Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

Editor’s note, the following is the continuation of last week’s excerpt from the Macon History book on Hermann and Gertje de Vries.

“Hermann wrote back to people in Macon that Oregon was paradise, so it is not surprising that he and Gertje lived out their lives in Pratum, as did their three surviving sons. Tena and Theda moved to Portland, OR, while John and Antje Grusing, in search of a drier climate, settled in western Kansas. Five generations have descended from Hermann and Gertje. Their progeny live from coast to coast. Most reside in Oregon and Kansas, but none live in Nebraska.

“Fundamental to Hermann and Gertje was their faith. Both could recount the time and circumstances of their religious conversion and their entry into the German Methodist Church at Aurich, Ostfriesland. They arrived in Macon just as the German Methodist Church was organizing there and were among its first members in 1885. It is said that they chose their second home site to be nearer to Macon so they could be closer to church. Probably their decision to move to Oregon was influenced by the favorable news reports about the northwest that appeared in the German Methodist Newspaper, Christliche Apologete. Their loyalty to German Methodism became even more evident in Oregon. Upon arrival in Pratum, they hosted church services in their home and perhaps influenced by the history of the church in Macon, acquired a school building for use as a church. In time they donated this property to the German Methodist Church, and the family provided much of the labor and many of the supplies used to build the new Pratum German Methodist Church on that site. Hermann and Gertje built their retirement house next to this place of worship so that Hermann could meditate daily in the church. As for Gertje, her faith is appropriately captured in the hymn she transcribed on the fly leaf of a manuscript of German Hymns she complied before leaving the Old Country.”

“As I read this story and used my 1905 map to see where Hermann and his family lived, I found the legal description didn’t match the word description, so I went to the courthouse to look at the records which didn’t show any names on the school land. The legal description says Section 16 of Twp 3NR16W. That would be Ash Grove Twp. That’s wrong! The word description says four and one half miles northeast of Macon, so that doesn’t match either for that would be Logan Twp. So I am thinking Hermann Hummels went to Oregon at the time Hermann De Vries and family did and Herman Hummels lived on the School section 16 of Macon Twp. Then I went to the School Dist. 59 records in the front of the Macon History Book and sure enough I see the Hermann De Vries children going to that school in that district and it gives the land description and it gives the land description as the east one half southeast quarter of 16-3-15 as their home. I was stumped though because the teacher spelled their name just as it sounded H. Defreese. Sometimes the process of elimination clears up all my questions. Try to see in your mind all the neighbors gathered together on the school land northwest of Macon. The site for the new home of the Hermann de Vries would be straight south of the now day home of Myron Dallmann. See the men cutting large blocks of sod to the house area. Probably there were other men stacking up the dirt to make their house. How long did it take to build this sod house at the time period around the end of July 1885? I am assuming not long. If all worked hard, maybe a week. Out of nothing a house was built needing only a little wood for the doors and windows. Sometimes the roof was even sod, but in this case considering the date it surely had a wooden roof.

I do know that in that SE ¼ of 16 of Macon Twp. There was once a house that sat on the west 60 acres of that quarter. I can see it on the 1905 map and I also have a friend that farms that land and knows it very well. He said he had seen glass and metal pieces on the ground as he worked that ground for planting.

On that land in 1905 a G. H. Yanssen is listed as the owner. North, where the black dot is, that represents the house, runs a small creek or run off. That would have made a good place for a sod house because if the draw ran right they could have gotten by with using the back side of the draw for one of the walls. If the creek ran any water at all, it was wise to place the sod house close to the water. I find a lot of time if farms had a sod house the second house was built close to the sod house, and then the sod house became a storage building or a stable.

Hermann and Gertje de Vries second home in 1892, which they owned, was in Logan Twp Section 33 the NW ¼ southeast of Macon. By the time the 1905 map was printed Henry Foulkers lived on this farm and the house shows up in the middle of the quarter. The site of Hermann’s second home today is the farm owned and lived on by Randy Dallman. Books full of stories of our pioneers are at the Franklin County Museum and library. Each of these histories could be broken down into places. I enjoy taking these people and putting them on the farms of the county. Sometimes it takes a lot of research to complete this task. Then I enjoy going to this farm or piece of land to see what they saw with their own eyes oh so many years ago. The only drawback is, time changes all places and things.

May I have eyes to see Beauty in this plain room Where I am called to be. Nancy Byrd Turner

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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