10 Feb1826 to 25 Dec 1897 - 16 May 1829 to 26 Jul 1908
This page displays Zabel History and genealogy. The links to Adobe Portable Document Format genealogy have been password protected to help prevent personal information from getting into the wrong hands. Registered users are able to view all PDF documents and have access to the full database. To register for a Username and Password you must be listed in the database and send your request to don@harringtonweb.com . Database records (except for those under 100 years of age) can be viewed by anyone in the genealogy section of this web site.
Researchers
I have received requests for the password from a number of people that are researching the ZABEL line. For those trying to find a connection I have built a descendant chart showing birth, death and marriage dates. This file can be seen and downloaded here. This file shows no living person. If you find a connection, I will be more forthcoming with information. HTML Family Group Sheets with index added – 5 JUL 2003
The actual genealogy data is compiled with Brother’s Keeper which is available at www.brotherskeeper.com.
ZABEL FAMILY REUNION
- Zabel Family Reunion 2005 – Held Legion Hall in Western, NE Aug. 14, 2005.
Linda Zabel and Paly Partsch did a great job of planning, organizing and presiding
over the reunion. A clan number (as I have dubbed it) was added to the name tags
this year. This number designated which of Christians children was your ancestor.
- There were 62 in pictures, there were 66 present according to the roster.
5 were from outside of Nebraska. 1 from MO and 4 from TX.
I want to thank every one that turned in one of the Family Group sheets.
There was some information I did not already have on every single one of them.
- See Sue Pray’s pictures from reunion 2005.
- By my count; 92 were in attendance for the 2003 event.
- See Sue Pray’s pictures from reunion 2003.
- See Pat Harrington’s candid pictures from reunion 2003.
History
“Our” Ellis Island
For all of its importance and all of its notoriety in this past year, Ellis Island became the reception center for immigrants in 1892.
Beginning in 1820, when 8382 aliens were recorded as entering the country, an island off what would be the Battery, the southern part of Manhattan Island, was used as a registration center. The island became part of the larger Manhattan Island as fill was added. After being remodeled, in 1845 it became the Castle Gardens, a theater and opera house district. The immigration increased until nearing 370,000 in 1850. Around 1856 it was again remodeled, renamed Castle Clinton and was formally designated in 1858 as the Port of Immigration Station. Thus remained until the aforementioned 1892.
From this short tale you can figure what it was called, for your personal family histories, when your people came through. Norma and my Pomeranians came through Quebec. I continue to try to dig out the historical aspects of this port. None of our other ancestors came through Ellis Island – or saw the Statue of Liberty.
“Die Pommerschen Leute”
by Myron Guenwald
A Letter from Myron Gruenwald on the meaning of “INSTMANN” . The description of Christian F. Zabel and others in Doelitz church records.
COTTAGEMAN (INSTMANN)
There is also an INSTHAUS (cottage and INSTLEUTE (cottage people).
I am sure that within their society these labels as occupations were very important to them. They would not want to be confused as a “ARBEITER” (worker) or a “TAGELOHNER” (a daily laborer).
I would think that a cottage man probably owed his home, as much as ownership existed in those days. Probably he had the right from the lord or manor supervisor to pass it on within the family whereas other children had to acquire their own permission to use a property. Perhaps they had land around the house in which they could plant for their own use when they were not working on the common fields.
It’s like us having so many “presidents” in a company we had to create another term, CEO, to indicate who really was the boss and not the 3rd I don’t know as though “dairy men” would like to be called “farmers”. and true “farmers” (those who raise crops for their determined use) would want the people to be called farmers who rent their land to pea, bean, or pickle packers while they themselves have a job in town.
I’ve never read a strict definition of the differences for the titles, maybe they are the same thing but the name used changed over the decades of emigration.
Myron
Area History
Jefferson County: The boundaries were first set in 1856 by the territorial legislature, but the area was known as Jones County until the boundary was definitely fixed in 1871 and the name officially changed to Jefferson. Jefferson County was named for Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States.
The first principal place of doing county business seemed to have been at Big Sandy, generally in George Weisel’s store. Then the hotel at Meridian succeeded as the seat of county business in 1867-68, until Fairbury was duly organized and the counties of Jefferson and Thayer definitely fixed in 1871. So when the Zabel family came to Swan Creek there were no towns of Fairbury, Daykin, Western, or Swanton. This area was nothing but wilderness and Indians. Fairbury was founded in 1869, and became the county seat in 1871. From then on, the description of where the family lived was known as: 14 miles north and 1 and one half miles east of Fairbury, in section 12, Washington precinct of Jefferson County, Nebraska. The family’s first living quarters was a dugout.
Four families — Gutzmer, Fenne or Finney, Wahl and Witt — came together from Monroe Wisconsin to Nebraska by Lynch – pin wagons and ox teams, arriving at Muddy Creek, Johnson County, in the fall of 1860. Here the families remained for the winter, the men walking to Saline County, where they located their farms on Swan Creek. In the spring of 1861 they took possession of their farms and later homesteaded them. The families lived in their covered wagons until the first log house on the J. G. Wahl farm was finished. Then, the Wahl and Witt families lived in the one house while the Witt house was built. The frame house built later still stands on the original Witt farm three miles northeast of Western. It was all put together with wood pegs, no nails used.
Swan City and Saline County: — A Swan City marker has been placed on Highway 82 west of DeWitt, marking the approximate location of the first county seat. “Near here was located the first town and county seat in Saline County. Situated on Swan Creek from which it took its name. Swan City held prominence for only a few years.”
“The first settlement buildings, including a store and a sawmill, were constructed about 1865. In 1865, William Remington donated the land on which the town was located. The first meeting of the Saline County Commissioners took place there at Cline’s Mill on February 17, 1866. Swan City grew to a community of some 200, its thriving business section included a hotel. The O’Conner Circus spent a few winters in Swan City.”
In 1871, the county seat was moved from Swan City to Pleasant Hill. That same year, the railroad was being built through the Blue River Valley, two and a half miles from Swan City. Most of the town’s business community wanted to be near the railroad and moved to either DeWitt or Wilber within two years. The vestige of Swan City was the flour mill which continued to operate until it burned in 1891. Swan City thus joined the ranks of ghost towns.
Swanton: — The village of Swanton started out with a different name and in a different location. The name was Loudon City and it was situated about a mile and a half west of what is now Swanton. It is presumed this town started up around 1860. Fred Drescher was the first to come to this community. Later, the families of Gutzmers, Wahls, Witts, Fosters and Turneys settled here. After the Civil War, more families came to settle here.
Here the settlers built a crude clapboard church, with lumber coming from the community sawmill. The minister lived in a dugout. The post office was located in the dugout school house. The Lincoln Land Company had bought much land along the new railroad, which was built in 1883. The Burlington Railroad then influenced the Lincoln Land Company to locate a new town a mile and a half east of Loudon City. The new town was called Morris. Morris sprung up in 1884. John Denny built the first house in town. This house still stands (1967) and its shape has not changed though the years. The first store in the town was operated by Henry Clark.
When the Post Office authorities were investigating the towns in the state, they found that another town had the name of Morris. That town was given priority, and this town was changed to Swanton.
Efforts to preserve building
This article was copied from the Fairbury Journal-News of 2-5-1980
Natl. Register Lists Western Farm Bldg.
The Michael Witt “Fachwerkbau” near Western was entered into the National Register of Historic Places Jan. 14, 1980, says Marvin F. Kivett, State Historic Preservation Officer.
The “fachwerkbau” or “half-timbered building” was built in 1868 by Michael Witt, who was of German decent, and one of the pioneer settlers along Swan Creek.
The house is significant as a relic of German folk architectural traditions in the state and is, in fact, the only known existent structure of its type in Nebraska.
The National Register is the nation’s list of significant cultural resources relating to the fields of architecture, archaeology and history.
This article was copied from the Fairbury Journal-News of 2-15-1980
Area Architectural Rarity On Historical Places List
Sod houses, dugouts and log cabins were the usual dwellings of the early settlers in this area.
A half-timbered building — Fachwerkbau — was an architectural rarity on the Great Plains, and one near Western that has survived over 110 years, was recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The fachwerkbau or “half-timbered building” was built by Michael Witt in 1868, as a five-room dwelling, and was erected in the traditional medieval German style.
The front now faces east, and the double doors open to the wide off-center hall which runs through the building to a door on the west. A wide boxed stair, which ascends to the loft from the rear, occupies a position along the south wall of the hall.
There are two rooms on each side of the hall, the largest being on the north where the formal parlor occupies the north-east corner. A summer kitchen, removed in the 1890s, is believed to have extended off the west rear of the house in line with the north tier of rooms.
The loft is open except for the roof-supporting structure and the centrally located abode brick stove flue which is supported by the loft floor.
The house was moved a short distance in the 1890s to make room for a new dwelling, but continued to be used as a residence for several years.
FOR STORAGE
The building is presently used for storage. The structure is exposed throughout the interior and on the exterior under the porch roof and on the west where the summer kitchen was removed
Built of oak, the entire structure – posts, beams, girds and rafters – is hand-hewn, mortised, tenoned and pegged. All major members measure 14 cm. square.
A limestone pier foundation supports the sill, upon which upright posts are set which support a continuous plate at the door head level.
Diagonal timbers occupy the end panels of each wall, of an interior panel when openings occur in the end. Roof rafters are tapered, hand-hewn sections which are pegged at the peak without a ridge-pole.
Adobe Also Used
The panels between the timbers are nogged with upright staves, and packed with adobe in the first floor walls. Hand make adobe bricks fill the panels above the first floor plate and the interior wall panels, and were used for the central chimney as well.
The interior received a finish coat of adobe plaster, set flush with the timbers.
In later years, coats of lime plaster were placed over the adobe in the front parlor.
The exterior of the building is the original clapboard sheathing.
According to the State Historical Society’s record on the “half-timbered building” it is significant as a relic of German folk architectural traditions in the state and is the only known structure of its type in Nebraska.
Family records indicate that during the first year the family built a dugout house and later a log cabin, which was replaced by the present half-timbered building.
There was good logic for a building of this type. There was a scarcity of trees in the area and the half-timbered structure would require fewer trees compared to log construction, and soil for adobe was available.
Church: The Christian Zabel family’s first place of worship (South Fork Church 1862-1921) was a log school house with the earth for its floor, located on the east side of the present South Fork Cemetery.
The early church, or then called, “meeting place” was this same log school house used by all denominations and nationalities, who worshipped at one and the same time, each in their own language. The Rev. Perry Caldwell Sr.of Swanton was a very religious leader in that day and often remarked, “If we don’t understand one another’s language, the language of the spirit is the same.”
Before there was a school house, services were held in the Gutzmer’s log house, once every three months, then once a month as more ministers came into the area.
The first church was built in 1874 on what was known as the O. F. Miller farm, now the Nancy Miller farm, five miles south east of Western. This land was donated by Sophia Sellnow, a niece of Christian Zabel. About 1884 this church was sold and a new and larger edifice was erected to accommodate the increasing congregation. It was again enlarged in 1885. The first parsonage was erected near the church in 1875. This work remained intact until 1921 when the congregation merged with the North Fork Congregation to make the St. Paul German Congregation with a fine church located in Western. The South Fork church was torn down and used in building this new edifice.
Homestead Act: The Homestead Act permitted persons 21 years of age or over or who were heads of families to claim 160 acres of government land. Only a registration fee, five years residence on the land, and certain cultivation requirements were necessary for ownership. The attractive offer on the part of the government was accepted by many thousands of people, including veterans of the Civil War. The Act was acclaimed in its period as broad-visioned, democratic legislation in the interest of individual freedom.
Information Sources
THANK YOU to everyone who has and will look at the Updated Zabel Family History and sends corrections and updates to donald.harrington1@cox.net.
