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Our American Roots (Maternal Ancestor No. 10)

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Johann Michael Wiedenmann
b. September 06, 1831 House #13, Tapfheim, Bavaria,
baptized on September 07, 1831

d. December 08, 1908 in New Buffalo, MI
Parents:
Father: Johann Michael Wiedenmann
Mother: Crescentia Schnepf
Family:
Marriage: February 09, 1859 in Laporte, IN
Spouse: Maria Franziska Nuechter
b. March 04, 1838 in Margretenhaun, Germany
d. April 12, 1918 in New Buffalo, MI
Parents:
Father: Petrus Nüchter
Mother: Maria Margaretha Hausmann
Family History:
Mike emigrated from Bavaria on July 15, 1854 and arrived in NY on August 29, 1854. Maria emigrated with her parents in 1855. On October 11, 1856 he became a naturalized citizen
Laporte, IN December 25, 1857:
 Dearly beloved father, brother and sister-in-law.
It is every Christian's duty to extend good wishes on this high holy Christmas day. Since we cannot do it personally, however, we send our wishes in writing. We wish you all a lot of happiness and many blessings in every possible way. We hope it will be God's wish that these troubled and miserable times will be changed to friendly and merry ones in the new year. Today we are in the city of Laporte, to celebrate Christmas Eve and to attend Christmas mass, as Christians should. Dear father, brother and sister-in-law, we are healthy and well, however have so many wishes. We recently bought land, 85 acres - with real nice timber - for the amount of $350. We paid $100 of that. Now however, we certainly don't have money to pay for the other bills. The land is not too expensive, that is why we bought it. It is not too far from Laporte, but 13 miles to New Buffalo. That is also a town, where we could sell our wood. We don't work on our land yet until we have paid for it because we want to accomplish more this month. Dear father and brother, we gave the power of attorney to Weill so that he sends it on to his father Salomon Weill in Benswanken, to properly take care of the matter. The circumstances in the U.S. are good so far. Fruit is not that expensive, a bushel of wheat 50 cts, corn 25 cts, oats 25 cts, potatoes 18-20 cts, apples 50 cts. Meat prices are: pork between $4 and $5 per hundredweight, beef is somewhat cheaper. Since we don't have time anymore, we'll end this letter now. We greet you warmly and hope that you will receive this letter in good health. Dear father, we remain, your most faithful sons, Ulrich and Mike Wiedenmann.
Laporte, July 3, 1858:
Dear brother,
We received your dear letter of April 11 on May 8 and we were happy to read it. We were especially pleased to learn that you are all well, because that is the most important thing. As far as the money is concerned, things are not right. We visited Weill here a few times; the last time was today. He told us that we cannot get our money until we are here for at least five years; there is a law here that stipulates that. We absolutely do not understand how this works; because if you want to send us our capital, the court does not have to know it for the time being. Then, if five years have passed, you can go to court and tell them that you want to settle with us. You always save money. It does not make a difference for you. Either you receive interest from us or somebody else. We tell you herewith explicitly that we only want the 550 guilders from you and no interest. We also give up our rights to the other capital, which father could leave us. Since we cannot get money from Mr. Weill right now, as mentioned before, we would like to ask you to go to Binszwangen to Leopold Weill and make him give you your money back, and end all other dealings with him. No matter what happens, we ask you to let us know immediately. Go to Weill at once and demand your money back. Later we will give you the name of another man through whom you can send us our money. As mentioned earlier, the court does not have to know. If you send us the money, nothing should stand in your way. Once again we make clear that we do not want interest or anything else from you but the 550 guilders (five hundred fifty). Please go to Weill immediately and write us back as soon as possible. We are well and happy. Groceries are quite cheap here. Please write us how things are there. Greeting to our father, your wife and all others known to us from your brothers Ulrich and Michael Wiedenmann. The address is Mr. Michael Wiedenmann, LaPorte, Indiana, North America. Write the address as given.
LaPorte, September 19, 1858:
Beloved brother,
We have to write you again immediately regarding our capital. In your letter of Aprill 11, you write us that you settled the case of our capital, 550 guilders, with the royal district court in Höchstädt, and that you gave the Jew Leopold Weill in Binszwangen 250 guilders cash, together with interest from January 1, 1857 until March 26, 1858, in the amount of 3.44 guilders. Also, that you owe the Jew Leopold Weill as of that date the other 300 guilders, instead of us, and that we can get all the money without delay from his brother, the agent Jakob Weill and Company in LaPorte. You will pay interest over the other 300 guilders from the Jew Leopold Weill in Binszwangen. We also inform you that today we received 275 guilders from Jakob Weill as an advance. He doesn't know when the rest of the money will come. When you have to pay interest on the 300 guilders, why doesn't all the money come here but just the 275. Either the Jew in Binszwangen embezzles the money or his brother Jakob Weill, agent in LaPorte. Ask an experienced man for advice. We are of the opinion that, when you have to pay interest to Leopold Weill in Binszwangen over the 300 guilders, as you write in your letter, and he cannot prove that he forwarded the money, you can accuse him of embezzlement and fraud. If he can prove he sent the money, when and how much, please write us back immediately. We would like you, however, to get a legal certificate and send that to us. We can then get rid of the Jew Jakob Weill. At the same time we remind you to write us immediately how things are, since we did not receive any more letters from you after the one written on April 11. Give our greetings to all our friends and neighbors, especially Father Berger, and our dear old father. Live well. At the same time we want to mention that we give you the interest of our capital and also everything that father would leave to us. You can do with it whatever you want. We hereby attest, with our signatures, that of the 550 guilders in capital we did not receive more that 275 guilders from the agent Jakob Weill to this date, LaPorte, September 19, 1858. Ulrich Wiedenmann; Michael Wiedenmann; Witness, Ignatz Wiedenmann, formerly carpenter in Tapfheim.
Laporte, March 21, 1859:
Valued brother and sister in law, We received your letter on February 22nd this year and the money following. even though the Jude (Jew) Weil denied that he received our money he still paid us as we read and presented your letter to him. We thank you many times for your troubles or for your trips that you had to make on our account. The enclosed paper is the receipt of the received money as you wanted. Further news can I report to you that I (Micheal) have been married on the 9th of February of this year to Franziska Nuechter, also catholic, born in Ober-Hessen, 21 years old, and have been married by the ("Seelsorger" translated means Guardian of Souls) Priest N. Scherer (born in Pfaffenhofen, King's Court of Justice Wertingen) under Catholic Rites. Ulrich goes latest in 14 days from today to Kansas to the Goldmines of ?Pengs Big? to improve his fortune. Many thousands move from here with all they own to this foretold goldmine. This goldmine is from 12 to 1500 miles distance from the State of Indiana. Grain prices are rising, wheat costs 3 Gulden per bushel, Welschcorn 1 Gulden, 24X, potatoes 1 Gulden 30X. Further I want to report that I and my wife leased a (wirtschaft) inn since 4 months ago. Business is medium, like everyplace else, but one hopes that it will get better by next summer. At the end I want to remark that we thank God, all are healthy and well, as we hope that you are also. Greetings to all our friends and acquaintances. Greetings from me and my wife, also from Ulrich to you all. Farewell! A special greeting from all of us, also from the Wiedenmann family to the highly esteemed, highly respected, most reverent Priest Joseph Dominikus Berger with the addition that we conscientiously do and follow all that he as our former "Seelsorger" (Guardian of our Soul) in this letter has asked and reminded us. Michael Wiedenmann Ulrich Wiedenmann
On June 25, 1860 Michiel Williams, 28 year old saloon keeper born in Mecklenberg; Frances, 22 year old born in Mecklenberg; Mary, 6/12 year old born in IN; were living in household 843 at Laporte, IN.
New Buffalo, January 15, 1865:
 Dear brother and sister-in-law,
We received your valued letter of November 2, on December 10 and with it were informed that you are all healthy and well, which gives us great pleasure. We also learned from your letter that your household is doing well and that you bought yet more acres to add to what you already have. We received the picture of your family, which, however, as you say yourself, did not come out that well. Also, the letter writer seems not to have been in the mood to write; although he wrote us three pages, he didn't tell us much. Nevertheless, we are very glad, that you always think of us and that you always wish us well. I will tell you very briefly how we are doing. Last spring we bought 80 acres of land in the township of New Buffalo for $1,150 and we paid them $1,000 in cash. The man I sold my first piece of land to still owed me the other $150 and, therefore, I am now debt free. Last fall I built a new house, big and spacious. The house cost almost $700. Then I built a new barn and stable ($100). I bought a pair of oxen (to pull), two cows and several house poultry and a carriage, plough and harrow ($300). I also have a lot with a house on it in New Buffalo. This lot is 1/8 of an acre or 1/2 of a quarter Bavarian measure. I rented this house and on average it gives me $3, which is a good price in these times of war and worth about $200. Before I bought this house I lived in New Buffalo for about 3,5 years. It was there that my wife and I took on a lese of an inn. At the same time we had a lumber business, dealing mostly in staves and barrel tops for beer barrels, and also once in a while in cord and in other wooden objects, whatever comes with the lumber business. I was very lucky because in that short time, 3,5 years, I was able to repay all the money, while succeeding in providing a free and untroubled home. However, happiness and sadness go hand in hand in this world, and I want to let you know that something very sad happened to us. First about 7 tons of hay burnt in my marsh land (marsh is a big area of grassland where you make hay). How and why the fire started, I don't know (1 ton is 200 bushels). After the fire, I became sick for 2 months, and many believed that I had pulmonary tuberculosis. However, with God's will I got through it and now I am, thank God, healthy again. But now, dear brother and sister-in-law, I will tell you about the worst of what happened to me and my wife. We had 3 children, 1 girl and 2 boys. My oldest son Joseph, born on July 21, 1861, got tonsillitis and the disease killed him in 8 days. He died on November 10, 1864. The second son, Michael, born on February 11, 1864, also got this disease and died from it in 14 days. He died 8 days later. The funeral of both boys was on a Sunday. My only daughter, Elisabeth, stayed alive, but even she was so sick a few times in a way that we doubted she would recover. Girls or women are not a big help to us men in this country, because they don't help in the field with the crop or in the grasslands when making hay or using the plough. Men do all that and women do the work in the house. That's all, now you know everything that happened since the last time I wrote to you and how we are doing. Ulrich married two years ago with a friend of my wife's. He lives in Fort Wayne, seat of bishop Johann Heinrich Luers in the state of Indiana. I cannot tell you more about our Ulrich, because he hasn't written to me in a long time. However, from my friends in Fort Wayne I learned that he bought a lot in Fort Wayne to build a house. Whether or not he built one, I don't know. Furthermore, I recently heard that he was drafted because he is an able and valuable person. I also heard that, if he could, he would buy himself out for the price of $150. I escaped the draft and I am therefore free; also Ignatz Wiedenmann was drafted, but he was too old. Now that I am talking about the draft and the army, I will tell you briefly how the situation here is. The whole war is just party-hate and takes thousands of lives. The draft takes over authority and when you are drafted, the provost marshal comes to your home and presents a legal document, that you have to sign. Then you have 10 days to join your regiment. I can't even start to tell you how much corruption is involved. If a man cannot bribe someone else, and he is drafted, he has to leave his wife and children. They then have to fend for themselves. Now, you know everything. I hope you will write to us soon again with more news as to e.g. when the widow of Kaspar Schnepf married, under which conditions that priest sold the land to you, what Kaspar Riedlinger does, how things are with the church music, how the ice rink looks that would go from Donauwoerth to Ulm? We wish you a happy new year and all the best. Also many greetings from my wife and daughter. Live Well! Michael Wiedenman.
In 1870 Michael, 38 year old farmer born in Bavaria, Germany, with $2500 worth of Real Estate and $500 worth of personal property; Francis, 32 year old housekeeper born in New Dunstadt; Mary, 10 year old born in IN; Margaret, 4 year old born in MI; Lizzie, 0 year old born in MI; Anna, 1 year old born in MI; were living in household 8 at New Buffalo, MI.
New Buffalo, Michigan December 1, 1872
Dear Brother and Sister-in-Law. After a long wait I am reaching for the pen to write a few lines, how things are with us. We are-thank the Lord- all healthy what we also hope from you. Your letter of 1866 we have surely received and have from it concluded that at that time you were healthy. Now I will write you our situation. We now have 40 (jauchert?) cultivated land and plant much fruit. Here people plant only wheat, oat and Welshcorn. We have 20 Schaff wheat, 15 oat, 400 metzen Welschcorn, 200 metzen potatoes. We have been plagued the last 4 years with potato bugs. They eat the potato kraut when one doesn't catch them, that creates much work. Also we have harvested 200 Hundredweight hay. Cabbage and other vegetables also. As for animals, we have 3 horses, 10 cows, 8 sheep, 14 pigs, 1 oxen. 5 pigs we have already slaughtered. We also have 3 bee hives. They bring in more here than they do in Germany. An old one brings 2 to 3 young ones and also 15 to 20 pounds honey more than the winter feed. Our brother Ulrich is still in Fort Wayne. I and my wife visited them in the fall. My wife's siblings live there too. Her mother died on July 29th and the father has been dead 4 years. Ulrich works in a machine shop. He cleans locomotives. He does pretty well. He has his own house. Also renters. He gets 5 Thaler rent per month. Next summer he wants to build another house to rent out. His family is small, he has only one boy, 8 years old, named Joseph. All the other have died, 2 or 3, I don't know. Ulrich is still a bird lover like former. He has 35 canaries. Now I will tell you something about me. My family consists of 4 girls and one little boy, 2 years old, named Joseph. My oldest daughter is 13 years old. I have a nice big house, a good fruit orchard, over 150 apple trees, 100 peach trees. They are just 3 years old and are just beginning to bear fruit. Also I have built a new barn this summer. It is 42 feet long and 32 feet wide. It cost me 400 Thaler if I would have had to buy all the wood myself but I had most of it cut myself as there is a sawmill not far from here. The carpenter work cost 100 Thaler so they finished the building. Dear Brother when your children- your big daughter, sometimes get the desire to go to America, don't object because in America a girl can get a good home and a man can also strive to get a good home which is not so easy in Germany, also the food is very good. Write to me soon, again something from every body, the relatives, and neighbors, and acquaintences. A big long letter, not an empty paper. I close my letter. Many greetings from me and my whole family to all of you and to our friends, relatives, neighbors and acquaintences. Respectfully Michael Wiedenmann
New Buffalo, Michigan March 16, 1876
Dear Brother and Sister In Law. I reach for the pen to write a few lines that we still-Thank the Lord-are all healthy which we also hope of you. We have also written to you two years ago and have not received an answer. I do not know if you did not receive the letter or if you are not alive anymore or you have forgotten us which we hope not. There are now very bad times in America, business (*or stores*) (*or trade*) stopped the whole winter. There is no work nor income for the poor people. There is enough money for the rich they have it laying in stacks, to be said in one word there is no "Handel and no Wandel" (*a German saying, meaning "no trade going on"). This is very bad for the people who are in debt they don't know how to get out of it. I thank God I owe nothing. When spring comes maybe it gets better. In May the Worlds Fair will begin in the city of Philadelphia as we have read in the newspaper, it will be beautiful and great. Ten million dollars worth of raw gold will be sent there directly as it comes out of the mine. It will take 15 railcars to take it there. Also many valuables will be taken there. In the fall a new "Landesfuerst" (*First Prince...President*) will be elected by the people. Then maybe things will get better because after an election everything becomes better. I still live on my land (*estate*) as I have told you once before. I have 45 "jauchert" (*land measurement*) cultivated land and 35 jauchert woods. The last whole summer it was too wet and cold so that the fruit did not do very well. The wheat was a little more as half a harvest, the oat was fairly good, potatoes and hay were very good, but the Welshcorn was very bad. What I now own on animals is 3 horses and 11 cows and 20 sheep and 16 pigs, big and small. Also I have a very good fruit orchard, 125 apple trees and 125 peach trees. Many peach trees froze last winter as it was very cold. They do not have plums here. The trees grow well and have many blooms every year but then they get stung by an insect and all the blooms fall off. Grapes are doing very well. We have planted 4 different kinds and they all do well. My family has also increased. I now have 7 children, 1 boy and 6 girls, Maria, Margretha, Anna, Elisabeth, Joseph-Otto, Rosa, Franziska. The oldest is 16 and the youngest 7 months old. That is a sign that I am also getting old soon. When I write again I will send you my children's portraits (*pictures*). Write to me again soon. I would like so much to hear from you. Also write to us how things stand with the religion. As we read every week in the newspaper things are bad with the priests. Under the Prussian regime the bishops and priests get locked up in prison as if they were the worst criminals. They are not allowed to read mass anymore and if they do the police go after them. Many get kicked out of the country. Also Bismark destroys the monestaries and takes their property for himself and gives the property of the churches to the old catholics (*possibly orthodox*) and force the catholics whose churches they have taken away to pay for their debts. That is the doing of the Warminister Bismark, the devil in peoples appearance (*human form*). My brother ulrich is still in Fort Wayne and as much as I know he is healthy and his family consisting of his wife and his son who is not 10 years old. When you write again tell me also about our friends and relatives and my old music friends. Now I will end my writing. I beg you to answer soon. Many greetings from us to all of you. I remain truely your brother, brother in law and uncle. Michael Wiedenmann New Buffalo Berrien County Michigan North America
Dear Cousins, I, and all my siblings, greet you heartily. The letter is full or I would write still more. So I remain your true cousin (*truely your cousin*) Maria Wiedenmann
 On June 10, 1880 Michael Weideman, 47 year old farmer born in Bavaria; Frances, 42 year old housekeeper born in Hessen; Maggie, 15 year old born in MI; Anna, 12 year old born in MI; Elizabeth, 11 year old born in MI; Joseph, 9 year old born in MI; Frances, 7 year old born in MI; Rosa, 5 year old born in MI; Michael, 1 year old born April in MI; were living in farm 127 at New Buffalo, MI. Maggie, Anna, Elizabeth, Joseph, and Frances were attending school.
In 1900 Michael, born Sept 1831 in Germany, 68 year old farmer, married 41 years, immigrated 1854 and owns his own farm free and clear; Frances, born Mar 1838 in Germany, 62 year old, married 41 years, having given birth to 11 children, 9 of whom are still living, immigrated 1855; Michel, born Apr 1880 in MI, 20 year old farm laborer; Gracena, born Nov 1881 in MI, 18 year old; were living in farm 228 at New Buffalo, MI. All could read, write and speak English and neither man had been unemployed during the previous 12 months.
According to Susan Ingerman (December 3, 2001), following trip to Michigan City, IN and New Buffalo, MI: “Behind the Marx grave stones was large tall Weidenman stone
Back of stone says:
Joseph, their son
Jul 21, 1861 - Nov 10, 1864
Michael, their son
Feb. 11, 1864 - Nov. 19, 1864
Behind this large stone are soft white marble markers for each of the babies flanked by their Father and Mother.”
Photos
Family Register
1890
1907

Relevant Family Papers of Joseph Charles Wiedenman:

Children:

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Copyright 2001 Richard Joseph Bucknum