Quite a few men by the name of Schmidt came to the Fredericksburg area in the second half of the 19th century.Since Schmidt is quite a common surname, not all the people were related to each other.
One of them was Johann Joachim Heinrich Schmidt, born in Gresenhorst, Mecklenburg on 5 April 1826*. The baby, son of Johann Heinrich Schmidt and Marie Lisch Bruedegam was baptized 4 days later at the Evangelische Kirche in Blankenhagen, Ribnitz, Mecklemburg-Schwerin, Germany (1)**.
On 25 November 1847 (2), Johann married Johanne Karoline Wilhelmine Koenig, daughter of Kuno Ludwig Koenig and Anna Katharine Fett. Johanne was born in Klein Mueritz, Mecklenburg, on 21 June 1818, and baptized on 27 June in Evangelische Kirche Volkenshagen (3).
Johann and Wilhelmine's sons were given similar or even the same names. In some cases, they did not use the first names as the main ones. It made my research difficult and quite confusing. It was easy to get lost in who was who.
I. Ludwig Karl Heinrich (Heinrich) - born in Klein Mueritz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin on 29 June 1847/baptized on 4 July (4) in Evangelische Kirche. Stadtkirche Ribnitz (Mecklenburg-Schwerin);
II. Johann Wilhelm - born in Klein Mueritz , Mecklenburg on 26 September 1849/1940;III. Wilhelm Heinrich Theodor - born in Klein Mueritz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin on 6 March 1852/baptized 14 March (5).
IV. Ludwig Karl Heinrich - born in Klein Mueritz, Mecklenburg on 23 December 1854/baptized 7 January 1855 (6);
V. Bertha Ernestine Johanna - born in Klein Mueritz, Mecklenburg on 26 Aug 1857/baptized 6 September (7);
VI. Bernhard Friedrich Johann (Fritz) - born in Klein Mueritz, Mecklenburg on 26 June 1860 (8);
VII. Karl Friedrich Heinrich - born in Klein Mueritz on 12 December 1863/baptized on 25 December 1863 (9);
VIII. August Theodor Johann- born in Kelin Mueritz, Mecklenburg on 20 September 1865/baptized 8 October (10).
The three oldest sons of Johann and Karoline were Mariners in the Prussian Navy, in the service of Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany. Johann Wilhelm served for 2.5 years and was also a sailor for 9 years.
Ludwig in his teenage years happened to damage his trigger finger when he was chopping fodder. The finger healed but it stayed permanently bent. Due to that, he was disqualified from the military service. and worked as a head servant at a big farm estate.
👉 Census in Germany 1867 - Johann ("arbeiter"/worker), his wife Wilhelmine, and their children lived in Klockenhagen, district Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin. I. Heinrich worked as "Schiffskoch"/ship's cook. Other kids who appear in the register are Ludwig, Bertha, Fritz, and August. II. Johann was in Rostock then, and III.Wilhelm was registered in Klein Mueritz (11). Possibly, he was visiting his mother's family (?). VII.Karl Friedrich Heinrich was not listed there. The boy had most likely passed away by then.
According to the family history, III.Wilhelm Heinrich Theodor
died during his maritime service. Tragically, he fell from a mast on the ship
deck during a storm while helping a young sailor. The story tells that Wilhelm was then
buried at sea and it happened in the Yokohama Bay in about 1872.
I found III.Wilhelm Theodor Heinrich's death record (with the names of his parents). The church book says that the man died on 18 June 1874 and was buried on 21 June at the Evangelische Kirche. Stadtkirche Ribnitz church cemetery (12).
Ludwig Koenig, Wilhelmine's brother, was the first family member who left the old country in 1852 and emigrated to America. The man settled close to Fredericksburg, TX. Heinrich, the eldest son of Johann and Karolina, came to New York in 1873. Then, he led a farmer's life at Meusebach Creek, near Fredericksburg.
In the same year, on ♦ 28 January, Johann Joachim Schmidt's mother Marie Lisch Bruedegam passed away in Bartelshagen, Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin (13). When his father, Joachim Heinrich, died, I do not know.
🚢 Johann, Karolina, and their children Johann W, Ludwig, Friedrich, August, and Bertha boarded a ship in Bremen and left Germany on 4 November 1875. The party was accompanied by Ludwig's fiancee, 20-year-old Lisette Lehmann, and Johann W's wife, Amalia Thomson. The family arrived in New Orleans and then, by a steamer went to Galveston, Texas. Ludwig and Lisette stayed in Galveston until they earned enough money to get train tickets to Austin. A few ox teams waited for the Schmidts in the city, including the oldest son Heinrich, and August Koenig, Wilelmine's brother. The latter had come to Texas in 1852. August's son Louis Adolph Koenig later married Ludwig and Lisette's eldest daughter Bertha.
Fritz, Lisette's brother served as an infantryman and later was a mail carrier for the German government. August cavalryman settled in Nebraska, where sister Dora had gone before.
🏠 Johann Schmidt and his wife Karoline settled on a farm in Doss. During the first year at the new place, all the family (besides Ludwig) worked at the farm in Doss (rented by Johann Joachim Schmidt). Ludwig worked at Heinrich's farm at Meusebach Creek. The $1400 that Johann had brought to Texas (the money from selling his farm in Germany) was soon gone as they all needed food, various household tools, and other items. Lisette worked as a maid at a family house in Austin.
⚭ 3 November 1876 - Ludwig married Lisette Lehmann (14), the daughter of Christian Nicholaus Albrecht Lehmann and Blondine Millahn. Ludwig and Lisette were married by Pastor K. Weiss at Zion Lutheran Church in Fredericksburg.
Lisette was born in Blankenhagen on 22 July 1855. In Germany, she worked
as a maid at a farmer's house. Ludwig and Lisette had 7 children. At
first, the young couple lived and worked at August and Sophie Koenig's
place. Just before their first child was born, Ludwig and Lisette moved
to a farm close to Live Oak. They rented the place that belonged to Mr.
Schroeder. A few years later, Ludwig and his family relocated and they
lived in Fredericksburg, where the man worked at a flour mill. In about
1886, they moved again, and then a few times more as Ludwig was a
sharecropper. The couple had 15 children.
Johann Joachim Schmidt purchased a farm at Meusebach Creek and the family relocated there as well. Sometime later, the man bought a farm three miles west of the town of Fredericksburg, where he lived until his passing.
⚭ 13 May 1878 - Bertha was married to Heinrich Kuhlmann (15), son of Johann Peter Kuhlmann and Anna Margarete Sauer.
⚭ 26 December 1878 - Heinrich (Ludwig Karl Heinrich) married Anna Kuhlmann (16), daughter of f Johann Peter Kuhlmann and Anna Margarete Sauer. 4 children.
VI. Friedrich (Bernhard Friedrich Johann) married Bertha Treibs on ⚭ 22 February 1883 (17). She was the daughter of Jacob Treibs and Catharine Durst. Fridrich farmed until he fell and as a result of a concussion got blind.
👉 Census 1880 Johann Schmidt (farmer, age 63), his wife Wilhelmine, and son August (age 15) were registered in Justice Precinct 2, Gillespie, Texas. Heinrich (age 32), his wife Anna (age 28), and their son Gustav (6 months) lived in the next house (18).
Johann Joachim Schmidt passed away on ♦ 14 July 1887. He was buried in the cemetery in Fredericksburg, TX.
⚭ 8 May 1889 - August married Martha Strackbein (19), born 28 April 1869, the daughter of Johann Heinrich Strackbein and Katharine Elisabethe Crenwelge. August and his wife had 7 children.
Johann's wife Wilhelmine died on ♦ 18 November 1893. The family farm was then purchased by Johann's son August. At the beginning of the 20th century, August sold the farm and bought land on Llano Road.
===
*In the book "Ludwig Heinrich and Lisette Lehmann Schmidt", Wilhelmina Anna Karolina Koenig's birth date is given as 21 December 1818 and Johann Schmidt's birthday is noted as 9 April 1828.
** Since there are discrepancies in the sources, regarding Johann's date of birth, I do hope the names of Johann's parents given above are correct.
Sources:
"Ludwig Heinrich and Lisette Lehmann Schmidt" by Ruth Schmidt Dyar, Nortex Press, Austin, Texas, 1994.
Findagrave.com
5. "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPV3-T19C : 17 May 2023), Johann Heinrich Schmidt in entry for Wilhelm Heinrich Theodor Schmidt, 14 Mar 1852; images digitized and records extracted by Ancestry; citing Baptism, Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Deutschland, Ribnitz, German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.
6. "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPVQ-4F33 : 17 May 2023), Johann Joachim Schmidt in entry for Ludwig Carl Heinrich Schmidt, 7 Jan 1855; images digitized and records extracted by Ancestry; citing Baptism, Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Deutschland, Ribnitz, German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.
7. "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPVQ-WR92 : 17 May 2023), Johann Joachim Schmidt in entry for Bertha Ernestine Johanna Schmidt, 6 Sep 1857; images digitized and records extracted by Ancestry; citing Baptism, Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Deutschland, Ribnitz, German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.
8. "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPV3-1STB : 17 May 2023), Johann Joachim Schmidt in entry for Bernhard Friedrich Johann Schmidt, 15 Jul 1860; images digitized and records extracted by Ancestry; citing Baptism, Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Deutschland, Ribnitz, German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.
9. "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPVQ-C2JS : 17 May 2023), Johann Joachim Heinrich Schmidt in entry for Carl Friedrich Heinrich Schmidt, 25 Dec 1863; images digitized and records extracted by Ancestry; citing Baptism, Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Deutschland, Ribnitz, German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.
10. "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPV3-YLB3 : 17 May 2023), Johann Joachim Heinrich Schmidt in entry for August Theodor Johann Schmidt, 8 Oct 1865; images digitized and records extracted by Ancestry; citing Baptism, Ribnitz, Ribnitz, Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Deutschland, Ribnitz, German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.
11. "Deutschland, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Volkszählung, 1867", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV3S-Z4J9 : Thu Oct 05 07:42:38 UTC 2023), Entry for Johann Schmidt and Wilhelmine Schmidt, 03 Dec 1867.
12. "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPVQ-3TW1 : 17 May 2023), König in entry for Wilhelm Theodor Heinrich Schmidt, 21 Jun 1874; images digitized and records extracted by Ancestry; citing Burial, Ribnitz, Ribnitz, Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Deutschland, Ribnitz, German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.
13. familysearch.org
14. "Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VXGC-25P : 10 March 2021), Ludwig Schmidt and Lisette Lehmann, 03 Nov 1876; 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-PM9 : 10 March 2021), Henry Kuhlmann and Bertha Schmidt, 13 May 1878; citing Gillespie, Texas, United States, county courthouses, Texas; FHL microfilm 982,801.
16. "Texas Marriages, 1837-1973", FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FX3B-55N : 22 January 2020), Heinrich Schmidt, 1878.
17. "Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977," , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK8T-9JQV : 10 March 2021), Friedrich Schmidt and Bertha Treibs, 22 Feb 1883; citing Gillespie, Texas, United States, county courthouses, Texas; FHL microfilm 982,802.
18. "United States Census, 1880", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFN8-LTD : Thu Oct 05 10:17:41 UTC 2023), Entry for Johann Schmidt and Wilhelmine Schmidt, 1880.
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