his brother Wilhelm Heinrich (1834-ca 1889). Three days later on July 15, they arrived in Franklin, NE, by rail and traveled the remaining eight miles to Macon to begin their new life on the prairie.

Hermann, son of Fredrich and Trintje de Buhrs de Bries, was born in Timmel in the Ostfriesland region of the Kingdom of Hannover. At a young age he moved with his family to Egels, Ostfriesland, where he and Gertje later resided. She had been born in Wiegboldsbur, Ostfriesland, to Harm Wibben Poppen and Antje Theessen Poppen and Antje Theessen Pollen. Legal documents described Hermann as a common laborer and as a farmer who rented his acreage. He was a cheese maker by vocation. To practice his trade, according to family lore, he smuggled salt from the Netherlands to avoid the high salt tax in Hannover. His brother was a tailor and shoemaker. The decision to move to Macon was likely reached after encouragement from Ostfriesland friends who had already formed a community in Nebraska. By one account, correspondence with the Hippe Yelken family already in Macon prompted the de Brieses to move there.

“In keeping with previous experience, Hermann and Gertje began life in the New World as renters. Leasing 80 acres of school land four and half miles northeast of Macon (SE1/4 of section 16 twp 3 NR16 W). Hermann’s brother Wilhelm lived with them. Soon after the family arrived in Macon, their neighbors came for a house raising and built a sod house with a shingle roof. Here Wilhelm Heinrich (1885-1886) and Theda Wilhelmine (1888-1961 m. 1911 Oliver David Brunkow (1884-1960) were born. Seven years later, in 1892, Hermann and Gertje bought farmland 3 miles southeast of Macon (NW1/4 of section 33 Twp 3NR14W). They built a soddie on their prairie and later replaced the sod house with one built of brick. Their last child William Harry (1892-1959 m. 1914, Lillian Gralap (1890-1968), was born at this site.

“The move from the pastures of Ostfriesland to the prairies of Nebraska built character. During their first winter in Macon on January 5, 188 6, Hermann was in town up north when word came via telegraph of an approaching blizzard. Riding his ‘Texas pony’ at full gallop he returned to Macon, gathered his two children at school, and reached his barn just as a blinding storm struck. On a later occasion, Gertje despaired of ever seeing her husband again after he was caught in a blizzard and failed to come home. He returned after three days, surviving only because he found shelter in an Indian cave. Also in 1886, death claimed their infant son Wilhelm, born just after they arrived in the New World, and the child’s namesake, Hermann’s older brother Wilhelm, died before the decade ended.

Hermann de Vries adjusted successfully to the economic conditions of his new homeland. He persisted at his craft of cheese making and put up a sod building in which to produce cheese. Making use of cattle available locally, he produced long horn cheese as well as cheeses he was familiar with in Europe, such as the oily, full cream cheese favored by Ostfrieslanders. He supplied a variety of cheeses to suit the palates of other Germans, French, and Americans in the area.

“The de Vrieses found that life on the plains required great self reliance. They grew corn and transported it some 10 miles to the Republican River for milling. They raised sheep so that Gertje could gather wool, card it, and spin it into yarn to make the family’s clothes. The family also made shoes. Because a cattle trail was in the vicinity, Gertje was able to acquire from the cowboys calves that grew to become the cows that produced the milk used in cheese. She raised the calves by hand on a diet of dishwater and wheat meal cooked in dishwater. (According to tradition, dishwater was used because the closest well was seven miles away.)

“Through their diligence and hard work, Hermann and Gertje had accumulated 440 acres by 1900, but their time in Macon was drawing to a close. Seeking a milder climate, they looked to the Pacific Northwest. Their son-in-law, John Grusing, traveled to Oregon’s Willamette Valley and liked what he found in the area around Pratum, a small farming community near Salem, Oregon’s capital. He made provisions to move there in the Spring of 1902, and the de Vries family followed in stages. By the fall, Hermann and Gertje were in Pratum, and the last members arrived in December 1902, accompanied by the families of Dietrich Kleen and Henry Grusing, John’s brother. The Hermann Hummel family arrived in the Salem area later in the decade and several other Macon Families joined their former neighbors in the Pratum area, especially during the Great Depression of the Dirty Thirties.”

The Bookshop has thousand books, all colors, hues, and tinges,

And every cover is a door that turns on magic hinges. Nancy Byrd Turner

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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