Melinda Luikart, 1861-1951

LUIKART, BARBER

Posted By: Emmet County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 2/17/2009 at 07:27:09

Pioneer Resident Dies
Mrs. Luikart Lived 89 Years in Emmet

Mrs. Melinda Luikart, 90, who is believed to have lived in Emmet county longer than any other living resident died last night at 8 o'clock at Holy Family hospital. She died of cancer, becoming ill in July and had been hospitalized since Oct. 4. Mrs. Luikart lived in the county for 89 years moving here with her parents, John and Martha Barber, in 1862. She was born Jan. 21, 1861 in Edgerton, Wis., and the family came by covered wagon drawn by oxen to Emmet county a year later.

Eight adults and three children made the trip which took them a month, Mrs. Luikart wrote in an account of her early life in the county.

The family came to the county on the advice of a man encouraging settlers to come west and take up homesteads. They moved to a farm in Emmet Grove where the Jarvis and Ellis families were the only other residents.

Mrs. Luikart wrote "it was just after the Indian Massacre at Spirit Lake and there were still small bands of Indians around but the soldiers were stationed in Estherville so they could do no harm, only to beg for things, but the settlers did not trust them.

"On Nov. 10, we arrived at Emmet Grove and that winter we had to live with the two other families in one house.

The first land my father took to homestead proved to be property of the Des Moines River Land company but he had lived on it two years before he found that out so then he had to take another quarter section and he lived on this farm until he died in June, 1918.

"The early settlers had to get along without a lot of things that they needed, but they did not complain. They built their houses with logs which they cut from trees that grew along the Des Moines river.

"The first school I attended was held in a neighbor's granary, and the teacher's name was Miss Cheever. The first school house we had was built of logs and the desks and seats were made of plank.

"My mother made our dresses from unbleached muslin which was 50 cents a yard. It was right after the Civil war and everything was high priced. I cannot remember having a calico dress until I was 10 years old. This muslin with which she made our dresses she colored with black walnut shucks as there were a great many of these trees growing near the river at that time.

"My father had never lived on a farm; he was a cabinet-maker by trade so he made all our furniture and some for other people too.

"My mother missed her tea and my father missed his tobacco so they had to use a substitute. A sage bush that grew on the prairie they used for tea and the Indian tobacco that grew wild my father gathered and dried and smoked in his pipe. At that time there was a lot of prairie land over which horses and cattle roamed at will, and the farmers fenced the fields.

"There was quite a distance between neighbors and they visited each other evenings. The young people played games while the older ones visited and before leaving for home they would have supper together. The food was plain no fancy foods were served at that time.

"Lovely strawberries grew along the creek west of our home; they were so sweet one needed very little sugar for them and sugar was a scarce article then. We gathered the nicest gum from the gum stalks that grew on the prairie.

There were plenty of wild crabapple and grapes, also hazelnuts and black walnuts for all who wanted them.

"There was very little white flour and sugar and one had to go to Mankato, Minn., to get them. Most of the food was corn bread and molasses, potatoes and vegetables. If one had a cow they had milk and butter."

Mrs. Luikart married William Luikart Nov. 25, 1880, in Estherville and lived on a farm two and half miles north of Estherville until 1914.

Mrs. Luikart was baptized in the Des Moines river Aug. 21, 1892, and joined the Union Baptist church as one of its first members on Sept 4, that year.

Her husband died July 9, l929, 15 years after they had moved to their home in Estherville.

Continuing to live at 1008 North Sixth street, Mrs. Luikart drove her car, did her own housework, visited friends until last July 29, when she became ill.

She was a member of the Union Baptist church and Ladies Aid, serving as its president at one time.

Mrs. Luikart is survived by two children, Agnes V. Steele, Estherville, and Clem Luikart, of Minneapolis; two grandchildren, Ralph Steele, of LaCrosse, Wisc. and Kenneth Luikart, of Minneapolis; two great grandchildren., Billie and Mary Beth Luikart of Minneapolis, and a number of nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Sandin funeral home and at 2 P.M. at the Union Baptist church, the Rev. G E. Forssell officiating. Burial will be at Oakhill cemetery.

Friends may call at the Sandin funeral home from tomorrow noon up to the time of the funeral.

Contributed by: Jon Barber Source: Estherville Daily News, Estherville, Emmet County, Iowa; October 17, 1951.