JACOB AND SARAH

Jacob and Elizabeth Funk Dirksen (most of our ancestors had by now abandoned the old spelling Dürksen) were still on their patented 240 acres in Turner County. Their oldest child Elizabeth had married Cornelius B. Dirksen (the son of Benjamin Dirksen who was not closely related to Heinrich Johann's descendents) and had two sons. Jacob and Elizabeth's second child Anna married Johann Thiesen and they had four children. Elizabeth and Anna's brother Jacob J. Dirksen, now 18, would marry Lena Peters in three more years. Cornelius J. Dirksen was 16 and Abraham J. Dirksen was 14. David J. Dirksen was 10 and little Katharina J. Dirksen only 7.

On May 14, 1895 Elisabeth Funk Dirksen died. She was 49 years old. Jacob was left with six children at home. Sarah had by now been a widow since 1886. As neighbors, she and Jacob had grown

up together until he married Sarah's cousin Elizabeth and Sarah had married Jacob's brother Abraham H. Dürksen. Then they had all lived on grandpa Heinrich's farm together. They had emigrated together, and pioneered together in Turner County.

As Sarah had turned to Jacob when her husband died nine years ago, now Jacob turned to Sarah. She was still on her homestead in Logan County with five children. Her oldest son Henry, now 25 years old, had married his cousin Justina, Johann H. Dirksen's third daughter, in 1889. Henry became a citizen on October 23, 1894. He later moved his family to Stutsman County where he would patent over 200 acres of section 4 in Lowery Township. He and Justina would raise eight children.

Jacob and Sarah decided they would marry and join their two families into one. About the same time Sarah's third surviving daughter Katie also decided to marry Abraham H. Unruh. So, in 1896 there were two Dirksen marriages. Katie and Abraham would have three daughters.