Machinery and a follow up session......

 

I don't know why I don't have photos of the machinery on our farm when I was a young farm boy but I do have a photo of some thrashers.  The photo is in tough shape and I may have posted it a long time back, but it is one of my Grandfather LeRoy Martin Brown, my mother's father. She has written Dad above him so you would be sure to find him. I think that what we see in the background on the left is the tractor that is being used to turn the belt to make the thrashing machine work.

Returning to give follow up to the Ries family mystery that I blogged two weeks ago,  I will share the following information.

My great great grandfather Christian Wilhelm Ries had 11 children.

Their 11 children are as follows:

Marie (Mary Ries) b 27 oct 1834 in Schuylkill Co. PA   m. John Feldman
Margaret Ries b 1837 in Virginia   m. Matthew Schaff
Catharina Ries b 1839 Virginia   m. Jake Audelhelm
Christian W. Ries b 1841 Burlington, Des Moines Co,IA
Carl (Charles) Ries b 1842 Burlington, Des Moines Co, IA
Henrich (Henry) Ries b Jan 1844   m. Katherine Scholl  (Father of the son John in the house photo below)
Elizabetta (Elizabeth) Ries b Jan 1847  m. Charles Burgus  (MY G.GRANDFATHER)
Rebecca (Regitta) Ries b 14 Nov 1847  m. Ferdinand Burgus  (MY G. GRANDFATHER'S BROTHER)
Louise Ries b 1852  m. Matilda Luth
Frederick Ries b 14 Jun 1855  m. Margaret Luth (probably a sister of Matilda)
Johann ( John) Karl Ries b 14 Aug 185   m. Mary Elisa Melinza Burgus

The Henrick (Henry) Ries as is written in bold  in the list above  had a son John.  In the photo of the family in front of  house are John's family.  So this group actually shows great nieces and nephews of my great grandmother Elizabetta (Elisabeth) Ries. Mixed up in the group is John himself, a nephew,  and also I think some cousins to John with the name of Hickman.

So this is the same family of John and his wife with their family at an earlier time than the house photo.  As you can see that at this time John and his wife have 8 children so far.


Having a large family was the norm in rural middle America as it was settled.  Most were in business or agriculture and large families helped to keep the farm operations running.  The other thing that I always say about large families is that pregnancy was the only form of birth control back then. When you look at the dates of each child's birth of my great great grandfather you can see the kids are scattered every few years.

My great grandfather Charles Burgus and his brother Ferdinand married into this Ries family.  They were from a family of 13 and married two sisters of a family of 11. Elizabeth Ries and great grandfather Charles had 14 children. One of their sons, my grandfather Charles Burgus, same name as his father,  then when married had 10 children.

As a new observation of my family tree that I now see is that the Ries family and the Burgus family actually first migrated to the Burlington, Iowa area along the Mississippi River.  Then from there a few of them moved on to be in the central part of Iowa. Family stories hint that they may have followed the same trail as the Mormon trail, but I need to check the dates to verify it's possibility.  The Mormon trail did have two branches in the Murray, Iowa area, one going through Murray and the other south of the town.

When you follow back on the branches into the finer little twigs, it gets to be confusing. I know that it was not probably clear to you what I have written, but it has helped me to figure the actual family line more specifically. I can visualize a little more clearly the reason my Dad or Mom were always saying they are related to us.


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