The following article was extracted from a 1978 copy of the 'BITS AND PIECES Magazine'.   It was written by Dorothy (Martens) Beek, daughter of Charlie & May (Willadson) Martens.   Though written from a viewpoint of a descendant of Charlie and May Martens, the family history applies to Henry Martens as well.   Charlie & Henry Martens married sisters, May & Clara Willadson.

Jergens Martens and his wife (Charlie's grandfather and grandmother) had reared their family of two sons and three daughters by the time they came to the United States. Most of them stayed in Indiana, but Fred (Charlie's father) went to Nebraska to settle. Jergens and his wife homesteaded in the new country and then he spent his declining years helping his children in different parts of the country. His own place was next to Fred Martens' in Nebraska. Charlie remembers some of the stories he heard from him as a child. One in particular was always of great interest although its authenticity has never been checked.

Grandfather Jergens Martens said that several generations before, the family name had been Martinez and they had been sailors and sometimes pirates on the high seas. They looked for safety to England, but when that did not afford them the shelter they needed they went to the lowland countries on the continent and became farmers in the small independent countries of Schleswig and Holstein where they remained for many years until they emigrated.

Charlie's mother's name was Margaret Freidt. She and her future husband, Fred Martens, knew one another in Germany but came to this country separately. She came with her mother and two sisters and they too, settled in Indiana, near Valparaiso. Margaret was working for a family there when Fred Martens came seeking her. She left her job and they were married and went to Minden, Iowa to live.

Fred Martens had learned the painting trade and was doing very well with it in Iowa and had his own farm in the rich Iowa countryside. However, they were enticed away by stories of the free homestead land in Nebraska and they decided that was where they should be. They left comforts and a more civilized life for hardships of which they couldn't have dreamed.

Fred and Margaret Martens settled in Holt County, Nebraska and over the years nine children were born to them. They all lived to adulthood, but Charlie is now the only survivor of that large family.

The homestead place out of Atkinson where Charlie was born grew over the years. His parents added to it whenever they could. All the surrounding countryside was homesteaded. People would come in and file on a homestead, and when they proved up on it would go to a bank and get a $500 improvement loan. As soon as they got the loan they would leave the country. When the loans came due, the loan companies would have to put the homestead up for sale. Charlie's father believed strongly in Holt County land and every time a homestead came up for sale he would scrape up the money and buy it. That way he accumulated one little place after another until he had a good sized ranch. Margaret's mother, Mrs. Freidt came out from Valparaiso and filed on a homestead; the children took care of her while she proved up on it and they became the owners of the property.

Life was not always easy or comfortable. Charlie tells this story: "...the first time I nearly lost my life was during the winter of 1888. That was one of the worst winters on record, just as this past year of 1978 has been notable for terrible winter conditions. I was born in 1887, the third child of my parents. At that time the folks burned hay in an old hay-burner stove to keep warm. There was no timber in Nebraska to provide wood for stoves. A terrible blizzard came up and the second day of the storm they ran out of hay and couldn't get out to get more. They had no way of keeping warm in the house so they moved down to the cellar under the house where they stored their food. The only warmth they had down there came from their bodies and from blankets and clothing with which they surrounded themselves. The second night my mother said that I turned competely blue from cold and they were sure I would be the first to go. Unbelievably all the family survived!"

The Martens family did not start out in a sod house as did so many homesteaders. Charlie says that might have been a mistake, for the "soddies" were cool in summer and warm in winter. They were terrible flea traps however, so they had disadvantages too. The family had an old homestead shack and as soon as possible built a new house, small but strong. By then they had five children. Charlie tells another story, "...When I was about five years old I made some real trouble for them. I guess I thought it would be fun to play with matches. I set the homestead house on fire. My parents were out milking cows and mother said she saw the smoke rolling out of the windows. She made a run for the house, everything was on fire and the house full of smoke. She grabbed the cradle and dragged it out and saved the baby, brother Robert. Nothing else was saved. We lost everything, all our warm winter clothes and all the household furnishings. My parents were completely hard up after that for a while and they held it against me for a long time!"

After Jergens' wife died, a larger house was built and they lived very comfortably. Grandfather had his own very nice room on the sunny side of the house. He had his own little coal burning stove and could be very private but he came and took his meals with the family. By this time he no longer ranged around visiting his children, but spent his time in Holt County. When Grandmother died, a large cemetery lot was bought at Atkinson. She was the 8th person to be buried there and her husband insisted that she be laid to rest facing the sun. He was later buried there, as were Fred and Margaret.

Fred Martens' sisters were married to Ferdinand Hayman and August Herbert. They, too, had come to Nebraska to homestead after a time further East. They moved on and went to Oregon on a wagon train as soon as they got their improvement loans. The family lost track of them after they migrated; there may have been some falling out between the families and communication ceased. However, Dora Hayman from Oregon came to visit May and Charlie since they have lived in Arizona.

Charlie and his brothers and sisters went to a little country school. In those hard-working days the children were needed to work and schooling was available only for a short time in the middle of winter. At times the school board would allow the school to go so badly in debt there would be no school at all. At one time, when a group of homesteaders was leaving that hardship country, the leader of the school turned it all over to Fred Martens, saying "Here it is; you'll never be able to get it out and keep it out of debt!" There was no school that year, but then the Martens decided there must be school for their children and the only way to get it would be to borrow money. Grand father Martens bought the school bonds...and he had to wait a long time before he got any money out of them. They decided that to start, they would have only three months of school. They hired a high school girl from Atkinson and paid her $25 a month to teach for those three months. Margaret Martens boarded her for $4 a month and $1 was deducted toward paying off the bonds. She taught for $20 a month. Charlie remembers there was a great variety of nationalities at that school ..children who spoke only German or Swedish or Irish or Hungarian or some other language. Most of them spoke no English at all when they came to school. The teacher had to teach about 30 children in one room, covering the first 8 grades with that tremendous diversity of language abilities.

The one room school provided the only formal education Charlie had. He went to school for 3 months for only 6 or 7 years, a total of 24 months. He read widely and voraciously as he grew into adulthood and is largely a self-educated man.

When not in school the children were kept at home and hard at work. They plowed corn, herded cattle, put up hay and did some of thousands of things necessary on those un-mechanized farms. At the time the "Herd Law" was in effect in Nebraska; there were no fences and owners were responsible for their livestock and for keeping them out of adjoining property. The children herded the cattle in the daytime and brought them to the corral at night. During that time there were many cattle rustlers. They would steal a hundred head or more of cattle at night, drive them off some distance, mix them up and steal all they could. Ranchers organized "Vigilance Societies" and if they caught a fellow out stealing cattle they would "string him up" on the spot; hang him without benefit of a trial.

Charlie remembers that he and his brother Henry herded cattle every day in the summer time and were paid 65 cents per head for the season. Their father gave them a shotgun and they would sleep out to protect the cattle. They never had to shoot at anyone, but a lot of rustlers were shot and their father always said they got what was coming to them. Brands were thought to be cruel; this made it easy for the rustlers.

Charlie says, "...I remember that along about 10 o'clock at night all the cattle would be herded together and they would lay down. Then the herders would gather some place and tell stories and chew tobacco. They got Henry to chew tobacco, and he was just a little kid. He would get so sick. He would come home so sick he couldn't eat. My mother and dad would talk about and worry about him. Mother would say '...that boy can't stand herding cattle, it will kill him!' 'Well', Dad would answer, 'what about the little fellow, it doesn't hurt him.' I knew what it was...that damned tobacco, but I wouldn't dare tell!"

Charlie tells another story, "...When I was a little kid, maybe 8 or 9, I had a different kind of job. When the pigs had their litters and had trouble birthing they needed help. My dad taught me how to pull the little pigs. I was so successful the neighbors would come over and borrow me to pull pigs for them."

It was difficult to travel at night. There were no roads, just trails. There were no fences; the traveler had to learn and know the landmarks. Charlie says that many times at night they would simply turn their horses loose, give them their head and the horses would find the way home. Sometimes at night people would hang out lanterns in a certain pattern; there was a sort of code, and for example, two lanterns hung in a particular way would indicate to the knowledgeable native where he was.

Although they worked hard it was a good life in many ways. They could hunt, fish, ride and enjoy the good clean and beautiful countryside. Charlie says they often had to eat jackrabbits, but they always had enough to eat. There was an abundance of fish in the creek and game was plentiful.

The children came to hunting and fishing early and naturally but for his mother it was a different story. She had grown up in a city and when she came to Nebraska it was so different. In the early years her husband was often gone. He took painting jobs around the country to bring in the needed cash. Neighbors taught Margaret how to bait a hook and catch fish. When she wanted to plant a garden a neighbor boy showed her she had the collar on the horse upside down, and taught her how to harness him before she could do the plowing.

When a contagious disease appeared in the countryside it would go through whole families and become epidemic. There was virtually no medical help available. Charlie remembers a bad diphtheria epidemic when everyone was so frightened that neighbors refused to associate with one another. Some families had 6 or 7 deaths and since it was in the dead of winter they couldn't bury them, but stacked the bodies up outside in the corncrib. The epidemic let up as spring came. The Martens had a corn planter a neighbor wanted to borrow. Along with the planter he wanted to borrow a boy, as someone to sit on the planter and make it work. Fred Martens asked if the neighbor's family had diphtheria. The neighbor said they didn't have it and swore they were all over it. He talked Fred into letting Charlie go over to help run the planter. Charlie worked several days and quite soon he was ill with diphtheria. Everyone in his family got it then. They were all very sick, but no one died. They felt lucky because they knew of instances where whole families had been wiped out.

The homesteaders made their own medicines. They stripped the sand cherry vines and blossoms and dried them. In the winter they had sand cherry tea for medicine. Perhaps a high Vitamin C content conferred the benefit! Elderberries were used in the same way. Lard mixed with turpentine was used for various ailments. May remembers once when her foot was badly cut, a cow manure poultice was used. Charlie broke his leg when he was about 10. His father set it as best he could but they finally had to get a doctor from Atkinson to take care of it. By the time he got there it was so terribly swollen they had to stretch it out and wait until the swelling went down before it could be properly set. The doctor charged $35 for that visit, causing his mother even greater anguish than Charlie had felt!

Prairie-fires were a terrible scourge to the homesteaders. The fires would start and burn for days; high winds would blow the fires for miles and miles; the wind would change directions and devastate a completely unexpected area. Charlie remembers that in the spring one could see smoke everywhere on the horizon and ashes would sift out of the sky for days. One fire traveled 35 miles in 30 minutes. Neighbors would run to help and would turn around and see their homes burned because the wind had suddenly shifted. Everything in the path of the fire would be destroyed. He remembers that after a family was burned out everyone would help as they could. Families came and stayed with the Martens until they could build up again. People would sleep in barns, sheds, anywhere until they would have their own place again. The fires may have been started by lightning or by carelessness, no one ever really knew. The grass was so high and so plentiful, however, that the fires would rage uncontrolled.

Neighbors meant a lot to one another. Not only did they help each other in times of trouble and when an extra hand was needed for a seasonal job; they relied on social times together. In the early days a whole house would be emptied of all furniture, even the stove, and the entire countryside would show up for eating and an evening of square dancing. After the farmers became more prosperous, however, the lady of the house became reluctant to move her new and good furniture outside for an evening of rough-housing and sociability by the farmers, who were eager for the seldom enjoyed opportunity for fun and relaxation.

Charlie remembers when his Grandfather Martens went to the World's Fair in Omaha in 1899. He came back and told the enthralled family about all the wonderful things he had seen at the fair. He said they had one thing not to be believed...they had a buggy that could propel itself on its own power! "Oh", said his dad, "They were fooling you, they had a wire to pull it back and forth!" Grandfather said, "No!...it couldn't be...people were walking all around it, there were no wires. It could back up, turn around go forward. It was going under it's own power, I know it! " That was the automobile, the first one to come to Nebraska.

Charlie's parents were poor for many years. However when the World's Fair came to Chicago in 1893 his father decided that it was time for his wife to enjoy life and he wanted her to go. The railroad kept cutting rates and finally brought them so low that a round trip ticket was available for $10. Father gave her the money; Margaret sat there and looked at it and then she began to cry. She said, "The only dress I have is this calico dress that I wear every day and wash every night...and you say I can go to Chicago! " She wanted terribly to go but it was hard for her to shed the responsibilities she had carried for so long. It was also shortly after the time Charlie had caused the fire that burned their house and all of the other clothes Margaret had possessed.

When Charlie was quite a young man his dad set him up on 160 acres of good farmland called the Hooten place. His grandfather would come from time to time to help him and they gardened together, planted trees and Charlie listened to the many stories his grandfather had to tell. His father promised Charlie the place would be his if he would stay with it and work until the mortgage was paid off. Charlie did so, but when the awaited day came he says, "...there were too many others on the roost...I was pushed off and my brother Robert got the place...." He was in his early twenties at this time and he decided he would head further north and look at Wyoming. He went to the State Fair in Lincoln, boarded the train end traveled to the end of the line, which was Lander, Wyoming.

Fred and Margaret Martens gradually turned their ranch over to the sons who stayed in Nebraska. They moved to Atkinson and lived there very comfortably for 15 or more years. They both lived to be past 85. Margaret could never get over the hard lessons learned in the early days and she always saved and lived very frugally; waste was not tolerated. Her new house in Atkinson had rooms enough for all the children to visit and they all came together there with her grandchildren (except for Harry who died after WWI) to help the couple celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 1930.

May Martens' family originally came from Denmark. Her parental grandfather, Peder Villadson and Matte Myrtue lived all their lives in Denmark as did her maternal forebears, Berthel Andersen and Kirstine Christensen. Her father Willads Willadson was born in Alstrup, Denmark, in 1862 and her mother, Oline Berthelsen was born in Tranum Klit, Denmark, in 1860.

They came to the United States when they were young adults, married and took up farming in Iowa in the vicinity of Council Bluffs. May remembers that her father was "quite a trader"...so the family moved around quite a few times, and May was born when they lived on a farm out of Jackson, Minnesota on May 29, 1892. The family moved back to Iowa for a time and it was then that the Willadson sisters became acquainted with the Martens' sons. The Willadsons moved to Minnesota again and settled in Hallock, where her parents lived until their death. Her oldest sister Clara Martens died just as this history was being written on November 10, 1978. May and two younger brothers, Edwin Willadson, who lives in Osage, and Moses who lives in Minnesota are the only surviving children.

Charlie's birthday is April 28, 1887. Charlie and May are now 91 and 86 respectively and anticipate many more good years. Their hospitality is known far and wide and they enjoy many visits from family members and from old friends who stop to see them at their home in Sun City, Arizona. They always say, though, that those Wyoming years were the best...and Wyoming will always be home to them.