"Compendium of History and Biography of Central and Northern Minnesota 
containing a history of the State of Minnesota."   1904 
         

           Emanuel Reyff

(This sketch is about a brother of Jacob Ryf. Jacob was the first
husband of Amelia Foerster/Foster. They were the parents of
Minnie Ryf Fradenburg.)
                 ********************
     Emanuel Reyff, one of the early settlers and prosperous
farmers of Harrison township, Kandiyohi county, lives on his
well-tilled farm of one hundred and twenty acres, where he has
spent the past thirty-four years of his career.

     Mr. Reyff was born in Switzerland in 1841. At the time
of his birth his father was an extensive mill owner and
prosperous business man in the city of Bern, but unfortunate
investments in city securities deprived him speedily of his
wealth. In 1845, with his wife and family of ten children, he
emigrated to America. The heart of the wife and mother was
broken by the reverses from wealth to comparative poverty, and
she died and was buried at sea. Our subject being the youngest
one of the family, and but four years of age, was taken with his
brothers and sisters to Jefferson county, Wisconsin. There the
father rented land and proceeded to farm, a business which he
followed during the remainder of his life. He died in Wisconsin,
January 28, 1868.

     Our subject had few advantages in the way of school
education and he continue working on his father's farm until the
age of sixteen years, and then found similar work in the
neighborhood and later at New Ulm, Minnesota, until the
outbreak of the Indian war. In August, 1862, he enlisted in
Company K, Seventh Minnesota Infantry, serving under Gen.
Sibley to assist in quelling the outbreak. Later his regiment was
ordered south and he was actively engaged in the Mississippi
valley until the close of the war of the Rebellion, participating
in no less than thirty-two engagements. For these valiant
services the government allows him a liberal pension. He was
mustered out at Ft. Snelling, in 1865. These were trying times
in Minnesota. During the Indian outbreak Mr. Reyff saw his
brother's wife and two children massacred by the Indians on
their farm in Renville county. Their oldest son and Mr. Reyff
buried the dead bodies.

     After being mustered out of the service Mr. Reyff
returned to Wisconsin and assisted on the home farm until his
father's death. After the settlement of his father's affairs, in
1868, he went to Kandiyohi county and took a homestead claim
of eighty acres near where his home now stands. He later added
forty acres to his farm and thereon built his present resident. He
now owns one hundred and twenty acres of good land, all of
which is under cultivation. Mr. Reyff experienced some of the
hardships incident to pioneer life. From 1874 to '76 the
grasshoppers devastated the fields of grain and for a time he
almost gave up hope of making farming a success and removed
to St. Paul, where he found other work during the winter and
farmed during the summer.

     Mr. Reyff was married May 26, 1872, to Margaretta
Wolfmeyer, a daughter of Leonard and Annie C. (Horn)
Wolfmeyer. Mrs. Reyff was the second in a family of five
children and her father was a farmer of Wisconsin. To Mr. and
Mrs. Reyff two children have been born, daughters, who are as
follows: Minnie H., now the wife of Peter L. Frogner; and
Emma M., who is unmarried. Both daughters make their home
at present on their father's farm. Mr. Reyff is a member of
Frank Taggart Post, G.A.R., at Litchfield. He and his family
are highly respected in the community in which they live, and
their home is one of pleasant cheer and generous hospitality. 

Submitted by: Patricia McKee Bauer
<patbauer@pacifier.com>