Barbara (Kunz) Schmeeckle (1822 - 1897)

Born 24 Jun 1822 in Kurzach, Rems-Murr-Kreis, Württemberg, Germany

Ancestors

Wife of Gottlieb (Schmückle) Schmeeckle — married 25 Jul 1843 in Kleinaspach, Rems-Murr-Kreis, Württemberg, Germany

Descendants

Died 1 Oct 1897 at age 75 in Eustis, Frontier, Nebraska, United States of America

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Biography

Origin

Barbara Kunz was born 14 June 1822, presumably in the hamlet of Kurzach, which was attached to Oberstenfeld parish.^[1] Kurzach is at the end of a narrow valley, surrounded on three sides by steep tree-covered hills. At the other end of the valley, opening onto the plain, is Gronau, next to Oberstenfeld.^[2]

Barbara's father, Johann Gottlieb Kunz, was from Prevorst, just north of Kurzach, over a steep ridge. (Prevorst was attached to Gronau parish.) Barbara's mother, Margaretha Spörle, was from Kurzach, the daughter of a farmer who was also the "Vorsteher" of Kurzach -- the representative of Kurzach's interests in the parent village of Oberstenfeld.^[3] Each of Barbara's parents has two lines of descent from Martin Spörlin (b. about 1630) of Nassach, immediately to the east of Kurzach across a steep ridge.^[4]

Kunz - Spörle - Schmückle connections

Barbara grew up with two older sisters, an older brother, a younger brother, and a younger sister. Barbara's mother had a great-aunt, Maria Magdalena Spörle (b. 1746), who married Georg Friedrich Schmückle of Allmersbach. (The village of Allmersbach, in Kleinaspach parish, is directly south of Kurzach, on the other side of a range of forest-covered hills.) This couple had a daughter Maria Catharina, who married Johann Gottlieb Kunz in 1797 at Oberstenfeld. Presumably this Johann Gottlieb Kunz was a relative of Barbara's father, who had the same name.

Perhaps this Schmückle family connection influenced Barbara's father to bring his family to Allmersbach in 1841, after the marriage of his second daughter. Barbara was 19 years old at the time, and two years later, on 25 July 1843 at Kleinaspach, she married Gottlieb Schmückle. Gottlieb's branch of the Schmückle family had been living at Einöd, very close to Kleinaspach, for almost 200 years.

Children and emigration

In Germany in the 19th century, each parish kept a "family book" with pages for each family, much like family group sheets that genealogists use. Kleinaspach parish had a separate family book for the residents of Einöd. This book has a page for Gottlieb and Barbara Schmückle, showing that they had 14 children. Five of the first six of Barbara's children survived to adulthood, but five of the next six children died in infancy. A final son and daughter survived, giving her five sons and three daughters.

Over the years, seven of Barbara's eight surviving children immigrated to America and settled in central Nebraska. This started with eldest son Johannes, who emigrated in 1868. He was followed in the mid-1870s by brothers Wilhelm and Frederick. Youngest brother Jacob emigrated in 1884. Brother Christian married in Germany and started a family, but he too came to America in 1885, together with Gottlieb and Barbara, and their youngest daughter Caroline. Finally, eldest daughter Christina Rebecca migrated to Nebraska in 1890, with her husband Christoph Koch and children. Second daughter Catharina married in Germany in 1875; it is unknown if she also came to America.

The image above shows part of the 1885 passenger list of the ship Belgenland, showing Gottlieb and Barbara Schmückle with daughter Caroline, and son Christian with his wife Caroline and children, heading for Seward (Nebraska, where eldest son John was living), coming from Einod. 14-year-old Will Uebele was also with them.

Final Years

Gottlieb and Barbara arrived in Frontier County, Nebraska in 1885, joining the rest of their family. Gottlieb bought land, part of which he reluctantly sold the next year to become the new town of Eustis. Daughter Caroline quickly married Christian Gengenbach, who had emigrated from a village in Württemberg a few years earlier. Caroline died in childbirth in 1886, but the baby survived. As the story goes, her widowed husband sent for his younger sister Christiana in Germany to come to Nebraska and take care of the baby, and she ended up marrying Barbara's youngest son Jacob.

In America, the spelling of the family name changed from Schmückle to Schmeeckle. The name is pronounced SHMEK-lee or SMICK-lee. The family is closely related to the Schmickley family of Linn County, Iowa.

Gottlieb died in June 1895, and Barbara died two years later, on died 11 Oct. 1899. They are buried together at the Frontier Cemetery in Eustis.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Barbara's birth information is given in her marriage record in the Kleinaspach parish records, accessed by John Schmeeckle on Mormon microfilm.
2. ↑ On this interactive map, go north from the starting point a little way until you get to Bushof and Eschenstruet, then go west until you get to Kurzach, which is just west of Nassach (over a steep ridge).
3. ↑ This is shown in Margaretha's marriage record, and also in her father's death record in the Oberstenfeld parish records.
4. ↑ For Nassach's location relative to Kurzach, see the interactive map in Note 2 above. For Barbara's parents' lines of descent from Martin Spörlin, see this chart.
5. ↑ Findagrave.com profile of Barbara (Kunz) Schmeeckle with digital image of gravestone.

• Kleinaspach parish records on Mormon microfilm; the index of Kleinaspach microfilms is online at https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/79022?availability=Family%20History%20Library

• See also "Ancestral Memories: Gottlieb Schmeeckle and Barbara Kunz"

Acknowledgments

Thank you to John Schmeeckle for creating WikiTree profile Kunz-334 through the import of Schmückle Family Tree.ged on Dec 7, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by John and others.