Litke family receives treasured heirloom
Virgil Litke, a lifelong Marion County resident and longtime collector of various historical artifacts, has been bequeathed a family treasure, one he did not know existed.
He recently acquired his great-grandparents' family dowry chest. This chest was used in 1876 to ship the family's most valued possessions when they left Russia destined for America.
The Johann F. Thiessens had lived in the village of Konteniusfeld in the Molotschna area of South Russia.
Litke's mother, Lizzie Buller, was the daughter of Katherine Thiessen and Jacob W. Buller. Buller founded Buller Manufacturing Co., once a prominent Hillsboro enterprise at 132 N. Main which operated for more than 70 years.
Katherine was eight years old in 1876, when her parents, the Thiessens, immigrated to America. They settled in Nebraska and helped establish the town of Jansen.
Litke and his wife, Phyllis, over the years have acquired numerous dowry chests used by European emigrants from Sweden, France, and Austria, as well as several from Russia, including one carrying the date of 1848 and one 1789.
"These chests as well as other Mennonite immigrant furniture we collect are exciting and rewarding to research, repair, and restore," Litke said.
Early in August, Litke received a telephone call from Pittsburgh, Pa., from his mother's youngest cousin, Donald Wiebe, 79, a retired railroad executive.
"As youngsters here in Kansas, David and I played together at family gatherings," Litke recalled. "In later years, we met a few times at funerals and the like. It had been 12 years since we last met."
After introducing himself on the phone, Wiebe began describing a chest that he said his grandfather had built while in Russia.
"I was all ears as he described it," Litke said, "naming various places where it was used and stored over the last 125 years."
There were five Thiessen daughters, and it is not known how Wiebe's mother, Lisebeth, became the recipient of the chest. Litke speculates it was probably because Wiebe's parents, the Henry Wiebes, moved often from the 1890s to the 1940s and could utilize that type of container.
The chest is somewhat damaged, no doubt due to the many moves, Litke said.
The Wiebes traveled by boxcar in 1908 from Jansen, Neb., to Hooker, Okla. In 1910, they moved to Hillsboro, then back to Oklahoma, crossing the swollen Cimarron River with horses and covered wagon.
A few years later they again moved back to Jansen. From there, they took up farming in western Nebraska.
Wiebe recalled that at times during his years spent growing up in Nebraska, the chest was used or stored in a granary. Later it was kept in a barn, and in the late '30s in the basement of a relative.
Sometime after the Wiebes' marriage in 1946, his wife, Thora, got to see the chest and became attached to it.
As a result, it was shipped to Pennsylvania where the couple lived. For 50 years it has served as a part of the furnishings in the various homes the Wiebes have built.
After Thora's death in March of this year, Wiebe was looking for someone who might be interested in the chest. Thus, the phone call to Litke three weeks ago.
"Would you be interested in having it?" he asked Litke.
"I certainly would," Litke exclaimed, almost beside himself with excitement.
"You can have it," Wiebe said. "In fact, I want you to have it."
The Litkes and the Wiebes were concerned about how to get the chest safely to Kansas. They weren't sure the freight lines could be depended on to give the special care this heirloom required.
So it was decided that Litke's son, Glenn, would go to Pennsylvania with his pickup and get the chest.
Glenn said he not only enjoyed the trip but also the two days and nights he spent in the Wiebes' home where he was treated royally by kinfolk he had not previously known.
When Glenn returned, the Litkes were delighted to see the chest, especially when they saw the ornate hand-scripted lettering painted across the back side:
Johann Thiessen - Konteniusfeld Nebraska Fairbury Nord-Amerika - 1876.
