Title
ADAM BIEL
Creator
Ernest P. Biel
Coverage
TOWNSHIP 138N RANGE 95W
Text
ADAM BIEL
1st GENERATION
My grandparents were Adam Biel born April 9, 1853 and Elizabeth Heintz born Feb. 1, 1853 at Dolatz, Banat one of the most beautiful and fertile districts of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. His parents were John Biel and Magdalene Heidi Biel. Her parents were Peter Heintz and Maria Bruck Heintz. They were horticulturists raising grapes besides tobacco and during the winter months occupied themselves by weaving cloth.
This union was blessed with 12 children: Ernest born May 3, 1875, married to Marie Arnold; Anna born Aug. 24, 1881, wife of Adolph Totzke; Nick born Oct. 21, 1883, first married to Catherine Lech and later to Thersia Lech; Henry born July 28, 1890, married to Elizabeth Neurohr; Catherine born July 21, 1894, wife of John Dulvick; one child died as an infant; one girl nine years old, and five children died of diphtheria in one week.
In 1897, they decided to leave the Banat for the U.S. Grandfather left alone, boarded the ship Maine from Bremen, Germany, and arrived at Baltimore, then by train to Richardton, N.D. He arrived May 236 19, 1897. The rest of the family arrived on the ship Elenvikmers, then by train on Oct. 24, 1897. The tram stopped at Hebron and they saw Grandfather work on the railroad hauling ties so they got off there instead of Richardton.
They lived south of Hebron a few miles for two years then filed on a homestead six miles northwest of Lefor, N.D.; received title March 13, 1905 signed by Theodore Roosevelt; Anna and Ernest Biel filed for homestead on the same section. They moved there in 1900, wintered cattle for others at first and later for himself. He lost a lot of cattle the winter of the two bad blizzards, February 2-4 and March 24-26, 1903. He had them in a sod barn but it was covered completely with snow and some cattle suffocated. Some were saved by piling the manure up on one end and taking them out through the roof.
In 1906, he went back for a visit to his native Hungary with Nickolas Schmidt and Bernard Martin for a few months; he still had a sister there, her name was Katherine, married to Peter Schneider.
As the years went by his son Henry did the farming. He lived the rest of his long life with his son and wife till his death. Grandmother Biel died Jan. 20, 1923 and Grandfather died May 20, 1930 and both are buried at the St. Elizabeth Cemetery, Lefor, N.D.
By Ernest P. Biel
1st GENERATION
My grandparents were Adam Biel born April 9, 1853 and Elizabeth Heintz born Feb. 1, 1853 at Dolatz, Banat one of the most beautiful and fertile districts of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. His parents were John Biel and Magdalene Heidi Biel. Her parents were Peter Heintz and Maria Bruck Heintz. They were horticulturists raising grapes besides tobacco and during the winter months occupied themselves by weaving cloth.
This union was blessed with 12 children: Ernest born May 3, 1875, married to Marie Arnold; Anna born Aug. 24, 1881, wife of Adolph Totzke; Nick born Oct. 21, 1883, first married to Catherine Lech and later to Thersia Lech; Henry born July 28, 1890, married to Elizabeth Neurohr; Catherine born July 21, 1894, wife of John Dulvick; one child died as an infant; one girl nine years old, and five children died of diphtheria in one week.
In 1897, they decided to leave the Banat for the U.S. Grandfather left alone, boarded the ship Maine from Bremen, Germany, and arrived at Baltimore, then by train to Richardton, N.D. He arrived May 236 19, 1897. The rest of the family arrived on the ship Elenvikmers, then by train on Oct. 24, 1897. The tram stopped at Hebron and they saw Grandfather work on the railroad hauling ties so they got off there instead of Richardton.
They lived south of Hebron a few miles for two years then filed on a homestead six miles northwest of Lefor, N.D.; received title March 13, 1905 signed by Theodore Roosevelt; Anna and Ernest Biel filed for homestead on the same section. They moved there in 1900, wintered cattle for others at first and later for himself. He lost a lot of cattle the winter of the two bad blizzards, February 2-4 and March 24-26, 1903. He had them in a sod barn but it was covered completely with snow and some cattle suffocated. Some were saved by piling the manure up on one end and taking them out through the roof.
In 1906, he went back for a visit to his native Hungary with Nickolas Schmidt and Bernard Martin for a few months; he still had a sister there, her name was Katherine, married to Peter Schneider.
As the years went by his son Henry did the farming. He lived the rest of his long life with his son and wife till his death. Grandmother Biel died Jan. 20, 1923 and Grandfather died May 20, 1930 and both are buried at the St. Elizabeth Cemetery, Lefor, N.D.
By Ernest P. Biel