A Thought to Remember: More about Highland in 1901

In the Highland Journal columns called, “Do You Recall,” of 1901, had the following items:

▪ The Helvetia Milk Condensing Co. was loading out eight car loads of their canned evaporated milk for shipment to Manila, Philippine Islands.

▪ The Helvetia Sharpshooters Society, organized in 1860, made public the receipt of its first $1,000 bequest from Bernard Suppiger, the miller. He had made the donation several years prior to his death, with the understanding that it be kept a secret until he had passed on.

▪ A meeting was called to perfect an organization to be known as Highland Improvement Association. The purpose of the association would be to assist in the solution of municipal matters, to effect improvements of a permanent nature and to bring together the businessmen of Highland, that they might express their views upon questions of importance to the community. (This was a forerunner of Highland’s Chamber of Commerce.)

Tony Knebel

The Highland Sesquicentennial Book of 1987, on page 45, lists some other items of 1901, including about farmer and milk hauler Tony Knebel. I also contacted Carol Augustin (Mrs. Leo) Landmann, who is a granddaughter of Tony, for more updated information.

“Anton ‘Tony’ Knebel was an early milk hauler, farming in Section 12 of Saline Township, after he married Rose Marti in 1888… He had just four cows in 1901, so he began hauling milk to the Helvetia Milk Condensing Co., at Broadway and Washington, for himself and his neighbors.

“His cousin, Bill Knebel was hauling milk to the creamery in Pierron, and soon Tony bought half of Bill’s small covered wagons and brought his milk to Highland. He continued to grow, and by 1904, purchased Bill’s share.

“By the time his oldest son, Elmer, was 11, he was driving a wagon, followed by Melvin, Oscar, Clarence and Leo. They were then driving six wagons to Highland. The old Rinderer Hill (just east of the Country Club and Winet Airport) was always dreaded in bad weather, as mud was the road surface in those days.

“Tony’s daughters, Pearl, Irma and Gilda, did the big share of the milking and soon were milking and cooling milk from 30 cows or more.

“When Tony Knebel died in 1935, he owned 900 acres of land, which four of the sons, Melvin, Oscar, Elmer and Leo, purchased his farms. (Clarence Knebel, moved to Highland and later moved to Indiana.)

“The oldest daughter, Pearl, and her husband, Elmer Augustin, who was a carpenter, purchased 10 acres along the Old National Trail, later called Route 140, and built their brick farm home. (Today, it’s the Jacobs Farm on the frontage road.)

“Gilda Knebel (Mrs. Leo) Daiber and Irma Knebel (Mrs. Fred “Fritz”) Pfister also married farmers.”

Third and fourth generations are still living on Knebel farms, and the Sesquicentennial book also quotes, “Maurice Knebel and family now live on Tony’s original farm. (Now, it’s farmed by Maurice’s son Kent and family.) Submitted by Mrs. Clarence Beck.”

Josias G. Bardill

Josias G. Bardill was mayor of Highland, 1901-1903, and my wife’s great-grandfather, Frank Buettner Sr. was the superintendent of streets for Highland for many years and served during Mayor Bardill’s term.

Lorna and I purchased the Josia G. Bardill home at 920 9^th St. in Highland on Dec. 1, 1957 from his estate and his daughter, Ruth Bardill, after the death of his widow.

We owned Roland Harris Chapel and Roland Harris Furniture at 906 Broadway and were going to make the Bardill home into Harris Funeral Home and have our residence on the second and thir floors.

The unusual happening was that the original Bardill home in Grantfork, then called Saline, was purchased from John Bardill in 1906 by Lorna’s grandparents, Jacob and Helena Grill Raeber. So, just over 60 years later, a granddaughter purchased the Bardill home in Highland.

(Quotes from the Highland Journal, Highland Sesquicentennial Book, Carol Landmann, the Buettner family and my files.)

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 3:31 AM with the headline "A Thought to Remember: More about Highland in 1901."