- In the 200th year of the existence of the USA, the thoughts of many tu rn to the past, to the achievements of their ancestors who came to this la nd seeking freedom and a better life. They came on slow sailing ships, tr aversing the land in ox-drawn wooden wagons to settle on the pristine prai rie land. They survived difficulties we can today but barely imagine.
On the following pages you will find the story of the Elsbernd Famil y, as best as I could seek out the details. The memory of this family mu st be kept alive in order that their great body of descendants knows ju st who they are. Details are easily forgotten, and then are lost foreve r. For a closing there is a report about mother's relations, althou gh in less detail. Some free space has been left so that each family c an write its own supplements
to this monograph.
I gratefully acknowledge the gracious assistance provided to me by many in terested persons. First of all I thank my sister Frances, who maintain ed a name list through the years and from a visit to the homeland of my fa ther brought back the names of his ancestors from the church register. Gr atitude is also due to Martha and Loretta and the many others without who se help this work could never have been concluded.
If this short history brings the Elsbernd family closer together in mutu al understanding and bonding, I will feel richly rewarded - because uni ty is strength!
FR. ALPHONSE ELSBERND
October 1975
How the Catholic Church in Winneshiek and Surrounding Areas Got Starte d.
The first church in our diocese was St. Raphael in Dubuque, which was foun ded in 1833. Four years later it became a cathedral as bishop Loras was or dinated. Iowa became a state in 1842. The church here started out as an I ndian mission. The Winnebago tribe was relocated from Wisconsin to Fort A tkinson, and the fort was build to protect them from the Sioux. As ma ny of the Winebagos were converts, the bishop sent Father Remigius Per ot to attend to their spiritual needs. He arrived early in 1842, but did n ot stay very long as the Presbyterian minister of the fort gave him troub le (his woodshed was actually burned down).
Father Joseph Cretin from Dubuque arrived early in 1843; he stayed until 1 849 when the Winnebagos were sent back to Minnesota. Soon after his arriva l;, with the help of the Indians and a few white settlers he build a wood en church. It stood East of the current catholic cemetery on the farm whe re now the Philipp Huber family lives (the church was destroyed by a prair ie fire in 1853). One year later Father Cretin build a small school on t he reservation and later a small chapel, which he called "Our lady of t he seven sorrows" because of the many problems he encountered during his c are for the Indians.
After Father Cretin left in 1849 there was a short interruption. Howeve r, in the same year a group of Catholic families from Indiana and the surr ounding areas moved in and settled in the reservation. Frank Huber donat ed 20 Morgen (about 15 acres) to the diocese, and most of the wooden build ings were relocated close to the place where now the "littlest church" sta nds. In the same year Bishop Loras sent a priest from New Vienna to take c are of the spiritual needs of the immigrants, who visited every three mon ths. Later the priests from Guttenberg came to visit monthly. Catholics fr om far away came to attend the services.
Then, in either 1853 or 1854, the wooden church burned to the ground. Ma ny thought it was arson. A new church was built with wood in 1854, b ut in two stages. The church stood northwest of the church offices.
In the following year, Philipp Laurent came to Festina, as it was now know n, and Festina became the main church for all in this area and the surroun ding parts. One story tells of a couple who came all the way from north W ashington so they could be married in the in the church in Festina. The w ooden church was used until 1861, when the current stone church was dedica ted.
Short History of the Elsbernd Family
The family name is unusual in the old country and here. An uncle of my fat her came to Cincinnati in the early years of 1850. He is, as far as we kno w, the first and only one with that name who came here before my father a nd his brothers who followed. All Elsbernds in the USA derive their orig in from these three, and all came from the same family in Legden, Westphal ia. According to family tradition, as told by my father, the name is a com bination of "Els"" from the German word "Else" (a small tree that grows al ong river shores) and "Bernd", an abbreviation of the Christian name Bernh ard. Originally, it probably meant Bernhard who lives near the Elsen tree s. The name appeared on a document for the first time in the 15th centur y. The name was recorded in a register of soldiers serving the Archbish op of Cologne. Nothing further is known about that Elsbernd. At that tim e, the archbishops were feudal lords who administered parts of the kingd om and thus they had soldiers. The name appeared again in church recor ds of the Legden parish. There it is recorded that a certain Elsbernd (Chr istian name illegible) was married in 1515 to Annaken ten Sundarz. From th ere on a direct line can be traced up to our ancestors.
According to custom (observed even today), the first-born sons were the on es who always inherited the family homestead and, on the day of their marr iage, became "Buhr" (Low German for Farmer). Each then had the obligati on to let his parents and all siblings remain in the family home, the latt er until they became of age or married. When they left the house, they re ceived some money as their share of the inheritance. That is how the fa rm existed for 400 years and how it will continue to exist in the future.
Bernard Elsbernd, the oldest living son of the marriage of 1616, became "B uhr" when he married Maria Wenning. Gerhard Elsbernd, their oldest son, ma rried Adelhard Buschmann. Joan Bernard Elsbernd married Anna Margaretha Me ssing and inherited the family farm. Joan Herman Elsbernd (1770-1835) w as the next in line. He married Elisabeth Elperts. He was the grandfath er of my father. Bernard Herman Elsbernd, the father of my father marri ed twice. Bernard was born in 1812 (the year in which Napoleon suffered h is disastrous loss in Russia), and died in 1888. He married twice. By h is first wife, he had a daughter, Anna Catharina, who married a Mr. Hille r. There is nothingelse known about her. His first wife died early, and then, Bernhard Herm an married Anna Catharina Heitkemper (1819-1892). Seven children come fr om this marriage:
1. Catharina (1842-1920) She married Franz Mi)ö)ller in Germany. after h is early death she came to Festina in 1888 with her 3 children. there, s he remarried, a Mr. Gehling.
2. Gerhard Hermann (1848-1923) The oldest son who inherited the farm.
3. Anna Maria (1850-1933) She was the first of the family who came to Fest ina at the age of 19 years. In 1870 in Festina she married Johann Elpe rt whom she knew already before she left Germany.
4. Bernhard (1853-1915) He came to Festina at the age of 30, married Elisa beth Schlattmann, also an immigrant from Legden. They settled in various p arts of the West. Finally reched/settled downs in Crosby, North Dakota.
5. Joseph (1856-1936) My father. He arrived in Festina in 1875 at age 1 9. There he married and stayed as a farmer. This book tells about his ance stry.
6. Klara (1859 - ) She remained in Legden where she married Gerhard Gossli ng (1859-1940) a farmer. She had 10 children. Klara is the mother of Joha nn Gossling who came to Festina in 1925 and married Auguste Hartmann in 19 25. (This was the first marriage ceremony I performed as a priest). They s ettled near Festina for a while, then moved to Lawler where Johann Gossli ng died in 1972.
7. Sophia (1862-1924) She arrived with her brother Hermann in Festina in 1 883. There she married John Tilkes. They settled near North Washington whe re both are buried.
The first Elsbernd, that we know something about and is the forebear er of all Elsbernds throughout the world - as far as we know - marri ed in 1616. Between him and my father, who married in 1880, are sic gener ations - a total of 264 years. That means, each generation is 40 years! W hat's the reason? There are many! They married late, the first child was n ot always a son. A lot died young from diseases and epidemics. Others di ed on the battlefields in numerous wars that swept across Germany in pa st centuries. We in USA, who never lived through an invasion, cannot poss ibly imagine the destruction that a war can bring to a country.
Father left Germany at 18 years, to avoid the mandatory military servic e. The small Prussian state had under the direction of the infamous Chan cellor Bismarck conquered the smaller German states and unified them und er Prussian rule. The catholic West German states suffered under his prot estant government, which was an additional attraction for Catholics, to em igrate to the new land, which offered them religious freedom.
After a long trip, Father landed in New York. With the train he came to O ssian. The current Milwaukee line was extended to Calmar in 1869 by McGre gor. No doubt the train transported goods for the work groups further wes t. From Ossian he went on foot to Festina with just 5 dollars in his pock et.
In Festina he lived with his sister Anna Elpert, who had come six years ea rlier. At first he completed odd jobs: clearing land of tree stumps (f or one stump he got 15 cents, less for smaller ones), carrying stones f or building houses (the house of Tony Gerlemann east of Rogers farm was bu ilt of stones, that he had carried from the old quarry from Romualds Far m) and other odd jobs, that were to be had. During winter he made wood en shoes, that were in fashion in those days. This was an occupation th at he knew and that he had learned as a boy; he made 4 to 6 pairs in one d ay. They were made in the cellar of our house and in the evening by the l ight of a kerosene lamp finished upstairs in the family circle. He did th is work until 1910, when the demand for wooden shoes receded.
Festina was at this time still a raw boundary city. There was a brewery ( parts of the buildings still stand today west of town) and 13 saloons. Fat her Augustin Saufer, the pastor, tried to rid the town of them but he h ad to fight against must resistance from the local gentlemen. They thr ew stones against the church building, broke windows and threatened with v iolence. The pastor was afraid and asked my father, to sleep in the pari sh house, until the storm had settled.
Most of the grain was harvested by hand. Long scythes were used to cut t he corn down; others followed and collected the stalks to tie them into bu ndles using a handful of the stalks. Then the bundles were placed in a pi le to allow them to dry out. Afterwards the grain was separated from the s talks by means of flails. This took many hours. Migrant workers followed t he ripening corn from the south. They were a rough bunch and since fath er refused to work in the hot sun if he did not have a jug of beer ne ar a shady tree themigrant workers must have kept the brewery and the saloons alive. Fath er remembers that some years later the first mechanical harvesters appeare d. These consisted of a simple horse-drawn platform on which the grain cut tings fell. A worker stood at the side of the platform and used a ra ke to sweep the cuttings aside when a complete bundle had been collect ed on the platform. The men following behind the platform bound the bundl es by means of a handful of straw. Undoubtedly father was doing this wo rk since he was very good at tying loose bundles together that the bind er had lost. Father vividly remembers theuproar when a certain farmer bought the first McCormack mechanical binde r. On Sundays many farmers came from far and wide to look at the wonderf ul and funny thing. Its disadvantage was that it bound the sheaves with wi re that had to be cut and moved away by hand before the bundle came into t he thresher. Later machines used twine.
The stone church in Festina had been built 14 years before he arrived ther e.In this church he married Maria Möllers in autumn of 1880. Friar Sauter ma rried them. In the same year he became a citizen of the USA. They made the ir home in Festina in a house that was located on the side that is present ly occupied by Mrs. Joe Einck. Anna was born here. He continued his work u ntil they bought a farm in Springfield, north of Ossian (now called Wiltge n-farm) in 1884. This is where Mary was born. They only worked on the fa rm for one year and sold it for the same price for which they had boug ht it. Then theybought a farm from Henry Wenthold located to the south of Festina (present ly the property of MR. Wenthold). The other children were born on this far m.
Father was not used running a farm, particularly not an American-style on e. I still remember well having visited a cousin in Germany in 1933 who o wned something that looked like a huge farm for that region. Father had o nly one horse. In order to plow the field, he tied the horse and the c ow together, which were supposed to then pull the plow.Mother however had grown up on a farm, and in the first years, she ran t he farm more or less. But father learned; he was soon free from debt, pro vided well for the large family and saved enough to be able to buy a larg er farm and to hire farmhands instead sending them out as rented worke rs to others.
Toward the end of the year 1908, the 120-acre farm was sold for 80 dolla rs an acre. A farm that was twice as large in area was bought from Mrs. H enry Cremer at 89 dollars an acre. It was divided later between John a nd Alois. Now Ray and Roger live on it. The new farm drove father into l arge debts. He was a man, who worried about the people, whom he employ ed and to whom he had to pay wages. This was often made clear in discussi ons.
One day, as he was again moaning because of the large debts and his inabil ity to pay the wages, we reassured him that if he worked hard and it wou ld not be long, until he was free from his debts. He was sure that we we re wrong. So he agreed to buy a car, in the year in which we were free fr om debt. With the inflation, that the First World War brought, the deb ts were gone, and we reminded him of his promise. And so we got our fir st auto, a Ford Model T. It cost 380 dollars. For us, it was the greate st of luxury. We could drive to church past all the farmers, who were sti ll dependent on horse and wagon.
Until 1916 the roads were bad; Under or over each hill there were ho of or wheel marks. The first road grader, pulled by an early model tracto r, appeared, in order to make the road to Calmar useable by cars. Willi am Ehler operated it, and my brother Johnsteered the tractor. Now the road was passable by cars, except in wint er when it was blocked by snow, and in spring, when the deep, soft mud cau sed the wheels to get bogged.
In Jan 1925 my parents and Frances moved from their farm into a newly bui lt house in Festina (it now belongs to Rudi Luetkenhaus.) Father couldn 't remain idle. He bought a cow, two pigs and a few hens and continued h is farming on a small scale, until his poorconstitution made this impossible. Both parents died in the same year, 19 38, only 6 months apart. They now rest in the cemetery in Festina.
An uncle of father's, on his mother's side, Gerhard Heitkemper, came to Fe stina early in 1859. He died of an illness only few months later. His w as the first burial in the in the new cemetery bordering the church. Befo re this burials were in the old cemetery of Festina, east of the hou se of Miss Catherine Mi(ö)ller. Still earlier people were buried at the "o ld Mission" .
Maria Moellers (1861-1938), My Mother
Her father, Henrich Moellers, was born in 1823 in Telgte in Westfali a. At the age of 23 my mother came with her younger brother Bernard, 1 7, to Festina. She was among the first settlers in the region if Festin a. The Iowa Indian territory was opened to white settlement only eight ye ars earlier. Fort At(k)inson was still occupied by soldiers who were prote cting the Winnebago tribe (driven there from the other side of the M issis sippi)from their enemies, who held their traditional hunting grounds. A C atholic priest was stationed in the fort for the soldiers and the Indian s. The wooden church was built on the old military trail somewhere betwe en the Brinks, now Huber farm and the Catholic cemetary. Without doubt, He nry and his brother attended this church, on foot at that.Pioneers were very used to moving around. In 1848 the government beg an to move the Indians onto the reservation in Minnesota. The chaplain le ft them. Next year a group of six Catholic families came from Indiana a nd settled on the abandoned Indian Reservation. They soon built the large st wooden building on the reservation and established it on the site whe re now the "smallest church in the world" stands. It was named "Our La dy of Seven Aches/Pains/Sufferings/Anguishes (take yourpick)". The same y ear Priests from New Vienna and later from Guttenberg came to hold regul ar church services with the first settlers. Grandfather was certainly o ne of the worshippers in this wooden church. It was at the time the on ly Catholic church in this region and people came from from Waucoma, Spill ville and West Union. In 1853 or 1854 someone set the wooden church on fi re. It was thus completely destroyed. Immediately the settlers began to b uild a new church, but in two Fruehjahren, as Festina was then called. Th is wooden church stood northwest of the present rectory. In this small ch urch Henry married Anna Tegelkamp, born in 1828; also an emigrant from Tel gte in Westphalia. Reverend Louis Decailly married them.It was the 19th marriage that taken place in the church that year.
The current stone church was built around 1860 (dedicated 1861). Togeth er with the stone church, the current cemetery was also put into operatio n. The first man who was buried at this cemetery was an uncle on my father 's maternal side, Gerhard Heitkemper, who died in 1859. Up until his wedd ing grandfather had a herd of sheep and did odd jobs.Then he bought a farm, measuring 120 morgens. The land had earlier been g iven to a certain Mills Beddach, a captain of the Virginia Militia, as a r eward for faithful services. He however never came to take possessi on of the farm. His widow sold it for 2 dollars a morgen to Henry. It w as untilled soil, which had been never touched by a plow. Here he beg an to cultivate the land using oxen as beasts of burden. His son Willia m, who modified the name to Mi(ö)ller, and the grandchildren (the Miller b rothers) continued the agriculture until recently. Now Steve Einck liv es on the farm, who married Marylin
Humpal, a great-great-granddaughter of Henry.
The life of the settlers was hard. A rough hewn log cabin served as hom e. No, no carpets, not even a cement floor, no electricity with all the a menities and comforts, no railway, no proper roads, but simple paths betwe en the fields, no telephone and no newspapers, no fuel for heating and coo king except wood. Tallow candles were the first source of oil three year s, after Henry had begun farming in Pennsylvania. The few businesses, whi ch operated in small towns, made these in exchange for eggs and other fa rm products. They traded for goods and not cash.
In order to sell grain, for instance wheat, for cash, one had to bri ng it to McGregor, since the river was the only route of transportation. T he way with an ox truck, which did not have springs, took four to five da ys on the military route, which those was only finished road at the tim e, when one began with the agriculture.
Mother told us once that (Henry?) had been late. The dark night had alrea dy begun. Their mother ignited a lantern, climbed to the top of a tree ne ar the house, and hung her there inside. So the light could lead him hom e. Another time, than the winter was very severe, mother brought the on ly cow, which still gave milk into the house to guarantee that the small c hildren were supplied.
One day the news of the Indian massacre, which had occurred in New U lm in Minnesota, spread in the village. Some settlers began to hastily pa ck their carts in order to flee. Those things that could not be carried, w ere hidden. Cooler heads prevailed and made it clear to the others that N ew Ulm was far away. Thus all decided to remain.
Toward end of the civil war, while the family was working in the field, T he local sheriff road out to Henry and gave him his induction orders in to the army.
But he could not leave wife and children behind. Unfortunately he beg an to look for a substitute for his army position. This was possible in th ese times. Finally he found a loafer. After a lot of haggling they agre ed on 200 Dollar, a very considerable amount backin those days. The man joined the army, but no sooner had he put on his un iform than the war was over. Nevertheless he demanded the whole amoun t. He left Henry with a staggering high amount of debts. It took years unt il they were payed off. Money was scarce, farming was primitive and the p rices very low. The rustic family was practically only self-supplier. Mo st of what one ate came from the farm. The sheeps wool was processed a nd spinned to threads by hand, then knitted to socks, gloves, caps, wool en jackets and other things. As a boy I used to watch mother processing a nd spinning the wool, while father would finish the wooden shoes that he h ad made this day. While doing so the family gathered around a kerosine lam p.
The garden products were preserved. Cabbage was fermented to sauerkra ut in tall stone pitchers. The pigs were slaughtered during the winter. Me at was cut and all kinds of sausages prepared and hang up in the smokehou se until they were smoke-dry. They were preserved until the summer in th ey way the Indians preserved things. Mother had not received many formal s chool lessons. In the 1870ies Festina had a one-room school. If a teach er was found, he taught reading, writing and calculating and maybe some mo re with the help of few books and the ever present and much used cane.
Since mother was the only girl at home and was called upon to do much wor k, she was not able to go to school but for less then a year as she oft en told us. In spite of that she was able to learn enough high German to r ead the prayer book. Since all settlers were of German origin, with the e xception of one or two, it was German that was the language that was taug ht in school. This continued until the first World War. When I went to sch ool English was taught as a foreign language then. Church services w ere also entirely in German until 1918. This was changed because of patrio tic reasons. That's how a new generation grew up that learned no Germa n. Mother was able to "speak" with her grandchildren only using signs a nd her smile.
ALPHONSE ELSBERND SSN 341-44-5401 Residence: 60082 Techny, Cook, IL Born 13 Dec 1899 Last Benefit: Died 31 May 1997 Issued: IL (1966)
From Nancy Brincks Elsbernd Family History 2002. Written by Sister Helen E lsberndAlphonse was born on December 13, 1899 in Festina, IA. He received his gr ade school education at Our Lady of Seven Dolors, Festina. After graduati on he helped his father on the farm. While cultivating corn he received h is calling to become a priest. Alphonse joined the Society of Divine Wo rd (S.V.D.) receiving his education at Divine Word Academy Techny whe re he was ordained a priest on May 9, 1929. Father Elsbernd read his Fir st Solemn High Mass at Our Lady of Seven Dolors, Festina on May 30, 192 9. The bride chosen to carry the burse was Rita (Elsbernd) Nolte, flow er girls were Agatha (Tieskoetter) Hoffman and Leona (Lutkenhaus) Krull.His first assignment was teaching at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. In 193 8, he was sent to England to study African languages. On October 13, 19 38 Father Elsbernd arrived in Gold Coast, Africa, one of the first two S.V .D. priests to establish the mission there. When Gold Coast gained its in dependence from England in 1954, it became Ghana and was the size of the s tate of Louisiana and had about 50 different languages. Father Elsbernd w as highly respected for his facility with languages, his ability to exchan ge different money currencies, and his emphasis on promoting educatio n. He is credited by his S.V.D. confreres for establishing over 100 schoo ls in that country, including the first girls' school, a teachers' traini ng school, and a college seminary. The educational system he establish ed is seen to be the basis for all the education in that country today.In 1971 he returned to the States and became the chaplain at St. Joseph 's Hospital, New Hampton, IA. During his stay at the hospital he establis hed St. Frederick's parish in Fredericksburg and became their pasto r. In 1975 Father made a family history of the life of his parents and th eir families. He also wrote how the Catholic church was established in Fe stina.Retiring in 1981 his home was at S.V.D. college in Epworth. He enjoyed st amp collecting as a hobby during his retirement. With failing health he r eturned to Techny at the Divine Word retirement home. Father Alphon se J. Elsbernd, S.V.D., age 97 died at the Divine Word Infirmary, Techn y, IL on May 31, 1997 of complications of heart and pneumonia. He will al ways be remembered as a gentle, soft-spoken, and devout priest.
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| Family History Document |
- Kurze Geschichte der Familie Elsbernd in Festina und Ossian, Iowa, Von Alp honse Elsbernd, 1975
3).9ELSBERND, Gerhard "Joseph", * 26. 9. 1856 Legden, + 13. 10. 1938 Festin a, IA.
Er wanderte am 12. 3. 1875 nach Amerika aus. Er fuhr mit dem Schi ff Cimbria von Hamburg über Le Havre nach New York und kam dort am 2 4. 3. 1875 an.
¥ 16. 11. 1880 Festina, IA
MOELLERS, Maria (Mary), * 17. 2. 1861 Festina, IA (?Eltern: Henrich Mölle rs und Anna Teigelkamp aus Telgte?), + 6. 5. 1938 ebd.
Kinder :
1. ELSBERND, Anna, * 23. 10. 1881 Festina, IA. Siehe 3).9.1
2. ELSBERND, Mary, * 20. 6. 1884 Festina, IA. Siehe 3).9.2
3. ELSBERND, Sophia, * 20. 6. 1887 Festina, IA, + ... 3. 1893 ebd.
4. ELSBERND, Anton, * 2. 10. 1890 Festina, IA. Siehe 3).9.4
5. ELSBERND, Frances, * 8. 5. 1892 Festina, IA, + ...
6. ELSBERND, Frank, * 22. 9. 1894 Festina, IA. Siehe 3).9.6
7. ELSBERND, John, * 4. 3. 1897 Festina, IA. Siehe 3).9.7
8. ELSBERND, Alphons, * 13. 12. 1899 Festina, IA. Er wurde am 1 7. 5. 1929 zum Priester geweiht. Pater in der Societas Verbi Divini (SVD ). Er schrieb die Familiengeschichte "Elsbernd, und die Geschichte von Fes tina.
9. ELSBERND, Alois, * 5. 5. 1903 Festina, IA. Siehe 3).9.9
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1899 - 1997 (97 years)
1900 Census
