Love - The Odessa Record "By Your Relative"

Hi, here I am again.

Continued from last week “The Schibels.”

On 09 April 1919, Henry Schibel married Katherine “Katie” Frick. Katie was age 19, Henry age 22. Katie’s parents were Heinrich “Henry” & Anna Margaret Schafer Frick. At the time, the Fricks were living in Adams Co. TS 20N, R31E, Section 2, about 1-1/2 mile north of Moody and almost 2 ½ miles southwest of the Schibel farm. I have been told the Fricks settled in the area around 1900; that they were the last in the area to farm with horses which was toward the end of the 1930s.

Henry and Katie eventually had four (4) children – Lillian, Dorothy, Lucille and Don. Henry died 7-19-1988, Katie 8-8-1989.

(Note: In Henry’s obituary, it mentioned “After his marriage to Katie Frick, the couple farmed north of Ruff until 1924, when they moved to the Georg Peter Schibel farm 11 miles southwest of Odessa and actively farmed there until his retirement.”)

During his farming days, Henry used horses just like his father Georg. Henry was still farming when the tractor replaced the horses. When Don started farming the land, he used his father’s equipment for a couple of years and then purchased all new, replacing the old.

Talking with Don about what he was told about lifestyle, farming methods, weather, moisture, dirt, wind, money, etc. during his grandparents time both Schibels and Fricks, it appears he heard the same as what other people have told me what they heard. It was a tough and sometimes brutal life. For the survivors, most developed great satisfaction for what they had accomplished and for providing a future for their children. If they had remained in Russia or Germany, where their children’s future appeared to be zilch, zero, they were glad to have done what they did.

Don Schibel was born in 1929 when his father was 32 years old, his mother 29. They had been married and farming for ten years, the last five of that at the Schibel farm. Times were tough. The “Great Depression” was taking hold. The rainfall was extremely low. Dust was everywhere, wind was blowing all the time. Soil erosion was going on in the “lighter” soils. Crop failures were occurring. People on small farms were having hugh financial troubles and losing their farms. Some how the Schibels survived.

Don’s father was a wheat farmer most of the time except for one time in the early 30s when he had 240 acres that wheat would not grow on because of the dryness and the blowing wind, so he planted rye and guess what … it grew. This allowed neighbors and others to pasture their horses for $1 per horse per month. This gave his father income off that land during the hard times of the dry period when it was really needed.

Until next time.

Your Relative, Spokane