5 Generations of Weber's

5 Generations of Weber's

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Johann Casper Weber:  

Born 11-25-1888 in Krasnoyar, Samara, Volga Russia

died 11-08-1929 in Chicago, Cook county, Illinois

Johann C. Weber 1888-1929

Frederick Weber:
Born 4-14-1923 in  Chicago, Cook co, Illinois

Died 7-21-1962 in Chicago, Cook co, Illinois

Frederick Weber 1923-1962

Frederick J. Weber:
Born 5-27-1952 in Chicago, Cook county, Illinois

Frederick J. Weber

Frederick J. Weber, Jr.:
Born 6-15-1981 in Janesville, Rock county, Wisconsin

Frederick J. Jr. and Trinity Weber

Kenderick Matthew Weber:
Born 11-15-2008 in Carbondale, Jackson county, Illinois

Kenderick M. Weber

Volga Germans (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Main article: Volga Germans

Tsarina Catherine II was a German, born in Stettin now Szczecin in Poland. She proclaimed open immigration for foreigners wishing to live in the Russian Empire on July 22, 1763, marking the beginning of a much larger presence for Germans in the Empire. German colonies in the lower Volga river area were founded almost immediately afterward. These early colonies were attacked during the Pugachev uprising, which was centred on the Volga area, but they survived the rebellion.

German immigration was motivated in part by religious intolerance and warfare in central Europe as well as by frequently difficult economic conditions. Catherine II's declaration freed German immigrants from military service (imposed on native Russians) and from most taxes. It placed the new arrivals outside of Russia's feudal hierarchy and granted them considerable internal autonomy. Moving to Russia gave German immigrants political rights that they would not have possessed in their own lands. Religious minorities found these terms very agreeable, particularly Mennonites from the Vistula River valley. Their unwillingness to participate in military service, and their long tradition of dissent from mainstreamLutheranism and Calvinism, made life under the Prussians very difficult for them. Nearly all of the Prussian Mennonites emigrated to Russia over the following century, leaving no more than a handful in Prussia.

Other German minority churches took advantage of Catherine II's offer as well, particularly Evangelical Christians like the Baptists. Although Catherine's declaration forbade them from proselytising among members of the Orthodox church, they were free to evangelize Russia's Muslim and other non-Christian minorities.

German colonization was most intense in the lower Volga, but other areas were targeted as well. The area around the Black Sea received many German immigrants, and the lower Dniepr river area, around Ekaterinaslav (now Dnepropetrovsk) and Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporizhzhia), was favoured by the Mennonites.

In 1803, Catherine II’s grandson, Tsar Alexander I, reissued her proclamation. In the chaos of the Napoleonic wars, the response from Germans was enormous. Ultimately, the Tsar imposed minimum financial requirements on new immigrants, requiring them to either have 300 gulden in cash or special skills in order to come to Russia.

The abolition of serfdom in 1863 created a shortage of labour in agriculture and motivated new German immigration, particularly from increasingly crowded central European states, where there was no longer enough fertile land for full employment in agriculture.

Furthermore, a sizable part of Russia's ethnic Germans migrated into Russia from its Polish possessions. The partitions of Poland in the late 18th century dismantled the Polish state, dividing it between Austria, Prussia and Russia. There were already many Germans living in the part of Poland transferred to Russia, dating back to medieval and later migrations. Many Germans in Congress Poland migrated further east into Russia between then and World War I, particularly in the aftermath of the Polish insurrection of 1830. The Polish insurrection in 1863 added a new wave of German emigration from Poland to those who had already moved east, and led to the founding of extensive German colonies in Volhynia. When Poland reclaimed its independence after World War I, it ceased to be a source of German emigration to Russia, but by then many hundreds of thousands of Germans had already settled in enclaves across the Russian Empire.

Germans settled in the Caucasus area from the beginning of the 19th century and in the 1850s expanded into the Crimea. In the 1890s, new German colonies opened in the Altay mountain area in Russian Asia (see Mennonite settlements of Altai). German colonial areas were still expanding in Ukraine as late as the beginning of World War I.

According to the first Census of the Russian Empire in 1897, there were about 1.8 million respondents who reported German as their mother tongue.

My Fjeldsted's of Denmark

Skibsby Denmark

Lars Peter Fjeldsted:
  Born 7-6-1822 in Fjeldsted, Sindal Parish, Hjorring, Denmark
  Died 11-16-1895 in Gunnison, Sanpete county, Utah
  Parents:  Peter Hansen (1796) & Ane Katrine Pedersen (1793-1861) Not married

Spouse:  Mariane Pedersen
  Born:  3-3-1826 in Tornby, Hjorring, Denmark
  Died:  9-11-1859 in Mosiberg, Hjorring, Denmark
  Parents:  Peder Anderse and Marie Jorgensen of Tornby Denmark
  Children of Lars and Mariane:  James Peter (1850-1925), Anna Petrine (1853-1911), Andrew Christian (1855-1925), Peter Jul (1857-1929), Karen Marie (1859-1859).

Mariane died shortly after her last child was born.  Her child died soon after that.  Lar's married Lina Marie.
January of 1860.  Lina Marie was born 7-21-1822 and had two sons by Lars.  Both sons died very young.
Niels Peter Marius born 4-26-1861 and died 6-1-1862
Niels Peter Marius Jensen Fjeldsted blessed on 8-21-1864 and died the same day

   (Excerpts taken from A TAPESTRY OF DREAMS The History of LARS PETER FJELDSTED and his family.  Compiled by a great-granddaughter Jenny Lind M. Brown)

  In the spring of 1862, Lars Peter was prepared to move his new wife, their baby son, and the four older children to America on a ship called the "Franklin".  With Captain Robert Murray at the helm it sailed from Hamberg, German on Tuesday, April 8th and carried 413 emigrants, nearly all from the cities of Aalborg and Vendsyssel Conferences.

  By May 29th the long voyage was over.  They then boarded a transport for a short ride to Castle Gardens which was used as a temporary refuge for newly arrived emigrants.  However, because of of the measles, they were not allowed to land.  Eighteen were hospitalized and the rest returned to the ship.  It was another 48 hours before they could be welcomed by church officials who were waiting for their arrival.  It is believed that this is where their young son Niels Peter Marius died at.

  On the evening of May 31st all requirements were met and the saints were allowed to board a train bound for Albany, New York, the terminal where the over-land journey would begin.

  The trains carrying emigrants and other travelers, across America here scheduled to run through Syracuse, Rochester, Niagra, Detroit, Chicago and on to Quincy, Illinois, where passenger were transferred for a steam-boat ride across the Mississippi River.  After embarking on the western bank they journeyed again by train to St. Joseph, Missouri.

  One more boat ride waited them at St. Joseph.  A small vessel called the "West Wind" where they spent two unpleasant days moving slowly up the Missouri River.  Finally Florence (Winter Quarters), Nebraska, was reached -- their goal before setting out on the rugged wagon trip to Salt Lake City.  After a yourney of eight weeks on water, and nine days over land, most of the travelers were exhausted and many filled with sorrow.  Of this pioneer company sixty-two persons never reached Salt Lake.  Forty-eight died while on board the "Franklin".  Two children--the daughter of Brother Weiby and the year old son of Lars Peter and Lina Marie Fjeldsted., passed away soon after leaving the ship;  eleven persons (four adults and seven children) died at Florence, and one young girl died while crossing the plains.

  They left Florence on July 14th and arrived in Salt Lake on September 23rd.  Lars Peter didn't stay long in the city as he and Lina Marie were eager to reach Sanpete, where so many good Danish people were settling.    Though his outfit was beginning to show a treat deal of ear, he drove south as fa as Mt. Pleasant, where they spent the winter.  It was there where James was allowed to attend a pioneer school taught by David Candland, an enthusiastic young Englishman.  If Petrine attended, too, is was only for a short time since she often told her children she had received just a few months of schooling in America.  Andrew and Peter Juel were probably too young to worry much about reading or even speaking English.

  When the snow began to melt and the warmth of spring sunshine caused the willw buds to swell, Lars Peter packed his wagon once more.  He and Lina Marie had definitely made up their minds to join friends in Gunnison, a small settlement farther south.  Perhaps they were influenced by Captain Madsen, since he, too, was making a home there.  The children accepted the move cheerfully.  During the log winter wvenings they had listened to stories about Captain John W. Gunnison, a topographical engineer, who had been ambused by Ute Indians and cruelly massacred.  The settlement named in his honor seemed an exciting spot.

  Neither Mt. Pleasant, nor Gunnison were the first towns built in Sanpete, the county named after Sanpitch, a noted Indian chief of the Utah nation.  In the autumn of 1849 a company comprising fifty families left Salt Lake, traveling toward the south; on November 22 they decided to pitch camp at the present site of Manti, a name taken from the Book of Mormon.  After a bitterly cold winter, illness and hardship, they began tilling the soil, planting seeds for crops, and building rough homes of sod, or logs cut from the nearby mountain.  Bye 1851 the city of Manti was charted and a city government formed.

  It was still several years before the valley of Gunnison was opened, but by 1859 two groups had found their way there.  One settlement, near the white cliffs of the eastern foothills, was named Chalk hill; the other, built on the grassy bottoms of the river, had been named Kearn's camp after Hamilton H. Kearns, its leader.  In the spring of 1861 Orson Hyde visited the two settlements and advised the group to become one for convenience and safety.  Since Kearn's camp had the most people by the, it was decided to build a permanent settlement there and the name, Sevier City Rocky Point, was chosen for its official title.  A tithing granary, constructed of chinked logs with a willow roof was soon ready to receive the tithing-wheat at harvest time and a combined meeting and school house was started.  By fall it was well under construction, allowing time for its dedication of Christmas morning with religious services, and a program with dancing later that evening.  The entire camp participated,  musicians co-operated, home-made cake and root beer was served buy the women, and a spirit of rejoicing was there in abundance.

  Spring brought trouble, however, for Sevier City.  A great deal of snow fell during the winter, especially in the eastern mountains.  When it began melting, streams soon over-flowed with rushing water and the camp became a mire of mud and water, dugout homes were inundated, causing chimneys to fall.  A hurriedly built dam soon disintegrated, more water rushed forth and the entire camp became a place of chaos.  The discouraged settlers termed the spot a "hog-wallow", a most fitting name that stuck for many years.

  In September of that year, President Brigham Young stopped there on his way to southern Utah.  After looking at the unpleasant situation he advised the people to resettle farther nother where the ground was highter.  He also suggested the spot be named "Gunnison" in honor of the massacred captain.  Thus Gunnison, the first home of the Fjeldsted family in America, came into being.

Anna Petrine Fjeldsted:
  Born:  9-12-1853 in Skibsby, Skt Olai parish, Hjorring, Denmark
  Died:   12-11-1911  Molen, Emery county, Utah

  Married:  7-24-1874 to Joseph Bridge Caldwell born 5-7-1846 Carlisle, Cumberland, England
  and died 2-12-1916 in Molen, Emery county, Utah

Anna Petrine Fjeldsted

Children of Anna and Joseph Bridge Caldwell:   Joseph Edwin (1875-1944), John Leroy (1877-1882), Peter William (1880-1887), Edith Marion (1882-1955), Jessie Fjeldsted (1885-1887), Junius (1888-1915), Evelyn (1892-1984), Eudora Elizabeth (1895-1973), Son (1898-1898)

Family of Anna Petrina and Joseph Bridge Caldwell:
Standing:  Junius, Edwin and Edith
Sitting:  Evelyn, ,next her to father and Eudora on her mother's lap

Evelyn Caldwell

My Grandmother

William Savage Pitts - composer

By golly, we have a composer in the family.  Ok, so it's a stretch but we're related.

  My grandmother was Katharine "Aura" Hills 

Aura's father was Henry Linsey Hills who was married to Katharine Ann Meiklejohn.

Henry's father was Lucien Henry Hills who married Aura AnnaSavage.

  Anna's parents were Joel Savage Jr. and Samantha Smith.  

Samantha's sister was Polly Smith.  Polly married a Pitts and their son was William Savage Pitts...the composer.

Another note:  My grandmother Aura Hills married her 2nd husband Harvey Austin on 8-2-1937 in the "Little brown church in the Vale"

William Savage Pitts

1830-1918

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DR. WILLIAM SAVAGE PITTS

William Savage Pitts was born in 1830 in Orleans County, New York. In 1857 he is living in Rock County, Wisconsin employed as a schoolteacher. It was in that year he was in traveling to Fredericksburg, Chickasaw County, Iowa to see his fiancee, Ann Elize Warren, when he had a chance to visit Bradford, Chickasaw County, Iowa. While there he located a setting in a wooded area in which to him was of rare beauty and later when he was back home in Wisconsin the setting inspired him to write words which would later be words to "The Little Brown Church in the Vale" song. In 1858 William and Ann married and lived in Wisconsin. In 1862 they relocated to Fredericksburg.  The following account documents how he became identified with the song and the church. Doctor Pitts says,  (Quote) " One bright afternoon of a day in June 1857, I first set foot in Bradford, Iowa, coming by stage from McGregor. My home was then in Wisconsin. The spot where the "Little Brown Church" now stands was a setting of rare beauty. There was no church there then, but the spot was there, waiting for it. When back in my home I wrote the song, "The Little Brown Church in the Vale." I put the manuscript away. In the spring of 1862 I returned to Iowa and settled in Fredericksburg, inasmuch as my wife's people were there. In the winter of 1863-64 I taught a singing class in Bradford. We held our school in the brick building known as the academy.  In the year 1859 and 1860 the good people of Bradford determined to build a church. I will not undertake to tell of the trials, the disappointments, and the successes that followed; suffice to say by the early winter of 1864 the building was ready for dedication. While I was holding the singing school, near its close in the spring, the class went one evening to the church. It was then not seated, but rude seats were improvised. My manuscript of the song I had brought with me from Wisconsin. It had never been sung before by anyone but myself. I sang it there.  Soon afterward I took the manuscript to Chicago, where it was published by H. M. Riggins. It won speedy recognition locally and with the years won its way into the hearts of people of the world. Soon after its publication the church at Bradford, which had been painted brown (for want of money to buy better paint, so say), became known as "The Little Brown Church in the Vale." My hope is that it will stand for a thousand years and call the old man and his descendants to worship." (End of Quote)  William attended Rush Medical College in Chicago, became a Doctor and practiced in Fredericksburg, Iowa until 1906. He died in 1918 and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Fredericksburg. Ann Elize and two daughters are buried in West (also called Fredericksburg) Cemetery in Fredericksburg. Sources: 1] The Cyber Hymnal. 2] The Des Moines Register. 3] The History of Chickasaw and Howard Counties, (1919) Vol. 1, Chapter 9, page 228, transcribed by Leonard Granger. 4] Lavonne Edeker. 5] Transcribed/Developed by Mike Peterson OUR WEB SITE INFO ON THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH Taken from:  http://iagenweb.org/chickasaw/biographies/famousp.htm

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Hills Coffee

Hills brother's coffee

Sunday, 22. January 2006, 01:11

1881

Austin and Reuben Hills buy a retail coffee shop in

San Francisco, beginning the Hills Brothers coffee

empire. By 1900, they lead the industry by packing

their product in newfangled vacuum cans, making it

possible to buy coffee at grocery stores instead of

going to neighborhood roasters.

Photo is from:

The History of Hills Brothers Coffee – 

And The Vacuum Seal Mystery

By Chris Grande

[edit]

(Some claim royalty. I claim coffee.)
I'm not exactly sure how Austin and Reuben Hills fit into my family tree.
Here's my line:  Thomas Hills & Jane Scarborow
                         William Hills & Phyliss Lyman
                         John Hills & Jane Bushnell
                         Samuel Sr. Hills & Phebe Leonard
                         Samuel Jr. Hills & Hannah Turner
                         Eliab Hills & Naomi Woodworth
                         Consider Hills & Parthena Wales
                          Eliab Hills & Lucy Smith
                          Lucien H. Hills & Aura Anna Savage
                          Henry L. Hills & Katharine Ann Meiklejohn
                          Katharine Aura Hills & Ira D. Austin (died 1936) my grandparents
                          Katharine Aura Hills & Harvey D. Austin (the only grandfather I ever knew)
                       

http://chrisgrande.com/2010/07/24/the-history-of-hills-brothers-coffee-and-the-vacuum-seal-mystery/

Medad Hills guns

Hills guns

Sunday, 22. January 2006, 02:07

This is the link to BlackHart Long Arms Company which still produces the Hills Fowler the Revolutionary War rifle made by Benoni, Col Medad and John Hills in Goshen, Conn.

http://pages.cthome.net/black_hart/mhills.htm

These reproductions are still handmade and come up for sale on ebay from time to time. I also have a copy of the American Gunsmith? article on the weapons made by John Hills, gunsmith of Charlotte, Chittenden Co Vermont who was one of Medad's brothers.

In addition to the Hills guns, the family is also connected to the Spencers of the Spencer Rifle factory.

(The above information and link was provided by John Hills)

Hills, Medad (1729-1808)  A son of Benoni Hills.  Medad Hills was born at Durham, Connecticut, 22 April 1729.  Medad was probaly apprenticed to his father after the latter had moved to Goshen in 1741.  By 1776 Hills was involved in contractual arms production with the state.  On 24 February 1776 Col. Charles Burd acknowledged receipt of ten muskets with bayonets and belts made by Hills.  Hills had been involved with the local militia since 1769, and after the outbreak of the war, was elected captain in the Goshen militia.  He was soon promoted to major.  He served actively until the fall of 1779 when his rheumatic condition forced him to resign his commission.  He probably resumed his career as gun manufacturer.  Several of his guns are extant, a few marked "made by Medad Hills at Goshen".

Ref:  

Arms makers of colonial America

 By James B. Whisker

Rasmussen vs Rasmussen

                             My great grandfather was a Rasmussen who married a Rasmussen making my grandfather's life confusing...at least to the Government.  When my grandfather joined the military they asked him what his mother's maiden name was and he said Rasmussen.  They said no, her maiden name son.  Again, he said Rasmussen......

My great grandfather:
James John Rasmussen aka J.J. born in April 19, 1869 in Beder, Aarhus, Denmark
Parents were:  Rasmus Haysgaard Rasmussen & Karen Marie Jensen
He married Christine Rasmussen on December 24th, 1890 in Molen, Emery County, Utah
He died on 12-16-1951 in Ferron, Emery County, Utah  

James John Rasmussen
1869-1951

Christine Rasmussen was born on 3-2-1870 in Farmington, Davis County, Utah

Parents were:  Hans Peter Rasmussen & Anna Maria Andersen

She died on 10-4-1922 in Ferron, Emery County, Utah

Children of J.J. and Christine:  Oscar, Theodore, Reva, Inez, James and Annie who died at birth.

Christine Rasmussen
1870-1922

Oscar Rasmussen was born September 19th, 1891 in Ferron, Emery Country, Utah.

He married Evelyn Caldwell on August 6th, 1919 in Castle Dale, Emery County, Utah.  

Their children were:  Norman, Elaine and Helen.

   

Oscar Rasmussen
1891-1974

Norman Rasmussen 1920-1991
Elaine Rasmussen Swaggerty 1922-2003
(God bless Daddy and Aunt Elaine)





"Cussin: what genealogists do when they can’t find one."

My 1Oth great grandmother Ann Foster

Why some were accused

Ann Foster (1617 – December 3, 1692) was an Andover widow accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials.

Born in 1617, Ann (or Annis) came to Massachusetts from London in 1635 on the ship Abigail. Her mother, Ann Hooker, was a sister of Rev. Thomas Hooker, and her father was Deacon George Alcock.^[1] She married Andrew Foster and settled in Andover, Massachusetts. They had five children: Andrew; Abraham; Sarah Kemp of Charlestown; the late Hannah Stone, whose husband, Hugh Stone, killed her in a drunken rage in 1689 and was hanged; and Mary Lacey. (Mary Lacey and her daughter, also named Mary Lacey, were accused of witchcraft as well.)

In 1692, when a woman named Elizabeth Ballard came down with a fever that baffled doctors, witchcraft was suspected, and a search for the responsible witch began. Two afflicted girls from Salem village, Ann Putnam andMary Walcott, were taken to Andover to seek out the witch, and fell into fits at the sight of Ann Foster. Ann, 72, a widow of seven years, was arrested and taken to Salem prison.

A careful reading of the trial transcripts reveals that Ann resisted confessing to the 'crimes' she was accused of, despite being "put to the question" (i.e. tortured) multiple times over a period of days. However, her resolve broke when her daughter Mary Lacey, similarly accused of witchcraft, accused her own mother of the crime in order to save herself and her child. The transcripts reveal the anguish of a mother attempting to shield her child and grandchild by taking the burden of guilt upon herself.

Convicted, Ann died in the Salem jail after 21 weeks on December 3, 1692, before the trials were discredited and ended.

Ann's son, Abraham, later petitioned the authorities to clear her name ("remove the attainder") and reimburse the family for the expenses associated with her incarceration and burial.

My link to Ann:  Ann Alcock & Andrew Foster
                             Andrew Foster Jr. & Mary Russ
                             Hannah Foster & Thomas Austin Sr.
                             Thomas Austin Jr. & Sarah Lovejoy
                             Nathan Austin & Hannah Farnum
                             Nathan Austin Jr. & Phebe Barker
                             Daniel Austin & Martha (Polly) Barker
                             Daniel Austin Jr. & Lucretia Robbins
                             Gilmar B. Austin & Lucretia Parmley
                             Wilbur F. Austin & Nellie J. Marden
                              Ira D. Austin & Katharine Aura Hills
                      

[edit]References

1. ^ The Foster Genealogy (837 A.D. - 1998 A.D.) Andrew Foster or Forster, Andover Branch, Edson Foster Myer, 1999, NEHGR, p. 38.

"At last a chance to make my skeletons dance!"