Dad

Not too long ago, I posted this piece on Facebook from an interview I did with my Dad, Herbert George Hochhalter. For those who may have seen it already, my apologies. For everyone else, this is who my Father was - a simple, down-to-Earth kind of guy. He was very soft-spoken most of the time, but when he said something, it meant us kids needed to listen.

RIP Dad February 10, 1915 - April 10, 2008:

Herbert George Hochhalter

El Paso, TX U.S. Army

Herbert Hochhalter
Feb 10, 2008
93rd Birthday

Conversation with Herbert (my Dad) of his childhood memories:

Ferdinand’s (Editor's note: Ferdinand was my Dad's Father - my Grandfather) brothers were all farmers around Armour, South Dakota.

Their sister, Katherine, married Fred Herr. As I remember she was the youngest in the family. Later on, they moved to California. John and Fred died quite young. John was about 50 and Fred was a little older. Adolph retired in Tripp, South Dakota. Andrew eventually took over the family farm at Armour. He was younger than Dad and came to North Dakota with Dad and homesteaded. Each had a quarter (160 acres) of land.

When George (Andrew’s and Ferdinand’s Dad) passed away in 1905, Andrew went back to South Dakota. His death might be the reason Andrew went back. Ferdinand traded his 80 acres of land in South Dakota to Andrew for Andrew’s 160 acres of land in North Dakota.

I don’t know how long Andrew was in North Dakota, but Dad married Johanna Liedtke in 1908, and both he and Andrew came to North Dakota in 1903. So, there must be a five year span for Andrew living in North Dakota.

I think what brought my family to America from Russia is that men had to go into the Russian military. Farming wasn’t too good anymore, either. Collectivization of farmland got them pretty upset and many left. The whole Hochhalter family came over at the same time. The Liedtkes, Fred stayed and took over the family farm in South Russia, and he eventually came over too and settled in South Dakota, too.

(Editor's note: Kassel, Ukraine is where my Grandfather was born. I believe Hoffnungstal is where Dad's Mom, Johanna, my Grandmother was born)

I imagine the reason they came to North Dakota was because land in South Dakota was all taken up already. I don’t know how they found that out.

It was a pretty hard journey to America from Russia. I think they came through Ellis Island, but I don’t think there’s any record. I'm sure they didn’t come through Canada (Editor's note: according to the Petition for Naturalization for Ferdinand Hochhalter, this family came through the Port of Chicago, although I’m not sure how they got that far inland without doing some land travel, or go through the St. Lawrence Seaway, to get there).

Ferdinand was only 12 years old when they came over. The family settled in South Dakota because of the Homestead Act. There may have been another sister who stayed in Russia when her husband refused to come over, but it’s news to me.

Ferdinand and Andrew moved to North Dakota because there wasn’t enough land in South Dakota to go around. I think the reason they chose where they chose was more than likely because of land availability. Most of the area around there was good farmland. They arrived October 3, 1903 by train into Glen Ullin. They shipped a wagon, horses, and supplies from South Dakota. Most railroads ran east-west, but there must have been some connection to Glen Ullin using the Milwaukee Road.

On their way from Glen Ullin to their new homestead, Ferdinand and Andrew stayed their first night at the Zacher ranch about 6 miles north of present day Elgin. I wouldn’t mention this if it wasn’t for the fact I married Gwen Zacher whose Grandfather owned and operated the ranch my Dad and his brother stayed at that night.

I thought they had a covered wagon to haul some supplies, equipment, and lumber they’d bought in Glen Ullin.

The original location they chose to build a house was about a quarter mile south of where the actual home site ultimately wound up. When Dad and Andrew got to the claim they unloaded the wagon and turned the wagon box upside down. That’s what they lived in until they got shelter up for the horses and themselves and a well dug. The well was very important because they needed water more than anything else to survive. Then they put up the shed for the horses, I think. They eventually built a sod house and lived in it.

The original farmstead was destroyed in a prairie fire probably the next year. Dad told me he and Andrew went to the river to get wood because they didn’t have coal. When they came back they were burned out. They’d seen smoke from the river and were afraid of what might be going on so they headed home as fast as they could go. They lost everything and that’s when they decided to go a little farther north to a new home site and they dug a well there. Why they moved I don’t know.

I don’t know how Ferdinand and Johanna met. Maybe they knew each other in South Dakota before he settled in North Dakota, I just don’t know. He went back to South Dakota and they were married in Menno January 29, 1908.

After they were married, he brought Johanna to her new home in North Dakota. It was a pretty long trip to make. Mom and Dad traveled by train because by that time the Milwaukee Railroad went through Lemmon, South Dakota.

The big house was built in 1918, so Ferdinand and Johanna lived in the sod house for about 10 years. The five older kids were all born in the sod house - the last was Elsie in 1917. I was three when the new house was built. The only thing I remember about the house being built was the carpenter had to cut a board to fit into the siding and these little triangle pieces came out and I was picking them up and playing with them. I don’t remember how long it took to build the house or who built it. The barn was moved in quite a few years later, maybe 1920 or so, after the big house was built.

The Michael Hochhalters you see in the photograph below outside our house lived right out of Bentley, North Dakota.

Michael was Grandma Hochhalter’s third husband. He married Grandma when she was a Liedtke sometime after her second husband, my Grandpa, died. She was my Mother’s Mother, but Michael was not my Mother’s Father. I have no idea when Grandpa died. So, the Grandpa I knew was Michael. They didn’t have any children that I know of. We used to stop there for lunch when we’d haul grain to the Farmer’s elevator in Bentley. We’d stop in after we unloaded and fed the horses and Grandma would always fix us some good soup.

The Lorenzen and Herman families were neighbors. Some of these photos were taken by Theo Lorenzen. The Lorenzen farm was just north of ours where Harry Hochhalter eventually farmed.

The Lorenzens lived there for many years - for as long as I can remember. They must have come there shortly after my Dad. I think they came from Leith or somewhere around there. The Herman farm was just a ways east of there. I don’t know where they came from but their land was in the quarter next to the Lorenzens and just north of Andrew’s parcel.

After the Hermans left, Lorenzen bought the land and must have taken down all the buildings.

The Hermans and the Hochhalters used to work together quite a bit, more so than the Lorenzens and Hochhalters. Harvest took a crew of at least four people, so they almost had to work together to get it done.

The header cut the grain and there was an elevator on it which elevated the grain up into the header box that had a high side and a low side. They’d put the grain in on the low side and take it to the stack to unload it. This was different from shocking the grain. This was a different operation where you cut the grain with a 'binder', and then the grain had to be bundled into a 'shock'. The process we used was to first of all harvest the grain, put it into stacks, and the rest was all done later. My Dad and Mr. Hintz had a rig together, but before that they hired someone else to come through and thresh. They’d come through and thresh for different people because not everyone had a threshing rig. The threshing was done mostly in October. Sometimes it went into November. The main thing was to harvest the grain and put it into stacks when it was ripe. It just stayed there until the threshers came out. Oats and rye, a lot of people cut that with a binder that tied it into bundles. They’d go so far and then they’d drop the bundles after they had about five or six bundles in the carrier. Then we’d go around later and 'shock' the bundles. We raised wheat, oats, and barley. We also had some corn.

My Dad had cattle for as long as I can remember, so, we put up quite a bit of hay. We had ten or twelve milk cows and we also had chickens that produced lots of eggs. We raised all the food we ate, pretty much. The milk was separated and some was fed to the calves and hogs. The cream would get put into cans and once a week we’d take it into town and sell it. Every town had a creamery and a truck would come around to pick it up. Later on there were some cheese factories that sprung up and the trucks would haul the milk to those factories.

We always had a big garden. They were big enough to supply enough food to last until the next year. They’d plant sweet corn out in the field someplace, maybe half an acre or so. Lots of potatoes, maybe a wagon load after we dug them up. Mom and Dad stored the produce in the basement. It was always cool down there and everything kept all winter.

Heat was provided by coal. We had coal heat as far back as I can remember. There was a coal mine, Johnson Coal Mine, they’d sell coal. But during the tough years, nobody had any money. A couple miles north of our place there was a coal vein about three feet deep. Several people got together and got a permit, I think from Carson or someplace, and they’d mine their own coal. That was hard work. They’d scrape the dirt off the top and dig out the coal.

As far as burning wood is concerned, I don't remember burning wood at all. But, when Dad first got there, they had to go to the river to get wood because there weren't any trees. The Lorenzens planted the trees on their place. Otto and Dena planted the trees in the shelter belt many years later. There were absolutely no trees around the farmstead at all!

Daily chores were to get the cows and horses in. We had to get up, as far as I remember, about 6 o'clock in the morning. We'd eat breakfast, and, in the summertime, go out and do fieldwork. Then we'd come in at Noon.

Noon was always at least about one and a half or two hours. After that, we'd work until about 7 o'clock in the evening, and, after that, we'd take care of the animals and then eat supper. In the evening, we'd entertain ourselves with our musical instruments and singing.

Of course, after we got a little older, we'd go to school. We had to walk to school, a mile and a quarter. When the weather got real rough, Dad would take us. Later, when I was in 7th grade, we had a buggy with a horse and Dad would take us in that.

One of the things I remember about Dad was that he loved Velvet tobacco. He'd roll his own cigarettes and have one dangling out the side of his mouth almost all the time. Later on, he used a long filter, but every morning he'd take a handful of farmer's matches and fill his pocket with them. When he came back to the house in the evening, the matches would be all gone. He had to use a lot of them because the cigarettes he rolled would always go out after a short time and he'd have to re-light it.

I remember Dad telling me late in his life he'd always thought about quitting, but that he was just too old and he enjoyed smoking too much to give it up. Eventually, he developed a cancer near his lip where he had the cigarette dangling from his mouth all the time, but the doctors were able to remove all the cancer.

Herbert