It was not long before Sophia's sister Dorethea, who had married Christian Duensing and had three little girls and a baby boy, began to plan to emigrate to the new country. Sophia had married Mr. F. Magus, whose people had the marriage annulled. She did have a son, Friedrich Magus, 5 years old at this time. Sophia then married Mr. Humpka and they had a little girl, Dora, three years old. Mr. Humpka and Sophia and their two children planned to accompany the Christian Duensings to America when they left Germany May, 1845.
Both families sailed from Bremenhaven, Germany sometime in May and landed at New Orleans, Louisiana where they stayed for almost a year. Sometime in February or March 1846, they made their way to St Louis.
One thing that happened while they were in, St Louis ? at that time, one way to make money was to go just outside the city and pick up buffalo bones. Buffalo bones sold for one cent a pound. The two sisters, Sophia and Dorthea D. left their 4 little girls and the baby boy with Fred Magus to care for them. The ladies were gone most of the day (their husbands had work too.) At evening when they returned, they found the little girls and the baby alone. When it grew dark and supper time, Fred Magus cane home. When asked, "Where have you been?" he answered, "I've been to see the town." (in German).
When Dave Voltmer, Sophia's and Dorthea's brother, came to St. Louis the winter of 1845?46 to work, he found his sisters some time in late winter. Both families decided to go to Iowa with him when he returned to Sigourney, Keokuk County, Iowa in May 1846.
Dorethea and Christian Duensing and family bought 80 acres of land at $1.25 an acre, two miles east of Sigourney, Iowa. Later, more acres were added. They lived the rest of their days on that land. Later it became the farm of their son Henry, who added more acres, making it a 303 acre farm which, from 1927?1952, was owned and operated by Henry's two sons, John and Fred Duensing. After the death of John Duensing on June 11, 1952, the south part (163 acres) was sold. Fred kept the north part (140 acres) which had been the greater part of the original 80 acres.
Since Sophia and her husband did not have extra money for land after their trip across, Mr. Humpka went to work for Karl (Charles) Bakehouse, a bachelor friend and partner of Dave Voltmer, Sophia's brother. She worked as cook and housekeeper for Mr. Backhaus and in that way they ? her family ? had a home ? such as it was ? a one room log cabin with a deer skin for a door.
In late June of 1846 Karl (Charles) Bakehouse made a trip to Burlington, Iowa, for supplies. While he was away, hot June weather set in. Mr. Humpka worked hoeing corn. One day while at work, he became very ill. He made his way home but grew more ill on arriving there. He had suffered a sunstroke and passed away by early evening. That night Sophia's heart was broken. Here she was in a strange land with 2 small children. What should she do? Before day broke, her third child was born premature.
When Karl(Charles) Bakehouse returned a few days later, he found Sophia, her sister, and Sophia's children ill. He took care of all of the sick ones and when they were some better, Karl (Charles) comforted Sophia ? telling her since she was living in his house she was to stay there and after a while she might be willing to become his wife. Mr. Humpka was buried near the Karl (Charles) Bakehouse home. Sophia always saw that the grave was always well fenced and that flowers were placed on it often.
In the fall Karl (Charles) Bakehouse told Sophia if she would marry him, he would build a new house much larger than his. So, through the late fall and early winter of 1846 Karl (Charles) Bakehouse built a new log cabin. It had 5 rooms downstairs and a large loft with 2 rooms and a closed stairway which led up to the loft. Later a cellar was built on the northwest corner which was entered only from the inside of the house. There was a large porch on the south made by continuing the house roof. Later a summer kitchen, which had a large fireplace, was built to the west side of the porch and south of the kitchen, which was at the west end of the log cabin. This was later closed and a cook stove was used. The well was on the porch and for many years had a bucket and windlass, but in 1894 a pump was installed.
This large log house was so well built that it stood after both Charles and Sophia had left this world. Early in 1920 it still had a good roof and walls, but it was used as a sheep barn and eventually fell down and is almost gone. Only the well is left and a few walls.
In Dec. 1846 Sophia Voltmer Magus Humpka became the wife of Charles (Karl) Bakehouse, keeping his house and later becoming the mother of his children - Dick , two little boys who died with diphtheria, William, Charley, Sophia and Mary.
A large orchard was planted north of the cabin home and a large smoke house was built just north of the cabin.
Sophia's oldest son, Fred Magus, whom she had brought with her from Germany, grew up in the Bakehouse home. He married Katherine Klett Gruber. They went to farming on a farm near Garabaldi, Iowa. Three daughters came to make up their family - Sophia, who married Henry Cassens; Mary, who married John Strupp; and Henrietta, who married Nick Strupp.
Sophia's dearly beloved daughter, Dora Humpka, grew to be about 5 years old when she made that fatal trip to Aunt Dorethea Duensing's that fall day when little Dora lost her way and when night and a storm overtook her, was destroyed by wolves before morning.
Many people stayed in the Bakehouse home. It was a stopping place for the covered wagons on their way west to the gold fields and the prairie country west. Late one afternoon a covered wagon containing a family stopped and asked for shelter for the night. This family was on the way west to the gold fields of California. Sophia told them they were welcome to stay, that she never turned anyone away who asked and needed shelter. The mother of the family said "Well, soon another wagon will come but I tell you this - don't let them come in or even stop anywhere near for they are very, very sick. Don't let them stay here." Sophia's temper rose and she answered that mother "Go back to your wagon every one of you and move on, for that wagon with the sick ones needs the room in my house and the care and shelter we can give them. Move on so those who really need help will have plenty of room." Later that evening the second wagon arrived at the Charles Bakehouse home. There were several children who were very ill, with what proved to be diphtheria. A number of the visiting little folks died, including the two little boys of the Bakehouse's. These people stayed until spring, then moved on to California.
Charles and Sophia Bakehouse opened their home to the Nauman family when the Nauman house was destroyed by fire, and for more than a year the Nauman family lived at the Bakehouses until a new house could be built.
Sophia and Charles Bakehouse were real pioneers. Just one of the happenings in their work-a-day life - Once on a certain Saturday afternoon Sophia went, with her husband, to town. On her lap reposed a basket of carefully packed eggs which were to be used in trade for a few of the store goods that the pioneers allowed themselves. The oxen had not been working hard for a long time and, being well fed, were feeling their oats. They caught sight of something along side of the road and immediately shied and began to run. In the excitement the husband fell out of the cart, but his wife clung to the seat with one hand and the eggs with the other. Her husband, Charles, shouted after her Sophi-a, Soph-i-a!! Throw the eggs - to - the - devil! But she did not, and at last when the oxen stopped and the drive to town resumed, she triumphantly gave her basket of eggs to the store keeper without one egg broken.
Their cabin was lighted at first by an oil lamp, but soon they made candles of tallow poured into a candle mold, and when coal?oil became available, they had lamps. When callers came when the children grew up, they were shown all the new varieties of quilt blocks ? nine patch, fruit basket, both double and single wedding ring, baby's blocks, double T, log cabin, and many others. These quilts were beautiful with feather?stitch, the pin-wheel designs were marvelous and were much to be praised. Someone was sure to bring out the tin?types and daguerreotypes pictures of friends and relatives. The orchard and flower garden - in season - were visited and viewed. At lunch time, biscuits, honey, cold meat (dried beef), pickles, jelly, and spiced fruit were served many times with fresh coffee cake with cups of hot coffee (freshly ground).
Yes, Sophia and Charles Bakehouse were always ready to work and ready to lend a hand where needed. They owned many acres of Iowa land. Their large house was opened to any who wanted to stay the night.
Charles Bakehouse lived to be 75 years old. He died after a short illness of just a few hours of ? as we now know it,- might have been appendicitis. Charles was good?hearted but everything must go his way. He did not believe a girl needed an education, and boys need not go to school much. He did not send any of his children to school for very long, except Mary, who went for some time to Stony Point school. Mary wasn't very strong.
Sophia Voltmer Magus Humpka Bakehouse lived alone for 15 years after her husband's death. She had a number of hired girls. The first was Kate Wickencamp (a sister of Mrs. Jim Sieps ? Will Sieps mother), who stayed with Sophia quite a while. Another hired girl was Ida Mitchell, who was followed by Sophia Magus, who stayed until her marriage to Henry Cassens. Margaret Hoffman (Harry Mitchell's mother) was her hired girl for a long time, but she married Phillip Mitchell. By this time her grandchildren (Charley's children) stayed with her a great deal. The last five or six years, Maryann Bakehouse (Charles' second daughter) stayed all the time. Sophia died April 19, 1903 after almost 6 weeks of illness. She was 86 years old.
THE VOLTMER FAMILY
At Rodewald, a village about 20 miles northwest of Hanover, Germany.
1. Mary Voltmer Schwenke, born 1808, married Freidrick Schwenke, both died in
1831.
nnnnn Their children:
nnnnn a. Fred Schwenke, born _________, died
________,
nnnnnnnMarried Caroline Oldenburg Schwenke, born May 6,
1828, died Dec. 7, 1849 in
nnnnnnnnGerman township Keokuk Co., Iowa.
nnnnnnnTheir children:
nnnnn 1(a) Henry Schwenke, born Dec. 7,1849, died .
2. Dorethea Voltmer Duensing, born 1810, married Christian Duensing, died Mar.
25, 1886.
nnnnnChristian Duensing born 1808, died 1879.
nnnnn Their children:
nnnnn a. Dorothy Duensing Brinning, born
1835, died
3. William Voltmer, born 1812, stayed in Germany. The home place became his
when
he married.
4. David Louis Voltmer, born 1814, died 1904, married Christine Mohme.
5. Sophia Voltmer, born March 11, 1817, married F. Magus (marriage annuled), 1
son, Friedrich Magus.
nnnnn a. Dick Bakehouse
Dora Humpka was destroyed by wolves in the fall of 1847.
Grandparents Bakehouse
1.Dick Bakehouse, born 1847, died 1912, married Margaret Allen.
Their children:
2. Two little boys died with diphtheria.
3. William Bakehouse, born Jan, 27, 1851, married Martha Duwe.
Their children:
4. Charles Bakehouse, born March 2, 1853, married January 1, 1881 to Anna
Schulte, died Sept. 13, 1940. Anna Schulte Bakehouse, born Nov. 6, 1862,
died Feb. 8,1932.
Clara Bakehouse (Dr.)
5. Sophia Bakehouse Kleinschmidt born , March 4, 1856, married
Jan. 1, 1875 to Gotlieb E. Kleinschmidt, died March 18, 1918 Gotlieb
E. Kleinschmidt, born December 28, 1847, died October 31, 1926.
Charles Kleinschmidt
6. Mary Bakehouse Fritz, born May 26, 1858, married in 1880 to Anton Fritz,
died June 7, 1883.
Their children:
Francis Fritz, born March 15, 1881 died Sept. 18. 1884
Fredrich Magus (half brother of Will, Charles, Dick, Sophia and May),
The son brought with her from Germany in 1845,
born Nov. 9, 1838,
married Kate Klett Gruber, served Co. F 8th,
Iowa Vol.,
died December 15, 1898. Katharine Klett
Gruber Magus, born
Sept 16, 1840, married Fredrich Magus, died
January 12, 1912.
Their children:
Sophia Magus Cassens, married Henry Cassens, 9 children.
Mary Magus Strupp, Married John Strupp, one
child.
Henrietta Magus Strupp ? Nick Strupp
Fred (Magus) was busy. It seemed to him the baby's chief object in life was to
keep
him and Dora (Dora Humpka) busy. He could not remember when sister was a baby.
Yet he had shadowy recollections of that home across in Germany where he and
Dora
had been born.
But this little brother (Dick Bakehouse) was the sweetest, dearest little
darling in the
world ? when he wasn't crying. But he had been crying today and Fred was rather
glad
when his mother called him.
"Don't you want to go over to your Aunt Dorethea Duensing's" she asked "and tell
them
that father is coming home from Burlington today and we want them all to come
over to
the barn raising frolic tomorrow"?
Of course Fred wanted to go, and in a moment more he would have been off up the
path to his Aunt Dorethea's cabin two miles away had not Dora interrupted with
"Mother
let me go - Fred always stays so long."
"Why, no Dora, you are too little" answered her mother. "But I could tell them
just as
well as Fred. Now let me go Mother?" Dora begged.
The settlers wife thought of the long lonely walk through scattered timber where
there
were no houses, no fences, no road. A foot path had been made by oxen dragging
a
log through the tall prairie grass, but deer paths crossed this path making
quite an
intricate network. Then as she looked down at her daughter scarcely 5 years
old, she
shook her head in spite of the pleading face that was lifted to her. "But
mother, if you
will let me go, I'll hurry right back and take care of the baby today and
tomorrow and the
next day" pleaded Dora.
Our dog knows the path, thought the mother as she went about her after?dinner
work,
pleased with the memory of the happy face of the little girl in red who had
turned to
wave a merry "good?bye" just before she vanished over hill.
The afternoon waned, a black cloud came up in the west with the rumble of
thunder.
Supper time came and the dog came home - alone. At the sight of the dog, a
great
fear struck the mother's heart. Where was Dora? In the last two hours she had
gone
to the cabin door again and again to look anxiously across the clearing. Why
had the
child not come?
When her husband came home late in the evening, tired from his long ride, he
found
his wife pale and nervous. But when he learned the story he said "Don't worry
Sophia.
No doubt the child is staying the night at your sister's home."
The slow hours passed and still the storm raged. At midnight a great crash of
thunder
shook the earth. The mother threw up her hands, crying "This hour my child
dies!"
All night the storm roared on ?? a storm that the stoutest could not brave.
With the
early dawn Fred (Fred Magus) went to his Aunt Dorethea's cabin, but learned Dora
had
never reached there the day before.
With Fred's return home, the father spread the alarm to the scattered
neighbors. When
night came eighty men were scouring the woods. As they climbed over rocks,
toiled up
hillsides and crossed ravines, they wondered how a child, a fragile 5 year old,
could
have endured the hardships.
The searchers learned from Mrs. Stermer, that she had heard a shrill cry and
later three
big, hungry wolves came through the woods near her home on the evening when Dora
failed to come home. This lady's home was a little northeast of where later the
Stony
Point school was built. Anxiously the men listened for the firing of the signal
gun. But
morning came and the lost child was not found. Night came again. The news had
spread and fresh men joined the weary ones. Men crossed and re-crossed each
other's path, going over and over the ground, going as far west as where
Sigourney
now stands. But still no trace of the little girl was seen.
The next morning a council of the searchers was called. Perhaps the Indians had
stolen
Dora. The father offered a $500 in gold, reward for the return of the child.
To the early
settlers $500 in gold was an enormous amount of money. A party of men followed
the
Indians to their camp, but no golden haired little Dora played among the dusky
children
of the wigwams.
At length all but the mother gave up the search. She went over and over the
same
ground day after day. She did not heed the kindly advice of her friends to take
care of
herself, but went out in all sorts of weather, always accompanied by the dog
which had
frisked away so gayly with Dora on that October afternoon.
On the twenty-first day of her patient search the dog, which had preceded her,
gave a
Low, pitiful whine. At the sound, the mother rushed to where the dog crouched.
Was
her child found at last? Yes, for there among the November leaves lay a lock of
Dora's
hair and a torn sleeve of the little red dress she wore that fateful day. The
mother
carried home in her apron all that was mortal of Dora - a little wrist bone, a
lock of hair,
and the red sleeve of her dress. After the mother reached home she lay down and
slept and dreamed of her child. In her troubled sleep of the past, she had
often seen
Dora, but in those visions were hungry wolves, deep pools of water, and coiling
venomous snakes. But this night's dreams of Dora were of her happy and
radiant. The
next morning all that look of deep despair was gone from the mother's eyes. Now
she
looked forward hopefully to meet Dora.
Five weeks ago - April 19, 1903 - the summons came. The crowded church, and the
beautiful flowers on April 22, 1903 were silently showing love and respect to
the
dead. Loving hands (Sophia Bakehouse Kleinschmidt's) had placed with the mother
in
her coffin, the little wrist bone, the lock of golden hair and the little red
sleeve -
treasured fifty-six years.
The old home where Dora played and where the mother lived and died now stands
empty, but the memory of Mother Sophia Bakehouse still lives - a noble example
of the
purest love - Mother Love.
This is another front view of Charles and Sophia Bakehouse's log cabin. This
shows
the big chimney which furnished a fireplace in the kitchen and heat for the
house.
nnnnn c. Sophia Duensing Nanke, born 1839,
died 1868.
nnnnn d. Henry Duensing, born 1849, married
Adelheid Bruns, died1920.
nnnnn Christine Mohme Voltmer, born 1830, died
1905.
nnnnn They had 14 children and lived to celebrate
their Golden Wedding.
nnnnn Married Mr. Humpka, 1 daughter, Dora Humpka.
Mr. Humpka died June, 1846.
nnnnn Married Charles Bakehouse in December 1846,
died March 19, 1903.
nnnnn Their children:
nnnnn b. and c. Two little boys died with
diphtheria
nnnnn d. William Bakehouse
nnnnn e. Charles Bakehouse
nnnnn f. Sophia Bakehouse Kleinschmidt
nnnnn g. Mary Bakehouse Fritz
John Bakehouse
George Bakehouse (Bakus)
Etta Bakehouse Hayes
Charles Bakehouse, born 1884, died 1953
Henry Bakehouse, born 1883, died 1855
William Bakehouse, born Jan 25th, 1886 died Aug. 12,
1958.
Emma Bakehouse Hinnah, born May 28, 1889, died Sept. 11, 1955,
,br>
married Charley Hinnah, born Mar 21, 1872, died
Jan, 22, 1951. ,br>
Their children:,br>
Estrella Irene Hinnah Leurs
Albert Ward Hinnah,br>
Lizzie Bakehouse Klett - Albert Klett, born July 12,
1893, died April 16, 1952.
Their children:
Maryann Bakehouse (Painter)
Francis Bakehouse
Jennie Bakehouse
Helen Bakehouse White
Bertha Bakehouse Dissaint
George Bakehouse
Gertrude Bakehouse Galligan
Their children:
George Ernest Kleinschmidt
Clara Kleinschmidt
Mary (Marie) Kleinschmidt
Tillie Kleinschmidt
Ella Kleinschmidt Linder
Charley Kleinschmidt
Rosa Gertrud Kleinschmidt Duensing
Harry W. Kleinschmidt
Albert Ernest Edward Kleinschmidt
Arthur Fredrick Kleinschmidt
Lura Margaret Kleinschmidt Merck
(As Grandmother Bakehouse told it to Elsie Schilling Kirtpatic (Kirkpatrick?)
