14. DIEDRICH4 SWART (MARTEN HINDERKS3 ZWART, HINDERK MARTENS2, MARTEN HINDERKS1) was born January 01, 1862 in Mark, Germany, and died May 03, 1945. He married (1) EMMA DREISBACH October 10, 1888. She was born March 24, 1868, and died September 01, 1903. He married (2) ANNA DREISBACH October 12, 1904. She was born March 01, 1871, and died March 25, 1950.
Notes for DIEDRICH SWART:
This is little Dick Swart. He is past six years old. It is November 8, 1868. He is facing his first home. He is standing on the west in front of the door. There is a large, fancy brass bar that will open the front door. In the lobby of the store to the left is a convenient bench, the width of the hall is about eight foot and the length twenty feet. The store counters are to the right. Here are shelves containing groceries. In the east end of the store space was the bakery supplies. Father was the baker of the village and with it ran an accommodating grocery store. Sometimes the room was crowded with customers and at other times empty. If a village customer came in to buy something when the front door was opened, it automatically rang a bell. With quickness the smiling little lady, our mother, proceeded to wait on the customer. At times a bit of neighborhood gossip would be enjoyed (neighborhood gossip is wholesomely constructive and helpful).
We have described the first corner of the house and will make further explorations. On the north side of the store hall is a door we open. We called the room "Krammer" or parlor. That room was to entertain visitors, always by prearrangement. That was always a proud occasion. Refreshments were served. Children, of course, not allowed but they too had lots of fun. Now, we will look to the east of this parlor and we find built-in beds; to the north our father and mother's bed (where we children were born); and the south, the bed where my brother John and I slept. These beds were fronted with light folding doors. There were three other such beds, maybe more, I do not remember.
In the store hall was a stair fastened by strong hinges on the top. These stairs would be let down or lifted up and hooked fast. There was a large room for storage and sleeping emergency. Now we open the east end door of the store hall and we go into the kitchen. This is a large room, my guess is that it was at least fifteen feet square. The floor was tiled with hard polished bricks, ten inch square tiles, with a little vent hole on the south side of the well. The large family table had its permanent place in the northeast corner of this large room, back of the table was a bench for the boys to sit on at mals (sic), and there were chairs enough to surround the table. The kitchen was connected with an enormous chimney, there was a large fireplace, an iron cook stove without an oven as the baking was all done in the bakery. There was a large frame clothes cabinet in the southeast end of the kitchen containing the family Sunday clothes.
Now, I must say something about the ornamentation of the kitchen floor. First it was swept, then we had a receptacle of clean white sand and this was broadcast over the floor. Then, another receptacle of real fine white sand, shipped in from somewhere; this sand was taken in hand and starting in one corner about 10 inches or a foot square, the fine sand was ornamentally criss-crossed, then continued in a straight line to the next corner, three or four straight lines with ornamental curleycues between them on all four sides. Mother was an expert in this art, my sister, Henrietta, was also very skillful. The sand was swept up daily and the floor was reornamented. Once or more in a week, the floor was thoroughly scrubbed with water and that is where the vent hole under the middle wall came into use, letting the scrub water out. This is about all I can say about the kitchen, the beehive of the German home.
I was born January 1, 18862 in Mark, Ostfriesland Province of Hanover, Germany. I came to America with my parents in 1872, a sister, Hembina and a brother Heit Thomas died enroute on the Atlantic Ocean and were buried at sea. A brother, Martin, died after we landed in New York. We arrived in Manhattan, Kansas in October 1872. On April 13, 1873, we settled on a homestead three miles northeast of Leonardville, Riley County, Kansas.
"Whence came I? My ancestry? My father's name was Martin Hinderks Swart. I know nothing of his ancestry as he was 16 years older than my mother, who was the wife of his second marriage, his first wife having died and left two daughters and two sons. I had but slight acquaintance with the two daughters, my half-sisters, as they married and lived some distance from the village in which I was born. At ten years of age I came to America and they remained in Germany. The two half brothers, William Swart lived a number of years in Manhattan, Kansas and Hindrikus Swart lived a number of years in Rocky, Oklahoma. I was proud of both of them but they have answered the call of death at a high old age; honorable men.
My father and his ancestery (sic) were born in the northwestern part of Germany, in the village of Mark, East Friesland, bordering Holland. This part of the country was formerly the Kingdom of Hanover, became later a province in the Kingdom of Prussia. So near the border of Holland, did we live, that we had relatives on both sides of the line. Our ancesters (sic)? I heard my father say, we were really Hollanders and that the generations before my father, spelled the name Zwart which they later germanized and wrote it Swart.
My father was a tallman (sic), six feet tall barefooted. He possessed a brilliant mind, enjoyed for his time, a liberal education, was apt in mathematics, a great reader, and very well informed in current events, nationally and internationally. He served three years in the Hanoverian Army, was in no war, but considered his military training a great benefit in his education. He prepared himself for the trade of baker, therefore as a tradesman, he journeyed, a foot to Amsterdam, Holland, where he apprenticed for the baker profession and served three years. He could read and write fluently in the Holland language and in German and read papers, books, magazines in both languages. He established his business, a combination of the producers of the bakery and grocery. He usually kept about four to six cows for dairy products needed for home and bakery and sold surplus butter and cheese, some for the store, some for shipment. My mother's maiden name was Addina Bronlewe. She was five feet, three inches. In my estimation she was fair and beautiful of cheerful disposition, an ideal mother who understood childhood. It was always a pleasure to serve when she commanded and when praise for deeds was in place, she knew how to give it. She became the mother of 13 children.
My mother's father, Geerd Heits Bronlewe, was a butter and cheese buyer. He had a certain territory in which he purchased butter in kegs, holding approximately ten gallons. Living by the navigable river Ems, the people from whom hee (sic) bought the produce brought it to the landing places at the river. At these places, he loaded the produce on the boat and when he had accummulated (sic) enough for a boatload, he would transport it down the river tothe (sic) city of Leer, from which place it was transported to foreign markets, mostly England.
At regular times Grandfather Bronlewe would make the rounds to pay his patrons. This was done afoot. He carried the cash in a rather large red hankerchief (sic), mostly in silver and gold. I made the trip with him once and at each place, I would receive a slice of bread and buter (sic) and cheese and cookies. I was full up to my neckk (sic) all the day. Grandfather Bronlewe was a man of kind disposition, highly respected. Grandmother, I remember as cheery and kind, a lover of children. They were in comfortable circumstances.
More About DIEDRICH SWART and EMMA DREISBACH:
Marriage: October 10, 1888
More About DIEDRICH SWART and ANNA DREISBACH:
Marriage: October 12, 1904
Children of DIEDRICH SWART and EMMA DREISBACH are: 45. i. PEARL5 SWART, b. June 29, 1891. ii. ESTHER SWART, b. November 23, 1893; d. May 22, 1940. 46. iii. ETHEL SWART, b. July 09, 1897. iv. GLADYS SWART, b. April 17, 1902; m. HORATIO PARMENTAR. Children of DIEDRICH SWART and ANNA DREISBACH are: v. RODNEY5 SWART, b. 1909. vi. SIDNEY SWART, b. 1909.