A short bio on
Gottlieb Diede (Sr.??) is included in the "
Sheridan County '89 - A Centenniel Project" book. For those who haven't seen it:
Gottlieb Diede
Gottlieb Diede and Pauline
Enders were married in 1893. As newlyweds they left their homeland of Russia and arrived at
New York on July 4, 1893.
Another important July 4th was the birthday of thier first child, Mrs. Sophie Freitz Derheim.
After spending 2 days in
New York, they continued on to Sykeston,
North Dakota, then the end of the Northern
Pacific branchline. They spent the winter working on a farm. The following spring they settled on a homestead at Manfred, ND where they built their first homestead of sod.
Mr. Diede said his biggest challenge was the numerous rocks on his land which had to be cleared before he could break the land. Seeing all those rocks, he almost decided to go back to Russia. He said there you had to travel 125 miles to find enough rocks for wieghing down sauerkraut.
He lived on his homestead for 8 years the moved to Anamoose, where he operated a drag line for a year before moving to
McClusky.
Two teams of oxen were used in farming operations. Grain was sown by the broadcast method while he carried their 2 year old on his back. His wife operated the harrow with a tem of oxen to complete the planting process.
The Diede's had 14 children. Mrs. Diede and 2 children died in an epidemic of cholera.
Mr. Diede has been a member of the Adventist Church for more than 60 years.
[based on the 1893 marriage date, it appears that this biography was written some time before the compilation of the Sheriday County '89 book - date uncertain - dlc]