True Friendship, with Honor and Integrity!
Imagine you alive back in 1840. You were new to this country immigrating to a strange new land only 4 short years ago. You don't speak the language very well, but thankfully you live in a community of others from your country, who may have even come over on the same ship you did.
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| courtesy of The Ohio Repository Feb 20, 1840, page 3 |
These first few years are rough going, with illness and misfortune all around. But you and many friends and neighbors survive!!! You have a home, a church you are active in, and are making a go at life in this new land, until......
This story is about Mr. George Henry Kornmann (also seen as Kormann), a neighbor and good friend of my 3X great grandfather, Jacob Dibi. George was out cleaning out his well, it is unclear if he was digging a new well, or in the well doing repairs, but none the less, he was down in the well. One of the planks that held the earth in place was damaged and George tried to fix it. Unfortunately the wall collapsed in on George, and he was buried alive in his own well. How scary would that have been to be doing a task and then "poof" you are being buried alive!!! What was he thinking at that exact moment? Were his thoughts of his beloved wife and 2 children? his church? perhaps his family back in Germany that he would never see again? We unfortunately will never know......
Now George could have remained in that horrible death trap, but he didn't...he lived in a community of people who cared about their neighbors...for 5 days --yes FIVE days, 100 men worked day and night, to dig George out of his well. ON that last day even the most courageous of men wouldn't dig any further into the well, except one, my 3 X great grand father!!!!
The paper stated an "old German, an elder of the church, and intimate friend of the buried man named Jacob Dibi" decided not to stop until his friend had been taken out of the well. Jacob and an unnamed teen boy of 17 continued to dig Saturday into Sunday afternoon. Around 2 pm George was pulled from his well. He was buried the next day
This story is about Mr. George Henry Kornmann (also seen as Kormann), a neighbor and good friend of my 3X great grandfather, Jacob Dibi. George was out cleaning out his well, it is unclear if he was digging a new well, or in the well doing repairs, but none the less, he was down in the well. One of the planks that held the earth in place was damaged and George tried to fix it. Unfortunately the wall collapsed in on George, and he was buried alive in his own well. How scary would that have been to be doing a task and then "poof" you are being buried alive!!! What was he thinking at that exact moment? Were his thoughts of his beloved wife and 2 children? his church? perhaps his family back in Germany that he would never see again? We unfortunately will never know......
Now George could have remained in that horrible death trap, but he didn't...he lived in a community of people who cared about their neighbors...for 5 days --yes FIVE days, 100 men worked day and night, to dig George out of his well. ON that last day even the most courageous of men wouldn't dig any further into the well, except one, my 3 X great grand father!!!!
The paper stated an "old German, an elder of the church, and intimate friend of the buried man named Jacob Dibi" decided not to stop until his friend had been taken out of the well. Jacob and an unnamed teen boy of 17 continued to dig Saturday into Sunday afternoon. Around 2 pm George was pulled from his well. He was buried the next day
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| German Evangelical Protestant church from 1839-1868 |
Two pastors spoke that day, a Reverend Warner from the Presbyterian church at George's home (spoken in English) and Reverend Dr. J. G. Buettner, pastor of the German Evangelical Protestant church, spoke in German. George was an elder at the German Church along with Jacob, who actually helped build that church, which is still standing today.
George was 41 years old.
My heart fills with pride as I read this article about Jacob not giving up to recover his friend, but then it breaks knowing a man lost his life, a wife lost her husband, and 2 children lost their father that day....
When times are tough; it is my 3X great grandfather pushing me forward, telling me to keep going....
When times are tough; it is my 3X great grandfather pushing me forward, telling me to keep going....
