The Norfolk Press

24 Apr 1919, Thu ·Page 3

Hans Laprath, ages fifty-nine years and who only a few weeks ago had moved here from Bristow, died very suddenly Wednesday evening while he was looking at some lots in east Norfolk which he was contemplated buying. Mr. Laprath had purchased the Rudy Thiem place east of town and was living there, He was in company with Mr. Wiley, a real estate dealer, and was about to step into the car when he fell backward, dying instantly.

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From: The Lapraths of America, a family study by Jon Egge, great great-grandson of Hans Laprath, Feb 2003

Hans, Jr, "the 4th one", was born January 28, 1860 at 7 o'clock in the evening. His godparents were Andreas Adam Laprath, III, Hans Paul Jens and Christina Gabriel [daybook of Margaret Himpkamp Laprath]. Hans, Jr., was the first son to marry. This happened while the family lived in Sac City, IA. His wife was Sophia Wilhelmine Catharine 'Mary' Klindt, a German immigrant, and the daughter of Detlef Christian Klindt and Margaretha Christine Sophie Hamann. The Klindt family had lived in Schleswig Province before coming to America. The birth of the first son of Hans, Jr. and Mary Klindt is listed in Margaret's daybook. After several years the Lapraths moved to the Gross area of Boyd Co., IA by covered wagon. Here they homesteaded on 160 acres, southwest of Gross, on the road to Bristow and raised their family of nine children. Hans, Jr. and his family are found in Boyd Co in both the 1900 and 1910 Censuses. In 1920, the widow, Mary, is found with her daughter Maggie and her four youngest sons in Madison Co., NE.

In the Centennial Book of Gross, Margaret Cassidy Hansen (a daughter) wrote:

"The trip from Sac City to Nebraska was made in a covered wagon. This was home, until a one room sod house was built. The sod house had one window and one door. The walls were about two feet thick.

Hans drove forty miles in a wagon to dig up small trees to plant a grove on the north and west side of the area where future buildings would be built. In time a two story frame house was built. Other buildings were built as time permitted. Since the homestead was prairie, it took time to convert the prairie to farmland. Early on, a platform was built in the grove, near the house, large enough for a group to dance. Sunday was the day for family gatherings. (Besides their parents, Hans had six brothers and Mary had one; most of whom homesteaded in the Gross area). Hans played the accordion and others played the "fiddle". Everyone danced, from the youngest to the oldest.

Gradual improvements were: a cistern from which rain water was pumped into the house for house and laundry; a cave for storing fruit and vegetables in the winter and for keeping perishable foods (such as butter) in the summer, a smoke house for curing the summer supply of meat, an ice house, artesian running water piped into the barns, and a very large covered granary with a "drive through" space between the two bins for storing the machinery when not in use."

The children went to school in Gross. The daughter Anna Mary grew up here to marry the boy next door, Joseph Cassidy, and would in turn marry and raised their family in Gross. Hans, Jr. sold the house in about 1917, retiring to Norfolk, NE where he had a hog business. Hans, Jr. died of a heart attack in 1919 from pushing an old Maxwell Car that was stuck. This was probably in Norfolk. He was buried in Gross, NE in the row behind his father and mother. His wife, Mary, was also buried here without a tombstone, but family contributions, through the help of Hans John of Dallas, SD, have since placed a marker on her gravesite

The children of Hans Jr, and Mary were: William Christopher, Charles Frederick, Anna Marie Cassidy, Eleanor Shelton, Frederick Andrew, Margaret Sophia Barnes, Herman John, Andrew Mathias, Edward Henry and Victoria [died young]

Children, not linked below: Frederick Andrew, wife: Emma Cassel Laprath, and Edward Henry