What did Phillipp Witte do between 1860 and 1880?
Ernst Phillipp Witte, 23 years old at the time of his arrival in the United States, was born in
Detmold, Germany in 1837. He came to New Orleans in 1860, made his way with his
family to Fosterburg, Illinois and joined the Zion Presbyterian Church there on
March 28, 1861. As his time in the United States went on, Ernst Phillipp became
Phillip instead.
Phillip and E. Anna Wiemers who was born August 2, 1943 were married in Fosterburg. The date is unknown, but she joined the Zion Presbyterian Church in Fosterburg on August 4, 1864. Her death occurred around the same time as the death of her fifth child, May 19, 1878.
(The date of their marriage must have been around that same time – at least between 1864 and 1869 when their first child was born. Since she didn’t arrive with the Witte’s at the same time, she may have lived in or near Fosterburg for quite some time, but it is doubtful that she was born there since so many Germans came to the U.S. during that time.)
Phillip and Anna's Children:
Lydia Witte Highstreet Born: 1/26/1869
Baptized as “Lidia Karolina” Witte in Zion Presbyterian
Church, Fosterburg, Illinois on February 28, 1869. “Philipp Witte and Anna” as parents. (Found
in Session records of Zion Church on March 24, 2005)
Christina Rebecca Witte Plucker Born: 12/1/1872 (Grandmother of Jean)
Emma Witte Coleman No birth date
Martha Witte Ludwig No birth date
Anna Witte Born: 3/2/1878 Died: 6/19/1878
There is speculation that Phillips’s wife, Anna, died in
childbirth and the baby, Anna, died just a month later. Note from
3/24/2005: The Witte grave site was
found in the Fosterburg cemetery. The
cemetery records show “Phil Witte” owning 10 plots, but visible is only one
large stone with two small stones on each side.
It looks like mother (Anna) and baby (Anna) were buried together. The
sandstone marker has worn away quite severely, but some of the lettering is
still visible.
Here is a picture and a partial translation of the wording. Translation was very difficult since it was written in Platt Deutsch, not High German. No other Wiemers names were found in the community and no one remembered the name other than to say that “they must have moved away.”
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| Two Anna's The wording on the stone is very faint, but speaks of Anna's righteousness and faithfulness so that when she stands before God she will get into Heaven. |
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| I cleaned the stone as much as I could on 3/24/2005, but the sandstone is so worn down that the dates are almost gone. |
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| Kind is the German word for child. |
I believe that
between 1860 when the Witte’s arrived in the U.S. and 1878 when his wife and
child died, Phillip was farming with his father – probably in Madison County,
Illinois. But after that, he gave his life over to becoming a minister of the
Presbyterian Church. He moved his family with him to Dubuque, Iowa where he
attended Seminary.
In 1878 his four
remaining children were under the age of nine. They required full time care. He
must have been hard pressed to find help. I’m sure his mother helped him during
that time, but in her 70’s she could no longer find the energy it took to care
for four little girls.
In the 1880 census
from Madison County, Illinois, the following information about
the Witte family was gleaned:
William Witte 72
Amelia 72
Philip 42
Henrietta (Voss) 18
(No record was
available for children under the age of 18).
My speculation here,
is this: I believe that Henrietta Voss was a young woman in the Zion
Presbyterian Church in Fosterburg. Phillip may have hired her to be the “nanny”
for the girls and a housekeeper for himself. There is no record of their
marriage, but we can presume that some time between 1880 and 1890 when their
first child was born, Henrietta married Phillip.
Stay tuned for more information coming soon...
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