Father's Parents
John Tschetter & Susanna Mendel Tschetter
Mother's Parents:
Joshua Stahl & Barbara Stahl
Father & Mother:
Father: Jacob Tschetter (1884-1970)
Mother: Katie Stahl Tschetter (1895-1995)
Children:
#1: Viola (1914-2006) Grave, Cemetery
#2: Art (1916-2014) Obit, Grave, Cemetery
#3: Violet (1925-2022)
#4: Toby (1928-2013) Obit, Grave, Mausoleum, Cemetery, Ruth, Ruth Obit, Ruth Program
#5: Doris (1930-)
Jacob & Katie Tschetter
Katie's father was Joshua Stahl Sr., born September 17, 1865, in South Russia (the son of Paul and Katherna Stahl), and died in Huron Hospital, October 28, 1925. Katie's mother was Barbara Tschetter, born October 8, 1865, in South Russia (the daughter of David and Maria Tschetter), and died at the home of Joshua B. Stahl, January 29, 1940. Between 1885 and 1906, Joshua and Barbara had 12 children, 5 of whom died in infancy. Katie was the 7th child, born April 26, 1895.
Jacob was born on October 6, 1884 and died on July 8, 1970.
(recollections by Jacob Tschetter, father of Violet, grandfather of Kathy.)
Our grandparents on the Tschetter side were born in a time when the standard of living was among the Hutterites at its lowest ebb. The Hutterite assembly, through inner strife and quarreling, broke up the communal living as they for centuries had practiced it.
In addition to this, a fire broke out in their buildings and destroyed most of their belongings, and so now the few families who had endured all the hardships and persecution from the Catholic church over a period of 340 years, where over 1,000 had given their life for their faith, left the communes and moved on their own. Now they were poor, and as one expressed it, "They were bankrupt spiritually and financially." They had no schools. Many never learned to read or write. Grandfather was one of them. He could neither read or write, yet he was a man with a bright, keen mind. Here is what mother says: "No matter how long a list of articles I gave him to bring home from town, he never forgot but brought it all and knew the cost of every article he bought." Grandfather was a man of good moral character, was over 6' tall, broad shouldered, and with a pleasant behavior and good judgment. He also was a studious man. He knew birds and their habits, knew wild animal life, and told us how they hunted bear in the Russian woods. I remember how he pointed out to us the certain stars in the Dipper and named them. It is also remarkable how well posted he was in the stories of the Bible, and, oh! how we listened to him as he told us of the flood, the Joseph story, and others. He valued it very much when sister Anna, then 12 years old, read to him from the Bible.
Our grandmother, by birth a Kleinsasser, was a person of very small stature. She was a good house mother with a deep affection to bring her children up in admonition to be good and God fearing. She was very tenderhearted and thought was given to the needy. She was sick in her old age, and died when sister Anna was 8 and I, 6 years old.