The Farm House....
In the last post, a picture of a painting of the Zacher homestead was shared at the very end depicting what the house and outbuildings looked like in the early 1900's. Here's the actual photo that painting was created from, crosshairs and all. The crosshairs were drawn on the original to break it up into a grid of 8 sections as requested by Irma Birdsall, the artist who created the painting:
There are two differences between the painting and the actual photo I'd like to point out:
1. The door to the grainery on the side of the barn toward the back. Please note the door in the actual photo. In the painting, it is painted as a section where the plaster has fallen away. It's pretty easy to see how that mistake might have been made since some of the plaster had, in fact, fallen away from around the door. Add to that the fact the original photo is pretty small and the door is kind of hard to see, and there you have it. Mom always made mention of that "flaw", but also said it's really not all that important in the scheme of things. It was still a painting of "home" for her, and that's all that mattered.
2. The painting does not include the two figures walking toward the back entry to the house shown in the cropped photo image below. It would be fascinating to know who they really were!
My Mom used to tell us she didn't know if those two people were her and her Dad, Oscar, but she liked to think it might be. It's obvious the person on the left is a little girl. So, Mom might have been right, but me being me, I just couldn't resist doing a bit of research on whether or not Mom's nostalgic remembrances were accurate. In order to do so, though, a different approach needed to be taken.
Obviously, the faces of the two in the picture could not be seen. No facial recognition software in the world would work in this instance, eh? So, a different focus?
The house? Nope.
The windmill? Nope.
The vehicle parked in front of the house? Yep. That's it!
Is that a Ford Model A or a Ford Model T?
Anyone?
The reason I ask is because if it's a Model A (I don't think it is), the photo may be of Mom and her Dad. If it's a Model T (I think it might be), it might be of Mom and her Dad.
I'm soooooo confused!
Mom was born in 1923, and, according to Wikipedia, the Model A began its production run in October, 1927. That would have made the child in the photo perhaps 4 years old if, and it's a very big IF, the vehicle in question was purchased brand new in 1927.
If the vehicle is an older Model T, the forerunner of the Model A, it could still be Mom and her Dad in that photo. But, then again, it could be Aunt Lorraine, Aunt Roberta, or even Aunt Jeanne. It all depends on how old that vehicle is when that photo was taken.
These are the kinds of questions, conundrums, and puzzles that drive me up a wall backwards sometimes.....trying to figure out how ALL the pieces of a puzzle actually fit together.
On this one, I guess we may never know who at least one of those two people in the photo actually is....and maybe both.
Anyway, getting down to business here....
I'm starting out this blog post with a photo of the Zacher homestead farm house and outbuildings. Why? Because I can. Well, there's more to it than that, actually.
If anyone watched the video, The Germans From Russia: Children of the Steppe Children of the Prairie, that I shared in the last post and am providing here once again, part of the story talks about how settlements in South Russia revolved around the town. Seldom did anyone build homes or reside outside the community. Farmers lived in town, and went out to till the soil and tend their flocks and herds during the day. They came back to their homes in town when done in the fields for the day. As a result, social activities and interactions, both from a personal and also a religious perspective, were pretty commonplace and relatively easy to engage in. That cannot be said for Germans from Russia settling on the vast open prairie of the Dakota Territory.
When Germans from Russia emigrated to the United States, they took advantage of the Homestead Act. That act was passed to encourage western migration and settlement. There was a catch, however. In order to be able to claim a parcel of land under the Homestead Act, the claimant had to live on that parcel for 5 continuous years in order to be able to claim it as their own. They couldn't live in a town and farm the land from there by going out during the day and coming back to town in the evening. And that's why the Germans from Russia couldn't engage in the same kind of "culture" they were used to back in South Russia. In effect, they were kind of forced, if you will, to erect whatever dwellings and outbuildings they could, including sod from the prairie and the kind of building materials including sandstone and mud described in the article in the first blog post in this series.
Christian Zacher, my Great Grandfather, homesteaded on the 160 acre parcel the Zacher house and outbuildings are located on. From there, he purchased the other claims as mentioned in the previous post and as written by his daughter, my Great Aunt Pauline Zacher-Miller.
Even by today's standards, the Zacher homestead was kind of off the beaten path, so to speak. I believe the closest farm to the Zacher homestead may have been the Sprenger farm, about a mile away to the west give or take. By today's standards, a mile is kind of like a hop, skip, and a jump away. By days gone by's standards, that mile would have been a pretty good walk or horseback ride. I'm not sure how many other homesteads were "close" to the Zacher homestead, but I certainly don't remember any of them being within a mile's distance.
ND State Highway 49 is on the westward side of the Sprenger homestead, but Highway 49 didn't even exist at the time Christian lived on this property. According to Wikipedia, ND State Highway 49 was constructed in 1927, and by that time Christian had already left for California.
But I digress.
Isolation. Distance from neighbors. Loneliness. All were factors in whether or not Germans from Russia even survived the arguably "brutal" living conditions on the open prairie of the Dakota Territory (North Dakota didn't become a state until November 2, 1889).
The Zacher homestead was different....at least from what I've been able to research. This particular homestead became kind of a stopover for travelers. According to Great Aunt Pauline, it was also almost a trading post of sorts with Native Americans.
Perhaps the reason was because folks were welcomed with open arms. Perhaps it was because trails led there. Perhaps it was for other reasons unbeknownst to us. I do know that my Dad's Father, Ferdinand Hochhalter, stopped there once or twice on his way to Glen Ullin to procure supplies to stick build a house on their property 12 miles south of the present town of New Leipzig. So, it must have been a pretty well known stopover in them there parts.
In fact, what was once Grandpa Zacher's shop at one time became a bunkhouse that guests stayed in overnight if necessary. It later became his, and later Uncle Harlan's shop for awhile. Uncle Harlan later built a quonset that functioned as his own much larger shop.
At any rate, the house has deteriorated to such a degree that the current owner is really reluctant to allow anyone to go into the house for obvious reasons. But, memories still serve, and Fonda Rieger was kind enough to dig deep into the recesses of her memory and draw floor plans of the two floors of the house.
First floor:
Second floor:
A couple of things regarding these two images:
- A remodel of the original house was undertaken by Uncle Harlan and Aunt Jeanne. Prior to that remodel, the area on the first floor designated as a bathroom was originally Cousin Clyde Rieger's bedroom. He didn't move to the upstairs bedroom until after the remodel was completed and indoor plumbing was installed.
- Indoor plumbing. Before indoor plumbing, I remember there being something in his bedroom some would call a "honeypot". Others called it a "honeybucket". Regardless, it was a toilet with a bucket inside that would have to be emptied at pretty regular intervals. Otherwise, the outdoor biff had to be used, and that was NOT a very pleasant experience in the middle of winter and late at night, for sure!
I'm now going to show a progression of photos of the house that come as close as I can get them to being similar to the original photo that began this blog post.
Circa 1980's:
The next one is also from circa 1980's, but was provided by Cousin Ardis Zacher-Storms:
While this photo from Ardis is not a frontal shot, it does show the south face of the house and part of the barn.
Now from 2016, two photos provided by Fonda Rieger
From afar:
More closeup and from inside the corral:
Ravages from both time and the elements of Mother Nature can be brutal, especially if structures like our own Zacher homestead buildings are no longer lived in and used for any purpose other than the nostalgia for those of us who lived there or practically lived there (like my own brother, sisters, and me) when we view current photos and reminisce on years gone by.
And with that, this blog post comes to an end.
I'm not sure where to start with the next blog post, so readers are encouraged to make suggestions and recommendations on what they (YOU) would like to see.
Until next time.....
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