Vegter-Tschetter Heritage

Susanna and Paul

Tschetter-Mendel Ancestors
in Russia

I, Susanna Tschetter (by birth Mendel), was born May 8, 1863, in the village of Hutterthal, South Russia. My parents were Jacob and Anna Mendel. When I was 6 years old, my parents moved 200 Russian miles north in the vicinity of Kathrinaslof where I spent my early youth.

My parents were God fearing people and lived a devotional life. We sang many hymns with our mother. We also had God fearing teachers in the public school. John Warkentin, who was one of my teachers, instructed us in the Word of God with tears in his eyes. When I was 9 years old, my beloved father died. With our mother, we shed many tears for the loss of our father.

In 1875, when I was 13 years old, my mother with her 8 children left the old homestead in Russia and emigrated to the United States of America. We got on the ship in the Breman harbor, Germany. The voyage on the ocean was very rough, but we arrived safely in the New York harbor. Then we boarded a train and on the 1st of September, we arrived safely in Yankton, South Dakota.

We settled down on a ranch forty miles northwest of Yankton on the James River where we farmed and raised stock.

When I was 18 years old, on November 13, 1881, I was married to John Tschetter. We lived on the homestead of his parents, Jacob and Barbara Tschetter, ten miles southwest of Bridgewater, South Dakota.

Jimmy Hohm
Back of Photo: "Jimmy, Strong and Bold"

Paul Hohm
Dr. Paul Hohm Obituary

Standing: Roger Bradfield (Ella Hohm's husband), Jimmy Hohm, Dr. Will Hohm, Violet Hohm Kludt (Will's sister)
Seated: Ida Hohm (Jimmy's wife), Olga Hohm Pfautz, Dr. Ted Hohm, Rev. Bill Pfautz (Olga's husband)

Of this photo, Will writes, "I am the only one still alive of this group! During the last years of my parents' lives as they became more confined, I visited a long weekend in Huron every 3-5 months. My sister, Violet, always had a cousins' dinner at her apartment during those visits." (May, 2020)

Jimmy Hohm & Kathy
Jimmy Hohm is the son of Susanna Tschetter Hohm, daughter of John and Susanna Tschetter. Jimmy and Ida Hohm now live in the Violet Tschetter Memorial Home, Huron. Jimmy farmed his entire life just south of Bethel Church. He identified the John Tschetter homestead and told us that his grandmother Susanna built the granary while husband John was away preaching in Canada. John and Susanna homesteaded this place when they moved from Freeman, South Dakota to Huron, South Dakota in 1908.