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Family History - Mathias Lotz Family By Mrs. George Gordon (Nellie Lotz) Mathias Lotz emigrated from Holland when he was nine years old and was raised in Minnesota. Then he went to New York City to stay with his older brother and learned to be a carpenter. He came back to Minnesota and married and started to raise his family. We lived in the Norwegian settlement. When he heard that North Dakota was opening up land for homesteads he decided to try it. He traveled with his family to North Dakota in 1906. They had six children by then. George and Noble were Mrs. Lotz's children from a former marriage. First they broke up some land so they would have sod to build their home. Mathias brought flooring, ship lath, tar paper, doors and windows to finish the rest of their home. It was very comfortable even though the walls were sod. Dad and George had to work on a cattle ranch in order to get hay for the stock. The winters were long and the snow was deep. Mother went back to Minnesota. She had us two younger ones with her. But two years later Kate was born. She was born on the farm, as by then there was someone there who could take care of mother. Our farm adjoined the Sneva farm. Adlai Sneva is still living there on his parent's farm. We had to go to a distant school along with the Sneva children until our parents were able to get one nearer. I will always remember that first school! We were too tired when we got there to learn very much, especially the younger ones. We had to go a long way for our coal, and it was hard when we had to pass someone on the trail, as we could get stuck. Even the front door of the house had to be dug out after a storm. Father got blood poisoning in his hand and had to go by sled to the nearest town, which was Ambrose. We all said goodbye to him and wondered if he'd get there in time. Those were the hard times, otherwise we liked pioneering. We had to be on the look out for prairie fires at first. The fires burned many acres before they could be stopped. We kids would go over the black hills and look for cactus berries. They were good to eat. After he had his land all broke up, Dad heard of lands opening up in Saskatchewan, Canada. He and a neighbor, Oscar Nygard, packed a buckboard with food and started across country. It was over a hundred miles. Dad was able to get a half section but Oscar decided not to. We put a tent on a hayrack for our sleeping and eating. We were able to ship our machinery and furniture to a small Montana town near the border by the name of Daleview of Rames. We kept the stock in the stockyard, as we had driven them across country behind our covered wagon. Dad built a little shack for us at Rames to live in until he built a house on the Canadian land. That house is still standing and our brother Noble still owns it. We sometimes all meet there in the summertime. Noble and John still live at Big Beaver, Saskatchewan. Kate and Leonard are in British Columbia, Dora is in Columbia Falls, Mont., and Marie and I (Nellie) are in California. The folks kept the Dakota farm for many years after they left it. Mother, Dad and George have passed away, but we all still like to come back and see our old friends in North Dakota.
Family history taken from pages
161-162 of the
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