aunt cousin uncle

Gerd Frerichs b. 1867

/ Kirstin Miller

Gerd Frerichs, my 2nd great uncle, on RootsMagic tree.

Gerd Mehnen Frerichs was born on November 10, 1867 in Engerhofe, Germany, standard name: Engerhafe, Südbrookmerland, Germany or Engerhafe, Aurich, Lower Saxony, Germany. Engerhofe is 5 miles south of the Wadden Sea on the northwestern coast of Germany, part of Lower Saxony or Niedersachsen, on Google maps.


Baptismal font photo via Matthias Süßen, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Engerhafe_Taufbecken.jpg

The Frerichs family were members of the local Lutheran church, that’s where Gerd was baptized on December 13, 1867 and where his parents married a few years earlier. It is almost certain their church was Church of John the Baptist (Engerhafe) or Kirche Johannes der Täufer (Engerhafe). This church was built in 1250, completed around 1280 and was the only church in the area during Gerd’s lifetime. The church is famous for it’s organ built in 1774 by Hinrich Just Müller. The baptismal font or Taufbecken is impressive too, “The lid was delivered in 1665 by master Hinrich Julfs from Wittmund. Its structure, divided into four floors, shows mermaids with fish tails and female breasts. The facial features of these figures are clearly masculine and have mustaches. In the middle of the lid sits a Madonna, surrounded by columns”.

The mayor of Engerhafe today is Frerich Hinrichs- funny because both these names are Roose ancestor surnames- Enno Frerichs married Annie Hinrichs.

In August 1883 Gerd and his family left Engerhafe, Germany on the ship America, they sailed to America and landed in Baltimore, Maryland on October 10, 1883. From Baltimore they went to Butler County Iowa. Gerd was only in America for 5 years, he died at age 19 on July 25, 1887. Gerd is buried in Jungling Cemetery, near Vilmar Church in Allison, Iowa. His older sister Yevkea Frerichs Reents is also buried there.

Jungling Cemetery, Allison, Iowa

Sources

Harm Roos b. 1824

/ Kirstin Miller

Harm Roos 2nd great uncle on RootsMagic tree

Harm Janssen Roos was born on December 12, 1824  in East Fresia, Ostfriesland, Germany. His parents were Jan Roos and Meenke Schroder. Harm had seven siblings his brother Garbrand  is the great grandpa of Stanley Roose. Harm married Maarje Tellinghuisen in  1849 in Germany. They came to America in the 1860s and went straight to Ogle County, Illinois. Already set up there was a big German American community from the Ostfriesland area.  

U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 at Ancestry

Harm was a farmer. He and Maarje had 4 sons and 3 daughters. Maarje died in 1896, Harm married Lammechien Takens on July 14, 1898, they had no kids. A 1893 land map shows Harm owned about 300 acres of land, his bother Andrew owned land nearby. Harm , his family and friends were Lutherans . In a history of Ebenezer Reformed Church in Ogle, Illinois, “Starting around 1849, immigrants began settling. After 1855 German immigrants increased, many from Ostfriesland. Families from the Ostfriesland area were invited into the home of Harm Roos for a time of worship and singing. After some time, the group grew so large they could no longer fit in the log cabin home.” The church group bought an unused school building and set up an official church. Harm lived to age 80 and is buried in Ebenezer Cemetery in Oregon, Ogle County, Illinois. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21 is inscribed on his grave, in German.

A snapshot of Harm and Johann Roos, cousins via FamilySearch

Harm’s oldest son John Roos was about the same age as his cousin Johann Roos youngest son of Garbrand, great grandpa of Stanley Roose. John and Johann grew up together in Ogle, Illinois. When Johann was 15 he and his family moved to Grundy County, Iowa, near Aplington,  200 miles west. It’s likely that John and Johann stayed in touch, maybe their wives traded letters and maybe the 2 Roos cousins got together in Iowa or Illinois in the 1860s, middle aged men with families.

Sources

  • Ebenezer Reformed Church History online
  • Illinois county marriages 1810-1940 database at FamilySearch
  • U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 at Ancestry
  • Find a grave memorial 28532306 photo “Added by:  Tombstone Tourist on 17 Jul 2018”
  • Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1971 at Ancestry.

Ephraim Child b. 1654

/ Kirstin Miller

Ephraim Child 9th great uncle on RootsMagic tree

Ephraim was born on February 27, 1654 in Roxbury to Benjamin and Mary Bowen Child. He was the first born of 12 children. Ephraim grew up in Roxbury and at age 21 he fought in King Philips War and died in a battle on September 4, 1675.

Capt. Beers and men killed in battle.
Soldiers in King Philip’s War at HathiTrust

King Philips War has an incredible history that changes as perceptions change. Metacom, English name King Philip, was the sachem, chief of the Wampanoag tribe following his dad Massasoit who aided and was friendly with the Mayflower Pilgrims. Metacom aided and was friendly with the New England colonists, tensions rose as the colonist moved further on to Wampanoag lands. In January 1675 there was a murder, 3 Wampanoag men were found guilty and hanged, Metacom was rumored to have plotted the murder. Wampanoag and Indians from other tribes began raiding towns, New Englanders gathered into troops and the war began. On both sides 1 of 10 soldiers was killed. On both sides homes, commerce and stored food were destroyed; citizens killed.

Ephraim joined up with Captain Richard Beers. On Friday, September 3, 1675 Captain Beers with thirty-six men headed for Northfield, Massachusetts to rescue townspeople after an attack. They camped overnight and on the morning of September 4 crossed Sawmill Brook where Indians had set up an ambush and the “company was most exposed, was furiously attacked in front and flank, and all were thrown into great confusion, but soon rallied and fought bravely for their lives, but were forced back by superior numbers some three-quarters of a mile to a narrow ravine on the south of a hill now known as Beers s Hill. Here a stand was made, and here the little band fought about their leader, with the courage of desperation, till their ammunition was exhausted and the captain with nearly every man had fallen”.

Sources

Mehitable Child b. 1669

/ Kirstin Miller

Mehitable Child 9th great aunt on RootsMagic tree

Mehitable was born on June 29, 1669 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Her parents, Benjamin Child and Mary Bowen, migrated to America and married in Boston. They had 11 children: 8 sons, 3 daughters. Mehitable and siblings grew up in Roxbury, today it’s a neighborhood of Boston.

Mehitable married Samuel Perrin who was born in 1671 near Roxbury. His parents came to America from England around the same time as the Child family. Mehitable and Samuel moved to Woodstock Connecticut where Mehitble’s uncle Henry Bowen lived. Mehitable’s younger bother John Child and his wife Abigail Morris went to Woodstock too. The Bowen, Child and Morris families are ancestors of Elizabeth Speedy, the Perrin family are in-laws. They all lived there in Woodstock. Woodstock lands changed acmes and boundaries, sometime New Roxbury, Massachusetts, sometimes Woodstock, Connecticut, all the same spot, today officially Woodstock, CT.

Woodstock homes and lands

On a map of the early days of Woodstock, Mehitable and Samuel are home no. 46, John Child and Abigail Morris are No. 35. with relatives all around. Their church was the First Congregational Church of Woodstock, still there today. Mehitable and Samuel are both buried next to the church, in Woodstock Hill Cemetery. This cemetery has 24 Perrin, 61 Child, 16 Morris and 57 Bowen burials recorded at Find a Grave. Samuel and Mehitable’s headstones are still standing and works of art, I think. Somewhere in a New England library is a dusty old book about the artist who carved these headstones.
Samuel’s headstone inscription: Here lyes Buried y Body of Mr SAMUEL PERIN Who Died March y 10th 1743 Aged 73 Years.
Mehitable’s headstone inscription: In Memory of Mrs Mehetable ye wife of Mr. Samuel perin died September ye 7d AD 1752. in ye 84th Year of her Age.

Sources


Seibelt Henrichs b. 1844

/ Kirstin Miller

Seibelt Gerd Henrichs 4th great uncle on RootsMagic tree

Seibelt “Sila” was born August 28, 1844 in Germany, probably Aurich a town in Lower Saxony, on the northern edge of Germany. Sila’s parents were Gerd and Flora Janssen Henrichs. In the family were at least 7 siblings including Henrich ‘Henry’ Henrichs great grandpa of Stanley Roose. Seibelt and Henrich’s family relationship is somewhat iffy, but is probable and once found, a DNA match will prove they are brothers. Sila’s niece Annie Antje Henrichs married Enno Frerichs, grandparents of Stanley Roose.

In Germany, Sila married Anna Itjes in 1870. On March 20, 1881 this Henrichs family sailed on the ship Leipzig from Bremen to Baltimore, Maryland. Sila, Anna and their first 4 daughters Flora or Foolke, Dena or Bernadine, Jenny or Fauken and Katie or Gretje. The family went from Baltimore to Butler County, Iowa, a journey of 1,000 miles. Most likely German American immigrants, churches? provided food and shelter, if needed, along the way.

Henrichs, Seibelt 1917 land

Sila and family on the 1895 Iowa census lived in Albion township, near Parkersburg. On the 1900 US census they were in Ripley Township, closer to Butler Center, a tiny town no longer there. Siebelt had purchased a farm, his neighbors were from Germany, Holland, Iowa, Michigan, New York. Four more daughters, Annie, Johannah, Mattie and Christina were born and Ben Hinders, also from Germany, lived with the family as a servant or farm hand. By 1900 daughter Dena had married John Classe Hoodjer, they farmed nearby and had 3 children. Other Henrichs daughter married, had families and stayed in the area except oldest daughter Flora who stayed single and daughter Hannah who died of pneumonia in her 20s.

Sila and family were members of the Ebenezer Lutheran Church along with almost all ancestors of Stanley Roose. The church is gone, was in Butler Center. A published book Mission in a Mile by Henry Freese tells the story and history of the church. On page 33, a list of baptisms at the church shows Sila’s daughter Johanna Henrichs baptized in 1888. On that same page Claus Endlemann, a future son in law and Jantje Reents, a future grandniece are also baptized.

Sila lived to age 75 and his wife Anna lived to age 96. Both are buried at Butler Center Cemetery near where Ebenezer Lutheran church used to be. Sila and Anna share a large ‘Hinrichs’ headstone and each have a smaller Mother, Father headstone with Ruhe Sanft ~ rest gently, or peacefully. Of the 22 Henrichs buried in there, 10 are of Sila’s family. Daughter Christina who married Harold Hartson, they are buried at Lynwood Cemetery in Clarksville.

Sources

  • Mission in a mile by Henry Freese published 2002.
  • United States Germans to America index 1850-1897 at FamilySearch
  • Iowa death records 1904-1951 at FamilySearch
  • Headstone photo at Find a grave, public photo, “Added by Hooked On Family 21 Apr 2014”
  • US and Iowa censuses at FamilySearch
  • Maryland, Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1820-1948 FamilySearch
  • 1917 Atlas, Jefferson Townshipat UI Iowa Digital Library

Pleasant Davis b. 1844

/ Kirstin Miller

Pleasant Davis: 1st cousin 4 times removed on RootsMagic tree.

Davis, Pleasant son of HortonPleasant Davis was born in Ohio on November 30, 1844. He was one of 13 kids of Horton and Florida Russell Davis. Horton’s dad, Pleasant’s grandpa was Pleasant Davis married to Sarah Horton, both of Virginia. Names ‘Pleasant’ and ‘Horton’ were carried on through the generations as first or middle names for sons. One ‘Pleasant’ went by Plez. This Pleasant married Huldah England on February 17, 1868 in Ohio. Soon after Pleasant’s family and older sister Sarah Davis Martin and her family left Ohio for Illinois where Pleasant lived for a few years. Pleasant’s other siblings were in Iowa, North Dakota and sister Martha, in photo, went all the way to Oregon. By 1883 Pleasant was in Union, Iowa with his dad, mom and some siblings. Pleasant and Florina’s son Clement Pleasant Davis was born in Union and 4 Davis daughters Florina, Mary, Sarah and Victoria were all married in Iowa.

Florina died around 1888 and Pleasant with his younger kids, they all headed for the Cherokee Nation where the 1889 Indian (land) Appropriations Act gave up land for purchase and President Harrison proclaimed “unassigned lands were open for settlement under much less stringent rules”. Today the area is north eastern Oklahoma, it was called ‘Cherokee Nation’ on census forms from about 1840? until Oklahoma became a state in 1907.

1900 census Davis family in Cherokee Nation

Pleasant’s family lived in Bluejacket where he farmed. His sons Horton and Warren helped on the farm, the younger kids were in school. Bluejacket is 50 miles north east of Tulsa with a population of about 300 today. Pleasant’s daughters Florina and Victoria with their families joined their dad in Bluejacket, Oklahoma. Pleasant died at age 78 on April 3, 1924 and is buried at Bluejacket Cemetery.

Sources

  • Davis, Pleasant, Public Ancestry photo, “wrae7711 originally shared this on 25 Apr 2013”
  • This Land podcast on Cherokee Nation, how it began
  • Cherokee Nation, some history at Wikipedia
  • Iowa, Delayed Birth Records, 1850-1939 at FamilySearch
  • Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934 at FamilySearch
  • 1900 US census at FamilySearch

Franklin Pierce Miller b. 1855

/ Kirstin Miller

Franklin Pierce Miller, great uncle on RootsMagic tree.

Franklin was born September 1, 1855 in Stark, Ohio. He was the 2nd child of Peter and Esther Young Miller and the older brother of William L Miller, grandpa of Faber Miller.

Frank’s family moved from Stark County, Ohio to Bremer County, Iowa before 1870. Frank had 5 brothers and 1 sister, Lillie and all grew up on the family farm in In Lafayette Township, Bremer County. On Christmas Day 1888 Frank married Harriet ‘Hattie’ Finney, her family was also from Stark, Ohio. Frank and Hattie had one son John Cleveland Miller.

In August 1898 Frank and brother in law George Bailey, husband of Lillie Miller Bailey, went to Nebraska to look at farms. The Bailey and Miller families decided to move to Nebraska and in January 1899 a farewell surprise party was held, “Frank Miller of LaFayette leaves next week for Nebraska with a car of household goods, etc. and his family will go later. Their neighbors gave Mr. and Mrs. Miller a farewell surprise party one evening last week, enjoying a pleasant time socially and before bidding their host and hostess good bye presented them with a handsome center table.”

The Millers and Baileys stayed in Nebraska and for about 7 years. By 1910 both families had moved to Aurora County, South Dakota. Brother Sylvester Miller was already there with his family, the southeast . Frank and Hattie’s son John married Teresa Gales. The couple had 10 kids, stayed in South Dakota where John farmed, owned a lunch room in the 1930s.

Frank was a widow in 1913. In Aurora he was a produce merchant on the 1920 census. The 1930 census shows Frank was retired and lived with John Gelsen and family and other boarders. John Gelsen was 43, a retired police officer, his parents from Germany and New York. David Marsh was 21, a retail merchant at a general store his parents were from Russia. John Robinson was 27, he managed a lumberyard his parents were from South Dakota and the Netherlands. Peter McGooty was 74, same age as Frank, he owned a billiard hall and his parents were from Ireland. Narem Grueznor. was 31, she sold hardware, her parents were from Wisconsin. Frank lived to age 78. He and Hattie are buried at Silver Ridge Cemetery
in Stickney, Aurora, South Dakota.

Sources

Clarissa Mockford b. 1847

/ Kirstin Miller

Clarissa Mockford 4th great aunt on RootsMagic tree.
Clarissa was born in 1847 in Cornwall, England. In 1860 Clarissa received a graduation certificate, praising her work “very attentive and industrious”. This Victorian era certificate could have been from Sunday School or a public school. In most families -not landowning and not wealthy- kids older than 10 worked and didn’t go to school.

The certificate has these quotes running along the edge:

Honor all men, fear God, honor the King, love the brotherhood.
Love not sleep lest thou come to poverty.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
Enter not in to the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men.  Better is little with the fear of the lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.
Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.

Clarissa lived in Cornwall until she was 19 and in 1866 with her parents and younger siblings she sailed to America and joined older brothers Henry, great grandpa of Elizabeth Speedy, and William. Henry and William had been in America for about 10 years. In 1870 Clarissa was living in Monroe County, New York and was a dressmaker. Clarissa married James A. Edmonds, a carpenter, around 1872 and they had their first child Lena in 1874 and second child Lewis in 1877.  Clarissa and James stayed in Monroe County, NY and lived 10 miles South of Lake Ontario, 40 miles east of Niagara Falls. Lena, Clarissa and James’s daughter married William Spies at Niagara Falls on May 18, 1902. Son James Edmunds married Ada Patitillo in Los Angeles on May 24, 1918. At James’s death in 1954 their home was at 1847 S La Brea Ave about 10 miles west of the Pacific Ocean. Clarissa died in 1920, James in 1922. Both are buried at High Street Cemetery in Brockport,  Monroe County, New York.

Sources

  • England, Cornwall Parish Registers, 1538-2010 at FamilySearch
  • California, County Marriages, 1850-1952
  • Ontario Marriages, 1869-1927
  • California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-19941870
  • US census at FamilySearch
  • Certificate, Public Ancestry photo, ” JoAnna Messing originally shared this on 12 jul 2014”

Nora Cable b. 1892

/ Kirstin Miller

Nora Cable great aunt on RootsMagic tree.

Nora was born on August 25, 1892 in Pleasant Grove, Floyd County, Iowa. She was the third child of William Cable and first wife Nellie Stroud. The Cable kids lived on a farm. Nora and bother Leonard, sister Ruth went to Marble Rock, Iowa schools. After Nor’s parents divorced she and siblings moved to Kansas.

On July 31, 1912 Nora returned to Pleasant Grove, Iowa. In the Iowa (Greene) Recorder, “Miss Nora Cable of Kansas City arrived in Greene last Friday for a visit with her father Wm Cable and family.” That same weekend the Buffalo Bill show was in Charles City, many families from Greene drove to see the show.

Tosh, Marguerite 1930 yearbook photo

On August 31, 1912 Nora married Cecil Orzo Tosh in Wyandotte County, Kansas. The 1920 US census shows Nora, Orzo and their 2 daughters Marguerite and Marjorie, lived with Orzo’s mom and dad. Orzo’s dad was in real estate, Orzo was a credit man. The home was at 719 West 44th street in Kansas City, still a residential area today.

On the 1930 census Nora and family are in the same home, Orzo a manger at a whole sale hosiery business, daughters Marguerite and Marjorie are in their teens. Marguerite was born in 1913, she was a year younger than Nora’s sister Gladys Cable. Marguerite’s photo is in the 1930 yearbook of Westport High School, in Kansas City. She’s 16 years old.

Nora’s husband was a traveling salesman in 1934 when he picked up a hitchhiker near Clarinda, Iowa. After sharing a meal the hitcher pulled a knife and demanded money. Orzo fought the hitcher then leaped out of the car and ended up in the local hospital in serious condition. Orzo recovered and was 46 at his death in 1936. On the 1940 census Nora, now a widow, was in the same house, with daughter Marjorie and Marjorie’s husband William Boone. William was from Little Rock, Arkansas and worked as a shop foreman in a bakery.

Nora lived to age 87, she died in May 1980. Both she and Orzo are buried at Highland Park Cemetery in Kansas City.

Sources

  • Iowa Recorder 1912 Jul 31 page 5 of 8 column 2 mid bottom
  • 1934 Jul 19 Maryville Daily Forum at Newspaper Archive, Cedar Rapids Public Library
  • U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999 at Ancestry
  • 1920, 30, 40 US censuses at FamilySearch or Ancestry

Minnie Roose b. 1855

/ Kirstin Miller

Minnie Charlotte Roose 2nd great aunt on RootsMagic tree.

Minnie Roose was born 12 November 1855 in Germany, a middle child of Garbrand and Catherine Renistra Roose. When Minnie was 6 years old in 1862, she sailed with her family to America. They left from Bremen, Germany and sailed on the Adler, ‘eagle’ in the English language. The Roos family docked in New York and went on to Freeport, Illinois, 900 miles west. No idea how they traveled. When they got to Freeport an established German American community welcomed them. Minnie’s youngest brother Johann, grandpa of Stanley Roose, was born in Freeport in 1865.

New York arrival 1862

Around 1876 Minnie and family were in southern Butler County, Iowa near Aplington and Parkersburg. On July 18, 1878 Minnie married Harm Haren, also from Germany. Harm and Minnie married in Grundy County and lived the remainder of their lives there, in Palermo Township, Grundy County, Iowa. Harm was a farmhand “for two years, after which he engaged in the operation of rented land until 1882 when with the capital he had acquired through industry, perseverance and economy he purchased the farm which has since been his home.” Minnie and Harm had 9 kids, 5 sons and 4 daughters. Harm died in 1918, a long life, he was 67 years old.

34 years later in 1952, Minnie was 97 years old and featured in a 75th anniversary issue of the Grundy Register, Grundy Center’s local newspaper. Minnie was the oldest resident of the area. There’s a photo and a story of her life, family.

Minnie lived another 13 years to age 109 or 110. Minnie and Harm are both buried at Fairview Cemetery in Grundy Center, Iowa.

Sources

  • New York passenger lists 1820-1891 at FamilySearch
  • The Grundy Register 1952 Jun 5 at Ancestry
  • Portrait and biographical record of Jasper, Marshall, and Grundy Counties, Iowa at HathiTrust
  • Public Ancestry photo, “ivametge originally shared this on 04 Aug 2012. Top Row L-R Henry, Otto, Claus Bottom Row L-R John, Harm, Hubert”Public Ancestry photo, “ivametge originally shared this on 04 Aug 2012. Top Row L to R_ Ella, Anna Second Row- Mae, Kathryn (Trina) Front- Minnie”
  • Public photo on FamilySearch, ” Contributed By SchwartzBarbaraHaren1 24 December 2017″