| [ SchwenkNet Home ] [ History ] [ Tools ] | ||
|
||
|
With Friedrich's marriage to Anna Katharina Mayer, we find yet another connection to the Otto Mayer family living there today in Mundingen. Anna was the sister of Jacob Mayer. It was this Jacob who, in 1871, married Maria B.B. Schwenk, cousin of Friedrich. But then again like they say, in small communities most everyone is related to each other. In the year of 1863, the year of their marriage, Friedrich built a new home (Haus # 33) in the upper, southeastern part of Mundingen, directly across the street from where his Uncle Konrad would build his home (Haus # 37) in the following year. And a few years later, Jacob Mayer would build a home (Haus # 35), just two doors away from that of Friedrich and Anna's; they certainly did not have to go far to visit with relatives! In 1903, after 40 years of marriage to Friedrich, Anna passed away. On the 24th of April, 1917, eight months after the death of Gottlob, Friedrich died of "old age", as stated in the Mundingen death book, just two weeks shy of age 83; only seven weeks earlier, his sister Maria Agnes in Chicago had passed on. Luise or Louise, as anglicized, was born on Dec. 24, 1836 in Rosenau. According to the "archives" in Excello, Missouri, she "came to America in 1861" , then being age 25. Whether she traveled alone, whether her destination was her sister's home in Chigago was not documented. She married a Christian Timmer on Sept. 4, 1865. They brought six children into the world, four of which survived. Louise died in January, 1928, and was buried in the Mt. Washington Cemetery in Kansas City, MO. Her grandsons, a Frank and Charles Schroer, live there today. August was christened Carl August and born on August 3, 1840 in Kayh. Again here, as with his siblings, we know nothing of his childhood. How often he and his family traveled the bad and steep road to Mundingen to visit the grandparents and attend the Lutheran church there we do not know. Neuburg was catholic as were all the nearby communities. And as mentioned earlier, although all these children were confirmed in the Mundingen church at age fourteen, no record was found of their christening there. And so it appears they were christened in or near the villages of their birth. John Wesley Schwenk of St. Paul, Minn., the youngest child of Johannes (John the immigrant), is to have said that August and brother John served a 3 year stint in the army of Württemberg. If this is accurate, this would have been during the years of 1864-1867, for Johannes left his homeland for America in 1867. Dr. Kiess, in his book on page # 221, quotes Mundigen pastor Staudenmayer's speech letter written in August of 1872 at the occasion of the acquisition of a new church organ; this was about one year following the 1870/71 Franco/Prussian war, which the Prussians won and which led to the unification of modern day Germany in 1871. The pastor reports, "A war in which four local community members, namely Christ. Wick, Aug. Schwenk, Heinr. Jerem. Haydt and Joh. Gg. Rupp participated without injury ." One must conclude from the above that August was then living in Mundingen. His father had died in 1869; his grandparents were no longer living. His mother may have by then moved to America - it is not documented as to when she moved. Or it could be that August and his mother came to America together. The only famliy he then had was brother Friedrich and Uncle Konrad in Mundingen. We do know when he arrived in America; this is documented on a U.S. Naturalization form dated April 17, 1917. It shows he arrived in the Port of New York on July 4, 1872. He settled in the northeastern part of Missouri, not far north of Macon and Excello. He married a Christina Raub, a German-born woman. Their marriage date is not known to us, but this must have been in about 1876, for their first child, Emma, was born on Sept. 13, 1877 in Kansas City. They had seven children, five who survived and married. There are August Schwenk descendants living today in the Kansas City area. August died June 30, 1922, and was buried also in the Mt. Washington Cemetery in Kansas City, MO. In 1869 the life of Johannes Schwenk, b. 1798, father of these six children, came to an end. This is documented in an entry in the death books of Mundingen. The cause of death was listed as "old age". The date of death was on January 5, 1869. Place of death was in Neuburg. Place and date of burial was Mundingen on January 8th. He had lived exactly 70_ years. His widow Maria, and brother Konrad and Anna and some of their children, and son August and the other son Elias from Ulm, probably were in attendance at the funeral. His widow Maria Barbara, sometime during the following few years, left her homeland forever. According to Juanita Schwenk's records, Maria arrived in Chicago, then later moved to the home of son August in Kirksville, MO. She spent her last days in the home of her son John near Bloomington, MO. She died there in 1878 and her remains were buried in what is now a neglected cemetery just west of the former hamlet of Bloomington. §§§ | |
 | ||
| ||