THE POPPEN CONNECTION

Jan Hinderks Poppen was born in the village of Grimersum. By 1838 he became a dress maker and then advanced to a master tailor. Unexpectedly, in 1849 he died (7/28/1849) of a throat or chest ailment. His parents were Hinderk Poppen Hinderks, born in Grimmersum and Engel Janssen, born in Uttum.

Heye Hinderks Luitjes and Houke Hansen from the village of Cirkwehrum were the parents of Grietje Heyen Luitjes. Grietje was born in the late 1700’s. She married Klaas Sieverts Steenlage on April 29, 1827 in Cirkwehrum. He was a master tailor, but died suddenly on August 2, 1833. Two children were born to this union: Hauke Klaassen and Wendel Klaassen Steenlage. Hauke was born on August 17, 1828; Wendel born on October 4, 1832 in Suurhusen. 

Grietje Heyen Luitjes had been a widow for eighteen months when she married Jan Hinderks Poppen. Grietje was about 27 when she married Klaas and 33 when he died 8/2/1833. Hauke was 5 and Wendel only one year old when their father died. They must have moved to Suurhusen between 1828 and 1832. 

Engel

Jan and Grietje were married on February 15, 1835. They were married in the Suurhusen Reformed church. They moved into House #37 in Suurhusen that same year. Their daughter, Engel Janssen Poppen, was born on August 12, 1838. She was baptized on August 19^th just seven days later. Grietje had Hauke and Wendel with her when she married Jan. Hauke would have been 10 when Engel was born and Wendel would have been six. So, when Engel was born, there were then five people in the family.

Life in House #37 was simple, but difficult – compared to modern life.  The house, itself was originally designated as agricultural property. It was equipped with a side barn door, which can still be seen – along with the original cobblestones on the street – “the medieval paving of ‘kirchstrasse’” (church street).

The village of Suurhusen has a museum that our friend, Johannes U. Willms, opened to show us how our great grandparents lived back in the early 1800’s.                      

Johannes Willms

When Jan died on 7/28/1849, Hauke was 21, Wendel was 17 and Engel was 11. Grietje must have been somewhere around 50. Engel may have found work in Suurhusen or perhaps even in other villages (like Cirkwehrum or Uttum) in the area. Perhaps she became a seamstress and picked up some of her father’s customers. Hauke and Wendel probably helped out with finances, too. 

We don’t know where Engel lived or what she did from the time of her father’s death, but we do know that the house stayed as a “Poppen” house until 1856. Grietje’s family may have lived there until Engel was 18 and Grietje was in her late 50’s. It is said that she lived beyond 79 years. She died of cancer on June 24, 1879 and was buried five days later.

House #37 is identified in this picture from 1961

House #37 as it is in 2011

The plat of House #37 - where it is on Church Street

The house museum in Suurhusen - Circa early 1800's

The living room, kitchen and bedroom of the house. The cupboard shown on the right is really the "master bedroom"

The main room included scant room for the family.

Here we have the entryway, including the wash area, pig pen, sheep pen and toilet.

1799 map of Ostfriesland with Suurhusen highlighted.

            We also know that 10 years passed by before Engel’s marriage to Menne Albert Plucker on April 18, 1866 in Uttum. When did they meet? Engel had some relatives in Uttum (her paternal grandmother came from there). Where was Menne working in Uttum? It is a good “educated” guess that he was a farm worker, but he was nearly 30 years old and probably didn’t have his own property there. It is easy to believe that knowing how many others were going to America, he also decided that would be a good move for him.

Did Engel have to be convinced? Had they made plans for a long time? Perhaps they planned their wedding at such a time that they could just leave directly from Uttum on the journey to Bremerhaven, where they caught their ship. How much did they leave behind? Did they have any household items? How much money did they have to take them on this frightening journey? Whose wagon and horses did they use to get to Bremerhaven?

Whatever the answers to those questions, they greeted Ship’s Captain, G. Wessels when they boarded the ship Orpheus in Bremerhaven. They arrived in New York on May 29, 1866, just 42 days after their wedding.