Re: Germans to VanBuren County
BANK, RISSER
Posted By: Larry Moline (email) In Response To: Germans to VanBuren County (Joan Schacht)
Date: 11/26/2004 at 12:37:08
German immigration to Van Buren County, Iowa is a great question and will hopefully result in many responses. It has been my understanding that the reason many Germans left the Motherland in the mid 1800s was due to conscription. The reason they settled in southeastern Iowa remains unclear to me other than they followed others that had moved there ahead of them.
A great many Germans also settled in the western portion of adjacent Lee County, Iowa, particularly around the Primrose area. Two sets of my great, great grandparents came from Germany and settled in Van Buren and Lee Counties. Henry Bank, Sr. came from the Kingdom of Hanover in October 1849 via New Orleans and lived in Ft. Madison for 2-3 years before establishing a homestead about three miles east of Farmington in Lee County. Abraham Risser was a Mennonite that came from Friedelsheim, Pfalz in the Kingdom of Bavaria circa 1851-1854. Abraham probably arrived in the United States somewhere along the east coast and apparently lived in Ohio for a few years before settling in Farmington. Henry and Julia (Gollmart) Bank and Abraham and Katharina (Pletscher) Risser are each buried in the Farmington Cemetery. Again, the only reason I have been able to determine as to why they came to southeastern Iowa was because of relatives and friends that preceded them.
Van Buren Queries maintained by Rich Lowe.
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