This photo shows the Schwab Sodhouse in Emmons County, North Dakota, a small historic homestead now covered in white siding with a gray metal roof. The simple structure has a front door with a glass window, a small concrete step, and modest windows. A Talking Trail signpost marks its historical significance, while wagon wheels, a flower planter, and a decorative lamb statue sit nearby. Surrounded by open prairie and farmland, the house reflects the humble, practical architecture of early prairie settlers.

Today, a one-stop flight from the United States to Russia can take as few as twelve hours. But in 1889, when Martin and Katharina Schwab emigrated from Odessa (in modern-day Ukraine) to Emmons County, North Dakota, the journey was much more difficult. Together, with their oldest son, Lorenz, his wife, Regina, and nine other families, Martin and Katharina travelled to their new North Dakota homestead by train, boat, and oxen-pulled wagon.

The adventure didn’t end there. Upon arriving, the Schwab family began the work of constructing their new home--a version of the one you see before you--using sun-dried adobe blocks. (Imagine finally arriving home after an overseas trip only to have to build a home you can relax in!)

The early years were very hard for the Schwab family. Their crops were often scattered by the harsh prairie wind. The Schwabs gathered the crops that survived by hand and hauled them by wagon 100 miles round trip to Eureka, South Dakota, where they were sold.

But there were happy memories too. Three generations of Schwabs were raised in this home.

Lorenz and Regina had 17 children; their son John and his wife, Magdalena, had ten children; and their son, Joseph and his wife, Imogene, had ten children as well.

In 1988, Antonia Schwab Baumgartner, daughter of John and Magdalena (Baumgartner) Schwab, restored the house to reflect the way it looked when she was growing up. She and her son, Daryl, and family member Leonard Weichel and his son, Dion, finished the restoration project in 2010, which included a new metal roof, new windows, and white vinyl siding.

Although their home is the only structure that remains, you can imagine a lively property brimming with children and a chicken coop, barn, summer kitchen, and granary.