Brief History of the Family Linsenbardt in the United States

All Linsenbardts and Linsenbards now known of in the United States originated in the region of Germany known as Thuringia (Thüringen).  This region lies between the Thuringia Forest (mountains) on the south and the Hartz Mountains on the north and contains the cities of Eisenach, Erfurt, and Weimar.

They can be traced back to Johann Andreas Linsenbarth and his wife Eva Catharina whose maiden name was Pösselin (The “in” ending denotes a female).  In Thuringia the name is spelled Linsenbarth but it is pronounciation is the same as Linsenbardt in the United States since in the German language, the th is pronounced t.  This pronounciation can also occurs in the German surnames Raithel and Theoroff, which are correctly pronounced Ri-tel and Teir-off.

According to church records, Johann Andreas, born in 1799, and Eva Katharina, born March 31, 1797, were married at the Evengelical (Lutheran) church in the village of Schillingstädt, Thüringen, on October 7, 1821, in a simple service without sermon or music.  According to Hans Linsenbarth of Germany, this indicates that they were poor.  Also according to Hans they had a total of seven children but, of these, only four survived.  The surviving children were from oldest to youngest,

• Henrietta Dorothea Linsenbarth
• John Carl Andreas Linsenbarth
• Amelia Charlotte Linsenbarth
• Edmund Henry Linsenbarth

Hans Linsenbarth has done considerable reseach on these Linsenbarth’s in Thuringian church records and says  that  the family appeared to have moved a number of times since their family records are in churches scattered in several villages.  The record of John Carl Andreas’ baptism is found in the Schillingstädt church records, Henrietta’s gravestone gives her birthplace as Weimar, Saxony.

In 1847 this family of six Thüringen  Linsenbarth’s left Thüringen, traveled to the port of Bremen, borded the Haub Ship Hershel and set sail to New Orleans.  The ship was commanded by Weinhala (Weinhata) and carried about 237 passengers (The ship records are hard to read.).  The ship arrived in New Orleans on December 31, 1847.  Of the 237 passengers, only one died on the voyage. and it was not one of the six Linsenbarths. Those who died on the voyage were marked on the arrival records and none of the six Linsenbarth’s names were marked.

Information given in the ships passenger lists about the Linsenbarths who arrived is given below.

NAME                    AGE        SEX     OCCUP’N    (1)      (2)

Andreas   Lindenbarn       48         male   Wagner  Prussia  Missouri

Catharina Lindenbarn       51         female       –         ”           ”

Dorothea  Lindenbarn       24         female       –         ”           ”

Carl Lindenbarn                 22          male         –         ”           ”

Charlotte Lindenbarn        19         female       –         ”           ”

Edmund Lindenbarn          12         male          –         ”           ”

(1) Country to which they belong

(2) Country to which they intend to reside eventually

As the ships records show, as soon as they arrived in America, the written spelling of the name Linsenbarth began to take on various spellings especially in endings.  This led to it changing from “th” to “d” which apparently lasted into the late 1800’s when, as the story told by Gustav Linsenbardt goes, a pastor at St. Paul’s told them that the ending  should be changed to to “dt”.  Which it remains the spelling of the name in Missouri to this day.

The passengers of the Haub Ship Herschel were listed in three catagories, those in cabins, those in “houses on deck”, and those below deck.  Only 1 person was listed as being in a cabin, 37 were in “houses on deck” and the remainder approximately 199 were below deck.  The Linsenbarth family was listed in the “houses on deck” category.  This was probably not the lowest cost passage and is inconsistent with the fact that they appeared to be poor when in Thuringia.

It is not know why  the Linsenbarth family left Germany.  During this time after the Napoleonic Wars Germany was a confederation of 39 independent states.  Of these Prussia was becoming the most powerful absorbing most of Saxony which is north and east of Thuringia and forming the Zollverein (Customs Union) with other German states.  In these early years of the 1800’s Germany was less advanced than the other countries of Western Europe and most of the people still existed by farming.  All of the states were ruled by  the nobility and each state had its own flag, army, and taxes.

Factors that could have contributed to the emigration of the family were:

• Increases in mass-production and the use of machines that caused increasing unemployment.
• Political changes that were expected to come about did not materialize.
• The government itself began encouraging emigration.
• Cheaper and more convenient means of transportation came about with the expansion of the railway system throughout Germany.
• The last and most probable reason for the emigration was that beginning in 1844, and continuing through the late 1840’s and early 1850’s, harvests were poor in Germany and many people were hungry and out of work.

This last reason is probably what led the Linsenbarth Family to emmigrate late in 1847.  Others who did not emmigrate showed their dissatisfaction with the conditions in revolts which broke out the next year throughout Germany.

As the passenger list  shows the family intended to settle in Missouri.  It is not known why they chose Missouri they may have been influenced by an earlier emmigration of Lutherans from Saxony in 1839.  These immigrants led by Rev.  Gotthold Heinrich Loeber settled in Perry County, Missouri.  Or, they could have read one of the books  written  by  earlier  German settlers such as Gottfried Duden.

Duden’s reports of life in Missouri published in Germany in 1829 presented glowing reports of the region.  Unfortunately these reports were based on extremely mild Missouri weather that Duden had experienced in his three years of living in Warren County Missouri.

The ship’s passenger list presented above gives Andreas’s occupation as a Wagner or wagon maker.  Many of the Linsenbarth’s in Thuringia during this time were also wagon makers.  This is shown on the Family Chronicle of Hans Linsenbarth. Linsenbarths appeared to have generally been wagon makers or blacksmiths.

After arriving in New Orleans, the six Linsenbarths traveled to St. Louis probably by boat up the Mississippi River but this has not been shown..

In St. Louis, Henrietta the oldest daughter, and Charles F. Lohman were married on March 7, 1848.  The couple apparently stayed in St. Louis for some time since their first son  Charles W. Lohman was born in St. Louis on December 1, 1848.  While Henrietta and Charles Lohman remained in St. Louis, the other five, or at least Amelia moved to Cole County since Cole County records indicate that Amelia Linsenbarth married Charles  B. Maus in Cole County on August 3, 1848, and on July 22, 1849, Charles Linsenbardt marries Elizabeth Margareta Popp also in Cole County.

Later, Charles Lohman and Henrietta also moved to Cole county, sometime between December 1, 1848 and the time the 1850 U.S. Census was taken since the 1850 U.S. Census lists all of  the six Linsenbarths except the father Andreas as living  in  Cole County.  Apparently Andreas died sometime between their December 31, 1847 arrival in New Orleans and the 1850 U.S. Census.  Another possibility is that he left the family and moved off.  What happened to him and where he is buried is not known.  He is not listed in any of the four volumes of St. Louis Cemetary Indexes or in any Cole County Cemetery Index.  He has not been located in the death records of Trinity Lutheran Church or Holy Cross Evangelical Church in St. Louis.

History shows that Asiatic cholera hit St. Louis the last of December of 1848 and in the following 7 months it resulted in 4573 deaths.  It also hit the surrounding area in Missouri and it is likely that he probably died of cholera.  Since St. Paul’s Lutheran Church was not established until 1852, if he died in Cole County before 1850 in the Stringtown vicinity he was probably buried  buried in one of the small family cemeteries in the area.

A John G. Linsenbard is listed in “Cole County Cemeteries, Volume I” as being buried in the Old Gordon Cemetery located near the  North Moreau just off of old Route C.  The data given is “Died March 20, 1888, Age 87 yrs., 11 mos., 9 days”.   The three listings for Gordon Cemetery in “Cemeteries in Cole County, Missouri as recorded in the 1930’s does not show this Linsenbardt.  The Gordon Cemetery was visited in 1996 and no Linsenbardt headstone was found but the condition of the Cemetery is not good and many stones may have been lost, or destroyed.   It is likely that he would have had a small headstone, if any, to mark his grave.

The 1850 Census lists the Linsenbarths in three households as follows:

In Jefferson City –

House Number 55

Maus, Charles                      27        male               Ger

”  , Amelia                         21        female                        Ger

 

House Number 56

Lohmann, Charles              30        male               Ger

”   , Jenette                27        female                        Ger

Bonden, Rueben                 24        male               NC

Linsenberth, Amelia                        55        female                        Ger

”      , Edmond                    15        male               Ger

 

House Number 339

 

Linsenbardt, Charles          24        male               Ger

”     , Elizabeth M.        21        female            Ger

”     , John                     1/12   male               Mo.

The Census appears to indicate that the two daughters lived next door to each other and Eva Katharina (Amelia) and Edmund, lived with the oldest daughter, Henriette (shown as  Jenette). Rueben Bonden was probably a slave or servant.

As the years in the United States passed, Eva Katharina lives to the old age of 84. Charles F. Lohman, with his wife Henrietta, became a prominent Jefferson City businessman, gained and lost a fortune and fathered the son who the town of Lohman, Missouri is named after.  Carl worked as a wagonmaker, carpenter and farmer buying considerable land in Cole County. Amelia died shortly after marrying Charles B. Maus, who also went into business in Jefferson City, it is not know if the two had any surviving children.  Edmund also went into business in the Stringtown and Russellville areas, married three times losing a considerable number of children to disease and eventually moved with all but one of his family to Los Angeles, California where they seem to have prospered. Apparently, Edmund left for California before the family decided to change the surname ending to “dt” because his line to this day spells their last name Linsenbard.  Of course he may have left because he did not want to change is name.

 

January 14, 1992