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Buer, Germany Church and Auf der Masch house (right of church)
New Orleans, 1852
Gravestones of Ernst and Florentine, in St. Charles County. MO.
John and Betty March Gravesite St. Peters Cemetery, Normandy, MO.
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- The story of this family begins seventy-six years after Declaration of American Independence with ERNST HEINRICH AUF DER MASCH, and his wife, FLORENTINE ELISABETH POESSE. - ERNST HEINRICH AUF DER MASCH Born: Mar. 12, 1812, Groeneberg by Buer, Hannover, Germany Died: May 1, 1901, Cappeln, Missouri Buried: Cappeln, Cemetery Married: Florentine Elizabeth Poesse, Aug. 24, 1842, Femme Osage Church record. Femme Osage, MO. From the St. Charles County naturalization record: Applied for citizenship at age 33, Jan. 3, 1848; Admitted as citizen, May 7, 1850. - FLORENTINE ELIZABETH POESSE Born: Mar. 15, 1818, Groeneberg by Buer, Hannover, Germany Died: Nov. 4, 1898 at home of son in law in Foristell, MO. Buried: Cappeln, Cemetery Married: Ernst Heinrich Auf der Masch, Aug. 24, 1842, Femme Osage Church record. Femme Osage, MO. Various other spellings found include Posse, Poesse and Rossen (recorded in the Cappeln death record). The spelling on the marriage record is POSENZ - Elsewhere in this family story I note that the Petran's arrived in America some fifteen years following the end of the Civil War. Conversely, some eighteen years prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, and approximately 100 years after the Guittar/Guittard/LaGrandeur's were settling in a verdant valley north of a city on the Mississippi named St. Louis, a ship arrived in New Orleans from Bremer, Germany. Two passengers, members of a family whose roots are found in Buer, Germany, ended a long and arduous journey across the Atlantic and down the American eastern seaboard. Unlike the place we think of - a city filled with jazz, drinks called hurricanes and a street called Bourbon, these two people saw a much different New Orleans. And it was twelve years before the Civil War. - It was a time of sail and steam, and New Orleans billed itself as "The Gateway To The America's." In 1852 it was the third largest city in America. - A hundred and thirty years prior to their arrival, German peasants from the Upper Rhine area contributed to the betterment of the region when they began to settle land upstream from New Orleans in the 1720's. By the time Ernst and Florentine disembarked a class system based on plantations with slave labor had developed. Steamship travel along the waterways the the main mode of travel, although the railroads would soon enough become prominent. -- The ship entering the New Orleans port from Bremer was a Barque named Frederich Jacob. And on June 1, 1842, Ernst Heinrich auf der Masch, age 32, and his wife, Florentine Elisabeth, age 22 first set foot in this new land. Their German homeland, and the tiny village of Buer were now part of the past. -- On the ship's manifest pages, including Ernst and Elisabeth, are others from Buer and Melle, which would most assuredly have been individuals they would have known. There were 185 passengers- much different than the 2,000 on the ship the Petran's voyaged with. Buer was a small community, and Ernst and Florentine would head for another small community in a large and vast new land still growing and expanding up the Mississippi from where they first arrived. They would eventually settle in another small communiy. - As yet it is unknown if this young couple were meeting other family or friends already settled in this country less than a century old. They would have disembarked and found temporary shelter. How long they stayed in New Orleans or the area is unknown. At some point they were again on the move. Given the period, another embarkation would probably have taken place, boarding a riverboat which headed up the Mississippi, away from "The Gateway To The America's" to "The Gateway To The West" - St. Louis. Whether they stayed in the city, again meeting relatives or friends is unknown. They settled in an area west of St. Louis, in St. Charles County, as confirmed by a land grant signed by US President James Polk on July 1, 1848 (copy to be posted later). And 89 years after his journey began, and 80 years after hers, Ernst and Elisabeth auf der Masch's journey would finally end in a church yard in Cappeln, Missouri. - At present Ernst and Elisabeth are the "oldest" patriarch and matriarch known on this side of the family. No pictures of them exist. However, their resting places do, and in 2005 for the first time I was able to visit them, thanks to Alice Freese Molitor, another cousin I encountered via the web who has done much work on the family and published a book. - The children of Ernst Heinrich and Florentine include: - Louise Caroline: B. Dec. 23, 1843; no death record found; Femme Osage. Friedrich Wilhem: B. Feb. 20, 1846 D. Aug. 27, 1859, Femme Osage. Johann Heinrich: B. Mar. 20, 1848 D. Nov. 28, 1921, St. Peters Cemetery, St. Louis, MO. Catharina Louise: B. Aug. 5, 1850 D. Aug. 16, 1851, Femme Osage. Friedrich Carl: B. Aug. 31, 1852 D. Mar. 20. 1924, Femme Osage, MO. Friedrich was a farmer. He married Catharina Brakensiek. Katharine Louise: B. Sep. 27, 1957 Bapt. Nov. 5, 1857 D. July 20, 1929, Cappeln, MO. Maria Catharina Wilhelmina: B. Feb. 14, 1861 D. Jun. 24, 1940, Cappeln Cemetery , AKA "Minnie". Anna Catherina: B. Sep. 14, 1864 Confirmed 1877 D. July 3, 1943, New Melle, MO. -
Frederich Carl & Catarina Brackensiek Anna Catherina Catharina Louise
Maria Catherine Johann (John) Marsh - Of their children, Johann (John Henry) Marsh, would marry Bertha "Betty" Vogelsang. They would live in Ferguson, MO on St. Louis Avenue, near the Wabash railroad tracks and what was once Universal Match Corp. Among their children was Lillian "Lil" May, who would marry Zebedee Guittar, and live on that same street. - At some point the family began using MARSH as the family name, for several reasons. One confirmed reason passed down through the family was so the family would be more "American". The second being pragmatic - it was much easier for others to spell, and MASCH sounded like MARSH to others. - The following story is told of John's death: - "George Reed worked with ZEBEDEE GUITTAR and was telling Zeb that he was late for work because a man had stepped out in front of him from the trolley car and he hit him and took him to the hospital. Zebedee discovered when he got home from work that the man Reed hit was in fact his father-in-law, Johann Auf der Masch. Relatives recalled that Johan was walking home from work and was distracted because of the death of his wife (Bertha "Betty" Vogelsang) who had had pneumonia."
The children of John and Betty Marsh include: - Ernst Heinrich: Ernst Edward: Anna Maria Emma: John: John George: William,: Clara: George H. : Mary "May" Walter Henry "Wack": Frederick: Lillian:
The Marsh's and the Guittar's lived in close proximity to each other in Ferguson, MO., on St. Louis Avenue. Lillian would marry Zebedee Guittar. Cora Guittar Stelljes would marry Walter "Wack".
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