Archives West Finding Aid

Jurgen Engelland was born in Schleswig-Holstein (then part of Denmark) August 27, 1859. At the age of fourteen he went to sea as a cabin-boy and worked his way up to a before-the-mast position on small vessels plying northern European waters. In 1880 he attended navigation school where he became conversant in English. After a one-year term in the German navy, he crossed the Atlantic to the United States in 1883. Moving west he homesteaded in 1884 a quarter-section near Tekoa, Washington, amidst many other German immigrants. In 1886 he returned to Germany to settle his mother's estate and returned with Frauke Stender (born 1865) to become his wife. They had three children: Bertha (born August 30, 1888); Herman (November 20, 1890); and Elfrida (January 30, 1898).

In 1907 the Engellands rented their farm and moved into Tekoa where both became very active in the community. He was elected to the town council, became street and side-walk commissioner, a member of the school board and served as clerk of the board for many years. The Engellands were strong believers in education, their children all graduating from high school and going on to college. Bertha graduated from WSU in 1912.

From 1891 until 1945, Mr. Engelland served as organizer, president and later secretary-treasurer of the Fraternal Beneficial Association, a farm mutual fire insurance concern.

Although Mr. Engelland's given name was Jurgen, he had it legally changed to George in the 1890s in order to be more fully "Americanized." He died in January, 1946. An account of his life, written by daughter Bertha, is in The Tekoa Story: from Bunchgrass to Grain (1962) 218-226.