Christ Bommelman

Christ Bommelman was born in Westfall, Germany in 1868. He came to the United States in 1883, where he worked around Chicago, Illinois for a few years.  He then went to Nebraska where he worked as a farm laborer until 1891.

He came to North Dakota, where he worked for several years and in 1901 he started to farm for himself in Section 7 of Oak Hill Township.

He married Mary Beck, who came from Denmark with her parents at the age of six.

Mr. and Mrs. Bommelman lived on their farm in Oak Hill township until 1946 when they moved into Kathryn. Mr. Bommelman had served on various boards, including the Kathryn Livestock Shipping Association, Oak Hill Township Board, the Daily Farmers Club, the District #75 School Board, and was a member of the Building Committee for the Flour Mill and Concrete Elevator for the Kathryn Farmers Elevator.

Mr. and Mrs. Bommelman had many good as well as bad years. They raised a family of ten children, two of whom died in separate tragic accidents. The oldest was

  1. Melvin, deceased;

  2. Clarence, deceased;

  3. Arthur, who passed away in 1975;

  4. Roy, who lives at the Soldiers Home in Lisbon, North Dakota;

  5. Myrtle (Mrs. den Herr), Kathryn, North Dakota;

  6. Melvin, deceased, who was so named after his oldest brother's death;

  7. Florence, (Mrs. Ed Begleau) Valley City, North Dakota;

  8. Vernon, deceased;

  9. Elsie (Mrs. Elray Brown), Kathryn, North Dakota; and

  10. Dorothy (Mrs. Vernon Knutson) Kent, Washington.

Three of the sons served in World War II. Mr. Bommelman died in 1951 and his wife died in 1974 and both are buried in the Sheyenne Valley Cemetery near Kathryn, North Dakota.

Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 32