Eva Catharina was the mother of Henriette, J. Andrew Carl, Amelia, and Edmund Henry Linsenbardt and, as far as is now known, along with her husband Johann Andreas Linsenbarth, was one of the oldest Linsenbardts to set foot in America. She was born March 31, 1797 in Thüringen.
According to Church records from Schillingstädt she was married to Johann Andreas Linsenbarth on October 7, 1821 in Schillingstädt, Thüringen. There was no sermon during the marriage ceremony so it is likely that the couple was not well to do financially. Eva Catharina’s name before she married Johann Andreas was Eva Catharina Pösselin. According to Hans Linsenbarth of Germany the ending “in” was added to the last name of a female, so her family name was Pössel. Also according to Hans, there were at the time many people by the name Pössel in that area, the last dying only recently.
Church records from Schillingstadt show little else about the family of Eva Catharina and Johann. The only other pieces of information found are the birth and death of a son Johann Caspar Linsenbarth in 1824, his death in 1825, and the birth of Johann Carl Andreas Linsenbarth (J. Andrew Carl Linsenbardt) in 1825.
Hans Linsenbarth feels that the reason for the lack of recorded information on the family is due to the fact that the family was poor and moved quite a bit. The reason they moved around a lot was probably so that Johann the father could find employment. He was a wagon maker as were many of the Linsenbarths at that time.
The tombstone of Henrietta, Eva’s oldest child, reads that she was born in Weimar, Saxony, on September 15, 1823.
The first mention of the family in America occurs in passenger lists of ships arriving in New Orleans that show that Eva Catharina arrived on the ship Herschel with her husband and four children in America on December 31, 1847. No record of her husband is found after that. It is not known when or where Johann Andreas the father died.
The passenger lists show that the Linsenbarths planned to travel to Missouri, but it is not indicated where in Missouri. The fact that other passengers listed show St. Louis as a destination rather than just Missouri would seem to imply that the Linsenbarths final destination was not St. Louis.
The 1850 Cole County census shows Eva as being 55 and living with Charles Lohman. And the 1880 census shows her as living with her grandson Charles W. Lohman, the son of Charles F. Lohman. Apparently, she lived with her oldest daughter and the oldest daughter’s children while in the US.
She died in 1881 at the age of 84 years 7-1/2 months. Her death occurred on the evening of Wednesday, November 16, 4 minutes after having been bitten by the dog of J. Andrew Carl after entering his yard on the way from her grandson Charles W. Lohman’s to her son J. Andrew Carl’s. In the newspaper article describing her death the name is spelled Linsenbard and the address of J. Andrew Carl, Charles W. Lohman, and St. Paul’s Church is given as Stringtown. As Lohman was founded in 1882.
Eva was buried in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Cemetery.