Digging around in the family history
I'm up against a deadline. My old English teacher and friend, John Walker, wrote that the deadline for submitting family histories for the Exira, Iowa Sesquicentennial history book is June 1st. So I'm busy trying to get something put together.
From records compiled by my dad's cousin, Beverly Huffman, of Atlantic, Iowa, I have managed to put a basic shell together and have forwarded it to my family for correction and comment.
There are some interesting family stories that Beverly has gathered, and I will put some of them down in print here.
The first folks in the Meyer family to come over from Germany, more specifically from the province of Holstein in northern Germany, were Jacob John (1825-1889 or 1899) and Magdalena Angela Bornholdt Meyer (1830-1911). I will now quote from Beverly's history:
Jacob John Meyer came to this country from Holstein, Germany, in 1854. He landed at New York and journeyed to Chicago, where he worked for a while. From Chicago he went to Moline in Rock Island County, Illinois, and finally homesteaded the farm near Port Byron, Illinois. The farm belonged in the Meyer family until 1934. Magdalena also came to America from Germany as a young woman. After the death of her husband, she moved to Des Moines, Iowa.
My great-grandfather was George Meyer, who eventually settled in Audubon County, Iowa, in 1891. An interesting tidbit that I delved out of the 1880 census records for the family, which I got access to through what you can get for free at Ancestry.com, was that the census taker, as many English speakers are apt to do, misspelled the name "Meyer" to "Myer" when he interviewed the family. The town listed on the census was Coe, Illinois, in Rock Island county.
From records compiled by my dad's cousin, Beverly Huffman, of Atlantic, Iowa, I have managed to put a basic shell together and have forwarded it to my family for correction and comment.
There are some interesting family stories that Beverly has gathered, and I will put some of them down in print here.
The first folks in the Meyer family to come over from Germany, more specifically from the province of Holstein in northern Germany, were Jacob John (1825-1889 or 1899) and Magdalena Angela Bornholdt Meyer (1830-1911). I will now quote from Beverly's history:
Jacob John Meyer came to this country from Holstein, Germany, in 1854. He landed at New York and journeyed to Chicago, where he worked for a while. From Chicago he went to Moline in Rock Island County, Illinois, and finally homesteaded the farm near Port Byron, Illinois. The farm belonged in the Meyer family until 1934. Magdalena also came to America from Germany as a young woman. After the death of her husband, she moved to Des Moines, Iowa.
Children:
A. Meyer, Eliza born August 24, 1855 died September 21, 1931
B. Meyer, Mary born February 9, 1858 died March 13, 1946
C. Meyer, George born January 17, 1860 died June 18, 1930
D. Meyer, Robert born June 15, 1865 died March, 1934
C. Meyer, Henry born February 7, 1868 died August, 1848
My great-grandfather was George Meyer, who eventually settled in Audubon County, Iowa, in 1891. An interesting tidbit that I delved out of the 1880 census records for the family, which I got access to through what you can get for free at Ancestry.com, was that the census taker, as many English speakers are apt to do, misspelled the name "Meyer" to "Myer" when he interviewed the family. The town listed on the census was Coe, Illinois, in Rock Island county.
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