JUNG (YOUNG) FAMILY HISTORY
The following excerpt is taken from the handwritten account of the Jung family of the Town of Portland, Dodge County, Wisconsin. This account was written in 1932 by Walter Young and consists of various stories and details about the Young family as related to him by his grandfather, Louis Young.
Louis Young was the son of Peter Jung and Maria Meier. Louis later americanized the family's last name from Jung to Young.
The excerpt reads:
Peter Jung lived with his family in the village of Selters in the province of Nassau, Germany. He farmed a small parcel of land as a tenant and delivered mail and freight from a larger city some five miles distant. Several families from this village had migrated to America and a friend, Mr. Runkel, who operated a feed mill in Lowell offered employment to Mr. Jung if he would come to America. His wife, Maria (nee Meier), was often described as a person not easy to convince. She was very reluctant to break the home ties and move to this strange, wild land; however, an early spring flood, which inundated their home and destroyed many of their belongings, finally caused her to give her consent.
Early in the spring of 1854, the family left the port of Bremen, Germany by sailboat. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Jung and their four children. The trip, lasting seven weeks as a foretaste of the hardships to follow. Several passengers died of disease and a friend of the family was pulled overboard when he attempted to dip water from the sea with a rope and bucket. The final arrival in New York brought them the news that the cost of the remainder of the trip would be very high. In desperation, many families threw most of their belongings overboard. These were things that were very sorely needed to establish a home in the new land. The trip continued overland to Buffalo, New York, thence by sailboat to Milwaukee and by ox-cart to Lowell.
The family lived in a log cabin about one mile south of Lowell and Mr. Jung had employment in the mill. Mrs. Jung and the family gleaned heads of wheat from a neighboring farmer's field after harvest to get a winter's supply of flour.
Early in the winter of 1855 to 1856, Peter Jung accepted a job to operate a farm owned by a widow, two miles south of Reeseville. After being there about two months, the widow remarried and her husband decided to operate the farm himself. In desperation, Mr. Jung moved his family into an unused schoolhouse just north of the site of the Second Reformed Church, about four miles southwest of Reeseville. Mr. Jung sought employment from neighboring farmers.
John Kohn, a farmer who lived just east of the school, befriended the destitute family and convinced them the buy a 40-acre plot of land. The former owner, Mr. Dickerman, had died along with his wife and child in an epidemic and the land was available for $200, which amount was held against it by a Mr. Penticost, who belonged to a Mormon group which once owned some property in the area.
The whole payment of $200 was furnished by Mr. Kohn together with other items necessary to operate the farm. Needless to say, Mr. Kohn was always held in very high esteem by Mr. Jung and his family. The purchased property had a one room log house and about two acres of cleared land, the rest was a heavy stand of timber and hazel bush.
The first crop of wheat was planted after being plowed by oxen, furnished by the benevolent Mr. Kohn. The seed was scattered by hand and covered by dragging a thorn apple tree over the seeded plot. No sooner than the plat had been seeded, hordes of passenger pigeons descended and devoured all the seed sown. The plot was replanted and the children delegated to watch the field until the grain was sprouted and up.
During the first year on the farm, the family was increased by the arrival of another girl. The following winter, the cabin became rather crowded when Peter Jung's brother-in-law, John Backer, arrived from Germany with his family of four children. Subsequently, Mr. Backer purchased a plot of land adjoining and erected a log cabin on it.
Peter Jung worked as a hand where work was available and cleared additional land with the help of his wife and children. At one time, he helped as a harvest hand on a farm about five miles west of the home and accepted a $200 dressed hog as wages. He managed to carry the dressed hog home on his shoulders and had to wade the Crawfish River enroute. After several years, he acquired a team of oxen and erected a small log barn.
Wheat was the main crop of the area. It was cut with a cradle, bound by hand, and flailed on a smooth floor. The invention of the grain binder and horsepower driven thresher made it possible for the farmer to handle a much larger acreage. More land was cleared and wheat grown. About 1870, the coming of the cinch bug, which ruined the wheat, changed all this and farmers turned to raising hogs, sheep, and dairy cattle.
The open range law enabled the farmer to let his cattle and sheep run at large at the time and cultivated crops had to be fenced. The son often related how they put a bell on their first dairy cow. Upon turning the cow loose to graze, she became scared of the bell and broke her neck falling over a downed tree, ending the dairy business for the time being.
Despite what might seem to be unendurable hardship and privation, the son often told of the parties and dances he attended. A Mr. Jaeckel operated a brewery on what later became the Philip Goebel farm and turned out a very potent, dark beer that retailed at $0.10 per quart.