Johann Gottlob Hochstatter and Maria Barbara Huether Johann Gottlob was born in Alexanderhilf, South Russia 14 Aug 1852. He and his wife immigrated to the U. S. via Canada in the spring of 1902. He left South Russia with his wife and all their children, including two married daughters and one married son, traveling by train and boat to Liverpool, England. On April 1, 1902 they boarded the ship “Lake Ontario” and sailed to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, arriving on April, 12. From Saint John they went by train to Winnipeg, Manitoba, then to Java and Kimball, South Dakota. They stayed in South Dakota with relatives during the summer of 1902 and left for the state of Washington in the latter part of October 1902. The family arrived in Wilson Creek, WA on November 1, 1902, and they lived in a homestead shack during the winter of, 1902-03. Johann filed for homestead rights on March 14, 1903. The homestead was located 10 1/2 miles northeast of Moses Lake. The land description is as follows; Lot one, the south half of the northeast quarter, and the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section six in Township twenty north of Range twenty nine east of the Willamette Meridian, Washington, containing 170.35 acres. Patent Number 112198 was issued to him on 17 February 1910 for 170.35 acres of land, permanently giving him this land. You had to pay for any acreage over 160 acres. He paid $2.50 per acre for the excess 10.35 acres. This homestead land remained in the Hochstatter family until it was sold in October 1997. The owners at the time of sale were the three sons of George. None of these sons had any ambition to become farmers or to develop it into smaller farms and then sell them. They received their mail at the Post Office in Wilson Creek. Later on a country store and post office by the name of Hicksville was started, and in 1910 the post office was moved to Wheeler. The first year they grubbed (removed) the sagebrush off of ten acres of their land and four acres off of John Hochstatter’s (Johann Gottlob oldest son) place just south of theirs. They borrowed Jacob Ottmar’s (Johann Gottlob’s son-in-law) plow and harrow. Johann broadcasted the seed by hand. They planted wheat, barley, oats, Russian red wheat, spults, hyssop, and some potatoes and watermelons in their garden. At harvest time Johann cut the grain with a scythe, and raked it by hand with a wooden rake. He shocked the grain in bundles and tied it with straw from the grain. They hauled their water from a well near Black Rock. They watered their garden and filled their cistern with alkali tasting water. Johann had a well drilled in 1907 at a cost of $1,000. When the drillers hit water they lost their tools and spend two weeks trying to fish them out of the well. They weren’t successful in retrieving their tools and had to drill another well. The well supplied all of the water they needed and other homesteaders hauled water from it as it was sweeter than the Black Rock water.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 06:49:00 +0000
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