NOAH FENSTERMAKER

FENSTERMAKER

Posted By: Sheila Federspiel (email)
Date: 1/31/2008 at 22:03:07

Written by Jay Hart Rosdall (grandson of Philip Minehart)

NOAH TRAVELS TO KANSAS - WIFE AND CHILD DIE
Noah Fenstermaker, Aunt Betsy’s oldest and the first grandchild born to Grandfather Philip, had a rather interesting trip in 1878. He and his wife, Amy Lavina, nee, Minkler and the four children went to Kansas in the rush for new land. They drove horses hitched to a covered, wagon and were four weeks on the road. They were accompanied by Noah’s first cousin Anna N. Elizabeth Brunner, her brother, Simon Peter Brunner ( see below) the latter’s wife, Mary Jane Aronald and their son, John Augustus. The party left (Central City, April 15th 1878 and three days later found them in Mingo, Iowa. Here they celebrated the birthdays of two members of the group, namely, Simon Peter Brunner, then twenty seven, and his little cousin Lucy Ellen Fenstermaker, then aged eleven. Many more days of travel brought them to Phillips County, Kansas, at a point about five miles northeast of Germantown. Here, Peter’s wife , Mary A, ill from approaching Childbirth, declared that she could travel no farther that day. The party ate dinner on a hill, with no houses -in sight,
nothing but the open prairie. However, about 4:00 p.m., a freights dugout was located and although there was no one there, Noah and Peter carried Mary inside. Since they were out of food, it was agreed that Noah and family should drive to Germantown and that Peter and his wife should meet them there as soon as Mary was able to ride, but about midnight, word brought by a man on horseback , that Mary was seriously ill, so Noah rode back to the dugout. Although three doctors were procured (a man riding 20 miles after one of them), Mary passed away, shortly after giving birth to a tiny baby, weighting 1 1/2 pounds. She stated that it would not live and requested that it be buried on her feet. The funeral was held that afternoon in the little dugout and was largely attended. There being seven lumber wagon loads of homesteaders. The infant which Mrs. Fenstermaker carried on a pillow died that night in Germantown and was buried
with it’s Mother the next day.

Three days later the rest of the. saddened party arrived at the homeof Peter’s brother, Philip, at Norton Center, North west Kansas, where took a homestead and also a tree claim. The family lives in a dugout which was located quite close to the road and in the night the Indians could often be heard riding by above their heads. The children often visited near ant hills to procure beads lost by the Indians and collected by the ants. Crops failed miserably in the face of sever drought, scorching winds and hordes of grasshoppers. They remained eighteen months but failed to raise a single thing. Concluding that Iowa was the best state, the family returned in 1880.

MINEHART
 

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