Eduard and Hulda Hinz
Eduard Charles Hinz
1856-1951
Eduard was born on April 24, 1856, in the Posen, which at the time was a province in Prussia - now Germany. His father, Paul, died when he was two years old at the age of 46. When his mother, Elizabeth, died from Cholera when he was 19 years old, he went to live and work with his brother Carl. After he and Hulda Otto married in July of 1879, they decided to move to the United States, where his brother August (Frederick) was already established in Yellow Medicine County.
Hulda Emma Otto
1859 - 1931
Hulda was born on November 13, 1859, in Posen, which at the time was a province in Prussia - now Germany. In May of 1868, when Hulda was nine years old, both her mother, Anna, and her oldest sister Pauline died. Left with five children, her father August (Friedrich Wilhelm) remarried and had another son, Wilhelm. It is said that she has was intelligent and good in school - praised by her schoolmaster - but because her mother had died at a young age she was unable to continue formal education.
The text for this post was written by Arnold and Erna (Hinz) Baur for their daughters Carol Ann and Margaret. In the summer of 1943, Eduard Hinz paid his youngest daughter and her husband a two months visit to Upper Darby, Pennsylvania where he related some of the experiences and events of his younger days. What he said was used as the basis for the following stories.
In the prefacing letter to their daughters, Arnold and Erna write:
“You have a story. It is this… your Grandfather Hinz went to Minnesota where he broke virgin sod to turn prairie land into rich productive fields of grain and hay. The work of his hands and others in their time changed the prairie into modern, habitable land. Thus he helped to build America.”
Read about Eduard and Hulda (Otto) Hinz’s early days in America here.
Eduard “Grandpa” Hinz
Eduard Hinz and Hulda Otto were married in Pösen, Germany on July 18, 1879. They immigrated to the United States shortly after getting married, arriving by boat in 1880. They settled near Wood Lake, Minnesota, initially living in a sod house gifted to the couple by Eduard’s brother August. Over the next 21 years they had 12 children: August, Ottilie (Tillie), Amalia (Mollie), Edward, Emma, Olga, Elizabeth, Magdalena, Clara, Arthur, Carl, and Erna. Their eldest three - August and the twins Tillie and Mollie - were born in the sod house. In 1884 they built a wood frame house.
Of their twelve children, two died at a very young age. Clara, died early 1897 when she was 5 years old from an unknown cause and Edward died in 1912 at age 28 from brain cancer.
OTTO SISTERS
Hulda, Ottilie, and Emilie (Not Pictured: Caroline)
Hulda Emma Otto Hinz had four sisters - Pauline, Emelia, Caroline, and Otelia, one brother August Eduard, and one half-brother Wilhelm. In May of 1868, both Pauline and their mother Anna died. Their father, August Friedrich remarried that same year. All four sisters immigrated to Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota in the early 1880s. In 1892, Caroline and her husband Gustav Kaatz left for South Dakota to homestead land. In 1898, Ottilie and her husband Ernest left for the same reason, going to Northern Idaho.
Ottilie & Ernest Children: Clara, Sylvester, William, Oscar, Walter, Hattie, Glen, & Burton
Emilie & Hermann Children: Hedwig, Maria, Anna, Minna, Max, Martha, Alma, Paul, & Oscar
Ottilie (b. 1866) with husband Ernest Satchwell (m. 1888)
Emilie (b. 1854) with husband Hermann Heller (m. 1879)
Edward & Hulda (Otto) Hinz
at August and Clara (Just) Hinz’s Wedding
December 30, 1909
at the Just Farm east of Wood Lake, MN
Hulda and Eduard Hinz are in the center of this group photo. The woman two people to the left of Hulda is her sister Otelia (Otto) Satchwell. The leftmost person is their daughter, Magdalena. Directly to the right of Edward is their daughter Erna.
Their twins, Mollie and Tillie, are also in the photograph - the third woman from the left with the large dark hat (I believe) is Tillie and the furthest woman to the right holding the child is (I believe) Mollie. I think the child she’s holding is her daughter Evangeline (b. 1913).
The rest of the group is unknown - but certainly they are other children of Hulda & Edward, siblings, grandchildren, or spouses of children.