Christian Helmkamp

HELMKAMP, OSTHAAR, LOEWEKAMPS, ARON, BREIDERT, HEUTON, FRICKE, ROHRBECK

Posted By: Dick Onken (email)
Date: 11/3/2006 at 11:35:11

Taken from the Lidderdale Centennial/History book.

Friedrich Christian Helmkamp was born in 1830 (d.1865) in Ewinghausen near Ossabrueck, Germany. He married Louisa von Osthaar who was born in 1831 (d. 1908). He was caretaker of the estate of Baron von Langelade. Friedrich met an early death at the age of 35 while felling trees in a forest. He left his widow and four sons: Christian, Heinrich, Wilhelm, and Friedrich. In 1867 at the age of 14 Christian was sent to America by his mother to avoid the war between the Prussians and Hanoverians. While abord the ship, the lonely homesick boy found friends, the Loewekamps, who invited him to accompany them to Illinois where they intended to farm. Later he married Emilia, one of their daughters. When Heinrich and Wilhelm were old enough (14 & 13)their mother sent them to America to look for their brother Christian, which they succeeded to do after changing boats in New Orleans and St. Louis. The Illinois Riverboat Skipper asked them to disembark at two or three o'clock in the morning in a dark forest along the bank of the Illinois river near Meredosia, Illinois. Christian had written that when they left the boat, they should turn their backs and start walking away from the boat, along a path through the woods, and look for a light in a cabin; he would be waiting. They followed instructions and found their brother. Christian told them later he had a light burning every night for five weeks, and that on many a night he sat on the bank of the river and waited for the boat "till the wee hours of the morning". Usually the boat passed without stopping whenever it did stop, he expected to see his brothers. That is how the skipper of the boat knew exactly where to discharge the boys. The three boys now worked for the Loewekamps and other pioneering Landsleute, they saved their money and eventually sent for their mother, their stepfather and their youngest brother Friedrich. Their mother had, in the meantime, married Friedrich Boehs and had three daughters. They arrived in Meredosia in 1876 and bought a farm on the bank of Meredosia Lake near a small Luthern settlement. When they were well established the three brothers, Christian,Heinrich and Fridrich, decided to go west, as their land frequently flooded. Each of the boys acquired a quarter section of land near Oberlin, Kansas. Christian did not stay in Kansas because of the lack of a church and school. He then came and settled on a farm one mile north of Lidderdale. Christian was born May 5, 1853 (d. 1922)in Ewighausen, Germany. He married Emilia Loewekamp who was born April 2, 1859 (d.1954). They had seven children: Martha (M Henry Aron), they lived one mile and a half north west of Lidderdale; Lydia (M. Henry Breidert), they had a hardware store in Lidderdale; Ida (M. Wm. Heuton) they lived east of Lidderdale; Augusta (M. Adolph Fricke), she died several years later, William (M. Frieda Fricke); Emila (M. Wm. Rohrbeck), they lived in the Glidden area; Frieda (M. Frank Breidert), they lived two mils north of Lidderdale; Clara died in infancy; and Birth (M. John Rohrbeck), they lived on the north edge of Lidderdale.