INSTALLMENT TWO - MEJ's BIO (The Early Years)

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The early years

Perhaps the first story about my life should be the one about the night of my birth. My parents told me that it was a very hot night, which was not unusual since I was born on the fourth of August (in the year 1900). It was also very humid that night so the mosquitoes were having a ball. Window screens in those early days were not as well made as they are now, and the little pests were finding their way into the bedroom through the screens. So my father went out to get some paint for the screens, which stopped that invasion. Incidentally, I am still a very popular target for the mosquitoes we have now in the summer time. If anyone wonders why I was born here at home, it was because the only transportation then was by horse power. Automobiles were non-existent and hospitals were not within driving distance. Even doctors were very scarce.

My father farmed the same 240 acres that we now own. It took much longer to do the same amount of work in those days than it does now. My father always had a hired man to help with the field work during the summer. This extra man was always hired from the first of March until the corn was picked. That date was uncertain and could be any time from the first of November until as late as the first of January, depending on the weather. Of course, when my brother and I were old enough to take over some of the work the hired man was supposed to do, he was no longer needed.

During the years when I was old enough to work with horses, we always had at least fourteen horses, plus one or two horses that were used only on the road. These were the ones used to pull the one-horse buggy, the surrey and the buckboard. They were not used for field work except when it was absolutely necessary. Perhaps they could be called "Sunday" horses. The tame old team that I remember best was a pair called George and Nance. Of course, their names were pronounced with a Low German twang, so it came on “Yorts un Nence.”

Old Yorts was quite a horse, though. As was our custom, all the horses were turned loose in the barn yard after supper in the summer time for a good roll and a bit of grass before being put back in the barn for the night. One night when all the horses had bunched up some distance from the barn, it was time for them to go in. My older sister, Ann, and I were standing directly in the path they would take to the barn. I got out of the way but Ann panicked and fell down directly in front of Yorts, but Yorts took off with a prodigious leap and landed at least ten feet beyond where Ann lay, unable to move because of fright. Could it be possible that this incident had something to do with Ann’s height? You have all heard of being scared out of a year’s growth; she did not get very tall.

One evening just at dusk, I was told to go on an errand to my uncle’s place just a fourth of a mile away. When I had reached about the halfway point, a coyote in the neighborhood began howling to his mate a mile or so away. This coyote howl is a sound that can make a coward out of almost anyone, so with this sound in the air, I became a quivering little boy almost too scared to move. But I was also sure that if I went back without doing what I was supposed to, it might be a little difficult to sit down comfortably for a while. So, with a lot of loud whistling to keep the old courage up, and a lot of hard running, the mission was completed.

 

School life

Our family life when I was a child was like that of any other family of the community, in that almost all of the neighbors near enough for us to be acquainted with were of Low German Descent and always spoke the Low German dialect. Because of this, every child, when entering school, found out that there was a language other than the one used at home; that is, the American language. What happened then was that as soon as the children were outside the schoolroom, they all spoke their home language, Low German. The first teacher that made the rule that only the American language could be spoken on the school ground and then tried to enforce it, almost lost her job because of it. It was the parents more than the children that objected. They claimed it was none of the teacher’s affair which language the children used when they were outside the schoolhouse.

School laws in the early days did not say at what age or in what grade a pupil could quit school. If you were through the sixth or seventh grade you could safely stay home and forget about school. I believe I was the first one to graduate from the eighth grade in our district. Soon after that the old school building was sold, converted into a grain bin and a new school house was built. I have often wondered if there could be any connection.

INSTALLMENT ONE - Autobiography of MEJ Plucker

THE MANY EXPERIENCES ENJOYED BY THE PLUCKERS

 

Memoires from M.E.J. Plucker

Written in 1967, just a year before his death.

 FORWARD

This history is written mostly for the younger generation in our family, those of you that were too young to see the changes that came to pass since the early 1900’s. Naturally, not all the small details are going to be mentioned, just those that made the greatest impression on me. It always gave me much pleasure to listen to the tales my father and grandfather would tell about events that happened before I was born. Stories of large Indian tribes that camped on grandfather’s land, the location of the makeshift post offices out here on the prairies, and many other very interesting things.

 My grandfather had four brothers and they all had large families, so the name Plucker is fairly prevalent in this community. My father and mother had six children. Ann, who is six years older than I am, married a doctor and lived in Princeton, Illinois all her married life. Wilbur, my brother who was four years older than I am, lived only until he was 22 years old. Esther, born two years after me, died when she was four. Lydia, who is eight years younger than I am, married a professor and is living in Dubuque, Iowa. Alma, born two years after Lydia, is married to a teacher.

Wilbur, Menne and Ann

The stagecoach trail from Sioux Falls to Yankton crossed the farm where we now live, about one-fourth mile north of the present house and barn yard. This trail did not follow the same pattern as the present roads, that is, straight north and south, and east and west, but angled across the country, so as to miss the existing ponds and sloughs, and hit the streams at a point where it would be possible to cross without upsetting the stage. The trail also crossed what is now the Germantown cemetery, and from there across my grandfather’s land to the Heeren place, one mile west of the Germantown church where the nearest prairie postoffice was located. My grandfather’s house was located about a half mile south of the state grail. One day my father heard some shots when the stagecoach was going by, and a few days later they heard that a man had attempted to hold up the stage, but was shot to death.

In our pasture is just a faint sign of what was at one time a bridge across the small creek that runs through our farm. When I was a small boy, the old timbers were still plainly to be seen, but have since disappeared. It must have carried quite a lot of traffic at one time because of the ruts made by the wagon wheels; but now even the ruts have been erased by floods carrying silt into them. No doubt it was built for the convenience of a few of the early settlers who went to the little village of Lennox to trade.

When you see a farmer planting corn now with his four-row planter, think of how our forefathers were obliged to put in a crop of corn. After the field had been plowed, it was smoothed down with a harrow and then a home-made machine called a planker. This broke up all clods and left the ground smooth as a cement sidewalk. Then another home-made machine was used to make the necessary spaces between rows of corn. This rig was a wooden platform about four feet wide with wooden teeth pointing downward, spaced forty inches apart. The reason for the forty inches: It was the amount of space needed by a horse to walk between the rows when cultivating. This apparatus was pulled across the field, first in one direction, and then across at right angles to the first crossing. This made a checkerboard pattern. Then three kernels of seed corn were placed in the ground at each place where the marks crossed. Of course, this planting had to be done by hand with a man carrying a small sack of seed corn and a hoe or a spade. It seems to me that it would take as much time to plant a field of corn as to harvest it later, also by hand.

This method of planting corn had been discarded by the time I had anything to do with that particular job. It was used by my grandfather when he first came to this state from Illinois. The first planter I can remember was a horse-drawn two-row machine. The primitive machinery described above had disappeared by the time my father started farming for himself.

My grandfather accumulated quite a large empire before he finally quit buying and trading for more land. Before he distributed the land to his children, he owned 960 acres, all close to the Germantown church. At one time he was offered a 160 acre tract in exchange for one horse, but he couldn’t spare the horse.

The grandfather I have been mentioning up to now was my father’s father. My mother’s father(1) was not nearly as well known to me. He came to South Dakota in 1886 as the pastor of the newly organized Germantown church. I believe that it was his first experience as a minister, and he was also the first pastor to serve Germantown. He was here for only a very short time. His next charge was at Marion, South Dakota.

(1)

Ernst Phillip Witte was born in Lippe-Detmold in Germany in 1873. He came to America  when he was 23 years old and settled in Fosterburg, IL. Having lost his wife in 1878, he followed his calling to become a minister. He entered the seminary at Dubuque, Iowa and eventually began his work at Prairie Dell church near Shannon, IL. From there he took the train and followed the German immigrants west and became the first minister of Germantown church near Chancellor, SD.

On May 5, 1886, Germantown Church was organized with 21 persons as Charter Members – among them were Menne and Engle Plucker.  (Jean Straatmeyer’s great grandparents.)

Land for the church site was given by Engel & Menne A. Plucker.  The first service was held in May of 1887.  Phillip Witte was the first pastor.

PLUCKER FAMILY PHOTOS

I believe this picture was taken in about 1910 or 1912. The setting is the manse at Germantown Presbyterian Church near Chancellor, South Dakota.

 

Sitting on chairs in the middle of the second row is Menne Alberts Plukker and his wife, Engel Anna Poppen Plukker. They are surrounded by many of their relatives, including John Poppe Plucker, my grandfather, (seated beside his wife, Christina Witte Plucker) second and third from the right in the second row. Grandpa Plucker is holding Lydia and Grandma is holding Alma.

On the left side in the third row at the end, you can see my father, Menne Elvin and his sister, Anna. Above them is Wilbur, who died at age 22 from a fall off a horse.

This shot would have been taken a bit later and professionally done. Aunt Alma was the only one who even hinted at a smile.

Back row: Menne, Wilbur, Anna. Front row: Alma, Christina, Lydia, John.

In a close-up of the folks shown above, you will see the officers of the church as well as ministers and their wives.

My Grandfather, John, is seated fourth from the left. 

The church was an extremely important part of the Plucker life. My Great Grandfather, Menne Albert, gave the land on which the Germantown Church is located. In addition, he gave the land for the Germantown Cemetery which is right across the road from the church.

As time went on, my Grandparents Plucker moved the family from the farm into the town of Lennox, South Dakota, a distance of about eight miles. Their house was always referred to as "the big house" because of its height and many rooms. That house is over 100 years old and is still on the same site. However, the town the Lennox has built up around it on all sides.

I will leave you for this posting with one of my favorite pictures: The baby in this photo is my father, Menne Elvin Plucker (born in 1900). Behind him is his brother, Wilbur and his sister, Anna.

I have this in a large (18 x 22) beautifully framed picture that my Aunt Alma very graciously gave me many years ago.