Name/Title
Ackerman family: George Valentine Jr and Agnes (Kneip) Ackerman, farmers in Herberg Township, Traill County, North DakotaEntry/Object ID
2025.231.1Description
An Ackerman family history folder in the Resource Room of the Plummer House Museum in Hillsboro, ND has information about George Valentine Ackerman Jr. and Agnes Mary Kneip, who are shown in photos taken in about 1968 (left) and earlier with Agnes' sister Gertrude Kneip and George's brother Ferdinand Ackerman (below). The information in this folder is largely based on information compiled and written by Karen (Fleischer) Ackerman, included below from pages 12, 13 and 14 in a 57-page family history document titled "Ackerman_Genealogy.pdf" and below from pages 16, 17 & 18 in a 78-page document titled "Kneip_Genealogy.pg. These documents were scanned by Karen's granddaughter Jackie (Ausk) Baumgartner who kindly contributed it to the TCHS, where they are available for viewing as a printed document and on a PC from a USB flash-drive kept in the Louis Ackerman folder (see Catalogit family history entry 2025.229.1) in the Resource Room of the Plummer House Museum in Hillsboro, ND.
George Valentine Ackerman Jr. was born on 15 October 1906, the first of six children born in New Rockford, ND, to George V. Sr. and Nettie (Adams) Ackerman. George Ackerman Jr. married Agnes Mary Kneip on 16 November 1932 in Ada, MN, ND. Agnes Mary Kneip was born on 2 February 1909 in Bridgewater, Adair County, Iowa, to parents John P. and Margaret (Beitz) Kneip.
George V. Jr. and Agnes (Kneip) Ackerman had ten children who were born in places including Ada, and Halstad, MN, and by Hillsboro and in Fargo, ND (see pages 13 and 14 below). George Jr. and Agnes Ackerman's ten children, with nine living to be adults, were Delores Marie (b. 1936, d. 2025), Infant girl (b. 1938, d. 1938), Bernard George (b. 1940, living), Elroy Joseph (b. 1942, living), Cathy Ann (b. 1944, living), Leo Anthany (b. 1947, living), Eddie Paul (b. 1949, living), Earl Francis (b. 1951, d. 2017), Mary Ann (b. 1954, living), and John Peter (b. 1957, d. 2022). For more about their children go to Ancestry.com and search for the Ackerman/Kneip/Fleischer/Hagen Family Tree by Jackie Ausk.
Of significance is that many of George V. Jr. and Agnes (Kneip) Ackerman's children, and their children, continue as residents of Traill County. For example, their first daughter, Delores Marie Ackerman (shown as a girl in a photograph with her parents and siblings, below) married Kenneth G. Vettel of Caledonia (see page 15, below). Ken and Delories married on 19 May 1955 in Hillsboro, farmed by Caledonia, and had six children, David, Rose, Ernest, Kathleen, Diane and Cynthia.
George V. Jr. and Agnes (Kneip) Ackerman's first son, Bernard George Ackerman was born on 6 April 1940 in Halstad, MN. He attended agriculture school in Crookston, MN, and served in the Air Natl. Guard. Bernard married Karen Fleischer on 30 December 1963 in Hillsboro. Karen was a descendant of pioneer Fleischer and Bohnsack families of southern Traill County (see TCHS Catalogit family history entry 2022.358.1). Bernard and Karen Ackerman had two daughters (see page 21, below), including Theresa and Debora Ackerman. Theresa married Steven Ausk, and they had three children, Jackie, Chelsea, and David Ausk.
George V. Jr. and Agness (Kneip) Ackerman's son Leo Anthony Ackerman was born on 7 January 1947 in Ada, MN. He married Shirley Kay Salo on 30 December 1970 in Hillsboro. Leo and Shirley Ackerman farm east of Hillsboro.
George V. Jr. and Agness (Kneip) Ackerman's youngest daughter, Mary Ann Ackerman was born on 25 March 1954 (see page 35, below). She married Rick Hofer in 1974, but they divorced in 1987. In 1989, Mary Ann (Ackerman) Hofer married Jeff Kress, Hillsboro businessman.
George V. Jr. and Agnes (Kneip) Ackerman farmed five miles east of Hillsboro (see page 12, below). As shown in a 1952 Atlas plat map (below), their farmstead was located in the NE Qtr. of Sect. 6 in Herberg Township, Traill County. George and Agnes raised their children on their farm where they worked until they retired in 1970 after their son Earl Ackerman took of farm operations.
Agnes Kneip wrote a brief summary of her Beitz and Kneip ancestors (below). Also, Agnes and George Ackerman's son, John Ackerman, passed away in 2022 (obituary, Hillsboro Banner, below).
George Valentine Ackerman Jr passed away, age 70, on August 9, 1977, on the home farm in Herberg Township [Obituary, Hillsboro Banner, 25 August 1977, below]. In 1978, after Geroge passed, Agness moved into the town of Hillsboro, where she was active in community organizations such as Pioneer Daughters. Agnes (Kneip) Ackerman died, age 79, on 29 April 1988 [Obituary, Hillsboro Banner, 9 May 1988, below]. They were both interred in St. Rose Cemetery in Hillsboro, ND.
Additional facts about George V. Jr. and Agnes (Kneip) Ackerman, and their ancestors and descendants, can be explored in the Ancestry.com Ackerman/Kneip/Fleischer/Hagen Family Tree created by Jackie Ausk.Acquisition
Accession
2025.231Source or Donor
Karen (Fleischer) Ackerman, Jackie (Ausk) BaumgartnerLocation
* Untyped Location
Resource RoomBuilding
Plummer House
