Toburen Family Reunion 

       Herman Toburen was born 1839 in Wersen, Osnabruck, and Westphalia, Germany.  He immigrated to the United States arriving New York on the ship Union in 1860.  By 1861 he found his way west to Riley County, Kansas where his brother had established a homestead on Swede Creek north of Manhattan, Kansas.  He joined the Union Army, Kansas Infantry, in 1862 at Maryville, Kansas and was discharged at Little Rock, Arkansas in June 1865 at the end of the war.  He returned to Riley County and established a homestead, also on Swede Creek, a few miles from his brother.  In 1868 he married Engel Meismeyer.  Their seventh child, Edward Toburen, was born 1880 on that homestead as were Edward and Anna Richter Toburen’s eleven children.  We descend down this line. 

 

Edward & Anna’s Children:  Leslie 1904;  Blanche 1906;  Harold 1907;  Pearl 1909;   Lee 1911;  Estelle 1913;  Lawrence 1915; Fern 1917;  Merrill (Mike) 1919;  Robert 1923;  Warren 1924.  Grandma Anna was quite a woman!  Eleven live births in 20 years.  She lived in to her 70th year. 

 

               Edward bought the interests of his siblings in the homestead but was forced to give it up in 1929 when hard times struck.  That was also the year son Lee was killed in a farming accident at age 17.  The survivors (except Leslie who was in college) moved to Northwestern Kansas where work on a ranch had been promised.  There they endured the severe hardships of those times that were made worse when they were cheated out of earnings on two different ranches.  In the early 1930’s the family moved to the Northwestern Kansas town of Colby.

 

               Being unable to find any kind of decent employment, Edward took a job cleaning, draining and clearing a swampy boggy area of land for the City of Colby.  He did such a great job that the land became and yet remains the Colby city park.  The Colby Mayor, Mr. Shafer, was so impressed that he offered Edward employment at his produce/mercantile business.  Soon, Pearl and Estelle were employed in that Symns-Shafer mercantile warehouse while Harold & Lawrence were driving trucks for the company delivering produce all over Northwest Kansas.  With earnings from that employment and assistance from Blanche who had obtained her nursing certificate, the family regained its footing.  The older children, Blanche, Harold, Pearl and Estelle met and married Colby spouses.  Lawrence got a very late start towards his high school degree but together with Fern and Mike, graduated from Colby High School.  Robert and Warren started their schooling in the Colby Schools.  In 1937 Lawrence started college at Denver University on an athletic scholarship.  Around 1940 Edward, Anna and the younger children returned to Riley County where Edward went to work as a carpenter with his brother in Manhattan.  Ultimately all of the family except Harold and Lawrence returned to Manhattan.  All four younger sons earned college degrees.  Fern earned a secretarial/business certificate. Leslie, the eldest son, graduated from college and seminary and began his ministerial career in the early 1930’s.   Harold began a farming operation and remained in Colby for the rest of his life. 

 

               Leslie, Lawrence, Mike, Robert & Warren all were commissioned and served as officers in the United States Army or Army Air Corps during World War II.  All were blessed to return safely to Manhattan after the war.  Warren and Robert were called back into service during the Korean War.  All of the family has passed except Mike who is the lone survivor.

 

               We all can and should take great pride in this heritage.  A more detailed family history can be found at pages 9-53 of the TOBUREN TASTY TIDBITS book published and sold at the 2001 reunion.