Fort Wayne and Our Farm

They would gladly have kept us in the neighborhood of Cleveland. I looked at several farms there, and my wife and children were so pleased that they wished I might buy one of them. Because our trunks were in Fort Wayne, I took William and Elizabeth and headed thither. Once I had seen the land there, I thought of not returning to Cleveland — so the rest of the family followed us. To be sure, taking leave of the dear Wyneken family cost them tears. They had treated my family with such loving cordiality. The Lord bless them.

And now came the joy, the great joy, that I was permitted to spend the first days of life in the new home of an old schoolmate. As a chick may feel upon escaping the eggshell, warmed by the rays of the sun or the protecting wings of the mother hen, so I felt when I had attained the goal of my journey with my dear [Johanne]. About the beautiful days spent there, I do not want to talk, nor can I relate; they will be among my last memories.

The names Laxer, Wyneken and Schwan were keys to the hearts of many, not only favorable but rich and great people in Indiana. Wyneken would rather have hosted me in the view of an old American according to his distinct taste. When this one [the Old American] hears the stroke of an ax in the woods while hunting, he loads up his wife and children and all his belongings and moves deeper into the brushlands, where no one disturbs him. But, so he thought, since I have a nice group of children and because they in addition are somewhat spoiled, I should not go to distant Missouri or old Minnesota, but should remain in beautiful Indiana — and, if I had enough money, to buy in the region of Kendallville. There was a farm to be had. Thank God that I did not get it. I would soon have had to go further; it would have been too small for us. God graciously guided us so that I found a larger one. There I have a truly great tract of land — 560 acres, 300 cleared and the rest full of fine wood. More work than a courtyard at Wursten. In addition there is a sawmill, a structure which, in the judgment of all in the know, will bring in more than all the land. Yet it’s possible that I may not earn as much with it as my predecessor, since I don’t know the price of wood and I always wonder about the justice thereof, paying whatever the people demand. If a few good years come, it will be a small price that I have paid for the land. It will soon make up the small sum still owed. All depends on our possessing God’s abundant grace and blessing.

The fruitfulness of the soil is incomprehensible to me as an old farmland owner. The fattest land, I have found, is like the marshland over there. It is not unusual that one acre yields 100 bushels of corn and in one year makes up the price paid. We settled on the farm November 15, 1865. We were received into the congregation ceremoniously. The congregation did not just enter us into its record book, but completely included us in its midst.

But the new year 1866 has begun. It reminds me that the write-up of my journey is not to become the story of my life. So let me close with the close of the year. There is a singing group here consisting of forty young people from the church. They came on New Year’s Eve and sang for us their beautiful four-part hymns and songs, gave their operettas and declaimed. A girl presented Schiller’s “The Singer.” Another, “Peter in a Strange Land.” The director, J. Ries, sang with the choirs the song, “When Someone Makes a Journey,” but substituted other words fitting American conditions — with such humor that one could not stop laughing. With fifty people, we sat down to eat and everything proceeded freely and congenially.

So the little book is closed herewith. With our whole hearts we give thanks to our almighty and gracious God, whether in sorrow or in joy. May He fully prepare us for the final, eternal redemption from the whole pilgrimage of this life and lead us all — you loved ones over there and we over here — safely through the storms and the steep rocks and high waves of the present world and permit us to arrive in beautiful Paradise.