Crestleaf.com’s 12 Months of Fascinating Family Finds: September 2015 –Finding the graves of Franz Joseph and Phillipina [Blank] Henn, mythird great grandparents

Graves of Edmund Henn (1838-1861), Franz  Henn (1800-1863), and Phillipina Henn (1805-1890)
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I am participating in the Crestleaf.com "12 Months of Fascinating Family Finds" contest (see Crestleaf.com’s 12 Months of Fascinating Family Finds Challenge for details) and my most exciting find of September 2015 is finding the graves of Franz Joseph Henn (1800-1863) and Phillipina Blank Henn (1805-1890), my third great grandparents, who had immigrated to the United States in 1853 from Doerlesburg, Baden, Germany.

I’m not the first to find the cemetery. I found directions to the cemetery they were buried in on findagrave.com, but I’m still quite happy and excited to have found them myself and spent time there with them. (Yes, “found”, even with directions the cemetery is still in the middle of a very rural area, in an area I’ve never been before. A very pretty drive, but still…)

I spent the weekend at the New York State Family History Conference (and I will be writing a post about that experience, too). It was held in Syracuse, which I knew put me in the same general part of the state that my third great-grandparents, France Joseph (later “Francis”) and Katharina Phillipina [Blank] Henn lived after coming to the United States. I’d decided to try to find their graves after the conference, having copied the directions to the St. Francis cemetery that were online at findagrave.com: “St. Francis cemetery. Route 49 East of Central Square, approx. .2 mi., turn north onto Co. Rte. 37, go approx. .5 mi. cemetery is on east side of road (approximately 2000 feet south of Co. Rte 84) it sits off the road quite a bit.” [Don’t try to follow those directions; they aren’t entirely accurate because the punctuation given screwed up the actual distance.]

Fortunately, I met two people at the conference who lived in the area where I would be going to find the cemetery, who clarified the directions, which was very helpful (I’m more of a visual person and the directions I give tend to say things like ‘turn left at the gray barn’, and things like that, and I don’t have a compass in the car). I got lucky again as I got closer to the Central Square exit off of 81 North and discovered that the cemetery was in Google Maps (iPad app) under the local name of Little France Cemetery. I followed the audio directions given by the nice lady at Google maps, which amounts to: Take North I-81 to exit 32 (Central Square exit) for NY 49. At the bottom of the exit turn right onto NY 49. You’ll pass a Mobil station and the Good Golly restaurant on your left (if you need gas get it there, I don’t recall passing another one). Go 6 tenths of a mile (.6) on NY 49, and then turn left onto County Route 37. It winds through some very scenic country, with cows and barns and horses, and a good chance of a slow-moving combine on the road in front of you.

Combine on Co. Rte. 37
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View from Co. Rte 37
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Stay on County Route 37 for 4.2 miles (start slowing down when you hit 4 miles in). You will see a small brown sign hanging off a post by a dirt road into the woods on the right-hand side. The sign says, “St. Francis cemetery. Est. 1848.” If you cross County route 84, turn around; you’ve gone too far.

St. Francis Cemetery, Town of West Monroe NY (Little France Cemetery)
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On the narrow dirt road leading to the cemetery, there is a gate across the road with a sign on it that says open 9 to 4, Monday through Sunday, May 1 through September 30. The first time I saw that sign was at 5 o’clock on Saturday, and yes, the gate was closed and chained. As I could not see the cemetery from the road I did not feel comfortable walking in, and about that time it started to rain anyway. I found a hotel in the area and came back the next morning, and the gate was open by the time I got there about 10:00 AM.

The cemetery is off the road, but not that far off. The road is very narrow and very green. When you get to a Y in the road, there is a wide spot in the road off the left side, park your car there (it’s about a football field length in from County route 37). You will be able to see the graveyard off to the right, up a little hill. It is very well-kept by the Knights of Columbus. And, while you’re there, remember to go over to the big cross on the right side and pull out the drawer. Inside is a visitor sign-in book and some pens inside two Ziploc containers (if everyone who visits the cemetery signs the book, it has gotten about eight visitors a year, since 2006). It is a very pretty little cemetery.

Looking back at the road I drove in on to the County Road
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Looking up the hill at the right fork
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The graves of my third great-grandparents, France Joseph and Phillipina, and their son, Edmund, are close to the front and can be seen from the little road in front.

Franz Henn, closeup
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Phillipina Henn, closeup
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[Edmund's grave is even more illegible in closeup -- almost totally black-- so I'm not posting the photo.]

They have a great view through the trees.

from the back
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view
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Walking further into the graveyard, on the right side of the road, near the large cross, is a big more modern looking gravestone that belongs to my third great uncle, Frank J Henn (1843-1928) and his wife, Rosine Besanen Henn (1853-1929).

Frank and Rosine Henn
(the picture is bad, but the best of those I took)
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I spent about an hour in the cemetery, before driving home. I told them how brave they were to come to this new country with their whole family, and that it had been a very good decision, as their children, and their children’s children, and their children’s children’s children, and so on, had good lives, with many opportunities, and grew into being good people, and it was all because they’d taken this huge leap of faith in moving here.

Paternal Ancestor Charts ... to Date (Direct Line)

While I was visiting family this summer, I realized that I had never posted my direct line ancestor charts for the paternal side of my family (to the extent I've found them). I thought I had for my maternal side but when  I looked I discovered I'd screwed up the image posting somehow. So I'm going to post the paternal side (to date) tonight, and then tomorrow I'll update and post my maternal side (to date).

I'm only doing direct line charts because there are too many people in most generations to post readable charts. And I'm only including the people I'm pretty sure of -- so yes, I might have others on my working tree ...trying them out, so to speak. But not here.

Vertical Pedigree Chart for Owen Carl Henn (1906-1988)
My paternal grandfather
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Vertical Pedigree Chart for Anna Mae Bennett (1898-1977)
My paternal grandmother
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If you think we share any ancestors, please contact me. I'd love to hear from you! You can leave a comment or email at the address on my Contact Me page.

52 Ancestors: #30 Rosa Henn Strauss (May 3, 1836 – August 31, 1908) – Adjudged Insane

This is my latest post for the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge initiated by Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small blog. For more information about the challenge and links to the other blogs participating in the challenge, please click on the badge in the right margin.

In researching other members the Henn family in this first generation to live in the United States, other than John, I found the most information on his sister Generosa, who became Rosa after the family moved to the United States. Unlike John, who had a good and prosperous life; Rosa had a rough life, experiencing repeated tragedy. This one may be difficult to read, folks.

Rosa was born Generosa Henn in Doerlesburg, Baden, part of the German Confederation on May 3, 1836, to Franz Joseph (later Francis) and Katherina Phillipina [Blank] Henn. She was their third daughter and fourth child. her brothers and sisters were Genofera Blank (later, also known as Genevieve [Henn] Scheer; 1827-1916); Serena Mary Dick (1828-1896); Dorothe (later Dorothea or Dora) Snyder (1830-1896);  Andreas (later Andrew) Henn (1832-1911); Edmund Henn (1838-1961); Josephat (later John) Henn; Franz (later Frank) J. Henn (1843-1928); and Josepha (later Josephine) Schueurmann, (1845-1877). They were all born in Germany, and came to the U.S. in 1853 (see Franz & Phillipina’s story for the immigration story) when Generosa was 17 years old.

Horatio Nelson White, architect, for whom Rosa Henn worked.

By 1855, the family had settled in on a farm in West Monroe, Oswego County, New York (Generosa was listed as Russena in the 1855 NY Census). But by the 1860 US Census, Rosa Henn had moved from her family home and was a domestic [servant] in the household of the Horatio White family in Syracuse NY. Mr. White was a successful architect, who designed the Hall of Languages, the first building of Syracuse University, several courthouses and churches, and many other monumental structures; he had a wife and four children 12 to one year old in the household. Rosa was likely a live-in servant.

Within a year or so, Rosa had married Henry Strauss. He was listed as a peddler in the 1860 census, which shows him living with (or at least there on the day of the census)  the family of Bernhardt Hamburg in Albany NY. I don’t know whether she met him during her service in the White household, or whether she perhaps knew him earlier, as he, too, was born in Baden, in the Germanic Confederation in approximately 1838 (although on one later census he was listed as from Prussia). 

Their first son, Henry, Jr., was born on June 11, 1862 in Syracuse NY. Their only daughter, Polly, was born in or about 1863 (in the 1870 Census, she was 7 years old). I don’t know whether Polly was her real name or whether it was a nickname for Mary, as it often is.  In December 1864, their second son George Valentine was born.

In the 1870 Census, the family is listed under the name Stross, living in the 5^th Ward, Syracuse NY. Henry is a laborer at the railroad shop and Rosa is keeping house while Henry, Jr., and Polly attend school.  Henry & Rosa do not own any real property, and Henry only claims $100 worth of personal property.

In the next year, the family dealt with the sadness of a baby born who only lived just over a week. Charles was born April 11, 1871 and died August 19, 1871. Two years later, on May 16 1873, Rosa and Henry’s fourth son, John Henry, was born.

In the 1875 New York State Census, taken on June 2, 1875, the family is listed under the name “Strous”, living in Syracuse’s 5^th Ward. Henry worked as a machinist for the New York Central Railroad. Listed as living with the family were their sons Henry (13), Valentine (11), and John (2). I don’t know where Polly is. I have not yet found any record of her other than the 1870 census in which she is 7 years old. She may have died in the intervening five years, and if so, that would have been another tragedy for Rosa and the family. (I find it difficult to believe that she has married as she would only be 12 in 1875, and I don’t think the family has the money to send her away for schooling.)

Rosa and Henry had two more sons: George H., born on November 7, 1876, and Frank J. Born in February 1879.

Rosa and Henry’s family is found in the 1880 Census under the name “Stroch”. In this census Henry is shown to have been born in New York (& his parents are listed as from Prussia), but the rest of the family has the right first names and approximate ages so I think it’s the right family, and Rosa and her parents are shown as being born in Baden as appropriate. Rosa and Henry are both listed as age 42; Henry is a laborer. Henry, Jr., is 18 and also listed as a laborer, as are Valentine (age 16) and John (age 6) [ I hope the latter is a mistake of the enumerator going too far with the ditto marks but child labor laws did not go into effect until the 20^th century so it could be accurate]. The family list also includes George, age 3, and Franki, age 1. 

The Syracuse Morning Standard, Saturday Morning, June 18, 1881
Contains story of the inquest into the death of Henry Strauss, jr
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In 1881, another tragedy struck the family when Henry, Jr.,died as a result of an injury incurred in a street fight. The newspapers picked up the story and we learn that Henry, Jr., was what we might today call somewhat of a juvenile delinquent. He was described as very smart and a good workman who had a tendency to quit jobs without notice after a few weeks of employment; the newspaper further stated that Henry Jr., was “somewhat dissipated”, frequently intoxicated, and a bully.  In the incident that caused his death, on Saturday June 11, 1881, he was picking on a young man named David McClure, who although about his own age, was known as an “imbecile”.  Henry participated in taunting him, overturning a cart in which McClure had been collecting coal and wood to help heat his family’s home, and McClure hit him in the head with a stick. After Henry, Jr., died, on June 14, a warrant was issued for McClure and he was arrested and held on $1000 bail. Three days later an inquest was held into the cause of Henry junior’s death. After hearing the testimony and evidence presented, the grand jury deliberated and returned a verdict that Henry was killed by the blow struck by McClure but that said blow was provoked and was done in self-defense, or justifiable homicide.  Therefore the charges against McClure would have been dropped.  (Next week I will do two posts – part 1 & 2 - of transcriptions of the article reporting the fight and of the article reporting on the inquest. The differences between the two accounts are interesting, as is the look into the operation of an inquest in the 19^th century.)

Can you imagine Rosa’s sorrow not only at the death of her first born son, but at the disgrace in how he died? Both Rosa and Henry were visibly grief-stricken at the inquest. Thereafter, Rosa appears to have had real problems coping with the cascade of tragedies that befell her children. I described what I had found to a friend, who asked me Rosa’s age at that time (45) and commented that that would be more than enough to tip any peri-menopausal woman into a mental health crisis.

The next mention I found of Rosa was in The Syracuse Daily Journal, May 5, 1887, “Deputy Superintendent of Poor Barber made his arrangements to take Mrs. Rosa Strauss, who is insane, to the Utica Asylum yesterday afternoon. When he was already to go after her, word came to him that she had taken ill and could not make the journey. The illness turned out to be a fit of madness, and she was taken to Utica this noon.”  The article does not explain what happened to Rosa’s remaining children when she was committed. I presume the youngest remained in the home in the care of their father and oldest brother, Valentine, who was 23; John Henry was 14, George was 11, and Frank was 8.

The Utica Insane Asylum was the first publicly funded treatment center for the mentally ill in New York. Until 1887, I would have used “treatment” sarcastically as the treatment of the poor and insane in these institutions was rather appalling, but fortunately for Rosa New York was in the midst of a reformation in the treatment of the mentally ill and, as of mid-January 1887, the asylum was no longer using the form of restraint known as the “Utica Crib” (see picture below) as reformers had protested sufficiently to raise awareness, and the new Superintendent made it his mission to get rid of them (Here is an interesting article on the treatment of the insane in 1880). 

The Utica Crib, a restraint device used as a restraint device in Insane Asylums in the 19th Century.
Removed from the Utica Insane Asylum in January 1887.
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The next year, 1888, Rosa and Henry’s home was listed repeatedly in the paper as one of many properties on which back taxes were owed; $1703 in back taxes was owed on the home. I found it odd that the property was listed solely in Rosa’s name but have not yet been able to find a reason for this.   The County Treasurer put the property up for sale on October 30, 1888, but it did not sell at that time. That stroke of luck did not hold for long. Unfortunately, the Onondaga County Savings Bank subsequently initiated foreclosure proceedings against both Henry and Rosa for the house and lot at 344 West Fayette St, and then sold it on April 19, 1889 for $1725. Now Rosa didn’t even have a house to come home to if she were to get well.

Postcard of Onondaga Savings Bank building in Syracuse NY, now the Gridley Building – ironically, designed by Horatio White, with whom Rosa had worked before her marriage.
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On July 12, 1889, the manager at the Utica Asylum telegraphed the County authorities that Rosa Strauss had proved to be chronically insane and should be moved to another asylum for such cases, and on November 15, 1889, the Syracuse Evening Herald reported that Mrs. Rosa Strauss, wife of Henry Strauss, was adjudged a lunatic by a Sheriff’s jury at the Courthouse. She was 53; younger than I am.

She was subsequently remitted to a new facility for the insane, the St. Lawrence Hospital, at Ogdensburg, after it opened in December 1890. I don’t know for sure where she was in the year before St. Lawrence opened but a 1901 "Report of the Rise and Progress of the State of The Care of the Insane", by the Ex- NY Commissioner for the Insane stated prior to the state’s recent reforms that the “Utica Insane Asylum was only intended for a small number of supposedly curable cases. When a patient failed to recover after the lapse of a few months, or a year or two at most, if a public charge, he was returned to the poorhouse of the county whence he came, there to remain until his tormented spirit took flight.” The report went on to reference a report by Dr. Sylvester Willard which described those County Poorhouses as barbaric and “revealed conditions which shocked the entire state”. (The conditions were detailed in the report should you choose to read it, and they definitely do shock the conscience.)  

 Illustration from Quebec Heritage News , July –August 2006, Vol. 3, No. 10, p.4
 I found similar data for NY Asylums for approx. the same period
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In 1890, the New York State Care Act passed in which, for the first time, the state assumed full responsibility for all mentally ill, including the mentally ill poor in the county almshouses. Distinctions between acute and chronic mentally ill were eliminated as it was believed that hospitals could provide care that was more individualized and economical. St. Lawrence Hospital at Ogdensburg was one of the new hospitals designed and built to enhance the new more humane theories of treatment. St. Lawrence Hospital was located on 1300 acres on the scenic banks of the St. Lawrence River with such a retreat-like landscape that nearby residents of the city of Ogdensburg would come on Sundays to stroll the grounds, relax, and basically treat it like a park. The buildings were built to support a family-style institution with groupings of small buildings so that patients could be housed according to their particular psychiatric disorder. The buildings housed sleeping quarters on an upper floor, and rooms for day activities below.

A program of morale enhancing treatment was created, aimed at both attitude and environment, described as “a nurturing routine of rest without stress in comforting surroundings”. The Hospital asylum community was created to be self-sustaining, with patients participating in occupational tasks to their ability. Patients grew vegetables and fruit in the garden and raised livestock to feed all the patients. The food served was reported to be both nutritional and aesthetically pleasing. There was also a sewing room and looms at which patients made rugs, blankets, sheets, towels, and underwear. Women patients were also allowed to sew for themselves. There was a library patients were encouraged to use. Patients were also encouraged to participate in recreational activities, such as boat rides, teas, dances, music, art, games, theatre (musicals and comedies), sleigh rides, etc. Family visits were encouraged.

It sounds a wonderful place to live when you can’t cope with life. If Rosa had to be in an insane asylum, I’m glad that she ended up in the St. Lawrence Hospital Asylum at that time.

Postcard of St. Lawrence State Hospital in Ogdensburg, NY
(handwriting at bottom has nothing to do with our family - who knew there were post cards of insane asylums?)
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Unfortunately, even while in this nurturing environment, the tragedy in Rosa’s life was not yet over. Her husband Henry died in 1891. The 1892 NY Census showed 14 year old Frank living with his older brother Valentine’s family (listed as George V.); Valentine was 28, a clerk, and married, with one child of his own. I don’t know where 19 year old John Henry or 16 year old George were at that time. However, I do know that on September 19, 1898, when he was 23, George was one of two men who burned to death in a huge fire in Elmswood NY, which destroyed 7 buildings, one of which was the hotel in which George worked as a barber and where he also lived in a room on the second floor. Newspapers of the time were rather explicitly gruesome: “the body of Strauss was in far worse condition, only the ribs and a portion of his trunk being intact. It was also burned to a crisp. Later his legs were found and brought to the city...” He was mainly identified by the room in which he was found. The article identified him as a son of the late Henry Strauss, and stated that he was survived by his mother in the state hospital at Ogdensburg, and three brothers: Frank Strauss of Syracuse, and Valentine and John Strauss of Solvay, NY.

I wonder if Rosa was told or if she could understand if she was told. I think I hope that she was never told, if she didn’t have to know.  It is just too much to have four children die, and two of them (that I know of) in such horrible ways.

Rosa was enumerated in the 1905 NY census as a patient at St. Lawrence at age 67. She remained there until her death, at age 70, on August 31, 1908, and then her body was taken to her son John’s home. The funeral services were held both at the home of John H. Strauss and at St. Joseph’s German Church in Syracuse. Her bearers were her three remaining sons and a nephew. Burial was in the family plot at St. Joseph’s cemetery.  The graves from St. Joseph’s Cemetery were removed to Assumption Cemetery in 1965-1966.

Memorial stone for those graves (Rosa's among them) transferred from St. Joseph's Cemetery
to Assumption Cemetery, Syracuse NY in 1965-1966.
 Taken  by& posted to Find-a-grave.com Memorial No. 49928491 by Bob Tallieu
Used with permission

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I would still like to find out:

how Rosa and Henry met and when they were married;

Polly’s birthdate and what happened to her and when;  

why Charles died at only 8 days old (death certificate);

why the house was in Rosa’s name, and not Henry’s, on the tax rolls; 

find the property records; 

what Rosa’s diagnosis was & more about her life after being committed;

where she was  in 1899 after the Utica Asylum and before the St. Lawrence Hospital; and

how Henry and the boys lived during after Rosa’s commitments.

If anyone has information they would like to share with me about Rosa, please leave a comment below or email me at the address on the “Contact Me” page.

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Ancestry.com. Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014; "New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1891", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/275K-JZJ: accessed 10 Jul 2014), Joseph Henn, 1853; U .S Census for 1860, 1870, 1880; NY Census for 1855, 1875, 1905; Find A Grave Memorial# 49928491, created by Bob Tallieu (found at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=49928491&ref=acom); The Oswego Daily Times, Thursday Evening September 2, 1908 (found at http://www.fultonhistory.com/)The Oswego Palladium, Friday, June 17, 1881 (Found at http://www.fultonhistory.com ) ; The Syracuse Standard for Tuesday Morning, June 14, 1881, Wednesday Morning, June 15, 1881, Saturday Morning, June 18, 1881  (found at http://www.fultonhistory.com); Syracuse Daily Journal [??] 1888 (found at http://www.fultonhistory.com), Syracuse Daily Journal 1888 – 0921.pdf) ;The Syracuse Daily Journal, May 5, 1887, April 19, 1888,  (found at http://newspaperarchive.com and at http://www.fultonhistory.com); The Syracuse Daily Journal, Tuesday, September 1, 1908,  Wednesday, September 9, 1908 (found at http://www.fultonhistory.com)The Syracuse Daily Courier, July 12, 1899 (found at http://www.fultonhistory.com); The Syracuse Evening Herald, November 15, 1889, September 19, 1898, & September 3, 1908 (found at http://www.fultonhistory.com); In The Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America, by Michael B, Katz, pp. 103-107, published by Basic Books, copyright 1986 and 1996;   The Prisoners’ Hidden Life, or, Insane Asylum’s unveiled: As Demonstrated by the Report of the Investigating Committee of the Legislature of Illinois, together with Mrs. Packard’s Testimony, by E.P. W. Packard, and Mrs. Sophia Olson, Published by the author, A.B. Case, printer, Chicago (1868), at https://archive.org/details/2566020R.nlm.nih.gov ; Reprint from The International Review, The Treatment Of The Insane by William A. Hammond, Volume VIII, March 1880, New York: Barnes & Company, Pages 225-241 (found at http://inmatesofwillard.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/1880-the-treatment-of-the-insane-w-a-hammond.pdf); Reprint from “The New York Times” Published: November 10, 1901, Copyright @ The New York Times (found at http://inmatesofwillard.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/nyt-1901-rise-and-progress-of-state-care-of-the-insane.pdf ); Return: A History of  the St. Lawrence State Asylum, Ogdensburg, NY by Andrea Ray (found at http://www.andreageyer.info/projects/audrey_munson/munson_book/MunsonPages/PDF/AndreaRay.pdf); http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=St._Lawrence_State_Hospital

52 Ancestors: #25 Francis/Franz Joseph Henn (1800-1863) and #26 Catharina Phillipina Blank Henn (1805 – 1890) Baden, Germany to Oswego County NY

German Immigrants to North America (1853)
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 This is my latest post for the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge initiated by Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small blog. For more information about the challenge and links to the other blogs participating in the challenge, please click on the badge in the right margin.

As I have visitors this week, I am doing my two ancestor posts for this week (on my catch-up schedule) in one. #25 Francis/Franz Joseph Henn and #26 Catharina Phillipina Blank Henn are my third great grandparents on my father's father's side (she was known as Phillipina and that is how I will refer to her). In the materials I received from my Dad, Francis and Phillipina Henn, are as far back in this line that anyone had gotten in tracing back our Henn line, and it dead-ended with the knowledge that they came from Baden, Germany. Accordingly, I was absolutely astonished and delighted to find a copy (English translation) of their marriage record information on FamilySearch.org. It had the right names and it was in the same place as Phillipina’s and many of the children’s births were registered (as found on Ancestry.com), so I believe it is the marriage record of my third great grandparents.  The record also included some information that wasn’t in Dad’s paperwork: their marriage date, and the names of Francis’ and Phillipina’s parents! Whoo-hoo! I went back another level! Well, I have names….but nothing else ...yet.  

I’ve learned this week that if you are researching a person who lived in Germany before 1876, the best place to look is the church records as civil records of births, marriages, or deaths weren’t kept until after 1876; but everything I’ve read so far says that the church records were reasonably accurate. In some areas of Germany, the records of people of other faiths were kept by whatever the predominant church/worship place was in the area. This perhaps partially due to the fact that “Germany” didn’t exist until the late 19^th Century. Instead, the area was made up of smaller areas controlled in a feudalistic system by a hierarchy of royalty (princes, dukes, counts, etc). Farmers were very nearly the bottom rung of that very regimented hierarchy.

Unification of Germany 1815-1871, Baden is in lower left of Germany

Franz Joseph Henn was born on or about November 8, 1800 to Melchior and Gertrudt (Grimm) Henn. In the marriage record index, kept by the Catholic (Katholisch) church in Doerlesberg,  Mosbach, Baden, Germany, Catharina Phillipina was listed only as Phillipine; her parents were Georg Michael Blank and M. _ Anna Schulz. She was born on or about November 17, 1805. I don’t know whether they were born in the same towns/areas or not. I don’t know anything about their growing up years. I do know that, according to records kept by the Catholic church in Doerlesberg, Mosbach, Baden, Germany, Franz Joseph Henn and Phillipine Blank were married on August 5, 1827. 

In the Baden-Wurttemberg section of Germany, many of the farmers had a side occupation that they passed down, father to son. As the Henn’s were farmers after they immigrated to the United States, it is logical that they were probably farmers in Germany as well. I know from family documents and a few U.S. Censuses that Franz and Philippine’s sons worked as coopers when they first got to America. That was a skilled occupation passed down through middle class farming families in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. So Franz & Phillipine were likely part of the middle class. They may have owned land obtained by fief (I haven’t established that yet) and were subject to the rules and laws imposed by the fiefholders to whom they would owe a sort of feudal allegiance. In the early 1800’s people had little choice in the persons they married as the marriage was often arranged by their parents as a business transaction in order to gain wealth by combining lands through the marriage. Additionally, the couple had to apply to the lord their family served to get permission to marry. The lord imposed a fee and sometimes the couple didn’t have the money to pay the marriage fee, and so delayed the marriage. This sometimes resulted in children born before the official marriage.

I don’t know yet if this occurred in Franz and Phillipina’s case, but about eight months before the marriage Phillipina gave birth to a daughter, Genofera Blank (later, also known as Genevieve [Henn] Scheer, 1827-1916), on January 2, 1827. The record, kept by the same Catholic Church as the marriage record, did not show a father’s name in the index, but my reading shows that is normal for pre-marriage babies. [The original was not available to view, or I would have.]  I haven’t yet found a birth record for Franz and Phillipina’s daughter Serena Mary [Henn] Dick, but later in the U.S. Censuses she indicated that she was born in July 1828, which would put it nearly a year after the marriage. I did find birth records Franz and Phillipina’s other children: Dorothe/Dorothea [Henn] Snyder (1830-1896);  Andreas/Andrew Henn(1832-1911); Generosa/Rosa (Henn) Strauss (1836-1908); Edmund Henn (1838-1961); my great great grandfather Josephat/John Henn (1842 – 1861); Franz/Frank J. Henn (1843-1928); and Josepha/Josephine (Henn) Schueurmann,  (1845-1877). All were registered through the Catholic Church in Doerlesberg, Mosbach, Baden, Germany, with the exception of the youngest two children who were registered at the synagogue (Israeliten) in, Eubigheim, Mosbach, Baden, Germany.

The area of Baden in which they lived was over-populated and land for farming was hard to come by. In 1817 Baden had become part of a German confederation, which then led to a few decades of political unrest, culminating in an attempted revolution in Baden in 1849, which failed after the Grand Duke of Baden joined with Bavaria in requesting the armed intervention of Prussia, and the armies of Prussia invaded Baden in June 1849 and crushed the rebellion. This couldn’t have made it a comfortable place to try to work a farm and raise a family. In addition, there were repeated years of crop failure and potato blight in the period between 1846 and 1853, making it very had to live and depressing the economy. All of this together perhaps led many farmers to truly view America, with its storied fertile lands and wide, open spaces, to appear to be a shining beacon of hope.

Port of Le Havre, France mid-19th Century
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One year after their eldest son went to America in 1852 at age 20 (see Andrew/Andreas’ story), Franz Joseph and Phillipina, immigrated with their entire family to America, joining Andreas/Andrew in Syracuse NY.  The Germans travelling to America in the 1850’s had the money to pay for their own tickets and thus arrived in America without debt. Franz Joseph and Phillipina first travelled to Le Havre France, where they had obtained passage on the ship, Trumbull, to New York City.  The ship’s passenger list (pictured below) inexplicably lists Franz Joseph Henn as “Henn, Fr. Friedrich” from Baden but the age is right, and listed with him are Phillipine and all of the children at the correct ages. So I tend to think that whoever filled out the list – it’s all the same handwriting – just got his name mixed up. 

"Trumbull" Passenger List, listing Henn Family
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They would have obtained the tickets in Germany as France required emigrants to show their tickets at the border. In addition to whatever personal property they were bringing with them to America, they would also have brought food – a lot of it – as emigrants were required to bring their own food for the voyage. They travelled in steerage, which would have been crowded and uncomfortable. (To read interesting descriptions of the voyages between Havre & New York in letters sent home by immingrants, click here.) Voyages lasted approximately 45-50 days. They arrived at the port of New York City thirty years before the creation of the Ellis Island processing center. (To read a contemporary story from The New York Times of what it was like for an immigrant to arrive in New York City in 1853, click here.)  

Ad shown in Freiburg, Germany for package voyage between Le Havre and New York, 1856
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From NYC they could have taken a steamship or train to Syracuse NY, where they joined Andreas. Sometime thereafter, they each anglicized their names, probably to better fit in in their new country.

Almost immediately, Francis and Phillipina moved the family up to a farming community named West Monroe, NY, about 22 miles north of Syracuse, in Oswego County, on the shore of Oneida Lake. They appeared in the 1855 New York Census in West Monroe, and indicated they had lived in the community for 2 years. Francis was 55 and listed as a farmer.  Phillipina is inexplicably listed as Phebe (one wonders if the census taker couldn’t spell Phillipina), age 49.  Still living at home were: Andrew, Generosa (spelled Russena), Edmund, Joseph (my great-great-grandfather John), Francis (Frank), and Josephine. All were listed as Aliens, so none of the family were naturalized citizens yet.

Oswego County, NY (about 1902), West Monroe is on North shore of Oneida Lake
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The 1860 Federal census found Francis and Phillipina still farming in West Monroe, Oswego County, New York. Still living at home were John (previously Josephat), Frank, and Josephine, Also there that day was a 1 year old boy, Jepa Cottel – I wonder if Phillipina or Josephine was babysitting that day? Francis indicates that he can read and write English (or rather, does not indicate that he cannot do so). The main population census showed that Francis owned $700 worth of real property and $300 worth of personal property. This was back when farming was done mostly by hand and/or with the help of a mule or horse. People could not work huge farms, without a lot of help then. He also was surveyed for the 1860 Federal Census Non-Population schedule on Productions of Agriculture. That survey indicated that he had 30  (or 80 – it’s hard to tell whether the handwriting is a 3 or an 8) acres of improved land and 20 acres unimproved. Here he states the cash value as $900 and the value of farm implements and machinery as $50. He owns 1 horse and no mules, but he has 30 (or 80) milk cows, 2 working oxen, and 2 other cattle. He owns 3 sheep and 2 swine. He estimates the value of his livestock at $173. During the year ending June 1, 1860, the farm produced 40 bushels of rye, 40 bushels of “Indian corn”, 50 bushels of oats, 9 pounds of wool, 50 bushels of “Irish Potatoes”, 5 bushels of buckwheat, 5 tons of hay and 300 ( or 800 - again hard to tell whether the handwriting is a 3 or an 8) pounds of butter. He indicated that the value of animals slaughtered during the year was $35 (or $85 – the handwriting problem is consistent.) 

In 1861, their son, Edmund died. He was only 22, and unmarried. I don’t know how he died. Or, for that matter, where he was in 1860.

Francis died two years later, at age 62, on April 20, 1863. I haven’t been able to find out why he died but he evidently knew he was dying because he drafted his will on the same day he died. (I found a copy through the Familysearch.org collection of NY Probate records, 1629-1971, for Oswego County, and plan to transcribe it, as best I can, in a separate post later this week.) He was buried in St. Francis Cemetery in Oswego County, NY.

Grave of Francis (Franz Joseph) Henn (1800-1863), originally posted on ancestry,com by Reckinger
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After her husband died, Phillipina saw two of her sons, Andrew and John, go off to fight in the Civil War in 1864, and, thankfully, return in 1865.  In 1870, the U.S. Census shows that Philipina is living with John Philip Henn, son of Serena Mary Henn Dick in West Monroe; she is “keeping house” and he, at age 15, is farming. The census indicates that she doesn’t own any real property and that her personal property is valued at $100. In 1871, acting as Executrix, Phillipina probated Francis’ will, in an action to prove his will filed October 12, 1871 The Court on, November 27, 1871, acknowledged the sworn statements of the witnesses to the will and declared it proved to be written by Francis when he was in a sound mind, on April 20, 1863. It left her his real (land) and personal property. I don’t know yet why she waited until seven years after her husband’s death to try to probate his will.

I then lost Philipina for about 20 years. I cannot find her in the 1875 New York Census, or in the 1880 U.S. Census. The person who wrote her entry at Findagrave.com said that “She lived on a farm in West Monroe, Oswego County, until after 1870 and then in Oneida, NY with one of her daughters until her death.” That would indicate that she probably lived with Serena Mary Henn Dick, even though I could find nothing showing that Phillipina lived with Serena and her husband, Jacob, and nothing showing that Serena’s family had lived in Oneida NY prior to 1900 (I have seen the 1875 NY Census, as well as the 1880 Federal Census, for Serena and her family and her mother isn’t listed with them). On the other hand, Serena and her family did live in Lenox, Madison County, NY through, at least 1892, and Lenox NY and Oneida NY are only about 4.5 miles apart. Phillipina, perhaps, just wasn’t in the house on the dates of the censuses, or perhaps lived close by but not with them.

Phillipina  died on August 5, 1890, at age 84, and was buried in St. Francis Cemetery in Oswego County NY.

Grave of Phillipina Blank Henn (1805-1890), originally posted on ancestry,com by Reckinger
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http://www.understandingyourancestors.com/ar/parishBirth.aspx; http://geisheimer.org/info/germ/village.htm; http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-DE/1998-11/0909971932;  "New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1891", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/275K-JZJ : accessed 10 Jul 2014), Joseph Henn, 1853; http://www.understandingyourancestors.com/ia/germanImmigration.aspx ; http://19thcenturyrhinelandlive.blogspot.com/2011/10/look-at-le-havre-less-known-port-for.html ; http://19thcenturyrhinelandlive.blogspot.com/2014/02/emigrants-setting-sail-questions-and_28.html ; http://home.comcast.net/~owen.rutz/rutz_genealogy/German_Immigration.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Baden-W%C3%BCrttemberg ;  1855 & 1875 New York State Census; 1860 & 1870 US Census and 1860 Non-Population Schedule, Agriculture Production; "New York, Probate Records, 1629-1971," images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-24578-35114-46?cc=1920234&wc=9VS7-BZS:213301201,214485401 : accessed 27 Jul 2014), Oswego > Wills 1865-1872 vol J-K > images 522 & 523 of 717; http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=HENN&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSst=36&GScntry=4&GSsr=81&GRid=45570773&