Philip Reichart was by trade a stone mason, as his father was. When they were in Wisconsin, in addition to some farming they also did stone work. In Kansas they did work at Grasshopper Falls and in Leavenworth. Philip’s own home, the stone part on Anton Jr.’s, Frederick’s home and the Blake house were structures that they helped build.
Philip and his father helped to build the first Lutheran Church in Grasshopper Falls, in 1857. The Reicharts were Lutherans in Germany and Philip and the other family members became charter members of this church.
In 1871, Philip married Mary Hilty. He was 37 years and she was just 23. They farmed on the Reichart land east of Coal Creek.
In April, 1891, Philip was kicked by a horse and almost killed. But he seemed to make improvement and there was hope for his recovery. In November of 1892, he developed lung fever which resulted in his death.
Mary Hilty was born in Lichtenstein (at the time part of Austria). She came to America with her parents in 1870. Life had been very hard for her family in Austria as it was for many others in those days. In America she also had hardships. Because of want and need she learned to be very saving. It was hard for her to see anything wasted.
If she were driving along the road and an ear of corn was lying near, lost from a farm wagon, she would stop the horse and pick the corn up to take home to feed the chickens. On her rich creek bottom soil purslane grew into large plants. Pigs love the weed. Aunt Mary gathered it by the basketfuls from the rows of corn to feed to them.
Gus Keen had a windmill on his farm that would grind grain on a good windy day. The frame which supported the machinery was enclosed, by board sides. The fins on the wheel would collapse when not in use. The burs were of metal. There were two hoppers, one large and the other small. The larger was above the smaller one. The grinding was done very slowly. A person could fill the larger hopper and then go off to the field to work while the grinding took place.
Gus, the good neighbor that he was, let Aunt Mary grind her chicken feed free on his mill. There was one problem, however. Gus was a little careless in keeping the mill, as well as other things, in repair. One board was broken off the side of the mill. The wind blew some of Aunt Mary’s ground feed out this opening. This was wasteful! If Gus were anywhere around, he got a lecturing from her about his carelessness.
The Keens had goats. Before she went home, she always had to have some goat’s milk to drink. Gus thought this compensated for the lost grain.
The railroad went across the Frederick Reichart farm. Trains going north had an up-grade which slowed it down. At the road crossing tramps often jumped from the freight trains and slept in the barn and called at the house for a hand-out.
One time Clara Reichart (Mrs. Alex) had fed a tramp. Among other things she gave him homemade bread and butter with strawberry preserves. This must have been to his dislike for he went to Aunt Mary’s house later. On the way he threw the bread away by the bridge that crossed Coal Creek. Aunt Mary went to her mailbox that was just across the bridge to get her mail. She discovered the bread thrown away.
So she walked over to Clara’s to see if she had fed the tramp and what she had given him. What a lecture the tramp! The nice fresh bread with beautiful red strawberry preserves! My! My! Then she was angry with herself for feeding someone who could be so wasteful. He should go hungry so he could appreciate good food!
When Philip died, Aunt Mary was left with five girls (one of whom died five years later, at the age of sixteen). Philip’s death was a real hardship. She continued to live on the farm, raised pigs and chickens, and milked cows.
She had four nephews at the Anton Reichart Jr.’s home and five of the seven nephews were still at Frederick’s home. They were neighbors just across the creek. They all helped Aunt Mary in many ways. These boys all loved their Aunt Mary. She was spirited, spunky, and outspoken. There was always excitement wherever she was. She was admired for the way she always shouldered the responsibility for the family when Philip was gone.
The boys did much of the farming for her, that is the field work. Anton’s boys always liked to have their horses and mules look “sporty”, so they trimmed their tails and manes. Aunt Mary had one horse named Josy which she drove to the buggy. One day without asking Aunt Mary the boys decided to make Josy’s appearance more “sporty”.
When Aunt Mary found it out, she was very unhappy. “Poor Josy! Her tail was bobbed so short that she couldn’t switch the flies!” What a scolding the boys did get! No doubt the boys did things sometimes just to here what Aunt Mary would say about it.
Alex and Kasper Reichart trapped in the woods by Aunt Mary’s house. One day they found a redbird caught in one of the traps. They took the bird to show to Aunt Mary. She stroked its feathery as the boys held it and kept repeating over and over, “Oh, du schone rote voegeli”, (Oh, you beautiful red birdie).
All at once the bird pecked her and she shouted, “Oh, du schreckliche ding.” (Oh, you terrible thing. Notice the bird is now a thing)
One day Aunt Mary brought daughter Emily over to Aunt Margaret’s house. Emily said that Kasper had called her a Kuh schwanz. (a cow tail) at school.
Aunt Margaret went out to call her little Kappie in. She asked, “Did you call Emily a Cow tail at school today?”
Honest Kappie replied, “Yes, but not until she called me a pig’s tail first.”
Aunt Mary got off her chair, took Emily by the hand, and walked out of the house for home. For once Aunt Mary didn’t have a word to say. She probably thought that things were pretty even.
At this time there sometimes were language problems. The Germans in making English translations sometimes sounded crude. This was sometimes called “Old-World crudeness”. As an example when Josephine had yellow jaundice, Aunt Mary said, “She was as yellow as Kuhfladen.” (cow flops). Other Germans might have said the same thing. In the English a more Victorian expression would have been used. It might have been farther from the truth but they never-the-less would have used a more refined expression. The more Victorian expressions were being used both in England and in America, and in America it took on an added frontier flavor.
Kasper Reichart used to tell this story which further shows word problems. Kasper was very amused with the play on words and also how very well Aunt Mary could take care of herself. Having heard Aunt Mary tell this story this also added to his amusement.
One very cold winter day Aunt Mary went to Valley Falls. A widower (whose name can no longer be recalled) said in poor English to her, “This is a bad day for a wider (frontier for widow) to be out” (in German ”wider” means a contrary person.
Aunt Mary didn’t know what word he had in mind. She was unhappy if he meant this to be a flirtation, she didn’t like being pointed out as being a widow, and if he were joking about her disposition, she liked that even less. So she answered, “Auch fur widerlichs”. (Also for repulsive persons), but he thought she was endeavoring to use the English word widowers.
Aunt Mary had a little dog which she loved very much. Trixie did no wrong. She always stayed at home. She never ran around at night. There was no other dog quite so well behaved as Trixie. But after every rain there were little Trixie tracks in the mud all around Uncle Frederick’s house.
When the first telephone line went up in the community, the German speaking people all wanted to be on this line. This meant stringing a lot of wire and meandering here and there to get this accomplished. (Line 13-hundred). Aunt Mary wasn’t invited to join this group. She believed in speaking her mind and she talked too much, they gave as the reason.
This was most unkind. If anyone needed a telephone, she did. With no men folk at her house, it would have been reassuring to have a telephone available.
Philip Reichart was concerned about this. Sometime later he suggested to his father, Anton Jr., that another line be made. They would get off the 13-hundred and join the new group, too, and Aunt Mary could have the needed telephone.
So the 12-hundred line was put in, but it had to meander here and there also, and needless to say most of the people would be English speaking on it. Since the lines traveled side by side in places, in wind storms the wires would become tangled. With party lines eavesdropping was an enjoyable pastime for some. With the lines crossed it was more exciting for there were different people to listen to then.
There was one drawback, for when the German people didn’t want the English to hear what they were saying they spoke in German. That infuriated some.
In spite of the fact that Aunt Mary had a lot of outdoor work to do, she was careful about her personal appearance and she was an immaculate house keeper. This trait her daughters emulated.
As Aunt Mary grew older times became less difficult for her. Her family grew up so she had to work less hard because she had their help. Finances were better so there could be relaxing from such careful planning and saving. As this came about there was a mellowing of her personality and the next generation knew her as a more composed , less defensive person. I don’t suppose the nephews across the creek would have changed Aunt Mary for anything. She was a colorful person, abounding in contrast to others and making life full of variety. They all admired with what courage she managed the farm for 20 years.
In 1912, Aunt Mary moved to Holton where she spent her retirement days. The Alex Reichart family watched from the window that cold March day, as the wagons drove by moving Aunt Mary from the community. Each summer after Alex got an automobile, they looked forward with anticipation to a day when they would make a visit to Aunt Mary’s house.