Re: Germans to VanBuren County
SCHMIDT, SCHAU
Posted By: BarB Andrews (email) In Response To: Germans to VanBuren County (Joan Schacht)
Date: 11/21/2004 at 09:33:05
The question of German immigration to VanBuren County, Iowa, has been of interest to me too. I am descended from a family that arrived in VanBuren Co. in 1836. For many years I thought that they might have come to New Orleans, and by boat to Iowa, but I have discovered that they arrived on the east coat and travelled across county. There is no indication that any other families were traveling with them.
The Von Seggans and Steinmeyers are two families that come up over and over again. My family name is Whitlock (Wittelacke). There are a large number of early Germans buried in the Steinmeyer Cemetery just outside of Farmington. Most of them were from Pyrmont (Waldeck und Pyrmont). My family was from Holzhausen bad Pyrmont. The mother's maiden name remaines a mystery. In a biorgraphy of one of the sons, it states that her name was Strohm, but in other instances the name appears as Shults and Studenbroch (or Stuckenbroch, Stuclenbroch).
I would be interested in strategies to discover if the early German families were encouraged to come with promise of land, religious freedom, the formation of a German settlement etc. I am also interested in knowing if these families had any connections beyond geographic origin.
Some of the children in my family attended a German-language school in Iowa.
Van Buren Queries maintained by Rich Lowe.
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