Andrew Hinschberger, Sr. was born in St. Agatha, Canada, on December 25, 1860, and Maria Stroh was also born in Canada on January 31, 1863. They were united in marriage in Kitchener, Canada, on April 20, 1883, and left immediately for Dakota Territory, arriving in Barnes County on April 22, 1883, with a total of $1.25 in cash plus a few household possessions. They took out a homestead claim about 6 miles south of Eckelson in Mansfield Township.
To supplement his income in those early years, Andrew often worked at his former trade as carpenter and stone mason, a skill he was employed to use in construction of the Valley City State Teachers College. As he prospered, he built a huge farm home for his growing family of eleven children and acquired many additional acres of land.
Andrew Hinschberger was also a lover of fine stock and in January of 1904, he journeyed to Illinois to purchase a blooded stallion. On the return trip to North Dakota, Andrew was killed in a collision between a freight and passenger train of the Chicago-Burlington-Quincy Railroad near Savanah, Illinois. Survivors were his wife, Maria, and children: Cecelia (Mrs. August Sauer) 20; Frank 19; Simon 17; Eugene 15; Joseph 13; Agnes 12; Edward 10; Andrew, Jr. 7; Ferdinand 5; Alma 3, and Regina, an infant of 3 months.
Although handicapped by the fact that she could neither read nor write English, Maria Hinschberger was a woman of .great faith and courage, and she kept her family together, continuing to farm for several years with the help of her children. In later years, she moved to Sanborn with the younger children and lived there until her death on May 23, 1919.
She is buried in the Sacred Heart Cemetery by her husband.
All eleven Hinschberger children grew to adulthood and at one time all lived in Barnes County. Agnes became Mrs. Omar Clark, Alma married Walford Graalum, and Regina (Babe) married Martin Van Weston and moved to Minnesota early in her married life.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 103