Adolph Heinrich Fiegenbaum
and
Christine Elisabeth (Peterjohann) Fiegenbaum
Adolph Heinrich Fiegenbaum was probably born on 19 December 1793 at Ladbergen, County Tecklenburg (German: Grafschaft Tecklenburg) and baptized in the evangelical church in that village later that month.1
Christine Elisabeth Peterjohann was born on 5 March 1797 at Lengerich, a nearby but larger village.
Adolph and Christine were married on 25 October 1820 at Ladbergen. It would appear that they lived the early part of their married life in Lengerich, for that is where the first five of their six children were born. As a member of the Heuerleute class, Adolph earned his living farming and building houses.
In 1834, Adolph, Christine, and their five children, between the ages of thirteen and one year, emigrated to the United States, landing in New Orleans and traveling up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri. They appear to have settled first in St. Charles County, Missouri. Heinrich Rudolph, their youngest child, was probably born here; his baptism is recorded in the archives of the church at Femme Osage, Missouri. In 1840, Adolph purchased land just east of this village in the south of St. Charles County.2
In 1844, Adolph purchased 81.75 acres of federal land in the area of Hopewell, Missouri in neighboring Warren County.3 It seems that about this time the family became familiar with the work of Franz Horstmann, who had established a German Methodist Episcopal mission at Pinckney, Missouri. Under his ministry, the parents and younger children were converted to Methodism. The three older children were already living and working in St. Louis at this time and, under the influence of revivals held there, also joined the Methodist church. Eventually, all four sons became ministers in this denomination and the two daughters married Methodist ministers.
In 1850, Adolph and Christine, the younger children and perhaps one married daughter and her family, moved to Louisa County, Iowa, near Wapello.
Christine died on 17 September 1871 at Colesburg, Delaware County, Iowa and was buried there.
According to an obituary in the Hancock Signal, of Garner, Hancock County, Iowa, Adolph relocated to Garner with the family of his son-in-law, Henry Frank Wellemeyer, about one year before his death. He died on 11 January 1877, having spent the last few years of his life as an invalid as a result of injuries suffered in a fall. Adolph was buried in Concord Cemetery at Garner.
Christine's body was brought from Colesburg and interred next to her husband's.
The family's history was briefly recounted in an article of the St. Louis Post Dispatch on Sunday, 26 June 1898. Maria Wilhelmine (Fiegenbaum) Winter composed an autobiographical essay near the end of her life. Read elsewhere on this web site the memoirs and biographical sketches of Friedrich Wilhelm Fiegenbaum, the life stories of Heinrich Hermann Fiegenbaum, and a statement written by Hermann Wilhelm Fiegenbaum. There is also a photo of the six children in adulthood.
Notes (Click on a note number to return to that footnote, above.)
1. Adolph's date of birth has been reported by family researchers as either 17 or 19 December, in either 1792 or 1793. A list of all the sources relating to his question are available in Adolph's entry in the genealogical database. I explain my selection of 1793 for the year of his birth in the database and also in my comments on Adolph's portrait elsewhere in this website.
2. The birth and baptism were recorded in the baptismal register of the German evangelical church at Femme Osage, Missouri. It was founded in 1833 as the Deutsche Evangelische Kirchegemeinde. It is regarded as the oldest evangelical church west of the Mississippi River. Since 1957 it has been known as Femme Osage United Church of Christ.
A federal land patent for 40 acres of land in St. Charles County, east of the village of Femme Osage, was issued in St. Louis, Missouri to "Adolphus Fiegenbaum, of St. Charles County, Missouri" on 1 October 1840..
3. A second federal land patent was issued to "Adolphus Fiegenbaum," this one on 1 August 1844. This time he was identified as a resident of Warren County, Missouri and the patent was for 81.47 acres. Based on the description in the patent, the land was located about 1.4 miles (in a straight line) northeast of the village of Holstein, site of Immanuels United Church of Christ.
Brief Genealogy
Adolph Heinrich Fiegenbaum's family
Christine Elisabeth Peterjohann's family
Fiegenbaum - Peterjohann family
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