Horses and Harness
Repair on the Dakota Prairie
In the summer of 1998, my dad, Julius A Just, born, May 3,
1914, presented to me a homemade wooden harness maker/repair stand, along with
a metal box of tools.
He said, “My brothers, Reinhold and Ephraim, left McIntosh
County for Berlin, in LaMoure County, before I did so when I moved my family to
Berlin in April 1944, I took this piece with me. I rebuilt the bench part of it recently. This
harness maker/repair stand belonged to my father, Karl Just.” Dad shared that this item may even have belonged to Karl’s
father, Christof Just , who with his wife, Elizabeth Wanner and their infant
son, Karl, left Kassel, in South Russia (now Ukraine) in
October 1884. Baby Karl died en route and was buried at sea. Christof and Elizabeth arrived at Yankton,
Bon Homme County, Dakota Territory a few weeks later and spent the winter with
family and friends who left Kassel for Dakota Territory some years earlier. Another child, also named Karl, (Dad’s father) was born there on January 1, 1885. The following spring of 1885, Christof
Just filed a homestead claim in McIntosh County in what is now North Dakota.
Dad said, “In the wintertime for at least a month in the
afternoons we boys would start a fire in the Summer Kitchen and repair harness.
The thread was made from cotton. We tarred it and put it through a needle. We
used two needles that we wove both ways. We used a pointed awl to punch the holes and
put the needles through them each way. Then we would pull it tight and punch
another hole. After our father died in 1923, our mother, Katharina Meidinger
Just, needed to scale our farming operation down so she had an auction
sale. With money from that sale she
bought a new harness for the team of horses she used for her buggy.” Even
though the family owned an automobile, Katharina preferred to use the team of
horses.
Following Karl’s death, Katharina married her brother-in-law,
Christof Thurn. She died in November, 1925, after giving birth to her 10th
child, a son named Edwin.
Karl and Katharina and all their children are now enjoying
one another in heaven. All we have left are items like this homemade harness
maker/repair stand and the stories that come with them.
Karl’s great-grandson, Dan Feist, is a collector of items
that celebrate and remember farms and farm work. He has agreed to add this item
and the story that goes with it to his collection. Dan’s son Michael Feist,
said he will take care of it when the time comes and will share the family
story. I think Julius would be pleased that it will be placed into good hands.
May many generations of descendants of Karl Just look at
this family treasure and imagine a cold winter afternoon sitting with their brothers around the fire in the
summer kitchen doing important work like making or repairing harness.
Carol Just – December 2014
