The Kitchen Garden Novice Looks At Her Roots

Ella had never been so cold.  her feet crunched through knee high drifts, iced over by the bitter wind.  The shawl Mama had wrapped around her head did little to stop the biting, stinging ice that pelted her face. She could see no more than two feet in front of her.  It would have been easy to lie down and sleep, bet every time she stopped even for a moment, she was tugged forward by the rope around her waist. Just when she was sure she couldn't make it one step further, strong arms lifted her off her feet and carried her into light and warmth.

As she huddled with her sisters around the wood stove she heard her grandmother's scolding voice from the next room.  "Albert! What were you thinking, taking those children out in such weather?!"

Her father's baritone voice laughed in response. "We couldn't miss choir practice, now could we?"

"But you could have all frozen to death!" Grandma Dieckmann insisted.

"Ah Mama, don't be silly.  God has plans for many grandchildren for you, and all will sing to His glory."

This bit of family folklore was handed down from Great Grandmother Ella Dieckmann Zeller.  Albert Dieckmann, her father, loved to sing. He thought nothing of packing up his four daughters and trudging through a blizzard to get to choir practice.

Anna Dieckmann, Ella's mother, was born Anna Riedesel in 1867, in Galion, Ohio.  Her father, George Riedesel and her uncle, Henry Riedesel walked 1000 miles from Ohio to the present day town of Wheatland, Iowa. These were hardy German immigrants from Westphalia, Germany.  In 1850, George and Henry paid $5 an acre to buy the land where the Ott family farm stands today in Wheatland. They had money left from their land purchase, so after their "walk-about," they returned to Galion by boat and train to fetch their families.

Grandma Anna emigrated west with her father, George, in 1852 by covered wagon. The wagons were ferried across the Mississippi. The first winter in Wheatland the weather was mild, but the second winter the settlers nearly starved to death.  Grandma spoke of Indians coming to the door of their log-and-sod cabins, begging for food.

Albert Dieckmann was one of five children of the Reverend Frederick and Fredericka Leyer Dieckmann. The Dieckmanns emigrated from Hanover, Germany to Galion, Ohio and later to Omaha, Nebraska.  When the settlers in Wheatland decided to establish a German Reformed church in Wheatland, (St. Paul's,) they called Reverend Dieckmann as their fourth pastor.  He and Fredericka brought along their five grown children.  All five of the Dieckmann children married and raised their families in Clinton County, Iowa.

Albert and Anna Riedesel married and had four daughters: Ruby, born June 12, 1887, Ella born June 10, 1889, Mabel, born Dec. 8, 1891, and Clara, born Feb. 5, 1894.  Ella Dieckmann was my great grandmother.