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 woman holding wheat. Ukraine is home to some of the richest farmland in the world.
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
“Now I am a farmer. I rise with the sun each morning and have the pleasure of seeing it sink in the sky at night. My spirit is lifted by the scent of the soil, and the fields in which I walk are like a sanctuary for my soul.”
Wheat Fields and Freedom T
Detail of Kiev, Ukraine and surrounding villages from a 1900’s atlas.
he 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
Ships like the Astoria carried passengers from ports in Germany and Scotland to America. At 440 feet long, the Astoria could hold 1,000 passengers, but most of them were in 3rd class and below deck. 7
Page from the 1900 census listing Anton Bokovoy and family.
1
2
3
7
5 4
8
9
6
Kief main street facing south. The Prophet Mountains are visible in the background. There is possibly a speaker or performer at the end of the street, and it has almost everyone looking in that direction. From left: 1) Andrew Schmidt house 2) Reichenberger house, 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.
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, 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. 8
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
Original sod house on the Peowar homestead, 1 1/2 miles west of Kief. This one has a shingled roof and an addition made from wood. Many of the early sod houses had a grass roof. The original site of Liberty Baptist Church was about a hundred yards to the north of this house.
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.
9
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.
Peter & Orphina Michalenko
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-
Piotr (Peter) Kabanuk, Intent to Naturalize, 1912.
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.
Nick and Carrie Spichke, Mortgage Deed for their 160 acres. 10
Peter and Orphina Michalenko were one of the seven families that came to America with Anton Bokovoy. He was born 1859 in Boyarka village in the Kiev province of the Ukraine. Orphina, or Lena (Halchenko) Michalenko, was born 1864 in Dovha Village. They were married in 1880.
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.
11
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,
Rev. Aleck Nicklaus, left, the first missionary preacher for Liberty Baptist Church and one of its founders. According to the book “Pilgrims of the Prairie”, Oleska Mykolaiv, right, was the first Baptist preacher in North Dakota, arriving from Canada after immigrating from Rumania.
and Anton’s original choice was Kiev, the name of a city in
Children were given big responsibilities at a very young age in order for families to survive.
name to Kief, and the misspelling stuck.
Needless to say, she had a capable, independent knack for handling work.
new businesses and churches of a variety of denominations
increasingly weakened by an illness. She and her children set their shoulders to the
his homeland. Yet somehow, a spelling error translated the
As more settlers and townsfolk arrived in the community,
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
While she was yet unmarried, Faith’s mother, Rosa Schock, had homesteaded the land.
In time, her abilities were put to the test when her husband, George Pister, grew
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
Pete, Everette, Carl, Amy, Ralph and Carl Stromme.
common, then, for farmers to have such quiet cows.
used a bench to support their feet. 12
13
Other work Faith did
as a child was the gathering 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
Above, Earl Stromme rakes hay with the team of horses Ben and Bess. At right, Earl and Ralph Stromme get Ben and Bess ready for another day of work.
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 wherever 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!”
14
Following page L to R: Palmer Kvam, Kief postmaster 1930 Ed Sukumlyn standing in front of Dislevy gas station, and Bohnet Brothers General Store.
Ed Simbalenko’s implement dealership. Fire destroyed the building in 1917. The house on the right was later purchased by Sam Karpenko.
Beverly Dislevy filling her Ford.
Levi Simbalenko Jr. on go-kart in front of the Kief Blacksmith shop owned by his father.
Carl Trihub’s threshing rig and steam engine.
Recess on south side of school. Dolores Bokovoy in foreground.
16
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&M elevators. Bottom left: Lee’s Super Service. Bottom right: Ed SImbalenko’s International Dealership.
18
Typical homestead certificate usually signed by the secretary to the president.
Top: Interior or Lumber yard managed by George Michalenko. George is standing on the far right. Below: Exterior shot with George in doorway. Lumberyard letterhead and insurance blotter in the background.
19
An original Citizenship Certificate.
Details from a handwritten passport.
Detail from mortgage note.
Mortgage note issued through the bank in Kief.
M&K Grocery tokens. Remitter’s receipt issued through the bank in Kief. 21
The Joys
School of
“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.” Tom Bodett
For many kids, going to school is not the ideal way of spending
From a teacher’s perspective, however, school is a time
eight hours. (The picture at left is evidence of that!) It’s not
when they can instill the wisdom of the ages and mold the
easy to sit inside all day and try to behave. But some of the
students into becoming productive contributors to society.
fondest, and funniest, memories that we have are made in
One must admire any teacher because they bear a heavy
school. I remember my dad telling me the story of when the
responsibility and have an enormous influence on how a kid
county nurse would come by every year and hand out bars of
views the first dozen and a half years of life. Life, however is
LifeBuoy® soap to the students. For some reason, one of the
the greatest teacher of all, and I have to hand it to Mark Twain
students decided to open the wrapper and nibble on his bar.
who summed it up best ... “The first half of my life I went to
He found the taste so appealing that by the end of the day
school, the second half of my life I got an education.”
he had his bar completely eaten. 22
Todd Spichke 23
1936 Kief Yearbook
24
25
The Freedom
Worship to
I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments. Excerpt from “The Ukrainians” by Cleo Cantlon
Psalm 119:45
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
28 41
33
29 31
40
42
27
34
22
21
6 11
23
25 36
14 10
16 38
2
12
18 17
35
39
19 13
26
5
44
30 32
43
20
8
15
3
7
1
4
9
37 24
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. Steven Fedorenko 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 Fedorenko 39. Peter Krupsky 40. ? 41. Lovrenty Kizima 42. Alex Slobadonick 43. John Skorick, Sr. 44. Jim Novak
families sold prosperous farms in the Ukraine in 1898 and
The early church services had overflow crowds and meals of
came in 1889, recalled that early church services were
made a 17-day ocean crossing to Philadelphia, seeking free-
oatmeal or thin soup; families walking three miles to church
lengthily and joyful. “None of those early settlers had seminary
dom of worship. They found shelter for the winter with
carrying their children in order to spare the horses during
training, but when they gathered in the homes they would
German Baptists at Tripp, South Dakota.
heavy work periods. The horses after all, had worked all week.
speak and sing until the early morning hours.”
The early settlers included Alexandra Galamaga and her son-
On April 26, 1899 they started out on another 17-day journey,
in-law Nick and daughter Carrie Spichke. William and Ellen
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
“I am the good shepherd...” John 10:14 written in the Cyrillic alphabet – Hangs in Liberty Baptist Church.
Sukumlyn who homesteaded two miles west of Kief in 1901, also were early settlers. Kief was incorporated in 1908 and had more than three
famine and other difficulties of pioneers. They organized the Liberty Baptist Church on April 4, 1901 at a meeting in the
for the comfort of the older parishioners in town. In early
hundred residents in 1918. It included five churches: Lutheran,
sod house of John Wash, several miles from Kief. In 1902
times Rev. John Bucknell came from Max once or twice a
Mennonite, Adventist, and German and Russian Baptist.
they constructed a church building, which was renamed in
month to preach. The 16 by 32 foot structure was the first
Mrs. Philip Spichke, whose parents, Peter and Dorothy
the late 1930’s when it was moved two miles east into Kief
Russian Baptist Church In the United States.
26
Rev. Alex Nikolaus viewing the ruins of John Wash’s sod house where the Russian Baptists organized their first church near Kief.
Donelenko and grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Fred Simbalenko 27
Mennonite Brethren Church, taken about 1915. Levi SImbalenko Sr. is the child crawling in front. His father, Edward Simbalenko, is in the last row, second from right. The church thrived having regular Sunday morning worship and Sunday School as well as Wednesday 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.
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 based on a simple architecture with no decoration or iconography, a complete contrast to the Russian Orthodox Church from which the settlers escaped.
Ed SImbalenko, an ordained Mennonite Brethren minister, baptizing his granddaughter Fern Yechoshenko (Zavalney) in Cottonwood lake. 28
25th anniversary of Liberty Baptist church taken in 1926. Photo is taken from the Northeast corner of the churchyard, so the actual church building would be on the left side, but it is not seen in this picture. The Mennonite Brethren church is in 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 was built on the northwest corner of town.
29
Making a Living on Main Street by Todd Spichke
For most of my childhood the main street of Kief consisted
minutes in order to take a bite of it. The most notable
of the Kief Farmer’s Elevator, Earl’s Bar, the Post Office, City
centerpiece in the store however was a large, wooden barrel
Hall, Sam’s Grocery Store and Krueger’s Standard. These
of pickled herring. From that barrel, which was filled to the
few amenities served a much larger community, one that
brim with the Icelandic fish smothered in its own blackened
almost daily depended on these services to maintain their
salty brine, emerged a fragrance that, in my mind has yet to
own quality of life.
be duplicated. I would go into town with my grandpa, and he
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
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
Sam Karpenko, had a romance to it that you find only in
his long handled fork and stab one of the headless fish. Then
story books. I have vivid memories of the store with creaky,
he would go through the deliberate, methodical process of
scuffed hardwood floors, lined with shelves that held the
wiping off the black brine from the sides of the fish. First one
mounds of stiff jeans, pin-striped bib overalls, and boxes
side, then the other, then the first side again, then the other.
Wolverine work boots. Then there would be the open bins of
Hearing the gentle slap of the fish against the side of the
bulk candy that included big boxes of the black licorice pencils
darkened barrel is a memory that is forever etched in my mind.
that were so hard you had to gnaw on them for several
30
Sam Karpenko, the quintessential shopkeeper.
31
Next, Sam would slowly wrap the fish in white butcher paper,
Sam’s store burned to the ground on the evening of
followed by newspaper, and then he would tie it off with a
January 23, 1981. That night, dozens of people from the sur-
length of twine from a spool that sat above the counter. I
rounding communities came to mourn the loss, as a vital
witnessed that same scene dozens of times growing up and
center of commerce was reduced to ashes. I remember the
Sam did it exactly the same way, every single time. I remem-
sounds of bullets and shotgun shells exploding from the
ber feeling a twinge of disappointment when he could no
heat of the fire. It was as if an unseen war was taking place
longer get the wooden barrels but instead received gray,
within the depths of that blaze.
steel barrels lined with a plastic insert. There was a measure
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.
of authenticity that seemed to be lost in that transition, but I
Located on the corner northeast of Krueger’s station was
know the herrings were just as good, if not better. I guess
Michelanko’s Service and Hardware, owned by Jack A.
that I owe Sam (and my Grandpa!) some credit for my love
Michelanko. Washing machines were among the items car-
of herring today.
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
Spring Flooding, early 1900’s.
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
One of the final receipts issued to Amy Yechoshenko on the day Kief General Store burned down.
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.
32
33
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
From our ancestors come our names, but from our virtues comes our honor. Unknown
35
A Murder
hits Home
As a young man William Spichke moved away from the farm in Kief to work at Kohler company in Wisconsin. Nine months later he was found in an apple orchard, shot through the heart execution style.
William Spichke was shot and killed in Manitowac Wisconsin on September 3, 1925 when he was 23 years old. Below: An earlier photo of William taken with Fred Danelenko.
It was an early Thursday morning a stone’s throw from Lake
Even though he was a young man, WIlliam had traveled to
Michigan six miles south of Manitowac, Wisconsin, when
and worked in several states including Colorado and Ohio,
Mrs. Alvin Polster went to her apple orchard to pick some
as well as several different cities within Wisconsin. In his
apples. She spotted a man slumped over in a Ford that was
pockets he had a letter from his sister Elizabeth in Kief that
parked in a nearby apple orchard. After telling her husband,
was dated August 9th, begging him to come home to the
he got the deputy Otto Grasse, and they went down to the
farm. Also found on him was $6.25 in change, a half used
orchard and made the gruesome discovery: A young man
package of Camels, and a receipt from his car payment that
had been shot through the heart and the head at close
he had made three days prior. Friends said that he had been
range, his body dragged and thrown in the front seat of his
with them to the state fair in Milwaukee a day earlier, and
car. After Sheriff Kasten and Undersheriff Fesing examined
Walter Ireland, an official at Kohler said that he had been an
the crime scene, they found papers on the man identifying
industrious employee in the foundry where he worked. A
him as WIlliam Spichke of nearby Nordheim, Wisconsin.
description of a man similar to William was seen in a hard-
They also discovered an untraceable Harrington and
ware store a few days earlier wanting to buy a sight for a
Richardson 16 gauge shotgun that was placed near him in
gun. One unusual item in WIlliam’s pockets was a small
an effort to make it look like a suicide. Blood had soaked
book that contained information and prints of some escaped
through the seat and pooled onto the floor. The newspapers
convicts. It was also thought that he had somehow gotten
said that he was shot in the chest at a downward angle and
involved with bootleggers. One of the Polster’s children
a quantity of blood was found about six feet from the car.
would later say that that his mother told the story dozens of
This suggested that he had probably been on his knees
times about how she first saw the body, and the conclusion
when he was shot. Also the front windshield had been
in the community was always the same: he was murdered by
smashed in and bloody fingerprints were found on the glass
one of Al Capone’s men.
as well as on the door of the car. WIlliam’s hands had no
The coroner’s report simply stated “body found shot
blood on them. There was also a hole in the seat of the car
through the heart in his Ford car”. A funeral home in
where the sheriff said a shotgun had ripped through it.
Manitowac prepared the body and placed it in a casket for
William’s head also bore the signs of being shot with a shot-
the sum of $350. William’s parents Nick and Carrie Spichke
gun. The Ford car that William was found in was purchased
were notified of their boy’s death and his body was sent
less than a month prior at R.H. Theiman garage and was
home five days later to be buried in the little cemetery west
financed through Wisconsin Loan & Finance company
of Kief. The owner of the gun was not traced, the murderer
in Manitowac.
was never brought to justice, and we may never know what really happened on that lonely little orchard on the shoreline of Lake Michigan.
36
by Todd Spichke 37
Memorabilia
Dmitry & Thomaska “Ida” Kostenko
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
Knodel 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)
Lloyd and Edy Knodel, Shelly and Mike
Dmitry Kostenko and Thomaska Dubovoy
Frederick & Fredericka (Hertel) Knodel
Frederick 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.
Sam and Irene Kostenko with daughters Tenley and Randy on left, Penny and Cassie on right. Wayne and Tenley (Kostenko)and family
Submitted by Irene (Knodel) Kostenko Frederick and Fredericka Knodel
1
Albert and Mary Knodel home, birthplace of Lloyd and Irene.
2
John (Sepchenko) Spencer
Steven and Mary Kabanuk with grandchildren Arthur and Alice.
House still standing in Kief of Dorothy and Omelko Kabanuk, cousin to Steven.
Peter Kabanuk, born in Kiev in 1882 and came to the United States in 1911.
Great grandmother Matrona/Matilda Kabanuk with her three grandchildren: Helen, Peter, Serge Dubovoy who were children of her daughter Eudokia/Lizzie Kabanuk Dubovoy, wife of Andrew Dubovoy. 3
4