Notes for Maria STEICHEN

Notes for Maria STEICHEN

John Molitor was born March 25 1860 in Luxembourg. His wife Mary Marie Steichen born March 11, 1866 in Beringen, Luxembourg (Mersche County). They came to Meade County with a caravan of settlers, in April 1887. They had a little baby boy, Johnnie, when they came. He died at an early age. Elizabeth Katherine was born February 5, 1889 in Sturgis. Mary (French) was born on February 18, 1891 in Fort Meade and Leonard was born on the timber claim and pre-emption south of Bear Butte Creek on May 5, 1893.

Early in the 1890's my father built a house on the timber claim. This house was later moved to the Andrew Helms ranch. Then it was moved to the Winfred Martin homestead. Later it was sold to Bonnie Goldbloom, remodeled and Paul Kiefer is now living in it. We lived several years on the timber claim. It is now owned by Harry Johnson. Some people refer to that section of the country as "Devils Paradise". When they sold this ranch they purchased the relinquishment from Billy Mance and my father filed on it as his homestead. It is right north of the Belle Fourche River and west of the present Volunteer store. Leonard still lives there. Mathias:"Matty" was born on this homestead. He died with the croup as a small child. Marguerite (Collins) was born on this river ranch January 25, 1901.

My mother had three sisters in this country Elizabeth, (Mrs. William Komes), Katherine (Mrs. John Schaff) and Anna, (Mrs. Thorn). (Refer to Komes and Schaff story) Mrs. Thorn lived in Chicago, Illinois. They had two children, Johnnie and Katie. Mr. Thorn had a son, Alphonse from a previous marriage. Living a long distance from a school made it hard for our family to go to school. Our parents rented the Alphonse Keffeler house across from Theodore Karrels' on Spring creek, so that our parents could stay with us and send Mary and me to the Wilson school. The next year Mary and I boarded with U.S. Sparks, (Roy Spark's parents) and went to the Schaff school, (Volunteer now). Clara Sparks (Shoun) was the teacher. My third and last year of school, Mary and I rode a horse double from the river ranch to the Schaff school. Our teacher was Ethel Sparks (Seggelke) a sister of Calra's. It was a good thing the two Minturn boys, Albert and Earl, sons of George Minturn, lived down the river from us, because when we broke the cinch on our saddle their help was a godsend. They rode a mule double to school.

Mother taught me how to mix bread when I was ten years old. she was ill in bed and told me what to do. I got that dough on my hands and what a time. I took the pan with the dough in by her bed. She talked to me so nicely. I'm sure a few salty tears dampened the bread before I learned how to mix it properly. From then on she let me help make the bread. It was hard to knead alone. Sadness hit the family for the third time when our mother died at home on June 22, 1902. I was thirteen years old and was left with the reponsibility of helping my father take care of our baby sister.

My father worked for the neighbors at harvest time. The fall of 1902, we kids cut twenty-five acres of corn with a sled and one horse. Leonard led the horse and I rode the sled that had a sickle on the side to cut the corn. Mary and Leonard tied and shocked the bundles. I didn't have much skin left on my knees when that was over. Our little sister, Marguerite, must have become very tired as we always had her with us. The horse named Charlie, was a bother as he wanted to eat the corn all the time. He was balky and tried to bite us. However, he must have been a gentle old plug or one of us kids would have been hurt. Our chores, caring for pigs, chickens and milk cows, kept us busy. We pulled lots of weeds for the pigs. We raised lots of potatoes, pop corn, and navy beans. In the fall we pulled the beans by hand, let them dry and then threshed them in the bottom of a wagon box by pounding them with round sticks. Then on a windy day we cleaned the beans by shoveling them back and forth in the wagon box letting chaff blow away. The beans still had to be cleaned some by hand. We raised lots of pop corn and popped it often.

We had our fun too. We followed the river east and went to visit the Leonard Weber girls, Loretta, Louise, Clara, and Dorothy. Darkness never frightened us. Catching catfish out of the river was great sport, for us too I remember the long-horned, long-legged, bony and wild, Texas cattle. They were mostly head, rump, and brisket. Horns were four or five feet from tip to tip. They were hungry critters that came along the river. We would try to drive them away, they would fall down. We thought this great sport. It could have been disastrous. My father, must have had lots of patience to raise us kids alone, without a mother, but he kept us all together. He continued to see that we went to church regularly. We all four went to school at St. Martin's Academy long enough to make our First Holy Communion. I boarded with Anna Grubl and her father, Aloysius, during the time I was in Sturgis. Grubls lived at the foot of the just west of the Bear Butte Cemetery. I didn't mind the long walk to the Academy but I was often afraid of the strange soldiers on the road, so I didn't waste much time along the way. Henry Karrels boarded my sisters the weeks they went to school, and Leonard Webers boarded my brother, Leonard. After Leonard married, he and his bride Marie Rumpff, continued to live on the home place with our father until father's death, on October 9, 1917. Our parents are both buried in the St. Aloysius cemetery in Sturgis.

Written by Elizabeth Molitor Barnes
Land of the Pioneers Page 396

ALIAS: Mary Marie Steichen
LDS FILM #1135142 Bous (birth) #1739731 Bous #2 (marriage)

Maria and Johann are 3rd cousins common ancestors Francois Steichen and Anna
Theisen