In 1901, John J. Weber, at twenty-two, homesteaded in McIntosh County, enduring hardships like droughts and blizzards. Marrying Louisa Kraemer in 1907, they farmed until 1923 when John transitioned to running a meat market and cream station in Danzig. A dedicated member of the Danzig Reformed Church, he served as elder and deacon. The Webers had three daughters, with the family deeply rooted in the Ashley area. After John’s passing in 1943, Louisa moved to Ashley, living independently into her eighties, symbolizing the enduring spirit of their pioneering life.
At the turn of the century, in 1901, the late John J. Weber came to McIntosh County from Lesterville, South Dakota where he was born on June 7, 1879. He was twenty-two years of age when he arrived to file on a homestead ten miles northwest of Ashley. Here he spent many years of hardship: clearing his land, plowing with a hand plow, and struggling through droughts, “hoppers, crop failures, prairie fires, and blizzards that lasted four and five days.
On July 28, 1907, he was united in marriage to Louisa Kraemer of Scotland, South Dakota at the Ashley Reformed Church of which he was a member. They lived on their homestead until the year 1918 when they moved to Danzig. Mr. Weber farmed his land for five more years, and then, in 1923, he purchased a meat market and cream station in Danzig which he operated until his death on May 18, 1943.
Mr. and Mrs. Weber were charter members of the Danzig Reformed Church organized in the early 1920’s, and he served as elder and deacon for seventeen years.
Three daughters were born to them: Esther (Mrs. Sam S. Eszlinger), living at Ashley; Edwina (Mrs. Julius C. Retzer), living at Ashley; and Viola, (Mrs. Calvin Dockter), living at Venturia, North Dakota.
In 1946, Mrs. Weber moved to Ashley where she is making her home and living alone at the age of eighty-one.