Bolshevik Booze

 

Mike Reuber Jr. is shown above with his trademark pipe, sitting on the steps at the big house on Third Street in Medicine Hat, Alberta. This is the kindly grandfather my mother recalled, the one who looked after his rooming tenants with care, tending to them when they were sick by providing a little nip of alcohol “for medicinal purposes”.

The descendants of Michael Reuber Jr. and Amelia Fuchs owe our lives in Canada to 50 quarts of liquor and a quantity of mash.

Mike Jr. was born 147 years ago on St. Patrick’s Day, 1876 and whether he was lucky in life, or not, depends on your perspective. The Reuber family came from Samara Province near the Volga River in Russia and settled in Russell County, Kansas in the spring of 1907. The family included Mike Sr., his wife Anna Elizabeth Meuller and four children - including Mike Jr., his wife Amelia Fuchs and nine-month-old baby Pauline. It can easily be assumed that they came to North America with the proverbial “nothing”. And so, from nothing, the extended Reuber family built a life in Kansas as farmers and watched their three generations grow and thrive. 

Some of the Mike Jr. and Amelia Reuber kids in Kansas: (l-r) Pauline, Lizzie, Alex, August and Marie.

Prohibition Primer

The state of Kansas had been "dry" since 1881, forty years before national prohibition, limiting the legal manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor to “medicinal, scientific and mechanical purposes”. The challenge of enforcing the laws in those early years was a difficult matter. Liquor still flowed into the state on the rail and was openly dispensed at saloons for those who enjoyed imbibing. Via a legal loophole, physicians provided prescriptions for a host of ailments to which the cure required liquor dispensed by druggists “for medicinal purposes”. In 1917, the state passed the “Bone Dry Bill'' to further prohibit alcohol by also making the possession of it illegal, seeking to stem the flow from the borders. Meanwhile, a swirl of historical conditions — including the growing intolerance of social problems associated with liquor consumption, the temperance movement and World War I — were sweeping across the rest of the nation. By 1920 the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution meant alcohol was prohibited across the whole U.S. It seems that a rise in homemade alcohol and bootlegging followed the legal drought.

Hootch Factory Headlines

While researching the history of the Reubers in Canada, one of the hardest family lines for me to verify information about, my dad mentioned to me that I wouldn’t find a border crossing record for Mike Jr. There was a bit of talk about “rum running” that generated a chuckle or two, but I didn’t think too much more about it. It was March 17, 2021, St. Patrick’s Day and the anniversary of Mike Jr.’s birthday, that I came across an interesting headline from 100 years prior in the Kansas newspaper archives. “Authorities Grab a Hootch Factory - Ellsworth Co. Booze Hounds Got Supply from Russell County Gin Mill.” I scanned the page and, sure enough, Mike Reuber Jr. was featured as making “Bolshevik Booze” during a raid on his farm four miles from Russell, Kansas. The last paragraph had me laughing out loud, as “Reuber’s wife was in bed when the authorities arrived, feigning sickness. It was discovered that she was merely concealing the whisky and a part of the “plant” in the bed-clothes.”

Reading the century-old news article in the context of the year 2021, this story was no more than amusing evidence of a juicy tidbit of family gossip and a personal connection to a part of U.S. history. The idea of prohibition of alcohol seems quaint to think about today and the lengths to which Mike and Amelia went to conceal their lawbreaking was comical to me. I searched on in the newspaper archives, eager to add to the colourful story for my next blog post.

What I read next in the headlines laid out the arrest and aftermath in more detail, and filled in gaps of knowledge I didn’t even know I had about how and why the Reuber line that I am a part of came to Canada when the rest of their family remained in the U.S.

The Russell Record is one of several local Kansas papers that featured news about the Reuber case.

Here are some of the headlines:

• Child a Victim of Booze - Man Hauling Liquor Seriously Injures Kannapolis Youngster 

“...it was learned he [one of Mike Jr.’s customers] had got considerable liquor from an illicit still a few miles northeast of Russell…” (Salina Evening Journal Mar 30, 1921)

• Charged with Making Liquor

“...Mike was arrested and later released on bond…” (Russell Informer Mar 31, 1921)

Farmer Leaves Chickens Before Trial on Liquor Charge - Sheriff Sells ‘Em

“...Mike Reuber, Russell county farmer, who was arrested several weeks ago on a liquor charge, is now missing and probably penniless.” (Topeka Daily Capital May 1, 1921)

Public Sale - His Place Went at Auction

• “...His cattle, horses, growing wheat, implements and household furniture were sold by the sheriff…Wheat growing in the field sold at $3.60 an acre. Cattle and horses sold well though not as high as a few months ago. Several hundred persons were present.” (Salina Evening Journal Apr 29, 192)

Big Battle for the Property 

• “...nearly a dozen claimants of different kinds of liens as well as executions carried on the trial for two days.” (The Salina Evening Journal Jun 13, 1921)

This large advertisement for the Reuber property sale appeared in the Russell Informer April 21, 1921; the family rented “the Robert Kaps place 3 miles east and 1-2 north of Russell”.

By this point my original enthusiasm for relaying the juicy story had waned. The steady progression of facts demonstrated the economic, social and personal impact of the still and homemade whisky operation that Mike Jr. and Amelia had been operating. I began to feel a great sadness for them for losing the life they had built from nothing.

Mike Jr. was charged with three counts of sales, possession and nuisance under prohibitory law (Amelia seems to have avoided charges). I don’t know what the penalty would have been for him, if he had remained to face them. Mike Jr. was far from the only individual to have been charged with such violations of prohibitory law and there are many examples in the news clippings from the time. A Kansas man was given a fine of $100 and costs and sentenced to six months in jail in 1921 for possessing a still — a penalty cited as the maximum for that infraction. That the sheriff had already sold Mike Jr.’s possessions — and that several lawsuits were pending as liens against the sale when the community realized that Mike had left the area — tells me that the family was in financial ruin from this dark episode, even before any sentencing could begin.

Mike Jr.’s siblings and parents remained behind in Kansas and appear to have gone forward unscathed by the association. And, as my dad predicted, I found no records documenting the family’s crossing into Canada.

They surface in recorded history in 1922 near Coaldale where, over several years, they rented land and continued to farm and run a custom threshing business. Few in the family knew about the troubles in Kansas and mostly certainly nobody talked about it. The Canadian relatives maintained links with the U.S. branches of the Reuber clan and the younger members, including my mother, visited. 

And so, from nothing, the Mike Jr. and Amelia Reuber family had rebuilt their lives again — this time in Canada. They were immigrants and, like most, risk takers and survivors. Stay tuned to read more about the next chapters of their lives and those of the generations that came after.

Read more about the Reubers:

When all is not what it seems - The Reubers emigrate to N. America

The Michel Jr. and Amelia Fuchs Reuber Family

Read more about prohibition in Kansas:

Kansas and Its Prohibition Enforcement

Liquor Wars and the Law  - Decisions of the Kansas Supreme Court, 1861 to 1920

Prohibition - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society

The Michel Jr. and Amelia Fuchs Reuber Family

 

The following was written by my mother and included in a family history scrapbook I prepared for her and dad in the early 2000s. This was the sum of the information known about the Michel Jr. and Amelia Reuber family at the time. Since then I have been searching for more and have found some that mom would have been interested to know. I’ll add that in future posts, so stay tuned.

By Esther Reuber Schlachter

Michel M. Reuber Jr. Born March 17, 1876 in Samara, Russia. Died March 1, 1956.

Amelia Fuchs Reuber. Born November 11, 1883 in Samara, Russia. Died January 19, 1953.

In the following story of my grandparents, Michel and Amelia Reuber, I’ve pieced together memories from conversations with them, my parents (Henry and Liz),  my aunts Pauline and Marie, and uncle August. Had I known that a history of their lives would someday be written, I’d have asked more questions. It seemed that when they left Russia and came to North America, they didn’t talk much about the past but preferred to concentrate on everyday life and their future here.

One day, when I asked dad why the Reuber family came to North America, he said that his Grandma Reuber didn’t want her sons to have to go into the Russian army. Since Catherine the Great’s promises to the Germans that they would not be conscripted were no longer being honoured, the Reuber boys would definitely be called into armed service if they remained in Russia. Ironically, one of their sons ended up serving in the U.S. army during WWI.

The Reubers, German-speaking immigrants from Russia, migrated to the U.S. with their extended family in 1907. The family members were: Michel Reuber Sr. aged 62; his wife Elizabeth aged 56; son Michel Jr., his wife Amelia and their daughter Pauline aged 9 months; another son Jacob; daughter Pauline; and two younger sons Alexander and August. They boarded a ship named “Professor Woermann” on March 15, 1907 and arrived in Galveston, Texas on April 10, 1907. (Mom would have been very interested to learn the rest of the immigration story as described in this blog post.)

Moving to a foreign country and not knowing the English language must have been very traumatic for them, to say the least. Aunt Marie quoted Grandpa (Michel Jr.)  as saying, “I can speak six languages and can’t go to the store and buy a dozen eggs.” In the ensuing years, they adjusted to their new home in a new land, teaching themselves to read and write English, as well as to speak it. There were no adult education classes to help them in those days.

While in Galveston, Grandpa worked for a German storekeeper as an interpreter. He was offered this job on a more permanent basis, however the lure of independent farming took the family to Russell, Kansas. Over the next 14 years, Michel and Amelia’s family increased to include, along with Pauline: Henry (my Dad), Marie, Elizabeth, Alex and August. 

The Reuber children in Kansas, l-r: Pauline, Elizabeth, Alexander, August, Marie (Henry is not pictured).

They farmed near Russell until 1921 when Michel, Amelia, their six children, along with Michel’s brother Jacob, migrated to Canada. Jacob mysteriously vanished after leaving home on his horse one day and was never seen again.

Upon their arrival in Canada in 1921, Michel and Amelia farmed in the Lethbridge area for several years. As well as farming, Grandpa did custom harvesting in partnership with Conrad Weiler from Nobleford. Dad (Henry) operated the threshing machine while sisters Marie and Lizzie (Elizabeth) cooked for the threshing crew. While on the harvest circuit, the sisters lived on-site in what was known as the “cook car” that looked something like a boxcar on wheels. Marie and Lizzie slept in the cook car on a cot that folded up against the wall during the day to make room for the eight- or nine-man crew at mealtime. They were fed four or five times a day: an early breakfast, midmorning lunch, noon dinner, afternoon lunch and supper. They cooked the meals on a coal and wood stove. Water was stored in a barrel beside the cook car and filled as they moved from farm to farm. Grandpa Michel and Mr. Weiler did the sales and public relations work and kept the machinery (and the harvest help) running smoothly. Alex and August generally looked after the livestock at home and readied the land for the following spring’s planting. Although August remembers that he, too, sometimes went along and had a job to do in the threshing days. His job was to keep the Rumley [tractor] fuelled with kerosene.

The Reuber threshing outfit may have looked like this one, with a Rumley steam engine pulling a threshing machine and cook car, Cass County, N.D., 1920s. (Photo credit North Dakota State Library, Digital Horizons.)

Grandpa Michel “wore many hats” to make a living in his lifetime. In Russia, he worked as the foreman of a large crew of laborers on a farm. Perhaps that led to his dream of owning a farm in America. He told me that he taught school for two years in Russia. I suppose that anyone with a high school education qualified as a teacher in those days; the curriculum was fairly straightforward (three Rs). He was trained as a steam engineer and earned a certificate in that field. Grandpa Michel’s father Michel Sr. was also well-educated for the day and, at one point, was magistrate (J.P.) of the town in which they lived.

Grandma Amelia’s parents had a large farm in the Samara area of Russia (Sarondonski Gubernia). Her parents remained in Russia until their deaths. One sister came to the U.S. but, because there was little opportunity for travel, their only communication was by mail after Grandma came to Canada.

In 1948, I travelled with my grandparents and the rest of my family to visit their former home in Russell, Kansas. I remember driving past the attractive little farmhouse where Dad spent the first 12 years of his life. It was built of fieldstone and wood. The fields surrounding the house were fenced using stone fence posts, hewn from local sandstone. These were very resourceful farmers who used the materials at hand.

The Alexander Reuber farm site near Russell, Kansas, pictured above, features a fence with stone posts. (Photo credit Richard Krug, grand-nephew of Alexander Reuber.)

I’m told that Grandma was an excellent gardener even on a dryland farm. I know from personal experience that she was an excellent cook. I can still taste her apple and blueberry kuchen and her apple strudel. Wonderful stuff! She was also good at making a house a home and had the opportunity to do so on the many occasions that the family moved from place to place. I can remember a vase of dried oats, the seedpods of which she painstakingly covered with silver gum wrapper paper.

In 1929, the family moved to the Frank Ream farm (later called the Halpin Stock Farm) south of Bow Island. A couple of years later they moved to the Morley Bowen Place, which was the site of the original Maleb Post Office and General Store. One of Haig School’s teachers, Viola Lange from the Burdett district, boarded at their house.

Amelia Reuber stands on the west side of their Morley Bowen Farm home,
19.5 miles south of Bow Island.

The Reuber children grew up, married and had families of their own; several lived in the Bow Island area for many years. Pauline married John Hyrcuik and raised four children: Bertha, Mike, Ruth and Helen. Henry married Elizabeth Schmidt and they had two children: Esther (me) and Herman. Marie married Marcello Valentini and raised three children: Lucille, Malvin and Ernest. After Marcello died, Marie married Alvin Alexander whom she met as a young girl in the Lethbridge area. Elizabeth (Lizzie) married Fred Wutzke and raised two children: Lillian and Alvin. Alex served in the Armed Forces during WWII and later married Jessie Stratton. They had three children: Dawn, Heather and James. August (Gus) married Violet Woelf and they had three sons: Glen, Richard and Donald. August lived in Oregon in his later years.

Back row l-r: Marie, August, Alex and Elizabeth.

Front row l-r: Henry, Michel Jr., Amelia (Fuchs) and Pauline.

Eventually, Grandpa and Grandma moved to a ranch near Vale, Alberta leaving Henry to take over the Bowen Farm. In 1946 they retired to Medicine Hat and bought a house at the top of Third Street hill.

Amelia Reuber at the back of the house on Third Street in Medicine Hat.

Michel Reuber, 1955. A typical pose with his pipe.

Grandpa Mike was not completely retired, donning yet another “hat”. He looked after the steam heating system for Medicine Hat Green Houses for many years. As part of their large house was converted into rental suites, he and Grandma had the house and tenants to look after as well. After Grandma and Grandpa died, the house was sold to Mr. Dederer. Subsequently, the house was torn down and an apartment complex was built on the site and is still there. Whenever I pass it on the way to downtown Medicine Hat, I think of them. Driving out of Medicine Hat heading west past Hillside Cemetery, two white marble grave markers engraved with their portraits are clearly visible; the final earthly resting place of Michel and Amelia Reuber.

St. Anthony's: Little Church on the Prairie Part II

 

My dad, Tony Schlachter, takes a familiar drive in the area where he grew up and lived for most of his life.

If you have travelled south of the Crowsnest Highway on the #885 past St. Anthony’s church, you have been to “God’s Country”, as many people refer to it. More than five generations of Schlachters have lived in or near this area, including mine.

This wide-open space is about 25 miles southeast of Bow Island, Alberta and was called Windy Ridge, Pleasant View, Granlea or Nine-Nine (after the land description). St. Anthony’s church is located at NE 2-9-9-4. Anton and Margaret Schlachter lived across the road at NW 1-9-9-4. Anton’s parents, Martin and Justina, lived in a tiny house in the yard as well as one on their homestead land at NW 5-8-8-4. Martin and Justina are buried in the cemetery at St. Anthony’s among other relatives such as Margaret's sister Rosa and her husband Kasimir Heitrich (watch a video at the bottom of this post about Kasimir's funeral).

Justina and Martin Schlachter's graves at St. Anthony's Cemetery.

Anton and Margaret had a large sitting room in their home and often hosted prayers and funeral receptions, as they were very near to the church and there was room for both casket and guests. In winter, the casket would be moved outside on the porch (a relative remained with it at all times). Dad remembers that when his infant cousin Frank Schlachter died, his body lay in a small coffin in the bedroom. Among the graves in the St. Anthony’s Cemetery is a separate section for the babies, somewhat uncommon in other local cemeteries. Joseph Schlachter, Dad’s older brother is in this section.

Anton would often lead the rosary for the evening prayers that are part of Catholic funeral rites. A very large wooden cross was kept in their home, perhaps used as part of these events. The cross was later donated to St. Joseph’s Home in Medicine Hat and you can see it there in the chapel (it was still there in 2019). 

Anton’s son Joseph Schlachter married Catherine Schile in 1932 at St. Anthony’s. They lived in a relatively large house next to the church at S 2-9-9-4 and that is where my dad and his siblings grew up. 

A clipping from the 40-Mile County Commentator features St. Anthony's Church and the Schlachter home as they were in the 1990s.

Living in such close proximity to the church, my dad recalls that his first job as a kid was lighting the fire to warm the church before mass. Being an altar boy was not something he was interested in, however. You can hear his amusing story in a video linked at the bottom of this post.

My dad and his siblings received the sacraments of baptism, first communion and confirmation at St. Anthony’s.

The number of community members in Windy Ridge declined in the 1930s, when the economic depression forced some families to leave the land in this area and make their living another way. The area rebounded but, over time, smaller farms were consolidated into larger ones and more of the younger generations went to the city for education and jobs. Church-goers began to worship at the larger Catholic churches in Bow Island and Foremost. Our family and our Doran cousins, part of the fifth generation of Schlachters in the area, still occasionally came to St. Anthony’s church in the country for mass into the 1970s and ‘80s. The pews were filled with second cousins! My dad had bought and was farming Joseph and Catherine’s land by then and we continued to visit the cemetery to pay our respects to the ancestors who brought us here.

By 1991, St. Anthony’s Church at Granlea was closed and the building purchased by a local woman. My dad was able to buy the iron church bell and, in 2014, he worked with his sister Jacqueline and her husband Terry Doran to get permission to relocate the bell to the cemetery. Dad hired a mason to create a cairn from local field stone and placed a plaque on it with a dedication to the pioneers. The plaque was designed by Tony’s grandson Jordan Schlachter. A great-grandson, two-year-old Maxwell Schlachter, was the first person to ring the bell at an official ceremony to unveil the cairn.

If you have an opportunity to visit the cemetery and ring this bell, know that you are one of many who have done so over the 100 years in the history of St. Anthony’s church.

Three generations gather at the cairn in 2015 - note the cane and stick for scattering rattlesnakes.

Videos from the Tony Schlachter Oral History Project 2020

Watch a video of Tony ringing the bell!

Tony escapes being an altar boy

The Heitrich funeral at St. Anthony's

More Photos

Interior of the church after 1951 renovation from collection of Jacquie Doran

St. Anthony’s in 1984 by Steve Schlachter

The church and cemetery from Judy and Tony’s Magical Family History Tour 2020

Timelapse photography of the church by Alan Dyer, 2015

Find a Grave - St. Anthony’s Cemetery

Acknowledgements

As always, I am building on the hard work of others who have gone before me. Thank you to Tony Schlachter, Jacquie and Terry Doran, David Schlachter and many others for the research, photos and family history they have shared. Thanks to Richard Schlachter for his help with the oral history project videos! Below are some of the references I used for this blog post.

References

Conquerville: A Growing Community- published by the Conquerville Women's Institute, 1963

History of St. Anthony’s Church - compiled by Anthony Stappler with Elizabeth Hammel

From the Buffalo to the Cross - M. B. Benini Byrne

Winds of Change: A History of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary since 1968 - Norman Knowles

40-Mile County Commentator newspaper

St. Anthony's: Little Church on the Prairie Part I

St. Anthony's Church at Granlea, Alberta, is pictured here in 2020. (Photo: J. Chrystal)

The German Catholic families who settled in the Windy Ridge area of southeast Alberta beginning in 1908 had already faced many challenges establishing homesteads. By 1911 they needed to address another. One of their number had died and they needed a sacred place to bury him. Among the approximately 45 families of this community at the time were Anton and Margaret Schlachter, my 2x grandparents. Religious faith was strong among the Germans from Russia. It undoubtedly held the community together and supported individuals through unthinkable hardship. In 1905, Anton and Margaret had arrived at Ellis Island, New York from a German-Russian community in Romania with children Raphael and Anna. They made their way north through the Dakotas (son Joseph, my grandfather, was born there) and Saskatchewan (son Jacob was born there) before settling on a homestead in Windy Ridge in 1909. In the years before a church could be built, the Schlachters and others would open their homes to the Catholics in the area and a priest from Medicine Hat would come to provide services. That was a fine temporary measure for mass and baptisms, but a burial was a different matter. One of the local families donated five acres of land to get started on the immediate need, and planning began for a church. Anton Schlachter was one of three men elected to a board of directors and, by February 13, 1912, ambitious plans were made to construct a building 26’ X 40’ X 12’ with a 42’ tower. Board and community members raised $159 to begin, $98 of which came from Anton and Margaret. The board decided to name the church after the person who raised the most money and so the first phase of the building, completed in 1912, was dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua.

The church building was completed in 1912 with sacristy, vestibule, and steeple added in 1916. (Photo: Conquerville A Growing Community 1963)

Information about the planning, fundraising and naming of the church is passed down as oral history and documented in a letter from one of the parishioners to the larger Germans-from-Russia community in the U.S. and even Russia, via a widely-read North Dakota German-language newspaper.

In addition to being written in the German language, the font commonly used was Fractur and it can be tricky to decipher some of the letters. There is a link to the English translation of the full clipping at the bottom of this post.

And then there is the time capsule...

A large crucifix was erected on a concrete base on the east side of the churchyard. My dad, Tony Schlachter, says that his father Joseph had told him the story about a note encased in the base, naming the people involved in erecting it.

Anton Schlachter was a founding member of the church board in 1912 although, because he is not pictured here, may have no longer been a member by 1914. In this picture, the church building did not have the vestibule or steeple yet and a post with the bell stands in the background. Notice the crucifix mounted on a large base directly behind the men. (Photo: Conquerville A Growing Community 1963).

In the 1990s, after the church was no longer in use, the large crucifix was taken down and the concrete base smashed open - to reveal a container with a piece of paper in it! The note was written in German and confirms that Anton Schlachter donated the cross erected in the churchyard in 1915 (there is a discrepancy in the date in the above photo and when the note says the crucifix was erected - perhaps the photo of the board was taken in 1915 or later).  

This note was written in German. See a link a the bottom of this post to read the translation. (Photo from the collection of Jacquie Doran.)

(After the church was closed, the crucifix was re-mounted with an iron cross and relocated to the cemetery. (Photo: J. Chrystal)

Further Reading

Try reading the German-language newspaper clipping!

Read the German-language newspaper clipping English translation

Read the time capsule English translation

READ MORE: St. Anthony's: Little Church on the Prairie Part II!

The Schmidts of Hartfeld, Galicia

Here are my great grandmother Elizabeth Eberwein Schmidt and great grandfather Wilhelm Schmidt standing in front of their house on Bridge Street in Medicine Hat. This little house has been pointed out to me many times while growing up. It is easily recognizable by the distinctive white clapboard and location adjacent to an automobile repair shop.

So, when I was touring family history sites with my Dad this summer, imagine our surprise when we could not find the house. We navigated by urban rockpile, of course, not thinking about the name of the street but not concerned at all that we would not be able to easily reach our destination. "I just saw it last year," I say, remembering the drive past the house after a family trip to the Medalta site. After driving up and down the street several times without success, we were left scratching our heads (as dad would say). Where the heck did it go?

Then we realized it was there - but now clad in beige stucco! I guess it's considered an upgrade?

Four generations in Hartfeld, Galicia

The scant family history I had written down about the Schmidts indicated that Wilhelm was born in "Limbruck, Poland". But when Wilhelm immigrated to Canada with Elizabeth and their eight daughters, he listed his place of birth as Hartfeld. Schmidt is such a common name, I honestly didn't think I would get anywhere with searching for this family history.  

But, thanks to researcher Manfred Daum (again!), I believe Wilhelm's birth may have been registered in Lemberg, aka Lviv, the capital city in a territory known as Galicia (part of which is present-day Ukraine). This would be consistent with Daum's research that places Wilhelm and the previous four generations of our Schmidt family in the nearby German Protestant colony of Hartfeld, Galicia. 

Johan Schmidt and Barbara Huber

Wilhelm's parents were Johann Schmidt and Barbara Huber. I have an amazing original photo of these two. The back of it reads, "1928", the year Wilhelm left for Canada.

Johann was born in 1852 and Barbara in 1859, both in Hartfeld. They married and lived in house number 114 there. 

Four children were born between 1879 and 1885. Shockingly, in the span of 10 days in August, 1886 three of the four children were dead. The cause of death is listed as "Braune" which translates literally to "tan" or "brown". It means diphtheria, a bacterial infection that spreads much the same way that COVID-19 does today. Diphtheria was once one of the major causes of death of children but, yay for vaccines, immunization has virtually eliminated the disease in countries like Canada that began to immunize for this in the 1930s.

Wilhelm was born the year after this, in 1887. At least three siblings were born after that, including Johann (John) who came to Manyberries, Alberta and married Wilhelm's sister-in-law Maria Eberwein.

Other Schmidt family in Canada?

While I don't believe that Johann and Barbara emigrated to Canada, at least one of Johan's brothers (Adam, his wife Christina Klee and their baby Wilhelm) appears to have come in 1892 and settled in Winnipeg. I had not heard anything before about this branch of the family.

I also have seen a photo of someone my mom labelled as "Leopold Schmidt", supposedly a brother to our Wilhelm. Leopold is said to have lived in Germany and so he may have been part of resettlement from Russia after World War II.

Back up the line of Schmidts in Hartfeld is Johann's father Jakob (b. 1823) and his mother Helena Magadalena Vetter (b. 1826); and,  Jakob Sr. (b. 1791-ish) and his wife Maria Margaretha Katharina Johanna Anna Rollauer (b. 1791-ish). Jakob Sr. wins the prize for longevity, dying of "old age" at about 86 years! Wow!  His wife Maria wins the prize for most given names... Maybe she was royalty, ha, ha.

Schmidts in Czech Republic

The furthest back the Daum research from Hartfeld goes is Jakob Sr.'s parents, Kaspar Schmidt (b. 1753-ish) and Elisabetha Margaretha Schwenk (b. 1753-ish).  Kaspar was born in the Bohemian area of Hluboká nad Vltavou, Czech Republic (known as Frauenberg in German) and moved to Hartfeld by 1791. Kaspar's birth place is the site of the famous 11-tower Hluboká nad Vltavou Chateau, whose history dates from the 13th century.

And so, I will leave this high-level tour of the Schmidt family for now. I have more information, many more questions, and much more work ahead of me!

Further Reading:

Diphtheria immunization in Canada

Lemberg/Lviv

German Protestant colony of Hartfeld, Galicia

Hluboká nad Vltavou, Czech Republic

Hluboká nad Vltavou Chateau

Happy Thanksgiving, Grandma! - Catherine Anne Schile

Holidays are traditional times for families to gather and see one another. My dad explains that as he and his siblings grew up, married and had families of their own, getting together for all the holidays got tricky with travel and in-laws pulling people in different directions. So, each year for at least a couple of decades, grandma Catherine (Schile) hosted Thanksgiving as her time to see all of us together. 

Since this weekend is Thanksgiving, this blog post is for you, Grandma! 

Catherine Anne (Schile) Schlachter

Catherine Schile was the fifth child of nine, born April 22, 1913 to Andrew and Elizabeth (Roth) Schile. She was born on the family homestead north of Foremost. I grew up on a farm south of Bow Island not that far from Foremost but, amazingly, I did not know that Grandma's house was standing there all that time. In fact, it's still there, and this year I went to see it.

Andreas and Elizabeth Schile Homestead NW-18-7-11-W4

I was able to spend a few days with my Dad this past summer, to focus specifically on family history, and we took a full day to drive around in the country. We visited lots of places that are very familiar to me, because it is "home". But then he showed me the house that his mother was born and grew up in. I took this picture from the road, but I wanted to get closer. It was a super hot day on the prairie and, though I was wearing my high rubber boots to guard against rattlesnakes, both Dad and I thought that it would be unwise to walk that far through the rustling wheat. So I will come back another day to get a better feel for the place. I'm still gob smacked that I didn't know this house was there.

Remainder School SE-6-7-11-W4

Catherine attended Remainder School, so-named because it was the last school district in the area to be organized. It was, literally, the remainder. There is Grandma, third from the left, in the second row. Her older brother Paul is sitting in the front row, second from the right. The photo caption indicates it was 1922 and so Catherine would have been eight or nine years old when this was taken. She completed grade eight and, at age 15, her school days were done.

St. Joseph's Cemetery

Directly east of the homestead is St. Joseph's Cemetery. There used to be a church there but that is long gone. The cemetery itself is in the middle of a field because the road allowance is now farmed over with lentils. Fortunately, the day Dad and I visited, the lentils had been harvested low and so we were able to drive closer to the cemetery without risk of starting a fire from the hot car. The cemetery itself was surrounded by tall wheat. I mentioned the rubber boots and the rattle snakes, right? In this case, I was determined to get into that cemetery so I grabbed Dad's cane and swished it ahead of me as I walked, trying very hard to believe that all the rattles I heard were only the ripe wheat.  I made it to the short prairie grass and then, at least, I felt I would have a chance to hear any snake's advance warning.

In this cemetery is the grave of Elizabeth (Roth) Schile, Catherine's mother, who died in 1931 at age 50.

Iron grave markers are common among Germans from Russia and can be found in the Dakotas, as well as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Each maker, usually a local blacksmith, had their own style and level of expertise. Some of these markers are elaborate and some of them are quite simple.

Marriage

Catherine married our Grandpa, Joseph Schlachter, February 9, 1932 in the church of St. Anthony at Granlea. Our family has a long history with this church, and I will be writing an upcoming blog post just about St. Anthony's.

Catherine and Joseph farmed two quarters of land at Granlea and raised seven children there. An infant son, Joseph, is buried at St. Anthony's cemetery.

Catherine and Joseph semi-retired to Bow Island in 1966, the year I was born. So I only remember them living there. Grandma would always welcome me to her round kitchen table with a cold glass of apple juice and the Serenity Prayer looming down from the wall. She was an avid reader and a homebody. I can still taste her apple pie, the crust so flaky. Grandpa would be tinkering with something in the garage or sitting in his easy chair listening to honky tonk piano with headphones on (he was deaf but, if the volume was up way-loud, he could hear the beat). When I slept overnight there in the living room, they would wrap the family clock in a blanket to dull the ticking.

Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's

The Schlachter families gathered en masse once a year, for Thanksgiving, at that little house in Bow Island. 

This tradition carried on as the extended family grew larger and the house, mysteriously, still seemed to hold everyone. Part of the reason why it held everyone is that all of us kids, the cousins, were outside playing "kick the can" and drinking the case of multi-flavoured Pic-a-Pop that Grandpa bought for us each year. Later on, we'd go down in the basement and listen to the older cousins tell ghost stories or hover around the uncles while they played "smear". The women, of course, were in the kitchen. Every cousin has their own version of what went on at Thanksgiving and I have very fond memories of those times together at Grandpa and Grandma's.

Grandpa passed away in 1984 and Grandma moved to Medicine Hat, living there until her passing in 2010 at 97 years of age.

Family history and photos are collected from various sources, including:

• Jackie Doran scanned collection
• Shortgrass Country - A History of Foremost and Nemiskam
• Ancestry.ca homestead records

Elizabeth Eberwein (Schmidt) was our original Spa Lady

Truskavets, Ukraine, has been known for therapeutic water since the late 1500s and has been an official spa resort since the early 1800s. People still come there for the spas and Google search indicates it is one of the "7 Best Wellness Spots in Ukraine", and very good value :)

This is where the baptism of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Eberwein (Schmidt|) was recorded in 1893. In another blog post with a Google Earth map of the Eberwein journey from Germany to Canada, I was not sure if the family had actually lived in Truskavets (Truskawiec (Drohobycz), Galizien, Austria).

But now I am more sure that they lived there, as the family migrated from the German village of Neu Kupnowitz, Galizien, to the German village of Vranovac, Bosnia.

For those tracing family history, finding actual documents to verify information is ideal. I was given the clues to find the baptism record of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Eberwein. 

Call me a history nerd, but it was quite a thrill to find see her name written in script on a document.

The headings are written in Latin, so there are clues to figure out what they say, and there are lots of online translator apps. The rest of the document was a bit harder to read, as the written script was not so easy to decipher, and I wanted experts to help. I turned to a Facebook volunteer genealogy translation group for assistance and literally overnight I had the confirmation I was looking for! What a generous community of people online.

Below is the translation and transcription from 09/26/2020 by Carla Ratcliff and Valerie Baginski (Facebook Genealogical Translations group).

Greek Catholic Church records (births, marriages, deaths) for Truskawiec (Drohobycz), Galizien, Austria; later Truskawiec (Drohobycz), Lwów, Poland; now Truskavet︠s︡′, Drohobych, L′viv, Ukraine.

(Note that the baptism is recorded in a Greek Catholic Church, but her religion was Evangelical. Perhaps the Greek Catholic was the only game in town, at the time.)

GreekRecord #593
Year	1893
Month and Day born	26 December 1892
Month and Day baptized	1 January 1893, Evangelical
House Number	#7
Name	Elisabetha
Religion	Evangelical
Illegitimate/legitimate	Legitimate
Confirmation	-
Number of House	7
Name of the Father and Mother	Father: Mathaeus Eberwein, son of Joannes Eberwein and Catharina nee Bisantz Mother: Catharina daughter of Georgius Beszttof? and Maria nee Huget
Condition of the Father and Mother (usually what occupation they had)	Father’s Occupation: peasant _____? In Truskawiec
Name and Condition of the Godparents	Godparents: Ludovicus Issel, blacksmith in Truskawiec, and Theresia Laska, wife of Joannes, resident in Truskawiec

Further reading:

Historical background of Truskavets, with photos 

7 Best Wellness Spots in Ukraine

Elisabetha Eberwein birth and baptism record in FamilySearch