German-Catholic Ancestors Pursue the American Dream
In a previous post we met Johannes (John) and Maria Anna (Weiler) Ochs (Mary Ann), my wife Jean’s 3rd great grandparents, and the progenitors of her extensive Illinois relations. Numerous genealogies compiled over the years attest to thousands of descendants.
Baptismal Records
John and Mary Ann were born in the early 19th century, each in close proximity to the Rhine River, eight years and 80 miles apart. Their families were farmers, and after some speculation that John’s parents Valentine and Elisabeth could have been Lutheran or Jewish, we can confirm that both families were Roman Catholic. We have digital images of both Valentine Ochs‘ 1782 baptismal record, and that of John in 1816.
John’s baptismal record reads roughly: “1816 – This 23rd of May the birth and regeneration of Joannes Ochs, son of Joannes Valentini Ochs farmer and Elisabetha Muller married in Rheinhaim. Godparents Joanne Gottwallis married farmer in Rhein heim and Maria Catharina Muller wife of Nicolai Hoffman farmer in Seelbach which in faith in God I sign…”
Peasant Farmers
One history describes what the Ochs and Weiler families were likely facing: “The situation in Germany worsened when the start of industrialisation caused the population to grow dramatically. In the mid-19th century, around three quarters of farmers did not have enough land to make a living, hence they began migrating in huge numbers from 1816 – the start of official German mass emigration to the USA. The opportunities seemed too good to be true: A peasant farmer who had to survive on half a hectare of land in Germany could acquire 64 hectares after just ten years in the United States.“1
Educated Assumptions
Family history is the science of taking documented facts and from them making educated assumptions. Based on the baptismal record, we know the names of John’s parents, though his mother Elisabeth is given the maiden name Muller, not Wack as written in our family genealogies and online family trees. They were reportedly married in 1803 (or 1805) when Valentine was 23 and Elisabeth was 23 (or 18). The unpublished Ochs family history2 numbers their children as six: Barbara, John, Jakob, Elisabeth, Katharina, and an unnamed sixth. Online trees list only five including Barbara, said to have died shortly after she was born in 1807, followed by a nine year gap until the birth of John, the Illinois patriarch.
In an 1828 ship’s manifest (below), the parents are both 46-years old, exactly corresponding to our Valentine and Elisabeth. Their last name seems to be spelled “Ouss,” which can be explained by the ship’s presumed American crewman writing it as he heard it spoken, with a heavy German accent. They are accompanied by seven children, however, four boys and three girls whose names somewhat mirror but do not exactly match those we thought we knew: Paul (age 14), John, Ann Maria, Elizabeth, Peter, Nicolae, and Alice. Curiously, John is listed as 9-years old, though his baptismal record indicates he would have been 12. This inaccuracy, the children’s names, and the spelling Ouss made me doubt for a time that this was the right family. I am now convinced that it is.
The 1830 U.S. Census agrees with the ship’s manifest. It lists head of household Valentine Ochs (age 40-50) with check marks indicating the gender and approximate ages of others living in the home. Males: One age 10-15 (John); two age 5-10 (Peter and Nicolae). Females: One age 40-50 (Elisabeth); one age 10-15 (Ann Maria); one age 5-10 (Elizabeth); one under age 5 (Alice). Where is Paul? He is nearby, perhaps working as an apprentice to another farmer. We’ll revisit this in a later post.
Sailing to the New World
The Ochs and Weiler families separately sailed to the United States. The Ochs journeyed about 430 miles overland from their home near Darmstadt to Havre, a port city on the English Channel. There they boarded Superb, a three-masted sailing ship owned by a renowned Philadelphia shipbuilder who had his own wharf.
“A native of Bordeaux, Stephen Girard, who came to Philadelphia in 1777, had only one vessel in 1790, the little brigantine Kitty, of less than a hundred tons. His first large ship was the Good Friend which registered 247 tons and was built in Philadelphia in 1793…. In 1801 he had the Rousseau built.… She outlasted all the other Girard ships, ending her days as a New Bedford whaler. One hot summer day in 1893 I sat on the stringpiece of a New Bedford wharf and watched the ship-breakers taking her to pieces. At noon one of them came up and sat down beside me to eat his lunch. He said that it was the slowest job of the kind he had ever tackled–that her live oak timbers were as sound as the day the Philadelphia ship carpenters drift-bolted them together, more than 90 years before. Altogether, Girard owned 14 ships. His largest vessel [was] the Superb of 537 tons, built in 1817.3
It is about 4,000 nautical miles from Havre to Philadelphia, and their ocean journey took 47 days. Within 15 years, steamships would regularly make trans-Atlantic crossings in days rather than several weeks. Family histories state that Illinois matriarch Mary Ann Weiler, her parents, and her five siblings similarly arrived in New York in 1832.
Stark County, Ohio
By the time of the 1830 U.S. Census mentioned above, Valentine, Elisabeth, and their six children are living in the Township of Paris in Stark County, Ohio, about 12 miles east of Canton. The family made a 400-mile overland journey from their port of entry, though some rivers, canals, or even rail could have been involved. Their chosen region boasted at least one German-language newspaper. There they farmed among other pioneers and immigrants, and socialized and worshiped with other German-Catholic families including the Weilers, who by 1833 had settled into a nearby township. A small Catholic mission church was located in the neighboring village of Louisville as early as 1824. “In 1838 it became an established parish, and Reverend Matthias Wuretz became the resident pastor. The new parish consisted of 72 families; forty were French, 20 were German and 12 were Irish.” 4 Mary Ann Weiler’s two older brothers were about the same age as John Ochs, all three by 1835 doubtless taking on many of the responsibilities of their fathers.
1 “America’s German Roots” by Klaus Lüber, https://www.deutschland.de/en/usa/us-immigration-americas-german-roots accessed February 2024
2 “Family Tree of the Ochs Family,” Dr. A.D. Schneider and Simon Ochs (1938, 1952), “Descendants of Anthony and Clara Ochs Family,” Catherine “Dolly” (Ochs) Koelker, Norma Kocher, Kathy Ochs, Anna (Ochs) Reinhart, Carol Reinhart (1978), “Life in Stringtown,” John and Susan Ochs, Norma Kocher (2013)
3 Queens Of The Western Ocean, The Story Of American’s Mail And Passenger Sailing Lines by Carl C. Cutler, 1961 U.S. Naval Institute. Quote accessed from https://maritimeheritage.org/captains/Stephen-Girard.html February 2024.
4 “History of St. Louis Catholic Parish” https://www.saintlouiscc.org/History-of-St–Louis-Parish accessed February 2024
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