Name/Title
Ackerman family: Joseph Ackerman, 1881 settler in Buxton Township, Traill County, DTEntry/Object ID
2023.324.1Description
This family history folder has a photograph of a threshing rig in operation. This photograph was taken on 22 September 1915 by a Grand Forks photographer and was provided to the TCHS by Mary (Berthold) DeMers, who also provided the following family history information.
This threshing rig was shared by Joseph Ackerman and Georg Berthold. Joseph and Georg were cousins. Joseph was a nephew of Georg's father, Michael Berthold. Joseph was the only living son of Michael's wife, Helena's sister, who had married Joseph's father, Jakob Ackermann in Bavaria. But, Jakob died, and Joseph's mother married Mathias Flory, and they came over to the USA with Michael and Helena Berthold in 1882.
Joseph Ackerman came to the USA in 1881, and settled on land near Buxton in Traill County, Dakota Territory. Buxton Township tax records for 1882 document that Joseph had the SE Qtr. (160 acres) of Section 11. However, by 1884, Joseph had evidently sold his farmland to Carl Hegar and Joseph went to St. Paul to earn some money.
Joseph Ackerman was a skilled carpenter and tax records indicate that he worked in St. Paul, MN, for about 10 years, having at least two children born in St. Paul. Tax records indicate that by 1894, Joseph (and family) had returned to Buxton Township, to a farm in the SE Qtr. of Section 3. As a skilled carpenter, Joseph did a lot of work for the Catholic Church and the Buxton community after he came back from St. Paul.
Tax records document that by 1903, Joseph Ackerman also owned the SW Qtr. of Section 2 in Buxton Township and by 1905, Joseph also owned the NE Qtr. of Section 10, which is shown on the plat map for Buxton Township in the 1909 Traill County Atlas. In 1909, the Joseph Ackerman family residence was in the corner of the SW Qtr. of S. 3, and a barn was located across the road in the corner of the NE Qtr. of S. 10.
Joseph Ackerman and Georg Berthold (Michael Berthold's oldest son) worked together on their lands after Michael died in 1908, as indicated by the shared threshing rig photo contributed by Mary (Berthold) DeMers.Acquisition
Accession
2023.324Source or Donor
Mary DeMers
