THE KUNTZ FAMILY
(Birth Certificate)
In 1876, he married Eva Elizabeth BINTZ of the village of Nothweiler and they began their life together.
Their first six children were born in Nothweiler. Philipp decided to bring his family from Nothweiler in the State of Rheinland-Pfalz (Palatinate). This is one of the 11 States of West Germany. It lies on the border of France (Nothweiler is right on the border), east of Luxembourg and Belgium, and west of Baden and Hessen. Two important rivers are the Glan and the Mosel. The topography appears very similar to the Appalachian region of central Pennsylvania. Nothweiler is in the County of Bergzbern and the people were called Palatines.
Philipp and his wife came to this country in 1892 on board the "Westernland" along with their six children. [For information regarding the ship, please see "S.S. Westernland" .]
He had been a forester in Germany, marking trees to be cut. They went directly to Clara City, Minnesota where all other members of the family (except the Jordys) were already residing.
Philipp worked in a lumber yard at Clara City for a while, but eventually they settled on a farm 12 miles North of Clara City.
Later, Philipp filed on a quarter section of land in Donnybrook, North Dakota near the rest of the Bintz families. It was required that homesteaders live on the land at least six months out of the year, and at the end of five years, they could prove up and get title to the land. Homesteaders usually tried to build their houses as close as they could to one another, often just across the road or quarter line.
Four one-room schools were built in our Township in about 1906 to 1910. Lunches were carried to school in half-gallon syrup pails. Noon and recess were highlights of the school day, and ball games, pump-pump-pump-away, and tag were favorite games. "Bully Hook" was a made-up game that was often played. The Bull would chase and hook someone. It often ended up with the teacher having to come out and put an end to the squabble. Teachers were respected and ruled with an iron hand. An eighth grade education was considered adequate for the boys and few of them got that far. A few of the girls attended high school and a very few of them graduated. The school term in the country schools was three months in the spring and three months in the fall.
Breaking the prairies was a tedious, discouraging job. The land was stoney and the first thing that had to be done was to pick off the rocks. This was usually done by the use of picks, crowbars, and stoneboats drawn by a team of horses. Sometimes, a chain would have to be put around a rock and pulled out by the team. Breaking the land with a one- furrowed 14" plow, drawn by three or four horses, with handles on the back for the driver to hold the plow upright and control the depth, was a slow business. One was constantly hitting stones, having to stop and roll out the stone, resetting the plow and getting started again. About 1-1/2 or 2 acres would be a maximum day's work, so breaking about 20 acres would likely be about all that could be done each spring. Following the breaking, the fields were planked, dragged, seeded, and sometimes dragged again. Walking all day long in the loose plowing was not anything to be desired.
In the fall, the grain was cut with a binder, shocked, sometimes stacked, and then threshed. Cooking for the gang of threshers was a big job for the farm women; there were up to 20 or 22 men to feed. But threshing time was an exciting time for everyone, watching the engineer operate the steam engine, the sheaves pitched into the separator, the straw going out the blower, and the grain pouring out the spout. The arrival of the first bundle teams was hailed with shouts of "The Threshers are coming! The Threshers are coming!" One quarter section of land, of which only a portion was cultivated, did not yield much grain. It was hard for a farmer to provide for a family, let along get ahead.
One means of earning a few dollars those first years on the prairie was to pick up buffalo bones and sell them. There weren't many left by the time the Kuntz's came to Donnybrook, although it hadn't been so very many years after the last of the big herds were killed in the 1880's. Buffalo trails were still easy to follow across the farms, and as recently as 1967, a buffalo trail could still be made out crossing the land.
It was hard work for the farm women taking care of their families with so little to do it with. Wood and coal-burning stoves were hard to regulate for baking. When a quick fire was needed, the stove was stoked with cow chips (dried manure) which had been gathered in the pasture. Eight, ten or more loaves of bread were baked at one time, starting with a cake of dry yeast. The garden provided vegetables during the summer and far into the winter storing them in the dirt cellar under the house. Wild Juneberries and plums were canned for sauce, and a box of apples from the store gave them an extra treat in the winter. Stockings, socks, scarves and caps were knit in the winter for all members of the family. Dresses were sewed for the girls. Unpainted, soft-wood floors were scrubbed with a brush and home-made soap until they were white.
Wash day must have really been a day to dread with water to be carried and heated on the coal stove, and then all the washing done on a wash board. Sheets and fleece-lined underwear (which was the regulation garb for everyone in the winter) were heavy and hard to handle when wet. The winter months were especially bad with clothes being hung out to freeze and then brought in to finish the drying process on lines hung across the living room. The suits of fleece-lined underwear could stand alone when first brought in off the line. It was "finger-freezing" work. Opposite from washing, the job of ironing was worse in the heat of the summer because of having to make a good hot fire in the kitchen stove on which to heat the sad irons.
The winters weren't times of leisure for the men. The cows and horses had to be kept in the barn and so there were always chores to do. Hauling hay and straw, feeding up, milking cows, cleaning barns, and watering all the livestock took many hours.
Winter was also the time for making ropes for horse halters, for tying cows in stalls, and for many other uses around the farm. The ropes were made from binder twine with the use of a rope machine.
The Butlers, Kuntz's, Wittes and Bintz's all lived within a radius of two miles, and the John Jordys in Donnybrook were about five miles away. Visiting between families was mostly done on Sundays after church, but seldom did any of the families stay for meals. Times were hard and that would have been considered an imposition.
Christmas Eve was the highlight of the winter. Santa Claus and Nicholas came on Christmas Eve. Nicholas carried a whip and made the children say their Christmas prayers which they had learned for the church program. The children were scared of him. After the prayers, Santa delivered the gifts. Carolina Kuntz played the part of Nicholas, and Alice Kuntz was Santa Claus. There was always a Christmas tree, but it was not always a pine tree.
The Fourth of July was looked forward to in the summer with a big celebration held at the Stroklund Coulee. There was a strong feeling of patriotism among the early settlers, many of whom had "come across" and still vividly remembered the oppression in the Old Country. The Fourth of July held a lot of meaning. Ice cream and lemonade were sold at stands. Picnic dinners were packed by the women and spread out on tablecloths on the ground. It was a time for everyone in the neighborhood to get together to visit and to eat.
In the early years when there was a real emergency, the doctor was "sent for". There were no phones so someone would be sent for the doctor. Someone would then drive him out to the homestead where he was needed. It had to be practically a case of life and death before a doctor was asked to come, but they always came, no matter how far or what the weather. Doctors were seldom called on to deliver babies - that was considered a natural process and women helped each other. Avlis Kuntz often served as midwife.
Donnybrook is a pretty little town in the Des Lacs River Valley about 35 miles northwest of Minot. It was a thriving town by the time the Kuntz's came. The population was about 500. The following businesses were in operation: two or three general stores, two hardwares, three implement businesses, two banks, two barber shops, a drug store, a meat market, two livery barns, four or five grain elevators, a newspaper office, two hotels, one or more restaurants, a poolroom, a shoe repair shop, a blacksmith shop, a ladies' hat shop, two lumberyards, and there were two doctors' offices. The town probably started to decline as early as 1905. The 1910 census shows the population as 297, and the 1960 population as 196. Since, in North Dakota, it is the farmers that support the towns, the small towns started dying out with the decrease in population due to farmers either selling their homesteads or losing them. It was practically impossible to make a living on one quarter of land. Another factor was the gradual use of automobiles so that it became easier to go to larger towns to trade.
Philipp Kuntz was naturalized 11/5/1904 in Ward County, North Dakota.
Petition for Naturalization
And that is the beginning of our story - or is it!
We are now attempting to contact anyone who may have information regarding the family in Germany. Many of the records were destroyed during World War II, but we are hoping that something survived. If anyone has any information that might be helpful, please
Mail Me
Please look it over carefully:
*Philipp KUNTZ b. 1850 in Nothweiler, Germany; d. 6/10/1937 in Woodland, California
m. 1876 in Nothweiler, Germany to Eva Elizabeth (Avlis) BINTZ, b 7/8/1852 in Nothweiler, Germany; d 12/17/193 in Ward, North Dakota
.... Henry KUNTZ (1878-1915), m Bertha BETHKE (1881-1959)
.... Alice KUNTZ (1880-1963), m Henry FRANKE (1880-1976)
.... Carolina KUNTZ (1882-1953), m Frank HORMAN (1878-1936)
....*Philipp KUNTZ, Jr. (1884-1978), m Anna Louise LUBITZ (1880-1959), Ann STANSBERRY, (Unk-1969)
.... Frederick KUNTZ (1886-1971), m Effie MORIARITY (Unk), Luella Unk (Unk), Margaret BOKMA (Unk)
.... Louis KUNTZ (1888-1965), m Lillie HAUTER (1886-1958)
.... Charles KUNTZ (1894-1965), m Lydia WITTE, (1898-Unk)
.... Louise Lydia KUNTZ (1898-1966), m Roger MARTIN (1888-1972)
Please check out my other pages for more details on each of the families in our tree:
Please check them out.
German Links on Hessen Page
Archives in Germany
Genealogy Page of Andreas Hanacek
German/English Dictionary
Internet Sources of German Genealogy
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