Thursday, December 15, 2016

A conversation with Paul

December 15, 2016, A one hour conversation

Paul met George two times.
1.  In the summer of 1947 Katherine Daughtery and George came by rail to Falls City. They stayed with Harold and Verena Weinert, Paul's parents for a week.  They bought a Packard at Sherm Edde Automotive.  Fred Walker may have been a car salesman there.  George drove Katherine back to Portland and took the car to LA where George sold it to Audrey.

2.  Paul and his parents took a trip to LA in 1949.  Harold had a capable farm hand and he decided to leave the farm in the care of him.  The trip lasted six weeks.  The main reason for the trip was to visit Harold's brother Al or Albert who lived in Glendale.  Albert was born in 1898 and Harold in 1901.  Paul saw George two times and enjoyed the visit.  Emma was in Utah.

August Weinert went a long distance from Russel, Prussia to Hamburg where he boarded a boat to avoid conscription into the Prussian army.

August had a brother in Toronto.  He Fredericka had Fannie in Buffalo and Jane in a suburb of Toronto.  Then they had Annie1 and Annie2.  Annie 1 died and the Weinert's moved to Nebraska with the three girls in 1859.  At the time Fredericka was six months pregnant with their first son John Weinert.  John was born three months later.  In 1861 Paul's gf was born. They lived in Arago (pronounced Air-a-go) in a dugout and bought six lots.  In 1877 they bought in Arago Township, Section 15.

Arago began in 1859.  A committee of Germans in Buffalo were sent out in 1857 to Missouri.  They didn't like the area because of mosquitos and the fact there was slavery.  In 1858 three men went out again anf found the Arago area.  They came and bought land in 1859. In 1862 the Evangelical church was established in Arago. In 1872 they built the Zion Evangelical church across the street from what is now the Zion Cemetery, Falls City, NE.  This was the parent church for all the other Evengelical churches in the area.  In 1874 it was enlarged from a rectangle to accomidate the many German families moving into the area.  In 1953 the Bethel Church was built and currently it holds the church records for the area.

The photo of John Weinert and his children at a church youth get-together was taken in Henry and Martha's living room.  Paul's dad is laying cross the piano.  John Weinert lived in the Jefferson Township south of Arago about five miles south of the Zion Evengelical Church.  The Tabor church was three miles north of the Zion Church.

John's older two children, a boy and a girl, married Bletscher's and stayed in Preston.  Their son Henry owned some land with a Margrave.  Margrave and two sons were murdered.   the estate was put into probate and found to be bankrupt so Henry lost his land.  The was very poor at that point but in the 30's and 40's he came back and owned a farm in Franklin Township.  Henry and Martha eventually move into Falls City. 

The county records are held in the Falls City Courthouse, with the County Clerk in an office called the Register of Deeds.

There were two reasons for the downfall of Arago.  First there was a large flood which moved the Missouri river a mile to the east.  Secondly, when they built the RR crossing over the Missouri they chose Rulo rather then Arago

Fredericka spoke Dutch and August German.  When they first met they developed a "love language."  Frederick preferred Dutch her whole life but all of her children spoke English.  She spoke to them in English.

Paul visited Clymer, NY with his first wife Donna.  He wanted to introduce his second wife Mary Jane to his sister so they both went to the Clymer, NY area after they were married.  Clymer is located in the southwest corner of New York state. 

Gotleib Voegelein was living in Missouri and looking to buy some land. His son said go across the river.  He came across the Missouri and was impressed with the land because it didn't have rocks.  In 1870 he bought the land that eventually Paul lived on.  Their family owned that land for 100 years until 1970 when the homestead burned down.

Charles Weinert, Paul's gf was born in 1861.  In 1885 he begins keeping a diary which Paul had.  When there was little going on he wrote "dinking around,"  Often he would write working on the bridge.  The Winnebago River which runs through August's property has a 25 foot drop to the bottom of the river.  August built a bridge to have access to his property from the north.  When Frederick owned the property he had to work on the bridge as well.  In the 1920's they bull dozed the sides of the creek and put a bridge in lower down.  The property was eventually sold to Frederick in 1896 and the Ernst family has owned it since.

The Scholl family are buried in the Bauman or Old Zion Cemetery.   

Paul's second wife Mary Jane have two children who live in south SLC.