Herman Dinslage was born August 12, 1878 in Geseke, Westphal County and Province, Germany. He immigrated to the United States with his parents, Heinrich and Theresa (Arens) Dinslage, arriving in New York in 1881; where the family moved directly to the Cuming County, Nebraska area.
Mary Miller was born January 12, 1881, at St Mary's Iowa, the eldest child of thirteen born to George and Mary (BUSSANMAS) Miller.
Herman and Mary were married February 11, 1903 at Aloys, Cuming County, Nebraska. They farmed in Cuming County, west of West Point, Nebraska for a few years, their first three children George, Marie and Theresia were born here. They then moved to St Edward, Nebraska in Boone County where they farmed for several years, their third daughter Julia was born while the family lived in the St Edward area. They then bought land west of Albion, Nebraska where their daughters Ester and Florence were born.
Many hardships befell the family. Around 1916 they had improved their farm with new buildings including a granery, chicken house, crib and work was progressing on a new barn when in the spring a tornado struck the place about 9:30 at night taking all the buildings except the house and toilet, the family and the carpenter were in the house. Then in October the house burned down, with the family saving only the cook stove and sewing machine. The carpenter was there for a couple of years building the place back up.
Herman was farming a lot of land with the assistance of hired help. He was looking forward to being able to pay off all his debts that year, everything was looking so good. Then on August 7 a hail storm hit about 7:00 in the morning destroying all the crops. The grain was threshed out of the shocks, and the corn fields looked like they had been disked.
The depression brought ten cent a bushel corn and two cent a pound prices for hogs. There was no market for the farmers because there was no work and no money to buy things with. The Thirties brought dust storms so bad fence lines were covered, the dust drifted like snow banks and much livestock starved to death as they couldn't be sold as there were no markets. The Forties brought grasshoppers in clouds so thick they blocked out the sun; they would eat anything including crops, fence posts and wagon tongues.
Even though there were many hardships for the Dinslage family, they survived, with all the children growing to adulthood and having families of their own.

submitted by Julia Dinslage Brown