Love - The Odessa Record "By Your Relative"

Odessa Record subscriber Larry Fisher of Spokane continues his series of articles on the history of the Batum/Lauer area where his wife, the former Joyce Kiesz, grew up.

Hi, here I am again.

Christina Yess/Jess Raugust married at age 19, came to America at age 42, retired to Odessa at age 59, died at age 86. She had a child at ages 20, 22. 24, 27, 28, 31, 33, 35, 37, 40, 43. You can see that when she was on the farm at Batum age 42 to 59, she was “no youngster.”

At Batum, the first house Christina had to deal with was constructed by Sam Reimann prior to the time the Raugust family occupied it.

As I mentioned in a previous article, the house was more like a shed and not a house. It was rectangular in shape, was one story in height with a “ridged” roof having a gable at each end. It had four rooms, a kitchen, a living room and two bedrooms.

The kitchen and living rooms were each about 10x20 feet in size, connected together side by side with one of their long sides touching each other to make a square 20x20.

Each bedroom was about 10x10 feet in size, located side by side next to the kitchen/living room thus making a 20x30 foot structure. About the only thing in the house was a stove for heat and cooking.

The dwelling was tiny when you consider the size of the Raugust family. In 1903, the family at Batum consisted of Jacob Sr., Christina, Jacob “Jake” Jr., Theressa, Sophia, Gotthilf, Lydia, Emma, Rudolph, Alex, and Bertha.

The family downsized in 1905 when Sophia married Christian C. Doering. In 1905-06 when Jacob Jr. left for the Chicago Congregational seminary, Chicago, Illinois in 1910 when Lydia married Daniel “Dan” Faechner.

By having three children leave, the dwelling seemed larger but it was still cramped for space. By 1915 when more children left, a new house had been constructed. It was the house that Joyce Kiesz and her sister, Marian were born in and grew up in until moving into Odessa in 1949. Until next time.

Your Relative,

Spokane