January 23, 2013 - Some Brachvogel News Clippings

We are talking here about large prairie families, and a small community where if people aren't related to you, they know someone who is.

Two of my Wilson great grand aunts married Brachvogels, Brackvogels, or Brockvogels... Mary Ann Wilson and her sister Rosella, the twin of my ggreat grandmother, Rosetta Wilson. 

Mary Ann married Henry Brachvogel Sept. 17, 1890 when she was only 20.   Rosella married Leo Brachvogel, with their marriage date unknown by this writer.  Note to self: I need to find out this marriage date how these two men were related.  Have always made the assumption that they were brothers, but a quick check doesn't present any proof of this. 

Mary Ann and Henry had seven children.  The middle son was named Frank (1900-1957).  The following is an untitled piece, from October, 1937, with the assumption that it was in the Wessington Times (SD).

Frank Brackvogel met with a serious and painful weekend while helping to saw wood at the Charlie Daugherty home on the Kastner Ranch in the gulch in the hills southwest of town last Saturday afternoon.  In sawing a particularly hard stick of wood the belt was thrown from the pulley on the saw and Frank immediately attempted to put it back on without waiting for the saw to stop.  In some way his sleeve or glove was caught and his arm was drawn around the pulley and he was thrown several feet.  One bone in his arm - fortunately the left one - was broken and the broken end protruded through the flesh, and the other bone was dislocated at the wrist.  He was immediately brought in to the hospital here (?) and Dr. Aldrich set the fractured wrist but was unable to put it in a cast because of the lacerations which have to be left open until they have healed.  Frank will probably be laid up for some little time. 

Charlie Daugherty was Mom's uncle. I need to learn more about the Kastner Ranch.  This is another example of how two totally seperate family branches continue to be connected in the South Dakota Prairies.

Frank is on the right in this photo.  I have no date.

More of Hattie Daugherty Place's writings - 1949

Hattie Daugherty Place
This is good stuff. I'm feeling more and more like I have some understanding of the life of the homesteaders in SD. Now we'll continue with Hattie's writings. This portion is titled "Big Snows.
"1896 was the winter known as 'The Deep Snow.' In our locality snow was five feet deep on the level My most thrilling experience was on January 12, 1988, when what is known as 'The Great Blizzard' swept over our country. I was in my school room. All the pupils were there and at 9:30 A.M. the first blast struck the house. The air shown so heavy through the windows and the crackling noise of the building made me think the building was on fire. By going to the door, we soon discovered the storm. Snow was coming in such cutting force that one could not hold his eyes open unless shielded. It continued snowing and blowing all day and through the night. We remained in the schoolhouse and were comfortable and warm at all times. Not knowing how long we might be stranded, we decided to get a supply of coal. The two largest pupils, Fred Daugherty and John Bradey, and I carried coal from the coal house, which was near the west end of the schoolhouse, in pails and sacks and piled it in a corner of the school room. Later we had most of it to carry back to the coal house. As soon as the storm ceased, Mrs. Bradey, our nearest neighbor, sent her son over with a big pail of food and a pot of steaming coffee. Truly a welcome visitor, as most of the pupils had eaten all their lunch at noon. It was after this storm that I received the best compliment in my whole life. I asked one of my patrons if they were greatly worried about their girl, who was in the school that day. He replied, 'No, for I knew you had sense enough to keep them at the schoolhouse.'
In the fall of 1884 there was a little Indian scare in the community. A neighbor living west of us had been to Miller shopping. While there, an Indian was seen in the distance, galloping his horse as though in haste. No one knowing his errand, the observers immediately began to conjecture and concluded he must be carrying a message for war. The excited neighbor hurried home and, Paul Revere- like, began to alarm the settlers. He came to our house and urged father to get the neighbors to bring their firearms, ammunition, and families, and assemble at some one house for better protection. I recall my father's reply: 'I don't think the Indians are going to antagonize our Uncle Sam, so we will stay at home and welcome them if they come.' We went to bed as usual, slept undisturbed, with no bad dreams of scalping Indians. We heard later that a few seelers did congregate at a home, waitng all night long, but no Indians showed up.'
This is the end of Hattie's sotry to the Pioneer Daughters of the Wessington Women's Study Club. You can follow her story written to her granddaughter of her life, in Prairie Roots Newsletter. Let me know if you'd like a copy. I began her story in March and will continue it in June.

More of Hattie Daugherty Place's Writing

Edna Place Pesicka - Hattie's 2nd child.

I'll continue to share with you this interesting News clipping. "I (Hattie Daugherty Place) commenced teaching in April of 1884 at the Dave Brown school. There were seventeen pupils enrolled. The salary was $25.00 per month - no money in the school treasury, all warrants were discounted 10 to 15% at the banks. We could trade them in at the grocery stores or for farm equipment at face value. This was a spring term of three months. By the fall of 1884 the Bradey school house was completed. Wages had raised to $45.00 a month. I taught here at this school that year. Was married to William H. Place, March 22nd of 1885. I continued to teach some school until in May 1888. My elder daughter was born August 3rd of that year. I rested from school work until 1907. In those years three more children, Lilian Edna, Parke Edward and Dwight Harland Came to bless our home.

When the younger son was 13 years of age (1907) I returned to school work, teaching the Ick Brown School. I remained as a teacher in that school district for eight continuous years. The salary advanced from time to time, never exceeding $85.00 a month.

My record of school work was just 40 years. Most of it in Hand and Beadle counties, a summer in Brookings county and a year in Ziebach county. My first three year's work was in Mason county, Illinois. I was just sixteen and one-half years of age when I began the work and exactly eighty years and seven months when I began the work and exactly eighty years and seven months when I finished my last school work.

As a teacher, housewife, and mother of four children, there were not many notable experiences as a pioneer. I recall one instance; there was a preaching periodically. Rev. Spencer, a homesteader of our township on his way to preach at the Dave Brown school house, had to cross Turtle Creek. He was dipped into the raging water, and soaked to the skin. He came to our house, borrowed dry clothes from my father and went on to deliver his sermon."

During the falls of 1884 and 1885 dances were held at the schoolhouses until objections were raised, then literaries were started. We had splendid turnouts, every one taking part, speaking, singing, and debating. The debates were often very discouraging. No matter which side made the most and best points of the discussion, the side which had the two of three friends as the judges always won the decision.

We had picnics in summer, with a baseball game after the dinner. These were well attended and was the only relaxation and amusement we had during the summer months. Often a family would climb into their wagon and drive to a neighbor and spend the day visiting.

There were many prairie fires. With our strong South Dakota winds, the usual fire break did not always stop the rages of the first. My father had his new horse barn and a few stacks of hay burned in the fall of 1883, the fire jumping Turtle Creek to reach the buildings."

The next Post: Big Snows!

Life Story of a Pioneer - Part Three

>Emma Brady, Luella Pepper, & Hattie Place.Hattie Daugherty Place was a wonderful writer. I guess after you've taught school of 60 years, you have a command for the English Language. I'm simply copying her words that she wrote when elected as the Pioneer Daughter os the Wessington (SD) Women's Study Club, in Sept. 1949

"Right here, a never forgetable incident occurred when brother Will and I reached home, hungry and tired, and before I had climbed from my perch on the three boxed wagon, Elmer Morgan, a bachelor neighbor, living just across the road, was there to invite brother and I over to have supper with them. I had been raised to believe it was not 'lady-like' to go into a home where there was no woman, and this invitation was into a home of three bachelor brothers, the Morgan brothers, who in their good neighborly spirit, had prepared a meal for us. In spite of the fact that I was nearly starved, my brother assuring me the young men were fine fellows, and it would be perfectly proper for me to accept, I declined. After I became acquainted with the Morgans and learned how disappointed they had been, I realized how silly I had been.
The settlers of Nance Township were grand neighbors. Quite a number were from different parts of Illinois some from Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Those bringing their families remained, proved up on the land, farmed their land for many years, some living on their old homestead when they passed away some fifty or more years later. The bachelors, most of them having left for parts unknown, after making final proof on their land.
Small grain was the principal crop planted the first year. Much flax was sown. Some year's crops were good, prices fair. Many times we were visited by local hail storms. Some years were very dry with hot winds, crops of course, very light. Still the pioneer held up his chin, dug in his toes, and worked all the harder the next year.
The men with families in Nance Ttownship were B.W. Wilson, Dave Brown, A.B. Barnes, Charles Bradey (who married Hattie's sister Emma) Wm. H. Daugherty, ? Harris, John McNeil, Alec McCullen, Tom Dulin, William English, Wm. Barnes, and Al Curtis. Mrs. Al Curtis and Mrs. Wm. Barnes were the first women to come to our township. Mrs. Barnes coming in 1883 and Mrs. Curtis in 1882. Mrs. Barnes' child, Mattie, was the first baby born in the township. She is now Mrs. Mattie Curtis and lives in Wessington. All of these settlers have passed away, and only a few of their children are left. Of these, Pearl Wilson Cavenee, Marion Bradey Dake and 3 of the Daugherty children; Fred, Richard, and Hattie, the writer of this article are still residents of this locality."

"Life Story of a Pioneer" part two - Hattie Daugherty Place

Hattie and her brother Fred R. Daugherty.
I'm continuing a piece that Hattie wrote when elected as the Pioneer Daughter of the Wessington Women's Study Club in September, 1949. It was included in the Wessington Times (South Dakota).

William Henry Daugherty "filed on a homestead of 160 acres in Nance Township in the northwest corner of Beadle County. He filed, also, the adjoining 160 acres as a tree claim. He planted, according to the requirements of law, ten acres of trees. Some of these tree, in 1946, are still alive and growing.
My eldest brother (note: John William Daugherty) came the spring of 1883, bringing a carload of machinery, three horses and some feed. The next spring, in March 1884, the remainder of the family came; my mother, four brothers, a sister and myself. We brought a carload of household goods, live stock, which consisted of cows, hogs, horses, and chickens. Then, the farming was carried on in a much larger way. There were three boys able to run the farm machinery, my father working at his trade of carpentry.
At this early of settlement, every section of land, except tree claims and school sections, had a settler, some living in dugouts, some in sod shanties, or one room board shacks. These were mainly occupied by bachelors who had come expecting to amass a fortune in this most wonderful land of Dakota Territory. The pioneers who brought their families built more substanciel residences, some two story and many four and five room houses.
There were no fences; when one wanted to go any place, either near or far distant, they just took a 'bee line' across the prairie to the end of their journey.
Spring was, as is now, a very busy season. Nothing unusual to see yokes of oxen pulling the plows, harrows, and other farm machinery.
I recall my very first ride out to the claim from Wessington, where we landed, behind a heavily loaded, three-box wagon, pulled by two strong, well-behaved oxen. The distance was only 11 1/2 miles. My brother, Will, and I started as soon as the sun was up and reached the claim home just as the sun was going down. This was the latter part of March. The prairie was interspersed with lakes, many of which we needed to drive through. Our oxen pulled us through them all, but father, coming later in the day with the rest of the family, driving a team of horses, got stuck in the mud and had to go to a nearby settler for help."

Hattie's writings will continue in the next posting.

Hattie Daugherty Place on our Minds

I've been gone ever so long from this blogsite. Not sure why...I guess I just didn't have enough stories left to sink my teeth into. On Face Book at the moment family members of Hattie Daugherty Place are appreciating their connection with this magnificent woman. Hattie was my mother's great aunt, and my beloved grandfather's (Fred Irvin Daugherty) aunt. I'd like to share a column from the Wessington Times (South Dakota), circa 1950, written by Hattie when she was elected as the Pioneer Daughtor of the Wessington Women's Study Club in September, 1949. In my Prairie Roots Newsletter I've been including her memories as written to her granddaughter, Audrey Sisco Walker. I'm not sure of the date of that writing. Both documents differ enough that it's important to have access to both.

"I, Hattie Daugherty Place, pioneer of South Dakota, was born October 31, 1863, near the little town of Green Valley, Tazewell County, Illinois. My father, William Henry Daugherty, was born in Virginia in 1830. My mother, Martha Peppers, was born in Ohio in 1838. Father's ancestors, indicated by the name Daugherty, probably originated in Ireland. He had no record of how remote their coming to the United States. Mother was from the good sturdy Holland Dutch. Her parents were born in the United States, and she could remember her paternal grandparents reading their German Bible.
My parents married and settled in Illinois, and farmed there until the spring of 1881. Father came to South Dakota to find a location for a home. He started for Minnesota expecting to locate somewhere near Minneapolis, but the coaches of the train were filled with men Dakota Territory bound. Some had been here and told such convincing tales of the territory's wonders that father came on with them."

Continued in the next blog posting....

Mark...Just Mark

I had the most interesting and upsetting call this morning. It was from a "you don't know me, but..." female voice. Her name was Cindy, a friend of 2nd cousin Mark, alongwith her husband, from the Twin Cities area, and she was busy cleaning up the apartment of Mark's. Mark passed away October 6th, less than 40 miles from my home. He had had a heart attack at the age of 45. I'm not sure yet of the details, but while cleaning up, Cindy found a copy of Prairie Roots, a newsletter I joyfully send out to family every quarter (the next issue is due to be sent in Dec.). My phone number is on the newsletter and Cindy knew that she'd be in contact with family.

The funeral is already history. Mark's father did come from Arizona, but as the family was estranged and Mark's mother, Margie, is dead, no other family could be found. Mark has a few first cousins that have lost track of him after Margie's death. None of us knew where he had moved to, since living in Florida selling properties about 4 years ago. Evidentally Cindy and other friends arranged the funeral and there were many special words shared.

Cindy also didn't know what to do with the personal effects and pictures that they found in the apartment. I accentuated to her that there were family members nearby that would appreciate anything of that nature. Cindy gave me her phone number and E-Mail address and permission to share it with his cousins. She sounded truly grieved atMark's passing.

I then called Gail...a first cousin of Mark's in the same geographical area, thinking that maybe she knew about the death and hadn't had time to tell us. She didn't know about his death. Gail's mother was a sister to Mark's mom. Both of these charming women (Margy & Lillian, now dead) were double first cousins of my mother, Helen, with roots in Wessington, SD. So now Gail is probably calling the few remaining cousins in that family...those families of the above's siblings: Ivan, Carol, & Virgie. Only Virgie is alive of all the siblings.


I only met Mark once...about 4 years ago, when he accompanied his vibrant and beautiful mother to a Daugherty reunion in Huron, SD. She is gone, as well as another cousin, Terri (Carol's daughter) who also died far too young. There is a problem with the heart that many of my family has inherited. Not sure which side it came from...think perhaps the Carrington family, as so many of Gram's siblings died so young. Anyway, I was immediately impressed with Mark. He was so attentive to all of us and had such a wonderful repore with everyone. What a wonderful sense of humor...you know the type...dry, with much intelligence and wit. I stopped sending him Prairie Roots at least a year ago, as they were being returned to me due to error in address.

Mark kept my newsletter!!! I only wish I could have seen him again. His mother and brother are gone, so there is no one else in that family to keep in contact with.

The lovely genetic mixture of Daugherty/Carrington containing the attributes of honesty, hard work, creativity, super personality, intelligience, warmth, and love of learning is becoming less and less. I sit here at the age of 64...never dreaming that I am in the least bit "old". Mark's death adds another time factor. There's so much to learn about this large and interesting family.

I ask that any readers at all related to my particular family please share with me stories, photos, news articles, or opinions about this very special family. Thanks for your time and putting up with my rambling.

This disjointed writing goes back to an important aspect of family...keeping in touch with contact people. Make some phone calls. Write some letters. Check the Internet. Our lives go by so fast. They are good lives...but so short.

There will be a military service in the near future. I'm hoping that some of us can share memories of Mark at that time. Note: Mark is the second from the left in the above picture.