Diehms Trace History To ‘Bleeding Kansas’
By Kevin Gray
Kansas adjusted in 1857 to an unsettled peace following the bloody events of 1856, including the sacking of Lawrence and Osawatomie, the Pottawatomie Massacre near Lane, the Battle of Black Jack near Baldwin, the Battle of Franklin near Lawrence and the Battle of Osawatomie,
Actually, the bloodshed on the Kansas-Missouri border would subside somewhat in 1857, while a state constitution in favor of slavery was being written in Lecompton, what would be the second of four constitutions proposed for Kansas statehood.
John Brown had been out of the territory to visit both Boston and Iowa seeking backing and arms. Upon his return to Osawatomie, he found anti-slavery voters in the majority, and he spent time between August and November of 1857 seeking recruits for his attack on the federal arsenal.
A school teacher from Ohio named William Clarke Quantrill moved to Stanton, Kan., in 1857, where he taught school for one term before moving to Utah for a brief time. Quantrill would return with a vengeance.
In a letter dated May 16, 1857, Quantrill writes home to his mother in Canal
Dover, Ohio. He wrote, “I have just finished a hard job of rolling logs at a clearing around our cabin, which we are going to put in potatoes. Yesterday, we just finished planting a Ten-acre field of corn on the prairie.”
Quantrill described Kansas around Stanton: “…the trees are all green here, and the prairie looks like a field of wheat.” By all accounts, Quantrill’s descriptions of his hard work fail to ring true, because by the end of the school term he has traveled to Utah to make his living as a gambler.
Quiet times were short lived. On May 19, 1858, near Trading Post, Kan., pro slavery men crossed into Kansas, captured 11 free-state men and killed five of them. None of the men was armed and none of the men had been involved in violence before the massacre.
And into all of the comings and goings of men from both Kansas and Missouri marauding back and forth across the border, most generally referred to as “border ruffians,” and a territory intent on achieving statehood came two brothers from Germany to homestead south of Beagle, Kan.
Ongoing hostilities in Germany (the German Confederation and Austria), their native country, forced their immigration.
Jacob Friedrich Diehm, the older brother, and Johann Jacob Diehm left their home in Baden and the turmoil of the German Revolutions of 1848 and 1849. By 1853, both Friedrich and Jacob had been living in Chicago.
At first, a dream of a United Germany had taken over their home country with the public meetings, the right to vote, a constitutional government and trial by jury.
Friedrich had fought for the revolutionary army, said Jean Nickell, a great-great-grandniece. Nickell, who still lives where Friedrich eventually built a cabin, said, “Fred joined up to help overthrow the rule that the German states tried to put on everybody.”
A great-great-grandnephew George Diehm, who lives on the spot where Jacob
(George’s great-great-grandfather) had either built a cabin or moved one, said
Friedrich possibly left due to the unrest. “I’m not sure, but there might have been a conscription or a military draft.
“I wouldn’t call him a draft dodger, but I know he left because of the social turmoil,” Diehm said.
Baden, the Diehm brothers’ home, had been, along with Vienna and Berlin, where the uprisings occurred. But the aristocracy and the German ruling classes backed by Prussian troops brought an end to the revolution.
By May 1857, the brothers settled about a mile and a quarter south of Beagle on
Middle Creek about three quarters of a mile from Plum Creek Road, also known as
1077 Highway and a short distance to the east of 403rd Street near the creek.
Friedrich’s obituary set the tone for their departure from Chicago for an uncertain future in Kansas territory: “April 1st, 1857, they left Chicago for the boundless and little known west and located in Mound-twp., this county, where they took a claim, which Mr. Diehm made to blossom as the rose and developed into one of the best farms in the county.”
But before leaving Chicago, Friedrich married Anna Mary Buehrer in 1856 after her arrival from Germany.
The brothers, said George Diehm, found land to homestead. “They wanted to improve it and built two log cabins each on the property near the creek,” Diehm said, as he pointed east from his living room.
The cabins, Diehm said, had been built on a game trail. “They built their cabins back in the pasture, near the creek and a game trail, where they could use the creek,” he said.
A rail fence separated their property and cabins, Diehm said, but they were still close enough to one another for safety. “At night, if raiders came, they could run to help defend each other. There was no law, so you had to take care of yourself,” George said.
Indians, Diehm said, never seemed to be a problem. By 1852, the U.S. Congress had begun creating Kansas Territory and ceding Indian lands to settlers. “The
Indians never were a problem. But bands of ruffians were and some lived nearby.
The ruffians were a lawless group known to rough up farmers.
“Being closer together, the brothers could grab their guns and run to help protect one another, if the ruffians caused any problems,” Diehm said.
“The Indians might be hungry and stop by to ask for food, but they never caused any problem,” Diehm said. Nickell, on the other hand, said she thought they had had problems with the Indians. “They had to tie their horses up close to the house at night or the horses would be gone, swiped during the night,” she said.
The Indians had always lived along the creek, Nickell said. “People had always looked for water to live, which is why they settled along creeks. Whoever came along always managed to get what water they thought necessary. But the Indians being nomads didn’t worry about staying,” she said.
But Friedrich’s time in Kansas would be short lived. By 1861, he joined with
Company C of the 10th Kansas Infantry and went to his second war. His obituary reads: “…when his adopted country needed defenders, he was amongst the first in his community to enlist.” Friedrich served for three years.
While he was gone, Jacob took care of the homestead properties. “Jacob joined the Kansas militia and cared for the farms,” Nickell said about her great-great-grandfather.
Nickell said she felt the reason Jacob eventually moved had been because the Indians were too close. Diehm, on the other hand, saw the ruffians as the problem. “They [the Indians] had to live, too, so if somebody moved in with horses, they would take some,” Nickell said.
Neither Diehm nor Nickell could name the year, but Friedrich moved to the nearby hillside, to the north of the original homestead and closer to Plum Creek Road.
Jacob remained on the original claim for a time.
Although the creek provided plenty of water, Nickell said, Friedrich’s new cabin location provided him with wells. “There were several natural wells in the hillside, so water was not a problem away from the creek,” she said.
Trees covered Friedrich’s and Jacob’s property, said Nickell. “When we moved here to where Fred’s cabin once sat, the old open fields were in two to three acre plots. What a mess, and we had no money for a bulldozer to clear the land,” Jean said.
Pointing to a pear tree, Nickell said, this is the last fruit tree they planted.
“Fred and Jacob put in fruit trees and grape vines. They farmed, too. They had raised fruits and vegetables in Germany and had made wine there. They made and boot legged wine and whiskey as a means of living here in this country,” Nickell said.
The Diehms, said George, had been poor folks in Germany. “Their living conditions had not been pleasant. Their house had two floors. The cattle and livestock lived on the first floor and the family above. This had been a pretty meager lifestyle, but it provided warmth and safety for the animals, and even some warmth for the family above, even if the smell may not have been very pleasant.
“My folks had cattle, so did my grandparents, and the Diehms always raised cattle all the way back in Germany,” Diehm said.
Having grown up nearby on 407th Street, Diehm said he always knew about where the cabins originally stood. He had spent a lot of time in his youth exploring that area. “But, I’ve never been able to find the exact locations. The creek has changed, too, and it meanders through the quarter,” Diehm said.
When Jacob’s cabin had been moved or built closer to the road, Diehm and Nickell were unsure. “A cabin was there right before my granddad, Gilbert, the youngest of eight children was born,” Diehm said. Nickell places the date at 1877. One thing they both knew, the house with white lap siding or clapboards – where
George’s grandparents and Jean’s uncle and aunt, Gilbert and Katherine Diehm, lived well into their 90s – hid a log cabin. Jean’s grandfather had been James Diehm, oldest son of Jacob.
And after a cabin had gone up closer to the Plum Creek Road, Jacob married. Anna Katrina Buehrer, Friedrich’s wife’s sister, from Baden. But, even though, Katrina had arrived in Kansas City, Jacob had been unable to meet her due to floods. “It took Jacob weeks to get to her, and, when he did, she was working in
Westport.
“She had come here on a lot of faith, aged 16, came over the land and down the river on a boat, and took a job to help herself live until Jacob could get there. Jacob had left in a wagon, when she was supposed to arrive, but had to turn back until the waters went down, and he could find a ford to cross,” George said.
Regardless of the time or reason for Jacob’s move, either Jacob’s original cabin was moved or a new one built, where George and Loretta Diehm currently live in a house they built about 12 years ago. “The original cabin sat right where we’re sitting in the living room,” George said.
When George and Loretta decided to build a new home on the Jacob Diehm cabin site, George called the Kansas State Historical Society. “They were more interested in an old barn that had already been taken down. They said the cabin was pretty typical for a cabin of the era, and they recognized the style.
“There was an 18-foot square center, axe marks on the logs, most likely walnut logs off of the creek, all cut by hand, possibly dragged by oxen, and the construction all labor intensive.
“The impressive logs were solid and placed on a limestone footing. Flat rocks, no mortar, stacked on level ground,” Diehm said.
The cabin, where George’s grandfather, Gilbert, had been born, said George, was very primitive. “But, he grew up and stayed in the cabin. They lived there for years without electricity or running water. They still had to use the creek,” George said.
George remembers how his grandparents, Gilbert and Katherine, would place blocks of ice in the ice box. “This is their ice box right here,” George said, while pointing to a vintage oak cabinet. “They would put the ice in the top compartment and what they wanted to cool down below,” he said. His grandmother, George said about Katherine, cooked on a cast iron stove. “Think about how that thing heated up, especially on an already hot summer day,”
George said.
The main room of the cabin, said Nickell, was where Katherine cooked and entertained. “I spent many hours at Aunt Katie’s. The kitchen was on the south end and the other part of the room for entertaining. They had a back room and stairs to the loft sleeping area.
“When I was little, the inside was not finished. There were just log walls. They didn’t finish off the walls, inside or out, until later years. She had a low flat stove. Not a pot bellied. And, I remember carrying a lot of wood,” Jean said.
Katherine, said Jean, never felt like she needed anything else but this house.
“Why do I need anything else. It’s paid for.”
Understanding Katherine was not always easy to do, Jean said, about a woman who spoke German. “She came down here from Nebraska to marry Gilbert, and they both spoke German all their lives.
“I remember when they got a telephone. A tree was chosen, the branches cut, little white insulators added, and the line was strung to the house. Aunt Katie would talk for hours to other German-speaking ladies on her private line,” Jean said.
When George realized the state historical society saw nothing special about the cabin and said there was no money for restoration, he gave the cabin to Christine Staten of Paola, who with her husband, Craig, had bought land in Linn County, south of Parker.
The Statens moved the cabin, Diehm said, to their property for reconditioning.
“The siding was taken off revealing the square logs, a dig made under the cabin, and it was jacked it up for the truck, and state clearance achieved for the highway,” George said.
Staten said she thinks a historical group should find a place to display the cabin that has been sitting on her property for 12 years. “I want to see it restored, and I would sell it to a historical group for what we have spent on it.
“It doesn’t qualify for state funds like the Gerth cabin in Greeley because it is owned privately, and it can’t be listed as a historic landmark because it’s been moved,” Staten said.
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on Aug 17 2011. Filed under News and Updates.
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