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- Findagrave.com:
findagrave.com/memorial/9525846/conrad-klundt
1920 Census WA, Frankin Co = Husband of Christina and father of Jacob E, John H, Henry, Julia, Gustave, Edith S & Walter A; Mother, Julie (aged 84) living with them.
Jeff George Augustin:
Notes: Conrad immigrated to the United States in May 1889. He and his family left from Hamburg Germany on 15 April and arrived in Baltimore, MD on May 3, 1889. They sailed on the German Ship SS Hungaria. After joining his brother Jacob in South Dakota, the entire family moved to Streeter, North Dakota 1889.
From Streeter, Jacob and Conrad moved to the State of Washington in 1903.
Arrived May 19, 1903
Conrad was naturalized Nov 9, 1899 in Stutsman County District Court, North Dakota. Fifth Judicial District of North Dakota.
Conrad lived at Page Washington until 1927, retired as a farmer and moved to Pullman Washington. He returned to Pasco, Washington in 1943 and lived there until his death.
Historical Sketch of Page, Washington
By Melvin Walker 1947
This is a historical sketch of Page, a typical prairie village in Eastern Washington, and of the Klundt family whose contemporary history so nearly coincides with that of Page. The Klundt family here mentioned includes Mr. Jacob Klundt, his wife Mary, and their ten children; Charles, Jake, August,
Edward, Henry, Peter, Julia, Katherine, Elizabeth and Sophia. Charles Klundt, who was part owner of the store and first postmaster of Page, still owns some of the land in the vicinity. He contributed most of the information for this story.
Inasmuch as the Jacob Klundt family pioneered in America from Europe we shall note something of their previous history. In 1884 the Klundt family left Odessa, Russia, to come to the Land of Promise. They settled first on a farm in Mitchell County, South Dakota, and after a year or two they moved to the
city of Alexander, South Dakota. While they were living there Mr. Klundt's mother, five brothers (Conrad was one of the brothers) and one sister - three families in all -- joined them from Russia in 1889.
In 1889, Jacob Klundt, his family and his relatives moved with their belongings to North Dakota by covered wagon. One of the three covered wagons was pulled by a team of horses and the other two by ox teams. At night the party camped by the roadside, dug a hole in the bank of the creek and made a fire on which to cook. The horses were staked out for the night and oxen were turned loose.
After 12 days the party of 20 people arrived at Dakem, North Dakota where Jacob took up a homestead 40 miles from the nearest railroad. They built a sod house and a sod barn. The only lumber in the buildings were the window frames and doors. the roof was constructed of round poles, straw and sod. The sod walls were about two feet thick.
On his homestead Mr. Klundt and his son Charles sowed the grain by hand and cut it with a hay mower. Then they threshed it by spreading it on the bare ground and driving a team of horses in a circle over it. The chaff and dirt were separated from the grain by tossing it all up in the air and letting the wind blow away the chaff and dirt.
The children got only one pair of shoes a year and that was in the fall. By spring the shoes were worn out and the children went barefoot until fall came again. Because of the scarcity of wood the family had to collect dry grass and cow chips for fuel. When they had produce to sell it brought very little.
Eggs sold for 6¢ a dozen, butter 6¢ pound and wool 6¢ a pound. A cow was worth fifteen or twenty dollars. Coffee could be bought for nine pounds for a dollar.
The climate of North Dakota proved too great a change from that in Southern Russia so Mr. Klundt began to look for a milder climate. In a local paper he read of some land in Franklin County, Washington that was for sale. Early in 1902, Mr. Klundt came to look for a location in Franklin County. At Pasco he got acquainted with a man that had some land 20 miles from Pasco, up the Snake River. He bought the unimproved land and went back to get his family. They sold all their belongings in North Dakota for thirteen thousand dollars.
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Klundt and their children left North Dakota in December 1902 and traveled by train to Spokane where they stayed for three or four months, until spring. They had with them just their bedding, clothes, and cooking utensils.
In April, 1903 the family arrived in Franklin County, Washington which was to be their new home. Inasmuch as the land Mr. Klundt had bought was unimproved, he began looking for a home for his family. He heard about a place owned by Dan Page that was for sale. This place was a section of land with improvements, and was only about 4 miles from Mr. Klundt's unimproved land. Mr. Page had homesteaded the place and built the Fishhook Ferry which crossed the Snake River near the house located on this section of land. He sold the ferry and the improved section of land for $7,000 and the Klundts took possession of their new home.
Mr. Klundt's brother, Conrad, and his family joined them from North Dakota and lived about 2½miles from the ferry as their nearest neighbor. The Klundts liked their new home and as times passed Mr. Klundt was able to add to his land holdings until he owned about 1,750 acres by 1907. Eventually, about a thousand acres was plowed and sowed to wheat, and the remainder of the land was pasture and rocks. The necessary farm implements; plows, harrow, binder, wagons, etc., were purchased at Walla Walla.
The Fishhook Ferry was started in 1888 by Dan Page and a Mr. Hannegan. After the Klundts took over, a new ferry was built which was 14 feet wide, 60 feet long and 3 feet high, with a flat top and railing around it. Operating the ferry was one of the most important activities around the farm. Many new settlers were coming to Franklin County then, and a good route lay across the Klundt farm and
Fishhook Ferry. Wheat farmers took their grain across the river from the Klundt farm to the warehouse along the railroad tracks of the OWR&N. It cost them one cent a bushel to get the wheat ferried over the river.
The ferry was pushed by the current of the river and guided by a 7/8 inch steel cable that was stretched across the river. The sixteen hundred foot cable was anchored into the rock hill on one side of the river and fastened to a tripod on the other side. The tripod was braced by a cable anchored to a barrel in the ground. From time to time the brace had to be tightened. The two brass pulleys at the top of the tripod had to be replaced about every two to four months, at a cost of thirty dollars. The 150 feet of rope running over the pulleys was used to propel the ferry at the edge of the river where the current was slow. One man was able to operate the ferry alone.
People who wanted to come from the other side of the river could call for the ferry by ringing a large dinner bell. The Klundts lived only a short distance from one end of the ferry crossing. Prices for crossing on the ferry were as follows 25¢ per person, 50¢ per two-horse team, 75¢ per four-horse team, 1¢ per head of sheep, 10¢ each for cows and horses. Four-horse teams were the most
common type of ferry passengers. Four such teams could load on the ferry at one time. It could carry 20 cattle or 200 sheep.
Many Indians crossed the river by ferry on their way to Yakima for the hop picking. Most of them were from tribes living in Idaho. All their personal belongings were carried on pack horses. At the Klundts they bought hay for their ponies. The squaws, who carried the money, always tried to Jew down the
price of the hay, but never tried to steal anything. If the Indians camped overnight they always were on their way by sunrise.
Occasionally a steamboat came up the river carrying freight from Portland. The freight rate was cheaper than railroad but it was slow. One time when the river was high a steamboat caught its smokestack on the ferry cable but no one got hurt. It cost Mr. Klundt $125 for damages, however.
In 1907 the Spokane, Portland and Seattle railroad was built on the Klundt side of the river. Mr. Klundt sold $8,000 worth of right of way to the railroad company, which built two stations on his land, Page and Levy. This brought more business for the ferry owner but when more modern roads and trucks
came the ferry was little used and was discontinued in 1919.
When a U.S. post office was established there in 1903 it was given the name Page, after the first owner of the farm, the settlement has been known by that name ever since. The oldest son of the Klundts, Charles, was the first postmaster. His brother Jake took the job later, followed by his youngest
brother, Peter, who still runs that post office. Thus Page has had a Klundt as postmaster since its beginning. The incoming mail arrived via the OWR&N railroad at first, and the outgoing mail was dispatched on the same. The mail was carried across the river by row boat usually. The railroad station agent suspended the outgoing mail sack form a post and train picked it up without stopping. After the SP&S railroad was built all the mail was handled by it.
Just after the post office was established, Mr. Klundt started a grocery store in the same building. His sons Charles and Jake became the proprietors and owner, but they lost the entire store by fire in 1910. The insurance on it had lapsed and they had no money to rebuild or restock it. A little later their father
rebuilt the store and Peter became the operator. Another building was erected for storing feed, lumber, hardware, and other store merchandise. Eggs were taken in trade and were worth from 8 to 12¢ a dozen in the first years the store was operated. These were sold in Pasco where supplies were bought to replenish the stock in the store. Meats were butchered and sold from animals raised on the Klundt farm. In 1910 ham was worth about 13¢ a pound and bacon 14¢. Overalls were priced at 50 to 75¢ each.
In 1904 a one room school house was built about one and a half miles from Page. Later this schoolhouse became too small and was replaced by one with three rooms. This one burned down one morning just before school was to start. The same thing occurred again after the next one was built. Finally the location was moved to Page and a new schoolhouse was built. It was not used long before it was closed for lack of pupils and stands today unused. The few children living in that community now ride the school bus to Pasco and back each day.
There was no church in the community, but the Klundts got a preacher to come and hold services every third Sunday. Sunday School was held every Sunday for many years. After the crowds got too large for the Klundt home, services were held in the schoolhouse. All services were in German until after the first World War.
One of the many projects around the Klundt farm, was caring for a two-acre vineyard with several kinds of grapes. Many of the grapes were used in making wine which was stored in a wine cellar. The vineyard and an orchard were irrigated from a water tank, built by the Klundts. A windmill was used to
pump the water into the tank.
The cattle raised on the farm were sold first in Kennewick and later in Pasco. These towns were both small in the early 1900s. Pasco had two small grocery stores with dry goods and hardware, a post office about 12 feet by 14 feet, and 8 or 10 saloons. It was a division point for the railroad and had a big roundhouse.
Walla Walla was a good sized town before 1910, and had its share of saloons, also. Harvest hands used to congregate there to celebrate.
Harvesting was one of the busiest seasons of the year for the Klundts. The 1,000 acres of wheat land would be a good sized farm even with modern equipment, but in the prewar years there were no combines. Headers were used in cutting the grain which was put into large stacks. After all the grain
was cut, a large threshing machine made the rounds to each stack and worked many weeks. Mr.Charles Klundt operated a threshing machine for 14 years before he bought a combine. The latter was pulled by 8 horses. Mr. Klundt worked for $2.50 a day with wagon and team in harvest, when he first
came to Washington.
A favorite sport of the Klundt brothers was fishing in the Snake River. They caught three large sturgeon, the largest of which weighed 160 pounds and was 6 feet long. It took two men in a row boat to land a sturgeon. Although it was unlawful to catch them, the brother set a line several hundred feet long and placed a 6 inch hook every foot, and a float and sinker every two feet. The line was tied at the bank of the river and weighted at the outer end. Salmon as well as sturgeon were caught on this line. The largest salmon caught, weighed 38 lbs. and Mr. Klundt says it was very good eating. He built the row boats which were 18 feet long and 3 feet wide.
One by one the Klundt brothers and their families moved away until only Henry and Peter remained. In 1939 both Mr. Jacob Klundt and his wife passed away. There remains little today that indicates the variety of activities that once existed at Page, Washington. The picturesque covered wagon and the
romance of pioneer life is gone, but the toil and hardships endured by those early settlers is not forgotten.
Revised in 1968
When Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River was completed in 1961 a huge lake was formed, covering the site of Page with many feet of water.
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1859 - 1945 (85 Jahre)
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