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Frederick J Stierwalt’s Kansas Homestead

The above photo was believed to have been taken in Mound Valley, Kansas sometime after 1891. During this period in the midwest, building a new home on your land claim was something to be proud of. After paying a small fee to claim a homestead settlers were given five years to build a home and farm the land in order to keep their claim. It was not unusual for families to feature their homes in photos during this time, but...

Property where the Shull family lived

Alfred Samuel Shull: The final years

(Above) Longhorn Cattle graze on the property where the Shull Family lived south of Strafford, Missouri. Nearly two years ago I wrote about Civil War Veteran, Alfred Samuel Shull: Kansas Jayhawker. Click the link to read about Alfred’s life in Bloody Kansas, an area so volatile, it became a flashpoint for the Civil War. Last month I was excited to journey to the area of Southwest Missouri where Alfred and the Shull children settled after his first wife, Elizabeth, died....

Jung/Young family roots: Washday wine and food

While researching the life of Philip Conrad Jung I was immediately drawn to the beauty and culture of his home in Hahnheim, in the heart of the Rheinhessen wine region. Then I discovered this traditional recipe for potatoes and pork belly and had to share. The Tuesday Backesgrumbeere According to an old Rheinhessen tradition, every Tuesday while the women did laundry they prepared Backesgrumbeere (or potatoes with pork belly). This slow cook dish, featuring the local wine, was their version of...

Jung/Young Family Roots Part 1: German or French?

Above: Battle of Trafalgar by William Lionel Wyllie A Family Mystery: German or French? In 1948 Samuel (S.A.M.) Young wrote a letter addressed to the postmaster in Saulheim, Germany (a small town about an hour Southwest of Frankfurt) hoping to connect with distant cousins and learn more about his ancestry. One of the ongoing questions within the Young family was whether they descended from a German or French family. Samuel’s German father, Johann Adam Jung (changed to Young when he...

Hans Bürki: A Story of Persecution and Perserverance

Nijmegen (Nimewegen), Holland in 1641 Hans Bürki: Langnau, Switzerland 1710 “For the remembrance of my descendants and of all my fellow believers, I, Hans Bürki, of Langnau, want to relate what happened to me. I had gone to the mountain called Bluttenried (Community of Langnau), in company with my wife and two sons. There a poor man came to us to whom we gave something to eat; this man subsequently went to Harvag to the authorities and told them that...

The Bergey Homestead

The Bergey Homestead still stands on land purchased in 1726 by Hans (John) Ulrich Bergey. The property is located on the banks of the northeast branch of Perkiomen Creek, in Salford Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Hans “john” ulrich bergey: first bergey immigrant Hans Ulrich Bergey was born in Canton Bern, Switzerland in April of 1700. He immigrated to Pennsylvania with a large Mennonite group around 1717 and married Mary (possibly Clemens.) After immigrating to America Hans changed to the anglicized...

Johan Peter Steigerwald (Stierwalt): German Craftsman

  Coming to America Johan Peter Steigerwald, known as Peter, was born in 1730 in the Hesse region of Germany and grew up in Floersbach, about 35 miles east of Frankfurt. In 1749 Peter is named on a Hesse Lutheran Parish registry with his father, Johannes (John), as one of the emigrants who left for Pennsylvania. Much like the Swiss Anabaptist movement, the early 1700’s saw large numbers of German Lutherans moving to the English Colonies in search of religious freedom. Johannes...

The Storied Life and Death of Jacob Stookey : Nouegehaw

“When an Indian Child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our Customs, yet if he goes to see his relations and make one Indian Ramble with them, there is no perswading him ever to return, and that this is not natural [to them] merely as Indians, but as men, is plain from this, that when white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and lived a while among them, tho’...

The Eby Migration: A Quest for Religious Freedom

We ask you Holy Father, to show your grace and mercy to us all, throughout the whole wide world. Graciously draw us together with your blessing, care, and protection. Do not let division and disunity come among us. -Excerpt from Die Ernst­hafte Christien­pflicht (Prayer Book for Earnest Christians), translated by Leonard Gross Theodorus “Durst” eby Durst Eby sat in prayerful contemplation. The year was 1704 and he was mourning the recent death of his lovely wife, Margaret. A peaceful man, Durst’s only desire was...

Alfred Shull: Kansas Jayhawker

Alfred Shull stared at the newspaper headline, which detailed the nearby Lawrence Massacre, in horror, “Lawrence Burned! 134 Citizens Murdered. Those Missouri Bushwhackers have crossed the line!”, he fumed to wife, Elizabeth. It had been difficult establishing his farm in Linn County, Kansas while the feud over the upcoming popular sovereignty vote warred between the anti-slavery “Free Staters” and pro-slavery “Bushwhackers”. Alfred moved his family from Ohio to Linn County, Kansas in the mid-1850’s when the territory opened to new...