Heinrich Karl Hasse and Family

Heinrich was born in the village of Nienstedt, Hannover on 24 March 1810. Nothing is known about his early years and family to whom he was born. Heinrich Karl got married at the age of 23 to Johanna Gerke. The two were married for seven years and then, Johanne died. There is no record of Heinrich and Johanne's children (well, at least I have not found any) besides Heinrich Eduard who was born in 1834 and baptized in a local Evangelical church (1).

Later, Heinrich Karl Hasse married again. His second wife was a widow who had a daughter from a previous marriage. The daughter's name was Josephine.

The family decided to leave their home in Prussia. They traveled to Bremen which they left on 9 November 1845 (2) on board the vessel B. Bohlen.

The passenger list record mentions Hasse Heinrich from Nienstedt; 6 persons, whose destination was Gillespie County (3). That tells us that the family Heinrich + wife with their children Heinrich Eduard and Josephine and two other related persons.

They landed in Galveston on 22 December 1845 (4). What the Hasses and other emigrants found in Texas was privation and great hardship. Heinrich's wife died of cholera in Indianola (5).

Heinrich Karl and his family traveled from Indianola by ox cart and reached the nowadays Fredericksburg area. The census of 1850 recorded them in Gillespie County, in/or about Fredericksburg on 20 September (6). Besides Heinrich (Henry), the household dwellers were Wilhelmina, age 36, children Henry (age 13), H Ellen (age 11), Henry Behrens (age 11), Sofia (age 7), Myria (age 1). Henry Sr. worked as a laborer.

Now, there are questions. 

1. Wilhelmina Hasse - who was she? If Heinrich's wife had died in Indianola, was Wilhelmina his sister? 

"Mason County Historical Book" (7) mentions enigmatically that Henry's sister married in Germany to a Heinrich Höfner. Was she and her child part of Henry Hasse's party who accompanied him on the ship B. Bohlen?

2. H Ellen (Helen?) Hasse listed in the census. If it was not Heinrich's stepdaughter Josephine where was Josephine then? H Ellen's estimated birth year, given in the record, was 1839. Josephine was born in 1837 (8). Two different girls/daughters or one and the same listed under another name? 

The Behrens siblings who lived with Heinrich and Wilhelmina were the children of Sophie Dorothea Henriette Behrens nee Hauer and her husband Heinrich Konrad Behrens. The latter was deadly shot by Comanches when he was visiting his to be surveyed land situated not far from Camp Mason. Possibly, wounded Heinrich Konrad Behrens was taken to Fort Mason to seek a doctor's help. Mrs. Behrens went there as well. Analyzing the 1850 census records, we can see that the children of Sophie and H K Behrens were in the care of Heinrich and Wilhelmina Hasse on 20 September 1850, when the census happened. It means that Mr. Behrens had been shot by the Indians before that day, and also, Heinrich K Hasse and Sophie Behrens had known each other earlier. Maybe H K Hasse met Sophie Behrens (and her husband) not in Fort Mason as one source suggests (9), but much earlier in Fredericksburg? The Behrens relatives lived in the town (10) as well.

Mr. Henry Karl Hasse married the widow Sophie Behrens in 1851. Not long after that, the Hasses relocated to the Llano River area and joined other pioneer families who had already farmed there. Heinrich Karl had 320 acres of land north of the river.

Sophie bought 320 acres (for $40) neighboring the 320 owned by her second husband. Heinrich Karl built two picket houses for his family.

Daughter Margarete was born to Heinrich and Sophie Hasse on 18 March 1852 (11). 

The Hasse family were some of the very first charter members of the Llano German Methodist Episcopal Church South which was organized on 8 March 1856 at Castell (12). 

19 April 1857 - Josephine, Karl's stepdaughter, married John Conrad Simon in Gillespie, Texas (13).

About a year later, on 9 February 1858 (14), 13-year-old Marie Christine Sophie Behrens married 26-year-old Jacob Brodbeck (born 13 October 1821 in Stuttgart). The man was Marie's teacher, he worked at Vereins Kirche school in Fredericksburg, which the girl attended.

On 5 September of the same year, there was another marriage in the family. Heinrich Eduard Hasse, the oldest son of Heinrich Karl's, married Miss Friedericke Bickenbach in Gillespie County (15,16).

 

Henry Julius Beherens, Henrich's stepson, married Miss Catherina Heinrichs on 15 November 1865 in the local Methodist church in Hilda (17).

The youngest stepdaughter of Heinrich Karl Hasse's, Sophie (Myria), was married to Mr. Fritz Ellebracht when she was 17. It happened on 15 October 1866 in Hilda Methodist Church, Mason (18). Fritz's parents were Friedrich Albert Ellebracht and Sophie Wilhelmine Stamme.

1867 was the year of elections. Henry Hasse Sr. was registered on the voter list in Mason on 10 September (19). Henry Jr. a day earlier (20).

Henry Carl Hasse farmed on the 640 acres he and Sophie owned. 8 June 1870 brought another census. The couple lived then with their daughter Margaret. The Hasses real estate was worth $100, the value of their personal real estate was $350 (21). 

Margarete was married to Mr. William Louis Steinmann two years later, on 11 January 1872, at Hilda Bethel Methodist Church, Mason, Texas (22). 

Henry Carl (Heinrich Karl) Hasse passed on 25 April 1880. He was buried at Lower Willow Creek Cemetery, Mason, Texas. After his death, Sophie Behrens Hasse lived with her son Henry Julius and his family. The wife of Heinrich Karl Hasse's ended her Earth journey in 1892.

Resources:

1. "Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Patriot Ancestor Album" Vol.1, Turner Publishing Company, Paducah, Kentucky, 2001.

2. List of Passengers Aboard B. Bohlen

3. "A New Land Beckoned: German Immigration to Texas, 1844-1847" by Chester Geue, Chester William Geue, Ethel Hander Geue, 1966

4. List of Passengers Aboard B. Bohlen

5.  "Mason County Historical Book", Mason County Historical Society, Mason County Historical Commission, 1976.

6. "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXLK-LVK : 23 December 2020), Henry Hasse, Fredericksburg, Gillespie, Texas, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

7. "Mason County Historical Book", Mason County Historical Society, Mason County Historical Commission, 1976.

8. Findagrave.com 

9. Maria Christina Sophie Behrens Brodbeck

10. 1850 Census records - Gillespie County, Fredericksbur

11. Findagrave.com

12. Llano County, Texas, German Methodist Episcopal Church South

13. "Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VXGC-L4V : 10 March 2021), John C Simon and Josephine Hasse, 19 Apr 1857; citing Gillespie, Texas, United States, county courthouses, Texas; FHL microfilm 982,801.

14. "Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VXGC-LCN : 10 March 2021), Jacob Brodbeck and Maria C S Behrens, 09 Feb 1858; citing Gillespie, Texas, United States, county courthouses, Texas; FHL microfilm 982,801.

15. "Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VXGC-VH4 : 10 March 2021), Henry Hasse and Friederike Bickenbach, 05 Sep 1858; citing Gillespie, Texas, United States, county courthouses, Texas; FHL microfilm 982,801.

16. http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/gillespie/vitals/marriages/b1gilmar.txt 

17. Hilda (Behtel) Methodist Church marriages.

18. "Texas Marriages, 1837-1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2MM-489 : 22 January 2020), Sophie Behrens in entry for Fritz Ellebracht, 1866.

19. "Texas, Voter Records, 1867-1918", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4MZL-HZN2 : 15 December 2020), Henry Hasse, 1867.

20. "Texas, Voter Records, 1867-1918", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4MZL-HZMM : 15 December 2020), Henry Hasse, 1867.

21. "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXGQ-41X : 2 January 2021), Henry Hasse, 1870.

22. "Texas Marriages, 1837-1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2MM-HSJ : 22 January 2020), Margrete Hasse in entry for William Louis Steinmann, 1872.