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Swiss Mennonite Cultural and Historical Association |
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Someone once said- "If you don't care where you came from, then you also don't
care where you are going." I am sure no one here is guilty of not caring where they
are going as you chose to come here.
Arnold Wedel spoke to me one day saying "Since you are a Kernele would you set out
a few pictures and say something about your Grandpa Jacob K. (Kernele) Graber"?
I had always known that there were so manyraber families that the use of a nickname
was almost like an early day computer in pointing out who we were talking about.
There were at onetime five Walter Grabers in the Pretty Prairie community. Walter
J.(Foxy), Walter H. (Buthker), Walter E. (Huphser), Walter J. J. (Mautzy Hanske)
and Walter W.(Sprig Kernele) Graber. This complicated use of nick-names was finally
somewhat solved by the girls in a family. My mother Hulda Graber & two of her sisters
named three of us male cousins Myron, Marlowe, & Milo. Poor immigrant Grandpa (Kernele)
Graber often called all three of us (Maarrvin).
Grandpa passed away in 1942. After his death, I always wished that I could speak
with him about life in Russia. Some of the questions I would like to ask would be
about his working in a brick factory as an eight year old, the trip over the ocean,
the trip to the Dakotas, working for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway laying
tracks near Marion S. Dakota, and the trip to Kansas in a boxcar as a newly married
coupld to a very lonely and difficult life. Grandpa, as I remember him, walked with
a cane as a result of falling off a windmill. He also had a car-train collision.
Grandma Mary (Batcha Graber) also deserves much credit enduring 15 pregnancies resulting
in 9 living children. I marvel at what this couple achieved and accomplished. Eight
of their nine children finished high school, several of the daughters went to college
became teachers. One son was in the Federal Housing Administration in Washington
under F.D.R. One son received a Masters Degree from Chicago University & taught
at Bethel. A other son served in the Kansas Senate. Each of the surviving 9 children
inherited 80 acres of land. Many of the grandchildren worked in the medical field
as doctors, dentists, nurses, veterinary college teachers, public school teachers,
pharmacists. I don't know what kind of (Kernele) (Seed) Grandpa planted, but it
seemed to bear much fruit.
I have placed on exhibit, several early pictures of the Jacob K. (Kernele) Graber
family and the excellent recent Peter O. Graber Genealogy by Bettty Hartzler, plus
an April, 1950 copy of Mennonite Life. The April, 1950 issue of Mennonite Life holds
special meaning for me as it contains an article entitled "The Swiss Mennonites--Pretty
Prairie" by Arthur J. Graber with a cover picture of the Jacob K. Graber family
farm. This issue also has my wife Mildred Claassen's family history in an article
entitled "A Tree at Whitewater" by J. W. Fretz. This article includes pictures of
fourteen children of John H. and Elizabeth Claassen, and each of their farms.
copyright 2000-2006
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Home Origin History Monthly Feature Activities Board Anniversaries Store |