A Brief History
of the BRATTMILLER family
as told by the Eula May,
the wife of William Brattmiller.
I received this in
an E-mail from one of our Brattmiller cousins in
March of 2001. It is presented just I
received it. As is so typical of any
oral family history, there are a few errors, but that does not distract from
its importance to our family. At the time of our visit to the family farm in Ayrshire in July 2005, I obtained another copy of the
story, which is slightly different. I
will not post that one, as it is substantially the same. (GBS)
The
Brattmiller Family History
Christian Friedrich BRATTMÜLLER
was born in September 1838 near Wilhelmshaven (William's Haven) in northern
Germany. His mother worked on estates of
wealthy landowners. His father (if she
was ever married) deserted them and Christian's mother managed until he was school
age, eight to ten years old. While she
worked she often let Christian wait around the docks, at one point she simply
failed to come back for him. Something may have happened to her or perhaps she
couldn't cope. The dockhands fixed up a
place for him to sleep and shared food with him. Christian did small jobs until he was old
enough to be a dockhand himself. He was
a small, frail-looking man and so was his son, Charlie.
Neither of them were more than five feet
six inches tall.
Christian moved
out of the dock area when he married a Danish girl, Meta Marie Janssen. She was born in June 1841. They had four children that grew up and came to America; Friedrich W. (William or Wilhelm) born
sometime between March 8, 1865 and March 5, 1866, Charles born between 1863 and
1866, Catherine Johanne, and Alma Friederike
born in 1882.
The family knew of other German immigrants who had
settled in
He used to talk to me about his trip across
country in the train. When he got his ticket in
Wherever he got off the train he had a 20-mile
hike to get to the farm, a dairy I am sure, he called it the Black Aurie Ranch. I think
they raised a lot of cattle as well as farming.
During the winter months he went to the country school to learn to read
and write English. There were other boys
12 to 16 years old in the school, but he was the only one who had to read and
spell with the little children. That
winter he learned enough English to get along very well. The following winter they were putting in a
new railroad line so he helped lay tracks.
Friedrich W. was allowed to ride some distance in each direction and he
investigated quite a little in
When he came to Ayrshire,
Friedrich W. married Anna M. Kahley,
who was born in September 1863. Her
sister Rose and family later lived in
Anna died in
1903. Her mother came and looked after
the children until Fred remarried. Fred
W. married Flora Groenow
in 1904. The wedding was totally
arranged by the bride's brother, Gustav Groenow, who
was a minister at Trinity Lutheran Church in Mallard, Iowa, from 1903 to 1910.
Flora had lived in a small village near Stettin, Germany, where her father was burgermeister or mayor.
When her brother became a Lutheran minister and located in Mallard, she
came to keep house for him. She kept up
a small parsonage and a garden.
When Gustav
decided to marry, he decided to marry her to Fred William. She saw Fred only once or twice before they
were married and she never saw the children until she came to the farm to
live. It must have been a shock for all
of them as she was used to children as they were on Sunday around church,
cleaned up and polite. As long as I knew
her she had many allergies, and I'm sure the long hours, hard work, and coping
with the first five, then seven children was an overpowering experience. Fred W. and Flora had two children together,
William born in 1907 and Anna born in 1908.
When Flora and
Fred went to the World's Fair in California in 1915, they decided to stay and
bought the place in Orange,
California. After Walt was in the Army,
he also went to California. Rose and
Fred John went out to California, but Fred John went back to Iowa after about a
year, eventually buying the farm near Ayrshire. He married Sadie Bley
from Curlew at Trinity Lutheran Church in Mallard, Iowa, in 1923.
Fred John and
Sadie lived on the family farm two miles west of Ayrshire
and had six children: Rolland (Rollie), Ruth, Fred Willis, Doris, William (Bill) and
James (Jim). Flora died in 1951. In 1952, Fred Willis
was in boot camp in
Fred W.'s sister Kate had married and went to
As remembered by Eula Brattmiller,
wife of Fred John's half-brother William
NOTES:
Visit Palo Alto Co.,
Introduction | Index | Oral History | Outline
Generation
1 | Generation
2 | Generation
3
If
ANY of these names/families look familiar, PLEASE
PLEASE NOTE:
Due
to the tremendous amount of viruses, worms and “spam,” out there, I no longer
open any e-mails with unsolicited attachments, blank subject lines OR messages
on the subject lines with “Hey”, “Hi”, “Need help”, “Help
Please”, “???”, etc. If you
do send an E-mail asking for information, or sharing information, PLEASE indicate the appropriate surname AND/OR location, or other pertinent information
on the “subject” line. THANK YOU! :o)
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FIRST POSTED:
June 02, 2001
UPDATED: June 5, 2017
Research by Gary B. Speck
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