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!