Node, A Day in the Life - Baars Family History (10/05/2025)

Opening remarks by JoAnn Wade:

Welcome to a Day in the Life at Node. We invited you here to celebrate America’s 250 years as a nation. Earlier this year the county commissioners appointed a committee to lead Niobrara county’s celebration of America’s history. The committee consists of Leslie Stewart, Sanda Johnson, Sheila Bolden, Richard Ladwig, Debbie Sturman, Morgan Nolan, Gary Bayne and myself (JoAnn Wade). Throughout the next year, we have many different experiences planned to showcase our Niobrara County History.

Baars Family History

As recalled by Kevin Baars

Baars Family Video History

Fritz Carl Johann “Fred” Baars, was born February 12, 1880, in Chicago, Illinois. While he was still an infant, his parents moved to a place near Mitchell, in eastern South Dakota. I really don’t know about his growing up years, but on June 9, 1904, he was married to Dorothea C. W. Nobbman at Emerald, Nebraska. Dorothea was born December 6, 1885, somewhere in Nebraska. They welcomed their first child Wilhemina “Minnie” in 1905, Verna was born in 1907, and Wilmer came along in 1909.

In the Fall of 1911, Fred headed west in search of a homestead and good water. As the story goes, after tasting the water in Niobrara County, he knew this is where he wanted to live. He applied for a homestead, and his application was approved in December of 1911, and filed in Converse County because there wasn’t a courthouse in Lusk yet.

In the Spring of 1912, Fred, Dorothea and their 3 children came to Wyoming. Minnie recalled walking behind the wagon on the way here. She would have been about 7 years old at the time.

On May 1, 1915, Fred & Dorothea welcomed their 4^th, and last, child, Harry – my dad. Daddy told me that when the midwife was here helping deliver him, my grandpa slept in the granary because there wasn’t enough room for everyone in the small homestead house. The house was built on a rock foundation and had a “boxcar” roof. My sister, Karen, said he tore the house down when she and Lorraine were little because it was falling down and he didn’t want them to get hurt playing in it. The foundation still stands between our house and shop.

Fred and Dorothea were hard workers, as were all the folks in those days. Besides the house and granary, they built a corn crib, chicken coop and a long shed for cattle. All of those are still standing and in use today, except the corn crib that Daddy tore down in the mid-90’s. We’ve heard, or seen pictures, of them raising cattle, turkeys, and evidently row crops like corn and potatoes. Daddy told Denise that if you look in the pasture east of our house, you can still see where their potato cellars were.

Grandma Dorothea died in 1926. Her obituary says that “She had been in failing health for the past year. A trip was made to the Mayo Brothers Hospital at Rochester some months ago with the hope that relief might be obtained, but this and all other efforts made seemed to be of little avail so when the end came it served as a relief to her suffering.” She was 40 years old. Harry was only 11 at the time. Grandpa Fred and Daddy worked together after that for many years, and Grandpa died September 2, 1943, at the age of 63.

All of the Baars children attended school at Node through the 8^th Grade. Aunt Minnie graduated high school in Lusk in 1925, at the age of 20. She then attended the University of Wyoming in Laramie for one summer. A few months after her mother’s death, she married Lawrence O. Butler (who was 21 years her senior) in December of 1926. Lawrence was a brother to both Vivian (Mrs. Henry Kaan), and Mabel (Mrs. Menno Kaan), who were neighbors of the Baars family, which gives a clue as to why we live on Kaan Road instead of Baars Road. After Lawrence’s death in 1951, Minnie moved to town. She worked at Tyrell’s Grocery and Cold Storage, cooked at the Lusk High School, and in later years did ironing for many in the community. Minnie & Lawrence had no children, but she loved them and enjoyed babysitting, and was known to bake the best cookies and cinnamon rolls.

Verna married Charles E. “Charlie” Humphrey in 1927. Charlie and Verna lived just south of Node where Matt & Tandy Dockery now reside. The WEBO Angus salebarn is also located on what once was Charlie & Verna’s ranch. They had two daughters, Dorothy (who married Carl Porter) and Ruth (who married Dan Mahnke). After spending some time in the nursing home, Verna died in 1981.

Wilmer graduated from Lusk High School in 1929, at the age of 20, and his obituary specifically noted he played high school football, so he must have been quite athletic. In 1936, he married Twinkle Boyles who graduated from Van Tassell High School earlier that year. They were married in Harrison, Nebraska. Wilmer and Twinkle lived in the Lusk area until 1945, when they moved southwest of Keeline where they ranched and farmed until April of 1976 (and that’s why there are Brueggers living on Baars Road). At that time they retired and moved to Torrington. They had two children – a son, Dewey and a daughter, Dorothy. Wilmer died in October of 1986.

My dad, Harry, was always a big, stout guy. While attending school at Node, he was the first on, and last off the bus. It was his duty to open and shut all the gates for the bus going to and from the schoolhouse. He recalled to me that there were 22 gates to open and shut, both ways. In Jimmy’s research for the Node book, he confirmed that in some school board minutes from 1925. Daddy completed his schooling with 10^th
Grade in Lusk. He told me he boarded at the Fagan House, which I believe is the house just south of the Ranger. However, he remained an avid reader and lifelong learner. He loved to tinker and find ways to do things better. When he was 80, he completely tore apart a welder because, as he told me while I stared at little pieces strewn all over the shop, he wanted to see how it worked. And that was the end of that welder. Good thing I’d just purchased a new one.

The Baars family was German, and spoke German in their home. We have Daddy’s baptism certificate from the Node Lutheran Church, which is a work of art in itself, and is written entirely in German. In his 80’s, he still called baby potatoes Kartoffeln in die Lederhosen. While he was known to all as a very mild mannered gentleman, his brother-in-law noted that when Harry started cussing in German, you KNEW he was mad!

Harry and his dad raised good Hereford cattle. We found a picture of them at a stock show with a couple of their Hereford bulls – that were only about this high… He took a lot of pride in raising good cattle, with good dispositions. Our UB brand he chose because he said it stood for “uniform & blocky” – good traits in cattle.

Daddy told a story about when the Lutheran Church building was moved from Node to Lusk. Now, I can’t find the booklet we have that might have more specific information, so none of this would stand up in a court of law. But Daddy said that when they moved that building they hitched a bunch of teams to the front, and they had the building sitting on log poles, and as the teams would inch the building forward, the men would pick up the poles the building had rolled off of, and pack them to the front so they could roll the building back onto them. They did this all the way across country from Node to the current location of the Lutheran Church at 5^th & Linn. That original building burned down at some point, but the congregation rebuilt in the same place.

Si West recalled putting up the tent for the first Niobrara County Fair. Si had put out a call for volunteers to help with the set up, but when the day came, it was Harry and Si. So Si said, “What are we going to do?” Daddy said, “Well, we’ve got a tent to put up.” So Harry grabbed the large center pole of the tent, hefted it up, and held it in a bear hug while Si ran around like a chicken with his head cut off staking down the outside, with Harry laughing at him the entire time.

June 1^st, 1952, he married the neighbor girl, Charlotte Canfield, who was 19 years his junior. As the homestead house was in disrepair, they moved into Minnie’s house while he and some neighbors worked on building a new house. They celebrated their first Easter in the new house in 1954. Harry & Charlotte had 5 children. Their first daughter, Sharon, was stillborn in 1953. Lorraine was adopted in 1954, Karen was born in 1956, Robyn was adopted in 1965, and I was adopted in 1967. Yes, there was a big gap in there – so much so that my sister, Karen, was a high school Senior when I was in Kindergarten. Karen still says that it was a great deal because it gave her and her friends an excuse to go to little kid movies. My mom died in 1980 from complications from diabetes at age 46. I was 12 – very similar to my dad’s age when he lost his mom.

Daddy threw himself into finishing raising his family. He made sure we made it to school, and all other functions, including being involved in 4-H. It was especially important to him that all of his children were Confirmed in the Lutheran Church. Whenever there was a carry-in, Daddy made brownies. Carmen has remarked on many occasions that Harry was known for making the best brownies. Whenever he heard that he would laugh and say, I just made them from a box!

Once I graduated from high school and headed off into the big world, he decided it was time to travel a bit. He enjoyed taking bus trips to various places, and on one of those trips he met Bessie Trohkimoinen, a widow from Vale, South Dakota. They married in May of 1989. He died in October of 1996, at the age of 81.

Lorraine, alias Lori, lives in Riverton. She had two daughters, Tara (who died in an automobile accident in 2005) and Tandy. Karen lives on her late husband’s family farm near Hay Springs, Nebraska. She has a daughter, Jennifer and a son, Ryan. Robyn and her husband, Tom, live about 3 miles south of us on Aunt Minnie’s old place. They have a son, Robert and a daughter, Tracy. Denise and I were married in 1991, and moved back to the ranch in the Spring of 1994. We live in the house Daddy built on the original homestead, and have a daughter, Chelsea and a son, Kerby.

It’s a blessing to live here, and work the land that my grandpa came to 114 years ago. I would hope that they would be honored that we are still doing what they did after all this time.

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