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Jacob Schlichenmayer born 28 November 1873 in Birsula, Bessarabia, S. Russia was the son of Jacob and Margarete Schlichenmayer. In 1889 his family decided to migrate to the United States. Unfortunately for Jacob he was of military age and therefore couldn't obtain an official passport to leave Russia. In order to escape Russia and avoid a military service, Jacob and Gottlieb Bauder obtained forged passports from a Jewish forger. The passport was good enough to get them out of Russia but not into Germany where they were supposed to rejoin their families and continue on to America together. They were held at the border for several days because of the passports and because they lacked the money to pay for their passage to America. The German officials didn't want any penniless immigrants coming into Germany that would be wards of the state. Finally a telegram to Bremmen contacted their parents to send money. Unfortunately the money came too late and they were unable to accompany their parents to America. They finally managed to depart on a later ship and joined their parents in Colorado. On 30 December 1897, Jacob was married to Christina Breitling, daughter of Phillip Breitling and Karolina Strobel. Jacob became a citizen of the United States and received the patent on his homestead in 1907. Jacob and Christina had 12 children over a period of 28 years. In 1918 with the birth of their 11th child, Harold, and the death of their first child, Emma Anderson, in a trolley car accident, Christina began nursing and raising both her own child and her granddaughter, Madelyne Anderson. Christina was apparently a very tough lady. She rarely wore shoes, even in winter she usually did her chores barefoot in the snow. She was also a very popular midwife throughout the settlement. Many of the parents and grandparents of today's residents got their first whack on their fannys from Christina. Her children will always remember nights when Christina would put a rag on a broom handle, clean out the Comfort stove and make a whole oven full of popcorn. Christina died 31 August 1934. Cooking was done with "stokamich". This was the manure and straw mix that accumulated in corrals during the winter. In the spring it was cut into squares and allowed to dry for 6 months before it was used for cooking and/or heat. Jacob continued raising their children and was apparently an easy going parent. When the cousins and family would all gather on weekends, fights and roughhousing was tolerated with good humor. One thing that wasn't tolerated was egg fights. Jacob always had a large garden that was necessary to raise a large family. During the absence of a minister at Church, Jacob and other elders of the church read from the "Bredight Buch". This contains sermons that were simply read to the congregation. Jacob died on 30 September 1937. Their 12 children were: Emma, Jacob (Jake), William (Bill), Reinhardt (Sport), Bertha, John (Johnny), Alvina, Sechart (Stub), Tefield (Shorty), Garfield (Dick), Harold, and Leona (Sis). |