A study of the history of the German States during the first half of the 19th century hardly leaves one to question why the Holzgraefe family would leave their Fatherland for a strange yet promising New World. It was a time of turmoil and uncertainty as the Holy Roman Empire, a collection of some 300 Germanic states, began its transformation into one single German nation state. The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire seemed unavoidable by the 18th century. The Emperor was little more than the title itself. Each of the states had its own form of government which was very much independent of the Imperial agenda. Like a classroom of unsupervised children, wars and feuds between and within each of the states was common. This disorder couldn't have come at a worse time for the empire, for Napoleon Bonaparte had risen swiftly to power in revolutionary France and was on the move all across Europe defeating army after army.
On 9 September 1796, Albert Henrich Holzgraefe was born to Ernst Henrich Holzgraefe and Anne Sophie Heidemeier in the ancient farming community of Schweicheln, Herford, then an independent city within Brandenburg-Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire. The Imperial Abbey of Herford was secularized in 1802 and Herford was then annexed by the County of Ravensburg in 1803. In 1805, when Albert was only nine years old, his father died and according to the feudal laws of the time, Albert, as the second son, would not inherit the portion of the family farm which was his father's to give. Albert must have struggled with what he would do as he grew up working on the farm of his elder brother.
In 1806, Napoleon had successfully shut down the Holy Roman Empire for good and formed the Confederation of the Rhein in its place with French nobelmen at the head of each German state. Prussia, a large and powerful German state excluded from the Confederation of the Rhein contended for power in the Rheinland and joined the Fourth Coalition to stop the spread of Napoleon and the French Revolution. However, Prussia was dreadfully defeated by Napoleon's army and was forced to become a French ally. Additionally, Herford and a large portion of Northern Germany were ceded by Prussia to the Confederation of the Rhein in 1807 as the client state of the Kingdom of Westphalia.
By 1812, Napoleon had gained control over most of the continent, but his ambition for power proved to be his folly and he was forced out of Russia with what was left of the Grande Armée. Soon came his downfall and exile to the Isle of Elba. In 1815, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the Congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Westphalia became the providence of Westphalia within the Kingdom of Prussia, a part of the new German Confederation.
One benefit from the Napoleonic Wars was the writing of a new constitution in Westphalia which made all male citizens of equal rights and liberating the serfs. What this meant for the Holzgraefe family, I still have yet to discover. In 1818, at the age of 21, Albert Henrich Holzgraefe left Schweicheln and his ancestral home and married Anne Marie Sophie Kassebaum on the 27th of May presumably in the Lutheran church of Bergkirchen, Minden, Westphalia about 12 miles to the north. They made their home on the north side of the Weihen hills in a small farming community called Haddenhausen. They were blessed with six children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Their children and their dates of birth are as follows:
Anne Catherine Margarethe Ilsabein *29 April 1819
Justine Wilhelmine Caroline *19 September 1821
Johann Friedrich *17 January 1824
Friedrich Wilhelm Conrad *18 October 1826, t 9 July 1827
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm *15 July 1828
Sophie Christine Karoline *23 September 1831, t December 1831
In March of 1840, Albert's wife died at the age of 44 and soon Albert's health wained as well. The Confederation of Germany experienced a period of ill health as well during this period as talks of revolution spread throughout the nation. For what reason he left, it is not known, but in the year 1845, at the young age of 19, Johann Friedrich illegally emigrated to America. How he managed that is still not known. The following year, after the death of his father, Albert, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm likewise emigrated illegally to America. In this time, German citizens were expected to request permission to emigrate. Failing to do so was illegal.
Both brothers made it safely to Evansville, Indiana which they made their home. Johann Friedrich went by Henry August once in America and Johann Friedrich Wilhelm simply went by Friedrich. The sisters left behind must have had a difficult life all alone in such an unstable country. In June 1845 Justine Wilhelmine Caroline gave birth to an illegitimate son named Karl Friedrich. The father, Karl Dietrich Hartman doesn't seem to stick around and Justine Wilhelmine Caroline found herself raising a child with her sister. On 10 January 1847, Anne Catherine Margarethe Ilsabein married a man from Hille named Christian Friedrich Fegel. And in August of that year they were blessed with a daughter named Emilie Ottilie Fegel, however the new mother died shortly thereafter due to complications in childbirth. On 9 January 1848, a year after he married one Holzgraefe, Christian Fegel found himself marrying another. Justine Wilhelmine Caroline and Christian would raise their children together.
In May of 1848, perhaps to escape the revolution in Germany, Christian and Justine Wilhelmine Caroline boarded the ship called Franconia in the port of Bremerhaven and emigrated to America with their little children in toe. Sadly, little Emilie Ottilie died on the voyage across the sea. Christian, Justine and Karl arrived in the port of New Orleans on the 29th of May 1848 and made their way to join the Holzgraefe brothers in Evansville, Indiana. In America, the three Holzgraefes thrived and their descendants can now be found all over the country.
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