THE BOOK
This book relates the family history of Johan Zirpel and Anna Augusta Sperlich. It speaks of their courage in undertaking the journey to leave their homeland and go to the United States in 1882. Most of the events in the book are in Douglas County and Hutchinson County, S.D. where Johan and Augusta built their homestead as well as two additional brick homes.
Johan was one of the 15 members who signed the charter to organize the St. John Lutheran Church originally located in the area of Plainview in South Dakota. He and Augusta were the first couple in the settlement to be married by this church. Life was a struggle in those times. The couple had 12 children, but lost a set of twins as babies and two other children died. It was a virtue of hard work and perseverance that the couple pushed on through all this hardship to raise their remaining children to adulthood.
