MITTGE FAMILY HISTORY
By Kevin K. Mittge
It is not known where the Mittge family originated. There is some indication that the Mittges are descendants of French Huguenots who fled France during the 17th and 18th centuries.* Following the devastating religious wars of the 16th century the Edict of Nantes was pronounced in France, guaranteeing religious tolerance. When the Edict was revoked in 1685 by King Louis XIV religious repression against Protestants began anew. In addition to the many Huguenots who fled to America, England, Holland, and Switzerland at this time, many fled east to Germany, invited by the Electors of Brandenburg to colonize and strengthen their Protestant state. One Huguenot settlement was the Walloon parish of Hammelspring, founded in 1701, one of several small towns and villages where the Mittges lived and worked. In 1721 Hammelspring became part of the German-Reformed parish of Zehdenick. The language changed from French to German only in 1801 and 1802 in the church records.
Family records of descendants in Germany list our earliest known Mittge ancestor as Friedrich Heinrich Mittge (born about 1797) and his wife Henne Fischer (also born about 1797). Friedrich and Henne were the parents, in turn, of a Friedrich Heinrich Mittge, born on 8 September 1815 in Templin, Brandenburg. This Friedrich was married to Luise Karolina Stagen, a daughter of Daniel Christopf Stagen and Johanna Ulrika Timm, on 24 July 1840 in Hammelspring.
The younger Friedrich Mittge was a mill owner and commission agent. He and Luise were the parents of at least five children: Mathilde, Karl (later Carl or Charles), Rudolf, Marie, and Editha. Friedrich died on 6 July 1896 and Luise died on 9 June 1892.
The Mittge family resided in and near the city of Templin in Brandenburg Province of the Kingdom of Prussia. The smaller nearby settlements they lived in included Hammelspring, Storkow, and Grünewald. Other members of the family lived in Kurtschlag and Zehdenick and in the area of Warthe, Metzelthin, and Herzfelde, to the north of Templin.
The eldest daughter of Friedrich and Luise was Mathilde, born in 1840 in Hammelspring. She was married to Christian Friedrich ("Fritz") Giegler, who was born in 1828 in Herzfelde. The Gieglers lived in the small town of Kurtschlag at least until 1881, when their youngest son Carl, was born in Berlin. Fritz died in Pritzwalk in 1888.
Mathilde and Fritz Giegler had nine children: Otto, Emil, Paul Hugo (who died as a small child), his unnamed twin sister (who also died in infancy), Friedrich ("Fritz"), Adolf, Hermann, Sigmund, and Paul Carl. All of the children were born in Kurtschlag except for the youngest son who was reportedly born in Berlin. It is known that Otto worked as a blacksmith in Germany. Mathilde (Mittge) Giegler emigrated to the United States in 1903, arriving at Ellis Island, New York, on 19 September 1903, with her son Carl. The ship they sailed on was the Auguste Victoria, which came from Cuxhaven and Hamburg, Germany, to New York. Son Fritz followed, arriving in New York on April 24, 1909, having come on The Pennsylvania from Cuxhaven, Germany. Son Otto Gielger came to America with his family, wife Martha and children Ernst, Magdalena, Erich, and Harry, arriving on July 1909, from Hamburg, on the Cincinnati. When son Hermann arrived is not known.
Carl Mittge, whose full name was Karl Friedrich Albert Mittge, but who is also sometimes listed in records as Charles, followed his father's footsteps as a (flour) miller and he was also a cabinet maker. When he married in 1868 he is listed on the marriage record as a "miller's apprentice." The story is told of how once Carl built a mill for someone else. He spent three or four days in the woods marking the selected trees for cutting and indicating how each log would be used, after cutting the trees he dug up all the stumps, cleared up all the loose wood (which was then distributed between local landholders), and finally even the needles were swept up. Carl also reportedly served in the Prussian Army (by one account as a swimming instructor) where he participated in three wars: the Danish War (1864), the Austrian War (1866), and the Franco-Prussian War (1871).
The woman Carl married, Wilhelmina Karolina Henrietta Kleinfeld, was the daughter of Wilhelm Friedrich ("Fritz") Kleinfeld and Lotta Schneider. Fritz Kleinfeld was a bricklayer and had also served in the Prussian military.
The marriage record of Carl and Wilhelmina reads in German as follows:
Von der unterzeichneten Köninglichen Kreisgerichts Commission wird heirmit bescheinigt, daß nachdem der Mullergefalle Karl Friedrich Albert Mittge zu Storkow und die Maurergesellen Friedrich Kleinfeld zu Grünewald in der Verhandlung vom 20ten November 1868 erflärt haben, eiene ebeliche Verbindung mit einander zu wollen, daß Ausgebot verselben aus Grund bes § 5 der Verordnung vom 30. Marz 1847 - § 12 des Gesebes vom 23. Juli 1847 - durch eine...
...an der hiesigen Gerichstelle und an dorfgerichtstelle zu Storkow und Grünewald in der Zeit vom 31ten December 1868 bis 14 Januar 1869 un zum 2 January 1869 bis zum 17ten January 1869.This translates loosely as follows:
From the undersigned imperial circuit courts commission it is hereby acknowledged that miller's apprentice Karl Friedrich Albert Mittge of Storkow and the unmarried Karolina Wilhelmine Henrietta Kleinfeld daughter of bricklayer Friedrich Kleinfeld of Grünewald have undertaken on the 20th of November 1858 to enter into a marriage contract with each other on the basis of § 5, ordinance of 30th of March 1847, § 12 of the law of 23 July 1847 through....
...having declared at the local village court of Storkow and Grünewald during the time from 31st Dec. 1868 until 4 January 1869 and from 2 January 1869 until 17 January 1869.Carl and Wilhelmina Mittge had four children: Carl (who died in infancy), Lecian ("Lee"), Carl Frederick, and Rudolph Paul. The parents did not want their sons drafted into the military and that was one of the reasons they emigrated in 1887. Another reason for emigration was that the Mittges were supposedly Baptists in a nation controlled by a state church. The local Lutheran pastor was an employee of the state. Being "non-conformists" meant constant bureaucratic problems. For example, if a person died it could take a week to get a permit for burial and then the funeral party had to use certain roads to the cemetery and at certain times of the day. How this religious faith relates to their possible French Huguenot background is not clear.
Carl and his family arrived in New York City on July 1, 1887, having left Bremen, Germany, with a stop in Southampton, England. They traveled on the ship, Ems, pictured at the top of this page. They did not come through Ellis Island which was not in existence yet as an immigration center, but rather through Castle Garden, it's predecessor. A Charles V. Mittge is listed in the 1890 New York City directory as being employed at "composition" at 382 E. 10th. Carl Mittge is listed as carpenter in the 1890, 1891, and 1892 Evansville, Indiana, directories (the latter year he is listed as Charles F. A. Mittge). Later the family moved to Lebanon, Laclede Co., Missouri, where Carl died in 1918.
The second son of Friedrich and Luise was Rudolf Mittge. Rudolf was born in 1846 in Templin and was married to Auguste Amalie Groß. They had five children: Johannes, Hermann, Adolf, Rudolf, and Walter. Adolf Mittge came to America according to Ellis Island records. He arrived on 1 August 1892 from Bremerhaven and Bremen, Germany, travelling on the Weimar. When and why he returned to Germany is not known. However, he died as a soldier in the German Army during World War I, and is buried at Mons-en-Laonnois War Cemetery in France. His two younger brothers, Rudolf and Adolf, are said to have died in the First World War also. Rudolf's family did not emigrate and he has descendants in Berlin to the present day.
Marie Mittge was born in 1859 in Storkow and was married about 1884 to Johannes Bartsch. Marie and Johannes had two children in Germany, Martha and Richard, before Johannes died in 1888. Four years later Marie was married to Herman Krieger and had a third child, Otto. Herman and Marie Krieger and their children emigrated to the United States in 1903.
Of a last child of Friedrich and Luise, Editha Mittge, nothing is known.
Sources
*Unless otherwise noted, all information is from oral interviews with the late Carl Mittge of Rochester, WA; Irma (Giegler) Koch of Forest Park, IL; the late Werner Mittge of Berlin, Germany; and Rainer Wolf of Berlin, Germany.