THE RIECKENS IN NEBRASKA AND WESTERN CANADA

1868- Nickolaus Riecken migrated to Douglas County, Nebraska. He married Kathrine Tietgen of Germany on Dec. 12, 1868, in Nebraska and they farmed near Elkhorn.

1880- August Riecken migrated to Douglas County, Nebraska. He remained unmarried.

1887- Ottilie Riecken, oldest daughter of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken of Germany, came alone to Elkhorn, Nebraska, having received the fare from her uncle, August Riecken. Ella Riecken, their second daughter, also travelled alone to Elkhorn, Nebraska.

1891 -on Oct. 6th, Ottilie Riecken married Franklin Israel Reber in Omaha and they travelled to Germany for their honeymoon. Frank Reber´s first wife had died and he had three daughters, Ella, Minnie and Lucy, from his first marriage.

1894- Heinrich and Dorothea Riecken and their family, Otto, Marie, Ida, John, Frieda, Max, and Bill, migrated from Germany to Elkhorn, Nebraska. The exact time of their arrival is not known, but Alice Reber Hill, born in January of 1894, was told that she was a baby when her mother's family arrived in Nebraska. A receipt, signed by Henry Riecken in Nebraska, bears the date of March 1, 1895.

1895- On March 22nd, Ella Riecken, daughter of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, married her cousin, Julius Riecken, son of Nickolaus and Kathrine Riecken. They farmed in the Elkhorn district of Nebraska.

1896- Ottilie and Frank Reber and their daughter, Alice, moved by train to Stuttgart, Arkansas. Their horses took swamp fever and only two out of 22 survived. Heinrich and Dorothea Riecken followed the Rebers to Arkansas. They travelled by covered wagon along with their sons, Max, Bill, Otto, and Edward of the Nickolaus Riecken family. Their daughters, Ida, Marie, and Frieda, travelled by train. The families did not prosper in Arkansas and they returned to Elkhorn by train.

1899- On May 21st, Ida Riecken, daughter of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, married Hans Sass who had also migrated from Germany. They remained in Nebraska and farmed in the Elkhorn district.

1900- on Feb. 21st, Marie Riecken, daughter of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, married her cousin Harry Riecken, son of Nickolaus and Kathrine Riecken.

-Anna Riecken, daughter of Nickolaus and Kathrine Riecken, married Henry Fedde in or around this year. Both families farmed in the Elkhorn district.

1901 -on June lst or 2nd, Frieda Riecken, daughter of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, married Edward Riecken of the Nickolaus Riecken family in Nebraska.

-On Dec. 14th, Otto Riecken, son of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, married Mary Friedrichsen at Bennington, Nebraska, and farmed in Nebraska until 1906.

-Frank and Ottilie Reber and family moved to Indian Territory, later named Oklahoma, but stayed there for only a year. They returned to Elkhorn and the family stayed with Heinrich and Dorothea Riecken while Frank Reber searched for new land in Western Canada. In 1902, he travelled to Davidson in the North West Territories of Saskatchewan and Assiniboia which became the Province of Saskatchewan in 1905. He purchased land from the Saskatchewan Valley Land Company which was located east of the village of Girvin.

1902- on Oct. 29th, Bill Riecken, son of Nickolaus and Kathrine Riecken, married Margaret Aye in Nebraska and they farmed in the Elkhorn district.

1903- on April 18th, the Rebers with daughters Alice and Lorena arrived in the town of Davidson in the North West Territories of Saskatchewan and Assiniboia. After staying a few days in a Davidson hotel, they lived in a tent at Davidson, also Girvin, and later on their land. The land east of Girvin was exchanged for land situated four miles west and one mile south of Girvin. This was also nine miles south of Davidson on the Third Meridian and they were the first settlers in that district west of the Third Meridian. Supplies and three cows were purchased in Lumsden and brought to Girvin by train. In Pennsylvania Dutch tradition, Frank Reber's first building on their farm was a combination of house and barn. A lean-to was added to the house to provide shelter for the animals. This was the first building erected in the township and still stands on the same farm yard, serving as a granary for grain. Only one other family lived in the area before the Rebers arrived and they were located in the township across the road. Soon more settlers arrived in the district and as soon as there were twelve children of school age, application was made to the Government for a grant to erect a school and hire a teacher. A white frame school house was built on the Third Meridian, eight miles south of Davidson, four miles west of Girvin, and was given the name of Reber School District #1151.

1906- on Feb. 16th, John Riecken, son of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, married Elise Kruse at Elkhorn, Nebraska, and farmed in the district until 1921.

In April, Heinrich and Dorothea Riecken and their sons, Max and Bill, moved from Nebraska to the Girvin district in Saskatchewan, buying land west of the Reber farm. Otto and Mary Riecken and their children, Hans, John and Louise, also moved to the same district, living the first year in a small building on the Reber farm and later buying land nearby. Frank Reber then replaced their first home with a two-storey white house and he later sold this home and land to Ed and Frieda Riecken of Elkhorn. Frank Reber bought new land west of Reber School from the Hudson Bay Company.

1907- In March, Ed and Frieda Riecken and their children, Henry, Howard and Leona, arrived in the Reber district and moved into the house previously built by Frank Reber. Max Riecken "homesteaded" on land a few miles south of Elbow, Saskatchewan, which he later sold, and in that district the school was given the name of Riecken School. To obtain homestead land, Canadian citizens paid $10.00 to "file" on 160 acres (one-quarter section of land) and three years later it was their property, provided they "proved" their claim by living on the land a certain length of time each year and cultivating a designated number of acres. Both Heinrich and Ed Riecken "filed" for homestead land several miles west in the Sprattsville district. Ed Riecken had received his papers and then was notified that some one else had first claim to that piece of land. Heinrich Riecken sold his land as soon as he had "proved" his rights to it.

1908- In November, Henry Fedde, husband of Anna Riecken Fedde, was killed when a team of runaway horses caused a wagon to upset and crush his neck. Five months later in April, their third son was born and was named Raymond. In May of 1913, Anna Fedde married John Behrens and they remained on the same farm at Elkhorn. Four years later they moved to Mead, Nebraska, and in 1928 they moved to Waterloo, Nebraska.

1914- After spending the winter months in Elkhorn, Bill Riecken, son of Heinrich and Dorothea Riecken, married Elizabeth Hamann on Feb. 2nd in Nebraska, and in March he took his young bride to the Reber district west of Girvin.

1916- On June 24th, Heinrich Riecken died at the age of 79 years and was buried at Girvin, Saskatchewan. Dorothea, his widow, returned to Elkhorn for 5 years.

1917- On August 14th, Max Riecken, son of Heinrich and Dorothea Riecken, married Rena Witte of Bennington, Nebraska. They farmed land west of Girvin, Sask.

1919- On Feb. 13th, Kathrine Riecken, wife of Nickolaus Riecken, died at the age of 73 years and was buried in Mount Auburn cemetery near Millard, Nebraska.

1921 -John and Lise Riecken and their daughters, Irene, Ella, Amanda, Laura, and Alice, moved from Elkhorn to the Reber district west of Girvin, Saskatchewan. Ed and Frieda Riecken built a larger home and the two-storey house originally built by Frank Reber was moved a mile across the field to the land purchased by John Riecken. Dorothea Riecken returned to the Reber district with the John Riecken family in order to help with their daughter, Irene, who was an invalid. After IreneIs death at the age of 14 in 1922, Dorothea Riecken stayed for some time with Bill and Elizabeth Riecken at her home farm, and then lived the rest of her life with her daughter, Frieda, and Ed Riecken.

1925- On May 24th, Bill Riecken, youngest son of Heinrich and Dorothea Riecken, died at the age of 34 years and was buried in the Girvin cemetery. The ages of his five children ranged from one to ten years. After a year of hiring farm workers, Elizabeth Riecken rented her land to Elmer Mason and moved with her family to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1927. She sold the land a few years later and on Feb. 22, 1933, she married Tom McCarlie in Saskatoon.

1928- On Jan. 27th, Franklin Reber, husband of Ottilie Riecken Reber, died at the age of 77 years and was buried at Girvin, Saskatchewan.

1929- On Jan. 12th, Dorothea Riecken, wife of brothers Andreas and Heinrich Riecken, died at age 78 and was buried in the cemetery west of Girvin, Saskatchewan.

1930- On Sept. 11th, Lena Riecken Lebbert, daughter of Nickolaus and Kathrine Riecken and wife of Frank Coates, Philip Geise, and John Lebbert, died at the age of 50 years and was buried at Millard, Nebraska. 1932- On March 14th, Nickolaus Riecken died at the age of 89 years and was buried in Mount Auburn cemetery near Millard, Nebraska.

1933- On Jan. 22nd, Marie Riecken, wife of Harry Riecken and daughter of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, died at age 55 years and was buried at Millard, Nebraska.

-On Aug. 3rd, Margaret Aye Riecken, wife of Bill Riecken, died at the age of 53 years and was buried at Elkhorn, Nebraska.
-John and Lise Riecken and their daughters, Amanda, Laura and Alice, moved to Moose Range in northern Saskatchewan. Ella Riecken, daughter of John and Lise Riecken, had married Roy Riecken, son of Ed and Frieda Riecken, and they continued to farm in the Reber district west of Girvin, Saskatchewan.

1937- On Mar. 18th, Edward Riecken of the Nickolaus and Kathrine Riecken family died at the age of 68 years and was buried at Girvin, Saskatchewan.

1940- On July 26th, August Riecken died in Nebraska the day before his 94th birthday. -On Sept. 11th, Harry Riecken, son of Nickolaus and Kathrine Riecken, married Helen Plambeck (nee Schmidt) at Billings, Montana. Harry Riecken died on Dec. 9th at the age of 66 years and was buried at Millard, Nebraska.

1942- On March 7th, Otto Riecken, son of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, died at the age of 69 years and was buried at Girvin, Saskatchewan.

1943- On April 4th, Everett Behrens, son of Anna and John Behrens, became the personal radio operator for General Dwight D. Eisenhower and served in this position in Africa and Europe until the end of World War II. While on a ten-day furlough, Everett married Minnie Lou Willson an March 12, 1944, in New Orleans and three days later returned to Europe for over a year.

1946- John and Lise Riecken and their daughters, Alice and Laura, moved ta Ladysmith, near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Laura Riecken had married Roy Wolf in Saskatchewan before they moved to Vancouver Island. Amanda Riecken daughter of John and Lise Riecken, had married Hollis Lowther in Saskatchewan and they also moved ta British Columbia, living an the mainland of the province.

-Elizabeth and Tom McCarlie moved from Saskatoon, Sask., to Vancouver, B.C.

1951 -On Oct. 10th, Mary Riecken, wife of Otto Riecken, died at the age of 69 years and was buried in the cemetery west of Girvin, Saskatchewan.

-On Nov. 21st, Anna Riecken Fedde Behrens, daughter of Nickolaus and Kathrine Riecken, died at the age of 72 years and was buried at Elkhorn, Nebraska.

1958- On June 5th, Julius Riecken died at age 86 and was buried at Elkhorn, Nebraska.

-On July 3rd, Bill Riecken died at age 80 and was buried at Elkhorn, Nebraska. Julius and Bill Riecken were brothers, sons of Nickolaus and Kathrine Riecken.

1960- On July 10th, Elise Riecken, wife of John Riecken, died at the age of 74 years and was buried at Nanaimo, British Columbia.

1962- On Dec. 19th, Hans Sass, husband of Ida Riecken Sass, died at the age of 86.

1963- On April 4th, Ella Riecken, wife of Julius Riecken and daughter of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, died at age 88 years and was buried at Elkhorn, Nebraska.

-On July 13fh, Ida Riecken Sass, wife of Hans Sass and daughter of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, died at age 84 years and was buried at Elkhorn, Nebraska.

-On August 11th, Ottilie Riecken Reber, wife of Frank Reber and daughter of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, died at age 93 and was buried at Girvin, Sask.

1964- On June 22nd, Max Riecken, son of Heinrich and Dorothea Riecken, died at the age of 75 years and was buried at Girvin, Saskatchewan.

1965- On March 11th, John Riecken, son of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, died at the age of 84 years and was buried at Nanaimo, British Columbia.

-On May 30th, John Behrens, husband of Anna Riecken Fedde Behrens, died at the age of 90 years and was buried at Elkhorn, Nebraska.

1971 -On March 22, Frieda Riecken, wife of Ed Riecken and daughter of Andreas and Dorothea Riecken, died at age 86 years and was buried at Girvin, Saskatchewan. Frieda Riecken was the last of her generation of Rieckens to pass away.

1981 -Two spouses survive: Rena Riecken and Elizabeth Riecken McCarlie, widows of brothers Max and Bill Riecken, the sons of Heinrich and Dorothea Riecken.