In addition there were stories of starving and freezing and news of murder of a Brethren family. Friends and neighbors of those preparing to leave predicted that similar fates would await these Brethren. It seems that in July of 1893 the Daniel Kreider family (mother, father, and four of their children) had been massacred by their cousin Albert Bomberger, who was living with them. The father had asked the young man to leave because he did not approve of the attention the young man was paying to the nineteen-year-old daughter (who survived the tragedy). Bomberger was tried in Cando and hanged.
Despite the news from North Dakota, the colonists were not deterred. They continued their preparations for leaving and found that comradeship in a new and uncertain venture made new friends, so that their sorrow at leaving was not wholly without recompense.
Source: Preaching in a Tavern, Morse
