William Henry Ziebarth along with his twin, George Henry, was born on the 21st of December in 1854. At the time, the Ziebarth family were new immigrants to the United States and just getting settled into their home in New York. William and George were the fourth and fifth children born to Charles and Louisa, and the first to survive early childhood.
It’s unlikely they had any memory of their life in West Sand Lake; by the time they were three, when their brother Hermann was born, the family had already moved to Minnesota, where William was to spend the entirety of his youth, until he was about 28 years old.
Though he was born together with his brother George, it was William who took on the role and responsibilities of the eldest son in the family. In the late 1870’s, while he was in his mid-20’s, he travelled west into North Dakota territory to scout out the opportunities on the frontier. It was on his recommendation that the family moved west, near Grand Forks, around 1878. It appears that he stayed behind to wrap up business, as he is listed in the 1880 census still in Stearns, Minnesota.
In North Dakota, William acquired land adjacent to his father and mother. According to Arthur Seebart, he homesteaded in North Dakota, but the only record on file at the Bureau of Land Management is the claim for his father, Charles August Ziebarth. It’s more likely that William purchased his own place or settled on part of his father’s 80 acres.
1854 – abt 1940
The house he built on the new land was a fairly elaborate affair for that time and place. The lower portion was made of logs, to house livestock during the cold winters, while the living quarters on the second story was made of milled lumber and had a shingle roof.
William and his brother George both courted the same woman, Ella Henrietta Weier, around 1880. She rejected neither one of them, for she loved them both. Eventually, however for reasons she never did divulge, she decided in favor of George. The decision was probably made not too long before she married in 1881.
After George and Ellie were married, they boarded with William until they could build a home of their own. After they moved out, William was a frequent visitor at their home. He never married, and relatives believed that Ellie was his one and only love. Late in life, long after his brother’s death, he visited her in Emerado. Some of her daughters were also there and said that when he came in the door and saw her, he went to her with arms outstretched saying , “Oh Ellie, Ellie!” He put his arms around her and embraced her—evidence enough that he never loved another.
Some time around 1889, he and his father sold their lands and purchased the Selkirk Hotel in Grand Forks. Their experiment in city living, however, quickly turned to failure, likely due to their inexperience in the hotel industry and business in general.
William was imaginative and ingenious man, self-sufficient and resourceful. After losing his farms and assets in the hotel deal, he went into the construction business. He had worked in this field as a young man and appears to have had a special skill in it. As North Dakota moved into statehood, the population—along with building—was booming. He set up shop at in Thompson, a town just southwest of Grand Forks and was joined in his business by his younger brother, Gustave. They were known as “The Seebart Brothers” and worked all over the Grand Forks area constructing small buildings such as houses, barns, and granaries.
Later, they moved the business to Lakota, North Dakota, close to his sister Amelia’s farm. Lakota was a new, growing town with much building to be done. Here, they got into heavier construction such as stores, churches, the Courthouse1 This is a questionable claim, as the original Nelson County courthouse was constructed in 1885: before he had moved into the construction business. and even grain elevators.
Arthur Seebart writes fondly of his Uncle Will, saying that he was a frequent visitor at their house, especially in winter when the construction business slowed. He remembered him as a jolly man, a skillful checkers player (gracious enough to let the kids win occasionally), a good conversationalist and smoker of expensive cigars. Also, he always arrived with gifts: lots of fruit, nuts and candy.
I have not found any record of William’s death. Arthur notes that he retired to Gilroy, California late in life, but there is no listing for him in California death records. He outlived his brother, who passed in 1912, and was still alive when he reunited with Ellie in the late 1930’s. Chances are, he lived well into his 80’s or beyond. No obituary, in California or North Dakota, has yet been found.