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Note: Who's Who in Rushmore
Hanko Harberts (An Article in The Enterprise, Rushmore, Minnesota, Thursday, October, 31, 1935)
We introduce Hanko Harberts.
Mr. Harberts was born February 2nd, 1866 Ausfriesland, Germany, within site and sound of the great North Sea.
He was the 6th child of his parents' family of eight children-six boys and two girls.
His parents were farming people, and as the children grew old enough they learned to help work the land. Hanko, though he did not rebel against the farm work, would frequently desert it for the seashore where he would spend his time salvaging debris cast up from the sea - timbers from wrecked ships, rope, floating tubs of butter and other ships' stores, kegs and casks of this and that. After a day on the beach he would come home, laden with a special prize or money from the sale of the salvage, invigorated from his several swims, with his hair and eyebrows phosphorently gleaming in the dusk, salt encrusted as they were, and speak to his home folks of the unexpected warmth, the bouyancy and the beauty of the sea, never dreaming that some day they were all to cross the deep water.
First, two of the Harberts boys and one of the girls migrated to America and settled in Illinois.
In 1886, when Hanko was 20 years old, the remainder of the family followed them to the states. The journey was momentous for Hanko because it took 15 days for the ocean passage and he was spared seasickness: because he, and his fellow travelers were held in harbor for two days after the arrival and were then sent on a boat to Baltimore, having had only a glimpse of the skyline of the, to them, Wonder City - New York: because of the summer's night spent in a depot in some mid-west town, sleeping on thier luggage - and of a young German girl, whom some of the party discovered, standing beweildered on the station platform and weeping. Alone, unable to speak the language, she had been carried miles past her distination and being without money feared she would have to walk the distance.. The group looked out for her.
Hanko, with his parents and the other members of the family, rented a farm in Ackley, Hardin County, Iowa., and resided there for 5 years. They then moved to another farm half-way between Ackley, and Iowa Falls, Hardin County,, were they remained for a period of three years, when Mr. and Mrs. Harberts in partnership with three of the boys, bought a farm three miles east of Little Rock, Lyon County, Iowa.. There the family lived for nine years..
On his birthdate, February 2nd, in 1900, Hanko married Dina Tjaden at Little Rock. Miss Tjaden was also from the Old Country, having come to the united states from Germany when she was nine years old on a ship that labored for 21 days through foggy weather and rough seas.
Young Mr. and Mrs. Harberts rented a farm east of Rushore, Nobles County, Minnesota. for a year and then moved to Maryland.
There they purchased for $2000. a 172 acre farm - 100 acres of it in timber, complete with two sets of buildings - a 3 story house for themselves, a house for help and two barns, 2 corn cribs, smokehouse, henhouse, etc.
Mr. and Mrs. Harberts lived there for eight years, raising tomatoes, peaches, cherries, corn, wheat and four children.
Life in Maryland was very different from that to which they had been accustomed.
For one thing, there was no garbage disposal problem for the buzzards, scrawny, evil - looking birds that roosted thickly in the big pine trees that lined each wooded slope, would eat anything - picking the carcasses of dead animals to the bone and in general, acting as living garbage cans.
Mr. and Mrs. Harberts' memories of life in their Maryland home include picking a half bushel of tomatoes from a single hill, purchasing at small cost a pailful of oysters as large as a small saucer, flowers growing in profusion any and everywhere, oyster shells out - lining garden beds, oyster shells stacked near the warf factories in piles the size of a small house, a sawmill located in their timberland and cutting timber there for a year and a half, making apple and peach crates and building a fence about the yard and a hen house from thier own lumber, planting finger - thick peach trees their second year there which neted fine peach crops during their last three years of residence; the more than mile - long nets used by fishermen in Chesapeake bay; as many as 200 sails, each marked in row with its boat's number of fishing and pleasure craft in the bay at one time; muskrat trapping in the marshes; cherries by the tubful from their own trees; the nighttime shouting of men and barking of dogs hunting oppossums or coons; their neighbors sowing corn by hand; the pontoon railroad bridge across the bay; boat excursions; a trip to Baltimore following the disastrous Baltimore fire; the scarcity of autos - most traveling being done by water or wagons; the breath - taking beauty of the country side in the spring when hundreds of fruit trees were in bloom.
Mr. and Mrs. Harberts' homeplace was located near the Nanticook and Choptank rivers. They lived but 18 miles from Cambridge - and frequently visited there - where, the past saturday, President Roosevelt, was present at the dedication ceremonies opening a new drawbridge over the Choptank river.
Mr. Harberts always had a choice of negro workers as they were anxious to work for "de Westanah" who used machinery in his farming and who bestowed gifts on the bride and groom when their was a wedding in the negro quarters.
Finally, Mr. and Mrs Harberts decided, that while living was pleasant along the Chesapeake, life further west offered more oppertunities, so, with thier four young daughters, they returned to Rushmore, Nobles County, Minnesota, where they farmed on a number of places until they retired and bought thier present home in the east part of town in 1924.
There are five acres of land surrounding the house which is sufficient plus chickens and a little live stock, for both Mr. and Mrs. Harberts to ' keep a hand in' on the work of farming in which they still find complete satisfaction. Thier three youngest children, Hanko Dena and Jake, live there with them.
Mr. Harberts likes sight - seeing, his daily morning walk to town for the mail and a chat with friends, and a fond memory of shooting seven rabbits at one standing when the sport of hunting with rabbit - hounds was still extant.
He subscribes to and reads a newspaper printed in German and believes, though not influenced by his paper, that Hitler has helped rather hurt the great mass of the German people.
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