1.. German Russians

Part I.

October 28, 1989 Interview

The following interview was conducted by Bob Zybach with Wanda Marcks Cook at her home in Portland, Oregon on October 28, 1989.

1. German Russians

Bob Zybach: Why don't we start about the [water] spring and go back to your parents and what brought them to there [Soap Creek Valley].

Wanda Marcks Cook: Well, I can tell you about the spring after we get there.

Bob Zybach: Okay, I've got a note on it. Let's start with your mother's family: Where they came from, when they came to the United States and what took them to the Soap Creek Valley.

Wanda Marcks Cook: Well, I can't tell you what part of Germany my mother's people came from, but they moved to Wisconsin. And she was born at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and then as a young woman she moved to South Dakota with her two brothers and they had a dairy farm about three miles from Aberdeen.

Bob Zybach: Do you know your mother's maiden name?

Wanda Marcks Cook: Maurer, M-a-u-r-e-r.

Bob Zybach: And when they went to Wisconsin, do you remember about?

Wanda Marcks Cook: No, I couldn't tell you, my mother and father [Louis Guideo Marcks] were married in 1889, Ithink.

Bob Zybach: So did they get there by the railroad? That would be about railroad.

Wanda Marcks Cook: No.

Bob Zybach: Then you told me earlier about when they were in Wisconsin, the Germans moved into the hills and they had trouble clearing timber.

Wanda Marcks Cook: Well, it must. . if. . They had to work so much harder to clear and to be able to cultivate their farms. Cultivate the land.

Bob Zybach: So there was a whole colony of Germans there?

Wanda Marcks Cook: I think so. There must have been quite a few.

Bob Zybach: Do you know how they cleared the farms that they dealt with?

Wanda Marcks Cook: No, I know nothing about that.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so they went to South Dakota. Your mother's family.

Wanda Marcks Cook: Yeah. And my mother didn't know any of my father's people until after they were married. They had been married about a year and they went back to Wisconsin on a visit. And I think that's the only time that she ever met them.

Bob Zybach: Oh.

Wanda Marcks Cook: And the old man was. . she said he had a terrible temper. And. . you know, father was the ruler in the house. And he was unreasonable.

Bob Zybach: Her father-in-law was unreasonable?

Wanda Marcks Cook: Her father-in-law, yes.

Bob Zybach: Not her husband?

Wanda Marcks Cook: No.

Bob Zybach: Okay, then. . her husband's family was also a colony of Germans that had gone to

Bob Zybach: Wisconsin?

Wanda Marcks Cook: Yes.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so. . both of your parents were.

Wanda Marcks Cook: Yes, my father came from Berlin, however. My father, when he was six years old, came over in the steerage and as I understand it, they moved to Wisconsin too. And then it was the younger ones as they grew up that were the ones that scattered and moved farther west.

Bob Zybach: Was that Sheboygan, also?

Wanda Marcks Cook: I don't know.

Bob Zybach: Do you know your maternal grandmother's maiden name or your paternal grandmother's maiden name?

Wanda Marcks Cook: My mother's name was Gingerich.

Bob Zybach: Oh. Do you know how to spell that?

Wanda Marcks Cook: Nice German name.

Bob Zybach: Can you spell it?

Wanda Marcks Cook: No. G-i-n-g-e-r-i-c-h, I would imagine.

Bob Zybach: That sounds right.

Wanda Marcks Cook: Let me look when you get it down on paper.

Bob Zybach: Like my name, [anglicized]. NGangricht or something?

Wanda Marcks Cook: I have a picture of my father and mother when they were married'.

Bob Zybach: That's right on my. . Last on my list is photos. I was hoping you would have some photos, but we can do that maybe at the very last because what I like to do is to develop any kind of series of photos that you have that we can put with the tape so that the people know what you look like and what your parents look like, the people look like in Soap Creek Valley.

Wanda Marcks Cook: When my father was six years old, he was whittling and the knife slipped and cut his eye so he was blind in one eye. It changed the color. He had brown eyes naturally but the one eye that was injured was blue. They always called him the "cross eyed Dutchman." He wasn't exactly cross eyed but that one eye was slanted just a little bit.

Bob Zybach: Oh. You said he was trained to make wagons and carriages?

Wanda Marcks Cook: Well, he was only six years old when this happened.

Bob Zybach: Oh. So

Wanda Marcks Cook: But he was trained as a wagon maker, not cabinet, just a wagon maker. The wagon beds. [Perfectionist - beautiful carpentry tools, took care with them - WMC]

Bob Zybach: So then when your parents got married in 1889, that was in South Dakota?

Wanda Marcks Cook: Yes.

Bob Zybach: Then when did they. . When they first lived together in South Dakota did they farm?

Wanda Marcks Cook: No. My father was a collector for the Deere Farm Equipment. . machines, Deere machines. And he drove ponies all around the country collecting from the . . what they called the SIGem Russians". Most of them were German or Russian, but they called them "German Russians." And that would be the generation before my dad. They would be older than my dad. Not necessarily a generation, but they would be older. They would be established on their farms, [Sod shanty - dirt floors - WMC]. Of course in South Dakota everything is a straight line [property lines - WMC}, they

1 This photograph is currently in the possession of Wanda's granddaughter.