Moes marks father’s 100th anniversary of arriving at Ellis Island

April 19, 2020, marks the 100th anniversary of the day my father arrived at Ellis Island. I am thankful that he came back to the U. S. before he was 21 years old so as to retain his citizenship.

You see, the story is quite interesting. My father was born in the U.S. on November 28, 1899, five miles north of David City, Nebraska, on a homestead. His father was Ferdinand and his mother was Suzanne. He was the first child born to them as they got married the previous year in Luxembourg.

He had three older stepbrothers and sisters. Ferdinand was married to Suzanne’s sister who died in 1897. The custom in that day was that if there was a sister in the family of the sister who died, she would marry the father to take care of the family.

So my father went back to Luxembourg in 1897 to convince Suzanne to come back with him. She agreed to come back on one condition - if she did not like it, she could go back to Luxembourg. November 1900 they returned to Luxembourg.

Nothing was easy in those days. My grandfather did build a beautiful home in Canach, Luxembourg. The home still stands today. Over the front door are the letters FM and SE which stand for Ferdinand Moes and Suzanne Engel. My father spent his formative years there and experienced WWI 1914-1917.

Everything was poor after the war so he and his brother decided to come back to the U.S. He missed the scheduled boat in Paris so he boarded a freighter called the Le Rochambeau out of Le Havre, France.

When he arrived in America, he went through Ellis Island with his brother. I have copies of the documents where he signed in. I understand they had $14 to their names and it cost $7 per ticket for the train ride to David City, NE.

They spent the night at a Catholic facility near the train station where they were given a dozen boiled eggs for their stay in New York City and for the trip to Nebraska. When he arrived in Nebraska my father had a sponsor for whom he worked for a few years.

The reason I am from Osmond is because my father first visited Osmond in 1923. He was working in the oats and wheat fields harvest. In 1922, he worked as a harvester from North Dakota down to Kansas, and he stopped in Osmond to stay at the Butterfield Ranch.

In 1923, he did the same and stayed at the Butterfield Ranch where he worked as a farm hand. He also told me that he was the general manager of the ranch in 1923 and 1924.

He used to tell me stories about pushing cattle and sheep down Main Street to the railhead. The streets were dirt streets and he said when they were wet, they were very slippery. I have tried to visualize the streets as they were and as they are today.

My father was essentially a Luxembourger. He was the patriarch of our family. He was a very intelligent person, gifted with the knowledge he had gained living outside the U.S.

He believed strongly that farmers should get better prices for their products. This was in 1927-1930 after he left Osmond to be with his brother in Chicago. He delivered ice to families, and painted the El (subway) in Chicago. He married my mother in 1931 and moved to Osmond.

He partnered with another man on a farm directly west of the current home place. The 30’s were a tough time during the depression and drought.

He told me one time he nearly threw in the towel after a bad storm when he found five milk cows and one bull dead under a tree from being struck by lightning. He did survive that tragedy and moved on and bought a half section of land just east of the place he was living on in 1945.

If you want to learn more about my father go to the Osmond library and get the book called “Never Miss a Party.”

I believe I have located the home where he was born in 1899. I am trying to verify that. If I do, I would like to move the house to Osmond as a memorial to all immigrants to this country.

If you have any idea on where I could put it or anything else, please let me know.

In closing, I would like to say that I respected my father very much as I respect every person like him who made this country strong. They are truly the backbone of this country, and we should never forget that. God bless America.