THE PERHAM BULLETIN

December 24, 1891

        Mrs. Henry Barthel died last Wednesday evening, after an illness of three weeks. She was the daughter of M. Huss and was reared at St. Joe, the home. She was 24 years old. She leaves a husband and three young children to mourn her loss. The family have the heartfelt sympathy of the community. The remains were interred at St. Joe cemetery last Saturday.

PERHAM ENTERPRISE BULLETIN

MARCH 17, 1892

   Charles Huss, aged 18 years, son of M. Huss, died from typhoid fever last Thursday. This makes eight that have died from this disease in the same family.

ST JOSEPH'S CATHOLIC CEMETERY

PERHAM TOWNSHIP - SECTION 33 NW

ON COUNTY ROAD 49 SOUTH OF HIGHWAY 108

BUILDING STARTED 1869 - BURNED DOWN NOVEMBER 10, 1965

EAST OTTER TAIL COUNTY 1994

Page 90

MICHAEL HUSS

        Michael Huss was born January 1, 1833, in Luxembourg . The first mention of Michael in the U. S. was his enlistment in Co. B 156^th Regiment Illinois Voluntary Infantry on February 16, 1865, in Aurora , Illinois . On October 9, 1865, Michael was naturalized as an American citizen in Geneva , Illinois .

        Michael returned to Luxembourg where he married Susanna Steichen, born May 16, 1845. They returned to Minnesota and resided in Maine Prairie it was there that their first child Emma was born in 1867, and son Louis in 1869.

        In 1880, the family was living on a 40 acre farm near Rush Lake, Minnesota. The 1885 census listed children as follows; Emma, Louis, Anna, Charles (Carl), Nicholas, Caroline (Catherina, Carrie), Susanna Elizabeth (Lizzie), John (born in 1882), and Susana (Susie) born May 21, 1884. Later, three more children were born Leonhard (Leo, Leonard) born July 18, 1886, Joseph October 4, 1888 and Michael July 24, 1891.

        On May 24, 1887, Emma married Henry Barthel, a butcher, at St. Joseph Church , they had three children.

        Tragedy struck the Huss and Barthel families on December 12, 1891 when Emma died of Typhoid fever in New York Mills, Minnesota . In the months to follow, six more member of the Huss family succumbed to Typhoid. Susana (Susie) on January 5, 1892, Leonhard on January 10, 1892, Susana (Mother) and Nicholas both died on February 17, 1892, Anna on March 4, 1892, Charles on March 10, 1892. Then on April 21 of the same year Joseph died.

        On November 16, 1897, Louis married Anna Lein. On April 26, 1898, Lizzie married Carl Hemmelgarn. At some point, Carrie married a man whose last name was Sweitzer.

        On February 5, 1899, Michael passed away, he was 66 years old.

        Louis took over the family farm and was guardian of the siblings until they married and moved on. Of the siblings that resided with Louis, there was Michael who married rose Freidsam on September 28, 1920. Rose and Michael had two children, Eldred and Bernice. The other siblings whereabouts were sketchy, Lizzie and John were believed to be in Canada in the 1940�s. The family farm was taken over by Louis�s son Ludwig (Vic). Louis died in 1946.

Submitted by Linda Huss

THE SEBASTIAN HERTEL FAMILY by Mrs. T (Mary) Hertel

In the early 1900's, Sebastian Hertel lived in Perham , Minnesota with his wife Elizabeth and his three sons, Sebastian jr, Theodore and Ambrose.  Life ran quite smoothly because he had a good job as steam engineer in the local flour mill.  His wife, a very good cook and manager, helped at the hotel on special occasions.  'Bast' was well known and liked as he was a very good runner at one time. Once racing for the local honor against Tommy Longbow, world's champion distance and nearly defeating him. At that time, Canada was trying to attract immigrants and circulated literature that presented, in glowing terms, the advantages of homesteading in Alberta . The idea appealed to Sebastian, who travelled to the Lougheed district in early spring, 1906 accompanied by John Kelly, John Chief and Phil Daley.  The rolling hills of the district, covered with luxuriant prairie grass with open areas that looked easy to break and little pothole lakes that promised a constant water supply encouraged them all to file on homesteads.  They worked on the railroad all summer and returned to Perham in the early fall to load their property, including a small herd of cattle belonging to Kelly, in a cattle car for shipment to Alberta.  The eldest son, Sebastian Jr, then 12 and a foster son, John Barthel, came with the men on this trip and helped unload the car and freight the goods to Bast's homestead where a tar-paper shack had been built. To save money, their fares would have cost, the two boys travelled in a hidden cubbyhole contrived in the household goods. His wife, Lizzie, with the two younger children, and Lizzie's two sisters, Maggie (Mrs. Phil Daley and her two children arrived in Daysland , Alberta by train in November, 1906.  The snow was deep and there was no sleigh to make the rest of the trip easier.  They traveled to the homestead by lumber wagon.  The horses played out, as the going was tough.  They stopped at a halfway house between Killam and Sedgewick to rest and have a hot meal.  It took all the second day and well into the night to complete the journey. Though the group were tired and discouraged when they arrived at the lonely little tarpaper shack, Lizzie's cheerful disposition soon rose to the fore....especially when she saw that the stove was raised three or four feet off the floor so that the available stovepipe would reach through the roof. Times were hard that first winter and food was not too plentiful.  The 17 chickens that had come with them from Perham were kept cozily in a 6'by 4' hole dug in the ground near the shack.  This was covered with tarpaper and lighted with a cheesecloth window.  The chickens were fed with 4 sacks of buckwheat and table scraps.  In spite of these handicaps, the chickens laid all winter and Liz had a fresh supply of eggs...a real luxury.  An accidental drowning of 15 head of the Galloway cattle that formed part of the Kelly herd when they fell through the ice in the lake kept the group in meat for the winter.

THE JOHN BARTHEL STORY

    John Barthel came to Canada from Perham Minn.   in the spring of 1906 with the Sabastian Hertel Family who had cared for him since he was an infant. In November 1913, John married Ida Schwerdel and they farmed south of Lougheed. 

In 1920, they moved to town where John's first job was at the poolroom.  later he worked as a hardware clerk and them mechanic.  His hobby was the radio and he and Cliff Weir had a radio station in the house.  They played records on the old wind-up gramophone and Marie and Rosetta Schledecher played the piano.  Their broadcast went for miles and finally, they had to stop as it was interfering with the Edmonton Station. In 1928, John had his own garage, which he ran until illness forced him to retire.  He gave many years of his time on the Town Council and was Mayor for a number of years. John and Ida had four children: Louis, Kathryn, Genevieve and Phyllis. I've edited these stories but thought you might be interested.  It was these immigrants who left everything behind including family that formed the backbone of our country.  They were courageous, creative and persevering.  I've often wondered what kind of pioneer I would have made. My grandparents came up from Kansas in a covered wagon to homestead in Alberta also.  They had married in Kansas , homesteaded there, then in Wyoming and finally in Alberta .  Grandma was from Missouri and Grandpa was born in Winona Minnesota, sounds like a lot of wandering to me. I've made a note of your e-mail address and I'll forward that picture to you as soon as I track it down....I actually found it in Lizzie and Sebastian's homestead.  The house has been empty for years but it looked like they had eaten breakfast and moved to town...even left the dirty dishes on the table...they left all the furniture and many of their possessions in the house.  I've heard a lot of the ladies that labored so long and hard on the farms, express the sentiment that "when I move to town, I'm going to get everything new and have all the new widgets and gadgets available.  Some of the farms never did install running water and some didn't get electricity until the late 50's.

Thank you again...all the best in the New Year.

Norah

Researching surname: Norah Brown  [email protected]

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