PART SEVEN Oral Histories and Family Memoirs - Mountain Light ...

VII. Elizabeth (Scheuerman) Repp and Mae (Mary Scheuerman) Geier, oral
history, Endicott, Washington, April 1, 1971 (with Richard
Scheuerman).
Our family [Henry B. and Mary (Schmick) Scheuerman] left Russia on April 3, 1888. I [Aunt
Lizzie] was six years old and Yost was eight. Deela [Catherine] was the older. There were ten children in
all from our family so some died in Russia before we left. Our home was located near the middle of
Yagada not far from the church. The boys who died may have been named Heinrich and Peter, and one of
our sisters was Katrillis for whom Deela [Catherine] was then named. One of the children accidentally
died from swinging by Grandpa‟s [Henry‟s] arms. We came on the ship with Pete [and Catherine]
Poffenroth and Adam Schmick. [Henry B. Scheuerman‟s brother, Adam, and his wife Marie were also on
the ship Hungaria which traveled from Hamburg to New York in May 1888. Their daughter, Katherine,
would later marry Adam Schmick.]
We arrived in Florence, Kansas on May 1, 1888. Our Uncle Pete was living in Kansas. He came
before Dad. We left Kansas on March 3, 1891 and arrived in Endicott on March 7. We came here with
Adam Schmick—Clara Litzenberger‟s dad. Pete Poff[enroth‟s] dad Peter had come before we did out to
the Palouse River. We all lived together at first in a three-room house on the river with “Dob Conrad”
Schierman who was a bachelor at that time.
Dad [Henry B.] was a soldier in the Russian army. He had an accident in some icy water and it
hurt his leg. He and Grandma Repp knew each other in Yagada. They traded lunches with each other. Her
maiden name was Barth. She and her sister were great jokesters. Once Mrs. Repp‟s cat had many kittens
so she put them on Mrs. Litzenberger‟s doorstep early in the morning and went back home. They were
soon back on her doorstep, and this went back and forth till they were half-grown! At Eastertime she
would also put little chicks in the nests out in the chickenhouse along with Easter eggs and a dime. The
night she died she had been out at the ranch showing dance steps.
German colonist architecture in Jagodnaja Poljana, Russia, 1993.
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