Charles Bakehouse was the grandfather of the Bakehouses and the Kleinschmidts. He came to the United States in 1842 - to Keokuk County in the spring of 1843.
Grandparents: Charles (Karl) Bakehouse, born October 9, 1813. Married December, 1836 to Sophia Voltmer Magus Humpka. Died may 19, 1888. Sophia Voltmer Magus Humpka Bakehouse, born March 11, 1817, married in December 1846 to Charles (Karl) Bakehouse, died April 19,1903.
Their Children:
Fredrich Magus,
Dora Humpka (destroyed by wolves),
Dick Bakehouse,
2 baby boys lost to diphtheria,
Charley Bakehouse,
Sophia Bakehouse-Kleinschmidt,
Mary Bakehouse-Fritz.
CHARLES BAKEHOUSE
Heinrich Diedrich Freidrich Karl (Charles) Backhaus was born to Johann Diedrich Conrad Backhaus and Ilsea Dorthea E. Dohrman Backhaus on October 9, 1813. He was the 5th child of this union, and was born in the ancestral Backhaus home at Landesbergen, near Bremen, Germany.
Here he grew up to manhood with 8 brothers and sisters, six of which grew to adulthood. The oldest, Anna Marie, married George Friedrich Oldenburg and became the mother of eight children - of these Mrs. Louise Oldenburg Henke and her daughter Doretta Sophia Oldenburg Mayland and Doretta Oldenburg eventually came to live at Sigourney, Iowa.
Herman Heinrich Friedrich William Backhaus was the oldest brother, just younger than his sister Anna Marie. As was the custom in Germany, the oldest brother (son) became heir to the home place when he married. Now he must care for his parents the rest of their lives and his sisters until they married, or, if they remained single, the rest of their lives. The sons, except the oldest, must at 15 years of age shift for themselves. This is the reason that Karl (Charles) left home to work in the livery stable at Bremen. His brother, Diedrich (Dick), later also worked in that city.
Karl (Charles) visited often in his sister Anna Marie's home and loved all her children. He worked at whatever he could find to do, but his savings never amounted to much.
He heard many wonderful tales of the United States of America and his mind was more and more turning to the new world. Years were passing and when Karl was 24 years old his beloved oldest sister, Anna Marie, died at the age of 36 in the year 1837, leaving 7 living children.
Two years later, Karl's third sister Wilhelminia, married Anna Marie's husband, George Friedrich Oldenburg, and became the mother of 3 children ? a son, Henry Oldenburg and a pair of twins, George and Charlotta Oldenburg (Dohrman) - each eventually came to the United States.
Karl (Charles) Backhaus worked and saved but could not raise enough money for passage to the New World. One day he bought a lottery ticket with his last dollar. Yes, he spun a wheel of fortune, and luck was in his favor. He won $500 (this money was to have been bait). The men tried to persuade Karl (Charles) to try again saying that he, Karl, would do much better next time. They even followed him out into the street hoping to get the money back. But Karl Backhaus was well pleased with his luck. With this money and his few personal belongings, he left Landesbergen, Germany in 1842, never to see his home again. He left Bremen where he had worked, taking passage on a sailing ship at Bremenhaven for a trip to the United States of America. He came steerage to save money.
He landed in New Orleans and made his way to St Louis, Missouri. One day, in the winter of 1842?1843, he met a fellow worker, David Louis Voltmer, a man short of stature but an extra strong man. These two, Karl (Charles) and David (Dave), formed a partnership which they maintained for many, many years. These two men became and remained friends for their entire remaining lives. Later years found them brothers?in- law. Dave had visited Iowa the fall of 1842 while it was still a territory. (It did not become a state until December 28, 1846). He had been in and around what later became Keokuk County, Iowa. Land was selling for $1.25 an acre. There was virgin forest of great white oak, hickory, elm and other trees. Prairie hay grew on the flat land away from the streams. Turkeys, prairie chickens, wild geese, ducks and other game were there by the thousands and there were fish in abundance in the streams. The two partners decided to go to Iowa and enter their claims as soon as possible. They went the next spring, 1843.
They built their first cabin in the vicinity of the future town of Sigourney, ¼ mile east of the present home on the Lucas farm, 1 ½ miles south of Sigourney, Iowa.
The earliest settlement in Keokuk County was near Richland ? Aaron Miller and son built the first cabin.
The partners entered claims in 1843 on either bank of East Creek, which was called Polecat Creek. That winter, 1843?1844, Dave Voltmer went back to St Louis, Missouri to work to earn money, leaving Karl Backhaus to care for their cabin and belongings.
On December 31, 1843 Karl (Charles) Backhaus went to locate and stake out his claim. It was a nice winter day so he went on foot, but, as the day advanced, it began to snow, and before he knew what the weather might do, a terrible blizzard was around him. He thought he had located his claim, but was not sure. To keep from freezing to death, he walked all night around a tree. He was on "White Oak Ridge" (a part of George Bakehouse's farm now), which was a part of his claim. In the morning some Indians came by and took Karl (Charles) home to their tents for food and warmth. As Karl (Charles) was alone, he stayed with the Indians all that winter, only keeping an eye on his and Dave's cabin. By spring he was quite sure where their claims were, and as long as he lived, the original land was a part of his home acres. In the spring of 1844 he and Dave Voltmer built a cabin about 3/4 mile southeast of where the No. 10 school was built, or 2 miles southwest of the Stony Point school house, which was built a few years later.
There were Indians throughout this part of the country in which Dave and Karl (Charles) had entered their claims. Land was surveyed in Iowa from 1843 to 1846 and was sold by the government at $1.25 per acre; therefore, to raise more money, the partners alternated in returning to St. Louis each winter to work during that time and returned each spring. The other partner stayed in Iowa to look after their interests and guard them from the Indians and squatters who would try to move in.
Sigourney was established by Commissioner George H. Stone, Samuel Suffleton and John A. Steward who selected the county seat site on May 10, 1844. Samuel A James, county Clerk, built a log cabin in 1844 on the site of the Merchant Hotel - or the first Sigourney Hospital building on the south side of the square. In January 1845 the county board accepted the first courthouse from the builder, Wm. B. Thompson, paying $218.00 for the 20' x 24' building of hewn oak logs. The town honored the poetess, Lydia Sigourney, by naming the new town for this writer.
The county seat was moved to Lancaster on August 7, 1846, and, after some years and bitter disputes, it was returned to Sigourney on April 12, 1856. Later the railroads were routed through Sigourney.
Sometime in the fall of 1846 Dave relocated, and built his own cabin south and west of Karl's across the creek, and there he brought his bride, Christiana Mohme, in October 1850 from St Louis, Missouri, by way of Burlington, Iowa. They lived in this cabin home for a number of years. Later (1851 or 1852),they bought six hundred acres of land south and east of the No.9 school house. Here he and his wife lived, raised their large family, and celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on October 28, 1900.
In that first cabin, after Dave and Christiana moved to their new log cabin, Mr. and Mrs. Cassens, the parents, Mrs. Fred (Mary) Meyer, Mrs. Charles (Margaret) Seger, Mrs. William (Anna) Kuzman, Louise Cassens and Henry Cassens lived until their own house was built.
In the spring of 1846, Karl(Charles) Backhaus hired Dave Voltmer's sister ? Sophia Voltmer Magnus Humpka - as his housekeeper, along with her husband Mr. Humpka to help him farm. The Humpka family lived in Karl(Charles) Backhaus's cabin. Sometime in mid June Karl Backhaus made a trip to Burlington for supplies. While working in the field - hoeing corn- Mr. Humpka suffered a sunstroke and died a few hours after reaching the house. This left Sophia with her two children alone in a strange country. Dorthea Duensing, Sophia's sister, came to help as more ill fate struck Sophia, for her third child was born premature the night that her husband died.
Sophia became very ill and her two children suffered with sickness also.
They buried Mr. Humpka under the hickory tree near where the big barn is now. When Karl (Charles) Backhaus returned home to his cabin, he found everyone - Sophia, her two children and her sister Dorthea Duensing, all very ill. Mrs. Duensing said to him, "God, what a blessing that you have come home, for we are nearly starved and all but me are very, very ill". Karl (Charles) went out and gathered herbs and greens and cooked them for the sick ones, then cared for them all, nursing them back to health. Those home remedies were used so much in those early days and saved many lives, for doctors were few and miles from most pioneer's cabins. One of the old time home remedies for a cold was elderberry syrup ? made by boiling the elderberries and sweetening with honey. Onion syrup with honey was another remedy used for a cold. At bed time the invalid's throat and chest was rubbed with skunk oil. If no skunk oil was to be had, goose grease was used. An onion poultice on chest and back was used for pneumonia. For infection the common remedy was a thick slice of salt pork bound on the infected spot. Bread and milk poultices were also used for infection, boils, and other types of infection. Quinine was used for ague, a dreaded disease of the early pioneers. Karl (Charles) knew all these remedies, but thought a mess of greens was always a good tonic, so proceeded to fix it.
Charles (Karl) Bakehouse invited Sophia to continue as his housekeeper. Sometime later he promised her, if she would marry him, that he would build a new home for her, a large comfortable house with an upstairs and a stairway leading up to it, with windows and a door always open to their friends.
In December 1846 Sophia married Charles Bakehouse. Now she not only kept the house, but later became the mother of his children; Dick, 2 little boys (who died of diphtheria), William, Charles, Sophia and Mary.
Charles Bakehouse never turned an Indian away from his home. They were always welcome and never left empty handed. Sometimes they would stay days at a time.
Charles (Karl) worked hard clearing his land and soon raised more hogs than he could use. The hogs were kept near the barn through late fall and early winter. On a real, real cold day, all but the sows which were to raise the next year's litters of pigs, were butchered, then frozen and the frozen carcasses hauled to Burlington, Iowa and sold. The sows, when the little pigs were due, were turned loose - to live in the timber until fall when they were rounded up after the acorns and nuts had been eaten by them. They were fed some corn until butchering time. Hard work? Yes, but one way of turning the surplus hogs into money. Some drove their hogs to Burlington or Fairfield, and later to Ottumwa. As time passed, it was possible to sell hogs and cattle to buyers in Sigourney, who would drive a herd to these towns.
Charles (Karl) was so pleased with his home in Iowa that his letters back to Germany encouraged his youngest sister Dorthea Marie Louise Backhaus Strohman, her husband and 4 children, and nephew and niece, Henry and Caroline Oldenburg, to come to America and to Iowa in 1856. This sister lived just east of the No. 10 school. Of all the children, only Dick and Fred grew up.
Dick was born February 18, 1851. He married Henrietta Kracht in 1880. They had one daughter, Emma, born January 6, 1884. She married John Schwenke, and had one son, John Richard Schwenke. Dick's father died in 1883 but the mother lived in Dick's home until December 26, 1906. Henrietta Strohman died August 29, 1943, at age 86, but Dick lived until November 18, 1949, to the age of 98. Both Dick and Fred Strohman worked for Charles (Karl) Bakehause until they went into their own homes.
Fred D. Strohman was born July 24, 1856, the same year his folks came to Iowa. He married Christinia Voltmer (born August 13, 1851) on October 21, 1870. They went to housekeeping in her father's log cabin, which was south and west of the Bakehouse's - across the creek. They lived in this cabin until they could build their own cabin on their own land which is still called the "Fred Strohman Place" - west and a little south of the old Dave Voltmer cabin. This land is now owned by Charles Cassens. Fred D. and Christinia had 13 children - 10 grew up to adulthood:
Dick Strohman
Both brothers built large comfortable homes and had good farms. Dick's home
was
more modern as he put in electricity when it was available, around 1905 or
1906. Dick
sold his farm, built a new house in Sigourney and moved to town, but Fred and
Christinia lived all their remaining days on their farm.
Diedrich Bakehouse, just 3 years younger than Charles (Karl), came to the United
States by way of New Orleans and made his way to St. Louis, Missouri. Here he
worked in a hardware store, saved his money, and later came to Sigourney. He
bought
the land just north of his sister, Dorthea Strohman and married Louise
Speckmeyer.
They had seven children, but just 2 sons - Fred and Dick - grew to manhood.
Fred
married Mary Nass and built a new house on half of the land his father had
bought.
They had 2 sons, Archie and Roy and one daughter, Mildred Carnfix.
Dick married Margaret Leurs. They too built a new house on the other half of
the land
bought by his father. Margaret died when her baby, Margaret, was born, leaving
Lucy,
Albert, Alvina and baby Margaret to the care of the grandmothers Leurs and
Bakehouse. All but Alvina grew to adulthood.
Charles Bakehouse's sister, Wilhelminnie, had married her brother?in?law, George
Oldenburg, after her sister Anna Marie's death, leaving 7 children. George and
Wilhelminnie had 3 children ? all of which, when they grew up, came to the
United
States. Henry, the oldest, settled in Oklahoma. In 1864 George Oldenberg, one
of a
pair of twins ? a boy and a girl ? came to the United States and to Sigourney.
He
worked as a hired hand. When his sister, Charlotta Oldenburg Dohrman and her
husband Fred came to Iowa in 1871, George moved in with his sister at the Cooper
place. They lived in this home for 3 years; the men working as hired men and as
masons. This house was just 3/4 of a mile east of the No.10 schoolhouse on the
south
side of the road and just north of the Charles Bakehouse place.
The Dohrmans moved to Chicago. In 1876 they settled on a farm west of Hampton,
Iowa. They had 7 children:
Fred Dohrman
George Oldenburg, in 1873, bought 80 acres of farm land northeast of the county-
home farm. On February 6, 1875 he married Anna Bruns - a sister of Mrs. Henry
Duensing. (These 2 sisters - Adlied Bruns, 16 years old, and Anna Bruns, 14
years old
had come alone from Germany in 1867. Each became farmer's wives, and had nice
homes and families.) George and Anna Oldenburg's children are:
Minnie Oldenburg (died when 1 year old)
With the Dohrmans had come a young man, Fredrick Wilkening, for whom they were
responsible. He went with them to Chicago and finally to Hampton, Iowa. He had
worked as a hired man and had lived with the Dohrmans at the Cooper place.
In 1872 Louise Oldenburg, third child of Anna Maria Oldenburg, and daughter
Doretta
came to America and to Sigourney to her uncle Charles Bakehouse's home. Later
they
lived with the Fred Dohrman's family at the Cooper place. Still later, Louise
married
Henry Henke, a widower with one son, Dick. She moved to Mr. Henke's home 6
miles
south of Sigourney. Her daughter Doretta lived there also. Louise and Henry
Henke
had one son who grew to manhood but died when he was in his early twenties.
Mrs.
Louise Henke lived all her remaining days on that farm. . Born April 2, 1826,
she died
May 2, 1921 at the age of 95 years. Fredrick (Fred) Wilkening later married
Doretta
Oldenburg, Louise Henke's daughter.
Sophia Oldenburg, the 8th child of George and Anna Marie Backhaus Oldenburg,
married Ernest Mayland. They had 8 children:
Marie married August Bruns, 5 children
Sophia and her family had a rough time. In 1886, Marie came to America. The
father
followed her but the girl would have nothing to do with him. When the family
came in
December 1886, landing on Christmas Day morning - the family would have nothing
to
do with the father. Sophia and her family started immediately for Sigourney.
She and
her children lived 3 years on the Henke farm with Louise Henke's family. The
father
followed them to Iowa, but the family shunned him. After a time, Sophia
divorced
Ernest Mayland. She had never lived with him in America. Sophia then moved to
Sigourney and lived 34 years there. She sent for her sister, Doretta Oldenburg,
who
lived in the Oldenburg home at Landesbergen, Germany, with her brother
Diedrich's
family. Doretta had never married and was not of a pleasant disposition. She
made
her home with Sophia. Mrs. Mayland was 82 years old when she died on March 1,
1920.
Caroline Oldenburg Schwenke, daughter of George and Anna Marie Backhaus
Oldenburg, was born May 6th, 1828 in the old Oldenburg home in Landesbergen,
Germany near Bremen. She grew up under the guidance of her step?mother, who was
her mother's sister. When her Aunt (Dorethea) Dorette and family and her
half?brother Henry left Germany September 12, 1856 for the United States to live
at Sigourney, Iowa, she joined the party expecting to live with Charles (Karl)
Bakehouse, her uncle.
She made her home with her Aunt Doretta but married Fred Schwenke in 1858. The
following year when her little son, Henry, was born on December 7, 1859, she
died,
leaving her little son to his father's care. In 1851 Fred Schwenke came to
German
(Plank) Township, bought 127 acres, built a log cabin and he expected it to be
his
home. Little Henry lived with his father after he married Anna Marie Leurs.
Their
children are:
Dave Schwenke
The Fred Schwenke farm was east and a little south of the Henry Duensing's farm
and
just north of the Will Wickencamp farm. In time he built a modern home, but the
log
house still stands (1965) in which Caroline died and in which his family and
Henry grew up.
Charles Bakehouse drew his family to America by his description of the new
country he
was loving so dearly. In Germany, there remained of the (Backhaus) Bakehouse
family
of which (Karl) Charles was the 5th child, his oldest brother Herman Heinrich
Friedrich
William Backhaus, who lived in the old Backhaus Home with his family. Just a
short
distance across the street in the old Oldenburg home (old guesthaus) lives his
sister
Wilhelminnie, 2nd wife of George Oldenburg, and his son Diedrich (son of Anna
Marie)
and his family.
All the others who grew to adulthood - except Anna Marie, and Caroline, who died
-
came to the United States.
1 brother - Diedrich Bakehouse
All lived to have nice homes and to enjoy a long life - some extra long. Most
of them
lived to see their grandchildren, and all loved the log cabin Charles Bakehouse
built for
his bride in 1846. How proud Charles Bakehouse was of his little grandson,
little
Charles Kleinschmidt son of Sophia and Gotlieb Kleinschmidt, who died when only
3 years old. Charles Bakehouse died May 19, 1888, past 75 years.
Charles Bakehouse Home built 1846. This is back and west end of house with the
smoke-house.
Early Pioneer Home of Keokuk county. Built by Charles Bakehouse in 1844.
Front side of log cabin home of Sophia and Charles Bakehouse and their 5
children
Dick, William, Charley, Sophia and Mary.
Tillie Strohman Blaise
Dave Strohman
Sophia Strohman Standfield
Lucy Strohman Standfield
Louis Strohman
Walter Strohman
Mabel Strohman Siep
Lena Dohrman Rodemeyer
Louis Dohrman
George Dohrman
Edward Dohrman
Anna Dohrman Behm
Bertha Dohrman Goode
George Oldenburg married Clara Kilmer
Dora Oldenburg Mayland
Adelhied (Addie) Oldenburg Lubkeman
Louise (Lucy) Oldenburg Rusbolt
Augusta (Gussie) Oldenburg Holden
Fritz Oldenburg (died - small)
Charlotta (Lottie) Oldenburg Edwards
Sophia married Charley Townsend
Ernest married Dora Oldenburg Mayland
Fred married Dora Kilmer Mayland, 2 children
Louise married Dick Henke
Charley died as a young man
William married Rene Frear, 2 children
Dick married Alice , 1 child
Herman Schwenke (married Etta Kilmer)
Caroline Schwenke Buehneman
Mary Schwenke Strohman
Fred Schwenke (married Mary Buehneman)
Martha Schwenke
John Schwenke (Married Emma Strohman)
Dora Schwenke Goeldmer (Charles)
George Schwenke (Married Clyda Gonder)
1 sister - Dorthea Strohman
2 nephews -Dick and Fred Strohman
2 nephews - Henry and George Oldenburg
4 nieces - Caroline Oldenburg Schwenke
nnnnnnnnn Charlotte Oldenburg
Dohrman
nnnnnnnnn Louise
Oldenburg Henke
nnnnnnnnn Sophia
Oldenburg Mayland
1 great nephew - Henry Schwenke
1 great niece - Doretta Oldenburg Wilkening
