https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/7d6522d0dc6b70aa58227a6d0fe219ff.pdf fbe703a5781e8693f66b22735126265a PDF Text Text KARL and EDA (Kreuger/Olbert) HAUERT Not far from the Black Forest in the south part of Germany is the town of Baden-Baden. Andrew Hauert and his family were the latest in a long line of Hauerts who had lived and reared their families there. All the 'common people in Germany had a craft. Andrew was a weaver. He earned extra money working on the farm of a large land owner. Owning his own land was unthinkable as it was for most of the common people in Europe. ' ) l ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) J ) ,...) 'J J ...) ,...) J .._) J J J J J -..) .._) When Andrew got the idea to come to America, his brothers did not approve at all, but Andrew persisted for several reasons. Among them, he wanted to own land and he wanted to get himself and his family away from the military. All the young men in Germany were drafted, went through rigorous training and were required to stay in the army a long time. In 1893 Andrew, his wife Lizzie and their children sailed for America. His brothers were certain it was a foolish venture and that Andrew would want to return, but they were wrong. Andrew didn't stop until he reached Prove, Utah. There he worked for a while until he heard about a settlement of German people in Thompson Park between Durango and Mancos, Colorado. After moving his family to Colorado, Andrew worked in the sawmill, then he leased a ranch below Hesperus. He had $7.25 to start ranching, but he managed. It was here that little Karl, who was only 2 years old when the Hauerts came to America, began to learn farming and ranching. When Karl was 6, his parents boarded him with the Olberts at Thompson Park so he could attend school there. Fairly often the Utes, visiting back and forth between Ute Mountain and Ignacio, stopped for the night at the Olbert's ranch. Chief Ignacio was with them sometimes. "Usually, the Indians would have supper with us," Karl recalls, "and visit for a while. Once old Mr. Dibert decided to play a trick on one of the Indians. He placed a small piece of limburger cheese on his plate. As soon as the man smelled the cheese, he left the house and refused to return." A few years later Andrew bought a farm on C herry Creek in Thompson Park. Kart remembers, "That year we didn't have much money. So we skinned and ate 7 deer. There wasn't any season then. I got so tired of deer meat that year. I have never liked it again." As time permitted, the Hauerts built a large farmhouse, a barn and other outbuildings. Their water was supplied by a spring which was piped into the house. For heat the Hauerts mined their own coal. "We had to dig quite a ways back into the seam before we found good coal, but finally we found some of the best in the area." Karl and his father built a large, very strong corral. Unexpectedly, this made him some new friends and gave him a small bit of income once or twice a year. "A bunch of cowboys would round up wild horses in Utah and the Four Corners area and drive them to Denver to sell. They always stopped at my father's ranch overnight because his corral was the only one large enough and strong enough to hold the animals. They always left the best two horses for my dad. He would break them to ride and sell them to the Indians for $5.00 or $10.00 each." 79 �Karl and Minnie Melugin were married. They had three children: Ruth, Robert and Shirley all of whom were reared on the ranch on Cherry Creek. Until 1905 there was no church in Thompson Park. That year Julius Frese, an ordained minister of the Lutheran Church from Omaha moved there lo organize a church. Eventually, a chapel was built to serve the people of that area. One year the Olberts of Thompson Park sent their son Louis to accompany a load of cattle to the stockyards in Omaha. Louis was invited to stay as a guest in the home of the Rev. Mr. Julius Frese's parents, the family of the Rev. E.J. Frese. It was on this occasion Louis met 19 year old Eda Krueger, the adopted daughter of the Frees family. Louis and Eda were immediately interested in one another. "How could I not be interested in a handsome cowboy from Colorado," Eda remarks. How Eda Krueger came to be adopted into the Frese family is a very interesting and often sad story. The Kruegers also migrated to America from Germany. Eda's father, William had money enough for one person's passage. He came alone to Iowa where he worked on the farms until he could bring his wife and two children, Martha and Franz to America. They farmed the rich Iowa land directly across the Missouri River from Omaha. They attended church in Omaha where E.J. Frese was the pastor. The children went to school at the Lutheran parochial school. Two more children were born, William and Eda. When Eda was 6 months old, her mother Augusta died. In 1903 Mr. Krueger heard about available land in Oklahoma. He decided he wanted a change of scene and a new life there. In April he moved his family to a farm near Minco, Oklahoma, about 50 miles SW of Oklahoma City. He was just getting started in developing the place when he died suddenly in August of the same year. Martha was adopted by a banking family in Minco. Franz was old enough to be somewhat on his own. The Frese family in Omaha asked for Eda. She rode the train all alone back to Omaha. "They were a fine family,'' Eda says. "They kept me for 10 years and treated me just wonderful." When 15 year old William, came back to Omaha, he lived in the YMCA, worked in a grocery store and put himself through business school. His hard work and perseverance paid off. William got a good job in one of the Omaha banks. During all those years in Omaha, Eda did his laundry and kept in close touch with him. Eda and Louis Olbert corresponded for 2 years before they decided to get married. Louis did not really oppose her choice of a husband, but did not understand why she wanted to marry and live so far away in such wild country. Eda wanted a home, a place of her own, but on the train ride to Colorado, she could not help wondering just how primitive life might be in La Plata County. It was 1913 when the train with Louis and Eda puffed into Durango. "When I saw the streetcar on Main Street, I was greatly relieved. I decided if Durango had streetcars, it could not be too wild a place." "Thompson Park, of course, had no street cars, but I had no complaints about my life there. We stayed with the old Phillip Olberts until we could build a place of our own. They were always very kind to me. In the spring we started a house of our own. It wasn't Omaha. For a long time we hauled water from Cherry Creek for household use, 80 �'1 '1 '} .,..,, '1 ) ) ) ) ) l J ) ) ) but eventually Louis built a 700 barrel cistern up the hill from our house. It was a pit lined with stone and mortar and coated wit plaster. When the water was piped down to the house the whole family knew I was so excited. They all said they were going to come and watch me take my first bath." Louis and Eda had one son, Alfred. "He spoke beautiful German," Ida recalls, "but that just about had to come to an end during World War I." The war years were very hard on German immigrants. All teaching of German language in schools came to a stop. Books were burned. Some people badly over-reacted toward German-Americans and heaped verbal abuse on who exhibited a German accent or German heritage. (The final page of Karl & Eda's story is missing. I remember, though, that Louis O/bert died and later Eda marn"ed Karl Hauert. They were living in a very large, nice home on the hill west of Ignacio when I interviewed them in October of 1975. I spoke German with them, using the little I retained from a college class taken in 1956. We had many laughs over my ineptness, but they appreciated my attempts.) -) SHELBY SMITH -- October, 1975 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) _) J __) J J ..) ..) .) ...) ..) ._) ...) ... ) J ..J J J J 81 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Karl Hauert and Eda (Kreuger/Olbert) Hauert Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975-10 Subject The topic of the resource Hauert, Karl; Hauert, Eda (Kreuger/Olbert); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Karl Hauert and Eda (Kreuger/Olbert) Hauert based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the November, 1975 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hauert, Karl; Hauert, Eda (Kreuger/Olbert) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 3 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby