- Family
-
- My brother built a porch on the
back of our homestead
- And it made me think of someone
who was mostly bible bred
- Our grandfather was born in the
Dakotas back in 1883
- His family came from Prussia on a
ship across the sea
-
- They were German speaking
Mennonite farmers
- Settling in the Dakotas to escape
what would get worse
- The same year Custer bit the dust
and Hickock met his fate
- they were busting sod, and
building towns for a new state
-
- Now we would not have known this
if my brother didn't search
- Through books and build a web site
like an eagle on his perch
- And so he wrote the story going
back 200 plus years
- Our family from three countries
working land and shedding tears
-
- Heinrich was the one from which
our ancestors we now scan
- His sons and daughters were surely
proud to be American
- Abraham H. (great grandpa) was
killed by a lightning bolt
- Sarah was left with children and
two horses, what a jolt!
-
- In 1889 the territories became two
new states
- As sons and daughters married,
building ties with sets of plates
- Sarah married Jacob after
homesteading another place
- living as one large family,
sharing rooms and saying grace
-
- imagine, this frontier, houses
change from sod to wood
- horses, roads and
communication will be transformed as they
should
- In 1910 Sarah's sons Abe and Henry
start three stores
- where selling hats and implements
kept them sweeping wooden floors
-
- Abraham Adam also contracted to
build shops and homes
- But his heart was turning to the
Lord, he would quit selling combs
- Preaching to the folks who lived
stark lives and tilled the soil
- Grounding him for life, like some
guy that just struck oil
-
- He lived as a young man in a new
world of change
- Watching as he walked, rode and
drove across the range
- That changed from Indian country
where game aplenty ran
- To cities from which immigrant
children spread out like a fan
-
- So thanks to my brother whose
tireless search gave life
- To those folks who came before us
enduring joy and strife
- giving our family roots here that
reach out for miles
- so we can read his story that
won't be lost in dusty files
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