ADAM AND CATHERINA HUCK

by Edward Huck

They say that all of us are descendants of immigrants. People immigrated from one country to another for many reasons. Some of the reasons were personal, political, dissatisfaction with the life they were living, and some were forced to leave. People immigrated to North America from all over the world to make this one of the best countries in the world to live in. Under the influence of Catherine II wife of Peter III, Czar of Russia, thousands of people were persuaded to leave Germany and settle in Russia. Around 1776 Adam and Catherine Huck's ancestors were a part of this immigration, moved to Russia and settled west of the Volga River and built up a colony which they named "Huck".

Adam Huck was born in Huck, Russia, in 1878, to Phillip and Elizabeth (Hixt) Huck. Adam was their only son, and when he was one year old his father. passed away. His mother then married John Hoffman, in 1883, and they had one son and two daughters.

Catherina Huck was born in Huck, Russia, in 1881 to Conrad and Christina (Barth) Frick. She had three sisters and three brothers.

Adam and Catherina Huck were married in 1899 and eventually had nine children, one born in Russia, three in Lincoln, Neb., and five in Canada. They were members of the Reform Church in Russia. At the marriage service in those days you had to recite large passages of the Bible, so if you wanted to get married you had some memory work to do.

When Adam was 16 years old he went to Saratov and worked in a store for four years. There he learned the Russian language. The young people had great fun swimming in the Volga River. After he came back to Huck he went into the carpentry business. Among other things he built in his shop were fanning mills for the farmers to separate the straw and chaff from the wheat. These fanning mills were made almost completely from wood. Also during this period he spent some time in the Russian army.

In 1902 my parents, together with 30 other families decided Russia was not the place for them and immigrated to the United States. It took 14 days to cross the ocean to Ellis Island, just off the coast from New York City. Crossing the ocean my parents' only daughter, Catherine, took sick and passed away. She was buried on Ellis Island. All immigrants at this time had to stay in quarantine on Ellis Island for three weeks before going on to the mainland. My mother's Grandmother Barth and her son had immigrated to Nebraska in 1875. Helfrick Rutt, who settled in the Luseland district, was also a member of this 1875 group.

For the next six years my parents lived in Lincoln, Neb., and my father continued working as a carpenter in a planning mill where they made cabinets, stair cases, etc. They had built their own home and when a creek, which flowed into Oak Lake, overflowed its banks, they got three feet of water in their house and had to vacate to a higher piece of land. In 1908, after six years in Nebraska, they and their three children immigrated to Saskatchewan to the S-E.-3-36-25,-W3rd which they had purchased in the Luseland district.

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Reports from Saskatchewan sounded pretty good. For $10 you got 160 acres of land and after three years you got the title to it. They even showed the people some big red apples that were supposed to have been grown there. Not many people believed this. It turned out that after three years most of the settlers had a mortgage on their land for more than the land was worth, and there sure were no big red apples.

In Nebraska Father bought a team of horses, farm machinery he thought he would need, and this, with all their furniture and belongings, they loaded in a settler's car and headed for Scott, Sask.

After settling on their land for a few months the challenge of carving a home out of the bald prairie must have seemed too great so they gave their land back and sold their belongings. However, the other settlers persuaded them to stay and they got their belongings back .

Saskatchewan Archives show ' that Adam Huck filed out an application for a homestead on Sept. 14, 1908, at North Battleford, Sask., for the N.E. 30-35-24-W3. In 1908 he had two horses and one cow. In 191 1 he had four oxen, one horse, two cows and one calf. In 1909 he broke 25 acres, in 1910, 65 acres, and in 1911, 26 acres. In 1910 he had 25 acres of crop and in 1911 he had 100 acres of crop. In 1911 he had a house 16' x 26', made of lumber

with sod on the outside. He had a 14' x 20' sod barn and a 16' x 26' barn built with lumber. He had 12 acres fenced, and had a well. A new house, 16' x 26', was in the process of being built. F.W. Hanfgarn and William Kembel witnessed his statement for application for patent on the 15th day of Sept., 1911. Patent was granted on Dec. 1, 1911.

What a sight the miles upon miles of open prairie must have been! There was not a fence or road or even trees, Prairie fires in the past had kept the trees burned off. Today this country is almost like a parkland.

One of the first things the pioneers did was plough a fire guard around their shack. They also had to dig a well. This was quite an undertaking as they didn't know if they had to dig ten feet or a hundred feet. My father dug his well by hand and cribbed it as they went down. My mother pulled up the dirt with a windlass. They were lucky and hit water at 32 feet. When he hit water on his homestead it came in pretty fast. Father told me he put his shovel in for another shovel full of dirt to fill the bucket and suddenly the well was filling with water. Quick action by my mother on the windlass got him out in a hurry.

On Oct. 19, 1908, my father was returning from Sounding Lake with a load of firewood when a terrible blizzard suddenly came up. He tried to get back home and when he came to a partly built sod house which was in the course of construction he stopped for shelter. This was about 18 miles west of Luseland. The walls were about four feet high, which was better than nothing. This blizzard lasted for three days, during which his horses froze to death. My father almost lost his life as well. Many times he felt himself falling asleep and he knew if this happened the chances were good he wouldn't wake up again. It turned out he was on the same section of land

where Randy Bell, Roy McDonald and Frank Duffy were sitting out the storm at a settler's shack‑ There were ten people at this place and they put the calf in the cellar to keep it from freezing to death. When the storm let up my father walked to the nearest homestead. You can imagine the agony my mother must have gone through, at home in !he sod shack, with three small children, not knowing if my father survived the storm or not.

At this time there was no barn for the cow and calf so they were brought into the house for shelter. If the cow had frozen to death there would have been no milk or butter for the table, and this would have been quite a loss. Many years later my parents would still laugh about taking the cow into the house. About this time they should have thought about going back to Lincoln.

In 1908 Fred Hanfgarn settled a quarter mile north of my father's homestead. He ran a store there and this was pretty handy for the homesteaders

In 1910 the stakes for the C‑P. Railway went through my father's land. Archives records show this was revised in 1910 to its present location

In 1910 the railway came through .and the village of Luseland was started. My father, being a carpenter, supplemented his income by building houses and other buildings in Luseland.

Through the years they went from oxen to horses and then to the tractor. Like other pioneers they had many hardships, survived the dirty thirties, suffered family tragedies and had much happiness as well.

In 1912 my parents had built a new house 16' x 26', with two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs‑ This house is still on the farm with several additions which have been added on through the years. A third generation of Hucks now lives in it

Through the years they went from the one coal oil lamp in a room, then to two lamps and then the gas lamp. In 1956 power came to the farm with all the other conveniences.

Most of the food was grown on the farm and the milk and cream was kept in an ice well. The ice well was about 4' .r 4' x 6' deep. This was gradually filled with water in the winter time and frozen. It usually lasted all the next summer.

Through the early years the crops were cut with binders and when men were needed for stacking my father went to Luseland and would usually find harvesters downtown or along the railroad track cooking their beans over a camp fire. These men would ride the rails across Canada, coming to the prairies looking for harvest jobs.

In 1936 the crop was so poor my father, along with many other farmers, took the knotter off the binders and built a box in its place. When the box was full you pulled a lever and dumped it on the ground. This was a big job to pick up later and thresh. The crop went about two bushels that year.

In 1952 my parents moved to Luseland where they had purchased the former Gus Becker home. Adam Huck passed away in 1956 and Catherina Huck passed away in 1964. Both are buried in the Luseland cemetery.

Adam and Catherine

(Frick) Huck

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