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.”
Published 1944 by Arnold and Erna (Hinz) Baur. Illustrations by H. Freeburger.
Additional photographs and context added by Christine Lenzen.
Grandpa enjoyed telling about the sod house in which he lived the first few years in Minnesota, and about the big snow that first winter on the prairie. As he talked about these events, other recollections came to his mind which led to the question of why he had come to America.
We talked about social and political conditions as they were in Germany when Grandpa Hinz left there at the age of 24. He expressed the thought that the German life which he knew at that time was more orderly – not so much confusion and hurry about the way of living. More security for old age – than the conditions he experienced during his years in America.
He emphasized, however, that he had a full and satisfactory life in the United States with no regrets for having come here. He became a naturalized citizen (1890) soon after arriving, and always took part in local community activities, particularly in church affairs.
Grandpa said the reason he left Germany was that opportunities for advancement and for obtaining land or property there were very remote.
Born in 1856 in the Province of Posen, he had his boyhood days and also early manhood in which to size up his prospects for a happy and comfortable living before making the decision to come to America. His father died when he was two years old, and his mother when he was 19. During an epidemic of cholera, she helped in the care of the sick at son-in-law Fiedler’s home and thereby took the disease. The fatality was terrifically high in those great epidemics. Infection meant almost certain death, so this woman was sick only a few days before she, too succumbed to the plague.
After his mother’s death, Grandpa, then a young man, lived with his brother Carl, and even before that he had spent some time at his brothers’ and sister’ homes. He worked for them and otherwise earned whatever he could. He was a strong young man with a rugged frame and hard muscles. He was willing to do heavy work but found that he was not progressing toward gaining a permanent home of his own or becoming independently established. He was not satisfied to be any more than a laborer all his life.
Another factor was helping to mold the situation that made him decide on coming to America. He learned to know Hulda Otto who lived in a neighboring village. Everyone in the community liked this lovely young woman. She was small in stature with delicate hands and facial features. Her skin was soft and smooth and fair. She was three years younger than her blonde-headed beau.
The schoolmaster had recognized in her certain scholastic ability and wanted her to continue in education, but this was not possible. Her mother died when Hulda Otto was eight years old, so she with Emelia (Heller) the older sister, took over the duties of the house and helped to rear two younger sisters, Caroline and Tillie. The daughters helped their father, August Otto, keep the “Inn” or “Wirtshouse” as it was called. With all this work at home, there was no opportunity to continue in school beyond the required minimum.
On her wedding day, July 18. 1979, friends and relatives bestowed hearty congratulations and the schoolmaster gave her a dozen white roses from his garden as a special tribute of his warm esteem.
Now that Grandpa was happily married, it was really necessary to do something to provide a home and settle down. His brother, August Hinz, had gone to America several years before and was writing letters home about the vast expanses of land in Southwestern Minnesota that could be had at a low price. He was also writing about the hardships – long distances to travel for doctor services, and for the mail, few conveniences for the home, and most people living in sod houses.
Here was a choice between staying in Germany where the opportunity for advancement was poor, yet conditions seemed secure, and emigration to America where opportunities were wide open to those who were willing to make the sacrifices and put up the struggle necessary to conquer the new country, as well as build their new homes in a strange land.
Grandpa said he talked over the situation with his young wife. Together they had enough money to buy passage to America with possibly a little leftover for starting life in the new land. The desire for adventure which rises in all normal young people urged them to set America as their goal. They made a positive decision and then immediately wrote Brother August to obtain detailed instructions for the trip.
When all the arrangements had been made, they bade farewell to their relatives and friends. They left Germany from the port of Bremen never to return again to the land of their birth.
We asked Grandpa the name of the ship on which he and his young wife came from Germany. He said it was the “Mosel,” a steamship of a regular passenger line. The accommodations it offered probably were far from those of the big liners we know in our days. Grandpa indicated he and his wife had second- or third-class passage. Their quarters were on the middle deck in a big room the outside of which was lined with two-tier berths and the center was used for sitting and lounging.
Grandpa said he enjoyed the trip which lasted for fifteen days, but his wife was very seasick during 13 days of the voyage. In later life she avoided travel by water as she dreaded becoming sick.
The good ship “Mosel” made only a single successful trip after the one on which she carried the Hinz couple. Grandpa read about her loss several months after he arrived in Minnesota. {The SS Mosel was run around in August 1882 near Lizard Point, Cornwall}
After passing immigration inspection and also customs inspection, Grandpa and his wife were in America, the wonderful land of opportunity. They arrived in New York City in early April 1880, and immediately procured train passage to Marshall, Minnesota.
They rode in coaches, but this was in 1880, when trains were slow compared to our 60, 70, even 90 miles per hour speeds of today. They were from New York to Chicago, and thence to St. Paul.
There they parted ways from some friends by the name of Schulz who had made the entire trip from Germany with them. On parting, they thought they would never see each other again, but such was not the case. The Hinz couple went to Marshall and the Schulz folks went to Granite Falls. These towns are about 40 miles apart, but the actual locations where the two families settled were only about four miles apart. Two months after arriving in Minnesota, the Hinzes saw the Schulz family at the little church in Posen, Minnesota, which was at that time served by a traveling preacher. You can imagine the surprise and elation of these people to find that unknown to them on their long journey from the mother country their final destinations were only a few miles apart. Both families were following strictly the instructions which had been written to them by their relatives, and they had no way of knowing that Marshall and Granite Falls were such a short distance apart.
After a weary trip, the young Hinz couple got off the train early in the morning in Marshall, Minnesota, on April 10, 1880. Brother August Hinz had expected them a day or two sooner and had been at the station with his yoke of oxen. When they failed to arrive on the 9th, he made arrangements with a local liveryman to meet the trains and when the couple arrived to bring them to his home. Then he started on his long 22-mile trip home to Posen Township.
Well, the 10th of April was a very cold day with a high wind from the Northwest. The liveryman had only a small light wagon. Mrs. Hinz could sit beside him on the seat, but Grandpa had to sit on the trunk which dilled the back part of the wagon. He declared he was colder and froze more on the 22-mile trip to his brother’s house than he ever did during his whole life. Apparently, he came near pneumonia, because he was sick in bed from the cold for the new few days. Brother August had failed to warn them that it might be very cold, so they wore only light clothes.
One evening we discussed some of the important things that Grandpa did during the first few years in Minnesota.
First of all, Grandpa maintained it was necessary to have a place to live. He said that in the 22 miles trip from Marshall to brother August’s house he and his wife had seen one frame house built of boards. All the other living places were sod huts. Were they going to have to live in a sod house too? Yes, it turned out that such was to be their abode for about four years.
Posen township which is in Yellow Medicine County lies in the southwestern part of the state of Minnesota. This is in the prairie country where the native vegetation on the upland is tall grasses, mostly bluestem and tall bunchgrass. Trees, such as oak, ash, elm, and poplar, grow along the borders of permanent streams and rivers and around the edges of some of the small lakes. Wood from these trees was not used for building houses, mainly because there were no facilities for sawing it into boards. Then, too, few of the trees were sound and straight enough to be suitable for lumber.
Example of a Sod House in Madison, Minnesota (about 50 miles northwest of Woodlake, MN) from around 1880. From LAC QUI PARLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. {Source}
Brother August with his family was living in a sod house, but when the Hinz couple arrived he decided to build himself a new one and let the young people take over his old living place. So, Grandpa and his wife fell heir to a “used” sod house. He said it was 12x16 feet in size, located on a slope so that water would drain out. In constructing it the soil had been dug out to a depth of about three feet in the back end which left the floor at the front end almost level with the surface of the land outside. The walls were made of pieces of sod that had been cut into squares when taken from the field, were about 18 to 24 inches thick. The roof was made of poles covered with bunches of grass over which was thrown a covering of earth. A 12-inch pane of glass in the rear gable was the only window. The earth floor was cold and damp in the winter and spring. During the warm season, lizards would find their way into the darkened corners under the roof. Grandpa said he still remembers the friendly toad that came to catch flies – the little fellow emerged on a ledge or board shelf against the earthen wall and hopped along now and then to find the best position for catching prey with his long, flicking tongue.
The furnishings in the sod house, other than the stove, were crude. Grandpa said he made a table and benches and some smaller items, such as the broom. The wooden bowl and paddle which he made for working butter were used for many years in the Hinz household.
The first son, August, and the twins, Tillie and Mollie, were born in the sod house. Grandpa said with a chuckle that it was pretty crowded after the twins arrived.
Grandpa told us that he and his wife had put together all their money before leaving Germany. When they arrived in Minnesota, they had $250.00 in their purse – the amount left after paying for their trip to this country. It was necessary to buy the stove and a few other essentials for the house. Grandpa decided that the best investment for the remainder would be to buy a team of horses. He made a satisfactory purchase even though good horses were not very plentiful.
The important objective, of course, was to get possession of some land, but now all the cash had been used. Grandpa earned what little he could be working for others. Most of the time he helped his brother. One of the big jobs was breaking sod on new land that was to be put into cultivation. Together the two men broke 15 or 20 acres of new land that first summer.
The grass roots were so thickly matted and interwoven that one team of horses could not pull a plough through the sod. Grandpa teamed his horses with August’s yoke of oxen, and in this way, they laboriously turned over the sod. After the first ploughing, the sod was left to dry and decay so that the land could be smoothed and planted to wheat or corn the next spring. In some cases, a crop of flint corn was planted the first year but this usually was not very successful.
By the following year, Grandpa received $100.00 from his brother who had used this money since the settlement of the mother’s estate in Germany. With this cash, he started negotiations for the purchase of some land. By making a small down payment and signing what to him looked like a big mortgage he got possession of his 80-acre tract of land. He bought it from a railroad company for $4.50 per acre. It included 13 acres of meandered land. This term is used for low-lying swales, or small lakes, which are intermittently covered with water depending on rainfall and season.
These 80 acres were the beginning of land ownership. Grandpa said he was mighty proud at having obtained a good piece of virgin prairie land, but he knew too that there was work to be done to get it into production. He knew also that he would have to obtain more land to establish an economical farm unit.
Within two or three years a large part of the first 80 acres was broken so that it was yielding crops. The mortgage was not all paid off, but Grandpa was looking for expansion. He bought an adjoining 40-acre tract on which he built his first frame house in 1884, and this location about two miles southeast of Wood Lake, Minnesota, became the permanent home site. An additional 40 acres was added later to make an 80.
After building the house, Grandpa bought 80 acres across the road to the east. This he got for $5.00 an acre. It was “school land” – the proceeds of the sale going into public funds for educational purposes.
The next purchase was the “River Farm”, a tract of 240 acres lying along the Yellow Medicine river four and one-half miles north of Wood Lake. Land prices had risen – 160 acres of the “River Farm” were purchased for $20.00 per acre, but the remaining had buildings so the price was $35.00.
Following this came the purchase of the “Baker Land” which was located just north across the road from the “school land”. It consisted of 43 acres of high ground for which Grandpa paid Mr. Baker $30.00 per acre and 60 acres of meandered land. No direct charge is made for meandered land. A buyer gets legal possession of such land when he buys the upland of which it became a part when the land sections were established by the state survey.
This Baker meandered land or “the lake” was later drained by a big ditch and became very productive. The good quality of Irish potatoes grown in “the lake” are preferred today by the local Wood Lake people. The cost of draining the land in “the lake” came to approximately $50.00 per acre.
The Tolzman farm, 7 miles south of Wood Lake, was the last purchase. It was a tract of 240 acres including 35 acres of meandered area. Thus, the total holdings at one time amounted to 820 acres. The accompanying sketch map shows the approximate location of the various pieces of land.
An idea of the value of this land can be obtained when it is considered that during the period of 1938 to 1940 farms in the vicinity of Wood Lake sold for $40 to $80 per acre, depending on improvements.
During this period the family kept increasing in size, so a substantial eight-room frame house was erected in 1903. It is still in use at the present time.
This can certainly be designated as a successful phase in Grandpa Hinz’s life – his early ambitions to own land and become independent were fulfilled. But it surely took a good many days of hard work, some careful planning, and shrewd bargaining to acquire 820 acres of rich prairie land, starting originally with $250.00, plus a $100 heritage.
Grandpa said he worked hard to attain this goal, but he continued, it was only with God’s gracious blessing that such achievement was possible.
Grandpa told us one evening about their work at wheat harvest time. Many days he would work from four o’clock in the morning until 10 or 12 at night – getting only a few hours sleep. He says in the early days they cut wheat with the reaper. The self-binder came into common use about 1887.
The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad were opened in 1884, and a station or siding was laid down at the present site of Wood Lake. The village was built around this station. A grain elevator, lumber yard, and stores were the most important places in town. The development of this village was a great help to the Hinzes. Up to now their nearest points to trade had been Granite Falls, 15 miles away, and Marshall, 22 miles distant. In fact, the lumber for the first frame house was hauled by horses from Granite Falls. The railroad which came through in 1884 was not far enough along to deliver lumber at the time Grandpa was ready to build.
Prices for farm products during the first years were very low. Grandpa said he remembers some of them, for example:
Eggs – 5¢ per dozen
Butter – 5¢ per pound
Wheat – 40¢ per bushel
Hogs – 2 ½¢ dressed weight
Steers – 2¢ per pound
Whether or not these low prices were connected with the financial depression of 1893 he could not say definitely.
The clothing worn by the family was practically all made at home. Goods were bought by the yard and Mother Hinz, who had learned to sew in Germany, cut according to the pattern and then seamed and sewed. Grandpa said many a night she sat up late after the children were in bed to make new clothes or mend and patch the worn ones. As the older daughters grew up they become very proficient at sewing and helped with this work. Grandpa often remarked that the mother’s lot was not an easy one. With all the children – twelve of them – she had her hands full in taking care of the house.
Grandma was neat and orderly – always kept her house scrupulously clean and the children well-dressed. Her ability at keeping an eye on business matters and managing endless details around the busy farm home contributed greatly towards a smooth and successful operation.
Hand Drawn Sketch Map from original story materials.
From Atlas and farmers' directory of Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota. Published in 1929. Red outlines the Hinz Land: First Land, Home Farm, School Land, and Baker Land. {source}
Current Google Map Satellite image of Wood Lake with the former Hinz properties bordered in red.
Grandpa delighted in telling about the deep snow that came the first year he was in Minnesota; that was the winter of 1880-1881. A heavy snow fell on October 15, making roads to the vicinity of Granite Falls impassable. This was very important as the major source of wood for fuel was near Granite Falls. Grandpa had planned to make several trips with horses and a wagon in November to bring home the wood. Since this fuel supply could no longer be reached, it became necessary to cut green bushy growth and tall grass along the edges of the local lakes. This was hauled home to the sod house by Grandpa, using a hand sleigh. The green stuff smoked and sputtered in the stove instead of making a nice cheery fire for the long winter months.
Stereoscope of Marshall, MN - about 25 miles SE of Wood Lake {source}
Along in January, more and more snow came. Grandpa claimed it was three feet deep on the level but wherever there was an obstruction, banks of snow piled high. The sod house was all but covered. Many mornings Grandpa had to shovel his way out. He said he made as many as eleven steps in snow stairs to get from his door to the surface. Often the single window pane in the back gable of the house drifted shut during the night so it was impossible to tell when the morning light came.
March 1881 - snowdrifts were taller than locomotives in rural Minnesota
Fortunately, Grandpa and his wife had a good store of food on hand. The thing they missed most keenly was a supply of oil for the lamp. One gallon of kerosene was all they had for use during three and a half months.
The two horses and one or two cows were kept in a shed made of poles covered with straw or hay. The snow was so deep that these animals could not get out of their shelter, so Grandpa had to bring them hay from the stack and also water. The shallow surface well, which furnished water for the house and also for the livestock, went dry during late winter. As a makeshift, water was obtained by melting snow on the stove in the house. Having to burn poor-quality green fuel made this a difficult task.
It was the middle of April before Grandpa and his brother August made their first trip to Granite Falls. The oxen had to be driven on this trip as Grandpa’s mare was heavy with colt. It took them three days to get to Granite Falls and back.
They forded the Yellow Medicine River at Sorlein’s Mill. Sorlein’s was also their overnight stopping place both going to and on the return trip. There was no bridge across the Yellow Medicine at that time.
On another occasion, Grandpa told us a little about school and how he helped organize the school district in his community.
Posen township had been divided into four parts, each formatting a school district. The other three parts of the township had organized, so Grandpa and his neighbors got together to establish the school in their district. This was about 1887 or 1888. The organization meeting was held at his house and he was elected school treasurer, which position he help for a number of years.
A teacher was engaged and the first classes were held in Grandpa’s framed house that had been built in 1884. Grandpa said he attended lessons the first three days but did not have the time to devote to studies so he gave it up.
With this, his thoughts went back to school days in Germany where, according to him, a good public education system was in force. All children in the state where he lived, Posen, had to attend public schools up to 14 years of age. Religion of the evangelical or state church was taught. Grandpa said it was the true doctrine of the bible taught according to Dr. Martin Luther’s translations. He said he learned easily. One of the requirements was to memorize an enormous number of verses from the church hymnal. He would read over his verses a number of times while walking to school and in that way commit them to memory.
One afternoon we were driving out Walnut Street, Philadelphia, by automobile, and Grandpa asked about the speed limit. When told that it was 25 miles per hour, he reflected a few minutes and then said that in the early days they were not troubled with speed limits out on the Minnesota prairie, because they used to go by horse or oxen and wagon. He said he never was able to drive oxen very well, but his brother could handle them alright. He recalled the time he hitched them to go down around the lake in search of the cow with a newborn calf. He was following the wagon trail when suddenly for no apparent reason the oxen cut off across lots and headed for home. In spite of all he could do, they stuck to their course so he let them have their way. Unfortunately, their path led through a slough or depression in which there were two or three feet of water. Once in the middle, the wagon got stuck in the mud – at least, the oxen didn’t want to pull; instead, they bucked and jerked. By turning their butts outward and backing up they somehow managed to slip the yoke from their necks. Once free they made their way home and left grandpa and the wagon in the middle of the slough.
THE LONG WINTER
For some context to Eduard Hinz’s recounting of the winter of 1880-1881 - this is the same winter that author Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in her sixth book of the series “Little House on the Praire”. In this book, she recounts how an early blizzard in mid-October of 1880 was followed by a relentless succession of blizzards which eventually suspended all rail travel and cut off the residents from supplies of food and fuel until May of 1881. At the time, the Ingalls family was living in Southeastern Dakota Territory. When the Ingalls were in Minnesota, they lived in the town of Walnut Grove - about 35 miles south of Wood Lake, MN.
Michael Dowling
Also a victim of the 1880-81 winter was Michael J Dowling who was stranded in the blizzard in Yellow Medicine County. While he survived the storm, both of his legs were amputated, he lost his left arm, and most of the fingers on his right hand. After being a ward of the state, he attended Carleton College and became a Minnesota politician who championed disability rights. The Dowling Elementary school in Minneapolis, MN is named after him.
A TRIBUTE
Grandpa Hinz, with his wife and three of the younger children, retired from the farm in 1915 when he was just two months short of 60 years old. He built a house in Wood Lake where he has lived up to the present, and there he plans to spend his remaining days.
Except for an operation, he has enjoyed good health and has always been busy at work of some kind around the house and garden, or on the farm. He loved to make trips to visit his children who like in North Dakota, Towa, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
All his life he had been a generous man, and this characteristic became even more marked as he grew older. He contributed liberally to the church and other charities, and always had an open heart and hand for his children.
He and his wife were full of deep and understanding love and devotion toward each other. When she died in March 1931, he was left a sad and bereaved man. In sorrow, he drew his consolation from faith in God. It is this faith that is strengthening and guiding him through the present years. His contentment to accept the days just as the good Lord grants them is an inspiration to all who know him and live with him.
