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History
Segments Presented by Lyle Harvey
THE HEISS FAMILY
(Read at the Page Methodist Church on May 11, 2008)
The settlers
that came to this area in 1882 and 1883 came here for a variety of reasons.
Some had been living in the United States for several generations as
the Charles Wood Family did in New York. Some, however, came directly
from Europe to this country to take advantage of the free land that
was offered and move away from the problems where they were living,
as did the Leonhard Heiss family. John Leonhard Heiss was born in 1831
in Baden Baden, Germany. He had married Katharina Graulich and they
had six children. Leonhard’s family had probably lived near Baden
Baden for many generations. It would have been a difficult decision
to pick up and move to a foreign land. Few of us today, other than perhaps
our minister Costa, can realize how difficult that decision must have
been. Leonhard told his descendants that they wanted to flee from the
Prussian Army that must have been making life very difficult for the
local families. Again, we cannot comprehend those fears today.
Leonhard and Katharina gathered
up all the belongings they felt they needed and could carry and bundled
up their six children; Katharina, Elizabeth, Karolina, Anna, Leonard
and Louise and boarded a ship to come to America. This family arrived
in Omaha sometime around 1882.
Leonhard made application
for a homestead in Northern Nebraska through the land office in Niobrara.
They left their oldest daughters in Omaha doing domestic jobs they found,
to help earn money for the family. The rest of the family boarded the
train in Omaha arriving in Inman, Nebraska in the spring of 1883. Leonhard
and Katharina could not speak English and their 8 year old son Leonard
served as their interpreter. They gathered up everything they owned
and started walking northeast of Inman to find the quarter of land they
had filed on, but to my knowledge, a land they had never seen.
How this family and other
families like them survived their first year is still a tremendous puzzle
to me. Cooperation from neighbors and friends had to have been the answer.
I am sure, the Charles Wood Family helped the Heiss’ all they
could and vice versa. Words like dedicated, stubborn, hard working,
ambitious, ingenious and resourceful come to mind, but fall short to
give meaning to this early group of settlers.
Lyle Heiss still has letters
from Leonhard’s family in Germany written in German. Lyle, I challenge
you to get someone to read these letters for you to help understand.
I salute the Heiss family for being here 125 years this spring.
Lyle Harvey
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