Jacob Hertel

Jakob was born in Neudorf, Glückstal, Odessa, S. Russia (Ukraine today) to Franz Friedrich and Katharina (Walz) Hertle/Hertel. His father was born in Zaisenhausen, Karlsruhe, in the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1804, and his mother was born in Neudorf, Glückstal, S. Russia, the year after her parents arrived there from Croettwiller, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France.

Jakob decided to become a blacksmith, along with his only brother, Franz Friedrich, instead of following the occupation of his ancestors. They set up business in Neu-Glückstal, and were very successful at it.

He married Maria Rosina Kraenzler November 26, 1864 in Glückstal, Glückstal, S. Russia, and they settled in Neu-Glückstal, Glückstal, where they were blessed with eleven children, two of whom died in infancy. In 1888, their youngest daughter, Christine, also died at the age of 8 years on the Hertel homestead.

Early in 1885, when their oldest sons, especially Jacob, b. 1865, had come of age to be conscripted for the Russian military, they left S. Russia, with their nine children, and extended family, to board the S.S. Eider in Bremen, Prussia. They traveled in steerage, where most immigrants traveled to this new land. Conditions in steerage were very poor, and many died on the way, but babies were born on the way, also. April 25, 1885 they first set foot on American soil, but their trip was not over yet.

In New York, they boarded a train headed for the Dakota Territory. After arriving in the Menno-Freeman area in the southeast corner of Dakota Territory, they took some time to regroup, buy the supplies they would need for a new farm on virgin land, and loaded all their supplies and belongings in a box car of the train that would take them north as far as the railroad tracks went. In those days that was to Ipswich. Once there, they unloaded everything, put it into their newly acquired wagon, and headed toward Eureka in McPherson County, where they homesteaded about 1 mile south of Eureka. He paid cash for 1/4 section in Bauer Township, McPherson County, all he needed to set up a blacksmith's shop, and enough land for a large garden, a small grain field, and pasture for his animals.

Sadly, Jacob died not long after their arrival there, then Rosina, and Christine. All were buried on the Hertel homestead in. Later their remains were reburied in Hillsview Township, McPherson County.

His descendants will never forget the sacrifices he and Rosina made to get them started in this new land of freedom and opportunity.