Rosin Family History & Genealogy

“Life History of Jacob Rosin from 1890-1939”
copied from notebook by Dawn Dawes (granddaughter)
Written by Jacob Rosin

[Some of the words are misspelled, as I copied this as Jacob had written]

Born on September 10th 1890. My fathers family consisted of eight children, four boys, and four girls. I was the youngest in the family. My second youngest brother died when he was a baby, so young that by the time I arrived he was gone. My father was a stone carpenter, constructing houses out of soft flat stone. My oldest brother learned the same trade, and became to be a master house builder. The second oldest brother learned the shumacker(shoemaker ) trade, and became a successful and good shumacker(shoemaker ), he was 14 years old and I was 10 years old when father got killed by a Russian man. Shortly after father died my cousins husband who was a shumacker (shoemaker ), adopted the brother for 4 when he had to stay and learn the trade for room and board. Because I was the baby of the family the Guardians and my dear Mother decided to put me through high school, where I attended for two years. After that time I became misslad by bad company of boys and stoped going to school against my Mothers will, for what I have been sory many times. When I was 17 years of age I left home and started to work for myself. The first position I got was a helper at the Clerk of Court Office at the Courthouse, about 100 miles away from home in a Russian settlement. Did not stay very long, got homesick and left the position and started to work on my sisters farm, where I remained until I made up my mind that I would leave the county and go to America. In the year 1910 in January, I came home to my Mother and told her that I had about 70 rubless saved up, and that I wanted to go to the U.S.A. She did not give me the consent to go, because by that time she was living alone, in the front room, at the home place with my older brother, and the rest of the brothers and sisters were all gone away and got married. When the question came up wher am I going to get the money to buy my ticket to the USA, I suggested to my two bothers, that if they borrow 200 rubles for me in adition to the 70 I had, I would let them have my share of the home place, which consisted of about five ackers with house barns and other little buildings. They consented to the suggestion and I said goodby. My Mother was about 65 years of age when I left. She did not want me to go alone. I remember the night about twelve oclock at night I left my sisters room. They at the time lived in the large public school house in our village wher her husband was a janitor. Mother could not say goodby to me, because her heart was to sad. I can still see her follow me outside along the sidwalk she and the sister weeping. They knew that they would never see me anymore in this world. At that time I did not realize what it means to break a Mother’s heart. Later was very sory for the deed. I therefo warn my children not to scatter one from another, to some foreign country. That is even worst than dieing, if we die we do not know any thing until we are resurrected but if we isolate ourselves, when we can not see or help our loved ones that is hard. Up to twenty years in my life I did not work very hard only about two years hard work in the old country.

Describing the country and village wher I was born. Born in a Village of two thousand farmers. The name of the Village was called Hoffnungstall that reads in english “the valley of hope”. That village was situated in a deep wide valley, which runs north and south in to the Black Sea, on the west side of the valley there were high mountains ,here called hills, wher the sheep and the cattle were loafing or being herded by watchmen, on the top level of the mountains were the grape gardens and fruit trees. Along the east side of the village it was not so high, just a gradual slope out to the wheat fields. That some deep valley ran about one hundred and fifty miles norther of Odessa, from the Black Sea, being very good and fertile land in the valley.

The people all lived there in large villages, one village after the other, only about two or three miles apart. That is where they had their fruit and vegetable gardens in 5 to 10 acer lots to a place. The village of hope where I lived was about a mile wide and four miles long. Ninety percent of the inhabitant were German Lutherans, the rest Jewish and very few others. In the center of the village there was a large Lutheran Church with a high stipple (steeple) and three large bells. The railroad station was about six miles west of the village. My father’s place was situated in the south east corner about the tenth house from the south end. The village streets were quite wide, arranged like the city streets with sidewalks and nice trees planted on the burns. In the backyard you could see the barns, stackes of hay and straw and corn stocks for cows and horses. Looking farther back you could see the vegetable garden with some fruit and nut trees. The houses are build out of stone, dirt, and clay, stacked on the outside. Each yard is built in or fenced with a stone wall about four feet high, with a gate entrance on the front. The nationalities did not mix so much as they do in this country. Each nationality lived separately in a village and did not associate any more than necessary, that was the Russians and Germans.

Now coming to America with myself. In the year 1910 in April I came to America. Twenty years of age, very healthy and strong and full of ambition. Landing in Philadelphia, Pencilvannia with only four dollars in my pocket. I came to Faribault Minnesota. There I started to work hard, the hardest work I ever done in my life, diging sewer ditches on the street, at two dollars per day. After I worked two weeks I had money to finish my journey to Heaton Wells County, North Dakota. My sister lived there at the time. My object of coming to North Dakota was the reason I come to this country, that was to take up a homestead. Sure enough in 1912 I started out one day to search the hills looking for the long desired homestead on which I filed, and lived there for about 6 years. The homestead was located about 8 miles north east of Robinson, ND. From there after I sold the homestead I moved about 6 miles south east where I bought a quarter section of land on which we lived only a short time, giving it back to the man we bought it, we moved to Petibone, ND wher we build a nice place which costed us about 2000 dollars. But that was not the place we liked, so we sold the place and moved to Wells County near Chasily, ND where we farmed years until we moved to Grand Forks in the year 1930. These last 25 years we worked very hard, raising the children and trying to make a living farming in a dry state like North Dak.

In edition to this I must confess that I had a wonderful Mother, she gave her life for her family by working day and night, in service for others. She was a real dorces, a nurse, a master dressmaker, a toy maker, a doll maker for children. She had a remedy for every sickness that came along in the family. Very seldom she herself was sick. I remember many times all the members of the family in bed, and she alone up to take care of us. She hardly ever had time to get sick. I hope to see her in the first resurrcation if God forgives me for my many burdens I placed on my mother’s heart.