While the Abbuehl-Ott family lived in Illinois, Kasper needed work. He was about 16 or 17 years old and of sturdy build. A railroad was being built nearby and he got his first job working at helping grade the roadbed. First he was given the job of driving the mules to the scrapers, sometimes called a slip shovel. Having had no experience driving mules, he did very poorly. Then they had him try handling the scrapers to fill and dump them. This he succeeded in doing.
Margaret was 12 years old when they came to America. She too had to work. Illinois was so flat and she was homesick for the mountains. She said, “All there was, was land and sky.” She was also working Away from the family and she was also homesick for them.
In 1855, they decided to move to Kansas. (The Ratz family did not come until the year 1857.) It is believed that they came by covered wagon. After their arrival, they took a trail from Leavenworth leading westward. The trail could have been the one which ran through land originally owned by Anton Reichart .Sr.--the Reichart homestead. This trail was still visible when the last Reicharts left this farm in 1953. To the north of this trail Kasper saw the grass covered hills and ravines, with trees lining the creek. Looking this land over he discovered a good spring. He thought that if this land wasn’t taken that his family could make a good living here.
So they became squatters.
Andreas-Cutter’s History of Kansas, states that Jefferson County was not surveyed until 1856. The land east of line Range 18 and 19 were sold at public sale to the highest bidder in Leavenworth in 1856. Land west of Range 18 and 19 were sold at Ozawkie, Kansas, in July 1857.
The Abbuehl-Ott land was west of Range 18. Previous to the land sales squatter’s rights were recognized. This was simply a right to possession, and with the understanding that each settler should be allowed to bid the land he claimed, at its appraised value, on the day of the sale. This, however, often led to disputes because no defined rules were given as to what constituted squatter’s rights.
It was finally decided that some sort of dwelling had to be on the land with evidence of intent to improve the land. Kasper’s and Ott’s squatter rights were recognized. This part of Jefferson County became known as the Coal Creek Community. It is north of Valley Falls, at that time called Grasshopper Falls.
The first home was a one-room, log cabin. It was made of round logs with the cracks filled with blocks of wood, stone and daubed with mud. The roof was clapboard, There was a low wide door, but no floor or windows. The fireplace was made or logs plastered with mud. The chimney was also built of wood and plastered with mud. This was only a temporary home, and no doubt helped to make sure their right to possession.
In Kansas, Kasper worked some for Franz Ammen. Kasper had a team of oxen and they broke up the north side of the hill at Ammens (later the Gus Keen place). The hill was grown up in hazel brush. Ammen held the plow and Kasper drove the ox team.
One day while Kasper was visiting with Franz, they decided to walk to the top of the hill to look around. While they were there, they saw a deer to the east on the other side of Coal Creek. Ammen said, ”You go around him and get on the east side and I’ll wait along the trail.”
Kasper got around the deer, but Franz was too impatient and got too close. The deer discovered him and ran the other direction and escaped.
A story from a History of Coal Creek states that the stepfather, Melchior Ott Sr., bought a farm, with no buildings, 4miles north and ¾ mile west of Grasshopper Falls. They built a log house and other outbuildings close to the creek. This permanent house was made of hued logs and stones may have been used for the chimney. The cracks were filled with lime. Shingled roof, doors and windows, and the walls covered with clapboard were added improvements. A fireplace furnished heat and the place to do the cooking.
In 1860, Kasper Abbuehl married Christina Reichart and Margaret Abbuehl married Frederick Reichart. This was a double wedding at the home of the Abbuehl’s sister, Mrs. John Ratz in Grasshopper Falls.
Kasper and Christina first lived in a log cabin he helped make. It was about 100 feet north of Coal Creek on the south end of the ridge on the Rand place east of the Alex Abbuehl home.
They made their own lime for caulking the cracks. They made a wash drop 15 feet deep, piled in wood, then laid the limestone rocks on top. The burning rocks made lime.
Sometime between 1870 and 1875 Melchior Ott Sr. moved to Valley Falls (Grasshopper Falls became Valley Falls in 1875) where he operated a bowling alley. Kasper then moved his family onto the original homestead. This farm was in the Abbuehl family for over 90 years.
Improving a farm was hard work. The sod was hard to turn over with oxen and a wooden plow. The first year the newly turned sod did not produce a good crop. They planted a large orchard (150 apple trees, 25 cherry trees, 20 apple not bearing...reported a census).
Hedge rows were planted for fencing. These little trees were so precious that Aunt Christina and the older children carried water to them in the dry weather. How many rods of hedge fence, rail, or other types were items to be reported on census papers.
Everyone knew of the wonderful spring of water that came from the rock in the side of the creek. A spring house was built over the spring, with the doorway coming out on the bank side and below a basin was made to catch the water. One could walk into the spring house and let such things as milk and butter down through the floor into the basin of cold water where it was kept cool.
As time went on a house was built on the farm made of stone end brick. It was a beautiful house with the ornate trimming. In the early days church was held part of the time in the east room of this home before a church house was built in the community.
The Evangelical Association did its first preaching in the community in 1859, and Kasper and Christina were the first converts. The Abbuehls had been protestant; Zwingli was the reformer in Switzerland and was the leader of the Protestant Cantons, as Luther had been in Germany. The Evangelical Association believed in a soul saving experience, and the good people of other faiths were not taken into the church without such a personal experience.
There were several families in the surrounding area who were members of the association in the East. They made up this small church group. The Abbuehls became strong supporters of this congregation. Among these people Christmas was a day to be celebrated at home and in the church. Clara Hefty Reichart remembers going to a Christmas gathering in the cheese factory one year. Kasper would take apples from his orchard on Christmas Eve, as a treat to all who came for the Christmas Eve Program. (This tradition is still observed in the church.)
During the Civil War lots were drawn to see who would go to war and who would stay to care for the remaining families in the community. It Was Kasper’s lot to stay. There were about six families who depended upon him for care while their menfolk were gone.
One day word was sent out that Quantrill was headed for Atchison to steal and plunder. Men were needed to come to the town’s defense. Kasper walked at night to add his help to the people, but Quantrill did not appear. This may have been a trap to ease tension from the place which he planned to raid, any way the men were very glad that he did not make his appearance.
When Price raided Northeast Kansas, Kasper served in defense of the state.
Kasper Abbuehl built the cheese factory in 1882, and it went into production in the spring of 1883.
The factory was built by a stone mason, named Waggoner. He was kin of the Waggoners of Arrington, Kansas. The building was about 25 feet by 40 feet and a story and a half high. The basement was an arch cave, arched from north to south, running the length of the building. The factory was near to the spring house.
Kasper had a herd of dairy cows himself and also bought milk from 20-30 customers. (1885 census -26 milk cows, 20 00 lbs cheese, and made 400 lbs. of butter.)
The customers brought the milk to the factory each morning. They used old fashioned cans-straight up and down with large lid with two inch friction rim which fit inside the can. The milk was put in weighing cans on the scales and the weight recorded. An open slide valve let the milk run into the vats.
A slow fire was used to get the milk a certain temperature.., then rennet was used to curd the milk, and dandelion coloring was added. The curds were cut and crossed by a frame of wire 8 inches by 20 inches, in size. The whey was siphoned off.
Different sizes of hoop cheese boxes were lined with cheese cloth. They were then filled with the curds and a screw, power press was used to compress the curds and force out the whey.
After a time of draining, the cheese was taken from the press and placed on curing shelves. These shelves ran the full length of the upper floor. During fly season the cheeses were covered with mosquito netting.
The cheese made was of the long horn variety. Every day a load was taken to some surrounding town by springwagon. These wagons had a removable box, 2 1/2 feet wide, 7 feet long and 2 feet to the ridge of the roof. The roof’ had a lid opening.
Some of the towns that had deliveries from the factory were Horton, Holton, Atchison, Effingham, Valley Falls, Topeka, and Leavenworth. Wagon drivers were Hayes Rand, Alfred Holbrook, Nageli Brothers, and others. The creek ford crossing was about 700 feet north and a bit east of the factory. This was the road to Valley Falls and on to the other distant towns, east and south from the factory.
It is believed that Kasper charged 10% for making the cheese. The factory gave him ready cash, so that he was able to pay passage for some of the relatives and others to come to America. They in turn helped him with the milking, the factory, driving the wagons, herding cows on the open prairies, and other farming jobs. His herd varied in size from about 30 to 50 cows.
In winter the cows were fed prairie hay and fodder. Once a week someone drove to the Legler Mill east of Valley Falls for bran to supplement the hay and fodder. Some of the milkers were Magalena, and Anna and Casper Nageli, and his own boys Henry and Alex, and probably his older daughters, also. Alex Abbuehl also worked in the factory 4 years from his 19th to his 23 rd birthday.
The Abbuehl cheese was known for its good quality, quite superior to that made in surrounding areas. However, at least one time he made a batch of poor-grade cheese. He said that he didn’t know what he was going to do with it. Mr. Holbrook said he knew some saloons in Leavenworth, where the people got so drunk that they wouldn’t know good cheese from bad. So Kasper gave the cheese to him.
When customers bought cheese, they pulled back the cheese cloth from the center and took out a small wedge to sample. Mr. Holbrook loved to play pranks. He put a core of good cheese in the center of the poor. At least the operators of the saloon weren’t as drunk as the customers for they discovered the prank and it was a costly one, for the factory lost some customers.
Kasper finally quit making cheese because some people watered the milk and others skimmed off part of the cream. There were no butter fat testers at first, and. later he didn’t want to get testers and bother with the testing or the added expense.
The cave in the basement was used as an ice house. Ice was sawed from a nearby pond. When ice was ready, an Ice Making Bee was held. 1001b. chunks were hauled to the cave and stored with layers of sawdust between the cakes. If you had joined the “Bee”, then you could get ice free. No ice was made there probably after about 1920.