Frederick Reichart (1837) -- Margaret Abbühl (1839)

Guttannen, Switzerland, is a small village high in the Alp Mountains. The Abbuehls lived in the “Back Country” of this village. Margaret would carry produce to market when she was a little girl. It was up and down the mountain side. On the way there was a level place about thirteen feet square. She would put her produce down and walk around in this spot thinking how nice it would be to live on flat land.

Margaret had deep concerns and feelings about the things that happened to her. Perhaps this was because the pattern of her life as upset often and at an early age.

Her father died when she was just four years old. She with her brother and sister lived with the grandparents. The mother, Katharina, worked away from home. When she was five, the mother married again, and now she had a new father and another home.

They came to America when she was just twelve years old. They lived in Illinois at first. The topography of Illinois was so different from that of Switzerland, that she got very homesick for the mountains. She worked away from home so she was also homesick for the family.

After four years in Illinois, the family came to Kansas. Sister Catherine(Mrs.John Ratz) and family stayed in Illinois two years longer.

In Kansas there were the hardships of pioneer life. Northeast Kansas was not so flat. There were rolling grass covered hills and valleys and tree lined creeks. Henry Reichart said that there were young trees growing along the creeks with very few trees elsewhere. He also said in the early days the woods were beautiful in the spring. The edges of the woods were lined with wild plum, red bud, dogwood, and red hazelnut copse.

Margaret often said to her daughter-in-law, Clara Hefty Reichart (Mrs. Alex) “Gab es nicht Catherine (Mrs.John Ratz) geht es mir nur Schlecht.” (“Were it not for Catherine it would have gone even harder for me.”)

Margaret was spirited, energetic, and a pusher. She was also kind hearted and generous. It was her determined energetic ways which helped the family through the hardships of pioneer life. It was her kindness and generosity which made life more comfortable for others besides her own household, as you will read farther in the story.

As stated before, the Reicharts (Reicherts) came to America seeking better opportunities and to escape militarism. Reasons for coming to Kansas from Wisconsin were that it was quite wearisome to clear the land of trees and then to farm between the stumps. Also they wanted more land and in Kansas the land was cheaper.

When the Reicharts came, they brought very little with them, Lillian Reichart Keller remembers hearing them tell that they had very little in the way of furniture. They had no beds for a long time. They slept on pallets on the floor.

Frederick Reichart was a kind, easy-going person. He was highly respected by everyone. All his daughter-in-laws loved him very much and often spoke of this man’s fine personality. In 1860, Frederick and Margaret were married in a double wedding with Christina Reichart and Kasper Abbuehl. They were married in Grasshopper Falls at the home of sister Catherine Abbuehl Ratz (Mrs. John). This was a gala affair with the old country wedding celebration.

In 1862, Catherine Ratz died. This was a very great loss to Margaret for this older sister had been such a stabilizing comfort to her in her life.

Margaret went to live with Frederick in the Reichart household. There lived Anton Sr., Philip, Anton Jr., Abraham Stauffer husband of Elizabeth (Lizzie) Reichart) and his two daughters - Christina 5 years old and Elizabeth 3 years old. This was a household of men folk and two little girls. The home was still the hewed log house.

Margaret at first spent considerable time herding cows, because there was a lack of fences and they needed to be herded from the crops. Andreas-Cutler’s History of Kansas states unlike some counties of the state, there were no herd laws in Jefferson County. Therefore each farmer had to fence in his crops to protect them, because animals could roam at will. He states that about l/3 of the fences were hedge which made rapid and substantial growth. Other kinds of material in general use for fencing were stone, rails, boards, and wire.

In settling the land, they were required to let pastures ever so often for free range. In the Coal Creek Community there were two known places that were such pastures. There may have been more. One was just west of the Abbuehl farm. Another was north of the Abbuehl farm just across the county line on the west side of the road.

One of the first fields that the Reicharts enclosed to protect their crop was just east of their home. One day an Indian passing through the country asked them if the door to the field was open or closed.

Enclosed pastures in the early day were sometimes used together, common pastures. Such a pasture had been fenced in--whether hedge or rail, it is unknown, or perhaps barbed wire had been used at this time. This pasture was just west of the Abbuehl land.

A man by the name of Freeman had a Billy-goat. Whenever, each farmer or his boys went to take or get the cows, the goat would stand in the gate and not let the cows come through. Grandfather Frederick finally had enough of this and when Freeman would do nothing about the goat, Frederick took the goat south of his place to the woods and hit it in the head with an ax.

The next morning Grandmother said,” Look Grandfather, your goat is up walking around.”

Grandfather went to the woods again. The goat did not return.

The free range pastures often caused trouble. In haying season who had the right to make hay from the unclaimed land?

Margaret knitted every opportunity that she had, even while she might be doing something else. She knitted as she herded cows; she knitted as she walked to the neighbors, and she knitted as she visited with friends. Not only did she knit for her own eight children, but for Anton Jr.’s family as well. George Reichart often told how his Aunt Margaret kept them in mittens, caps, and socks.

Lisa Reichart (Mrs. John) said that Margaret made all the suits and work clothes for her family, until they were about 21 years old. She did this with needle and thread by hand, not having a sewing machine.

John Ratz cobbled shoes but some times one had to furnish the leather. One winter Margaret did not have shoes so she could not go outside unless one of the men folk were in the house. Then she would slip into their boots.

Anton Sr. had brought grape cuttings from his vineyard in Germany to America. The stone arch cave on the Reichart Homestead was built as storage and a place to make wine.

Anton Sr. would work in his vineyard and while he rested he would sit in the cave, drink a glass of wine and eat a slice of dry bread. Margaret thought it might be easier to take the bread and wine to the vineyard than to walk back and forth, but he wanted to rest in the cool of the cave.

He continued his wine making until the L.K.& W Railroad was built. The bed ran across his farm, Workers came to the cave to buy wine. Some of them already had too much to drink. Anton Sr. said, “If this is the way it is to be in America, I quit making any more wine.” And he did quit.

Rose Spence (Mrs. Charles) said that the grape vines on their farm were originally cuttings from vines of Anton Sr.’s vineyard which he had given to her father Mr. Kneir. Through the years they kept making cuttings as the need arose to keep the grape patch going. These vines were still there in 1960.

In the Coal Creek Community lived the Frakes Family. They came from Missouri and they were proslavery. The slave question had caused some trouble among the settlers.

Jack Frakes lived on Jeff Creek in a little house west of the road, which went north and south past the Swabville School...This would be west of Half Mound.

One cold winter day Jack went to butcher at his brother Willis’ place, somewhere in the Coal Creek neighborhood. While there, he got drunk and on the way home, late at night, he stopped at Ammen’s house. With a big butcher knife in his hand, he shouted, “I won’t live along side a man I can’t lick, and I want to try you.”

Franz Ammen saw the knife in the moonlight and when he went out through the cabin door he picked up a stick of stove wood from the woodpile. When Frakes dismounted, he made the mistake of dismounting with his back to Ammen.

Ammen struck with the stick of wood and Frakes slumped to the round. Ammen left him in the bitter cold and returned to the cabin.

Later Jake Ammen, Franz’s brother, end one of the other boys took Frakes into the house and thawed him out and sent him home. Frakes sold out and left the country. He wouldn’t live beside a man he couldn’t lick.

One night Frederick and Margaret kept Indians in their home. There were at least two--an older man and a boy- perhaps a father and a son. Frederick took an ax to bed with him that night...just in case he needed protection.

During the night they heard one of the Indians walking in the house. Soon they heard the dipper rattle in the water bucket. His footsteps were heard going back to bed and all was quiet again. Then they remembered that they had fed them salt pork for supper.

In the morning the older Indian scolded the younger for making a disturbance in the night.

“Well, he only needed water!”

The Indian also patted the feather bed and said, “Nice! Nice!”

Owned improved 80 acres --247 unimproved
$3,000.00 value of the farm
$25.00 Value of farm machinery
4 milk cows
6 work oxen
10 other cattle
5 swine
$245.0O Value of livestock
800 bushels corn
60 bushels Irish potatoes
100 lbs. butter
25 Tons hay
$6oo.oo value of slaughtered animals
$300.00 personal estate

Surplus products were sold in Fort Leavenworth. Army wives were glad to see them come from Coal Creek Community. The meat was always clean. Prairie hay was placed in the wagon bed, white muslin over the hay, and then over the meat.

They went on this trading journey at least twice a year. On a return journey one time, it had rained and the river was up where they were to ford. They hit a rock and the supplies were thrown out. Among the supplies was a jug of whisky, which the family used for medical purposes, and a rooster for the farm flock of hens. The jug and the rooster landed side by side. The rooster flapped his wings and let out a big crow. Whenever Frederick would tell this story, .t always amused Margaret very much.

Fording rivers did not always turn out with a humorous aspect. There was a ford on the Delaware River west from the Reichart Homestead by the Gus Keen farm. The Kneir Family who lived one and a half miles north of the Coal Creek Church went to visit a family that lived on the place later owned by Andy Ratz, west of the Delaware. The entire day was spent, going and coming that far, and in visiting. It rained that afternoon and the river was up. The Kneirs missed the ford slightly. On one side the wheels missed the crossing and the wheels sank down overturning the wagon. All were clear of the wagon except little Rose (Mrs. Charles Spence, mother-in-law of Martha Reichart Spence). She was under the overturned wagon and almost drowned.

Another ford on the river was at the half mound just north of the village of Half Mound, another north of that one at Arrington, Kansas. One day Mr. Jacob Albert Engler, father of Mrs. Henry Reichart, went to Holton to get a tent for a camp meeting. It rained on this day, the river became swollen, and as he attempted to ford the river he was accidentally drowned.

Henry Reichart said that on Coal Creek when one wanted to cross the creek, one would find a bend on the creek that sloped down from the side one was on. You would drive down the slope and then drive along in the creek until the next bend that would slope up the opposite bank. These slopes were covered with grass since the creek was small and the areas about it were prairie so that soil did not wash into the creek very much. After a while certain places were known to be a good place for crossing and the trails led to those fording places.

One year when Frederick went to Fort Leavenworth with a load of hay, it was extremely cold and he froze his feet. It took him a long time to get over this. When cold weather came in years later, his feet tingled with the slightest cold.

A contractor in Grasshopper Falls had contracted horses and tons of hay for the army from farmers around for delivery at the fort on certain dates. It is believed that this was when Frederick froze his feet. When he went to Leavenworth on trading trips for the family, they surely did not choose the coldest time of the year and surely it would not have been urgent to go just then.

When Frederick had the barn built on the place, in 1870, Frederick hired a man by the name of Mr. Steffy to help with the wooden part. The Reicharts had done the stone work. This was a two story structure, commonly called a basement barn. It was about 35 feet by 55 feet in size. Mr. Steffy’s wages were $70.00, but he decided to take a yearling mule instead. (The barn was torn down when the Perry Dam was constructed on the Delaware River. Buildings removed about 1960).

When the Madorin Family moved to Kansas from Chicago, in 1895, they came to the Keen place. They lived in the upstairs of the house, perhaps more like a loft than an upstairs. This was the best accommodations the Keens had available. Mrs. Madorin had to carry water, as well as everything else, up a ladder to the loft.

Mrs. Madorin and her children, Fred and Irma, often told that one day Margaret came to visit the Keens and saw how Mrs. Madorin had to carry water up the ladder. Margaret went home and sent Frederick with a wagon to move them to the old stone house on their farm. It was a two-room house with a fireplace on one side.

The Madorins later built a three-room house in the timber east of the road from the Reicharts on some of their land. Fred Madorin said that he was sent as usual to Frederick’s for milk. He came home without any. His father, thinking that Fred had spilled it, gave him a good thrashing. The truth of the matter was the Reicharts had slept late and hadn’t done the milking yet. Frederick felt very sorry about this.

Margaret did most of the disciplining of the children. No doubt some was needed with seven boys and one daughter. George Reichart said that he and his brothers went more or less where they pleased without telling their parents, Anton Jr. and Anna, but not so in Uncle Frederick’s family. The boys knew that they must report their whereabouts and what they were doing to Aunt Margaret.

George also told that one day the Frederick and Anton Jr. boys played in the barn-jumping in the hay and grain. For some reason, none of them knew just why, they took off all their clothes to do the jumping. Soon Aunt Margaret came to the barn. There they were perched in their birthday clothes on the big rafters, ready to jump onto the hay.

First Aunt Margaret called all her boys down and gave them a whipping. Good, kind Uncle Kasper was first. He was the dutiful child, always doing what his mother requested. Cousin George in telling the story felt bad about this because his Aunt Margaret was so angry, and Kasper being first, got it the hardest. The cousins thought she wouldn’t dare touch them, but after calling all her own down, one by one, she said, “George, komm herun.” (George, come down.) and each in turn Lee, and then Philip.

Spanking was not her only measure of discipline. When son, Alexander, was first starting school, he would come home and tattle what other children did at school. After a time his mother thought since he was not quitting this on his own that the young gentleman needed a lesson. She got two chairs. She sat in one with Alex on the other facing her. She let him tattle while she listened attentively. When he had completed his tale, she said, “Now tell me what my little Alexly did at school today.” The table was turned and he no longer found pleasure in his tales.

Before the cream separator was invented, milk was put out in crocks and when it got cold the cram would come to the top and it was skimmed off. Frederick went to Valley Falls one day where he was his first cream separator. He came home and told Margaret he saw a machine where one could put warm milk in a tank, turn a crank and the cream would come out one spout and the milk out another.

Margaret asked, “Die heiss Kuh’s Milch?” “The hot cow’s milk? I’ll believe that when I see it!”

Among the pioneer men showing strength was a common pastime, as well as set one up as a person to be respected in the community. The two older sons, Anton and Fred, did things to develop their strength such as wrestling a great deal together and putting their arms around a tree with their bodies up to the trunk, then they would hold to a single tree and have a horse pull. They would see how long they could hang on and not let go.

When Anton was still a young man at home, Senns and Graggs came by one morning. They had been drinking and someone bet the Graggs that they couldn’t lick young Anton.

They caused a commotion in the yard. They boys had slept late that morning and were still in bed. Mother Margaret thought the boys should go out to see what the men wanted. They boys had a pretty good idea. Since the “gang” wouldn’t go away, finally Anton and Fred went out. When they saw the size of Anton and he had made one swing with his fist, they departed.

Anton in his younger days ran a thrashing machine, doing community threshing in his neighborhood. Anton could lift the separator into place by himself. The separator and the steam engine were lined up and then a hole was dug in the earth to level the machine if needed. This also would keep the machine in place as the engine applied power to the separator. Stooping slightly Anton would back up to the wheel, his hands catching the upper rim, then he would straighten up lifting the separator into place. This all was called setting the machine.

The boys often got into pillow fights. One time Kasper’s pillow broke and feathers scattered everywhere. Stenie (Christina Stauffer) told him that he had to clean them up. He went to get a broom to help in recovering them. Stenie wouldn’t let him use the broom. She made him pick them up one by one. The Reicharts did not make progress financially very fast. They were a large household, the weather was not always a help in production, and marketing of products was difficult. When Frederick’s oldest son, Anton, was sixteen years old, he bought 20 black calves. With the raising of the cattle, farm income from then on was better.

When the first generation Reicharts had finally gained comfortable living, they relaxed from their hard work and were content. Alex, the youngest son, could never remember having seen his father do field work. Perhaps occasionally he helped a little at haying time, driving the team. He worked in the garden and yard. Upon second thought walking behind a walking plow was not a task for an older man to do.

In 1885, Anton Sr. died. When Lisa Stauffer (Mrs. John Reichart) was asked if she could remember anything about him, recalled only that her father, Daniel Stauffer, and a neighbor rode horseback to his funeral. The men remarked on returning home that the preacher had said “I’ll not try to tell you how good this man was. His life had indeed been a fine gentleman. By this time the Coal Creek Church had a burial plot by the church yard and Anton Sr. was the first one to be buried there. (Two people buried there had died before him but their bodies were moved from a previous place of burial). This then ended the practice of burials on plots on the Reichart and the Abbuehl farms.

When each of the boys married and left the home, even though they all lived on farms not more than four miles away, their departure from the home next was a sad event. Clara (Mrs. Alex) said, “If one of them had moved far away, I don’t think grandma could have stood that.”

She often walked to visit each of them, but not Frederick, he was content to sit quietly at home. When grandson Fred Arnold was old enough to go to school, he came to Margaret’s house to go to school with his Uncle Alex. The two boys shared the same bed and Alex looked after his nephew in general.

Laura was Margaret and Frederick’s only daughter and she was the youngest in the family. No doubt she was a little spoiled, however no one would have guessed it if they knew her in her adult years. Anyway Aunt Mary had said one time that Laura Reichart and Walter Abbuehl were the two worse children on Coal Creek. I don’t know what they had done to be awarded this distinction.

In the Coal Creek community in those days most all the marriages were performed within the home. In addition to the ceremony there was a wedding dinner. With just one daughter, Margaret had only one wedding to plan. At this time wieners were a new kind of meat, and this dish was found on the wedding dinner table. The wiener from this highly favored place has long since sunk into a more lowly place. Perhaps this statement is incorrect as Mrs. Roosevelt served hot dogs to Queen Elizabeth when she visited the United States.

Laura continued to go to school until she was married. Since Christina Stauffer always lived with Margaret, and most of the other children were married, Margaret did not especially need Laura’s help. So she had neglected to teach her the household arts. To recompense for this mistake, Margaret sent Christina with Laura to help with the household tasks.

Son, John, lost his first wife, Alice Schindler, at the time of the birth of their first child, Harry-1897. Margaret’s heart ached for John in his sorrow and she took the baby boy to care for him. The child did not live to be quite one year old and he too died.

Alexander was the last of Frederick and Margaret’s children to marry. Alex brought his wife, Clara Verena Hefty, to live on the home place. In addition to Alex’s parents, William Fisher lived with them also.

The year of their marriage, 1904, was also the year that the Reicharts got their first telephone. Margaret always asked Clara to call and talk to one of the boy’s family. Talking to a hole on the wall was something she didn’t think she could do. However, she did use the telephone at least once. When Alex and Clara had their first childe, she called one of the boys and said, “Alex and Clara have a nice baby girl, but it has red hair.” This should not have been such a surprise because Margaret’s mother was red headed.

Frederick died in 1905 and Margaret went to live with her daughter, Laura. When she was visiting Clara one day afterward, Clara said to her that she was sorry that she could not keep the yard as nice as she and grandfather had kept it. Grandmother said, “Never mind little Edith can be your flowers now.”

Alex’s first two children were girls. Grandmother thought they should have been boys. The third child was…born just six days after her death.

The seven sons of Frederick and Margaret were the casket bearers for both their father and their mother. These people traveled far from the land of their birth but when they came to Kansas, they and the next generation remained in the same community. As they lived together, they rest together in the same cemetery. They and their wives and Laura and her husband. Only one remains at the time of this writing, (1974), Clara (Mrs. Alex). Some day she too will rest there.

William Hefty once pondered this question, “I wonder what measures of discipline this father and mother used to raise seven stalwart sons and one daughter, all of such sterling qualities?”