THE 2004 GUELFF GENEALOGICAL EXPEDITION: GREAT UNCLE MIKE'S ACCOUNT

Not too long after sifting through Mom's shoebox, I realized that her notes and her sketch were based, at least in part, on recollections of Great Uncle Mike Guelff.  These were published in the Dawson County Ranger-Review under the heading of "As I Remember ...".  Later, they were reprinted in a book entitled "As I Remember ... Stories of Eastern Montana's Pioneers" as told to Mrs. Morris (Gladys Mullet) Kauffman, Sweetgrass Books (2006).  A shorter version appeared in a 1989 Montana Centennial yearbook "Our Times Our Lives" published by the Dawson County Tree Branches in Glendive Montana.    Great Uncle Mike's daughter, Marguerite (Guelff) Reed wrote the Dawson County piece.

The entry, appearing at pages 555 and 556 is entitled "Anna and Michael Guelff and Peter and Marie Russ."  The account follows, with my notes inserted in brackets.  In future postings, most of the questions raised in the notes will be resolved.

"Sometime in the 1870s, my grandparents, Anna Grein and Michael Guelff left Luxembourg, Belgium. [Luxembourg and Belgium are two different countries and had different boundaries in the 19th Century than they do today.] Their parents, along with relatives and friends came to this country in a sailboat. They were on the ocean three months. [Three months to cross the Atlantic in 1870 is a long time, even if they came in a sailboat.]  The Guelffs were from the village of Guelff, and the Greins were from Habergy. [Both Habergy and Guelff are within the present boundaries of Belgium, but are near Luxembourg.] They settled in Minnesota where they had relatives. [Indicates that some relatives had preceded the Greins to Minnesota. Who were they and where did they settle?]

"In 1889, my grandmother, Marie Hafele, and her brother Alois left Stuttgart, Germany, to join relatives in Brewster, Minnesota. [Stuttgart is in the Wuertemburg region of present day Germany. Very good emigration records and church records were kept from the 17th Century.  Point of departure, point of destination and Catholic ancestors should make research on the Hafele line relatively easy.] Their parents and sister stayed behind in Germany.

My grandfather Peter Russ was from Woodhall, Wisconsin. [NOTE: Russ is not said to be on the same ship with Anna and Mike.] He met and married Marie Hafele in Minnesota. [NOTE: Where in Minnesota? How did they meet?] They had one daughter, Florence. [One census record indicates that Florence was adopted.]

Michael Guelff and Anna Grein were married in Minnesota. [Where? When?] They had 14 children, of whom my father, Michael, was eighth in order of birth. Both families settled near Eden Valley, Minnesota, and became good friends.

In 1905, after the death of her husband, Anna Guelff and Pete Russ came to Montana and filed on adjoining homesteads near Yates, Montana. [NOTE: Mom's sketch placed Yates in North Dakota. Montana is the correct state.] Pete stayed out west and built homestead shacks for the two families. [Implies that Anna returned immediately to Eden Valley.] He also built a store in Beach, North Dakota. [Who owned and operated the store? Russ? Anna? Both?]

April 6, 1906, Mrs. Russ, Florence, and the Guelff children arrived in Beach, North Dakota. Young Michael rode alone in the immigrant car. He was only 12 years old. Mrs. Guelff stayed in Eden Valley until she had all her affairs settled. Pete Russ farmed on the homestead, and Mrs. Russ and Florence took care of the store in Beach. [Appears that the families decided to leave Eden Valley almost immediately after Michael Guelff's death.]

Because they were leaving for the West, Michael and Florence had been allowed to make their first Holy Communion ahead of their class. Mrs. Guelff said she had seen this happen only once before in Luxembourg. [Check Catholic Church records in Eden Valley for communions.]

Michael and Florence Guelff were married in 1912 in Wibaux, Montana. Wibaux was in Dawson County at that time. [Check Dawson County marriage register for date.]

In 1912, Mr. and Mrs. Russ moved to a farm near Glendive. It was across the road from Alois Hafele and his family, who had moved to Montana in 1909. Their farms were on the north Pleasant View Road.

Anna Guelff eventually married Fred Grote, who came west for his health. [NOTE: No family?] He homesteaded near Brockway, Montana. The thing I remember about that place was the sod house. It had wooden floors, and I think it had two rooms. My aunts said it was always cool in summer and warm in winter. They lived at Brockway until they decided to go back to Underwood, Iowa, where Mr. Grote was from. [Was he also a Luxembourger, the term used for immigrants from both Belgium and Luxembourg in the area near France? Many settled in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.]"

The longer account in "As I Remember...", as told to Mrs. Morris (Gladys Mullet) Kauffman first appeared in the September 1966 Ranger-Review when Uncle Mike was still alive. Some parts of the Ranger-Review account shed additional light on the shorter Centennial account. Those excepts from Vol. I, 328-334 follow.

"In the fall of 1905 Mrs. Guelff and a neighbor, Mr. Russ, had made the trip West to file on homesteads, then the next spring they loaded immigrant cars and made the move. Mr. Russ loaded two immigrant cars and made the move. Mr. Russ loaded two imigrant cars, Guelffs one, and the 'men' started for the new land." From this it appears that Great Uncle Mike did not make the trip alone at the age of twelve.

"The homestead was located in Montana, but they unloaded their cars at Beach, the nearest railroad station. They arrived there at night May 20, 1906, and when daylight came so they couldlook out, they saw about twenty immigrant cars unloading along the tracks.

There were no buildings where goods could be stored so each immigrant was allotted a 'spot' then length of the car to pile his goods. Mike's mother's sister [his aunt] was living near Beach. She had come to the Treasure Srare in 1904, and it was her influence that was responsible for Guelffs moving. After they unloaded the car they hauled their possessions out to her place until they could build a shack on their own homestead."

The Dawson Ranger-Review provides a vivid account of the first year in Montana which included unusually heavy rains in a region seldom getting more than 10 inches a year, most of it in the form of snowfall. Peter Russ owned the store in Beach, and the Russ family lived above the store. The nine Guelff children and Anna lived with her sister's family on their homestead until a shack could be built, a well dug and crops planted. "Getting the shack built turned out to be no overnight job. They were hardly in this dry country before they found that it can rain in Montana. It rained and kept on raining for almost six weeks. Mike's eighteen-year-old brother came to helpthem get a house buit, but progress was slow with the weather so uncooperative." [The older brother would have been Nicolas Lorenz Guelf (1886-1921).]

Both accounts reflect, matter of factly, an enormous amount of grit and tenacity in the face of troubles that might even have shaken the faith of Job. They also reflect the "social safety net" of the extended family first leaping the pond from Belgium to Eden Valley and then to frontier on Eastern, Montana. What made them take the first step? Would they have done it if there was not family already established in Minnesota? And would they have done it again without family already established in Eastern Montana?

Next: Letters from Belgium cousins.