Holzgrafe Pioneer: Fredrich W. Holzgrafe

The 24th of July is known as "Pioneer Day" in Utah. Before I came to live here, I had never heard of such a thing, but it's quite the thing here in the Beehive State. This day celebrates pioneers of all kinds and so it is with great honor that I present to you the known history of my 3rd great grandfather, Fredrich W. Holzgrafe who is one of a handful of Holzgrafe Pioneers.

Fredrich W. Holzgrafe

Figure 1 Evansville, Indiana c1856

Fredrich W. Holzgrafe was born around 1828 in Prussia, a part of the German Confederation at the time. He immigrated to the United States in 1845 at the young age of 14 with his older brother, Henry August, who was just 21 years old. They set off on their adventure to America to escape the difficult conditions of the German Confederation.

Their travels landed them in a town on the banks of the Ohio River which means they probably traveled up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. The town, known as Evansville in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, was flooded with massive German Immigration around this time which must have helped Henry and Fredrich to feel at home in such a strange land.

Figure 2 Evansville and Lamasco City 1852

The first known records of Henry and Fredrich in America come from their marriage records in 1850. On 5 September 1850, Henry married a German woman named Caroline Baker and Fredrich married a German woman by the name of Caroline G. Kahle on 19 November 1850. Both Fredrich and his brother were married to their wives in the Trinity Lutheran Church in Evansville, Indiana by Reverend Andrew Saupert who served as Pastor of that church for 48 years.

Figure 3 Marriage Record of Fredrich W. Halzgrove to Caroline Ghale? 19 September 1850 and Trinity Lutheran Church

Henry and Fredrich quickly learned the skill of brick making and by 1860 Henry had his very own brickyard. With so many clay deposits along the Ohio River, Henry became one of the greatest brick manufacturers in a rapidly growing city. Henry built his first permanent home from his own brick. The structure, located at 312 W. Virginia Street stood for almost 160 years before the property was ultimately purchased by the Deaconess Hospital.

 

Figure 4 Henry Holzgrafe Home c1865

Together, Fredrich and Caroline had five children: Louis (1853), William Ferdinand (1854), Mathilda (1858), Henry Louis (1859) and Karoline Marie (1864) with one on the way. They raised their family in the Trinity Lutheran Church in Evansville until they moved with a part of the congregation to the Trinity Lutheran Church in Darmstadt a few miles to the north. Many of his descendants today still belong to this faith. It is still unclear as to why the family moved to the Darmstadt area in Scott Township. Perhaps Fredrich wanted to try his hand at farming. He purchased a small strip of land as soon as 1865 where the family lived for a few years.

Unfortunately, Fredrich did not live in Scott Township for long before he passed away in early 1867 at the young age of about 39. He must have died in Evansville for he is buried there in the Lutheran Cemetery and his death is not on the church records in the Trinity Lutheran Church of Darmstadt.

 

Figure 5 Head stone of Fredrich Holzgrafe in Lutheran Cemetery

He left his pregnant wife, Caroline, with their five very young children. He was the first of the family to be buried in the Evansville Lutheran Cemetery. Perhaps due to her progressing pregnancy or due to the recent loss of her husband, Caroline was unable to care for her children the way she wished she could. On July 10, 1867 at 10:00 am, her 3 year old daughter, Karoline Marie, died. The next day, at about 4:00 in the afternoon, little Karoline Marie was buried in the Church cemetery. One half hour later, at 4:30 pm, Johann Anton Heinrich Holzgrafe was born. The poor child's health waned quickly. Karoline had her newborn son baptized in her home on July 21, 1867. Johann Anton Heinrich Holzgrafe passed away the following day at 11:00 am and was buried alongside his sister on the 24th of July at 4:00 in the afternoon (The Worst Year of a Mother's Life).

Following the devastating death of her husband and two children, Caroline Holzgrafe remarried to a widower named Henry Shurmeier on February 18, 1868, in Evansville (The Great Merger). Caroline moved with her young children to live with the Shurmeiers in their home in Johnson, Indiana in Gibson County and a neighbor in Scott Township by the name of Fredrick Kohlmeier helped sell Fredrich Holzgrafe’s property in Scott Township.  

 

Figure 6 Marriage Record of Henry Schurmeier and Caroline Holtzgrafe 18 February 1868

                Henry Schurmeier immigrated to the United States in 1850. He was formally married to Wilhelmine Slotboom of Holland. Together they had five children: Louise (1855), Henry H. (1856), John (1859), Hannah (1862), and Wilhelmine (Minnie), (1865). To the new marriage of Henry and Caroline were born two more children: Fred Schurmeier, who settled in Elgin, Illinois and became a doctor, and Benjamin Schurmeier, who later went into the ministry and lived in West Salem, Illinois. This made a total of eleven children to handle at once earning Caroline the title of “Mother” as inscribed on her tomb stone. Henry Schurmeier was a farmer from Prussia and had lots of help. The three Holzgrafe boys all helped out on the farm before they left the home. Mathilda married a Frederick Bertram in 1876 and lived close by.

                Caroline Holzgrafe Schurmeier continued to live in the area with her family, raising her children in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. That the family was quite faithful in their religious activities seems evident by the lives of the children. At least two of them went into the ministry, Henry Louis Holzgrafe and Benjamin Shurmeier, half-brothers. It does seem as though William Ferdinand, known as Ferdinand or Ferd, did, however, become a Quaker when he moved to Santa Anna, California. 

                Having seen her children all grow up, most of whom began families of their own, Caroline passed away on June 21, 1899. Henry Schurmeier continued farming till he was too old and rented out his property to his grandson, Eli F Bertram, and his wife. He then moved to Gray, Illinois where he stayed with his daughter Hannah Griesemer who had married Ishmael Griesemer, a Methodist Minister. Henry passed away on April 13, 1915 and is buried near Caroline “Mother” Schurmeier in the Mount Tabor Cemetery in Johnson County, Indiana.

Figure 7 Headstones of Caroline and Henry Schurmeier in the Mt. Tabor Cemetery

The Worst Year of a Mother's Life

As of a couple days ago, I knew that my 3rd great grandfather, Fredrich Holzgrafe, died in 1867 at an early age leaving his wife, Caroline, with four young children to raise alone including my 2nd great grandfather, Henry Louis Holzgrafe. It seemed as though the family moved for some reason from Evansville, Indiana to the small town of Darmstadt just to the north just before Fredrich died. So, yesterday I looked at the records for the Trinity Lutheran Church in Darmstadt for the death record of Fredrich. At first I saw "Holzgrafe" in beautiful handwriting and thought I had found it! But when I looked closer, this was not a death record, but a birth record for another son in 1867. Under the parent's names of this child, I found Fredrich and Karoline, but under Karoline's name - the word "widow". Confused, I looked up the death records and found two individuals with the last name Holzgrafe, but neither were Fredrich. After piecing things together, this is the sad story of the worst year of a mother's life.

Life was normal. Karoline and Fredrich lived a happy life. They attended the Trinity Lutheran Church in Evansville, Indiana. Together they had FIVE children with one on the way. Fredrich worked with his brother, Henry August, in his brickyard making and laying bricks. Everything was fine until one day in early 1867 when Fredrich passed away for a reason unknown to me. Devastated and with five and a half children to care for, Karoline moved to Darmstadt to get help from her family and/or friends. There she attended another Trinity Lutheran Church. As her pregnancy progressed, Karoline could not take care of her children like she wished she could. On July 10, 1867 at 10:00 am, her 3 year old daughter, Karoline Marie, died. The next day, at about 4:00 in the afternoon, little Karoline Marie was buried in the Church cemetery. One half hour later, at 4:30 pm, Johann Anton Heinrich Holzgrafe was born. The poor child's health waned quickly. Karoline had her newborn son baptized in her home on July 21, 1867. Johann Anton Heinrich Holzgrafe passed away the following day at 11:00 am and was buried alongside his sister on the 24th at 4:00 in the afternoon.

What more could go wrong? In less than seven months, a happily married, pregnant mother of five became a widow of four young children. Though her trials and pain must have been very difficult to overcome, Karoline re-married the following year to a widower by the name of Henry Schurmeier in what I've called The Great Merger. Together, Karoline and Henry had two more sons who became a doctor and a pastor. I'm sure Karoline had many more hard years throughout her life, but I'm almost positive none came close to comparing with 1867, the worst year of her life.

Connecting the Dots: Indiana, Texas, and Germany

In researching the origins of my Holzgrafe ancestors, I came to a Fredrich Holzgrafe and what I assume is his brother, Henry August Holzgrafe both of whom were married in 1850 in Evansville, Indiana. Their marriage records are the oldest known records of my ancestors and may lead to unlocking their past. For a long time now, I have been puzzled by the immigration record of Conrad Holzgrefe and his family to Comal Co. Texas. On the same indexed record we find a John (22) and Henry (20) Holzgrefe who arrived in 1846 aboard the Gerhard Hermann - the same ship on which Conrad arrived. I was elated to find that the home town of Conrad was recorded as Eldagsen, Germany and quickly did loads of research on the Holzgrefe family in Eldagsen. I even found some Kohlmeyers in Eldagsen as well (Sarah Kohlmeyer marries Henry Louis Holzgrafe who is the son of Fredrich). In the 1850 census we don't find any John or Henry with Conrad in Texas or anywhere else for that matter. That would make sense because they would be up in Indiana by then! Henry August, who lived to see the year 1900, reported on that census that he immigrated to the US in 1845, the same year the Gerhard Hermann left port in Bremen, Germany. All these clues lead me to believe that the John and Henry on the Gerhard Hermann were indeed the (Johann) Fredrich and Henry August I've been researching in Evansville, Indiana. They must have left Texas for Indiana sometime between 1846 and 1850.

This theory was perfectly plausible until I stumbled upon this website. According to Chris Kneupper, an expert in the mass German immigration to Texas and author of the Holzgrefe family tree on this website, Johann Heinrich Ludwig Holzgrefe (b. 1830 in Eldagsen) was the son of Konrad Holzgrefe and died in 1852 in Comal Co., Texas. This was a problem. No Johann or Henry was supposed to exist in Texas after 1850. Because of this...my theory may have been flawed. I quickly wrote and e-mail to Mr. Kneupper and requested more information on the matter. He replied quickly stating that the source, as recorded on his webpage, was a church record from a church in New Braunfels, Comal Co. The record was a book listing the families of the German immigrants and included some information on each family. Johann Heinrich Ludwig Holzgrefe was listed in the family of Konrad Holzgrefe as was his death year of 1852.

The LDS archived and microfilmed original church records of the only church in Eldagsen, Germany only go back to 1853, long after Konrad and his family left Germany. I have sent an e-mail to the current Pastor of the church and received a quick reply with detailed information about some of the Holzgrefes of Eldagsen including a Henrich Holzgrefe after whom a street was named in the early 1900s. He also mentioned several church books written in old German script which contain records back to the dawn of time practically. I am very interested in what those books may reveal about all of this. Alas, the pastor is unable to dedicate hours upon hours searching, deciphering, and then translating the ancient records. For now, I have nowhere else to search. And so, as I try to connect the dots...it seems that they are all rather disconnected...for the time being.