by Esther Votroubek
Mr. and Mrs. John Denke (see Webmaster's note1) came to South Dakota in the year of 1906, from Gremie, Russia with their family. They came over to this country with 9 children. The parents were John and Rosina Denke (see note 2). The children were William, Henry, Lydia, Beatha, Amalia, Alexander, Benhart, and Anna (see note 3). Later in this country another son was born to this union, Edwin.
They came across by ship and came to Fremann, South Dakota where they had some friends. In the spring of 1907, they cam as far as Kodoka by train, then came with wagons to where they settled north of Quinn on a homestead. They pitched two tents in which they lived till they had their third house built.
Mrs. Denke baked all the bread for the family and cooked, which was very difficult to do along with all the other household chores, being that the stove was in the tent and it rained so much of the time. They brought one cow along which furnished milk for the family.
The men were very busy digging rocks to build their new home. They found a lot of rocks in som of those hills nearby. They got their mail by foot at Grindstone once or twice a week. Although the building went slowly, they were making progress. They also built a grainery and a barn out of rocks.
After much hard labor, they moved into their new home. Then they started their new adventure in the "new west". After hard work and long hours they had finally got their start and soon thought of adding new property. They bought some land and cattle and kept adding more to their ranch. They also farmed some.
But in 1911 there came a drought. The grain that they seeded did not come up till late in July. Gardens finally came up in rows in the fall of 1911.
After this happened they again had to make different plans for little grass grew that summer and they were afraid of what the winter might bring and therefor sold most of their cattle. Starting p their herd again was quite a job. Many acres of alfalfa were planted, which furnished lots of hay and seed that came in handy for the big family.
They did not forget their religion for they had chruch in the stone house and later organized and built a church for the new settlers. The Lord blessed them all. The Church grew until it was quite a large congregation.
Mrs. Rosina Denke passed away the 22nd of August, 1924. John Denke passed away the 14th of April, 1931. Now a grandson owns the John Denke place. William Geigle and his family are operating it now.
Webmaster's notes:
1. John Denke was born Johann Denke on 12/27/1864 and Americanized his name to John Denke.
2. This statement refers to John Denke and his wife, not John Denke's parents. Rosina Denke is listed in the family tree by her maiden name, Rosina Schuler.
3. Some of the names in this writing are slightly different than what I have in the family tree:
William=Wilhelm
Jake=Jacob
Beatha=Beata
Amalia=Amelia
Benhart=Bernard
I do not know which ones are correct..