The Hand Woven Striped Plachte of Luisa Kohls

"Luisa Kohls was born in Brienne, Bessarabia, on April 28, 1833. She was the daughter of Gottfried and Karolina (Liedke) Kohls. On April 12, 1855, she married Friedrich Kruckenberg in the neighboring village of Alt Arzis where she spent the rest of her life. She had 13 children, four of whom came to North Dakota.

Martin and Maria (Reich) Kruckenberg immigrated to the United States in 1902. Friedrich and Luisa (Pomreinke) Kruckenberg came in 1904.

Samuel and Dorothea (Bausch) Kruckenberg also immigrated in 1904. Immanuel and Katherina (Schmidtke) Kruckenberg came in 1910. Katherina died however; and Immanuel married Magdalena (Weissenberger) Feser.

Each of the four sons had been given a hand woven plachte by his mother. I have heard that she did all the work on them from raising the sheep to hemming the blankets. I don't know what happened to the other three blankets but Friedrich saved his, unused, and passed it down to his only daughter, Lydia (Kruckenberg) Rasch. She also put it away; but when her oldest son Roland bought a farm and set up housekeeping, she brought the blanket and spread it on his daybed. We used it for years until I heard the story of the blanket and realized we had a bit of history.

I am pleased to present the plachte to Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo."

--- Ruth Rasch, Mesa, Arizona, August, 1999

Ruth Rasch, Mesa, AZ, (right) shares a historic family photo with Ann Braaten (left), Curator of the Emily P. Reynolds Historic Costume Collection, North Dakota State University Library, Fargo, August, 1999.	Ruth Rasch presents the hand woven plachte to Michael M. Miller, NDSU Libraries, Fargo.