Daniel J. Neuharth

Eight years after Eureka was founded, on Feb. 15, 1895, Daniel J. Neuharth was born on a farm 12 miles northeast of Eureka. He was the eldest of 17 children born to John and Katharina Neuharth who had immigrated here as young children from South Russia. John farmed and Katharina assisted many women in the area with her midwifery skills.

When Daniel was almost 21 years old, he married Christina Neuharth of Alpena Jan. 11, 1916. He then received his inheritance from his father to begin his own farm. Valued at approximately $3,000, it included four horses, two harnesses, one wagon, one plow, one drag or harrow and 80 acres of land.

While farming, Daniel was injured in a threshing machine accident which forced him off the farm. He sold the farm to his brother in 1924, and moved to Eureka where they owned and operated a cream station. But the injury to his leg from the farm accident continued to plague Daniel until it eventually took his life Jan. 14, 1926. He and Christina had shared only 10 years of marriage when he died at the young age of 30, leaving behind his wife and two young sons - Walter, six years old, and Allen, 22 months.

Daniel, a member of the Reformed Church, was buried at the farm Reformed cemetery.

His wife, Christina, while continuing to live in Eureka, took in boarders for her livelihood while raising their two sons. Walter graduated from Eureka High School in 1935, and Allen attended school here until the family moved to Alpena. Christina died in 1979, and upon her burial in Alpena, her husband's remains were also moved there.

Surviving Daniel today are his two sons, Walter in Long Beach, Calif., and Allen, founder of USA Today, in Cocoa Beach, Fla., three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, one sister, Hulda Wittmayer and two brothers, Richard and Elmer, all of Eureka.

The life of Daniel J. Neuharth reminds one of all the people who came before us, working hard day and night, through cold winters, hot summers, droughts, bugs and blight, farming the land to produce food for their families. Many, like Daniel, ultimately gave their lives laboring in the fields, breaking the ground, and establishing farms. It seems proper then, to dedicate the information booth to the memory of Daniel J. Neuharth, whose life epitomizes the lives of all who farmed, lived and contributed in founding the community of Eureka.

Information about Daniel J. Neuharth courtesy of Walter Neuharth, Long Beach, California.