Franz Robrecht - Schwartz Family History

Bühne, GermanySpouse:Anna Maria Lenz 1778-1846Children:Clara 1804-61Johann 1807-36Carolina 1810-73Ignatius 1813-88Anton 1816-1905Joseph 1819-26Elisabeth 1823-73Parents:Franz Leopold Robrecht 1746-1823Catharina Margaretha Hengst 1738-1816Siblings:Christian 1772-77Maria Sophia 1775-1823Eva Maria Elisabeth 1780-81Half-siblings:Clara Catharina Liliendahl 1762Henricus Godfried Liliendahl 1766-66Occupation:TailorJohannes Franciscus Robrecht wasborn 6 November 1777 in Bühne,Germany, and baptized two dayslater at St. Vitus Catholic Church.Franz was the third of four childrenborn to Franciscus LeopoldRobrecht and Catharina MargarethaHengst, who were married in Bühneon 2 January 1772.At Franz’s birth his sister, Sophia,was two years old. Three years latersister Elisabeth was born but onlylived five weeks. Four monthsbefore Franz was born, his fiveyear-old brother, Christian, died.Franz Robrecht1777-1844St. Vitus Catholic Church in Bühne,Germany, where Franz was baptized.Franz also had a half sister, Clara Catharina Liliendahl, who was 15years old at Franz’s birth, and half brother, Godfried Liliendahl, whodied at birth in 1766.Franz’s mother’s first marriage ended with the death of her husband,Fridericus Adolphus Liliendahl, of Bühne.Leopold supported his family as a tailor, a trade passed to his son andgrandsons as a profession, and many more generations as an avocation.© www.historywriter.netChapter Fourteen • Franz Robrecht page 1

The Schwartz Family HistoryFranz Robrecht’s 1777 Baptism record, which also notes his date of death. When a person died in thesame German village where he was born, the church scribe often wrote the death date on the birth record.Franz’s baptism record is found in theBühne, Germany, church parish book.Franz’s great-grandfather, Mauritius,was the first Robrecht whose baptismrecord appeared in the Bühne parishbook. Mauritius’s father, HenricusRobrecht, was born before births wererecorded in Bühne.Three of Franz’s grandparents lived totheir late 70s and early 80s, unusual inthose days, and they were alive whenFranz was born.The 1746 Birth record of Leopold Robrecht,Franz’s father. Also appearing in this record areFranz’s grandfather, Urbanus, and Franz’s greatgrandfather,Mauritz, born in Bühne in 1679.WAR AND REVOLUTIONFranz lived during a time of war andrevolution, both in Europe and in theNew World. The year before his birth,the American Declaration ofIndependence was penned, followedby the American Revolution. Germanmercenaries from Hesse (three milessouth of Bühne) fought on both sides ofthe Revolutionary War.1789 saw the start of the FrenchRevolution in Germany’s neighbor tothe west, where church lands werenationalized. The French clergy, beingidentified with the nobility of the oldregime, became one of the main targetsof the revolutionaries, and many Frenchpriests and and nobles fled to Germanyto escape the guillotine.German princes, nobles, and bishopswanted to see the French Revolutionfail. A powerful alliance of Prussians,Austrians, English, Dutch, and Germanprinces, along with deposed Frenchnobles wanted to re-install the FrenchRoyalty and the old order. Theirattempts failed.Bühne survived one ofGermany’s mostdevastating militaryconflicts – the SevenYears War (1756-63).When Franz’s parentswere children the areaaround Bühne wasdevastated by foreignarmies. Neighboringvillages, as close as twomiles away, werepillaged and occupiedby opposing forces.During the Seven YearsWar, armies did nottravel with supplywagons; they survivedby pillaging food andsupplies along the way.Hungry, maraudingsoldiers and horses, inaddition to militarybattles, erased entirevillages from the map.Those that survivedendured indescribablehardships.© www.historywriter.netChapter Fourteen • Franz Robrecht page 2

The Schwartz Family HistoryGermany returned tohome rule afterNapoleon’s defeat andretreat back to Francein 1815. Bühneescaped the ravages ofthe Napoleonic Warsbecause this part ofGermany was used asa staging area ratherthan a battlefield.News of these revolutions electrified theGerman people, whose feudal society hadchanged little over the last 700 years. The1810s, 20s, and 30s saw several politicaluprisings urging civil reforms and ademocratic constitution. These uprisingswere put down and the revolutionaryleaders were forced to flee abroad, manynever returned.At the start of the Napoleonic Wars in1806, Franz Robrecht and his wife werethe parents of one child. After defeatingthe Prussian (German) Army, Napoleon’stroops occupied Germany for seven years.When Napoleon was defeated and hisarmies driven from Germany in 1815,Franz and Anna’s family had grown tofour children with another due.Franz and Anna Maria lived with herparents in the Lenz farm house and that’swhere Franz and Anna Maria’s sevenchildren were born. Anna Maria’s sister,Eva, and her husband, Bernard Wagener,and their six children also lived in theLenz farm house, which was located onthe outskirts of Bühne.Anna Maria and her sister and brotherwere raised on the Lenz farm, indicated by1787 tax records. In 1787 the County(Bishopric) of Paderborn, where Bühne islocated, levied a head tax to financerebuilding after the horribly destructiveSeven Years War (1756-63).A tailor’s workshop isshown in this 1570 Germanwoodcut. Although Franzand Leopold Robrechtworked as tailors 220 yearsafter this woodcut wasmade, their work was donein much the same way.MARRIAGE AND CHILDRENFranz Robrecht was 25 years old when hemarried Anna Maria Lenz in Bühne on4 May 1803. Anna Maria celebrated her25th birthday eight days after theirwedding. Most of Anna Maria’s ancestorsare also found in Bühne’s earliest parishrecords dating to1658.This old farm house was located down the street from where Franz Robrechtand his family lived in 1831. In German villages the family living area and thebarn were under one roof. This building was torn down in 1977.© www.historywriter.netChapter Fourteen • Franz Robrecht page 3

The Schwartz Family HistoryGeorg Lenz died of cancer in 1805 andGeorg’s wife, Eva Maria Weber, died inthe farm house in 1809.A year after their marriage, Franz andAnna’s first child, Clara, was born in1804 followed by Johannes three yearslater. 1810 and 1813 brought Carolinaand Ignatz. Anton was born in 1816,and two months later Franz’s motherdied at age 78.Franz’s youngest son, Joseph, was bornin 1819. When Elisabeth Robrecht, ourancestor, was born in 1823, her sisterswere 18 and 12 years old and herbrothers were 15, 9, 6, and 3 years old.Three weeks after Elisabeth’s birth,Franz’s sister, Sophia, died. Sophia wasmarried to the Bühne villagepoliceman, Christoph Rasche, and theyhad eight children. Franz’s father alsodied in 1823 at age 77.According to 1831 tax records, theFranz Robrecht family moved from thefarmhouse to the main part of thevillage, probably around 1829. Thehouse they moved to was owned byConrad Deventer, the husband of FranzRobrecht’s oldest child, Clara. (See themap on page 3, in the ElisabethRobrecht biography, chapter seven.)Franz Robrecht died of pneumonia inBühne, Germany, on 21 December1844 at age 67. He was buried two dayslater in the Bühne church cemeterywhere his wife, Anna Maria, joined himin death two years later at age 68.Bühne Cemetery where Franz Robrecht and Anna Maria Lenz were buried in 1844and 1846. Unlike purchased burial plots, German grave sites are leased, usuallyfor a few decades, and then the graves are removed (to an ossuary) to make roomfor new burials.Franz lived to see 10 of his 38grandchildren, of whom only threelived out their adult lives in Germany.Of Franz and Anna Maria Robrecht’sseven children, three remained inGermany and four emigrated to theUnited States. Those who stayed inGermany were:Clara (born 1803) married ConradDevender in Bühne in 1828 and theyhad seven children. Clara died in Bühneat age 56. Two of her children died inchildhood, three remained in Germany,and two sailed to America and settledin Newark, NJ.Johann (born 1807) died oftuberculosis at age 29, unmarried. Likehis forefathers, Johann was a tailor.Joseph (born 1819) died of a fever atage five.© www.historywriter.netChapter Fourteen • Franz Robrecht page 4

The Schwartz Family HistoryFRANZ’S EMIGRANT CHILDRENFour of Franz Robrecht’s seven childrenimmigrated to the United States between1848 and 1859 and they all settled in the“Germantown” neighborhood of Newark,NJ. This thriving German immigrantcommunity made up one third of Newark’spopulation by the 1860s.Carolina (born 1810) married WilliamTemme in 1845 in Bühne. Their first childwas born in Bühne, Germany, in 1849 andtheir second child came in 1853 after theyarrived in the United States. WilliamTemme worked as a laborer in Germanyand in Newark.In 1836, before her marriage to WilliamTemme, Carolina gave birth to Charles,whose father was not named. Children likeCharles, born out of wedlock, were oftentreated poorly and everyone in the villageknew who they were. These children werebaptized with their mother’s last name andThose who had little money could stay in mass accommodations, such as thisseaport emigrant hostel, while waiting to board ship. Others camped out docksidein covered wagons and tents. Steerage conditions aboard ship were similar tothose in the emigrant hostels; families were accommodated in large rooms thatoffered primitive, unsanitary living conditions and passengers slept three to awooden bunk. Atlantic crossings took seven weeks in the 1850s, and passengersmade themselves at home as much as possible and passed time with cardplaying and music.labeled “Illegitimus” in church parishrecord books (kirchenbücher).On-board medical carewas poor and theaverage mortality ratewas 1.8 percent duringthe 1850s on shipssailing from Hamburg.If an infectious diseasebroke out on the voyage,the number of dead couldclimb to 20 percent.Castle Garden, through which all steerage passengers were required to pass, was located on thetip of Manhattan Island. Carolina, Ignatz, and Anton passed through Castle Garden when theyarrived in America in the late 1850s. Castle Garden operated from 1855 to 1892 when its functionwas replaced by Ellis Island. 1870 woodcarving.© www.historywriter.netChapter Fourteen • Franz Robrecht page 5

The Schwartz Family HistoryYoung Charles was almost nine years oldwhen his 34 year-old mother marriedWilliam Temme. Three years later, in mid1848, 11 year-old Charles sailed to Americawith his 24 year-old aunt, our ancestorElisabeth Robrecht. Charles’s mother,stepfather, and half siblings arrived inNewark several years later. Carolina diedin Newark in 1873.Ignatz (born 1813) married Amalia Wiegersin 1842 in the neighboring village ofBeverungen, Germany, where they had ninechildren, four of whom died in childhood inGermany. Ignatz and his oldest son sailed toAmerica in 1857 with Ignatz’s brother,Anton, and his son. Ignatz’s wife, Amalia,sailed to America two years later with theirfour surviving children and Anton’sdaughter. Ignatz operated a shoemakingbusiness in Newark from 1858 to 1888, theyear of his death.Anton (born 1816) married Marianna Ewaldin Bühne in 1847. They had four childrenbefore Marianna died at age 35, shortly afterthe 1856 death of her infant daughter. InMarch 1857, Anton and his son sailed toAmerica on the Brig Jeverland with IgnatzRobrecht and his son.Letters writtenfrom immigrantsto their relativesin Germanywere read withgreat interestand oftenshared with theentire village.St. Mary’s (left) and St. Peter’s German Catholic Churches in Newark wherethe Robrecht immigrants worshiped, married, and baptized their children.Anton’s two surviving daughters joined himlater in Newark, one crossing the Atlanticwith Amalia Robrecht, Ignatz’s wife, andtheir four children in 1859 on the ShipGöschen that sailed from Bremen, Germany,150 miles north of Bühne.In 1859 Anton married Apollonia Bachmannin Newark where they raised Anton’s threechildren from his first marriage in addition toeight of their own, born between 1859 and1875. Anton was in business as a tailor from1861 to 1904 in Newark’s Germantownneighborhood where he died in 1905.Elisabeth our ancestor (born 1823) sailed toAmerica mid 1848 with her 11 year-oldnephew, Charles Robrecht, who was hersister Carolina’s son. Elisabeth claimed to beCharles’s mother in their emigration record.Shortly after her arrival in the U.S.,Elisabeth married William Mönighoff inNew York, where their first two childrenwere born. Elisabeth and William had fivemore children after they moved to Newark in1850. William Mönighoff, born just 13 milesfrom Bühne, operated a grocery store in“Germantown” Newark from 1851 to 1892,the year of his death. Elisabeth died in 1873.See Elisabeth’s biography, chapter seven.© www.historywriter.netChapter Fourteen • Franz Robrecht page 6

The Schwartz Family HistoryCharles, who left Germany with ourancestor, Elisabeth Robrecht, marriedMargaretha Fruend in Newark in 1860.Widower Charles later married Anna MariaHuber. They raised their nine children, oneof whom may have been from Charles’s firstmarriage. According to the 1900 census,Anna Maria gave birth to twelve children,indicating she was a widowed mother ofthree when she married Charles. Charles andhis large family lived in “Germantown”Newark where he worked as an iron molder.Elisabeth’s brothers, Ignatz and AntonRobrecht, initially ran their businesses out ofthe Mönighoff Grocery store after theirarrival in Newark. They later moved theirgrowing shops to other locations within theneighborhood. William Temme, Carolina’shusband, also listed the grocery storeaddress as his business location.St. Mary’s, St. Peter’s, and St. Augustine’schurch parish books in Newark, NJ, tell astory of a close-knit immigrant family,worshiping together and serving asgodparents and witnesses at baptisms andmarriages for five decades in the largeextended Robrecht family.The following article, printed in Harper’sMagazine in October 1876, describesNewark’s “Germantown” Community.We find an interesting picture ofGerman life in Newark.A wondrous tide of Germans has floodedNewark, dropping into all vacant lots andspreading itself over the flats to the eastand the hills to the south and west, untilit numbers one-third of the votingpopulation. The German quarter on thehill is one of the interesting features ofthe city. A section nearly two milessquare is a snug, compact, well-pavedcity within a city, giving evidence ofneither poverty nor riches.The Germans who dwell here are chieflyemployed in factories and nearly all owntheir own houses. They live economicallyand save money. German habits andGerman customs appear on every side.The women carry heavy bundles, greatbaskets, and sometimes barrels on theirheads. Wherever there is room theGermans have gardens and raisevegetables for Newark Market. At earlymorning the women may be seen drivingtheir one-horse wagons into town.In 1833 there were 75 known Germansliving in Newark and by 1835 thenumber was 300, probably hearing of theplace by letters home.Several Robrecht gravesites arepictured in this photo taken at St.Mary’s German Catholic Cemeteryin Newark where Ignatz, Anton, andElisabeth are buried along with theirspouses and many of their childrenand grandchildren.© www.historywriter.netChapter Fourteen • Franz Robrecht page 7