BRUCH HOMESTEAD

We've always known that Winston's g-ma, Hattie Bruch, was born in the country near Junction City, KS (Geary County) in December, 1904. Junction City is about 25 minutes from our house, and I always thought it would be fun to see if the house where she would have been born was still standing. So I searched through the census to see if I could find out more. For some reason, KS has a few census that are every 5 years instead of 10. That really helps when you're doing genealogy! In 1905 we find the Oscar Bruch family living in Blakely Twsp, Geary County, KS. Here is the listing:

O W Bruch 35 abt 1870 Male White Nebraska
8 52 Kate Bruch 34 abt 1871 Female White Nebraska
9 52 John Bruch 13 abt 1892 Male White Nebraska
10 52 Florence Bruch 11 abt 1894 Female White Nebraska
11 52 Mary Bruch 9 abt 1896 Female White Nebraska
12 52 Glenn Bruch 7 abt 1898 Male White Nebraska
13 52 Mabel Bruch 4 abt 1901 Female White Kansas
14 52 Katie Bruch 2 abt 1903 Female White Kansas
15 52 Hattie Bruch 2 M abt 1904 Female White Kansas

Blakely Twsp is about 5 miles south of Junction City, the county seat. There was a little more information on the census that told me they were farmers. I figure Hattie was probably born out on this farm, and I wanted to see if I could find it.

I knew from the 1900 census that the family was in Marion County, KS and by 1910 they were in Wichita County, KS. So I knew they were in Geary County sometime between 1901-and 1910, and for sure there by 1904 when Hattie was born.

I went to the DEED office at the courthouse in Geary county, and search through old deeds. I found that Oscar Bruch, the father, bought the farm in March of 1901 from John Marsh. He bought it for $7000 and I believe, if I'm reading it correctly, it was a total of 560 acres.

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I know this isn't the easiest map to read but this map was of the township in the 1890's. I've highlighted in green what was to become the Bruch land. There are no roads marked on any of this land, so you have to follow lines where you think the current road might be drawn out on the old map.

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This next map was in 1909,a few years after the family left the county. The land is all divided up differently, but I've highlighted what I think would have been their land, according to the description:

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This next picture is Rosey School where the Bruch children would have gone to school. Hattie would not have gone here though because she would have been too young while they lived here. This sat right next to their property. After some research I found out that the older Bruch children would have had the following teachers while they attended there.
1903-1904 Margaret Buehler
1904-1905 Florence Tillotson
1905-1906 Orville Pettyjohn
1906-1907 Bertha Kistler
1907-1908 Nellie Evans

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It's now a community center

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northwest part of the property

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Looking more southwest

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PM

Looking straight down the road (south)

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name of the road the property was on

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House back the lane that I think would have belonged to the family. It was on the 1909 map as having a house there, and there were no other houses except north of Rosey Schoolhouse, which is just north of the property.

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closer up

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same farmstead

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just down the road, you can see up on the hill how rocky it is on the hilltops.

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Same rocks but from further back

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Looking to the southeast of Rosey school. This would have been owned by the Roessler family

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Looking from the road (Davis Creek Rd) to the southwest and seeing the farmstead

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Same view but further back

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Now...before I found a map, I decided to drive to Blakely twsp. I drove to the vicinity of where I thought they might have lived. At this point I had no road name, so I was going by feel. I turned out to be about 1 mile too far to the south west. But anyway, it was an interesting drive. You drive over several miles of what seems to be nothingness. Hardly any houses, many graveled roads. Then suddenly you come to the edge of a plateau and there is a large valley of GREEN farmland. I couldn't figure out why anyone would live on the plateau, but the valley was beautiful. The Bruchs ended up living in the valley.
While driving, I came upon this school house on Clarks Creek Rd

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closer up of same school

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This schoolhouse was totally abandoned, but was really beautiful at the same time. Later, when I was at the historical society, I asked the people there about it. I told them exactly where it was, and they didn't seem to have a clue of what it could be. I looked through an old book and after searching for about 30 minutes, discovered it was called Half-Acre School. I believe it was built in 1886. It sits back in a woods and I just thought it was so neat to look at.
This same book gave me the information on Rosey School.

While I continued on Clarks Creek Rd, I came to a tiny town called Skiddy. Here is the grain elevator.

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There are a few other things I'd like to do. I think I may go back to the deeds office and look through the books to see if Mr. Bruch sold off the land in sections or all at once. You have to search through huge old deed books and it's somewhat tedious. Miraculously, I found the deed info that I reported in this post in less than 15 minutes! Really, that was unbelievable, considering what I had to look through. But anyway, I'm wondering since the 1909 map shows that land divided up differently, I'm wondering if it was Oscar Bruch who divided it up.

Also, I'd like to go back to that farmhouse that I think could be IT! It's back a lane and there is the old house and a new house built a few yards from that one. I'd like to ask them some questions and take some close-up pictures. I was alone on these trips, and didn't think that a smart thing to do at that time. Maybe JM will come back with me. Two days after this trip, there was an man wanted for murder from Colorado who was involved in a chase with a police car. He drove off the interstate and took off by foot in the direction where Blakely twsp was. I never heard if they caught him, but thought it was interesting that I had just been there!

Well, that's a wrap up of my little trip. I could do this every day if I had any other relatives that lived around here!