Dear Gary,
I have also read someplace that some huermann also grew flax? to make lace or cloth as a sideline.
Also have heard huermann as [hollendganger?] Spelling is probobly wrong, but I think the meaning is traveling to the Netherlands to work as laborers harvesting peat?
I guess equated with traveling pickers or crop harvesters in the U.S. not sure.
My ancestor was listed as a Dienstknecht. Not sure of exact meaning but I think babelfish translation describes as Hired laborer or Farm laborer.
Noticed on the 1880 St. Louis City census he was listed as "porter in store." Maybe he worked for your ancestor 
He must have had a hard life I think. He was born 1825 and died 1883. Was in his 50's I guess.
His wife was a few years younger. I think about her alot.
She was born 1839 and lived until 1923! Wow. What a lot of changes she must have seen. Came to St. Louis in 1859 so lived during the civil war I suppose, and was still around when streetcars and automobiles became fairly common. And old enough to remember her home in Germany and remember her live as daughter of a farmer of a tiny strip of land, or likely, a landless farmer from Helte-Bokeloh.
I suppose today in Germany those old Huermann farmer-barn type houses are pretty precious as a part of old history, and probobly cherished by the local residents as landmarks. Perhaps similar to an old homestead cabins, here in midwest America. Rare and interesting. A part of history that needs to be saved, yet not the type of life anyone is willing to truly experience for more that maybe a week or two.
Barbie
St. Louis