Dick, as he came to be known in the English speaking world, did not grow up near Eureka. Less than two months after Dick was born, his father Jacob died of a broken neck sustained in a horse drawn sledding accident. Dick was baptized at the Hoffnungstall Evangelical Lutheran Church in Campbell County on December 17, 1914. His father died on November 5, 1914 and was buried in the church cemetery. The gravestone in the cemetery where the church once stood is engraved Jacob Holzworth, which probably means that Jacob was the first of the clan to use the more anglicized spelling of the name.
In later years, Dick often told a grotesque joke about Jacob’s death, probably his way of masking the deeply felt absence of his father in his life: “My father knew the exact day, time and manner of his death. How did he know? The judge told him.” Magdelena told Dick often that his father was a kind and generous man who worked hard and cared for his family. Perhaps the idealized father helped to fill a void, but it may also have set a high standard untouched by the tempering effect of reality.
Following Jacob’s death, the homestead went through probate and the many debts were paid off. Most likely through the church network, Magdalena, at the age of 35, married the 41 year old widower Johannes Siegle on March 10, 1917 at the Hoffnungstall Church in Campbell County. John and his seven children had moved up to Marsh, Prairie County, Montana from Oklahoma or Kansas. Magdalena and her five children joined them. A thirteenth child, Frederick, was born to them on January 16, 1920.
In this family that doubled overnight, Dick’s oldest sister Martha became a second mother and took little Dicke under her wing. He thrived in the one room country schoolhouse, getting nearly perfect marks through the eight grades that were thought sufficient for a future farmer. Most likely, he was a teacher’s pet. That special place, however, did not isolate Dicke from the other boys. He says he learned “the English alphabet at school, the German alphabet at home and the dirty alphabet on the schoolyard.”
One iconic family photo survives from Dick’s childhood. Dick has his head turned slightly to the right and hair combed forward and to his right, probably to hide a growth on his forehead that was not removed until he was in his twenties.
Front row: Magdelena, Dick, Fritz, John
Back row: Freda, Martha, Bill, Jacob S., Jacob H., Chris, Edwin
A sharp line can be drawn from the right shoulder of John Siegle to the top of the photo. Everyone to his right does not seem to be particularly happy about the experirnce; everyone looking to the camera (except John) is smiling). The principle of composition seems to be a typical one of girls and young children grouped around the mother and the older boys with the father.
Dick was much less enthusiastic about church, though he had little choice about attending in this deeply religious family and community. He often said that he could not stand the hypocrisy of people praying on Sunday and sinning the rest of the week. By way of explaining his refusal to attend church (except for the marriages of his children and occasional funerals), he often told the story of a minister who had murdered and cut-up a servant girl living in the parsonage, a story that has not yet been documented. In any event, Dick received communion and confirmation on June 23, 1929. Even though he disdained organized religion, he had a deeply held belief in God and a spiritual side that surfaced when he viewed the cloudless starlit prairie skies or the mountain vistas of western Montana.
Life on the farm meant hard work, and hard work for Dick was the essence of life. He intuitively understood the physics of machinery in an age when machinery was rapidly replacing the horse. At the same time, he had a gift for handling horses and all other animals. Dick often told a story about mending fence when he was a boy. The farmhand who was showing Dick what to do forgot to bring his wire clippers and hammer with him, so he left Dick at the fence and walked back to the shed. By the time he returned five minutes later, Dick had somehow “cut” the wire and re-stapled it to the post. “How did you do that?” the somewhat simple-minded hand asked. “With my bare hands,” said Dick picking up a piece of wire and bending it back and forth quickly until it broke, then taking a rock and a staple to attach another loose end to the post.
Dick did credit John Siegle with being a good but demanding teacher, always insisting on doing things “the right way.” Probably more through careful observation than patient explanation, Dick quickly picked-up on the “why” as well as the “how” of the way machines worked. It is doubtful that Dick ever heard of Archimedes either then or later in life, but his understanding of leverage and basic mechanical principles clearly outstripped that of his siblings, and by most accounts, almost everyone else in the community. While still fairly young, Dick could fix almost anything with a pair of pliers and some baling wire. He could move almost anything with simple pulleys and levers.
Life in the home was typically German: strict and authoritarian, with the father apparently controlling everything. Only a low German was spoken in the home, John and Magdelena having limited English. Church services were also in German. Prayers were said before every meal; no talking unless spoken to; food served to the working men in order of age with the women and then the children taking what was left. In the case of chicken, Dick got the feet, something he never forgot, but a tradition that did not pass on to his own family. But no one went hungry. Magdelena cooked and baked all of the traditional German dishes, and did so with great skill. She also liked her own cooking, evident from the photo and one of her few broken English phrases: “ I veigh two hundert und thirty pounds.”
By the time he was 16, Dick was ready to leave home. He had by then developed the rock hard, but lean body of a sugar beat farmer, who had also become something of an amateur wrestler. Just under 5’ 10” and weighing less than 150 pounds, he overcompensated through his quick intelligence, capacity for long and physically demanding work, a natural athleticism and enormous self-confidence. Either then or soon after his mantra became “Mind over matter.”
He joined his older brother Jacob and began gentling horses, including a horse named Doris.
* Eureka is now known as the home of the founder of the newspaper USA Today, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka,_South_Dakota and for its kuchen factory that supplies the state dessert. http://www.shgresources.com/sd/symbols/dessert
** An interactive platt map of Campbell County can be found at the genealogical website www.ehrman.net/campbell/index.html. Click on Section 7, 126N 74W and you will see the names and boundaries of the homesteads of the Holzwarths, Stadels, Siegles and their neighbors, all immigrants from the Black Sea region.
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