1

Memoir
by Mary Ratzlaff Wohlgemuth [1],[2]

My Father was Johann Ratzlaff, Sr., born in PLOTSK by the rural village of GOMBIN, DEUTSCH-WYMYSCHLE COLONY, RUSCH-POLEN on August 11, 1851 – the eldest son of PETER RATZLAFF and his [second] wife HELENA WEDEL RATZLAFF, the daughter of Peter Wedel. They were of Deutsch-Germanic-Polish descent and spoke the PLATT-Deutsch [Low Germanic] language dialect.

My Father migrated to North America from Central Poland when he was a young man in the early spring. I think it might have been in 1874.[3] I do not know if his brother David J. Ratzlaff came with him, or if the Stepfather David Ratzlaff and their Mother Helena and their half-brother Frank Ratzlaff came all together – we think they did.[4] They came from Gombin and were thirteen days on the rough Atlantic Ocean. When they came to MARION COUNTY, KANSAS, there was nothing there but prairie land – no trees, no barns or houses, not even any neighbors... there was nothing! The RATZLAFF FAMILY settled along the small stream called FRENCH CREEK on barren prairie lands. It was a few miles north of where the city of HILLSBORO is now located. There was no town yet except the County Seat of Marion, Kansas which was many miles to the southeast. There were no roads or a railroad here yet.

My Father John Ratzlaff was the first pioneer immigrant in this region. Then BENJAMIN UNRUH came with some more immigrant Deutsch Families from Poland, and they also settled near the FRENCH CREEK in [May] 1875. Then the region was called JOHANNESTHAL SETTLEMENT – named for my Father![5] Later it was changed to FRENCH CREEK when more settlers came, and a church was built and named JOHANNESTHAL CHURCH.

My Mother was EVA SCHRODER RATZLAFF, born on July 14, 1856. She was the daughter of EVA SCHMIDT SCHRODER and KORNELIUS SCHRODER. My Mother EVA and her older sister MARIA were born at Warshau [Warsaw], Polen. MARIA was married in Poland to my Father’s first cousin Jakob Ratzlaff and they had two young children born there in Poland.

Much, much later when I was older I learned my Mother EVA and my Aunt MARIA were not born of Schroder – they were born UNRUH girls. They were ‘fathered’ by an Unruh, but I don’t know how that came about! I think his name was DAVID UNRUH.[6],[7],[8]

After my Grandfather KORNELIUS SCHRODER II died in 18528 [Dec. 13, 1852 at the age of 28 years... they were married Nov. 13, 1851], my Grandmother Eva Schmidt Schroder re-married to HEINRICH NICKEL on January 20, 1858, and they had four children born of this marriage[9]. They were ANNA NICKEL FOTH, HELENA NICKEL BROWN, WILHELMINNIE NICKEL BLOCK, and HENRICH H. NICKEL who had married my Aunt SARA UNRUH NICKEL – she was quite elderly, yet we wrote letters to each other. She lived a long time. Imagine – 90 years!

All the NICKEL Family, including my Mother Eva, and Maria and Jakob Ratzlaff and their two young children migrated together from Poland to the United States [June 4, 1877][10]. The NICKEL Family settled north of the town of HILLSBORO, Marion County, Kansas. Jakob and Maria Ratzlaff’s Family then moved to Ingham County, Michigan [Oct. 1877].

Shortly after my Mother EVA arrived in this country, she and my Father John Ratzlaff were married on August 5, 1877, and they settled in FRENCH CREEK on a farm – and here all of us children were born at FRENCH CREEK. I had seven brothers and six sisters, with me that makes fourteen children, but two died when they were babies. Our big family lived four miles north of Hillsboro in the FRENCH CREEK region in Marion County Kansas. Our farm was big and DAD rented more extra land 1/4 section of land plus forty acres of rented land.[11]

We older Children put in many working hours on these many acres of land. Many summer months we got out of bed at 4 AM in the early dark morning hours, while it was still dark. We worked til sundown, getting home late at night after walking four or five miles back to our house. All of us kids did “man’s work,” not only the Brothers, but the Sisters as well. We worked just like men! Besides our own farm, we worked many, many acres of land including our Dad’s Mother and Stepfather’s farm. These were our Grandparents David and Helena Wedel Ratzlaff on my Father’s side of the family. I grew up to get to know all my Grandparents well on both sides of the Ratzlaff and Nickel families.

We Children went to the FRENCH CREEK SCHOOL. I went thru the three grades with my older Brothers Ben and John, Jr. We three children were in the same class all thru the three grades. We did our lessons over and over til we knew them by heart! We Children had to walk two miles to school, sometimes we crossed the wheat fields. On many cold nights after 4 o’clock PM, Dad would come with horse and wagon to pick us up, also the neighbors’ Children, he would not leave any Children behind!

We sure did like to sing, sometimes we went to the Risley School to help out with the singing.[12]

Some of the other French Creek School Children besides my brothers and sisters were some of our Cousins... there was Cousin Peter W. Ratzlaff; Ed Jawarsky; Peter Golbeck; Peter, Fred, and Frank Unruh; Herman and Paul Funk; Ruben and Paul Zacharias; then there was Peter and John Baltzer; George and Ben Jantz; Henry and John Schroder; Henry, Herman, and Ben Foth; Gerard, Ruben, Henry, Zacharias and Dave Bartel; George Cooper and many others... I can’t recall their names just now.[13]

My Father John Ratzlaff helped organize the German First Baptist Church in Hillsboro in 1881. He was a “Charter Member” of this church. Before this church was organized, our Parents went to the Johannesthal Church here in FRENCH CREEK. Father was one of the first pioneers to settle in French Creek. He was rich, well-off financially according to those years [standards]. He was a “leader” as were ALL the Ratzlaff and Wohlgemuth men. They were important leaders![14]

Both my parents joined the Baptist Church. And the church building was built in 1884, the year I was born! All of us Children attended this church, where we had an organ! My how we did love to sing! [Church was erected 1884 at West Grand Avenue]. At the “Turn of the Century” in year 1900, my brother PET was 21 years old; my sister MARTHA was 20; JOHN, Jr. was 19; BEN was 17; I [Mary] was 16; sister ANNA was 14; brother EMIL was 13; DELLA was 11; FRED was 9; JENNY was 7; and FRANK was 5 years old; our baby sister BERTHA was only 1 year old!

In March 1902, Father received an important letter. He ran to fetch some friends, and they quickly drove with horses and covered their wagon and drove to “Sherrokee Oklahoma” where land was opening up there. Father was lucky, he got some free range land! Then he asked the older children to run the place. So he sent my older brother Pet and Ben to work the land there, and sister Martha was sent along to keep house and to help out. When Uncle Frank Ratzlaff went to Oklahoma on January 29, 1903, our Father quickly built a new room onto the east side of our house! This range land in Oklahoma was so dry, and there was no water! They could not raise anything – no crops would grow on this desert land, and there was so much “shedge brush.” Then Dad sold the Oklahoma range land cheap, and they all came back to Kansas in the late summer of 1903. Then when PET got home, he soon married Clara Quiring Ratzlaff in September 1903.[15]

On February 17, 1904 we went to the Risley School to help out with the singing. On August 26, 1904 our Cousin PAULINE RATZLAFF came from Dearborn, Michigan to visit all her relatives. Her Mother was my Aunt Maria, the older sister of my Mother Eva. Her father was Uncle Jacob Ratzlaff, who was my Father’s first cousin. They lived in Michigan.[16]

On September 11-1905 I received a letter, and it stated:

“Miss Mary Ratzlaff, Hillsboro, Kansas

Dear Madam: You are hereby notified that your name was presented before the Hillsboro Choral Union of Hillsboro, Kansas and was duly voted upon and you may now become a member of said organization by signing its Constitution and paying the initiation fee of 50¢.

The Choral Union extends its invitation, I am

Yours truly, H. James Nickel, Secretary”[17]

Sometime by 1906 my Father John Ratzlaff placed Pet and Clara Ratzlaff on some land at Oakley, Logan County, Kansas where there was some free range land. It was here that the first grandchild [Elsie Ratzlaff] was born to them on January 25, 1906. Father bought some land at Oakley on June 4, 1906, but the land was also dry and very rocky. Everywhere there was dry land nothing would grow, and water was so hard to come by the crops would not grow. Then they all came back the second year [which would be 1908].

Father bought a General Mercantile Store at a sale real cheap at Lehigh, Marion County, Kansas. Here he put Pet in charge of the books and monies, John Jr. worked the stock, and I clerked and waited on all the many customers who came into the store. Lots of people came to do business with us, and I got to know them all! I loved working in this store.[18]

On November 11, 1907 I received a postal card from Lanigan, Canada, and it shows a picture of a train with people laying tracks. And on the back it said: “Hello. Here I come on train to make a stop at your place for a few minutes and I ask if you don’t want to come along? Well what news? Are you still well? How is everything. Do you go sleighing already by this time? I dreamed last night you had 8 feet snow in Kansas, is that so? Well another wedding out here... J.J. Gerbrandt with Benna Bartel that moved down here from Moundridge [Kansas], that will be the 21st this month. Best regards, yours truly G.A.K. Hope to hear from you soon. Good by.”[19]

In March 1908 John Nord came from Oklahoma to claim his sweetheart, my sister Martha Ratzlaff, and my brother Ben planned to marry Agnes Janzen. There were so many people coming to the weddings that DAD went and rented a big canvas tent like the ones we used for our church revival meetings! Then Henry Eitzen Wohlgemuth came to “help out to set up this huge tent.” Then he asked Dad if he could marry me! When Dad consented, I did not object... I knew Henry and liked him but I did not think to marry him. I liked working in the store and wished I could continue, then Dad said, “You might as well get married now while we have the big tent up. We may as well add one more wedding to the others!” Dad thought to save some money that way! So we all three couples were married under that big tent at a triple wedding ceremony on March 26, 1908. Dad had bought lots of balogna, and the ladies baked lots of pies, cakes and zwieback [biscuits].[20]

I was 23 years old and My Henry was 30 years old at the time we were married. Henry’s folks were Peter and Helena Eitzen Friesen Wohlgemuth. They had moved to Anaheim,California about 1905, at least they were living there before we were married. My Henry was a carpenter by trade. He learned the trade “handed down from generation to generation.” He was around 15 years old when he helped build the Gnadenau Orphans Home in 1893 at Hillsboro,Kansas. It is now an old folks home. My Henry was a good carpenter. I continued to keep working in Dad’s Store after we were married, while we were building a house in the country near Hillsboro. Then in July 1908 we moved into our new home. I was pregnant at the time, and on December 15,1908 we had our first child, a son named Arthur Oliver Wohlgemuth.

In March 1909 we went to Ingals, Gray County, Kansas. It got hot and dusty. Here in the summer the corn fields dried up. The heat killed the corn plants so there was no crop to harvest! While at Ingals we received a post card dated May 28, 1909. It showed the Hillsboro 20th Century Band standing in front of the Confectionery Lodging building:

“Dear Friends, Received your very welcome postal and was glad to hear from you once. We are well and I hope you are the same. P.W. Ratzlaff and Mrs. went to Newton, Kansas last week to meet his sister Pauline [Ratzlaff Foster], who was on the way home [to Michigan] from California. The doctor gave her up! [She died of tuberculosis April 1911 in Michigan] We have plenty of rain now. How is it up there? With best regards to all, I’ll close. P.B.U.”[21]

Henry and I drove down along the Arkansas River over to Garden City, Finney County, Kansas. Here we had our wedding picture made. I don’t like it – we were all wrinkled and mussed up from the long drive. It was so hot and windy and the dirt blew everywhere! From here we drove down to the southwest corner of Kansas by the Cimarron Desert, and then over to the Kansas-Oklahoma border line to Liberal,Seward County, and from here over to Meade,Meade County, Kansas. All this region was very sandy. Henry looked for work; there just wasn’t any carpentry work anywhere![22]

Then HENRY J. MARTENS came to see DAD and others to tell them about a “new land deal” called MARTENSDALE COLONY near Lerdo, KERN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. He was a colonization-agent and real estate man who had a family and lived near Hillsboro, Marion County, Kansas. He was 40 years old. We all knew him and trusted him! We did not see this land, we believed him as we knew him! So many people bought land from Henry Martens. Some came from as far away as Oklahoma. DAD sold all our property and invested lots of money with Henry Martens, and so did Henry and I. We put all our monies into this new land venture! Then we packed up our belongings and then moved to California.

I shall never forget the day that we arrived in California. It was on the day of My Henry’s 32nd birthday, October 8, 1909. [I asked Mother if they came by car or train? She couldn’t remember, but it had to be by car, as they had Model Cars by then.] My folks, Henry and I and baby Arthur, and all the other Folks settled down on this dry, parched desert land, all covered with “shedge brush.” Ground was so hard to clear the new land, all the folks here had to work hard to clear the land then till the soil. We had to dig ditches and wells for water and build “shanties” to live in. It was such hard back-breaking work!

While we were living at MARTENSDALE COLONY we received a postal card from Hillsboro, Kansas dated November 9, 1909 addressed to Mrs. Henry Wohlgemuth, Bakersfield, MARTENSDALE, KERN COUNTY CALIFORNIA:

“Dear Friends, Was very glad to receive your card. Are having just lovely weather this week, California cannot beat it,I guess. I am glad you all like it there. I know the climate is quite splendid. We are well and hope you are all the same. Wish best luck to all, ans. soon. Frank and Bertha R [Ratzlaff]”[23]

John Frantz came from Kansas to visit the Ratzlaff Family and to ask Father’s permission to marry his childhood sweetheart Della Ratzlaff. They were married in LERDO, KERN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA on March 22, 1910. Then the honeymooners went back to live on a farm northwest of Durham, Marion County, Kansas.

Our crops were in the ground and some were soon ready to be harvested, when in June 1910 all of us pioneer settlers were ordered off our land and property at MARTENSDALE COLONY! We were told that ‘the land was not ours, it did not belong to us!’ We could do nothing! Henry J. Martens had lied to us. The land he had sold us ‘in all good faith’ was not his to sell, he did not own it they told us. We had been ‘swindled. ’ All of us folks lost everything we owned – our lands, property, our monies, and even the crops in the ground! We had to get off and leave all behind. We could not salvage anything we owned; they tookit all from us! Henry J. Martens escaped; they hid him good with their smart lawyers! Even fraud posters were sent out around the country and the sheriff in Kansas looked for him. He was never found. No one could do a thing; the smart lawyers took it all away. They hid Martens; they would tell us nothing! They said to get off the land or they would use force to remove us! It was a terrible thing to do. All us poor people had nothing left. Henry and I lost all our monies. My parents were nearly broke; they went to Rosedale Colony then,and later to Wasco Colony about 1912. Henry and I and the baby then went to Anaheim where Henry’s folks lived. I think they moved here about 1905. While we were here in Anaheim,Orange County, California our second son was born Harry Wohlgemuth on Christmas Eve 1910. Here around Anaheim there were some artisian wells, and we could get water. We would have liked to live here permanently, but because of ‘difficulties’ with Henry’s folks we could not stay! After much hardship we left Anaheim with our two babies the 2nd week of April 1911 and came north to Winton, settling near the town of Atwater, Merced County, California on June 4, 1911.