Sargent County NDGenWeb- Biographies
If you have a biography you want to add, please e-mail it to
, Sargent Co. Coordinator.
Henry Weber was born in Kahn, Germany in 1838 and came to U.S. at 12 years of age. The family lived in Wisconsin, where his father died when he was 14. He served in the Civil War and later married Margaret Werle.
Henry and Margaret moved to ND in 1881 and were the first settlers in the vicinity. Henry hauled lumber from Wahpeton (60 miles away) to build the home. There were no roads "he just drove his horses across the country."
The home was always open to travelers. Some of the men that stayed at the Weber home were J.P. Williams, Capt. Green Baley Taylor, Louis Johnson, Joe Krisell, Robert Rinderman, Andy Mandy and many more men and women.
The Great Northern Railroad Company surveyed the village in 1886 and at that time most of the land for the village site was owned by Mr. & Mrs. Henry Weber, Senior.
The Post Office Department rejected the name of Weber because it was too near the name of a town called Webster, SD. After the proposal had been submitted for the third time the name of Havana was accepted. The Great Northern Railroad Company continued to use the name of Weber and the Post Office Department used the name Havana.
Wood was cut and hauled from over in the hills of SD. Water was hauled in barrels on what was called a stoneboat with the help of oxen.
The children gathered buffalo chips on the prairies to burn in the summertime in the cookstove so the house would not get too hot.
Margaret gave land for a schoolhouse and Catholic Church.
Henry bought a threshing machine in 1884 and threshed for all the farmers around the area. Sometimes till the day before Christmas. Harvesting was done with binders.
Margaret built a store in 1899 and she and the boys ran it. The store had hardware and groceries. Later she added shoes, then dry goods.
Submitted by Trish Weber of Midland, TX (18 May 2002)
(Note: Mrs. Margaret McDonald, my husband's great aunt, of Havana, ND, gave us a booklet that she wrote about Havana. This is some of the information from it.)