Bio: Jacobi, Henry Sr. #2 (25 Feb 1931)

Contact: Robert Lipprandt

Email: bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Hughes, Jacobi, Kleiman, Kremb, Olson

----Source: The Curtiss Advance (Curtiss, Clark Co., WI) Wednesday, February 25, 1931

FIFTY YEARS AGO IN ABBOTSFORD

Henry Jacobi Sr., now residing in the village of Abbotsford, recalls some of the days of fifty years ago. 

"As I am living on Highway 13 in the village of Abbotsford and seeing the passing vehicles hurrying along, it makes me think back to pioneer times of 1881."

"That spring my people sent me ten bushels of potatoes from Manitowoc, shipping them to Colby, which was seven miles from my home. I thought at first of carrying them home on my back but the sacks looked rough enough to make my shoulders sore, so I asked my neighbor, Jos. Kleiman, who has a yoke of oxen and a wagon, if he could get them for me."   

"We started for Colby next morning all out at five o’clock, I walking ahead with my five pound double bitted axe, chopping of small trees making room to get through with the wagon. We arrived at Colby at 11 o’clock where we fed the oxen and ate our bread and drank some of Colby’s petrified water and were ready to start home at 1 o’clock."

"Mr. Kleiman said we would go home on the tote road which is now highway 13. There was a little ditching on this road north for about one-half mile. Then we pulled over one mile east to what is called the Parkhill road. The oxen were then played out and layed down. I went home and got a yoke of oxen that belonged to Alex Kremb of Stevens Point, which we had for logging that winter, and pulled the load another mile to the Hans Olson place, arriving there at 9 o’clock that evening."

"It being so dark we could not see any more, we left the load there with Mr. Olson and going a little father to the north-east, we left the oxen in a little clearing where logging had been done the winter before, where they fed during the night. We went on home finding the way through the woods the best we could, arriving home at 11 o’clock. How happy my wife was when she met me at the gate. She was afraid the wolves had overtaken us."

"Out again at five o’clock the next morning. After locating the oxen, we went back to the Olson home for the potatoes. Leaving there with the two yoke of oxen, we turned east over the Porky, getting stuck twice and prying ourselves out, we finally arrived home at 1 o’clock that afternoon."

"I worked for Mr. Kleiman to pay for getting the potatoes by four long days labor, and the freight was $1.50."   

"These pioneers must have had an awful good time in the wild forest fifty years ago. Look at the roads today and all the going and coming. Also compare some of the prices. All we could get was three cents per pound for dressed chickens at store pay only."

"The Hans Olson log house is still standing in Abbotsford, the first house south of the Owen Hughes residence, but it has a different dress on."

"This is the truth and nothing but the truth." 

Christ Lutheran Cemetery Index

Town Holton, Marathon Co., Wisconsin

Jacobi, Henry Sr.,

Birth: 08 Dec 1856, Jacobi Home, Twp. Wilson, Sheboygan Co., WI

Death: Jan 1935, Jacobi Home, Abbotsford, Clark Co., WI

Married: 1880, Newton, Manitowoc Co., Wisconsin

Jacobi, Augusta E. (Schmitz)

Birth: 16 Aug 1861, Schmitz Home, Newton, Manitowoc Co., WI

Death: 03 Oct 1940, Bernitt Home, Abbotsford, Clark Co., WI

Children:

Henry G. Jacobi (1881-1974)

Oscar Jacobi (1884-1884)

Edwin Albert Jacobi (1885-1948)

Herbert August Jacobi (1887-0000)

Selma A. (Jacobi) Brunner Bernitt (1889-1977)

Edna H. (Jacobi) (c1895-c1905)