Email From Gary Aden to Gary Aden
Email Dated 6/30/2001

      The will of Heye Aden, by providing the bastard son of Daughter
Antje, John, with a share equal to his then living children-heirs,
confirms Heye's assumption of the financial responsibilities of
paternity. The appointment of his third son, Mimke, as the administrator
of the will suggests that Heye had faith that Mimke was to become the
heir to the leadership of the family as well. If Hiyo Aden's
History(1936) paints Heye as a giant among men, then his flowery
descriptions of Mimke Aden approach superhero Comecon status.  Indeed,
the center of the odyssey of the family in the new world had already
moved from Woodford County, Illinois to Garrison, Butler County,
Nebraska. As we shall see, however, there is little in the anecdotal
evidence to merit icon status for Mimke. His true legacy may have been
his ability to share, teach and "father" his children. I have never
heard any utter a critical word about him( I knew four of them and I
probed for a balanced report).

      Mimke married Hiskea "Katie" Wilts, born Deceember 6, 1852 not far
from where he was raised in Prussia. They did not know each other in
Prussia. Like many children of her day in Germany, she was bound out the
age of nine to a shoemaker and stayed there until she was eighteen . It
was customary to bind children out for their schooling until fourteen
and then they continued until eighteen for board and clothes. Her
father, a lifelong mathematics school teacher with an educational
background in navigation as well, held a cynical view of the prospects
in Prussia and urged the family to "sell the house when I am gone and
go." He would have initiated the move when he was alive were it not for
the limited funds he could muster on a teacher's salary. Being an
educated man with an extensive understanding  of economic prospects, he
had urged the family to emigrate to Illinois in the USA.

      When he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 60, the family
emigrated and settled in Peoria, Illinois. In Illinois, Hiske worked for
an English family and learned English and the American way while being
well treated. Then she worked for a demanding woman known for
mistreating her help, but Hiske lasted for two years, the agreed upon
term from the start.  Hiskea was the next to the youngest of six girls
and one boy, Eleck; the latter killed in Illinois when he, on his boss'
orders, jumped on a young horse to ride home from  the field, caught his
foot in the line, was thrown by the horse and dragged one and one half
miles. He lived but twelve hours after the accident. The names of her
sisters(no details of their marriage available) were: (1) Kayo
Wilts^Wiltz Schaffer, (2) Tobina Wilts^Wiltz Johnson, (3) Lena
Wilts^Wiltz Schaumburg, (4) Allie Wilts^Wiltz Wilons, and Sena
Wilts^Wiltz Aden(married to Mimke's brother, John, who died in 1889. All
of these sisters' famlies eventually gravitated to and settled in Butler
County, Nebraska where they are buried. They also were apparently
closely involved with the Mimke Aden family activities. Hiyo Aden's
History(1936) records anecdotes where they are very important in
salvaging the family's economic fortunes, but ambivalently describes
their incessant hypochondiasis which was very irritating to him.

     Grandmother Anna Wilts^Wiltz, on the other hand, who also relocated to
Butler County, Nebraska, is described as having unusually good health
and indeed, she died at age 81 outliving three of her daughters. From
Hiyo's boyhood view, she "would have made a good Pinkerton.  She was
very cunning and could read other people's thoughts." She was well
versed in the Old Testament and had a penchant for detecting any
misquotations. She and Mimke conversed in German about the old country
as a favorite pasttime. 

      Mimke and Hiske had enjoyed only a short courtship before their
January 3, 1874 marriage joining her sister in Nebraska where Mimke
bought a relinquishment for $500 from Peter Cornue. It had one of the
best sod houses in that community. The split rails on the roof had been
taken from a large tree. Both Mimke and Hiske were confirmed Lutherans,
given to avoiding members of other sects when they went to Garrison, but
Hiske persuaded the rest of the family to mix with the community as it
existed. Her singing voice apparently facilitated the effort.

     Eventually, all religious observance was confined to the Methodist
Church where they became lifelong members. 

      In 1879, the railroad came through the dooryard of their property.
Mimke sold extra hay and grain to the teamsters. They worked for three
months close to the house because of two cuts and two fills to get the
railroad from the bottom to the top of the table land at Garrison. Mimke
was excited by the economic prospects! He did $150 worth of the work
himself and Hiske boarded nine men for eleven weeks at $3.75/week. Mimke
built a new frame house with his savings of $700 plus the expected
revenue from the railroad effort above. It was all for naught! The
contractor absconded with the money leaving creditors behind. Mimke
developed lifelong gastric problems and Hiske began to complain of ill
health afterwards. Financial help and emotional support from his brother
John and Sena Wilts Aden helped them survive the financial
embarrassement from the railroad calamity. 

       Brighter days were ahead! In the spring of 1881, a wet spring
caused the corn to beccme "weedy" and Mimke, feeling weak from his
stomach problems, nonetheless was cultivating the corn. Hiyo records
that his mother, Aunt Sena and his grandmother took new hoes they had
hidden in the hay purchased the day before from butter sales in David
City and crept up behind Mimke cleaning three rows of corn after the
cultivator. His spirits brightened as he saw the clean corn and the crop
was laid by July 4th with the assistance of his brother, John. The corn
was fed to the hogs which fetched a new high of $7.00/hundred. The three
women had gone over the entire corn field with hoes. Hiske also took
care of one and one half miles of border trees and three acres of grove
on the creek bottoms. Hiske and my grandfather John suffered from
painful dental problems, but there was no dentist in the area. Pioneer
women of the time had to cope with long distances to medicines and
doctors, grasshoppers, and Indians. Yet they apparently did not
complain; at least enough to cause their removal  back to a more
civilized environment. Through all this, Hiske found time to raise the
children; she was not punitive physically and prone to teach by example;
excellent cook; fastidious housekeeper; fast worker; and more high
strung than Mimke by comparison. Her pet peeve was jokes at other
peoples' expense. She disliked practical jokes even if partially
deserved. 

      Hiyo Aden cites an anecdotal encounter of the view of Indians at
the time, "Speaking of Indians, I want to tell you of a happening in
1884, Anna Onnen, known to you as Mrs. Anna Dura, was working for us,
she and her husband had just arrived from Germany that spring. One day
in the fall a young Indian, probably 25 or 30 years old, came along and
asked for a handout. He sat in the kitchen while Mother prepared him
some food and in that respect she was very liberal. Anna stood by the
sink a few feet away, holding the baby, I think it was Lena, on her left
arm  with her right hand under her apron, a very common position in
those days. When the Indian left, Mother said, 'That is the finest,
best-dressed Indian I have ever seen.' Anna said,'Is he a good Indian?'
Mother replied,'He surely is a good Indian.' 'Well,' said Anna, 'I
didn't know,' and she drew her right hand from under her apron with a
pretty big stove poker in it. She was a resolute little soul and if that
Indian had made just one unusual move he would  have had a badly mashed
scalp. Our folks often laughed about it, but once again a woman had been
brave and showed her courage."