(HIRSCH – Honorary post) The Life of Karl Albert Hirsch

Karl Albert Hirsch was born on November 11, 1858 to Friedrich and Maria Magdalena Ziebold Hirsch. He was christened in Tutschfelden, Freiburg, Baden on December 5th.¹ 

The Tutschfelden church where Karl was christened. ²

Tutschfelden is located in one of the best climate regions in Germany. Vineyards abound on sunny hillsides. The Black Forest and Rhine Valley meet nearby.^3,4

Tutschfelden area ⁵

Despite the area’s natural beauty, Germany experienced political and social upheaval in the 19th Century and emigration was common. After Friedrich’s death, Maria brought the family to America in the early 1870s. They settled in Monroe County, Illinois, where her brother lived.⁶

Albert lived in the US for 20 years before marrying Susanna Born—a child of German immigrants—on February 28, 1892 in Maeystown, Illinois.^7,8


The 14th Amendment, which states that all people born in the US are citizens, was passed five years before Susanna’s birth.⁹ Therefore, Susanna entered the world as a legal American. Luckily for her, Albert had been naturalized in 1884.¹⁰ Under contemporary immigration law, a woman who married an alien “lost her U.S. citizenship, even if she never left the United States.”¹¹

After their marriage, Albert and Susie lived in Illinois for 8 years. They subsequently moved their young family to Redding, California, where they rented a house and pursued farming.¹²

View of Mt Shasta from Redding area. ¹³

Albert's headstone.  ¹⁶

Tragically, Albert died only six years later,¹⁴ while Susanna was pregnant with their 7th child.¹⁵ 

Susanna likely received financial help upon her husband’s death. Albert’s tombstone is inscribed “Here rests a Woodman of the World.” 

Woodmen of the World was a fraternal benefit society that, during Albert’s time, included an initiation ritual and an annual password. Of greater pertinence, its founder, Joseph Root, “had the simple idea of making life insurance available to everyone.” He used the name “‘woodmen’ because he was inspired by a sermon that talked about ‘woodmen clearing away the forest to provide for their families.’” Root wanted his organization to “clear away problems of financial security for its members”, “to minister to the afflicted to relieve distress; to cast a sheltering arm about the defenseless living.”¹⁷

Sample Woodmen of the World certificate ¹⁸

Although losing Albert was surely a hard trial for his family, the blow must have been somewhat softened by “the sheltering arm” provided by his membership in Woodmen of the World.



Just as, in Albert’s childhood, his father’s death was followed by his family’s relocation, so it was for his children. Shortly after he died, Susanna moved the family to Medford, Oregon.¹⁹







___________________
Line of descent:
Karl Albert Hirsch, born 1858
Frederick Hirsch, b. 1896
Frederick Carl Hirsch, b. 1923
Douglas Hirsch, b. 1953  

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Notes:
1 - familysearch.org, Germany Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898.  https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V412-RMV : accessed 18 December 2014, Karl Albert Hirsch, 05 Dec 1858; citing FHL microfilm 1,189.804.

2 – Photo from de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Ev._Kirche_Tutschfelden.jpg 

3 - Tutschfelden is very close to the French border. It is also close to Switzerland. 

4 -  www.mygermancity.com/breisgau  See also  www.mygermanycity.com/herbolzheim 

5 – Photo of Hebolzheim from de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Herbolzheim_01.650.jpg . Tutschfelden is now a part of Herbolzheim.

6 - “Gottlieb Ziebold,” Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois, page 430. Chicago: Biographical Pub. Co., 1894. Online database at ancestry.com, accessed 17 December 2014.

7 - familysearch.org. Karl’s Person ID is LZKP-Q3F, Susanna’s is LZKP-QQ6.

8 – The entire village of Maeystown is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. www.maeystown.com, accessed 18 December 2014.

9 - “History of laws concerning immigration and naturalization in the United States,” en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_laws_concerning_immigration_and_naturalization_in_the_United_States , accessed 18 December 2014.

10 - He was naturalized in Monroe County. “California, Voter Registers, 1866-1898,” ancestry.com, page 223 of 508. Register page 39, #1672. Also page 176 of 508, page 84, #1456.

11 - “Naturalization Records,” NARA, www.archives.gov/research/naturalization/naturalization.html . Accessed 18 December 2014.

12 - 1900 Census, ancestry.com. Redding Township, Shasta, California. ED 108, Sheet 18B, family 471. Albert had lived in the area before. In June 1886 he was registered to vote in Shasta County [as a resident of Mill Creek] “California, Voter Registers, 1866-1898,” ancestry.com, page 223 of 508. Register page 39, #1672. Also page 176 of 508, page 84, #1456.

13 – Photo, View of Mt Shasta from Redding area, from commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ViewOfMtShastaFromRedding.jpg

14 – Albert died 20 Jan 1906 in Shasta County, CA. Ancestry.com, California, Death Index, 1905-1939.

15 - 1910 Census.  https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MLYJ-46H  : accessed 18 December 2014. Medford Ward 2, Jackson, Oregon. ED 114, Sheet 2A, family 28.

16 – Photo from findagrave.com, contributed by JAMSearch. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=64983960&PIpi=38265441

17 - “Woodmen of the World,” en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodmen_of_the_World ; “Woodmen of the World’s Storied History,”  https://woodmen.org/about/history.cfm#1  ; “Woodmen of the World,”  www.usgennet.org/usa/ar/county/greene/historywood.htm  ; “Woodmen of the World and the Tree Stone Grave Markers,” A Grave Interest, 21 June 2011, agraveinterest.blogspot.com/2011/06/woodmen-of-the-world-and-tree-stone-grave.html?m=1 ; all accessed 18 December 2014.

18 – Photo from “Woodmen of the World and the Tree Stone Grave Markers,” A Grave Interest, 21 June 2011, agraveinterest.blogspot.com/2011/06/woodmen-of-the-world-and-tree-stone-grave.html?m=1.  Photo URL: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrhNNfngo4jUxXgcQN1EKRFuDnHQTDpsS_tFtrXyPtPwBdTUWS1q_SFZXNRIDVhBiMGGaSauCZtmwV51RRcLJw2F20I4G7hJirNfU_tnZFYBlr5s-KP9yauJudhBtQJyASfcLQlCnQ5FK/s1600/WOW+Cert.png

19 – See 1910 Census, in Note #15 above. Not many years later, the Hirsch family was back in Redding.

(ROBERTS) Coming to America

In the 1840s, about 100,000 German emigrants arrived in America each year. In 1848, “when it seemed that Germany might be at last a place worth living in,” that number was cut in half. But hopes were dashed, and emigration swelled. Throughout the 1850s, more than 250,000 Germans arrived annually on US shores.¹ “By 1900, almost one third of people born in Mecklenburg lived outside of the state.”² “These emigrants were the best of their race – the adventurous, the independent, the men who might have made Germany a free and civilized county. They brought to the United States a contribution on inestimable value, but they were lost to Germany.”³

Among the waves of immigrants came several of my ancestors, including Johann Friederich Heinrich Gronow, his wife, Johannah Maria (Fischer) Gronow, and some of their children. But why emigrate?

Lübz is situated on the river Elde.

Johann was born in Lübz, Mecklenberg-Schwerin, Germany. Lübz is a beautiful little town along the river Elde, about 60 miles south of the Baltic Sea and 100 miles northwest of Berlin. Like most of historic Germany, however, the area was riddled with problems.

 

Johann Gronow was christened at this Lutheran Church in Lübz. 

Johann was born April 13, 1810. This was the age of Napoleon.

“From 1806 to 1813, the country suffered great hardship and destruction during the period which came to be known to all Mecklenburgers as the "Franzosentid" (period of French occupation). Robbery and pillage became commonplace.”⁴ “French troops took horses, food, and whatever other supplies they needed without any compensation to the people. Throughout the next few years, peasants were periodically forced to take in troops and provide for them. The French government levied heavy taxes on the people to support the continual warfare and drafted young men into the French army. Prices on common goods increased enormously. Although Napoleon did bring some progressive changes with him, in the end, the main effect was repression and suffering.”⁵

Mecklenburg-Schwerin had been “forced to join”⁶ the Confederation of the Rhine, which was a military alliance “for mutual defense and [to] supply France with large numbers of military personnel.”⁷ After Napoleon’s defeat in Russia, a campaign from which fewer than 5% of Mecklenburg’s soldiers returned,⁸ Mecklenburg-Schwerin was the first member-state to renounce the alliance with Napoleon, and in the War of German Liberation (1813-1815) fought against Napoleon⁹ until his final defeat in 1815.¹⁰

After a decade of war, peace must have been a welcome change. Unfortunately, peace also brought an economic depression.

In 1815, the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin joined the German Confederation and became a grand duchy. (A grand duke ranks one step under a king.) It was about the size of the US state of Connecticut.¹¹ “All power was placed in the hands of the Duke, nobles, and upper classes. The lower classes had no voice. Land was held under a Feudal system.”¹² Absolute rule continued until well into the 20^th century.

Inherited Serfdom was the Mecklenburg way of life. Peasants were dependent on the nobles. Peasants and their property could be bought and sold and they could not acquire additional land. Taxes were typically increased every few years. The police force and the church were controlled by the nobility. “The servant of a noble landowner was not even permitted to marry unless his master gave him permission.”¹³ “Practices such as having to ask for permission from the Grand Duke to get married, or having to apply for permission to emigrate,” continued until after World War I.¹⁴ Serfdom was technically abolished around 1820, but in fact continued for at least two dozen years. “Mecklenburg was known for being perhaps the most backwards of the German states.”¹⁵

The Gronows lived on this street, Plauer Strasse.

Johann apparently did not work the land. He lived in the small town of Lübz, which had a population of less than 2,000,¹⁶ and was either a stonemason or a ropemaker. His life was of course affected by the social rigidity of Mecklenburg. At some point, he met Johannah Fischer; her father was from Güstrow, about 25 miles north of Lübz. Presumably, they had to seek permission to marry and were forced to wait on a noble’s timeframe, as restrictions on marriages were not removed until 1867.¹⁷ Like most Germans of the time, they had a loving, monogamous relationship for quite some time before they wed. When they married at the church in Lübz on November 16, 1836, they were already the parents of two boys, ages 3 years and 5 weeks.

Johann and Johannah married in the Lutheran Church at Lübz,
pictured here in 2008 (with me!)

Johan and Johannah's marriage record. "Gronow" and "Fischer" are underlined.
From microfilm #0069316, page 384, at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

This house, on Plauer Strasse, was inhabited in 2008 by K.
Gronow. Johann and Johannah might have lived here.

After their marriage, Johann and Johannah lived together in Lübz from 1836-1849. During that time, they had 6 more children. Sadly, two of those children, aged almost-5 and almost-2, died in September 1842.

The political situation in Mecklenburg-Schwerin remained mostly the same until 1848. In February, Parisians revolted and the king abdicated. The revolutionary fervor swept across Europe, including the “March Revolution” in Germany. The demands of the people included “arming of the people, freedom of the press, trial by jury and creation of a German parliament.”¹⁸ The people wanted a unified Germany. Initially, rulers were fearful of being overthrown and gave in to some of the demands. A National Assembly convened and spent the summer drafting “Basic Rights for the German People,” which were declared in December 1848 and included equal legal rights for all citizens.¹⁹ In April 1849, the Assembly offered all of Germany to the king of Prussia. He, however, “would not ‘pick up a Crown from the gutter,’” and refused.²⁰ “Thus, all the deliberation of the Frankfurt Assembly resulted in nothing. Germany remained fragmented after 1848, and the small rulers of the various small German states came back to power.”²¹ With no leader for a unified Germany, the movement failed. The Assembly disbanded and “the revolution of 1848/49 was over. The achievements of March 1848 were repealed in all states.”²² The aristocrats who had been so willing to make concessions a year before now swept them away; the “Basic Rights” were abolished, and life in Germany became even more repressive.

Against this backdrop, in 1849, Johann and Johannah Gronow left for America. They settled in Frankfort, Illinois, where they had four more children. Here, John and Hannah enjoyed the rights and freedoms denied to them in Mecklenburg.

  

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Line of descent from Johann, who was the great-grandfather of John Curtis Roberts. 

Johann Friederich Heinrich GRONOW (1810 - 1897)

is your 3rd great grandfather

Henry Carl Gronow (1850 - 1928)

son of Johann Friederich Heinrich GRONOW

Aurelia Charlotte Gronow (1877 - 1961)

daughter of Henry Carl Gronow

John Curtis Roberts (1921 - 1983)

son of Aurelia Charlotte Gronow

Sources: 

1 - The Course of German History: A Survey of the Development of German History Since 1815, by Alan John Percivale Taylor, p. 94. http://books.google.com/books?id=XxJrcgnMh5wC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

2 - http://www.understandingyourancestors.com/asl/mecklenburgEvents.aspx See also http://www.emecklenburg.de/Mecklenburg/en/emi_intr.html

3 - The Course of German History: A Survey of the Development of German History Since 1815, by Alan John Percivale Taylor, p. 94. He is British, by the way. I am not sure that a German historian would agree that all the best Germans left. J http://books.google.com/books?id=XxJrcgnMh5wC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

4 - “Mecklenburg Since the Middle Ages,” by Carol Gohsman Bowen http://www.emecklenburg.de/Mecklenburg/en/history.htm

5 - http://www.understandingyourancestors.com/asl/mecklenburgEvents.aspx

6 - “Mecklenburg Since the Middle Ages,” by Carol Gohsman Bowen http://www.emecklenburg.de/Mecklenburg/en/history.htm

7 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_of_the_Rhine

8 -  “Mecklenburg Since the Middle Ages,” by Carol Gohsman Bowen http://www.emecklenburg.de/Mecklenburg/en/history.htm

9 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Mecklenburg-Schwerin

10 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_French_Empire

11-13 - “Mecklenburg Since the Middle Ages,” by Carol Gohsman Bowen http://www.emecklenburg.de/Mecklenburg/en/history.htm

14 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecklenburg

15 - http://www.understandingyourancestors.com/asl/mecklenburg.aspx

16-17 - http://www.luebz-online.de/history.htm

18 - http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/ip/marrev.htm

19 - http://www.germanheritage.com/Essays/1848/unity_and_justice_and_freedom.html

20 - The Course of German History: A Survey of the Development of German History Since 1815, by Alan John Percivale Taylor, p. 93 http://books.google.com/books?id=XxJrcgnMh5wC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

21 - http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/1848/section10.rhtml

22 - http://www.germanheritage.com/Essays/1848/unity_and_justice_and_freedom.html