Karl Stuben stood on the ridge and looked out over his one-hundred-sixty acres. He loved the rolling hills of grass that stretched to the horizon in every direction. It was winter, the day before Christmas, and the grass was brown. His only neighbors, the Bartos family, were Czechs that homesteaded a nearby plot to the west, over the next hill. Karl avoided them, considering “those people” slothful. They lived in a sod house with a dirt floor. He hoped hardworking German immigrants, like himself, would settle in the other nearby parcels.
Karl was proud of his farm. In the three years since he homesteaded the land, he and his wife, Irma, had built a two-room house and shed. They also fenced a corral and pasture for their horse and two cows. It was a major endeavor, with having to haul the lumber from the Elkhorn River, eight miles away. In two more years, he’d legally own the place if they could continue to survive on the Nebraska prairie. Next summer he planned to begin work on a German-style barn.
It looked like it would be a good day. He was about to head down to the house when he noticed smoke far to the west. Seeing it wasn’t all that unusual, so he proceeded to the dwelling for breakfast.
The children, Johann and Elsie, eight and four years of age, were up. They were excited about Christmas Eve when their mother would prepare a special supper, and they would gather by the fireplace and sing carols after eating. Then the next morning there would be a few homemade presents.
Irma put breakfast on the table, and they gathered to eat eggs and cornbread with fresh milk. “Looks to be a decent day. Johann can help me shell corn.” Karl said.
“It’s Christmas Eve,” Irma said.
“Not till this evening. We have work to do before the winter snows begin.”
Karl and Johann headed toward the shed. They noticed that the smoke cloud was much larger and closer. Once inside they worked the corn, but by early afternoon they could hear the wind blowing outside and could smell smoke. Karl looked outside and saw that the prairie fire was definitely coming their way. Fast.
Karl hurried to the house hollering; “Irma, a big fire is coming.”
Irma came outside and saw how close the huge fire was. “What do we do?” she asked, sounding panicky.
“We need buckets and pots to soak down the buildings and then clear away anything that can burn. It should pass by quickly but the house and shed could catch.”
Karl collected buckets, grabbed a hoe from the shed, and then started clearing the areas near the buildings. Irma left some pots with the buckets by the well and then helped Karl using another hoe.
At sunset, the fire was only a couple of hills away and glowing embers were starting to fall nearby. “We need to soak down the buildings now, start filling the buckets!” Karl ordered.
“What about the Bartos family? Irma asked. “It must be near their place.”
“I feel for them, but we must save our own farm. Fill the buckets.”
Soon Karl was splashing water over the structures. Johann worked to put out windblown embers and small fires.
Before long, embers started landing on the roofs and Karl found himself running back and forth between the two structures, extinguishing fires. He then made the difficult decision to concentrate on saving the shed since losing their grain and tools would be disastrous.
“Irma, move the food stores and what you can to the shed. We can rebuild the house. Johann, open the gates and set the animals free.”
The fire was full upon them by the middle of the night. Karl and Johann were continuing to dump water on the flames. Karl was fighting to put out a fire at one end of the shed’s roof when he saw flames at the other end. He realized it was a hopeless battle.
Suddenly water splashed over those other flames. Looking in that direction Karl saw Vlad Bartos. Irma was bringing more water and Mrs. Bartos was filling the buckets. The two older Bartos boys were helping too.
They worked for another hour or so and then Karl noticed a few large snowflakes falling. Heavy snow was soon coming down extinguishing the remaining embers. They then shifted their efforts to saving parts of the house.
Later that day the two families struggled to communicate but spent a very memorable Christmas together in the Bartos’ sod house. They’d help each other rebuild in the spring.