Fred Haberkamp

85-Year Old Fred Haberkamp Lives in Same House in Which He Was Born Recalls When Fishing in Creek Was Profitable And Firemen’s Picnics With Hand-Pushed Merry-Go-Round

Fred Haberkamp of R. F. D. 3, St. Marys, living about a mile northeast of New Knoxville, was born in the house in which he now lives almost 85 years ago, and has lived in that same house all his life.  January 15, 1866 is the date.  And next March 5, he and his wife Louise Wiethoff Haberkamp will have been married 60 years.

“I have always lived on this farm.  This house is older than I am.  I have seen a lot of changes during my life, but my own life has been rather quiet and uneventful,” Mr. Haberkamp says modestly.  He attended the public school at New Knoxville, was confirmed at the Evangelical and Reformed church there and has been a life long active member.  He was early introduced to the sorrows of life as can be gathered from the fact that he is today the lone survivor of a family of 11 children, only three of whom grew to maturity.  He recalled how one of his brothers as a lad, had been out gathering hickory nuts on a certain Fall afternoon, was seized with cramps that evening and died that night.  Although eight of his brothers and sisters had died before reaching maturity, nothing ever touched Mr. and Mrs. Fred Haberkamp as keenly as when their own daughter Hilda Haberkamp died in 1917 at the age of 24 (she was a telephone operator at New Knoxville), and when their granddaughter, Margaret Meckstroth, a senior in the New Knoxville high school died in April, 1941.  “Those were two hard blows.”  Mr. and Mrs. Haberkamp both affirmed.

Having enjoyed nearly 60 years of married life together, both realize that they are living on borrowed time and a note of gratitude dominates their lives.  When we came to their home, Mrs. Haberkamp was helping her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Arnold Haberkamp (Marie Holl) can corn.  “My husband is out on the farm somewhere, but he ought to be back just any time,” she said.  That was around 2 P. M.  When it got to be near 3 P. M. she became worried and sent her granddaughter out to look for him.  But he was nowhere to be found.  Not until about 4 o’clock did he put in his appearance, to the great relief of his bride of 60 summers.  He had been over the farm, inspecting crops and fences.  “I am so thankful he’s back,” she said.  “And we are so thankful for our long married life together.  The Lord has certainly been good to us.  Just think, we still can go to church together, we are both active and up and around, and we have so much to be thankful for.”

Since we are inclined to remember both the pleasant and the utterly unpleasant things of life, he did not speak much of the long dreary, weary hours of farm work that he put in as a lad.  Especially vivid in memory were the aforementioned deaths in the family, and the pleasant things.  Knowing that his two sons, Gustave and Arnold Haberkamp are ardent fishermen, we were wondering if they had acquired their fondness for that sport from their dad.  They probably did.  Said Father Haberkamp: “Happy days were those when, with a buck board we would drive to Lake St. Marys for a day of fishing.  There were the times when the mud was so deep that one of us would have to walk so that the horse could pull the load.  To come home with a tub half full of fish was nothing unusual.  And fishing was good in the creek. That was before it was dredged.  Why, sometimes during the noon rest period, we boys would catch a mess of fish in an hour, sunfish, suckers, cat fish and grass pike.  When we were first married my wife and I sometimes went to the creek during the noon hour and would catch a nice mess.  Clearing the land was an endless task when he was a lad.  Snakes were plentiful and they had a good snake dog.  Excitement would run high when their dog “Bubbles” would dispatch an exceptionally big specimen to the happy hunting ground.  Hospitality of those old times also is well remembered by Mr. Haberkamp.  On a given day he and his father might have entered upon another day of clearing the land.   Then a horse and buggy would be seen coming down the road.  Wonderful. Wonderful, WONDERFUL, if it turned into the Haberkamp lane!  For that meant company for the day and father would say—“That’s all for today.  We have company!”  That would always make the boys very very happy.

Fred Haberkamp and the other boys of his age group always attended church at New Knoxville on Sunday evenings. When church services were over the young people would gather on the street corner at church and then and there the local boys would ask the local girls—“May I take you home?”  One night Fred Haberkamp asked this question of Louise Wiethoff. Louise was eight years younger than Fred, and she was, in fact, quite young.  Louise a said “YES.”  It must have been love at first sight, although they had often seen each other before—at church.  (Where better than at church to meet your life mate?)  His father died around that time and his mother desperately needed help at home.  They would have to hire some one.  But Fred had other ideas and so he took matters in hand.  Instead of hiring somebody, Fred married Louise.  He was 25 and she was 17.  Pastor Kuckherman married them—and it will be 60 years ago next March 5.  “The house wasn’t plastered and the rafters were bare when I first came here,” Louise said.

Both affirm that their 60 years together have been uneventful, but persistent questioning brought out some items of interest.  I asked “How large is your farm?”  “I don’t know,” said Mr. Haberkamp.  “I have to go look it up.”  He went and got his tax duplicates.  Then he said—“Take down these figures and add them up.”  And these were the figures:  (in acres) 25.05, 6.75, 13.66, 1.40, 3.50, 1.76, 23.21.  I didn’t have time to add these figures but he said he thought it was around 75 acres!  He explained that he had sold and bought various plots and lots and that he had once owned what is today a part of New Knoxville Village.  This includes the land now occupied by the New Knoxville Legion Hall and the land now owned by Mrs. Anna Katterheinrich, W. W. Katterheinrich, Mrs.  John Kuck, Fred Grewe, New Knoxville Sheet Metal, et al.

Neighborhood social life of not so long ago was also recalled.  These included “wakes,” where neighbors would remain for the night when a member of a family had passed away.  But especially he remembers ice cream parties among his immediate neighbors.  This would regularly include the Fred Haberkamp family, the George Haberkamps, the George Katterheinrichs  Ice cream would be home made,  all you wanted, with a side dish of crispy crunchy soda crackers.  In winter they would have parties at which the men played Carom and where apples and popcorn constituted the refreshments.  “I (Fred Haberkamp) and my nephew Ferd Haberkamp would play against George Haberkamp and George Katterheinrich.  In that way father would play against son and son against father.

Then he also recalled a certain “run-away.”  “I was a Township Trustee at the time.  So was Lewis Holtkamp.  We had been to a county meeting at Wapak and it got dark before we got back.  There was lots of snow and we went to Wapak by sled.  At the Leonard Henkener farm my horse got scared at something and ran away on us.  The sled upset, we tumbled out, and away went the horse with the sled.  The sled soon hit a post and stayed there, but the horse kept on running.  We couldn’t follow it, so we walked home.  My son Gustave then got out the lantern, went to the place where we upset and followed the tracks in the snow.  He finally found the horse in George Hoelscher’s woods, about 3 miles from home.

Mr.  Haberkamp owns land in Michigan.  In the winter of 1928 he and his son Gust went there and cleared about an acre and fenced it in.  That was in April.  They planted an orchard in the clearing and were looking forward to harvesting Michigan fruit such as one reads about.  The next time they went there only two broken down trees remained, plus the anchor post of the fence.  “All the rest of the trees and the fence posts had been stolen.  It is today covered with sassafras trees.  “I guess absentee ownership doesn’t pay,” Mr. Haberkamp mused.

The New Knoxville Picnic Ground was once on the Haberkamp property.  “It was north and east of where the Legion Hall today stands.  The Firemen would have their annual picnic there.  They used the Merry-go round (hand pushed) which is still in storage somewhere, and which was built by the late Henry Stukenbroke.  Then, northeast of the present George Mertz property was a gravel pit and fish pond.  There was also a mill race on my farm at one time, but that we filled in after it was no longer being used.  It used to be filled with frogs, snakes and turtles.  But it is all filled up today.”

Mr. Haberkamp, who is keenly interested in current affairs, says “If the world were really getting better we wouldn’t be having the Korean situation today,” and he daily follows world and local news.  His wife is the last living charter member of the Ladies Aid of their church.  Both took part in telling of the days when they went fishing together, (as recent as last summer), when they operated a sorghum mill for 12 years (which required that he had to cut wood all winter for fuel), how they took part in neighborhood butcherings, threshings, apple-butter making, etc.  The greatest excitement in recent years was the total destruction by fire of the Broiler Plant on their farm in 1940.  This was operated by their son Arnold who, together with his father farms the home farm.  Four thousand chickens, from chicks to grown hens, perished in the fire.

Of Mr. Haberkamp’s brothers and sisters, 8 died in youth.  His sister, Mrs. George Deerhake, died many years ago and his brother, George, died April 2, 1938.  Of the Fred Haberkamp children, Hilda died in 1917.  The living are Leona (Mrs. Harry Meckstroth), R. R., Botkins; Gustave of New Knoxville; Bertha (Mrs. Russel  Ekleberry) of Jackson, Michigan, and Arnold, at home.  They have four grandchildren.

NOTE:   The Fred Haberkamp farm was located at what is now 07412 Moulton Angle Road.