Omaha daily bee., 1908-06-07

LONG low house. built Of turf ana covered with a roof OF
~ thatch, was the birthplace of the man who is now head
~ of the manual training department Of the Omaha High
n school Living in the long low house were some thirty
German serfs, to say nothing Of a number Of cattle in one
end, fifty chickens, a few sheep and some pigeons. The house was
one of a dozen which formed the village of osschenbruck' near Belm'
province of Hanover, Germany.
John E. wigman was the only o of his parents, though they
had a small army Of other sons and daughters. This is no paradox.
His mother was a widow at the time she married his father, and
his father was a widower. She had about ten children and his father
had a S many. John a the only child of both. His mother could
sp-ak Of her" children; his father could point proudly to his
children. but the two could look only upon John and speak Of
their child. The date of Johns birth was October 49, 1898.
Life in the village was a life of toll The serfs were virtually
slaves and had to toll without pay a certain number of days each
month for their lord. They lived in poverty and in some ways had
no better treatment than the beasts. The thatched house in which
the wigmans and their numerous progeny lived al shared by them
with another family. In the center of the house was a huge fire
pl-o9 in which turf was burned in winter. This fireplace also
marked the division between the apartments of the two families.
There a a threshing floor In one end of the cottage. In the other
end vero stalls for the cattle and above these stalls a loft in which
the small grain which was raised on the few acres with infinite
labor was stored. In the winter It was threshed with fails o. the
thresbing floor. every grain being jealousy garnered. Another piece
CT Important furniture was the weaving machine on which the
women wove the rough cloth for clothing. 1t was a very beehive
Of Industry that little humble cot When the CRYING If children the
lowing of cattle, the cooling of pigeons, the bleating of sheep, the
caekling Of chickens, the quacking of ducks and the kissing Of geese
were MINGLED as they ofdmes we're within the confines Of the house
there truly was, in modern phrase. something doing"
Twice a month bread was baked in the big oven which stood
outsIde n. ouse suHcient "npmnernhkleI being made 70 last n
big family a fortnight. All the butter which was yielded from the
cream Of the COWS was sold. this being too expensive a luxury for the
dress and her heavy wooden shoes, bound her big basket over her
sturdy shoulders and carried the vendible produce to Belm, where
~ o0SN OfSAADS ONS aa hS AS ASA NaO6NF
Orphaned and an Emigrant
At so a man was old under this grinding life and at the age
of 81 Johns father withdrew his neck from the yoke and was buried
in the little church yard. John was 2years of age then, a fatherless
boy, son of a serf, with not a brother or sister, though he had some
thing "just as good" in his many stepbrothers and stepsisters.
Letters had come from a sister Of Mrs. Wigman who was in
America. She told rs wonderful a tale Of America a the two Jewish
> spies told of the land of Canaan. Thereafter 1t was the desire of the
! jewellers in the little matched cottage to leave their dull life, to
cross the ocean, to possess this land of the free. When John was
Z years old the hegira was started from the little cottage in the
village of Osschenbruck to the United States. It done on the
installment plan of easy payments, so much down and SO much a
month" The aunt in America sent the first money to bring over the
first 1nstallment, and a small contingent left the crowded cottage
This included the mother and the youngest son, John being then
young enough to travel for nothing. Sailing from Bremen on a sail
ing vessel they landed in New York after seven weeks tossing and
buneting upon the deep.
They took up their residence in the family OF the woman who
hCd staked them to their passage money, and John went to school
1t vas a long jump from the little grinding community where work
WIS the order of all the waking hours. TO the city where one could
sit in'school all day; 1t was no less a big change from the quiet VII
lagc Of Csschenbruck, where the most exciting thing was a marriage,
TO the great metropolis where there wa excitement all the time.
/Jorn went to public school No. 10, on Douane street between West
Broadway and Church street A hve-story marble building stands on
the cite now, marking the growth of the great city. Continuing in
this school until he was IL years of age. the boy then entered a
private school conducted by the Lutheran church, Of which his
mother was a member. He remained at this private school until he
was nearly is years OF age.