Amana Relatives and Places

Notes from Donna:
I am a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter of ancestors that lived in the Amana Colonies at “Main Amana”   more...

My great-grandparents, Friedrich “Fritz” Wilhelm Salzbrenner and his wife, Amelia “Emilie” Pohl, came to America from Meerane, Germany in 1873 and settled in Amana.  Their daughter, my grandmother, Emilie Salzbrenner, met another immigrant from Germany, Joseph Behles, while she was serving him in the dining room.  He was working on the railroad nearby.  They married, moved to Illinois, and had my mother Elizabeth and two other siblings.  After my grandfather Joseph died, my grandmother and her two daughters moved from Wilmette, Illinois, back to Amana to live there for a while in 1933 and 1934.  When my grandmother died in 1944 she was buried there with her parents.  After my mother died, she left me pictures that were taken of people in Amana, including the school, houses, and a bread & cookie stand.  Most of the pictures have names of the people she had written on the backs.  A lot of them were taken in 1938 when they went back for a visit, but others were taken before or after that date.  A few pictures I got from a distant Salzbrenner cousin I met online.

Surnames: Baumgartel, Behles, Bretschneider, Flick, Geiger, Leichsenring, Meyer, Moessner, Oesterle, Pegump, Pohl, Rettig, Salzbrenner, Zimpleman, Zscherny

Keywords: Amana Colonies, Iowa, Family, 1938, 1928, Late 1800's, Early 1800's, 1900's, Early 1900's, 1919, August 1938, Food Stand, Schoolhouse, School House, Homestead, Home, House, Friends, Playing Horseshoes

Contributed by: Donna Dixon.
Photographers: Family members, Specht
Dates: Early 1800's to 1938
Repository: The photo collection of Donna Dixon
Published: Iowa County IAGenWeb, 01 Jun 2009, by SDW

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Names found in these photos:
Baumgartel, Kathryn Geiger
Baumgartel, Ray
Behles, Elizabeth
Behles, Emilie Salzbrenner
Behles, Joseph
Bretschneider, Alice Edith
Flick, Marie
Geiger, Kathryn
Geiger, Robbie
Leichsenring, Alfred
Leichsenring, Dorothy
Leichsenring, Lena
Leichsenring, Mildred
Meyer, Louise
Moessner, Arnold
Oesterle, Elsie
Pegump, Frank
Rettig, Lissetta
Salzbrenner, Elise
Salzbrenner, Emilie Pohl
Salzbrenner, Friedrich Carl
Salzbrenner, Fritz
Salzbrenner, Henry
Salzbrenner, Lina
Salzbrenner, Louise
Salzbrenner, Marie
Salzbrenner, Robert
Stewart, Emilie Millie Salzbrenner
Zimpleman, Leona Zscherny
Zscherny, Theo