Written by Loretta M. Hoerman
Table of ContentsChapter 1. Zeisset beginingsChapter 2. Zeissets at the beginning of the 19th Century Johannes Zeisset (1794-1855) Jakob Zeisset (1816-1861) Children of Jakob: Isaak, Johannes, Magdalena Spouse of Jakob: Johanna Epp (1817-1889) Chapter 3. Jakob Friedrich Zeisset and Margaretha Müller Chapter 4. The Baers Chapter 6. Other Zeissets |
While researching the Zeisset family in Germany, another Zeisset family is repeatedly encountered outside of our direct line. This Zeisset family is certainly related, though the direct relationship has not been found to date. The following chapter discusses what is known about this line.
First mention of Heinrich Zeisset is found in the Catholic Church records from Ödheim which contain information about the Zeissets who lived at the Lautenbach and Willenbach estates in Wuerttemberg just northeast of Heilbronn. He was the son of a man also named Heinrich Zeisset and his wife Magdalena Heer. Previous researchers had listed him as a son of Abraham Zeisset (1755-1808) and Christina Pletscher, however, the 1814 marriage record lists Heinrich Zeisset, born March 4, 1779, as the son of Heinrich Zeisset, a miller and Pächter, and his wife Magdalena Heer of the Böllingerhof. The Böllingerhof, or Billingen, is located just northwest of Heilbronn. Records regarding the Böllingerhof are waiting to be explored. It is known that a Heinrich Zeisset was the tenant of the mill at the Böllingerhof in 1806.
Heinrich Zeisset was married five times. His first marriage was to Barbara Hunsinger while he was living at the Willenbacher Hof. This couple had six children, with the first child being born in 1802 and the last in 1809. The mother, Barbara, died in 1809 with the birth of the sixth child, who also died. Only two of the six children survived to adulthood: a son also named Heinrich, who died without marrying in 1841, and a daughter Magdalena, who was born in 1806 and died in 1866. She married Abraham Bähr in Hasselbach where the couple lived at the Oberbiegelhof most of their married life. Eleven children were born to Abraham and Magdalena Zeisset Bähr, with at least three of these eleven surviving to adulthood. Most interesting for those of us living in America, is the son Jakob Baer who married Maria Hege at Hasselbach in 1866 and emigrated to America in 1891 to settle in Wisner, Cuming County, Nebraska. While living in Nebraska, the spelling of the name changed to Baehr. Jakob Baehr didn’t live long after coming to Nebraska. He died in 1897, while his wife Maria lived until 1921. They are both buried in the Salem Mennonite Church in Cuming County, Nebraska.
Heinrich Zeisset’s second marriage was to Christina Ewy. This couple had two children. The first, a son, died at birth. The daughter, born in 1812, was named Magdalena. If the reader is keeping notes, it will be apparent that Heinrich Zeisset already had a daughter named Magdalena who was born to his first wife in 1807. The daughter of the same name, born to his second wife, was then only five years older than her sister, Magdalena. There were specific naming patterns to be followed in the naming of children, and perhaps this entered into the naming of the second Magdalena. None-the-less, it certainly contributes to confusion. This second Magdalena, born in 1812, married Heinrich Heer in 1831. This couple lived at Bödigheim, Germany, where Magdalena died in 1870 after bearing nine children. Most of the descendants of Heinrich Heer and Magdalena Zeisset remained in Bödigheim. Interestingly, one granddaughter of this pair, Christina Muselmann, born in Bödigheim in 1866, married Jakob Silberzahn from Sindolsheim and died there in 1945. Recall that the Jakob Zeisset family lived for a period of time in Sindolsheim.
After Heinrich Zeisset’s second wife, Christina, died in 1814, he married Katharina Bär the same year. Three children were born to this couple: Rudolf, who died young, Christina and Samuel. Samuel Zeisset was born in 1818, married Katharina Glück in 1851 and died in Reichertshausen, Germany in 1870. His gravestone is the one Zeisset stone which can still be seen today. The grave is located in Möckmühl, Germany. [insert PHOTO OF STONE] Samuel and Kathrina Zeisset lived at Aschhausen, Germany from 1851 to 1864 and during this time had seven children. Of these seven children, two emigrated to the United States to settle in Connecticut. Jacob Zeisset came to America in 1873 and changed the spelling of the name to Zeissett. After marrying Anna Dambacher, three children were born: Willis, Emmy and Henry. All three of these children lived most of their lives in Connecticut, however, the two sons died in Florida. Jakob Zeissett was a salesman. His sister, Anna, was born in 1860 and came to America in 1883. She married another German immigrant, Anton Thoellden, who was a machinist who eventually owned his own factory in New Haven, Connecticut. The only child of Anton and Anna Thoellden was named Anna Julia, born in 1888. She married Charles Oppe of New York City, who owned a radiator manufacturing business.
Heinrich Zeisset’s fourth wife was named Veronica Mosemann. Three children were born to this couple, still living in Willenbach. Only the oldest, Abraham born in 1821, survived childhood, though no additional information regarding this Abraham Zeisset is available at this time. The mother, Veronica, died in 1823.
Heinrich Zeisset’s fifth and final wife was named Veronika Fellmann. Together, this couple had 12 children who were all born at the Willenbacher Hof. Six of these twelve children appear to have survived childhood. Heinrich Zeisset and his wife, Veronika Fellmann lived at the Willenbacher Hof when their last child, Johannes, was born in 1837. Some time after that, the family moved to Neckargartach which is a village just north of Heilbronn. This village is near the Böllinger Hof where Heinrich’s father had probably lived and was very near the Hipfelhof where Heinrich’s daughter from his first marriage lived. Heinrich died in Neckargartach on the 21st of October in 1845 after fathering 26 children. His fifth wife, Veronika, died in Neckargartach in 1848.
Jakob Zeisset was the son of Heinrich Zeisset and his fifth wife, Veronika Fellmann. He was born at the Willenbacher Hof on March 6, 1826. He was 19 years old when his father died and was presumably living at Neckargartach. The next time Jakob shows up in the church records is while he is living at Aschhausen. Jakob’s older step-brother, Samuel Zeisset, also lived at Aschhausen during this time. These two Zeisset families lived at Aschhausen from 1852-1864. Jakob Zeisset, the younger brother, had married Magdalena Binkele who was born at the Immelhäuserhof. While living at Aschhausen as a Pächter, Jakob and Magdalena Zeisset had eight children. Three of these died in infancy at Aschhausen. The information for the Zeisset families at Aschhausen was obtained from the evangelical church records at Rossach. The record indicates that the Samuel Zeisset family left in February 1864 for nearby Schöntal and then in 1866, went to Reichertshausen. The information for the Jakob Zeisset family simply says that they moved away in February 1864. To say that the handwritten records are often difficult to read is somewhat of an understatement. One of the notations regarding a daughter of Jakob and Magdalena appears to read that this daughter, Barbara, born at Aschhausen in 1854 died in Salonik, Macedonia. The first inclination on reading this information would be to assume that it was some sort of error, either in the reading or the writing. Macedonia is after all in northern Greece. Salonik is the German word for Thessaloniki, the capital of Macedonia. From conversations with our German relatives, we learned that indeed there was a Zeisset who moved to Macedonia during this time period and attained such a favorable reputation there that he was called the Fürst von Mazedonien, or the Prince of Macedonia. An article was written in the Schwäbischer Merkur, a newspaper published in Stuttgart, on February 12, 1935:
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“A German Settler – Prince of Macedonia” In the year 1885 a Wuerttemberg man named Zeisset emigrated with his family to Macedonia, where he became successful at Palikura near Saloniki, in the midst of a truly desolate and inhospitable country soon creating a flourishing German settlement. In three decades of tireless work Zeisset with his two sons and two daughters created an estate with about 1000 Morgen (measure of land). Only the flood plain of the Crna was fruitful. Here the settlers built a main house and tobacco farm. However, on the plateau, about 500 head of beef cattle grazed. Zeisset, with his impressive beard, was an imposing figure and was held in high esteem by the native Macedonians. He had to deal with very restless times and his estate was often required to defend themselves with weapons in hand against robbers and gypsies. The Macedonians even proclaimed him the Prince of Macedonia in the year 1910, though Zeisset didn’t accept this. The World War brought the decline of the Palikura Estate. The main house and the administrative and agricultural buildings were burned by the French. The settlers themselves as Germans were forced to flee, first to Greece, then through Italy, which was still neutral at that time and finally to Germany. The work of rebuilding after the war was unsuccessful. So this area of the Aegean Sea, advanced as an outpost of German nationality, and with it the thirty years of labor of brave Germany people are forever lost. (Translated by L. Hoerman March 1, 2008) |
[insert PHOTO OF the MACEDONIAN ESTATE]
So, from this article we learned that Jakob Zeisset went with his family to Macedonia in 1885. From the Rossach church record, we know that the two sons who were with him were Heinrich (born October 13, 1857) and Jakob (born January 20, 1861). The two daugters were Veronika (born October 17, 1852) and Barbara (born September 24, 1854). A third daughter apparently remained behind in Germany as Anna Zeisset, daughter of Jakob and Magdalena, was married to Philipp Scherle in Königsbach, Germany in 1889.
The Rossach church record also tells of the death of the younger daughter, Barbara, while living in Macedonia, two years after their arrival in that country. The 1889 marriage record of Anna Zeisset, the daughter who remained in Germany, indicates that her parents are both deceased at the time of her marriage. Perhaps it was one of the sons who developed the estate in Macedonia. Many questions remain to be answered about this Zeisset who was called the Prince of Macedonia.
RETURN TO GERMANY Previously, it was reported in Chapter 1 that the son of Johannes Zeisset, named Jakob, lived with his family in Überlingen, a town on the shore of Lake Constance on the German-Swiss border. Hasty reporting can lead to inaccurate information as was the case with that particular story. While it is correct that a man named Jakob Zeisset lived in Überlingen with his family, and that he had a daughter named Lydia, he did not come from the line of the Menzingen Zeissets, but from the Aschhausen Zeissets, the subject of this Chapter. This was learned on a visit to the City Archives in Überlingen in September 2007. The Archive has a file card on each person who lived in Überlingen and this includes the Jakob Zeisset family. The date of birth of Jakob Zeisset was that of the son of Jakob Zeisset and Magdalena Binkele, not the son of Johannes Zeisset and Elisabetha Bär.
From these resident card files, we have learned that Jakob Zeisset (1861-1937) returned to Germany on the 8th of April in 1917. His wife had already come back from Palikura on November 15, 1916. Jakob Zeisset and his wife remained at Überlingen, living at Ulrichstrasse 16, until their deaths. Jakob died on the 5th of July in 1937 and his wife, Binchen (Jakobine) on the 21st of October in the same year. This must certainly have been a peaceful life after the years they’d lived in Macedonia.
There were five children born in Jakob and Jakobine Zeisset. Once again, more questions arise as information is learned. The first two daughters, Elisabeth (1890) and Lydia (1894), were born at Salem, which is a village just north of Überlingen. It was near Salem that Peter and Lena Baer lived at the Ralzhof prior to their emigration to Leonardville, Kansas. The third child and first son, Ernst, was born in Salem in 18983. The fourth child, a Wilhelm, was born at Überlingen in 1897. The fifth child, Friedrich, was born at Graz, Austria. Graz is in the southeastern part of Austria, perhaps on the way from Überlingen to Palikura. To complicate matters, the final son, Hermann, was born in Königsfeld in 1904. There are seven towns with this name in Germany, but he was probably born in the Königsbach just northwest of Lake Constance, or else in the Königsfeld north of Munich. [insert PHOTO OF THE ZEISSET FAMILY]
The resident (Einwohner) cards also provide some information on the movements of the five children of Jakob and Jakobine Zeisset. Elisabeth was living in Ladenburg near Heidelberg when she joined her parents in Überlingen in 1918. She lived with them until December 1928 when she returned to live in Heidelberg. Elisabeth was living in Westercappeln in 1930, which is probably the village Westerkappeln in northern Germany, near Osnabrück. She left for Karlsruhe after a month’s visit in Überlingen. The life of the second daughter, Lydia, will be discussed in a later section.
The oldest son, Ernst, lived for some time in Graz, Austria and married Käthe Berk who was born in Graz. She was Catholic, while he was of the Mennonite faith. A son, Walter, was born probably in Graz. The family moved to Überlingen to live with Ernst’s parents for a few months in 1934 before moving to Stuttgart (Lembergstrasse 14).
The second son, Wilhelm, who was born in Überlingen in 1897, returned to live in Macedonia. He came back to Überlingen in 1925 and went back to Macedonia in 1927. According to the notes, he was not married at this time.
Hermann, the youngest child born in 1904, also appeared to be an adventurer, as the file reports that he was living in Turkey, came back to Überlingen for two months in 1930 and then returned to live in Turkey. He also appears to be unmarried in 1930. He moved then to Graz, Austria some time before 1934. He visited Überlingen twice in 1934 and when he left in April 1935, he moved to Stuttgart. His brother, Friedrich, who was born in Graz in 1899, lived for a time in Graz, but also moved to Stuttgart in 1935.