Sowing Seeds in Good Soil

About the Book

Sowing Seeds in Good Soil tells the story of the Kuball family who, like millions of other immigrants, seek to leave Europe where they live in poverty and without opportunities to better themselves. Instead they travel to America, drawn by relatives and stories of achievement through a person’s hard work rather than their birthright. This story explores the thoughts and emotions of the immigrants as they uproot themselves and travel half way around the world. They devote themselves to hard work, community and family as they strive to prosper. The Kuball family encounters success and happiness as well as death and failure in Minnesota. They face wars and depressions as they raise their families and explore their faith. This story describes the daily lives of the typical Minnesota farm family between 1890 and 1950 and the world events that often reach down to touch them. While the book is based on facts related to the individuals of the Kuball family many of the stories are fictional. The exercise was not to make up a family history, but rather to imagine my ancestors place in history and to anticipate the hows and whys of immigrating to Minnesota. In particular, there is no evidence to show that the Kuball family was ever in Russia. At the same time, the movement of Germans throughout Eastern Europe was very common during these times and had a major affect on the decision for many to migrate. Thus, I thought it was worthy of including in this story. For the parts of this story which are factual, I have to give the majority of the credit to Jane Velzke Teschke who did an incredible amount of research which included descriptions and anecdotes. These provided the basis for much of the book. I also found a good amount of North Morristown history from the Minnesota Historical Society and from the 1955 “100 Years in Morristown” book. In addition I used the Internet that Al Gore invented to research the different historical aspects of the time period of the story. Finally, my thanks to my wife, Jan, who edited my writing and acted as a sounding board for me. She was forced to suffer through more Kuball history than an in-law should have to.

About the Author

David Kuball grew up on the farm north of Morristown where he learned about hard work and decided at an early age that he did not want to be a farmer. David went to school in Morristown and has a degree in Journalism from the University of Minnesota. From an early age, David developed an interest in history and literature. David also wrote Sowing Seeds in Good Soil which is a story about his family immigrating to Minnesota and working the farm that is still in the family today. David lives in Golden Valley, Minnesota with his wife Jan and his two children, Andrew and Kristin. He is currently working in the information technology field.