Name/Title
Berthold family: Michael & Helena (Schotthoefer) Berthold: original Homestead site, Buxton Township, Traill County, NDEntry/Object ID
2023.311.1Description
A photograph of the original Homestead site of Michael & Helena (Schotthoefer) Berthold in Buxton Township, Traill County, ND. Photographic credit to John Berthold in October 2020, their great-grandson and provided by Mary (Berthold) DeMers, their great granddaughter.Context
This family history folder contains a photo of the Michael and Helena (Schotthoefer) Berthold homestead site, kindly provided by Mary (Berthold) DeMers, who provided the following family history information.
Michael and Helena came to the USA from Bavaria in 1882. Tax records for Buxton Township in Traill County document that they settled on a farm in the SW Qtr. of Section 14 and also had the SW Qtr. of Section 11. By 1895, Michael had transferred the 160 acres in Section 11 to his son, Ferdinand Berthold, and also in 1895 Georg Berthold was the owner of the SW Qtr. of Section 15 in Buxton Township.
The Buxton Township plat map in the 1909 Traill County Atlas shows with a black dot that Michael and Helena Berthold's farmstead was located in the southeast corner of the SW Qtr. of Sect. 14. Their son Ferdinand had a farmstead located in the SW Qtr. of Sect. 11, and son Georg had a farmstead in the SW Qtr. of Sect. 15.
As shown in a family tree, Georg Berthold was Mick Berthold's oldest son born in Bavaria. Ferdinand Berthold was Mick's middle son. The Berthold family did well as farmers in Buxton Township and gave back to the community, serving for example on the school board. Before there was a Catholic church in the area, Michael and Helena held prayer services in their home as did his sister-in-law, Mrs. Mathias Flory. Georg and Ferdinand donated money to get a Catholic church built and donated stained glass windows for the new church once it was built. Michael Berthold also donated land for a Catholic cemetery. His nephew made the wrought iron railing at the church and the gate at the cemetery once it was built as well.
Joseph Berthold, Mick and Helena's youngest son married one of the members of the families that came together from Germany in the 1880s; they moved to Canada in pursuit of homestead land there when that opened up in the early 1900s (about 1904, I think), where he was successful as well. He also got a land patent in Yellowstone County in Montana about ten years later. His niece followed him out there and homesteaded on 320 acres herself in Big Horn County. Mary DeMersAcquisition
Accession
2023.311Source or Donor
Mary DeMers
