The ancestral family name, Ziebarth, is composed of two-parts. The first element, Zie- derives from the same root as the German word sieg, meaning victory. The second element, -barth, is merely a patronymic, meaning “son of.” Together, they mean “son of victory” or “son of the victor.” While rare in the United States, in the Posen vicinity where the family originates, the name is relatively common. Typical variants include Sibbert, Sigbert, Siebert, Zeebart and more. Our spelling, Seebart, mimics the pronunciation of Ziebarth as it would be spoken in native German.
Anyone who has lived with the Seebart name for any length of time will know that it’s a deceptively difficult to spell and pronounce. Most English speakers tend to slur the second syllable (“bert” instead of “bart”) and those that dare spell it are baffled by the double e’s, almost always substituting an “ie” or “ei” dipthong instead, resulting in Siebert more often than not.
Normally only a minor annoyance, difficulties with the name sometime result in uncomfortable situations. When Arthur Seebart applied for Social Security benefits, he presented his baptismal certificate as proof of identity. It was made out by the Reverend Fred Buckwalter, the Methodist minister at Emerado, North Dakota, and witnessed by Mae Crawford, his Sunday school teacher, and Dorothy Burns, the Sunday school superintendent. This document was so poorly drawn with so many scratched-out errors and corrections on it that the Social Security Office would not accept it as proof of his birth date. It had his middle name spelled incorrectly and his mother’s nickname, Ellie, used in place of her true name, Ellen.
The social security office referred him to the census bureau for supporting documentation. Unfortunately, his 1900 census record reads “Seeverth, Arthur. Son of G.H. and Ellen Seeverth1Still better than the 1880 census, which has the family name as “Zubartz”. Born December 1897, Chester Township, county of Grand Forks, North Dakota.” His 1910 census record was a little more accurate, but still essentially incorrect: “Seebert, Arthur. Son of George and Elen Seebert. Age 12. Chester Township, Grand Forks County, North Dakota.”
The social security official didn’t find these documents compelling, suggesting he turn next to the office of the County Superintendent of Schools in Grand Forks County. Fortunately, the county courthouse had never burned down, and the record of his entrance into the first grade, carefully and accurately recorded by his teacher, Mae Crawford, identified him as the Arthur W. Seebart who was born December 17, 1896.
The Seebart family maintained the original spelling of their surname many years after immigrating to the United States. August’s signature, taken from an account book he maintained in North Dakota2In the 1970’s, this document was in the possession of Mrs. Verle Shortle, daughter of Charles and Matilda Koehler. It is not known if it still exists., clearly reads Ziebarth.
The change from Ziebarth to Seebart took place some time in the late 19th century. Fred Seebart and Ella Henrietta Weier explained to later generations that there was another German family in the neighborhood with the same Ziebarth surname. The mail of these two families was constantly getting mixed-up and even lost. While this story may be true (there is evidence for another Ziebarth family in one of their Minnesota neighborhoods), it’s likely that multiple factors were involved. Anglicizing the name made it easier to spell and pronounce, and the new version was less likely to identify the family as foreigners in a country that occasionally suffers through anti-immigrant sentiments.
The change was made around the time of Charles August Ziebarth’s death. His tombstone has these words chiseled upon its face:
Charley A Seebart
Died: August 5, 1892
Age: 72 years – 11 months and 19 days
Weep not dear wife and children all,
From you a father Christ doth call.
Mourn not for me, it is in vain
To call me to your sight again3In a letter sent to Arthur Seebart on June 30, 1980, from his cousin LeRoy Seebart of Seneca, Oregon, he wrote about having taken his father, Fred Seebart to the funeral services of a Mr. Leake, Sr., a pioneer farmer of the South Emerado area. While at the cemetery, a very elderly gentleman came up to Fred, who recognized him as an old neighbor of his. He said, “Fred, I well remember your father’s funeral services. It was one of the largest funeral services ever held in the community. There were over eighty teams of horses drawing carriages in the funeral procession.”
Edward Seebart wrote that his grandfather August Ziebarth died while he and his wife Louisa were living on the Ben Hall Place, which was located southeast of the town of Emerado, about half way between the towns of Thompson and Emerado. He was buried at the German Evangelical United Brethren Church, in the Holms Cemetery, about 22 miles southeast of Emerado.4Louisa Ziebarth (August’s wife), who died in 1899, and the youngest son of this family, Emmett, are also buried in this family plot in the Holmes cemetery; however, neither one of them has a grave marker.
The monument was not placed on the family burial plot until a year or so following Grandfather August’s death, after the family had moved to the Spafford Place, a mile or so west of the Ben Hall Place. Arthur Seebart theorized that at Grandfather August’s funeral gathering, when all of his living children were presumably present, consideration was given to the problem of the family surname. According to the recollection of Uncle Fred Seebart and Ella Weier, it was William Henry who suggested that the family’s surname be anglicized to Seebart. It’s possible that younger generations had long lobbied for the name change but were unable to overcome August’s objections while he was alive.
It is nevertheless surprising that “Charley A Seebart” appears on Grandfather August’s grave marker—it represents a complete break with the past. He was rarely referred to as Charles, or even by the nickname Charley. He was known to everyone as August, and he never used the name Seebart. It’s no wonder Edward had great difficulty in getting answers to his questions when attempting to trace the family history in Emerado. The people knew and remembered only August Ziebarth. They knew nothing of a Charley Seebart.