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Founded - February 22, 1876 Liebenthal is the oldest of the villages founded by Unsere Leute and the only one situated in Rush County. It is located on Big Timber Creek in Section 21, Township 16, Rage 18. The original founders were among the large group which left Saratov, Russia on october 24, 1975 and spent the following winter in Topeka.
Jacob Beil
Peter Beil
Martin Goetz
Jakob Herrman
Peter Herrman
Adam Kreutzer
Johann Kreutzer
Johann Schaefer
Joseph Schoenberger
Andreas Weber, Sr.
Andreas Weber, Jr.
In Addition to the founders listed above, the following also aided in the establishment of Liebenthal but left later to found Schoenchen. Heinrich Bieker, Johann Bieker, Johann Joseph Bieker, Nikolas Bieker, Wilhelm Bieker, Paul Dinges, Franz Waldschmidt, Philip Wolf, and Johann Zimmerman. The original dwellings were simple sod houses completed the day of arrival. The old timers tell of a blizzard which swept over the plains that first night, causing great additional hardship and the near loss of the few cattle the settlers had brought with them. A second group of settlers arrived on August 14, 1876. All were from Schoenchen, Russia and cam on the same ship with the founders of Munjor. This group consisted of the following families:
Heinrich Depperschmidt
Peter Depperschmidt
Johann Jacob Schoenthaler
Joseph Schuckman In September, 1876 a third group, all from Neu-Obermunjou, settled in Liebenthal. Only one, Philip Dreher, remained there. The balance, being the families of Adam Bieker, Franz Dreher, Johann Dreher, Konrad Dreher, Friederich Graf, Joseph Rumbach, and Joseph Zimmerman, moved shortly thereafter to found Schoenchen.
Inside the Liebenthal church of St. Joseph
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