Mary Ann Kathleen Schneider Daughter of Anton George Schneider Spouse of John Burggraff

Biography of Mary Burggraff
for the Morrison County Historical Society
Given by Fern Wruck- October 21, 1975

BURGGRAFF, MARY
104 NE Second Avenue
Little Falls, Minn.

I, Mary Ann Kathleen Schneider Burggraff, was born in Two Rivers township on December 23, 1882. I have lived in Morrison County all my life, except for 13 or 14 years in North Dakota.
My parents both came from Germany; they thought they could make a better living here. At first they lived near Cresco, Iowa. About 1880 the cinch bugs ate all the wheat and corn in Iowa and they decided to leave. They came to Minnesota and bought a farm in Two Rivers Township. My parents were married in North Prairie. There was a railroad through the town of Royalton and some open land around there.
Our home was a one-room log kitchen. The up-stairs was not finished. In the fall my father would go to Royalton and get old newspapers to paste on the walls up-stairs to keep the wind out. The walls downstairs were white washed. On the south side of the house we had a clap board with hinges. In summer we would open the latch and let it down-there was screen over the opening. The lean-to kitchen was small. My two brothers and I stood along the wall behind the table to eat our meals. Father, Mother and Grandmother had chairs. Until I was a big girl, I thought all children ate standing up. The cellar was just a hole in the ground under the house. Sometimes the cellar walls would crumble and fall, covering up our potatoes.
Five children were born in this house. I was the oldest and I was eighteen when the new brick house was built. My father had the lumber for the new house sawed in Elmdale. Milo Young had the Two Rivers mill then. The woodwork in the house was dark oak with fancy designs at the corners of windows and doors. While I was working in St. Paul, I bought some furniture for our new house; a bedroom set for $15.00 and a couch for $5.00. They were delivered free.
Some of our neighbors were: Webbers, Pekulas, Ledos, Holderbachs, and the Milo Young family. My mother didn't do much baking except bread. We had to sell everything; but she did bake coffee cake for the holidays. We never celebrated birthdays. We often walked to Royalton (5 miles) carrying eggs and butter. My grandmother did all the knitting. She made stockings for all of us. I never learned to knit; but when I was fourteen I made a sampler. It has been displayed at the Morrison County Fair.
Schools didn't go by grades when I was young. I went till the fourth reader. We had about 1 1/4 miles to school. I went to school in Little Falls one year; staying with the Ehman family, whose mother and one daughter had died. I got as far as fractions there. My parents spoke German at home and they sent me to school in North Prairie for one year to learn German that was a three mile walk. Two teachers I remember were: Ann Kellogg and Mary Kennedy. We always had ice-cream at picnics on the last day of school. My schoolmates were Webbers, Urbanskys, Trasks, Blanchards, and Links.
On Sunday we walked three miles to church in North Prairie. Some of our neighbors walked ten miles or more. We took our lunch and stayed all day for religion instructions. During the noon hour we used to climb up in the bell tower.
When I was fifteen I got my first job, housework for $1.50 per week. The hours were from six o'clock in the morning until 7:30 at night. I washed clothes on the wash board, ironed, scrubbed, and did all the cleaning and baking. When I was 18, I went to work as a chamber maid at the Ryan and Aberdeen Hotels in St. Paul. I had a telescope suitcase when I left home. I made a mistake in going to the front door of the hotel instead of the back. My girlfriend forgot to meet me. Sometimes when we girls were clearing the tables and found some untouched wine, we drank it. It was a lot of fun. Once I was helping the baker make lemon pies. I grated the lemons for him; but I made a mistake when I threw away the grated peel and saved the lemons. I didn't know; my mother never made lemon pie. I liked the chamber maid work the best. It gave me a chance to see how other people lived.
Once I had pneumonia and when I was young, working in St. Paul, I got diphtheria. I was quarantined in the City hospital for three weeks. My father came to see me; but he didn't come inside - we had to talk through the window. many people were sick then. Many years later a drunken dentist in Davenport, North Dakota pulled all my upper teeth at one sitting.
I married John Burggraff on May 29, 1906 in the church at North Prairie. At our wedding we had a "bride dance"; any gentleman who wished to dance with the bride must pay for the privilege by throwing some money in a plate. I had been dancing so much, I was dizzy; so my bridesmaid had to dance in my place. There was another thing called "selling the bride's slipper" - it was a Polish custom.
Our children were: Louise, Jerome, Herbert, William, Margaret, Josephine and Leo. Four are living now. We moved to North Dakota after we were married. My husband worked for a big wheat farmer. He was the foreman and earned $28.00 a month - two dollars more than the other men made. I worked all summer cooking, baking bread every day, for $3.00 a week. At the end of the summer, instead of wages, I took a horse. We rented one-half section of land and started farming. There was a big house and barn on the place. We never owned a farm - always rented. My husband used to say, "If we had a farm we night lose it anyway."
Sometimes we would have to cook for the threshing crew a whole week if the weather was rainy. Some threshing crews had their own horse drawn cook car, that went along with the threshing machine. There used to be a meat wagon that drove around to the farms with fresh meat. Liver was given away free. Once the threshing crew was at our place - they always slept in the hay loft of the barn. My husband warned them about leaving matches where they slept; but some were left in the hay. Our two little boys (under school age) found the matches and started the hay on fire. The boys got out all right; but seven horses were burned. We cut their halter ropes, but they would not come out. One year in Dakota we did not raise anything at all because of drought.
The blizzards in North Dakota were terrible - there were no trees to stop the wind. When the men went to the barn, they put bushel baskets over their heads so they could catch their breath. I think thunder and lightning storms were more severe there too. We had a flowing well in North Dakota; but we couldn't drink the water - it gave us diarrhea. We saved rain water in a cistern. Once a year we cleaned it out.
We didn't get to church very often in Dakota. It was fifteen miles to Castleton. The priest used to say we only came when we had a baby to baptize. One time when we attended mass, the Sunday following a baptism, Father said, "What!." :"Have you got another baby to be baptized?" We used to heat the baby's bottle on top of a kerosene lamp. My husband made a wire to hold the bottle on top of the lamp chimney. Leo, our youngest child, died when he was two years old of Spinal Meningitis. Two of my sons, Jerome and Will served in the U.S. Navy and for a while I was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary. I also belonged to Rosary Society and Christian Mothers.
As a child, I remember the logs going down the Mississippi River. Sometimes they would pile up so high, they tipped the bridge over. At first there was a ferry boat right where the bridge is now. A man by the name of Graham owned the ferry. Sometimes logs would get under the ferry and make it shake and sway. This really scared me.
About 1920 we left North Dakota. My father was getting old, he wanted us to come back and run his farm. We rented a railroad car and put all our livestock, machinery, furniture, etc. in it. I and my new baby went on the train. My husband and the other children came in the car.
I think the best years of my life are my retirement years (now). "I never thought I would have it so good; after all the years of hard work." "I have kept a diary almost all of my life and I still do."