Sheila Witt-Agnew

HIS 206.175, Spring 2001

Final Paper

Links to Photo Pages at End of Page

    The focus of this section of my family history story is the families of my grandfather John Witt and his wife Gladys Lora Huff. The Huff side of the family is what I know the least about and therefore what I find to be the most interesting at this time.

    I know the names of Gladys’s parents; I got that information from my uncle Jim and verified it because they also lived in the Karval area for a time. There homestead was somewhere near South Rush Creek. The Colorado 1920 Census for her parents Mont and Opal tells me that both of Gladys’s grandfathers were born in New Jersey, Mont’s mother was born in Missouri, Opal’s mother in Kansas. To find more information on Mont, Opal and their parents I will be checking Kansas, Missouri and New Jersey census records, as well as any directories for those areas and land records. It will be interesting to see if their fathers from New Jersey knew each other or even migrated together.

I am also very curious about John Witt’s mother’s family, the Neufelds, who have been in the United States longer than his father’s side. Both of Marie’s parents were born here in the U. S. and they were married in Kansas. Marie also had a brother that was born in Kansas. I have a transcribed ship list for the Neufelds that dates 16 Jun 1878 also from Bremen but arriving in New York.[1]

I traced back as far as I could within the time limitations of this class and found where the Witts traveled from when they came to the United States and a little history on the village in that area. I will be continuing to look for information on who came from Germany to Russia and where in Germany they came from.

The Witt family migrated to the United States from Tarutino, Bessarabia, Russia. I have not traced the family back to the first ancestor to settle in this area from Germany but will continue my research. I did find a short history of the village of Tarutino. In folklore, the colony is still called “Anshakrak” or “Chanschakrak”.  Lead by Russian officials, the Germans had emigrated in different groups from the kingdoms of Poland, Prussia, Bavaria, and Mecklenberg. They found crude huts made of shrubbery and clay. At the time of their arrival, the emigrants found the land still occupied by 10 Moldavian lessees who cleared out soon after leaving the land to the Germans. The huts provided shelter for 100 families. By 1816 there were 136 families. Most of the earlier settlers were poor, some only traveling with what they were wearing. The crown provided the basics for them to start out with in their new home. They were given financial advance and given 20 “free years” to pay off the debt. Each family received 819 Rubel and 87-1/2 Kopek. Each family was also given, per person, a pound of flour and an allowance of grits for their basic food needs as well as some household items. For farming each family received a wagon, a team, farming equipment, a cow and 6 Tschetwerik of seed grain (I do not know what Tschetwerik means. I have looked at several online dictionaries and it always comes up not found). It is speculated by the writer of this village history that the lower officials shortened the supplies, mostly by lacking delivery of provisions and equipment or delivering bad or spoiled goods.  The land appears to have been under the ocean at some time.

            In the 1800’s there were several earthquakes and a cattle epidemic that seriously reduced their stock. There was also a cholera epidemic in1831 that claimed 81-recorded casualties, mostly adults. There were periods of prosperity and periods of drought. The winter of 1840/41 left deep snow on the grounds for 5 months. Even with many hardships the colony still planted gardens, orchards and woods. For a while, every 14 days on Tuesday they had a cattle and fruit market offering trade opportunity. The colony’s prosperity is also credited to wine making and the women who spin wool and weave throughout the winter producing almost all the clothing needed. [2] Although not near a mountains region like Tarutino, this history is similar to the history of the area of Lincoln County, Colorado where my family finally settled in the United States.  Eastern Colorado had periods of draught and adequate rain causing periods of financial depression and prosperity. In most places the soil contains a lot of clay. There are small hills in the Karval area with fossils from the sea. In 1909 the Enlarged Homestead Act doubled the allowable claim making this area more attractive to settlers for dry farming and in 1912 congressional modifications reduced from five to three years to prove one’s claim on the homesteaded lands. [3]

My genealogical research so far has taken me back to Wilhelm August Witt. He was born in Tarutino, Bessarabia, Russia. Wilhelm married Louise Sauer Jan. 18 1852. Both of their birth dates are unknown at this time. I do not know about their other children, just my great-great grandfather Samuel Witt. Samuel was born Apr. 3, 1866 also in Tarutino. His wife Lydia Jung/Young was born Mar. 28, 1868 in Bessarabia, village unknown at this time. They had several children in Leovo, Bessarabia before coming to the United States.

In 1906 Samuel and Lydia left with their children and journeyed to Bremen, Germany whey they boarded the SS Wittekind and traveled to Galveston, Texas. The SS Wittekind was built in 1894 for Norddeutscher Lloyd of Bremen. The description of the boat says that originally it could travel at a speed of 13 knots and that there were accommodations for 174 second and 1366 third class passengers. The ship had been rebuilt in 1900 after it’s transfer to Bremen-South America service. After being rebuilt the size of the boat had been increased. The boat description page states that on Feb 24 1906 she commenced her first voyage from Bremen to Baltimore but does not say if it went on to Galveston during the same voyage. In April of1917 the ship was seized by the US authorities and became the U. S. Government ship “Iroquois”, renamed “Freedom” in 1919 and scrapped in 1924.[4]

The Witt family first lived in Westover, Baylor County, Texas where two more children were born, Otto and Christian. My great-grandfather Gotthilf at the age of 21 met and married Marie Neufeld in Westover, Texas Feb 16, 1910. Marie was about to turn 21 years of age at the time. Marie’s family had been in the new country longer. She was born Mar. 24, 1889 in Inman, McPherson County, Kansas. Marie’s parents were Reverend John J. Neufeld and Aganetha Friesen. Elder Rev. C. M. Wall baptized her in Westover, Texas, on 6 Dec. 1908. She was a great over of song and music, she sang soprano. She loved her Bible and lived a prayer life.³ Before Marie’s death; children were born in Westover Texas, Buhler Kansas and American Falls Idaho. Marie died 26 Jan. 1919 on a farm near Aberdeen, Idaho during a flu epidemic. At the time of her death Gotthilf and Marie had several children: Bertha, John, Aganetha (Nita), Albert, and Samuel.  Lydia Witt traveled by train and took her grandchildren John and Bertha back to the Witt homestead near Karval, Lincoln County, CO. [5] The Lincoln County History book does not say what happened to the other three children Nita, Albert and Samuel. Another source does tell me that Samuel was legally adopted, by friends of the family, Jacob and Helena Harms and his name was changed to Wesley Harms. [6] I have copies of photos of him at varies ages from the portion I have of my grandmother Gladys Witt’s collection. I have no source of information on where Nita and Albert were at this time. Did they also grow up with a friend of the family? The Colorado 1920 census also shows that Lydia’s parents were living at the Witt homestead in 1920. Their year of immigration is listed two years earlier in 1904 and naturalization in 1914. Samuel and Lydia’s naturalization date is listed as 1917. Where did they live from 1904 until the family settled in Lincoln County? Maybe the answer will be found at the Denver archives this summer.

After Marie died Gotthilf returned to work in Kansas. He met and married Anna Bertha Theresa Frohreich Oct. 18, 1922 in Holyrood, Kansas. Shortly after they moved to Lincoln County Colorado and homesteaded 2 miles north of the homestead of Samuel and Lydia Witt. John and Bertha moved in with them at this time (still no mention of where the younger children are living). Gotthilf and Anna had several more children; Bernard, Franklin, Ida, Frieda, Oscar, La Vida. Oscar was killed during World War II while serving in the Third Army. The Third Army assumed all occupational and operational responsibilities in the United States Zone, Germany. [7] John attended Blue Cliff and Pleasant Center schools. [photo] John graduated from Blue Cliff in 1927 and began working for farmers in the area. Blue Cliff was built in 1915-16 on the South East Corner of section 22, Township 16, Range 55. [photo] I am still trying to translate what that means but I do know where it is located. I also know that Ronald Witt now owns the field that Blue Cliff sits on the corner of, and John Witt owned if before him. I thought I could remember my father telling me when I was a child that “grandpa” had given the land to the community and helped to build the school. I will have to check land records and see if either Gotthilf or Samuel did this or if the field was purchased after Blue Cliff was built. When John was interviewed for the Lincoln County History book he remembered students jumping up and swinging from the ceiling joists. Others remembered how cold it was because the building was not finished inside with lathe and plaster until 1922. One gentleman also remembered bringing nickels to school to help buy a piano. In 1926 a community Sunday School was organized and a nondenominational church began services at Blue Cliff prior to that it was only used as a school. John met my grandmother Gladys Lora Huff at Blue Cliff church activities in 1930. Gladys was born near Vera, Oklahoma Dec. 1, 1913. Shortly after she was born her parents Mont Huff and Opal Vivian Roy homesteaded in Lincoln County. They lived near South Rush while Mont leased a coal mine there. I have had trouble find out more information on the coal mine but it should be very interesting when I do. I am also having trouble finding where the Huff homestead was located. I did locate the South Rush creek on a map of Lincoln County but it goes across a large section of land. I also remember as a child, while riding in the car with my grandmother to Ordway, she pointed out a place on a hill and said that she grew up there. My sister was with us and also remembers this. We are going to look for it when she comes for a visit in June 2001 and also go to the Court House in Hugo to see if we can find the exact location of the homestead. Gladys attended Liberty School [photo] and graduated the eighth grade in 1928. She lived at home and helped out on the family farm until she married John Witt Oct. 8, 1932. Reverend Lafoon, at the Evangelical Church, married them in Ordway. The date was chosen because the weather was not good enough to be working outside. They also had trouble getting John’s Model-T started and tried pulling it. They then discovered that the gasoline was not turned on. When they got it started they went to Ordway, got married, stopped and picked up some household items to set up housekeeping and went back to Karval. I am not sure where they lived from 1932 until 1935. In 1935 her parents Mont and Opal returned to the Huff homestead in Missouri. Although Mont and his mother were born in Missouri the census records show that his father was born in New Jersey. Opal was born in Kansas, her father was also born in New Jersey and her mother was in Kansas. Mont’s Lincoln County homestead is listed as a stock farm. [8] John and Gladys then rented the Lincoln County Huff homestead for $10 or $15 per year. They had a leaky roof and had to burn sagebrush and cow chips through the winters. In December 1940 Samuel and Lydia moved away from the homestead to Sugar City, Colorado. John and Gladys then moved to the original Witt homestead. John and Gladys had three sons Robert was born in October 1934 homestead unknown, James in November of 1940 right before they moved from the Huff homestead. Their third son Ronald was born in July 1944 while living at the Witt homestead. Robert married Nancy Harper and they moved to Grand Junction where Robert was a middle school counselor. James or Jim married Julia Metcalf from Ordway. He taught German at a high school in Grand Junction and Julia aided the English as a Second Language program. Ronald married Joyce Rader. Ronald was a staff sergeant in the U. S. Army until he retired. He now lives on the Original Witt homestead in his own house even though the property has been sold. The new owner is only using the property to keep his cattle. Ronald does own the land that Blue Cliff sits on the corner of. The property that Blue Cliff is located on is also the source of water for the Witt homestead. Pipes were put in underground about 1990. Before that water was hauled in a pickup with a tank on the back and put into a tank buried underground behind the original house. Gotthilf’s homestead was sold to the Bailey family that live on the property between Samuel Witt’s homestead and the homestead of Gotthilf Witt.

When I was a child my older sister Ronna and I used to spend part of our Summer Vacation with our grandparents John and Gladys. We usually did a two-week block at some point during the summer as well as a few weekends here and there. We would ride the tractor, chase bull snakes away from the house, run from wasps and get into everything in my grandmother’s vanity. I also liked to pick flowers there. She had a large bunch of beautiful yellow roses on the south side of her house. There was some of the same kind on the east side of Gotthilf’s house. We had the big country breakfast every morning with sausage gravy and biscuits, fried eggs, bacon. My grandpa had coffee in his special mug. It has a picture of a farm on the outside and a smaller version of the picture on the inside too. I have the mug now. I was about 13 when the bathroom was built in the house. Before that we would go use the outhouse. We did not really like to do that at night, it was so dark outside with no streetlights and the coyotes would be howling. My favorite daytime activity was helping my grandma make her wonderful homemade bread and then eating it. The smell of bread baking is still one of my favorites, it ranks right up there with her homemade pumpkin pies. At night we would lie down outside next to the front porch on an old bedspring and look at the stars. I would usually make popcorn for us all to eat wile we were out there. We did that almost every night, year round, weather permitting. When we would stay there in July, I would also make my grandpa a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and write happy birthday with walnuts. That was his favorite. We always liked to go to town with them on a shopping trip. We usually drove to Rocky Ford, made a stop at the Big R, got groceries at Safeway and had a picnic in the park. Most of the time we took the 1966 Chevy Impala that I now own. I bought this when they had the farm auction to sell off my grandfather’s stuff because I had so many fond memories of the car. Sometimes we would make forts in the hay pile west of the house. We would stack bales 4 or 5 high to make a wall as tall as we were. This would be on top of a stack about 15 feet high, 30 feet long and 10 feet wide. We would make rooms. My grandpa was always worried that the bales would fall over on us and we would get hurt, but we never worried about it and luckily it never happened.  When I was about 12 my grandpa bought a 3-wheeler to entertain us. We tried not to scare the cows too much. All of my cousins really enjoyed riding it. At about the same time my grandma started letting me drive the Impala to the mailbox to check the mail. It was down the front driveway and down the road where it intersects with the road from Karval. Because the front driveway was so long it was about ¼ of a mile. I felt really grown up when I could do this. Sometimes my sister and I would also drive the water truck to Blue Cliff and fill the tank. She is three years older than me so of course if we both went she was the one driving. Although we thought this was fun we liked it better when the in-door bathroom was built and then when the pipes were put in to run water directly to the house. We also stayed there sometimes during Winter Break. When we stayed in the winter we would get up early and help take bales of hay to the cows in the field at the “home place” (where John lived) and the “great-grandma place” (Gotthilf’s homestead). There wasn’t as much to do in the winter since it was cold outside and the TV reception was so poor.

Witt Photos

Photo Page 01 (pictures that show house of Samuel and John Witt)

Photo Page 02 (Pictures showing Gotthilf Witt)  

Photo Page 03 (Witt Girls -Frieda, Bertha, Nita, La Vida)  

Photo Page 04 (article on 50th wedding anniversary of Gotthilf and Anna)

Photo Page 05 (Photos showing Oscar Witt)

Photo Page 06 (Photos of Schools)

Photo Page 07 (Geocities page-several photos including a picture from the 

50th Wedding anniversary of Gotthilf and Anna)

Photo Page 08 (Ahern's Family Photos)

Photo Page 09 (Mystery Photos) 

Photo Page 10 (Group Photos)

Photo Page 11 (Mystery Photos 2)

Photo Page 12 (Garden of the Gods)

Photo Page 13 (Picnic Photos)

Photo Page 14 (Neufeld Reunion Photos)

Photo Page 15 (Gotthilf Witt Funeral Photos)

Photo Page 16 (John Witt Funeral Photos)

Photo Page 17 (John Witt Funeral Photos 2)

Photo Page 18 (John Witt Funeral Photos 2)

Photo Page 19 (John Witt Funeral Photos 2)

  Family Tree Home Page