Wirth - Reutzel
The Wirth Branch
Conventions used:
Numbers preceding names refer to generations, beginning with my maternal grandfather.
b. = born
d. = died
m. = married
1. Fred Henry Wirth
b. July 8, 1902, Schenectady, New York
d. January 16, 1980, Doylestown, Pennsylvania (funeral held at Neshaminy Warwick Presbyterian Church)
Notes: Some of his childhood was spent in Castleton, New York. He was a Presbyterian minister, pastoring in a German Reformed church (one of the ones that united to form the United Church of Christ) because he could preach in German, Brooklyn, New York (where my mother grew up during the Depression until halfway through high school amidst a melting pot including Italian and Jewish neighbors), then Bergenfield, New Jersey, moving to Bucks County, Pennsylvania around 1959-60. He built furniture, restored antiques, developed his own photos in a home darkroom, wrote poetry and hymn lyrics, and played the trumpet. He was a great teller of jokes, and had one for every occasion, often in the "pun" department, e.g., "You're built upside down if your nose runs and your feet smell." He smoked a pipe, and if ever I smell the aroma of a pipe...not really a trend nowadays, it gives me warm fuzzies and takes me back to the happy days of childhood visits with Grandpa and Grandma. According to some relatives, in earlier life he was very much the German patriarchal figure, not to be challenged, but by the time I got to know him, he'd evidently mellowed a good deal. For his antique restoration work, he occasionally took payment in kind, thus the 1870s reed organ that was in their basement throughout my childhood. When I was in high school, he was going to sell it, but I spoke up and he gave it to me for free. I still have it and hope to have it restored when I become independently wealthy. He died of pancreatic cancer that metathesized to the liver. He was buried at the Forest Grove Presbyterian Church where he had pastored. His only sibling, Eleanor Wirth Boehne, known to us simply as "Auntie," who lived in Saratoga Springs, New York, was a close member of the clan until her death on April 22, 2002.
View image Fred as a toddler
View image Eleanor, Friedrich, Elise, and Fred Wirth
m. June 7, 1929
View image Fred and Marie, Christmas 1974
View image Photo taken for their 50th wedding anniversary
Marie Schneidenbach
b. March 3, 1903, Newark, New Jersey
d. April 21, 1999, Buckingham, Pennsylvania
2a. Friedrich J. Wirth
b. December 24, 1876, No. 205 1/2 Wachenheimerstrasse, Dürkheim, Germany
d. April 2, 1961
View image age 16
View image In his Spanish-American War uniform
View image His home in Dürkheim, Germany
Notes: Immigrated to the U.S. in 1890 at age 14; was a Spanish-American War veteran; worked as a toolmaker for General Electric and also helped build dykes on the Hudson River. Buried in Mt. View Cemetery, Schodack, New York. I have heard rumors he may have had an anger management issue in the domestic department, not to speak ill of the dead.
m.
2b. Elise Reutzel
b. February 1, 1882, Gedern, Germany (province of Hessen)
d. July 4, 1963
View image Age 16
View image Her home in Gedern, Germany
Notes: Immigrated to the U.S. in ?; was a homemaker; a bleeding heart plant in my yard is descended from one in her garden, via my aunt. My mother describes her as a person who responded to beauty; even if their home was not fancy, it was shön. Also buried in Mt. View Cemetery, Schodack, New York.
View image My yard
3a. Friedrich Wirth
b. December 4, 1831, Dürkheim, Germany
d. ?
Notes: Worked as a stone cutter; immigrated to U.S. and died soon after
m. September 25, 1854 Schlosskirche, Dürkheim
3b. Anna Margaretha Buehler
b. December 30, 1832
d. 1900
View image Margaret Buehler Wirth
Notes: Anna Margaretha was buried in Mt. View Cemetery, Schodack, New York. They had 9 children: Johanna, Margaretha, Theodor, Christina, Elizabeth (who married a Landmann), Catherina "Katie," Anna Maria, Philip, and Friedrich.
Notes from Sue Peters, who is descended from Catherina in the preceding sentence: From the Ancestry.com passenger lists, Magaretha Wirth with children Anna and Friedrich arrived 18 Oct 1890 at the port of New York from Bremen. They were aboard the Trave and traveled with two pieces of luggage. It is not stated whether they had ever been in the country before, or not.
3c. Henry/Heinrich Reutzel
b. October 28, 1848, Wenings, Germany
d. January 10, 1910, Castleton, New York
View image Henry Reutzel
Notes: According to the account at the bottom of this page, he was a flour mill worker and coach driver in Germany; immigrated to the U.S., where he was a farmer; three children: William, Henry, and my great-grandmother Elise; died of typhoid fever, which my grandfather, Fred, also contracted after having attended the funeral. (This fact comes from memoirs Grandpa wrote, which I need to revisit.)
m.
3d. Maria Landmann
b. November 9, 1854, Gedern, Germany
d. April 17, 1913
View image Maria Landmann
View image Maria seated
View image William Reutzel (1872-1953), brother of Elise Reutzel, age 18
4a. Johann Friedrich Wirth
b. circa 1790
d. ?
Notes: Grower of wine grapes.
m. September 14, 1817, Dürkheim, Germany
4b. Anna Maria Kraemer
b. circa 1797, Kriegsheim, Germany
d. October 11, 1859
4c. Gottfried Buehler
m.
4d. Anna Margaretha Gebhard
4e. Johann Christoph Landmann
b. January 22, 1830, Gedern, Germany
d. February 9, 1873
m.
4f. Johanna Elisabeth Diehl
b. April 8, 1831, Gedern, Germany
d. February 1868
5a. Jaacob Kramer
m.
5b. Catherina Rissen
5c. Conrad Johannes Landmann
b. December 25, 1797, Gedern, Germany
d. May 30, 1856
m.
5d. Catherine Magdalene Oechler
b. December 4, 1795, Gedern, Germany
d. February 21, 1853
5e. Christiaan Frederik De Waal (according to ancestry.com member)
b. October 5, ?, Gedern, Germany
m.
5f. Christine ? (according to ancestry.com member)
6a. Martin Wirth
b. Dürkheim, Rheinpfalz, Bavaria, Germany
Notes: Worked as a butcher.
m.
6b. Catherine Janz
6c. Jacob Landmann
b. August 20, 1770, Gedern, Germany
d. May 5, 1853
Note: Worked as a stone mason
m.
6d. Johanna Elisabeth Strudd
b. March 19, 1776, Gedern, Germany
d. March 5, 1845
6e. Pieter Jacobus De Waal (according to ancestry.com member)
b. July 18
m.
6f. Johanna W. Zietsman (according to ancestry.com member)
Landmann notes: My mother and her family attended U.S. Landmann family reunions around Castleton, New York each Labor Day weekend until around 1954, when the older (immigrant) generation started to die out.
Members of our family have a large scroll on which is drawn the family tree of all the descendants of Jacob Landmann.
Following is a travelogue about a visit my great-grandparents made to Gedern:
"A few hours' drive northeast from the City of Frankfurt, in the State of Hessen, southwest Germany, lies the small village of Gedern. In that village of several thousand people lived our Landmann ancestors, and from that village they emigrated to America in the period of years from 1840 to 1890.
"On August 4, 1953, it was the good fortune of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Wirth of Schenectady to arrive there as 'Auslanders' for a visit to the house where Mrs. Fred (Elise) was born, and to spend a few days among the other relatives who never emigrated. They stayed at the 'Gast Haus,' now very modernly fitted out with electricity. Many years ago Mrs. Wirth's father drove the coach from Gedern to Darmstadt. Most of the houses in Gedern have a portion of the house for cattle, similar to the attached garages in American houses. Everything is of the utmost cleanliness.
"The Wirths...worshipped one Sunday at the Evangelical Church [my German is rusty; is this the correct church http://www.evkirchegedern.de/content/kirche/index.php] where Mrs. Wirth and also all our forefathers were baptized in the Fount. The first Landmann in the church registry was Jacob Landmann, born the 20th day of August, 1770, in Gedern, a mason by trade. There are several Landmanns now living in Gedern...They all said they were related. The old Landmann homestead is still standing. If it had a new front door and new windows it even now would outlast many built here several hundred years later.
"While the village wasn't damaged in the Second World War, as it is a small rural village, the church lost its three bells toward the war effort. Two were subsequently returned and one is still to be remolded in Hamburg. The troops that passed through the village took everything that was of value. Most of the villagers now are rather threadbare, and just have the necessities of life. It is the custom in Germany not to serve coffee with the meal, but to have coffee and cake about three or four o'clock in the afternoon...There is a flour mill in Gedern formerly run by water power, but now by electricity. Elise Wirth's father also worked there.
"There is a large castle, Gedern Schloss, in the village, formerly the residence of the Graf Stolberg (the overseer)."
Note on origin of surname Wirth: I understand it is an occupational name, meaning innkeeper.
Conventions used:
Numbers preceding names refer to generations, beginning with my maternal grandfather.
b. = born
d. = died
m. = married
1. Fred Henry Wirth
b. July 8, 1902, Schenectady, New York
d. January 16, 1980, Doylestown, Pennsylvania (funeral held at Neshaminy Warwick Presbyterian Church)
Notes: Some of his childhood was spent in Castleton, New York. He was a Presbyterian minister, pastoring in a German Reformed church (one of the ones that united to form the United Church of Christ) because he could preach in German, Brooklyn, New York (where my mother grew up during the Depression until halfway through high school amidst a melting pot including Italian and Jewish neighbors), then Bergenfield, New Jersey, moving to Bucks County, Pennsylvania around 1959-60. He built furniture, restored antiques, developed his own photos in a home darkroom, wrote poetry and hymn lyrics, and played the trumpet. He was a great teller of jokes, and had one for every occasion, often in the "pun" department, e.g., "You're built upside down if your nose runs and your feet smell." He smoked a pipe, and if ever I smell the aroma of a pipe...not really a trend nowadays, it gives me warm fuzzies and takes me back to the happy days of childhood visits with Grandpa and Grandma. According to some relatives, in earlier life he was very much the German patriarchal figure, not to be challenged, but by the time I got to know him, he'd evidently mellowed a good deal. For his antique restoration work, he occasionally took payment in kind, thus the 1870s reed organ that was in their basement throughout my childhood. When I was in high school, he was going to sell it, but I spoke up and he gave it to me for free. I still have it and hope to have it restored when I become independently wealthy. He died of pancreatic cancer that metathesized to the liver. He was buried at the Forest Grove Presbyterian Church where he had pastored. His only sibling, Eleanor Wirth Boehne, known to us simply as "Auntie," who lived in Saratoga Springs, New York, was a close member of the clan until her death on April 22, 2002.
View image Fred as a toddler
View image Eleanor, Friedrich, Elise, and Fred Wirth
m. June 7, 1929
View image Fred and Marie, Christmas 1974
View image Photo taken for their 50th wedding anniversary
Marie Schneidenbach
b. March 3, 1903, Newark, New Jersey
d. April 21, 1999, Buckingham, Pennsylvania
2a. Friedrich J. Wirth
b. December 24, 1876, No. 205 1/2 Wachenheimerstrasse, Dürkheim, Germany
d. April 2, 1961
View image age 16
View image In his Spanish-American War uniform
View image His home in Dürkheim, Germany
Notes: Immigrated to the U.S. in 1890 at age 14; was a Spanish-American War veteran; worked as a toolmaker for General Electric and also helped build dykes on the Hudson River. Buried in Mt. View Cemetery, Schodack, New York. I have heard rumors he may have had an anger management issue in the domestic department, not to speak ill of the dead.
m.
2b. Elise Reutzel
b. February 1, 1882, Gedern, Germany (province of Hessen)
d. July 4, 1963
View image Age 16
View image Her home in Gedern, Germany
Notes: Immigrated to the U.S. in ?; was a homemaker; a bleeding heart plant in my yard is descended from one in her garden, via my aunt. My mother describes her as a person who responded to beauty; even if their home was not fancy, it was shön. Also buried in Mt. View Cemetery, Schodack, New York.
View image My yard
3a. Friedrich Wirth
b. December 4, 1831, Dürkheim, Germany
d. ?
Notes: Worked as a stone cutter; immigrated to U.S. and died soon after
m. September 25, 1854 Schlosskirche, Dürkheim
3b. Anna Margaretha Buehler
b. December 30, 1832
d. 1900
View image Margaret Buehler Wirth
Notes: Anna Margaretha was buried in Mt. View Cemetery, Schodack, New York. They had 9 children: Johanna, Margaretha, Theodor, Christina, Elizabeth (who married a Landmann), Catherina "Katie," Anna Maria, Philip, and Friedrich.
Notes from Sue Peters, who is descended from Catherina in the preceding sentence: From the Ancestry.com passenger lists, Magaretha Wirth with children Anna and Friedrich arrived 18 Oct 1890 at the port of New York from Bremen. They were aboard the Trave and traveled with two pieces of luggage. It is not stated whether they had ever been in the country before, or not.
3c. Henry/Heinrich Reutzel
b. October 28, 1848, Wenings, Germany
d. January 10, 1910, Castleton, New York
View image Henry Reutzel
Notes: According to the account at the bottom of this page, he was a flour mill worker and coach driver in Germany; immigrated to the U.S., where he was a farmer; three children: William, Henry, and my great-grandmother Elise; died of typhoid fever, which my grandfather, Fred, also contracted after having attended the funeral. (This fact comes from memoirs Grandpa wrote, which I need to revisit.)
m.
3d. Maria Landmann
b. November 9, 1854, Gedern, Germany
d. April 17, 1913
View image Maria Landmann
View image Maria seated
View image William Reutzel (1872-1953), brother of Elise Reutzel, age 18
4a. Johann Friedrich Wirth
b. circa 1790
d. ?
Notes: Grower of wine grapes.
m. September 14, 1817, Dürkheim, Germany
4b. Anna Maria Kraemer
b. circa 1797, Kriegsheim, Germany
d. October 11, 1859
4c. Gottfried Buehler
m.
4d. Anna Margaretha Gebhard
4e. Johann Christoph Landmann
b. January 22, 1830, Gedern, Germany
d. February 9, 1873
m.
4f. Johanna Elisabeth Diehl
b. April 8, 1831, Gedern, Germany
d. February 1868
5a. Jaacob Kramer
m.
5b. Catherina Rissen
5c. Conrad Johannes Landmann
b. December 25, 1797, Gedern, Germany
d. May 30, 1856
m.
5d. Catherine Magdalene Oechler
b. December 4, 1795, Gedern, Germany
d. February 21, 1853
5e. Christiaan Frederik De Waal (according to ancestry.com member)
b. October 5, ?, Gedern, Germany
m.
5f. Christine ? (according to ancestry.com member)
6a. Martin Wirth
b. Dürkheim, Rheinpfalz, Bavaria, Germany
Notes: Worked as a butcher.
m.
6b. Catherine Janz
6c. Jacob Landmann
b. August 20, 1770, Gedern, Germany
d. May 5, 1853
Note: Worked as a stone mason
m.
6d. Johanna Elisabeth Strudd
b. March 19, 1776, Gedern, Germany
d. March 5, 1845
6e. Pieter Jacobus De Waal (according to ancestry.com member)
b. July 18
m.
6f. Johanna W. Zietsman (according to ancestry.com member)
Landmann notes: My mother and her family attended U.S. Landmann family reunions around Castleton, New York each Labor Day weekend until around 1954, when the older (immigrant) generation started to die out.
Members of our family have a large scroll on which is drawn the family tree of all the descendants of Jacob Landmann.
Following is a travelogue about a visit my great-grandparents made to Gedern:
"A few hours' drive northeast from the City of Frankfurt, in the State of Hessen, southwest Germany, lies the small village of Gedern. In that village of several thousand people lived our Landmann ancestors, and from that village they emigrated to America in the period of years from 1840 to 1890.
"On August 4, 1953, it was the good fortune of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Wirth of Schenectady to arrive there as 'Auslanders' for a visit to the house where Mrs. Fred (Elise) was born, and to spend a few days among the other relatives who never emigrated. They stayed at the 'Gast Haus,' now very modernly fitted out with electricity. Many years ago Mrs. Wirth's father drove the coach from Gedern to Darmstadt. Most of the houses in Gedern have a portion of the house for cattle, similar to the attached garages in American houses. Everything is of the utmost cleanliness.
"The Wirths...worshipped one Sunday at the Evangelical Church [my German is rusty; is this the correct church http://www.evkirchegedern.de/content/kirche/index.php] where Mrs. Wirth and also all our forefathers were baptized in the Fount. The first Landmann in the church registry was Jacob Landmann, born the 20th day of August, 1770, in Gedern, a mason by trade. There are several Landmanns now living in Gedern...They all said they were related. The old Landmann homestead is still standing. If it had a new front door and new windows it even now would outlast many built here several hundred years later.
"While the village wasn't damaged in the Second World War, as it is a small rural village, the church lost its three bells toward the war effort. Two were subsequently returned and one is still to be remolded in Hamburg. The troops that passed through the village took everything that was of value. Most of the villagers now are rather threadbare, and just have the necessities of life. It is the custom in Germany not to serve coffee with the meal, but to have coffee and cake about three or four o'clock in the afternoon...There is a flour mill in Gedern formerly run by water power, but now by electricity. Elise Wirth's father also worked there.
"There is a large castle, Gedern Schloss, in the village, formerly the residence of the Graf Stolberg (the overseer)."
Note on origin of surname Wirth: I understand it is an occupational name, meaning innkeeper.
