On leaving Wagenbach, it was time for lunch. The lunches were some of the best meals of the day, either if you do it yourself or go to a restaurant. At this time, we wanted to make some inquiries about where Unterbiegelhof was located so we choose the restaurant. (One of the things that surprised us was how common orange juice is available as a drink. We drank quite a bit of it.) In the restaurant, there was some uncertainty about Unterbiegelhof, and much discussion among the people. The younger people seemed to know the least but they did speak English. I showed them the map where Unterbiegelhof was indefinitely marked. Finally we were given some general directions and we took our leave. A few miles outside of town, we happened to see a small sign for Unterbiegelhof pointing off the road. Following this for about a mile, we came to the farmstead. Our interest in this farmstead was that it was the home of Hans Herr in 1709. Our son-in-law is a descendant, and I do some work at the Hans Herr House.
At the farm, with many large buildings, we parked and walked toward the courtyard around which many of the buildings were arrayed. A barking dog brought a man out to the courtyard. I said hello and quickly found out that his English was much better than my German. I showed him an article from the Hans Herr House newsletter which discussed Unterbiegelhof. This letter named a few people and I repeated the names. His response was of the form, "That is my sister," and "That is me." We found out that he had lived in the States for a couple of years.
He invited us to come in the house, which was very new. This was, for Germany, an unusual house in that it was a ranch house with only one floor. These are very rare in Germany. There was a large multi-story building which looked as though Hans Herr might have lived there. It had been modernized though but it was probably too large to use today. Strangely, our host was a Mennonite, the same as Hans Herr, but this was a pure coincidence.
He asked us what we would like to drink. There could have been many possibilities but to play it safe we asked for orange juice which he had. He asked us as though he could hardly believe it, "Is it true the Mennonites in America don't use alcohol?" I couldn’t speak for all of the Mennonites in America, but I told him that the official policy of the Church in America was against the use of alcohol.
Though in Hans Herr's day, there were probably many workers on the farm, today it is run almost entirely by the one man. The principle product is chickens (eggs or meat?) and the operation is mechanized. The farming consists of growing grain and sugar beets. The grain could become chicken feed and the sugar beets might be a cash crop.
(to be continued)
(19 Apr 05)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.