Knittel Family & descendants.

by Mona Taggart

The touchstone of the Knittel family's story is 480 acres of untouched land in the Dakota Territory, in which Fred and Mary Knittel originally homesteaded the first 160 acres. The promise
of land rich with soil and a better life, was the driving force of the Knittel family for several generations. It started in the 1800¹s, when their ancestors left their homeland of Germany for the
Crimea in the Black Sea of Russia. A similar promise of land lured their grandfather Fredrick (Fred) Knittel to the Dakota Territory in 1904, to stake his claim to 160 acres. He was born on August 11, 1883, in the Russia steppes in the village of Burtschi in the Crimea, in which Fred probably had no memory of that time. It is now known as the Ukraine. He was barely two when he arrived in America, on October 27, 1885, along with 30 Knittel relatives. His father, Johann, 35, and mother, Christina, 34, sailed with their four children: George, 11; Maria, 7: Helena, 4; and Fred, 2.

The family first settled in Tripp, SD around 1885. Five years later, the family moved to Butte, NE. Fred's parents owned a farm one mile west of Butte, NE.

Fred farmed along with his father and his brothers. When the Dakota Territory opened for settlement, it was a perfect opportunity for Fred to build his future by acquiring his own land. It
was in Butte, NE, where Fred and Mary's (Wagner) paths met and she would eventually become Fred's bride. Mary was born in Russland, Russia, on December 31, 1885. She had emigrated
from Russia to the United States with her mother Maria Hauf Wagner, sister Carolina (Lena) Wagner and half brother, Konstantine Stirm, in 1892. Mary was a mere six years old, when her
father, Wm. Wagner (always referred to as simply Wagner), put the family on a ship at Yalta with the express promise to follow, advised Judi (Knittel) Meierhenry, Fred and Mary's granddaughter.

Wagner was a builder and was to finish the church he was building before joining his family in the new promise land of America. But that was the last Mary ever saw of her father, retold Judi. "Mary remembered his last embrace and how he had wrapped Lena, her sister, in his own sweater to keep her from the chill of the sea air. After a long, rough voyage in
steerage, the family arrived in New York, NY, harbor. Their final destination was to be Tripp, SD and join Maria Wagner's family, the Haufs," added Judy.

About 1893, the Wagner family relocated to Butte, NE. The family packed all that they owned in a wagon and set out to cross the Missouri River while it was still frozen after a long winter.
With a team of horses and the wagon with all of their worldly possessions they started crossing the vast area of ice into Nebraska. Without warning they hit a soft area in the ice and all their
possessions sank out of sight. Having to leave all behind, Mary and her family jumped across the crackling ice until they eventually reached safety on Nebraska soil. On the day before her
eighteenth birthday, December 30, 1903, Mary and Fred, were joined in holy matrimony in the Lutheran Church in Butte, NE. At the same time, the United States government opened the Rosebud Territory in Gregory County, for homesteading.

Fred along with his brother-in-law, Konstantine Stirm (married to Maria Knittel, Fred's sister), traveled to South Dakota, both hoping to have their names drawn from the long list of hopeful
settlers. As luck would have it, both were drawn and each staked his claim to 160 acres of land side by side. The land was located on the southwest edge of Gregory County, just ten miles
from the Nebraska border. Fred's application was No. 1169. He received the SE quarter of Section 7, Township 96 N, Range 73, five miles south of Dallas and east.

On October 15, 1904, Fred (signed Fried), staked his claim with two posts and the beginning of a well. He had paid $160.00 earlier that year as the first installment to his new life in the
unchartered territory of the Rosebud Reservation. He paid four more installments of $120.00 within the following five years that followed. In December of that year, he built a shanty on the land and broke the ground around the shanty as a fire guard against the devastating prairie fires that plagued the lands. A prairie fire whipped across the prairie that fall, leaving the ground black
and bare. The next spring, Fred and Mary, with their infant daughter Martha, started on the long trip from Butte, NE, to their new home in South Dakota. A team of horses pulled the wagon load
with all of their possessions, driving cattle alongside, they pushed across the rolling hills of Nebraska toward the Dakota Territory. The trip took them several days to complete. The vast prairie, blackened by the fire, struck loneliness in the hearts of the young couple as each day brought them closer to their new life on the homestead. At first, they had thought about staking their claim and then selling it. But she (Mary) loved it here, advised Judi. Marvin Knittel, grandson of Fred and Mary¹s, added, "She had talked how lonely it was in the beginning. I think that was probably one of the reasons why they had a lot of gatherings." Arla granddaughter of Fred and Mary's, also commented, "She was a good cook and entertainer." In the middle of this prairie on a slope, near a small creek, they built their first house. It was not more than a flimsy shed, divided into two parts. One part, they used as living quarters and the other side as a barn for their livestock.

"By the time fall had rolled around, they had built a more substantial sod house. The thick walls of the sod house kept them warm during the harsh winters and cool during the hot summers,"
advised Judi.

The rainfall was plentiful during the summer, the water sometimes seeped through the roof of the soddy. The prairie waterholes were soon alive with mosquitoes. The homesteaders needed to wear face nets as protection from the biting insects. The family continued to grow. In May of 1906, Adolph, (also referred to as A.J.), joined the Knittel family and was born in the sod
house.

In 1907, a daughter Clara was born in December. Frieda followed two years later, in December of 1909. Each year Fred broke more land with his walking plow. The fields of corn, wheat,
and oats grew well over those years, with an exceptionally good crop in 1908,² stated Judi.
In 1904, Fred broke the fire ground; in 1905, he broke 15 acres and planted 20 acres of corn and harvested about 200 bushels; 30 acres were planted in corn in 1906, as well as, 20 acres
of wheat, 10 acres of oats and harvested 400 bushels of corn, about 300 in wheat and 600 in oats. Fred had also broke another 30 acres of land that year. Each year, Fred cleared more
land on which to raise a variety of crops. Grains were seeded by means of an end gate seeder attached to the back of a wagon and corn was hand planted. In the fall, the corn was cut and
cleared off the land in order that winter wheat could be seeded in the corn rows. Corn was cultivated with a one-horse cultivator with the operator walking behind the cultivator, holding it in the ground with a type of handlebar.

Harvesting and threshing was an interesting process at the time. A binder cut and tied the grain into bundles and men put up shocks, using six to eight of these bundles to form the tent-like
shock. After a period of drying the bundles, the bundles were hauled and put into good sized stacks out in the fields. Each farmer had to wait his turn for the threshing crew to come and
thresh their grain. The bands of twine on each bundle had to be cut by hand by one person as another was ready to pitch the loosened bundle into the separator, as the threshing machine
was also called. Power for the early separators was furnished by teams of 12 and 16 horses that moved in a circle around the machine, hitched to a drive shaft, which in turn moved all the
other parts of the machine to separate the grain from the straw. Then the straw had to be stacked and was used for feed or bedding for the farm animals. The family¹s afternoon lunch when
working in the fields was usually clabbored (sour) milk, with some cream left in, making a tasty cold drink. Along with this, bread and green onions were added to the lunch menu. Throughout
the years, he continued to break the land and plant more acres, receiving bountiful harvests for his efforts.

Fred supplemented his income by hauling freight whenever time allowed. In the early years, the railroad ended at Bonesteel and anything shipped by rail had to be transported by wagon to
its destination. Fred built a new home 1910, with lumber he hauled himself. In 1911, it was time for Fred to file his final proof of claim, which he did. The patent to the land was signed by
President Taft. He had made a lot of improvements during those five years. Some of the improvements included a frame house 22 x 28, a barn measuring 26 x 32, a granary and corn crib 24 x 26, two wells equipped with pumps, a cellar 8 x 10, a 6 x 24 hog shed, a chicken house measuring 12 x 16 and 200 trees. Neighbors Oswald Kinsvater and Issac Syfie of Dallas, gave
testimony to the improvements made by Fred and also noted that the land was fenced and crossed fenced. Both of the witnesses also said that they saw Fred almost every day. Fred declared his intention of becoming a United States citizen, and that he was over the age of twenty-one and was the head of the family. He listed his occupation as a farmer. He was naturalized as a
citizen of the United States on May 11, 1910. The certificate of naturalization described Fred as twenty-six years of age, height five feet five inches, with white complexion, blue eyes, hair
brown, with no distinguishing marks. They also listed his wife, Mary, age 24, and children Martha, six; Adolph 5; Clara, 2; and Elsie, five months old.

Fellow homesteaders surrounded them on all sides. One-half mile to the west, Konstantine and Maria Stirm were also improving their land and raising their family. The neighbors had come
from Syria, Bohemia, Russia and other parts of the United States. Many of them were of different heritages and spoke German. While Fred was busy planting and building the homestead,
Mary took care of the household duties while she looked after the children.

The garden was east of the house. I would always marvel how she could bend at the waist, her legs were always straight. She would bend straight over and work on the weeds. I don¹t
know if it was because she had short legs or what? Marvin stated. Dad (A.J.), had said that the women would have her come when they were ready to deliver. She was like a midwife,
advised Judi. "She would go around and help them."

Cream separators were not in use at this time in history, so the milk was cooled overnight and in the morning the cream was skimmed from the milk with a saucer or other utensil. Butter was churned from the cream and sold in town. Their fifth child, Alma, arrived in February of 1912. Almost thirteen years later, Dorothy joined the family. Dorothy married Virgil Womeldorf. She remarried later to Juel Johnson after Virgil passed away in the 1970¹s. She is retired from the teaching profession and resides in Parker.

In 1916, scarlet fever struck the area. Clara had contracted the disease when she was eight years old. Despite Mary¹s skillful care, Clara's high fever did not break and she passed away. Heartache and sadness filled the house as they set out to bury their middle child. However, they were very fortunate that none of their other children caught the disease and were spared. Central to the family was Fred and Mary's strong religious beliefs. Mary was anardent Missouri Synod Lutheran and in order to insure its presence, she opened her home for church
services.

She and Fred donated the southeast corner of their land for a church. The only opportunity for worship services came by way of traveling preachers. Two preachers out of Nebraska regularly came to conduct church services, as early as August 1905, Judy stated. Reverend R. Krenzien, who had performed the marriage ceremony between Fred and Mary, looked them up not long after they came to Dallas and held church services in the couple's home, whenever it was convenient for him to come. The preachers stayed overnight with the Knittels holding Sunday worship in their home until a church was erected. The first church was made of sod with a large wooden cross adorning its roof. The church was served by Rev. Krenzien and other early day pastors who usually stayed at the Knittels while preparing their sermons for Sunday worship services. The congregation also built a schoolhouse beside the church where the children were taught German.

In 1912, a frame church replaced the sod church. The cross that first graced the sod church so many years ago, graced the present day St. John's Lutheran Church in Gregory for many
years, until eventually the cross was destroyed by lightening. Fred served as a elder in the prairie church for over 35 years. He then held the position of treasurer for nine years in the
Gregory Lutheran Church until he passed away. Adolph also served as the treasurer for many years following in his father¹s footsteps. Romance seemed to be in the air south of Dallas. On
October 11, 1927 Adolph and Anna (Voos) were married in the quaint little country church, Zion Lutheran, that was located on the homestead. Anna was the daughter of Adam and Mathilda
(Schenefeld), who also came from Russia, also know as Germans from Russia. The Vooses also lived in the Butte/Naper, NE, area for a while before coming to South Dakota. The Vooses
lived about four and a half miles south of the Knittels, just east of Paxton.

The Knittels were about the first to welcome the new family to the neighborhood, perhaps on a Sunday afternoon and probably to invite them to church services held in the Knittel home. As
it turned out, they had this cute boy named Adolph. Seems like right away he had eyes for only Anna. Anna was the eldest of the girls in a family of thirteen, so at an early age she was hired to
help neighbor ladies with housekeeping, care for newborn babies and help with cooking and the like. During the school year, she had to stay home from school one day a week to help her mom
bake bread and to help with the undry. Many hardships, along with everyone starting to farm in the 1930's, plagued the newlyweds. They lived on the homestead of Stirms for a lot of their first
years of marriage, as Adolph had acquired the Stirm homestead. Their family grew through the years with Donald arriving on earth on July 19, 1928; Arla was born on June 6, 1931; Marvin
came along on December 24, 1933; and Judi followed eleven years later on January 20, 1944. "That is where we kids grew up. I was just a small child of about two, when we moved to the
Knittel homestead," advised Judi. In 1945, Adolph bought the homestead farm from his dad, Fred.

Many changes occurred from the start of farming to the more modern times. Horses were used
for the power and were eventually replaced by tractors. The Knittel family used mostly Farmalls on their farm. The four children helped with the farming, as they all grew old enough to do their share on the homestead. However, Arla was lucky enough to be able to stay in the house and cook the meals, but she also had to help with the milking of the cows and gathering of eggs. Outside interests for Adolph and Anna were square dancing and Anna also enjoyed being part of the Ladies Aid group. "³Mom worked side by side with dad," recalled Arla. Judi added, "Every spring we butchered chickens and sold the fryers. Mom would sell cream to people, put in quart and pint jars, and delivered them to people on Saturday. She would get pints and quarts of cream ready to sell, and we would take the eggs to town and sell them too at either Soper¹s Hatchery of the other one," recalled Judi. "We would go into town and take the cream and eggs and from that cash we would buy groceries," advised Judi. They all agreed that Saturday in Gregory was the social event of the week. Everyone would be sitting in the cars or on the street. "The Green Parrot would be so full, people would be spilling out onto the street," recalled Marvin. "The ones who had cars would cruise main street and those of us who didn¹t would walk," advised Marvin. He added, "We would go to the show and it cost nine cents." They would take a dime and get a penny back to purchase candy. When I started going it was nine cents and then they upped it to fourteen cents. You still got a penny back to buy candy and pop, or popcorn, recalled Judi. It was usually the canned westerns with Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, recalled Marvin.

Adolph and Anna endured many personal hardships, among them the accident that nearly claimed Marvin¹s life. When he was five, he got gangrene in his broken arm after falling off of
our horse. Marvin developed gangrene in his compound fracture. In those days, there was no antibiotic to stop the infection. The doctor in Gregory looked at his arm and told the folks to get him to Sioux Falls in a hurry. The doctor reached in his pocket and gave dad some money and said, 'OHurry, get to Sioux Falls.' By an act of God, Marvin made the trip all right and survived the surgery of the amputation of his left arm. This was so hard on the folks, but in their infinite wisdom, did not baby Marvin, and taught him to be independent. He was very active in sports and scholastically bright, advised Arla (Knittel) Wurtz. A second tragedy was equally or worse to bear. It was when we lost Donald at age 18, in an unfortunate hunting accident, that occurred
on September 9, 1946. Don was such a quiet kid, that it was hard to know what he was feeling in his growing up years. He loved to drive the tractor and was very popular in high school.

This loss changed the folks for the rest of their lives. They never could talk about Don. This also had a great effect on us kids. Judi was about two, when Don died and we told her, Don was in
heaven. When she would see the funeral home, she would always say, OThat's heaven, recalled Arla. Many times when I was a young girl, between the ages of ten and thirteen, I would
go to my favorite place to sit, daydream and generally reflect on life and the things that were important to me. This place was a big cottonwood tree near a small creek, that only had water in it when it rained, which was not too often in the 30¹s and 40¹s. I would sit on one of the lower branches, swing my feet and daydream. This would be my quiet time which I cherished very
much. I sometimes would take a cookie for a snack when I visited my favorite place, recalled Arla. She added, I was quite young when South Dakota withstood the dust storms of the 30¹s.
(Arla was born in the summer of 1931). I can remember being tall enough to barely see over the window sill when the storms were at their worst. Storms were so bad that a person could not
see the barn from the house. We used to stand by the window watching for dad to return from milking. This was on the farm, west of the place that Grandpa Fred homesteaded. Arla
continued to explain, These Oblack blizzards were very much like a snow blizzard that we have today. Inside the house everything would be covered in a fine layer of dust. It was nearly
impossible to breathe outside without something tied over one's face, such as handkerchief or scarf. It had to be horrible for mom and dad in those years. We were also plagued
with grasshoppers in the summer. They would eat the paint off the house, eat fence posts also almost all the vegetation, as little as there was.

Christmas was a wonderful time for us kids. We would always have a Church Sunday School program on Christmas Eve. These programs were special to us. We would recite the
Christmas Story and sing all the familiar Christmas carols. The large tree in the front of the small church was a real evergreen. It was decorated with ornaments and real candles that were lit
just before the program started, advised Arla. Adolph served as the church organist, and played for services all the time on a pump organ. He was self taught and played by ear, advised
Arla. There was no electricity at the time. The church was lit with kerosene lamps in wall brackets that gave light for the evening service. When church was over, everyone in the program
would receive a sack of candy, peanuts and if they were lucky an apple or an orange. Arla added, "We would always try and get mom and dad to hurry home to see what Santa had delivered
while we were at church."

Probably the best Christmas present I ever got, or at least the one I remember most fondly, was a small wringer washing machine that came with a small laundry basket and tiny clothespins. You could actually put water and soap in the small washer and it had a tiny agitator that really worked. I would wash my doll clothes and hang them on the small clothesline. This line was strung between two chairs close to the stove so the clothes would dry. We usually received one gift from Santa and maybe some money or small gift from our grandparents. We were happy. We didn¹t realize that there were others who probably got more, Arla remembered.

The Voos boys would have dad cut their hair. This meant coming up to the farm from their farm in the evening to get a trim. The whole family would come along, usually Rueben, Walter and
Lillian and Ruth, as well as grandpa and grandma. Mom would make homemade ice cream for these evenings. I remember a lot of laughter and happiness on those evenings. Sometimes we
would get a sudden rainfall and they would have a hard time getting home. We lived about three-fourths of a mile off the main road, west of the homestead, and our road was merely a worn
path that was not graded or graveled. Those were some of the happier times because the Voos¹ loved to laugh and joke, recalled Arla. ³We had an ice house on the homestead farm. It was
an area about 15 feet by 20 feet dug in the ground, perhaps eight to ten feet deep. It had short wooden walls and a roof over it. In the winter time, farmers in the area would go to the dam
north of our farm and saw out squares of ice. A block of ice was cut about two feet by two feet. These cubes were put on a flatbed or hayrack and hauled to the various farms. First a layer
of straw was spread on the dirt floor of the icehouse, then a layer of ice, with straw in between the cubes. Then another layer of straw on top of this and another layer of ice, till the whole
icehouse was filled. This ice was used all year long for our iceboxes. We had no electricity, so we did not have a refrigerator. We had what was called an icebox, that had a compartment>
which held the block of ice. There was a pan underneath the icebox that held the water from the melting ice. The ice cooled the food, like milk, butter and meats. My brother, Marvin, and I
would always enjoy going into the icehouse in the summer to cool off. I was afraid of spiders, but that did not stop me from going inside when it was so hot outside. We made a lot of ice cream
in the summer from ice stored in the icehouse, relived Arla.

I attended a country one-room schoolhouse all of my first eight grades. It was the same school that my dad attended when he was boy. My two brothers and one sister, also graduated
eighth grade from there. It was located about one and a half miles from our farm. It is located on the land that Mark and Judi have the cabin on. We walked some of the time, especially in the
fall> and spring. It was pretty to listen to the birds, especially the meadowlarks, as we walked along. We carried our lunch in gallon syrup pails. The water in the school froze often. We did not
have central heat, just a round coal burner stove. If you were seated close to the stove, you would> nearly cook, those farther away nearly froze. It was nothing like the evenly heated
classrooms of today. We had all eight grades in one room, so from the first grade on you could listen to the other grades classes and learn a lot.

Grandma and Grandpa had a 1936 Chevy. It was when I was about five or six and Arla and I would get in the back seat. This was a stick shift. Grandma would let the clutch out, she had
no idea how to gradually let the clutch out. She would put her foot down and give it some gas and take her foot off the clutch, we would lurch and lurch,² laughed Marvin. Arla also recalled
the experience of driving with grandma. He continued laughing, We would be in the back seat laughing our sides out and then she would giggle and giggle. The car would finally quit lurching>
and we would get going. Every time she would do that. During the war in the 1940's, they didn¹t make very many domestic vehicles, advised Marvin.

There are many stories that came from the experiences of the farm. I had my own riding horse. It is sort of interesting that in spite of losing my arm falling from a horse, my parents bought me
a horse when I was ten years old. It was a previously owned black horse broke to herd cattle. He came with a name. His name was Nig. Now, just so you know how naive I was, I never
connected the name with the fact that he was black until years later, advised Marvin. Living on a family farm also gave all of us a sense of cohesiveness. We felt we were all in it together.
There was always an adult-child boundary, but we all shared the work, the successes and the hardships, stated Marvin.

On December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt interrupted the radio broadcast with Today, a date that will go down in infamy, Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. I was about eight
years old, but have a vivid memory of the shock and fear registered on the face of every adult that night. That day was the beginning of the draft, the rationing, patriotism and the ever-present
knowledge that young men were dying in some far away places. Three of mother's brothers served in World War II, Walter, Rueben and John Voos, stated Marvin.

When I was in my teens, dad and I would cut, rake and stack alfalfa. We did most of it together. Often I would mow and rake the field of alfalfa. The mower was mounted on the tractor and the rake was pulled. Most of the time I drove the tractor with my knees, so that my hand was free to pull the rope, so the rake would dump the alfalfa in windrows to be swept up by the 'Farmhand.' The Farmhand is the name of a tractor-mounted contraption run hydraulically to raise the lower sweep full of alfalfa. He added, Dad would be on top of the stack with a fork to distribute the> load. The taller the stack got, the more precarious dad¹s perch atop the stack became. I remember one time I was lining up with the stack, coming down a hill fairly rapidly, steering with my knees, working the levers so the front would be even with the top of the stack by the time I got there. Dad would be out as far as he could, so I would not push him off. In, I would come, hit the brakes so that the load would slide off the stack. Dad¹s trust in me was phenomenal! Once in awhile things got pretty close and dad would just grin down at me, smiled Marvin. I need to relate one really dumb thing I volunteered to do. Mom and dad always milked about eight or nine cows in the morning and then again at night. As you can imagine, milking tied them down. They would always need to be home early enough to milk or milk early enough to leave. One day, they wanted to attend something that required them to leave home at mid-afternoon. Without thinking things through very well, I said, Go ahead. I will milk the cows tonight. Normally, I did not milk because a one-handed milker is not unlike a one-armed paper hanger. A task that would take mom and dad an hour, took me four hours. After awhile, the cows lost their patience, I lost my patience, and in the end, I think they gave me about half as much milk as usual. Needless to say, that was the last time I volunteered that service, laughed Marvin.

After Fred and Mary moved to Gregory in April of 1945, their son Adolph continued to farm the home place. Fred busied himself in town as a caretaker of the Gregory City Park for several years, as well as doing carpenter work. Fred had especially enjoyed building kitchen cupboards. ³Dad would sit down after any sporting event at the kitchen table and take out braunschweiger, cheese and bread. He would go over the whole game play by play. He was just so interested in it. He did this whatever team it was, baseball, etc., remembered Marvin.

The Knittel children all graduated from Gregory High School. Arla graduated in 1949, Marvin in 1951 and Judi in 1962. Fred and Mary celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on
December 30,1953, four months before Fred passed away on April 29, 1954. His wife, Mary followed twenty years later, on July 11, 1974. They both rest in the IOOF Cemetery. Dad
(Adolph) had open heart surgery and had to retire from the farm in 1966. Dad and mom retired and moved to Kearney, NE. His aorta valve was replaced with a human valve. It gave him ten
more years of life, explained Arla. Adolph passed away on September 30, 1976. Anna remarried a man by the name of Richard Griesse on October 13, 1978 in Kearney, NE. She finally joined
A.J. in heaven on August 30, 1996. Arla married Ken Wurtz in 1951. Arla is retired and has been employed as a teacher in a country school, a teacher¹s aide in Vermillion, and as the
librarian at the University of Vermillion. The couple has two children and seven grandchildren; Kevin and his wife, Barb, reside in Elk Point and have four children, Alliason, Chris, Kimberly and Michael. Their son Keith resides in Milford, IA, and married Nancy Mehan on May 25, 1985. The couple has three children; Nancy, Erica and Ryan. Marvin first married Donna Mae Leuck in 1955. Donna passed away and he eventually remarried, Dearwyn (Lowenstein), in 1999. He is a retired college professor from the University of Nebraska in Kearney in which he taught for thirty years. They reside in Tucson, AZ. Marvin and Donna had two children, Gregory and Lisa. Gregory is married to Susan and they have one child David. They reside in Manhattan, KS. Lisa resides in Omaha, NE, with her husband, Jeff Fahrlander and their four children, Emma, Jacob, Olivia and Hannah. Judi married Mark Meierhenry in 1961. She began her career as a teacher and eventually went on to become a lawyer. She also held the position of circuit court judge for fourteen years before she was the first woman in South Dakota, to be named a Supreme Court Justice judge. Her husband Mark, is also a lawyer, and they reside in Sioux Falls. The couple has two children; Todd and his wife, Sabrina, both attorneys, who practice in the same law office with Mark, and reside in Sioux Falls. They have four children, Maxwell, Mae, Margaret and August (deceased). Their daughter, Mary married, Wade Dosch and they are both employed as physicians in Sioux Falls. The couple has six children; Michael, John, Hannah, Amy, Lauren (deceased) and Mark (deceased). After Adolph passed away, their children, Arla, Marvin and Judi made payments to their mother for the purchase of the place, to ensure that their mother was taken care of after Adolph¹s passing. Throughout the years, the Knittels acquired Stirm¹s 160
acre tract, as well as Lena Eagleman¹s quarter. Their father had rented the land from Lena for many years before purchasing. All of our land comes from the government, to one other person, to our dad, to us, advised Judi.

The Knittel name has been carried on by Adolph the only son of Fred, Marvin the only son of Adolph, and Gregory the only son of Marvin and David, the only son of Gregory.Arla and I
went back to the Ukrain in 1996. We found the village where our grandfather was born and where the Knittels all came from. Most of the Knittels have left or died, from starvation or were killed, or moved to Siberia. The villages are all still there and they probably still look like they did when our ancestors left, advised Judi. Judi explained, The homesteads belonged to the three of us
until last year (2003). We all have two children, and they have spouses and children, and that would have been a nightmare to keep straight. We wanted to keep it in the family, so we set up a family trust. We have it set up so that the oldest child of each family becomes a trustee. Whether they keep it or not? At least we're giving them the opportunity. In the centennial parade held in Gregory in July of 2004, three generations of Knittels marched in the parade representing 100 years of Knittels on the ORose of the Rosebud. Their families still gather together to celebrate, reminisce and enjoy each other¹s company during the summer months.

They all have some memories they feel is important to continue to keep in the family for more generations to come. The cemetery located at the church site on the homestead place is still
maintained by the children of Adolph and Anna today. The first barn, house and a small outbuilding still remain on the original homestead. ³It was in this church (on the homestead place) that over the years, family members were baptized, married and buried. Clara and Maria Hauf Wagner are buried in the cemetery behind the church, located six miles south of Gregory, on the
corner of the original 160 acres, advised Judi. For Mary and Fred, Sunday was a time for family gathering. Almost every Sunday, friends and neighbors traveled to the Knittels to enjoy Mary's
great cooking and hospitality. In that tradition, the Knittels gather as often as time allows, to celebrate their family, to reminisce and to enjoy each other's company.