Notizen zu dieser Person
BIOGRAPHIE: Wenzel Helget was born on September 1, 1843, in Natschetin, Bohemia, house #17, the son of George Helget and Margaretha Heinl. The Helgets were a large, poor tenant farm family. Wenzel was the fifth of ten children several who died in infancy. In the Spring of 1870, at the age of 27, Wenzel Helget left Bohemia for America. He arrived at the Port of New York aboard the Main on the eight of April 1870. He came to the New Ulm, Minnesota area and found employment as a laborer on the Frank Christ farm.
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On November 21,1871, he married Barbara Kiefner, who was born in house #30 of the neighboring village of Trohatin. Wenzel and Barbara had attended the same church in Berg and the same school in Trohatin. A child, Maria, was born to Wenzel and Barbara on Sept. 22, 1872 and she was baptized on Feb 2, 1873. The child died unexpectedly shortly thereafter. In 1873 the Helgets bought a home on Front St. at Sixth St. South, in the "Goosetown" section of New Ulm. while Wenzel was working as a laborer at the mill. Barbara gave birth to twins, Joseph and Mariaon Dec. 8, 1874. The children were baptized on 16 May, 1875, sponsors were Margaretha and Joseph Tauer, Barbara's cousin and her husband. On Feb. 7, 1877 both children, Joseph and Maria, died of the "croup". They were only a little over two years old.. No record of their burial has been found. Wenzel''s father George, a sixty-year-old widower,his sister Magdalena "Lena" her two-year old daughter, Margaret joined the Helgets in New Ulm. On 17 July 1876 "Lena" married Joseph Tauer, who's first wife, Margaretha Kiefner had just died in childbirth on 20 Feb. 1876. Although this seems to be hasty remarriage, especially considering the fact that Magdalena had only arrived in America earlier that year, these two families were already well acquainted and in fact were probably related through Joseph's first marriage (Margaretha'scousin, Barbara, was married to Magdalena's brother Wenzel). Joseph Tauer and Margaretha Kiefner also named their second daughter Barbara.It is also evident that these two families shared a close bond, as Wenzel and Barbara were sponsors at the baptisms of at least the three oldest of Joseph's children born in this country, and either Joseph and either Margaretha or Magdalena were sponsors for all four of Wenzel and Barbara's children. .
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On February 10, 1878, just a year after the twins Joseph and Maria died, a son, Joseph Helget was born to Wenzel and Barbara, the only child that lived to adulthood. He was baptized on Feb. 26, 1878. Wenzel's sister Magdalena and her husband Joseph D(T)auer were sponsors. Wenzel was granted citizenship in 1880. In 1881 he sold the New Ulm home and bought an eighty-acre farm in section 20 of Cottonwood township for $1,900. In 1882 the tax records show that the farm had 40 acres under cultivation and the other 40 were unimproved. The Helgets had two horses, four cows, a wagon, a watch, furniture worth ten dollars, and farm equipment worth sixty dollars. In 1887 they added a ten-acre wood lot along the Cottonwood river in section 5 in what is now Flandreau State Park, and another forty acres in section 17 for a total of one hundred thirty acres.
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Or October 24, 1893, George Helget died at the age of 80 and was buried in the New Ulm Catholic cemetery. A nephew, John Pleniger, the 33-year-old son of Wenzel's eldest sister Anna and her husband John Pleniger of Hoslau #19, joined the family in America; He worked as a hired hand on the Helget farm to pay Wenzel for his passage to the America. He later married Mary Schnobrick and was joined in America by his sister Barbara Pleniger who married a George Ries. John Pleniger died on June 28, 1949.Wenzel and Barbara continued farming in Cottonwood township and soon added another quarter section in section 19, bringing the total acreage farmed to 400 acres. Joseph Helget, Wenzel and Barbara's son, began courting a beautiful young lady from Sigel township. Mathilda Rewitzer. She was the daughter of George and Franziska Rewitzer, also immigrants from Bohemia. Joseph Helget and Mathilda Rewitzer were married in New Ulm's Holy Trinity church on May 31, 1898. Joseph was 20 years old, "Tillie" was 21. For the next 10 years the two families lived together in the small farm house in Cottonwood. Five children were born to Joseph and Tillie three of whom lived to adulthood: Wilhelmine "Minnie", born in 1900; Josephine, born in 1902, and Rosa, born in 1907.
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In May of 1908, Joseph Helget bought 120 acres of land in Sigel from his father-in-law George Rewitzer, bringing the Helget farm's' total area to 520 acres that summer. During these years of farming, the Helgets raised the usual cash crops of wheat, oats and corn, tended milk cows, raised hogs for slaughter, and raised chickens and geese. They also had a large vegetable garden. In the winter time, Joseph would hunt along the river bottoms for fresh game. He also cut wood from the wood lot to sell for fuel to residents of New Ulm. In the spring of 1909, Joseph fell victim to typhoid fever. After a very short illness, he died on March 8, leaving three young daughters and his elderly parents to be cared for by his widow, Tillie. His death certificate lists the official cause of death as Pneumonia. Tillie soon decided to move to New Ulm. She rented out the farm, and auctioned the livestock and farm equipment. She bought a house at 327 North Washington Street. It was her desire to be near the Catholic church and school. It was there that Barbara Helget, age 78, died of asthma on a very hot and sultry 30th of June in 1916. A heart-broken Wenzel had a stroke shortly thereafter and was hospitalized. He died after a long stay in the hospital on June 19, 1917, at the age of 73, less than a year after his beloved wife.
Manfred
Kolbeck
