My grandfather Herman was born on the farm near St. Thomas, North Dakota on May 24, 1885. Two days before Christmas in 1913 he married Amanda Peters of Kewaunee, Wisconsin. He brought her back to North Dakota, built a farm house for her near Crystal, North Dakota, about two miles away from his father's farm, and there they spent the rest of their lives, farming the plains and raising a family of four boys and two girls.

From the time I was five until the time I was seventeen, we went on vacation from Kansas every summer up to that farm. My grandfather died in 1965, and I of course remember him only as an old man with a thick German accent, but I now like to think of him as he appears in this picture with my grandmother, which was probably taken about the time of their marriage.

I have some glass photographic plates, probably taken before 1920, of my grandfather's. Recently I have had them printed and have also made digital copies of them. Click here to see them.