My Great Grandfather on my Dad's side and two of his brothers came to the US from Luxembourg in the 1840's. The story goes there was no new land left to farm over there and no industry so the hope of a better life over here drew them. To continue the story one brother stayed in Pensylvania,the remaining two continued on to East
Dubuque where there was not yet a bridge, only a ferry. They crossed the Mississippi and walked to Independence, Iowa about 75 miles west, My GGP heard of work in Benton county about 40 miles south of Independence, the third brother said he was going to the Dakota territory, they say none ever heard from the other again. About 99% of the people who settled in Eastern Benton county were Germans, there he found and married my GGM a purebred German girl born in Germany. On it goes, my Grandfather and Grandmother on my Mothers side were born in Germany, so my Mother and Dad being purebred Germans from that community produced me another purebred German, not many of us purebreds left. None of my GGF's offspring hardly left the borders of Benton County, My Grandfather and his brothers and sisters didn't go much farther. By the third generation, my Dad and his eleven brothers and sisters began to fan out a bit for lack of farmland in the immediate areia. Growing up here I liked it, so I found some farmland and stayed. The winters are sometimes bad, the summers are sometimes hot, but usually there was a reward in the fall. After 50+ years of married life we have gone south in the winter a couple times, hated every minute of it and came back home to the snow and cold.

Enuf of that.

Frank.

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