Johann Peter Schnellbacher

GRIMMA, HOFFERBERTH, KRELL, MORGAN, MOSER, MYERS, RIZZER, SCHNELLBACHER, WELTY, WISSLER

Posted By: Kent Transier (email)
Date: 9/21/2004 at 22:32:03

Peter Schnellbacher was a native of Hesse Darmstadt, having been born at Höchst on August 17, 1798. On December 16, 1819, he married Christina Hofferberth, born May 10, 1802, at Hetschbach, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany and daughter of Johann L. Hofferberth and Anna M. Rizzer. To this union were born John who married Frederica Myers; Maria Magdalena who married Peter Welty; Peter who remained a bachelor and joined the US Army in 1848; Anna Margaretha who died as an infant; Anna Christina who married Adam Conrad Krell; Elizabeth Margaretha who married Jonathan William Wissler; Louis who married Rebecca Ellen Moser; George W. who married Drusilla S. Morgan; and Emanual who married Margaret Anna Grimma.

The Schnellbachers immigrated to America in 1842, arriving August 15th in Philadelphia on the ship Ferdinand. They settled in Ohio where the family lived in Ross and Hocking Counties. In 1850, they were farming in Laurel Township, Hocking County. In September 1855, Peter and his wife Christina along with some of their children moved to Madison County, Iowa, settling in Webster Township. The move was the result of a missionary assignment by the Evangelical Association for their son, John, who was a preacher. Peter was a saddler by trade but also engaged in farming. Peter was the fourth generation of master saddle makers from the town of Höchst. At the time of his death in 1876, he owned 40 acres in the southwest corner of section 14 in Webster Township, Madison County. Both Peter and Christina are likely to have been buried in the Welty Cemetery as this was associated with their church and in use at the time of their deaths.

Sources: ships passenger lists, Records of Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths of the Evangelical Church at Höchst-Odenwald, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, county, state, and federal records.