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Kief Centennial

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History pages from Kief North Dakota centennial book

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Page 1: Kief Centennial
Page 2: Kief Centennial

Introduction

I must express sincere gratitude for all those who graciously donated photos and memorabilia

from their personal collections and also for those who shared stories and thoughts about the

village of Kief. As you read those stories you will glean much valuable information about the

rich history of this little town.

Let me apologize right now if there are any errors or omissions. As much as possible I tried

to decipher the handwriting and identify individuals within each photograph if the names weren’t

listed. Some photos couldn’t be used, because the reproductions sent were not of adequate

quality to reproduce for printing. The book had to remain at 200 pages or less, so it needed to

be as high quality and as diverse as possible. This book is divided into two parts. The first

half is a collection of photographs and memorabilia that features the school days, the

churches, farming and everyday life in and around Kief. Also threading throughout the first

half is a wonderful story written by Raylene Frankhauser Nickel, which is based on her research

and interviews of longtime residents of the Kief area. Then I added a few stories of my own

where I felt it was appropriate.

The second half of the book is the individual family stories and history. Most of the stories

and photos are from people who grew up in and around Kief, or still live there. These are

anywhere from one to six pages depending on the size of the family or how much information

was submitted. Some families are larger and might get more room. A few people wrote mini

stories, and I tried to use a few, while still being conscious of space. Any information in this

section was written by those who submitted it, so it is virtually unedited unless it needed to be

condensed for clarity or brevity. I tried not to change any wording, and I did not change

names or dates, even if they may have been inconsistent from family to family. If something

was not included, it was only done so because it didn’t fit within the broader context of the

book or there simply wasn’t room. Again, forgive me but I had to make some hard decisions.

One more note. Even though I needed to scan several hundred photos and type dozens of

pages of copy, Kathrin Volochenko, a current resident of Kief, was gracious enough to provide

me with scores of photos from area residents that she personally scanned herself, and for that I

am very grateful. It saved me many, many hours.

Detail from stamp of a peasant womanholding wheat. Ukraine is home to some of the richest farmland in the world.

Page 3: Kief Centennial

“Now I am a farmer. I rise withthe sun each morning and havethe pleasure of seeing it sink inthe sky at night. My spirit is liftedby the scent of the soil, and thefields in which I walk are like asanctuary for my soul.”

As you will soon find out in the pages of this book, Kief was made up of some of the

bravest and most committed individuals on earth at that time. People with such vision and

determination that they literally uprooted themselves from their homeland in the Ukraine

and traveled across the Atlantic with only a few hundred dollars (or often less), in their pocket.

These folks couldn’t speak the language and often had to trust complete strangers to point

them to their final destination. Many of them fled for religious freedom, and even were

imprisoned before coming to America. Sometimes these young Ukrainian families had four

or five children and one on the way as they first took the train from their homes to the ports

in Scotland, England, or Germany. From there would take the two or three week journey by

ship to Philadelphia or New York. Aside from being free from religious persecution, the quest

for a piece of land that they could call their own was enough to keep driving the men and

women from the east coast to the rolling and rocky prairies of central North Dakota. Many

set aside their dreams of farming for a year or two to work in factories on the east coast, just

so they could buy some horses and a plow and the seed for the crops. The sod houses that the

farmers built proved a further connection to the soil. After getting the farms established,

many families would then send for their parents in the Old Country to come and join them

in America.

The family stories represented inside this book are a testament to the Biblical principles

found in Matthew 17 in which they held so dear: “...if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,

you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

That is a lesson worth remembering.

Todd Spichke

Page 4: Kief Centennial

7

The vista south of Kief has changed little since Anton Bokovoy staked

his claim to a homestead here. Unshaken by the passing of more than 100 years,

a low hogback of hills still rims the southern horizon, and the Dog Den Butte still

stands watch some miles to the west. Anton might have looked upon this view countless times

while standing upon the knoll that was to become the site of his final resting place.

Surely he was a man of vision. For he, and the others who had traveled with him, had

come to the unsettled prairie of North Dakota in search of a freedom they had never known,

a freedom to worship as they wished.

And, too, they had come to find land, rich farmland upon which to grow the grains that

flourished in their native homeland of the Ukraine.

Anton and his companions indeed found both — religious freedom and rich farmland.

And these remain, a legacy to the vision of pioneers.

Through Anton and his companions, the

community of Kief traces its origins to the religious

persecutions happening in the late 1800s in the

Ukraine. There, Anton belonged to a religious sect

of evangelical Christians known as Stundists.

Originally influenced by the beliefs of German

evangelical and Mennonite settlers in the Ukraine,

the Stundists had broken away from the established

Russian Orthodox Church.

6 Anton & Christina Bokovoy

Detail of Kiev, Ukraine and surrounding villages from a1900’s atlas.

Wheat Fields and Freedom

Ships like the Astoria carried passengers from ports in Germany andScotland to America. At 440 feet long, the Astoria could hold 1,000 passengers,but most of them were in 3rd class and below deck.

Page 5: Kief Centennial

From Jews who had emigrated to the United States and then returned to visit families, the

Ukrainian Stundists learned that full religious freedom could be found in the United States.

And so it came to be that in 1898 Anton Bokovoy, after being imprisoned for eight months

because of his religious beliefs, led seven

families to the United States. Besides his

wife Christina and their children, the party

included the families of O. Dedenko,

Harry Kooreny, Nestor Korunetz,

E. Lushenko, Peter Michalenko and Elias

Sitch. With parents, wives and children, the

party consisted of more than 40 persons.

The group was originally headed for

Virginia, where they planned to work in

factories to earn money needed to buy

land. But while boarding ship in Hamburg, Germany, they met a farmer from the German

colonies in the Ukraine who had earlier emigrated to South Dakota. When this man learned the

group was made up of farmers, he convinced them to go instead to South Dakota, where the

American government was giving away free land to willing settlers under the Homestead Act.98

The Orthodox Church was characterized by an extremely formal liturgy spoken in the archaic

language of Church Slavonic and had little relation to daily life, wrote Alvin Kapusta in an

article in the Fall 1986 issue of North Dakota History.

In contrast to these traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Stundists had begun to

imitate the German Protestants by applying the teachings of Christ directly from the Bible to

their own simple daily lives. And they had begun to worship in their own language.

As a result, the Stundists were persecuted. In the late 1880s their persecution became

almost intolerable, and they began searching for places where they might worship in peace.

Page from the 1900 census listing Anton Bokovoy and family.

Original sod house on the Peowar homestead, 1 1/2 miles west of Kief. Thisone has a shingled roof and an addition made from wood. Many of the earlysod houses had a grass roof. The original site of Liberty Baptist Church wasabout a hundred yards to the north of this house.

Kief main street facing south. The Prophet Mountains are visible in the background. There is possibly a speaker or performer atthe end of the street, and it has almost everyone looking in that direction. From left: 1) Andrew Schmidt house 2) Reichenbergerhouse, 3) Simbalenko Hardware and Implement, (with a DeLaval cream separator sign on the side) 4) Kief Opera House, 5)Michalenko General Merchandise, 6) telephone office, 7) Farmers Loan and Insurance Co. (with notary public) 8) Kief Mercantile(with separate entrances for grocery and hardware), and 9) the drugstore. On the far left between two awnings is the post office.

1 2 3 45

6

7 8 9

Page 6: Kief Centennial

The Michalenko family left the Ukraine in 1898, traveling by train for four days to Hamburg, Germany to

embark on a ship across the Atlantic ocean.

This 18 day voyage was eventful. Already having six children, the seventh child was born on the ship. Peter

and their two older sons became ill, so the 12 year old son George had to take care of his 3 younger siblings for

the rest of the voyage.

They arrived at Baltimore, MD in November, and traveled for another 18 days by covered wagon to Trippe,

SD. They spent the winter there and the following May left for the Kief area by covered wagon and their newly

purchased team of horses.

Following the Soo Line Railroad through Jamestown, Carrington and Harvey, they came to Martin where they

stayed for 6 days while Peter went to file for the homestead. Upon reaching the Kief area, they removed the

wheels from the covered wagon, placed it on the ground, and lived in it until they could build a sod house.

They had a total of 13 children, three of whom died in childhood or at a young age. Their names were

Andrew, Philemon, Phillip, George, Marina, Jacob (J.P.), Mary, Katie, Fred, John, Velma, Mike#1, Mike #2.

George, J.P. and John remained in the Kief area.

Peter & Orphina Michalenko

1110

They arrived in South Dakota only to find that the free

“homestead” land had already been taken up. But they

learned that such land could still be found in North Dakota.

The immigrants overwintered in South Dakota, and the

following spring, in late April, they traveled by covered wagon

to the town of Harvey, and then farther west, where they

staked their claims in a region that was to become the rural

communities surrounding Kief and Butte.

The journey by wagon from South Dakota to Harvey took

17 days, and of course only crude shelter might have been

thrown together during those first days on the homestead.

Yet hardships aside, the settlers felt the freedom sur-

rounding them on the wide-open prairie. Alvin Kapusta

wrote, “They called their new area ‘Svoboda’ (liberty) in honor of the freedom which they

had found in their new homeland.”

Late that autumn, another group of Ukrainian immi-

grants arrived, and by the end of the year they had settled

over an area 18 miles long and 10 miles wide. The largest

concentration was in Land Township, which presently encom-

passes the town of Kief. The 1900 census showed that of the

179 inhabitants of the township, 147 were Ukrainians, accord-

ing to the book Plains Folk: North Dakota’s Ethnic History.

As if the normal hardships of homesteading were not strin-

gent enough, calamity struck the community in 1900, when a

severe drought destroyed crops. Starvation was a real possibility.

That winter, word of the disaster spread to Baptist congregations

throughout North Dakota and Minnesota, and resulted in an out-

pouring of food, flour, coal and clothing. Several Soo Line railcars

delivered the goods to Balfour, where the Kief settlers picked up the

supplies and hauled them home in sledges.

Peter and Orphina Michalenko were one of the seven families that came to Americawith Anton Bokovoy. He was born 1859 in Boyarka village in the Kiev province of theUkraine. Orphina, or Lena (Halchenko) Michalenko, was born 1864 in Dovha Village.They were married in 1880.

Piotr (Peter) Kabanuk, Intent to Naturalize, 1912.

Nick and Carrie Spichke, Mortgage Deed for their 160 acres.

Page 7: Kief Centennial

While she was yet unmarried, Faith’s mother, Rosa Schock, had homesteaded the land.

Needless to say, she had a capable, independent knack for handling work.

In time, her abilities were put to the test when her husband, George Pister, grew

increasingly weakened by an illness. She and her children set their shoulders to the

work of the farm, and Faith recalls that, with the help of her children, her mother

had a capable hand for even the heavy work of “bindering” and threshing.

As was expected of children then, Faith began helping out with the work at the

tender age of 6. She recalls milking cows by hand when she barely had the strength

for the work.

Because the cows were so tame and needed no restraints — not even a pile of

grain on the ground to lure them and hold them to one spot -- the milking of the cows

took place wherever the cattle happened to be grazing. From today’s perspective,

such gentle behavior of dairy cows hardly seems possible. Yet Faith noted it was

common, then, for farmers to have such quiet cows.

1312

Subsequent years brought good crops, and the immigrants

began to prosper, sinking their roots deeper into the soil of

their new country. The organizing of a new church was a

fruit of their deepening roots. Meeting in John Wash’s sod

house in the spring of 1901, the Ukrainian Stundists organized

a church, calling it the Russian Baptist Church of Liberty,

or the Liberty Baptist Church, as it is known today.

In 1902, lumber was hauled from Balfour, and on a knoll

one and a half miles west of Kief, on land given by Paul

Peowar and John Wash, the Baptist church was built. In

later years, the building was moved into Kief, to its present

location in the southeast corner of town.

The unofficial founding of the village also occurred in

1901. The town was started on forty acres of land donated by

Anton Bokovoy for immigrants wishing to start businesses.

With the donation came the privilege of naming the town,

and Anton’s original choice was Kiev, the name of a city in

his homeland. Yet somehow, a spelling error translated the

name to Kief, and the misspelling stuck.

As more settlers and townsfolk arrived in the community,

new businesses and churches of a variety of denominations

started up in the town. The arrival of the railroad in 1906 strengthened this process.

Meanwhile, the farmers struggled to settle the land, plowing around the marshes and

clearing the fields of stones. Besides precious freedom and the rich earth, hard work and

frugality were the cornerstones upon which the settlers built their future.

Of course, low-cost construction material for some of the settlers’ first homes was provided

by the earth itself. Faith (Pister) Hegney, who was born on a farm south of Kief in 1920,

remembers that her parents’ first house was made of sod. The roof was also of sod, which

was seeded to grass to help shed the water.

The second house her parents built had an upstairs, but was of a moderate size that provided

only two upstairs bedrooms for the eight children. The girls slept in one bedroom, and the

boys in the second. To make room for themselves, the boys slept crosswise on the bed and

used a bench to support their feet.

Rev. Aleck Nicklaus, left, the first missionary preacher forLiberty Baptist Church and one of its founders. Accordingto the book “Pilgrims of the Prairie”, Oleska Mykolaiv,right, was the first Baptist preacher in North Dakota, arriving from Canada after immigrating from Rumania.

Children were given big responsibilities at a very young age in order for families to survive.

Pete, Everette, Carl, Amy, Ralph andCarl Stromme.

Page 8: Kief Centennial

14

Other work Faith did

as a child was the gath-

ering of fuel to burn in

the cookstove in the

kitchen. For this, she

roamed the hills and

meadows, picking cow

chips and gathering

armloads of buckbrush.

Besides this, she

herded cows while they grazed. “For years, there

were no fences,” she said. “Sometimes I herded cattle

more than a mile from home. We drove the cows

up there in the morning, and then we stayed with

them and herded them. Those days, a lot of this

prairie hadn’t yet been claimed, and you could herd cows in the hills.”

This sort of free-range grazing was the way many horses were fed in winter. After the fall’s

fieldwork was finished, many farmers just turned their horses out and let them graze wherev-

er they wanted. “We kept some horses home so we had something to ride or drive so we

could look for the others in the spring,” Faith said. “One spring, we found our horses all the

way down by John’s Lake, south of McClusky.”

As Faith grew older, she learned how to drive a team of horses. She was 13 when she

drove a team pulling a wagonload box of wheat to the elevator in Kief. She followed her

father, who was also driving a team pulling a load of wheat.

Despite her know-how and capable hands, she found herself tongue-tied in town, an irony

she now marvels over. “Dad gave me a dime, and I went into the store,” she said. “But I was

so shy, I couldn’t say what I wanted. I just stood and looked at the candy counter. It was

Mehlhouse’s store, then, on the east side of the street. Finally, he pointed to the jelly beans

and asked, ‘Is that what you want?’ I nodded, trying to be polite, but that wasn’t what I

wanted at all. I wanted something better. Yet I walked out of that store with a whole bag of

jelly beans. Nowadays, kids 3 years old are able to say what they want and don’t want!”

Above, Earl Stromme rakeshay with the team of horsesBen and Bess. At right, Earland Ralph Stromme getBen and Bess ready foranother day of work.

Following page L to R: Palmer Kvam, Kief postmaster 1930Ed Sukumlyn standing in front of Dislevy gas station, and BohnetBrothers General Store.

Page 9: Kief Centennial

Following page: Kief main street, looking north, top left photo from foreground:Jack A’s shop, city hall, Johnnie’s Creamery, Miller’s Liquors and the lumber

yard. Top right photo: Fred’s grocery, Kief Fairway, The Woodworth and O&Melevators. Bottom left: Lee’s Super Service. Bottom right: Ed SImbalenko’s

International Dealership.16

Ed Simbalenko’s implement dealership. Fire destroyed the building in 1917. Thehouse on the right was later purchased by Sam Karpenko.

Levi Simbalenko Jr. on go-kart in front of theKief Blacksmith shop owned by his father.

Carl Trihub’s threshing rig and steam engine.

Recess on south side of school. Dolores Bokovoy in foreground.

Beverly Dislevy filling her Ford.

Page 10: Kief Centennial

Typical homestead certificate usually signed by the secretary to the president. 1918

Top: Interior or Lumber yard managed by George Michalenko. George isstanding on the far right. Below: Exterior shot with George in doorway.Lumberyard letterhead and insurance blotter in the background.

Page 11: Kief Centennial

21

Details from a handwritten passport.

An original Citizenship Certificate.

Mortgage note issued through the bank in Kief.

Remitter’s receipt issued through the bank in Kief.

Detail frommortgage note.

M&K Grocery tokens.

Page 12: Kief Centennial

2322

The JoysofSchool

For many kids, going to school is not the ideal way of spending

eight hours. (The picture at left is evidence of that!) It’s not

easy to sit inside all day and try to behave. But some of the

fondest, and funniest, memories that we have are made in

school. I remember my dad telling me the story of when the

county nurse would come by every year and hand out bars of

LifeBuoy® soap to the students. For some reason, one of the

students decided to open the wrapper and nibble on his bar.

He found the taste so appealing that by the end of the day

he had his bar completely eaten.

From a teacher’s perspective, however, school is a time

when they can instill the wisdom of the ages and mold the

students into becoming productive contributors to society.

One must admire any teacher because they bear a heavy

responsibility and have an enormous influence on how a kid

views the first dozen and a half years of life. Life, however is

the greatest teacher of all, and I have to hand it to Mark Twain

who summed it up best ... “The first half of my life I went to

school, the second half of my life I got an education.”

Todd Spichke

“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taughta lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test thatteaches you a lesson.”

Tom Bodett

Page 13: Kief Centennial

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1936 Kief Yearbook

Page 14: Kief Centennial

2726

The FreedomtoWorship

Kief Mennonite Church group, possibly taken at Cottonwood Lake. May be a Palm Sunday due to the branches that several men and women are holding and men have in their lapels. 1. Mrs. Anton Bokovoy 2. Matrona Dassenko 3. Mrs. Alex Michalenko Sr. 4. Frosina Moseanko 5. Vladimir Sivachenko 6. Christina (Moseanko) Zarek 7. Anna Skorick 8. Sofia Fedorenko 9. Nellie (Skorick)Timothy 10. Christine (Skorick) Krupsky 11. Ella Yechoshenko 12. Leon Fedorenko 13. George Krupsky 14. Walter Yechoshenko 15.Katie (Skorick) Tovstenko 16. Stacia (Fedorenko) Milgy 17. Friend of Geremi Dassenko 18. Henry Skorick 19. ? 20. ? 21. StevenFedorenko 22. Geremi Dassenko 23. ? 24. Nellie (Krupsky) Sloboden 25. John Sivachenko 26. Emon Zarek 27. Yalampa Luschenko 28. Prince Sepchenko 29. Demetri Kostenko 30. John Dassenko 31. Pauline Dassenko 32. ? 33. Alexander Michalenko 34. Kusma Fedorenko 35. Pete Luschenko 36. Ed Yechoshenko 37. Johnny Skorick 38. John Fedorenko39. Peter Krupsky 40. ? 41. Lovrenty Kizima 42. Alex Slobadonick 43. John Skorick, Sr. 44. Jim Novak

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The immigration to America of people persecuted for their

religion and their success in their adopted land, is a history

the Ukrainian community at Kief shares with many other

groups. Converted by German Baptists, seven Ukrainian

families sold prosperous farms in the Ukraine in 1898 and

made a 17-day ocean crossing to Philadelphia, seeking free-

dom of worship. They found shelter for the winter with

German Baptists at Tripp, South Dakota.

On April 26, 1899 they started out on another 17-day journey,

this one by covered wagon to Harvey. Aided by Rev.

Alexander Nikolaus, who became their first pastor, they

moved farther west, took homesteads and suffered the

famine and other difficulties of pioneers. They organized the

Liberty Baptist Church on April 4, 1901 at a meeting in the

sod house of John Wash, several miles from Kief. In 1902

they constructed a church building, which was renamed in

the late 1930’s when it was moved two miles east into Kief

for the comfort of the older parishioners in town. In early

times Rev. John Bucknell came from Max once or twice a

month to preach. The 16 by 32 foot structure was the first

Russian Baptist Church In the United States.

The early church services had overflow crowds and meals of

oatmeal or thin soup; families walking three miles to church

carrying their children in order to spare the horses during

heavy work periods. The horses after all, had worked all week.

The early settlers included Alexandra Galamaga and her son-

in-law Nick and daughter Carrie Spichke. William and Ellen

Sukumlyn who homesteaded two miles west of Kief in 1901,

also were early settlers.

Kief was incorporated in 1908 and had more than three

hundred residents in 1918. It included five churches: Lutheran,

Mennonite, Adventist, and German and Russian Baptist.

Mrs. Philip Spichke, whose parents, Peter and Dorothy

Donelenko and grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Fred Simbalenko

came in 1889, recalled that early church services were

lengthily and joyful. “None of those early settlers had seminary

training, but when they gathered in the homes they would

speak and sing until the early morning hours.”

“I am the good shepherd...” John 10:14 written in the Cyrillic alphabet – Hangs in Liberty Baptist Church.

Rev. Alex Nikolaus viewing the ruins of John Wash’s sodhouse where the Russian Baptists organized their firstchurch near Kief.

I will walk in freedom,for I have devoted myself to your commandments.

Psalm 119:45Excerpt from “The Ukrainians” by Cleo Cantlon

Page 15: Kief Centennial

2928

Ed SImbalenko, an ordained MennoniteBrethren minister, baptizing his grand-daughter Fern Yechoshenko (Zavalney)in Cottonwood lake.

Mennonite Brethren Church with Liberty Baptist Church Fellowship Hall in background.

Liberty Baptist Church and Fellowship Hall. The original building was built in 1902 and was basedon a simple architecture with no decoration or iconography, a complete contrast to the RussianOrthodox Church from which the settlers escaped.

Mennonite Brethren Church, taken about 1915. Levi SImbalenko Sr. is the child crawling in front. His father, Edward Simbalenko, isin the last row, second from right. The church thrived having regular Sunday morning worship and Sunday School as well asWednesday evening prayer services. The church had a bell tower from which the bell was rung twelve tolls one hour prior to service.It was also rung at the stroke of midnight to ring in the new year. Some special services included: New Year’s Eve watch night,Easter Sunrise, Christmas program, Vacation Bible School, July Sunday School Picnic and Fall Harvest and Missions Festival.

25th anniversary of Liberty Baptist church taken in 1926. Photo is taken from theNortheast corner of the churchyard, so the actual church building would be onthe left side, but it is not seen in this picture. The Mennonite Brethren church isin the background.

1937-38 school playground. The German Baptist church is just visible in the left background.

The only known photo of the Seventh Day Adventist Church,barely visible on the left side of the photo. The church wasbuilt on the northwest corner of town.

Page 16: Kief Centennial

Making aLiving

onMain StreetFor most of my childhood the main street of Kief consisted

of the Kief Farmer’s Elevator, Earl’s Bar, the Post Office, City

Hall, Sam’s Grocery Store and Krueger’s Standard. These

few amenities served a much larger community, one that

almost daily depended on these services to maintain their

own quality of life.

Having grown up on a farm, the business I frequented the

most was the grain elevator; but the one that had the most

impact on me was Sam’s Store. This general store, owned by

Sam Karpenko, had a romance to it that you find only in

story books. I have vivid memories of the store with creaky,

scuffed hardwood floors, lined with shelves that held the

mounds of stiff jeans, pin-striped bib overalls, and boxes

Wolverine work boots. Then there would be the open bins of

bulk candy that included big boxes of the black licorice pencils

that were so hard you had to gnaw on them for several

minutes in order to take a bite of it. The most notable

centerpiece in the store however was a large, wooden barrel

of pickled herring. From that barrel, which was filled to the

brim with the Icelandic fish smothered in its own blackened

salty brine, emerged a fragrance that, in my mind has yet to

be duplicated. I would go into town with my grandpa, and he

would pick up a few of the stinky critters to bring home and

prepare for his meals. It was here the ritual would began.

First, Sam would open the top of the barrel and would take

his long handled fork and stab one of the headless fish. Then

he would go through the deliberate, methodical process of

wiping off the black brine from the sides of the fish. First one

side, then the other, then the first side again, then the other.

Hearing the gentle slap of the fish against the side of the

darkened barrel is a memory that is forever etched in my mind.

Sam Karpenko, the quintessential shopkeeper.3130

by Todd Spichke

Page 17: Kief Centennial

3332

continued from page 52

Bill Bokovoy ran an implement business north of the present

post office building, on the east side of the street. He handled

a line of parts as well as John Deere and Minneapolis

Moline farm equipment. Bill’s store burned, and he died as a

result of the burns incurred in the fire.

Ed Simbalenko also ran an implement business, from a

building situated just south of Bennie Krueger’s service station.

Ed was an International Harvester and Chevrolet dealer.

Located on the corner northeast of Krueger’s station was

Michelanko’s Service and Hardware, owned by Jack A.

Michelanko. Washing machines were among the items car-

ried in his store. His facility also housed a blacksmith who

served the community with his work.

At the very northeast corner of town, George Shattun

operated a small repair shop. He also sharpened saws and

cut wood using a saw powered by a stationary engine. He also

had a stone mill, and he used this to make flour for people.

A block to the northwest of Bennie’s station was John

Dislevy’s station. He handled gasoline and oil products. Besides his bulk fuel sales, he offered

a line of car accessories and sold and repaired tires.

One example of a significant business operating in earlier times – at least as early as 1911

– was Bohnet’s store, located just north of the present city hall. Another earlier business was

a bowling alley situated north of Fred Danelenko’s store. The bowling alley also served lunch.

There was also a pool hall and a hotel.

Dances were sometimes held in the city hall. Bert Klingman and Leo Krueger would play

the accordion.

Alongside the growth in diversity of businesses was a burst in the diversity of churches

over the course of the decades since the town’s founding. Besides the Liberty Baptist Church,

four churches held Sunday morning services at various periods of time. There was the Kief

American Evangelical Lutheran Church, a Mennonite Brethren church, a Seventh Day

Adventist church and a German Baptist church.

Spring Flooding, early 1900’s.

Next, Sam would slowly wrap the fish in white butcher paper,

followed by newspaper, and then he would tie it off with a

length of twine from a spool that sat above the counter. I

witnessed that same scene dozens of times growing up and

Sam did it exactly the same way, every single time. I remem-

ber feeling a twinge of disappointment when he could no

longer get the wooden barrels but instead received gray,

steel barrels lined with a plastic insert. There was a measure

of authenticity that seemed to be lost in that transition, but I

know the herrings were just as good, if not better. I guess

that I owe Sam (and my Grandpa!) some credit for my love

of herring today.

Sam’s store burned to the ground on the evening of

January 23, 1981. That night, dozens of people from the sur-

rounding communities came to mourn the loss, as a vital

center of commerce was reduced to ashes. I remember the

sounds of bullets and shotgun shells exploding from the

heat of the fire. It was as if an unseen war was taking place

within the depths of that blaze.

One of the final receipts issued to AmyYechoshenko on the day Kief General Storeburned down.

Page 18: Kief Centennial

35

From our ancestors come ournames, but from our virtuescomes our honor.

Unknown

As just one example, Gene Spichke’s memories of his grandparents and the values and tra-

ditions embodied by their lives seem, to this writer, worth recording. Like the other pioneers,

theirs was an existence based on rigorous work and the ingenuity of learning to make do

with what they had.

Homesteading northwest of Kief in 1900, Nick and Carrie Spichke had little. In those

early years, Nick would walk all the way to the Fessenden and Cathay areas to help with the

threshing in order to earn money. He walked barefoot so that he could save his shoes for the

hard work of pitching bundles.

Gene’s grandparents moved to Kief in 1930 after his parents were married. Like many oth-

ers of their generation, when they moved to town in semi-retirement from the farm, they took

with them chickens and a cow. To augment the eggs and milk, they raised a vegetable garden,

and in this way provided for their own needs.

They helped with the work at the farm during threshing season, and if their son, Philip,

wasn’t in town to pick them up by 5 a.m., they would walk the two and a half miles out to

the farm.

Gene remembers how his grandmother maintained the tradition of using building materials

at hand to patch holes in a granary made of clay and straw. The mice would make holes that

needed to be patched.

Next, Gene’s grandmother pulled off her shoes and socks, lifted up her skirts and stepped

into the tub to mix the patching material with her feet.

34

Page 19: Kief Centennial

3736

AMurderhits Home

It was an early Thursday morning a stone’s throw from Lake

Michigan six miles south of Manitowac, Wisconsin, when

Mrs. Alvin Polster went to her apple orchard to pick some

apples. She spotted a man slumped over in a Ford that was

parked in a nearby apple orchard. After telling her husband,

he got the deputy Otto Grasse, and they went down to the

orchard and made the gruesome discovery: A young man

had been shot through the heart and the head at close

range, his body dragged and thrown in the front seat of his

car. After Sheriff Kasten and Undersheriff Fesing examined

the crime scene, they found papers on the man identifying

him as WIlliam Spichke of nearby Nordheim, Wisconsin.

They also discovered an untraceable Harrington and

Richardson 16 gauge shotgun that was placed near him in

an effort to make it look like a suicide. Blood had soaked

through the seat and pooled onto the floor. The newspapers

said that he was shot in the chest at a downward angle and

a quantity of blood was found about six feet from the car.

This suggested that he had probably been on his knees

when he was shot. Also the front windshield had been

smashed in and bloody fingerprints were found on the glass

as well as on the door of the car. WIlliam’s hands had no

blood on them. There was also a hole in the seat of the car

where the sheriff said a shotgun had ripped through it.

William’s head also bore the signs of being shot with a shot-

gun. The Ford car that William was found in was purchased

less than a month prior at R.H. Theiman garage and was

financed through Wisconsin Loan & Finance company

in Manitowac.

Even though he was a young man, WIlliam had traveled to

and worked in several states including Colorado and Ohio,

as well as several different cities within Wisconsin. In his

pockets he had a letter from his sister Elizabeth in Kief that

was dated August 9th, begging him to come home to the

farm. Also found on him was $6.25 in change, a half used

package of Camels, and a receipt from his car payment that

he had made three days prior. Friends said that he had been

with them to the state fair in Milwaukee a day earlier, and

Walter Ireland, an official at Kohler said that he had been an

industrious employee in the foundry where he worked. A

description of a man similar to William was seen in a hard-

ware store a few days earlier wanting to buy a sight for a

gun. One unusual item in WIlliam’s pockets was a small

book that contained information and prints of some escaped

convicts. It was also thought that he had somehow gotten

involved with bootleggers. One of the Polster’s children

would later say that that his mother told the story dozens of

times about how she first saw the body, and the conclusion

in the community was always the same: he was murdered by

one of Al Capone’s men.

The coroner’s report simply stated “body found shot

through the heart in his Ford car”. A funeral home in

Manitowac prepared the body and placed it in a casket for

the sum of $350. William’s parents Nick and Carrie Spichke

were notified of their boy’s death and his body was sent

home five days later to be buried in the little cemetery west

of Kief. The owner of the gun was not traced, the murderer

was never brought to justice, and we may never know what

really happened on that lonely little orchard on the shoreline

of Lake Michigan.

by Todd Spichke

William Spichke was shot and killed inManitowac Wisconsin on September 3,1925 when he was 23 years old.Below: An earlier photo of William takenwith Fred Danelenko.

As a young man William Spichke moved away from the farm in Kief to work at Kohler company in Wisconsin. Nine monthslater he was found in an apple orchard, shot through the heart execution style.

Page 20: Kief Centennial

Memorabilia

Page 21: Kief Centennial

21

Sam and Irene Kostenko with daughters Tenley and Randy on left, Penny andCassie on right.

Wayne and Tenley (Kostenko)and family

Lloyd and Edy Knodel, Shelly and MikeKnodel family: Fred Jr. (Eva Dockter), Albert (Mary Hess), John (Lydia Melhoff), Emil(Bertha Hess), Edwin (Amelia Melhoff, 2nd wife Katie Blumhagen), Davin (Christine“Tena” Hess), Magdalena “Maggie” (Martin Ohlhouser), Martha (Gottlieb Suckert)

Albert and Mary Knodel home, birthplace of Lloydand Irene.

Dmitry and Thomaska (Dubovoy) Kostenko homesteaded

northeast of Kief with their family Emil, Taklia, Nicole

and Loukia. They farmed for eight years before selling to

Ed Simbalenko in 1906 and leaving Kief to buy the

Murray Ranch southeast of Dogden, which is now Butte.

While on the homestead Dmitry gave a quarter of land

to Taklia when she married Steven Kabanuk. They had

two boys, John and Charlie. When John was three years

old his mother died and she was buried on the farm. Her

two sisters died from smoke inhalation due to a fire and

were also buried out on the farm. Their dad married

again and continued to live there until moving to Canada

about 1912. John and Charlie remained for a time taking

turns living with their Grandma Kabanuk and Grandma

Kostenko until being reunited with their dad in Canada.

Submitted by Irene (Knodel) Kostenko

Frederick & Fredericka (Hertel) KnodelFrederick and Fredericka Knodel, Germans from Russia,

immigrated to South Dakota and were married in Eureka,

South Dakota in 1894. They came to North Dakota in

1897 and lived and farmed in Sheridan County before

moving in 1942 to their four room house on the northeast

corner of Kief. Their neighbors were Sam and Irene

Karpenko to the east, and the John Dessenkos to the

south. The Knodel family consisted of 10 children: Fred

Jr., John, Edwin, Albert, Magdalena, Emil, David, Hilda

(deceased as a child and buried on the farm) and Martha.

They left Kief and moved to Minot in the 50;s and after

their death were buried in the Kief Cemetery.

Submitted by Irene (Knodel) Kostenko

Dmitry Kostenko and Thomaska Dubovoy

Frederick and Fredericka Knodel

Dmitry & Thomaska “Ida” Kostenko

Page 22: Kief Centennial

43

Great grandmother Matrona/Matilda Kabanukwith her three grandchildren: Helen, Peter,Serge Dubovoy who were children of herdaughter Eudokia/Lizzie Kabanuk Dubovoy,wife of Andrew Dubovoy.

Peter Kabanuk, born in Kiev in 1882 and came to the United States in 1911.

Steven and Mary Kabanukwith grandchildren Arthur and Alice.

House still standing in Kiefof Dorothy and OmelkoKabanuk, cousin to Steven.

John (Sepchenko) Spencer