Mary Geminder (1845-1936)

GEMINDER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/12/2024 at 21:52:18

Mary Geminder
(1845 - November 1, 1936)

Pioneer’s Story Recalls Calhoun Of Days Gone By
Editor’s Note: Mrs. Mary Geminder, who died Nov. 1 [1936] at Jolley at the age of 91, had dictated her story of Calhoun County 65 years ago to her daughter, Mrs. Albert Geminder. This picture of pioneer days provides a colorful contribution to Calhoun County history.
(By Mrs. Albert Geminder)
Mary Monk was born in Berlin, Germany in 1845. She came with her parents to Illinois when three years old. At 19 she met and married Jacob Geminder, a Swiss by birth. They lived for six years in Chicago, where their first three children were born. Then they pulled up stakes and headed for northwest Iowa. It was wild, raw prairie but it was fertile. Mary’s husband and her twin brother, John Monk, started out from Chicago in the spring of 1870 in a platform wagon with two bay mules. The roads were only cow trails. They led much of the way through boggy swamp land, unfenced. The travelers had to stop frequently at the farms along the way to rest and feed their mules. These farms were many miles apart.

Buys Farm
A narrow gauge railroad was then in progress of construction, which would provide a means of travel from Chicago to Fort Dodge. Mary and her three children were to follow the men by rail as far as Fort Dodge in the fall. Jacob traded his place in Chicago for a farm north to Twin Lakes, owned by a Mr. Oman, at the rate of $9 an acre for 80 acres. Now occupied by the Ted Lenz family, it was just west of the Conrad Hoergott place, still occupied by the Hoergott family. In the deal, Jacob also became owner of all the machinery and stock. The machinery was crude, mostly made by the farmers themselves. The stock consisted of one cow, on pig, a few chickens and two mules they had brought with them.
Pioneer Home
The house on the farm was a one room affair about 12 by 14 feet. The cupboard was a wooden framework covered with perforated tin to make it mouse-proof. The furniture included to benches that reached the full length of the table. Jacob and Mary slept on a large hand-made bed with ropes wound back and forth for springs and a straw tick. A small bed, used by the children, was pushed under the large one when not in use during the daytime. Mary brought along a few precious dishes when she came on the old fashioned narrow gauge train to Fort Dodge, where Jacob met her. She ate her first dinner in Iowa at the Louie Gutz farm and her first supper at the Conrad Hoergott place.
Great Occasion
It was a great occasion in those days when a new family moved into the sparsely settled community. All the neighbors pitched in to help each newcomer get settled. They helped Jacob build a log corral into which the cattle were driven at night. Prairie wolves were so thick and so bold that they came right up to the house at night, their howls frightened humans and domestic animals. Sometimes they even killed calves or sheep during the long, hungry winter months. During those terrible winters Mary often became discouraged in her new home and wished herself back in Chicago. Many times she and Jacob had to burn the tall prairie grass for fuel, twisting it into hard knots so it would burn longer.
Much Water
Rainfall was plentiful and many sloughs were full of water the year around. All crops were raised on high, dry ground and a field of 25 acres of corn was considered a large one. But with the crude methods of those days it would have been difficult to take care of more. There were many discouraging years – years when the grasshoppers swarmed over Calhoun County and took the entire crop, or when the blackbirds picked half the kernels from the ears. Jacob and Mary put in a fine garden. They always had plenty of potatoes, which they stored in a pit for winter use. After the children became old enough they gathered many wild berries, some of which were dried and others canned.
Baby Dies
On Feb. 10 of the year Mary came to Iowa, a little girl was born during one of the worst blizzards of the winter. The weather was so bad that Jacob couldn’t go for even the nearest neighbor woman. He had to take care of his wife and her baby. They called her Bertha. When she was only 11 months old she was attached by whooping cough and passed away. There were no cemeteries and they buried her in a little plot of ground just north of the house. Later they put a fence around the grave. Mary worked so hard that she lost several children at birth, but four girls and two boys lived to maturity. The three oldest were born in Chicago, while Will, Albert and Minnie were born at the farm.
Game Abundant
Bullsnakes were numerous and wild prairie animals were many and varied. The men could go hunting at any time of the year and get prairie chickens, geese, ducks and rabbits. The geese and ducks raised their young along the banks of the rivers and sloughs. The older children also learned to shoot blackbirds, which were thick. Mary took the breast meat from the birds, boiled it and made blackbird pies. Younger men in the community often made their living by trapping the fur-bearing animals. The muskrat hides sold for as little as 6 cents each, which was a good price for those days. The trapping was considered highly profitable.
Church Services
On rare occasions a priest would come from Fort Dodge to conduct church services. The services were held in a private home. The priest would baptize all the children who had been born since his last visit. The family had to drive to Fort Dodge for flour. If the supply ran out before spring they used corn meal. Corn meal mush and corn bread were staple foods. Mary made a sifter out of an old tin can by punching holes in it with a nail. For fuel the children gathered red root, a plant which used to grow large and thick on the prairie. It was their duty to follow the plow and gather the roots as they were turned up. Cow chips and straw were also burned.
Spinning Wheel
Every spare minute Mary could find as pupt in at her spinning wheel. She knitted all the socks, petticoats, mittens and other garments for the entire family. But against all the odds, the Geminders made money. In time they had seven 80 acre tracts and one 40 acre tract, all west of their home place. They lived there 19 years. Their daughter, Emma, married Frank Heebner and settled on a neighboring farm.
Back to Switzerland
In 1890, weary with pioneering, Jacob decided he would like to go back to his native home in Switzerland to end his days. So he sold out his land at $3 an acre and his cattle at $10 a head. The entire family, except Mrs. Heebner, accompanied the old folks back to Europe. It took seven days to cross the ocean. After they reached Switzerland Mary didn’t like it. She stood it for a time, but finally refused to stay longer. So they turned their faces once again to the New World. Back to Calhoun County, which had cost them so much in hardship and toil, they came and bought a farm from Tom Conroy at $26.50. It remains to this day the Geminder family farm. Source - Rockwell City Advocate & Calhoun County Republican, Rockwell City, Iowa, Thurs., Nov. 19, 1936, p.4