The Last Link:
Looking Back
A short story based on
fact, with first hand memories of my ancestors
By Tom Mueller
TRACING MUELLER----WEISPFENNING ANCESTRY
This story depicts a German family's quest for their own farmland and happiness. They were originally from Germany, then immigrated to Prussia, then to Russia and then to America. The story spans two continents, four centuries, and 8 generations from about 1750 to the present.
Written Dec. 28, 2001 through Jan. 19, 2002 : revised 2004
Copyright 2-2004
Dedication
This story is dedicated to my cousins, Mary Lee Mueller Cato and Darlene Mueller Koehn, who both live near Lodi, California.
Mary is my Uncle Alvin's daughter. In our Christmas card to her this year, I mentioned I was doing some genealogy work & asked her for information. Her reply to me fueled my fire to continue in earnest with my genealogy work along with stories of our ancestors. She was interested and wanted to read my work. She encouraged me through her first e-mail, and we started an e-mail dialogue, which encouraged me even more. It fueled my fire to continue, and then when I was in the middle of entering my findings in our computer, I started this short story.
Darlene is my Uncle Evoldt's daughter. I asked Mary to involve her in finding family names, birth dates, wedding dates, etc. Darlene's mother, Lydia was also involved. I remember when I was at Darlene's home in California about 15 years ago, having a conversation with her, discussing my children. She asked me if I believed in building memories. My answer to her was “What?” She explained that she believed in building memories with her children. This is something I have often thought about, and tried to incorporate into my own life. I think it influenced these writings about memories of my ancestors.
CHALLENGE
If you want to know where you are going, you must understand who and where you came from. Not until you understand this can you really understand how to break the mold that cast you and go beyond to become a better person. This knowledge helps you reinvent yourself and recreate the type of person you were destined to be.
Tom Mueller
Jan. 6, 2002
CREDITS
1. Family Bible
2. 1954 Fredonia Golden Jubilee Book
3. 1954 Gackle Golden Jubilee Book
4. Prairie Public TV. “Germans from Russia, Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie”
5. World Book Encyclopedia
6.rootsweb.com
7.National Geographic, maps
8.Obituaries
9.Sunni McPheeters web site, http://www.geocities.com/mcpheetersfam/index.html my second cousin, once removed
10.Uncle Alvin Mueller
11.Cousin Mary Mueller Cato
12.Cousin Darlene Mueller Koehn
13.Family Pictures
14.Joseph Welder Heritage book, my Great, Great Great Grandfather on my Mothers, Mother's Mother side
15. Oral history from my relatives
FORWARD
In December 2001, I took a handwritten story I wrote about 10 years earlier out of a drawer. It was titled “MY SUMMER HOME”. It was about the summers I spent at Hulda and Martin Ehmann's farm, 13 miles southeast of Gackle, N.D. Hulda was my Dad's sister, my aunt. After a few days I decided to write about a trip Hulda and I made to north of Fredonia, to see her aunt, Louisa Weispfenning, wife of deceased Christ Weispfenning.
A few days later I decided to write about other ancestors I remembered, and I haven't quit yet. I had the idea to compile a book of ancestors I knew, listing dates, names and places along with a one-page writing of my memories about them. I was still doing this at Christmas when my children came home. My youngest, Sara, typed and entered some of the stories into the computer and printed them for an extra Christmas gift.
On December 28, 2001, after telling them about a box of family pictures I used to go through when I was a young boy at my Grandmother Maria Mueller's, I felt a need not only to record genealogy with short stories, but to write this short story. I dropped what I was doing, I'll go back to it when I'm done with this, and started writing about the box of pictures, to see if I could tie it in with my ancestor's history. But I wanted to go deeper than the names, dates and places. I wanted to try to understand them as people, I wanted to study their pictures, study their dates, do the math, and find out how old they were at important events in their lives. I was trying to uncover forgotten facts, gain insight into their lives, ask and answer all the right questions, and see if I could touch their souls. Doing the research could give me a license to write about them, to try to tell a better story; hopefully something that would be more interesting to read, something that would be remembered and added to our oral history.
INDEX
January 1957, Grandma's house, Napoleon N. D. page 7
Late 1700's, Who they were and where they came from page 10
1804-Alexander 1, reissues Grandmother's manifesto page 11
Skipping Stones page 12
History of life in Russia page 14
N.N.Weispfenning, generation # 1-W page 17
Georg W. Weispfenning, generation # 2-W page 18
August Gabriel Weispfenning, generation # 3-W page 20
Jakob Muler, Generation # 1-M page 22
Jakob Muller, Generation # 2 -M page 22
Salomon Mueller's Grandmother, Anna Salo Muller page 23
Christian Muller page 26
Christoff Mueller, generation # 3-M page 27
Andreas Muller page 29
Search for Salomon's ancestors page 30
To America page 32
Johannes Weispfenning, generation # 4-W page 35 Other Interesting Facts about life in America page 42
Johann Weispfenning, One can only imagine page 45
Maria Weispfenning Mueller, generation # 5-W page 46
Salomon Mueller, generation # 4 M. page 49
Emmanuel Mueller, Golden Valley N.D. page 53
Norbert H. Mueller, generation # 5-M, # 6-W page 54
Thomas G. Mueller, generation # 6-M, # 7-W page 55
Stacy & Shane Mueller, generation #7 -M, # 8-W page 59
Sara Mueller, generation # 7 M, # 8-W page 59
Closing page 60
January 1957
It was a cold night. I was staying with my Grandma Maria Mueller. My parents left town for the night and this was my usual home away from home. “Grandma, where's that box of old pictures?” I asked. “I moved it, it's under your bed in the bedroom,” she explained. As I crawled under the bed, I saw many boxes, but this one was just a plain brown cardboard box that the groceries were delivered in. It was only about 6 inches tall; the kind that canned tomatoes came in. It still had the 8 or 10 circles in the bottom of the box from the cans. This is a box I had gone through before. It contained many pictures of the extended Mueller and Weispfenning families. As I went through it, I would ask many questions. This time, rather than just looking at the pictures, I opened up two Western Union telegrams from the U. S. Army, telegrams that Grandma had saved for many years. As I was reading the telegrams, I was astonished at what I was reading. The first telegram stated that my father, Norbert Mueller, was missing in action during WW II. The second was even more astonishing. It stated that he had been declared dead. I didn't understand how this could be, because I knew he was alive. “Grandma, what's the deal, how could this be?” She explained that he was shot out of his tank, had taken shrapnel to his face and was in the hospital, and had amnesia. They couldn't find him, and thought he was dead. To this day I don't know how much of this is true, since he wouldn't talk about it. I do know that he had several operations in the 1960's and 1970's to remove some of the shrapnel and he was listed as a disabled vet. He received a government check for $13.00 a month until he died. He had a 10% disability on his left side and had minor loss of power on that side.
Looking further I saw a picture of a boy about 13. I asked her, “Who is this?” She said it was her son Johnnie, and he had died a few years after that picture was taken. “Grandma, how did he die?” I asked. She told me he ran home after basketball practice and caught pneumonia and died. I found out 30 years later that he was found west of Gackle and died from a gunshot wound. My Dad told his sister Hulda in the late 1980's in her home in Jamestown, speaking in German so I wouldn't understand, that Grandpa Mueller thought it was accidental but the Sheriff at that time insisted that it had to be self inflicted. Grandpa was city marshal of Gackle from 1919 to about 1942. Johnnie died about 1926 so I'm pretty sure Grandpa was city marshal then. My dad spoke to Hulda with so much emotion that I couldn't help but take notice, even though I couldn't understand all of the German. Later I asked Hulda about it, since she was like my second mother and I had spent a lot of time with her every summer. I was pretty confident that I could get the facts from her about this German conversation. As usual, she had the courage to explain it, and I'm sure she had a good reason to do it, which I didn't understand at the time. She told me Grandpa had tried to have a new hearing or a review done, but it never happened. She also told me that he threw the pistol down the outhouse and until his dying day never accepted the official version.
Anyway back to the story about the box of heirlooms. The box contained much more, but it disappeared after Grandma moved to Jamestown to a nursing home. Would it ever show itself again?
“Tommy, it's time for you to go to bed”, Grandma explained. “Tomorrow we are going to make noodles and I am going to make you borscht soup.” She knew that I loved borscht soup. I don't know if it was the beets or the cabbage or the cream that made it tastes so good, but I knew I would eat two big bowls of it.
“Grandma, just one more question, who is this?” I asked, holding up a picture. She said it was her parents. “Who were they?” I asked. She said, “In order to explain who they really were, we would have to go back to Russia, then back to Germany.”
And this is where our story starts.
Late 1700's
Who they were and where they came from
First we are going to have a history lesson, and then we will turn to our ancestral relatives and see if we can get to know them.
I have a little written history of the Weispfenning and Mueller branches of my family in Germany, mostly information off the internet speaking in general terms about the towns they came from. However, I have more written and oral history about both the Mueller and Weispfennings in Russia, and some written and oral history of the other two branches of my family, the Ivanovs and Weigles. There are many writings on this time frame in history, and for some reason it is speaking to me night and day. It's speaking to me in volumes, while I am trying to go to sleep, while I am trying to work, while I am trying to eat. I can't imagine why, maybe because my dead ancestors are speaking to me and they realize that if I don't write about them it too will be lost to time. For some unknown reason I have realized that if I don't do this, there may be no one else who will do it. Other family members don't share the same life experiences with our relatives; many never met them and couldn't write about first hand memories. Here I go again with “looking back and the last link”. If I don't do this, there will be no written record for later generations to rely on. They will be in the same situation as I find myself in, without information. I have come to realize that it's my responsibility to know my relatives. It's been done poorly by me and past generations, but blaming “being to busy or it's too far away, or I'm not interested right now” just doesn't seem like a good excuse right now. Uncle Alvin Mueller once told my wife that every family needs to have one member that takes care of this, so it gets preserved. He said it should be the youngest. He was the youngest and did more than his share in preserving old family pictures and heirlooms. Some of the pictures and documents I used to write this story. It's like having the torch passed down to me.
It's really easy to tell of an earlier generation of our family that came to America in the late 1800's, three and four generations back, because I have a lot of written records, and memories. I have obituaries and information from the Gackle and Fredonia Jubilee Books, written and published in 1954. I have wedding and family pictures, which speak to me. We still have aunts and uncles who remember them, rich oral history that needs to be written down now, not 10 to 15 years from now.
To write about earlier generations before them, seven and eight generations ago, those that lived in the German provinces and Prussia in the mid-1700's and in the early 1800's, takes a little more imagination. However, after I read a few German family stories, I realized that all Germans from Russia share the same remarkable circumstances. Almost all left for the same reasons.
Late 1700's
In the late 1700's, the French Revolution took place and affected the areas to the north of France, Germanic provinces. Many people from unorganized German provinces fled to Germany and Prussia [Poland]. The King of Prussia, Fredrick the Great, was offering Germans free land to settle in a portion of Poland he received in 1795. There were many people leaving these provinces and going to Germany and Prussia. There was much religious persecution and poor political and economic conditions in the southern German provinces. Our Weispfenning ancestors stayed in Prussia until the early 1800's, when their children went to Russia.
Also in 1762, Catherine the Great, a German princess who married the Russian Czar, convinced her husband that the German people in the unorganized German provinces would be a good choice to settle the unsettled Russian lands. She issued a manifesto giving German farmers and tradesmen free land, if they immigrated to the Virgin Steppes, as the land was called. This land was in the lower Volga River area of what is now Russia. About 7000 families immigrated to this area, and in 1768, there were over 100 German villages along the Volga River. This was the first wave of Germans to Russia. The ancestors we are tracking in this story didn't go to Russia quite yet, mainly because peace returned to the German and Prussian regions and they stayed put. Also our relatives, the generation that went to Russia, weren't born yet.
During the dictatorship of Napoleon, peace, order, and religious freedom returned to Germany. However, the Revolution left many people ruined. They lost their land, their livelihood, and couldn't get their land back. They were heavily taxed and had to pay back taxes. This was more than they could bear. In 1804 Czar Alexander I of Russia renewed his Grandmother Catherine's manifesto. This started the second wave of Germans to Russia. There were 2 things that the Germans felt strongly about: (1) having a home, knowing who you are, knowing your roots, having a homeland, they could say “I'm a Deutschlander” and (2) which almost contradicts the first, don't be afraid to pack up and leave to attain these goals. Immigration to Russia provided just what many Germans wanted - a new life where they could own their own land and farms again, rather that working for someone else. Their desire to move on to new places was known as wanderlust. Many of the Germans that went to Prussia, then to Russia, had been wanderers [nomads] in Germany.
1804
Czar Alexander I wanted farmers and craftsmen to come and settle on the Virgin Steppes above the Black Sea. This was new land [it was called New Russia] won from the Turks in war, now known as Bessarabia. In return, they were promised:
Almost all of our relatives that went to Russia went with their extended families. Most Germans went in family groups, two brothers, or father, mother, family, and aunts and uncles. This would go back 6 generations from my generation. You can just imagine two of our great, great, great, great uncles, brothers talking amongst themselves. One is saying to the other, “The wife and I have been talking about the great opportunities that await in Russia.” The other brother says, “Yes, we are talking about the same things.” By sharing their thoughts, they are able to muster the courage to actually pack up their young families, with two or three small children each, and embark on the journey of their lives. It's interesting how they all had young families, preschool children, some of them with lots of memories of their home in Germany, some of them with only a few memories, and some of them of no memories because they were too young when they moved to remember. And then there were the children that were born after the move. You will see this repeated again.
SKIPPING STONES
I know general things about the families that left for Russia in the early 1800's. Their names would have been names we recognize. They all named their children after their relatives, or they used biblical names, so we would find names like Hulda, Helma, Evoldt, Johannes [Johnnie], Otto, Christ, Fred, Rebecca, Maria, Justine, and Magdalena. Like a stone skipping on the water emerging one or two feet apart, we would see a one or two generation skip before the names would emerge again.
From her web site I was able to find 3 previous generations prior to my great grandparents, Johannes and Susanna Weispfenning. From this data I find that Johannes's parents, August & Katharina, had 12 children and I predicated 6 of the 12 names. Two of the children didn't have names listed [born stillborn]. Maybe I could have gotten 8 names if they were listed. They also had two Justinas. They also had two derivatives of John, Johann & Johannes. Johannes & Susanna named two of their children Justina and three of them John. When you go back one generation from August, you get Georg & Karolina. They had two names I predicted, Justina and Johann (John). Three generations, all with Johanns and Justinas. If you are confused, see the sheet about each family.
I know that both our Weispfenning & Mueller ancestors went to Russia from Prussia. However, many Germans went directly from Germany to Russia. I know much about the modes of transportation many Germans use to get from Germany to Russia. Some of them went overland in covered wagons. Many others made the trip to Ulm, Germany by wagon train, courtesy of their relatives. Their relatives would take those who were departing to this point with their covered wagons, a distance of about 225 miles. The relatives who stayed behind returned to their point of origin, and the two groups would never to see each other again. This was only the first step of their journey; the others would be longer and harder. Ulm, Germany was on the Danube River. There they would board flat-bottomed shipping barges and float downstream, stopping at Regensburg, Austria; then on to Vienna, a total of 300 miles for this leg of the trip. Here they left their barge for another journey on a covered wagon, joining others with covered wagons to Lemberg, Poland arriving in Radzivilov, Russia, another 485 miles, Russia's port of entry. Here they were kept in quarantine for four weeks to as long as three months, depending on the season. From here they departed in small wooden wagons [Russian style wooded carts pulled by only one animal, usually a horse]. They spent four weeks traveling some 470 miles, the last leg of their journey. They arrived in Bessarabia, South Russia after traveling some 1500 miles total. Their entire trip would take from three to six months depending on if they left in the spring or fall. If they arrived at Russia's port of entry in the winter, they were held there until spring, since travel in the winter was very difficult. Many of these people died in Russia, but their grandchildren with their children would come to America in the1880's to the early 1900's. If you look at a present day map, you won't be able to identify this route because this region kept on redefining all the countries' borders because of war. Poland and Austria went through 3 changes from 1772 to 1795 and again in 1939 and 1945 because of WW II.
1823
By 1823, New Russia extended down to the Black Sea in the Ukraine and Bessarabia. There were 3000 German speaking villages in the area at this time. The Germans kept to themselves - still speaking German and only marrying among themselves. They even settled in separate Protestant and Catholic villages. There were difficulties in their new life. About ¼ died of epidemics and diseases, and nomadic tribes raided and carried them away to slavery, especially in the early years.
The German settlers made their homes out of bricks that they made by combining clay, water, straw and manure and then they make a plaster out of clay, water and manure to cover the bricks. The homes were all one-story structures with two-foot thick walls, long houses one room wide, with the kitchen between the parents and children's bedrooms. This was done so that the heat source, usually a clay brick or rock oven in the kitchen, would radiate to both bedrooms. Many of the homes were made longer, with additional rooms for grain storage, then more rooms for the cattle, horses, and chickens. The houses usually faced south with no windows on the north, maybe one in the kitchen, so they were protected from the north wind. The thick two-foot walls kept the house cool in the summer. The window shafts were so thick that they let in less vertical sunrays in the summer but still received a lot of light in the winter because of the lower horizontal sun. Many had a summer kitchen just outside the house in a separate building. This kept the cooking fires from heating up the house, and they could sleep in a cool house at night in the summer. They also had storm cellars, with a staircase to an underground room. This served as a refrigerator in the summer.
1871
The Germans lived in villages in Russia, and went out to work their land, which surrounded the villages. The economy in Russia was based on wheat, rye, sunflower seeds, and corn. Their church was very important to the Germans. By 1897, there were 1,700,000 Germans living in Russia. They had built a paradise in Russia.
The Germans came to be known as Black Sea German Russians, and this area became known as the breadbasket of Europe, largely due to the hard work of the Germans. They raised red cows. The Germans prospered in Russia, arousing envy, which later turned to hatred.
In 1871 the German Reich was created in Germany. This intensified the ill feelings toward the Germans in Russia. By 1875 there was trouble brewing. In 1881, Alexander III revoked some of the German's rights granted to them 2 generations earlier. He redefined the manifesto to mean only 100 years, revoked exemption from military draft, eliminated self-rule, changed the spelling of their towns, and prevented them from buying more land. He also tried to impose the Russian language on them. This was a grievous breach of contract. What was next, maybe religious freedom? ¼ of the Germans that were in Russia left for America at this time. At first the immigrants to America communicated by mail with those who stayed in Russia. Between 1915-1945 they experienced civil war, shootings, starvation and deportations to Siberia, where they were never heard from again. Between 1932-1933, Stalin imposed collective farming on the remaining Germans and the rest of the country. Farmers revolted and destroyed half of their livestock and crops. Over 7 million died of starvation, ¼ of them German. After this, some did go back to Germany, but most of them were sent to Siberia. We can now go to Russia and find these villages, but we most likely won't find our ancestors.
Most of Bessarabia is in a part of South Russia called Moldavia. It's northern & southern areas form part of the Ukraine. This region covers 17,760 square miles. It is bordered by the Dnestr River in the north & east, by the Black Sea and the Danube River on the south, and by the Prut River on the West. Russia seized Bessarabia from the Turks in 1812. The Treaty of Paris in 1856 gave the area to Romania. Russia regained it in 1878, but lost it to Romania after World War I. It was returned to Russia in 1940. Romania occupied the area during World War II, but Russia regained control after the war.
The location is important to us because we know that the Germans came to Russia in 2 waves, the first in the 1760's to the Volga River area farther north, and the second beginning in 1812 to Bessarabia, South Russia. We are able to trace both the Muellers & Weispfennings back to the mid-1750's. Since both our Mueller and Weispfenning ancestors came from Bessarabia, South Russia, we know that they came in the second wave in the early 1800's. This tiny bit of information is important when you are trying to figure out who you are and where you came from.
If you go to Germany today, just like in America, when you meet someone and are told their name, the next question is “Where do you live?” If you tell them that you are from the U.S.A., they want more exact information, your exact city and state. This of course is very important because it speaks volumes to them about you. In Germany, coming from the southern part of the country versus the northern part is like the difference between lightning and the lightning rod.
The families that left Germany & Prussia would have to apply for a permit to immigrate to Russia. These records still exist along with census data that could be used to research their names and their children's names and obtain dates of birth. Following you will find the information you need to start the research to fill in the blanks, names, birth dates, marriages, and deaths, especially of the unknown generations, the ones that came before the ancestors listed below.
But before you start, check with me, this could be a life long research project. I might be able to fill you in, and get to know you better.
Sometime before 1750
Germanic Provinces
Now we are turning to the Weispfenning side of the family
We are going back to the German provinces located at the German / French borders, which kept on changing because of wars, but first let me give you a visual aid of both of the Weispfennings & Muellers, to help keep it all straight.
WEISPFENNINGS
Generation #1 N. N. Weispfenning born 1750 Germany
Generation #2 Georg W. Weispfenning born 4-10-1796 Poland
Generation #3 August Gabriel Weispfenning, born 1-5-1824 Russia
Generation #4 Johannes Weispfenning born 6-26-1856 Russia
Generation #5 Maria Weispfenning Mueller born 6-26-1888 N.Dak.
Generation #6 Norbert Mueller born 8-11-1922 Gackle N.D.
Generation #7 Tom Mueller born 8-22-1949, the author of this story
MUELLERS
Generation #1 Jakob Muler born 1770 Prussia
Generation #2 Jakob Muller born 1813 Prussia
Generation #3 Christoph Muller born 12-01-1842 Russia
Generation #4 Salomon Mueller born 10-27-1884 Russia
Generation #5 Norbert Mueller born 8-11-1922 Gackle, N.D.
Generation #6 Tom Mueller Born 8-22-1949, the author of this story
N. N. Weispfenning
Born before 1750 in Germany
My great, great, great, great Grand father
Generation # 1
He was born in Carbe / Driessen, Wuerttemberg, Germany. His spouse is unknown. Records show that between 1740-1750 he probably resettled in or around the Polish-German border District during the reign of Frederick the Great, who was King of Prussia from 1740-1786. He probably belonged to the group of settlers who were invited by the Polish aristocrat to farm their rich land. He probably moved there as a young man, possibly marrying there, but definitely marrying a German. He died after 1801. Census records show he was still living then, but couldn't find him after that. Information available shows he had at least 3 children listed below.
[Great Poland] Georg W. married twice
Married 1. Dorothea aus Kohlstetten
Married 2. Karolina Bauer in 1818
Died 2-06-1889 in Tarutino, Bessarabia, South Russia
Married Johann Bierwagon on 5-10-1819. He was born 7-24-1795 in Ludom, Poland and died 7-13-1876 in Tarutino, Bessarabia, South Russia.
Did you notice the last names of Julia and Anna's husbands? I wonder what they did for a living. Did they make beer, or just deliver it? I'll bet that they knew a lot about German beer. Were they brothers, two brothers that left German provinces to go to Russia? This is fulfilling prophecy. I just figured it out. I wrote the story about two brothers talking about going to Russia on page12 over two weeks ago. This page wasn't written until the end and inserted here. Granted these two guys don't have as many greats in front of their names and they would only be my uncles through marriage, but they are my uncles, and although they didn't come from German provinces, but Prussian provinces, to Russia, it still counts, doesn't it?
# 2. Georg W. Weispfenning was our direct ancestor.
1796
Georg W. Weispfenning
Son of N.N. Weispfenning & unknown mother
Born of German descent in Poland, after his father moved there
from Germany between 1740-1786
Born 4-10-1796 in Great Poland
Died in Russia
Went to Bessarabia, South Russia in 1814
My great, great, great grandfather
Generation # 2
Georg W. Weispfenning was born on 4-10-1796 near Gnesen, Grosse Polen [Great Poland]. He went to Bessarabia when he was 18 years old in 1814. He was a shoemaker, and had come to this land, New Russia, as a single man. Because of not being married and his young age, he received no land from the Russian Czar. His first wife was Dorothea Kohlstetten, no children known. In 1818 he married Karolina Bauer [some records show it as Sauer], who was born on 4-15-1803 in Gross Polen. They lived in Kulm, Bessarabia, South Russia and in 1834, after the birth of their third child, went along with other land-less Germans and assisted in founding the village of Dennevitz. It was here that they received 66 hectares of land [247.11acres]. They had 6 children, listed below.
#2 August, was our direct ancestor
1824
August Weispfenning
Son of Georg & Karolina Bauer Weispfenning
My great great grandfather
Generation # 3
August Gabriel Weispfenning was born on 1-5-1824 in Kulm, Bessarabia, South Russia. He married Katharina Hehr on 10-18-1845 in Dennevitz, Bessarabia, Russia. She was born on 3-25-1827 at Alt-Postal, Bessarabia, Russia. They had 12 children listed below.
12. Immanuel Weispfenning, born 10-2-1870 in Dennewitz, Bessarabia, Russia, unknown death date
# 6 Johannes was our direct ancestor
Four of the above children came to America, to Dakota Territory. They were Anna Maria, Johannes, Karolina, Johann George {George Weispfenning Sr.].
NEXT THE MUELLERS
I am going to write about our ancestors on both sides that lived in Germany, Prussia and Russia first. Then we are going to America and write about both sides that came to America. So we will be switching back to the Weispfennings after we examine the Muellers, in Germany, Prussia and Russia. We will track our direct ancestors through these countries and find out when they moved.
These are some of our ancestors that we know of who lived in Germany, Prussia & Russia, from the Mueller side.
Jakob Muler - Generation #1
Jakob was born in 1770 in Prussia. We feel his family came here from Germany in the 1740 - 1750's. He was confirmed in 1785. He moved to Paris, Bessarabia , probably in 1832, records are vague. He married Elizabeth Haller, who emigrated from Prussia [Poland] in 1816, to Russia, we think Paris. She was confirmed in 1790 in Poland. He died a widower. We feel she was his second wife because Jakob & his son, Jakob came to Russia in a different year than she did. We only know of one child, Jakob listed under Paris family book census. There are probably many more children but only found one record of him, explained below. These records show that Jakob #2 had an older male named Jakob, a widower living with him. We concluded from this that it must be his father. The above dates were also found in this record. From these dates and this name we took license to write on Jakob #1. We feel he was my Great, Great, Great Grandfather.
JAKOB MULLER - Generation # 2
SON OF JAKOB MULER
Jakob Muller was born 1813 in Danzig, Prussia. He married (1) Anna Rosina Hiller About 1836 in Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia. She was born in Poland, and died December 01, 1840. He married (2) Anna Justina Salo January 18, 1841, daughter of Joachim Salo. She was born 1819 in Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia, and died December 15, 1870 in Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia. I have a picture of this woman and have put it into the photo album of old photos of the Mueller's & Weispfenning. I also wrote a story of Anna Justina Salo before I knew her name, titled Salomon Mueller's Grandmother. I decided to leave it in as is, and after the story add the new information. Look for it below, titled Salomon Mueller's Grandmother.
More About JAKOB MULLER:
Confirmation: 1827, Poland
Emigration: 1832, Poland to Bessarabia
Children of JAKOB MULLER and ANNA ROSINA HILLER[wife #1] are:
1. MICHAEL MULLER, born October 02, 1837, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died January 03, 1838, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
2. CHRISTIAN MULLER, born November 27, 1838, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died October 10, 1878, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
Salomon Mueller's Grandmother
My great great grand mother
Died in Russia
I have a picture of my Grandfather Salomon Mueller's grandmother, taken in Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia. She would be my great, great grandmother. The year in the picture would be around 1890 give or take 10 years, if I am doing my math correctly. Our picture estimates her age, and Grandpa Salomon's birth date gives the liberty to estimate her age. She probably was born around 1850. This picture is on a hard paper post card. On the top of the picture is written “Great, Great Grandmother Mueller” & on the back is written “Grandpa Mueller's Grandmother” in my mother's handwriting. On the bottom of the back is written “Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia” in my handwriting. I can't remember who gave me the picture, but it was probably my mother. I can't remember writing on it. The back of the picture is a post card printed in English, but it was never used or postmarked. Grandpa Salomon may have brought the picture with him to America when he came in 1905. For sure, he looked at this picture with warm memories, just as we remember our grandparents.
She is standing alone outside a home, wearing a white cap tied under her chin and a long, dark dress with a white lace collar - probably her best dress. On either side of her is a bent back kitchen chair with a flowerpot on each one. She is standing on a long, colorful rug which she probably made the same way my Grandma Mueller made her rugs - by cutting up old clothing into strips, braiding the strips, and sewing the braids together into the desired length & width. The home looks like it was made from clay brick, then plastered with a clay mud plaster, the type they built in Russia. We wonder why she was alone. Was she widowed? Why were the flowers important to her?
It's nice to have this picture of her, but how much better it would be if we knew her name, when she was born, married, and died. We know that she was a mother & housewife who carried on the traditional German way of life in Russia, the traditions which were passed on to us. I'm pretty sure that she was our paternal grandmother because who ever told my mother that this was Great, Great Grandmother Mueller possibly knew what they were talking about, and that's what she wrote, ''Mueller”. When I look at her picture she looks just like a German grandmother. She sure does look like she belongs to the Mueller's. If only I could have spent some time with her, probably watching and helping her cook some German food. I used to do this with Grandma and Hulda. Maybe we could have made kuchen out of freshly separated farm cream with some homemade cottage cheese added to the thick custard along with two ripe sliced peaches.
Well, it felt like I struck Gold when I found out her identity on the internet. So now I can write more on Anna Justina Salo Mueller. She was born 1819 in Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia, married Jakob Muller, generation #2 on 1-18-1841 and died on 12-15-1870.
They had 12 children, Christoph Muller was one of her sons. He was my Great Grandfather.
Children of JAKOB MULLER and ANNA JUSTINA SALO [wife # 2] are:
1. CAROLINE MULLER, born January 11, 1842, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
2. CHRISTOPH MULLER, born December 01, 1843, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died October 19, 1893.
3. PETER MULLER, born July 30, 1845, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; married LOUISE KLITTMANN, November 01, 1875, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
4. ELIZABETHA MULLER, born March 12, 1848, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died March 17, 1848, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
5. FERDINAND MULLER, born January 23, 1849, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died January 05, 1856, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
6. SAMUEL MULLER, born September 18, 1851, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died September 23, 1851, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
7. ANDREAS MULLER, born August 25, 1852, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia. See more information on him coming soon.
8. STILLBORN CHILD MULLER, born October 09, 1855, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died October 09, 1855, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
9. JAKOB MULLER, born January 27, 1857, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died January 17, 1858, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
10. EUPHROSINA MULLER (TWIN), born December 24, 1858, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died December 26, 1858, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
11. STILLBORN SON MULLER (TWIN), born December 24, 1858, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died December 24, 1858, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
12. GOTTFRIED MULLER, born January 16, 1861, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died March 31, 1861, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
#2 Christoph Muller was my direct ancestor, he was my great grandfather
See more on him on following pages.
Generation No. 3
Christoph & Christian were half brothers
Christoph was my Great Grandfather
Although Christian Muller is not my direct ancestor I am listing him here to show the ancestors of the Muellers who came from Russia in 1908 and settled in Golden Valley, N.D. He was their direct ancestor.
CHRISTIAN MULLER,GENERATION # 3
SON OF JAKOB MULLER
CHRISTIAN MULLER was born November 27, 1838 in Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia, and died October 10, 1878 in Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia. He married EVA NETZER November 15, 1857, daughter of MICHAEL NETZER. She was born August 18, 1839.
More About EVA NETZER:
Emigration: 1908, Russia to America
Homesteaded: 1908, Mercer County, ND
Children of CHRISTIAN MULLER and EVA NETZER are:
1. CAROLINA MULLER, born November 24, 1858; died August 06, 1859.
2. LOUISA MULLER, born August 07, 1860, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died April 02, 1864, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
3. SAMUEL MULLER, born February 26, 1862, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died December 10, 1864, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
4. FERDINAND MULLER, born April 18, 1864, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
5. WILHELM MUELLER, born January 08, 1866, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
6. ANNA ELISABETH MULLER, born March 11, 1870; died November 03, 1887, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
7. CHRISTOPH MULLER, born March 30, 1871.
8. EMMANUEL MUELLER, born August 26, 1872, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
9. DOROTHEA MULLER, born August 30, 1874.
10. MICHAEL MULLER, born January 04, 1876, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died August 12, 1876, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
11. JUSTINA MULLER, born March 03, 1877, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
Emmanuel and his wife and family, his mother Eva, brother Wilhelm and family and 2 nieces, Sophie and Salomina, daughter of Ferdinand came to the Golden Valley area in 1908. We find that Sophie and Salomina's brother Wilhelm, also came to America, but don't know the date. More on these people later when we get to the “Came To America” section.
This next story on Christoph Muller was also written before we discovered additional information on him. I decided to leave this short story in and add more about him after his story.
Generation #3
CHRISTOPH MULLER
My great grandfather
Born and died in Russia
Son of Grand mother in story above
Father of Solomon Mueller, my grandfather
The next in line would be Christoph Mueller, son of my Great, Great Grandmother, described above. I'm sure he was born and died in Russia and one of his sons was Salomon Mueller, my grandpa. Boy if only I had a picture, it wouldn't even have to be all there, part of it could be missing. Here's where you really understand what it means when they say a picture says a thousand words. We also know that his wife's name was Dorothea. Written history gives us both parent's names, from Salomon Mueller's obituary in 1953.
So now I can really write.
CHRISTOPH MULLER was born December 01, 1843 in Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia, and died October 19, 1893. He married DOROTHEA SCHROEDER November 27, 1870 in Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia, daughter of CHRISTOPH SCHROEDER and ELISABETH FREDRICH. She was born September 22, 1840 in Plotzk, and died February 11, 1901. Dorothea was married first to August Oelke on 1-23-1859. She had 2 sons from this marriage. Andreas, born 11-28- 1859, married 1-9-1881 to Dorothea Boelke. Samuel, 10-1-1861, died 11-30-1864. She then married my great grand father when she was 30 years old. So I will call her Dorothea Schroeder Oelke Mueller, using all of her names.
Children of CHRISTOPH MULLER and DOROTHEA SCHROEDER are:
1. CHRISTIAN MUELLER, born September 15, 1871, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died November 26, 1874, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
2. EDWARD MUELLER (TWIN), born July 31, 1874, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died August 19, 1874, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
3. LYDIA MUELLER (TWIN), born July 31, 1874, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died August 19, 1874, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
4. JOHANNES MUELLER (TWIN), born June 21, 1875, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; die July 07, 1875, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
5. LUDWIG MUELLER (TWIN), born June 21, 1875, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died July 09, 1875, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
6. GOTTFRIED MUELLER, born March 18, 1877, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia. We have a picture if him with his wife and children. We also have a picture of his widow when she was old with her daughter and her daughters children.
7. SARA MUELLER, born September 29, 1878, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
8. EMILIE MUELLER, born March 10, 1881, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia; died May 05, 1883, Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia.
Salomon Mueller # 9 was my direct ancestor, he was my Grandfather.
ANDREAS MULLER GENERATION # 3
SON OF #2 JAKOB MULLER
BROTHER OF CHRISTOPH MUELLER,
MY GREAT GRANDFATHER
Andreas is not my direct ancestor, but put him in the story because there were so few of this family that survived, most died as infants.
ANDREAS MULLER was born August 25, 1852 in Paris, Bessarabia, South Russia. He married (1) KRISTINA. He married (2) CHRISTINA JASKA, about June 04, 1878. She was born in Borodina.
Children of ANDREAS MULLER and KRISTINA are:
1. JOHANNES MULLER, born June 13, 1902; died December 16, 1902.
2. THEODORE MULLER, born June 05, 1889.
Children of ANDREAS MULLER and CHRISTINA JASKA [?, not sure on last name] are:
2. CHRISTIAN MULLER, born December 09, 1880.
THE SEARCH FOR SALOMON MUELLER'S ANCESTORS
This story I am about to write tells of the years of not knowing who Grandpa Sal's parent's & grandparent's were. The research we were doing wasn't giving us answers at first. I wanted to know who they were, and the further back I could go, the better. My father and my aunts & uncles never talked to me about their grandparents on this side. Uncle Alvin has told us some old stories about Sal's trip to America & some other relatives that settled in Golden Valley, N.D., but he didn't have their names, just Muellers. I wonder if Grandpa didn't write it down because it was too painful to think about it. Also he couldn't do much about it. There wasn't any way to reach them. In the early 1900's many Germans vanished, some were sent to Siberia. That was one of the reasons why so many came to America. I know now that the Russians made all the remaining Germans leave Russia when Hitler came into power, before WWII. Even in the family papers Sal's mother is only referenced as Dorothea Mueller, not by her maiden name.
Cousin Mary Mueller Cato's efforts to find him on the internet did find him here in America through Sunni's web site [Weispfenning's]. But it didn't go back to his ancestors. Sunni is the great great grand daughter of My great grandfather, Johannes Weisfenning, and the great granddaughter of Christ Weispfenning.
A couple of Sunday's ago my wife was surfing the web, trying to connect with Salomon and his ancestors. We found a site on Paris, Bessarabia, Russia, found lots of Muellers [Muller], no Salomon. I was making notes of the material we printed out, trying to line up the Mueller's [Mullers] we found in each family, one page for each family along with the kids listed. Joyce said, “I just found a Christoph Muller with a wife by the name of Dorothea Schroeder”. Sal's obituary listed his mother's maiden name as Baltzer. That couldn't be Sal's parents, must be another Christoph & Dorothea. We went on to other census categories, first births, then on to family census, then on to deaths, no luck. We did find