Zeisset History Tour Diary
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| 1-2 | Tuesday and Wednesday, August 1 & 2, 2006 | Paul Zeisset |
This morning, twenty-two members of the Zeisset family boarded United 7130 in Kansas City at 11:30am, bound for Washington Dulles airport, where we were met by five more travelers. Tour leader Paul Zeisset passed out name tags in the waiting area. We boarded United 916 at 5:17 pm, to Frankfurt.
The plane touched down in Frankfurt at 6:45 am, after a 6-hour time change and 7 ½ hours in the air. In the next two hours, we passed through customs, met our bus driver Jean-Paul Weber and our storyteller John Ruth, and waited for five more travelers to join us. Finally, at 8:45 am, the bus was underway. Co-leader Loretta Hoerman gave each traveler a folder with information on the major sites we would visit.
The thirty-two travelers were family members of five of the six Zeisset brothers and sisters who immigrated to American between 1883 and 1893 and settled around Leonardville, KS. Except for two sisters, the immigrants each traveled alone and were between 17 years and 8 years old at the time of their immigration. Our travelers included 14 grandchildren of the immigrants, six great-grandchildren, and 12 spouses and friends. We ranged in age from 37 to 82 years old. We celebrated three birthdays on the trip--Lloyd Swart, Nadine Fisher, and Gay Stewart.
Semd.
[Notebook]
Our first stop, because of its proximity to Frankfurt, was the church at Semd,
where Margaretha Müller, the mother of our six immigrant ancestors, was baptized. We
were met by Walter Matthess, who showed us around the church, built in 1793. Many
of us walked up the steps to see the colorfully painted organ with a very small keyboard.
A neighbor, Herr Rhein, explained that his biergarten was in a building that had been
there almost as long as the church.
Walter then led us around a block to where Margaretha’s parents and family may have lived. While we were standing outside, the owner invited us in to see his repair of the old barn, and the meathooks hanging from the ceiling that once would have been used in butchering sheep.
At Lengfeld, many of us walked around the church. Lengfeld was where Mararetha’s grandmother, Elizabeth Jäger was baptized and was married to Johann Heinrich Müller, and where the Müller family lived at times.
We drove to Otzberg and took a walk to a pretty lookout over the rolling hills to the west.
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We drove through Überau, where Margaretha’s father was born, but since we were already running a little behind, and we didn’t know of specific locations in the town associated with our ancestors, we continued on without stopping. We had a lunch stop on the Autobahn. Earlier, we had passed a McDonalds, which Jean-Paul repeatedly referred to as the American Embassy. At the Weierhof, we walked through a cluster of Hofs (farmsteads) that had grown into a little village. We had hoped to see a library and archive (“Mennonitische Forschungsstelle Weierhof”), but, since there was some misunderstanding about our arrival time, our intended host had left Weierhof to guide another tour, and no one was there to receive us. At the Pfrimmerhof, we saw what a smaller hof looked like. As we drove from place to
place, John Ruth told us about the history of the Mennonites, but some of this was lost
on many tour members whose body clocks were telling them it was time to sleep.
Fortunately, the key points would be repeated in coming days.
After a beautiful drive, selected by Jean-Paul to show off the Palatine quilted pattern of wheat and corn-fields and vineyards dampened by rain, we checked in to the Best Western Hotel in Alzey around 4 pm, and had time to rest before the buffet dinner at 6:30. Some of us took the opportunity to walk to a small shopping center nearby. |
| 3 | Thursday, August 3 | Alta Morris |
The adventures that beckoned us this morning were announced by Paul Zeisset. The day was planned to “take a step back in time” with the paternal side of Zeisset ancestry. Paul handed out some charts and maps for us to add to the folders Loretta had given us. One chart highlighted the time periods that our ancestors lived in each village. Paul pointed out that our ancestors lived at Rauhof until about the time of the American Revolution, in Lautenbach until 1825, in Menzingen until 1851, and Sindolsheim until 1864, during the American Civil War.
Steinsfurt. We headed to a village near Sinsheim to witness where Mennonites held secret worship services. On the way, we crossed the beautiful Rhine River and briefly followed along the Neckar River through Heidelberg. Upon arrival at Steinsfurt, we were joined by Raphael Zeisset, a young man who has been our primary German contact in recent years, and his father Manfred. This family is descended from Matthäus Zeisset, an uncle of our Jakob Friedrich. Raphael and Manfred followed us in their car as we drove from place to place, Thursday and Friday. |
At Steinsfurt, we were introduced to Hans Appenzeller. Herr Appenzeller, 86 years old, directed our tour group to carefully enter the cellar where the secret Mennonite worship services were held, proceeding down a couple of wooden steps onto an uneven hard dirt floor. He announced that it had been 345 years ago in March of 1661 that 56 Mennonites were arrested here. These Anabaptists came from Zurich, Switzerland. Raphael served as translator. Standing in the basement, we sang “The Church’s One Foundation”. John Ruth continued by reciting another verse of the song. Ray and Carolyn Zeisset and John Ruth sang a Dutch Mennonite hymn, “In der Himmel ist Ruh.” Herr Appenzeller reminded John Ruth that it was John’s 13th visit to this place. |
Rauhof. On the bus ride to Rauhof, John explained that a hof is an enclosed area, whether on a farm or in an emperor’s court. A simple hof is a farm family home. Abraham Zeisset was reportedly born at Rauhof. Today, as then, it is owned by the Freiherr (Baron) von Gemmingen family. In the 1700's, the Zeissets would have been renters on this farm. The Rauhof was established in the year 945 in an area formerly controlled by Romans.  Today, the Rauhof is owned by Michael Freiherr von Gemmingen. This young man
explained how they put three farms together to make it more profitable.
They previously
farmed 60 hectares (about 150 acres). Now they farm 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres).
Crops raised are sugar beets, corn and wheat. The wheat crop yielded 9 tons of wheat
per hectare this year, even though they had experienced dry conditions.
We drove to nearby Hasselbach, where Abraham was once an elder, then into the Schloss Neuhaus, another estate owned by the von Gemmingen family. We pressed our noses to the bus windows as we rode through Berwangen, where Jakob Friedrich’s younger brother, Johannes Zeisset, was married to Elisabetha Baer in 1869 by a Mennonite pastor. In Tiefenbach, we stopped for lunch at a large country restaurant Raphael´s aunt Kaethi Funck from Menzingen had picked out for us, in the hotel Kreuzberghof. |
Menzingen.
[Notebook]
We eventually arrived at Menzingen and found the church. Loretta
mentioned that a lot of the Epp family resided in Menzingen and attended church there
between 1600 and 1900. Menzingen was where Johannes Zeisset (the great-grandfather of our immigrant Zeissets) moved in 1825 with his family, and where his son
Jakob married Johanna Epp and started their family, including the birth of Jakob
Friedrich Zeisset (father of the immigrants) and at least two of his brothers, Isaak and Johannes. Menzingen
was also where Matthaeus Zeisset (Jakob’s younger brother and Raphael’s ancestor)
was born, and that branch of the family stayed in Menzingen when Jakob's family moved on to Sindolsheim.
Gero Albert, the Menzingen pastor, met us at the church and showed off a book of church records published for genealogical research. He said Lutheran and Reformed parishioners have attended services there since 1821. Pastor Albert said that this building was built in 1848, but that a previous building stood at this same location. He led us in singing several hymns, including 7 verses of “We shall overcome” as he accompanied us on the piano. Ray and Carolyn Zeisset said that one hymn we sang, “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” had been sung at their wedding 45 years ago August 29. When asked about the organ, Pastor Albert immediately climbed the stairs and gave us an impromptu organ concert.
As we headed back to the bus, several took photos of a monument alongside the church memorializing soldiers who served in the Franco Prussian War of 1870-1871, including a “Joh. Zeiset.” But the best was still in store. Raphael led us to the hof at Menzingen that our
ancestors rented 1825 to 1851. The farm is owned by the Baron of Menzingen, but it
is currently farmed by Walter Funck, Raphael Zeisset’s uncle, and Walter's son Thomas.
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Near the end of World War II, most of the working buildings were destroyed. The Wasserschloss Menzingen (“water castle”, since it had a moat), stood in ruins behind the farm buildings. The castle was built in 1359, then burned in 1525 and rebuilt on the same foundation. It was occupied by the Baron up to World War II, but was destroyed by Allied bombs April 2, 1945. Over the last 15 years an association for Kraichgau history has raised large sums of money, and together with funding from the Baron and the state, has spend more than a half million euros to clear rubble and stabilize the ruin. Once each year a concert is performed among the castle ruins.
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Next, we drove up to the Steinsberg to see a fortification towering over the village of Weiler. For centuries it has belonged to the knightly von Venningen family, who, in 1650, invited Swiss Mennonites then in Alsace to restore the von Vennigen Hofs ruined in the Thirty Years War. Unfortunately, at the moment of our arrival it was raining too hard to walk up to the 120-foot tower to view the surrounding Kraichgau farmland.
For perhaps the third time today, we drove past the Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim, featuring two retired supersonic aircraft, a French Concorde and a Russian Tupelov TU-144, sticking their pointed noses into the sky.
We drove in to the Immelhäuserhof, and viewed from inside the bus one of the places where our ancestor Abraham Zeisset had served as pastor. Loretta jumped out of the bus when she saw a small graveyard, in the hope of finding gravestones with familiar names.
We continued on to Bad Friedrichshall where we dined at the Speiserestaurant Krone and stayed in the Gasthof Bauer. Many of us gathered in a common room after dinner to discuss what we had seen that day, to talk with Raphael and Manfred, and to meet another descendant from the Matthäus Zeisset line, Gerhard Zeisset and his wife Gertrud. They live in Weidenthal bei Kaiserslauten.
| 4 | Friday, August 4 | Tom Cott |
Most everyone appeared well rested this morning, in contrast to Thursday when many were not yet adjusted to the new time zone. After forgetting to turn in my key at Alzey, I remembered this morning.
It was a cool, damp morning. We left the hotel around 8:20. We were joined on the drive by Raphael and Manfred in their car and Gerhard and Gertrud Zeisset in their camper.
I noticed that a common price for gas is 1.39 Euros per liter, which translates to about $6.77 per gallon. I need to remember this when I go back to the States and complain about gas prices there.
We headed to Willenbach and Lautenbach, where Abraham Zeisset and his family lived between the times they were at the Rauhof and Menzingen, which we visited yesterday, about 1773 to 1825.
Willenbach. Our first stop was at the Willenbacher Hof. Here we were joined for the morning by still another Zeisset relative of Raphael’s, Werner Schmutz, who is a cousin of Manfred Zeisset. Willenbach was where Abraham Zeisset (1718-1787) served as a pastor the last fourteen years of his life. Records indicate his youngest child was also born there in 1773, and at least two sons raised their families in Willenbach.
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A beautiful driveway, lined by fruit trees and bushes, led back to the hof. We got there a
bit after 8:30 and didn’t leave until nearly 10. Günther Landes, son of Ernst Landes,
operates this farm with his wife and his parents. Because Abraham Zeisset’s wife was
Elizabeth Landes, these folks, as well as John Ruth, who has Landes ancestry, could
be distant relatives of ours.
Listen to Raphael introducing Günther.
Günther said they grow primarily wheat (reporting almost no net income), sugar beets (a little better financially) and 7 irrigated acres of strawberries, which provides approximately 30 percent of their income. The women market the strawberries and keep the financial records.
Günther told about the Allies destroying much of the buildings on the property during the last month of World War II. During a gracious tour of the house, we got to go down in to the basement to see where the people present during the shelling hid against one wall in order to survive during the last month of the war. At that time, there were the farm families, Polish laborers, allied prisoners of war, SS troops, and refugees from elsewhere, all on the property and seeking refuge from the bombs. By this time the German soldiers in that place were mostly conscripted teenage boys.
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It was good to see Günther’s father, Ernst Landes, who served in the German army in Holland during the war, shake hands with Allan Burns, who was in the opposing American army in Holland at the same time. Talk about a nice house! We were invited in to see it and have refreshments, including fresh baked pretzels. There were toy trains in the office. The house is one story shorter now than it was before the war, as it was rebuilt, like other buildings, with what could be salvaged. |
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Lautenbach.
[Notebook]
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Günther led us in his car to Lautenbach. Lautenbach was the home of
two of Abraham Zeisset’s sons, and was where his grandson Johannes Zeisset married
Christina Baer in 1815 and where their first five children were born, before they moved
to Menzingen. During much of their history, the Hofs of Willenbach and Lautenbach
have been owned by the same baron. When Willenbach was bombed during the last
month of WWII, the people all went to Lautenbach, which was managed by a relative of
the Willenbach tenants. Lautenbach was not destroyed. Our TourMagination leader,
John Ruth, has many Landes’s in his family line and told a story known in his family
about Lautenbach. The story was that when the American army came through, the wife
of Herr Landes met an American soldier at the door, who, when he saw a picture of Menno Simons on the wall, asked if she was Mennonite.
When she said yes, he said that if she told him there were no German soldiers hiding
there, then there were no German soldiers there. She said there were no German
soldiers hiding there, and the American soldiers moved on, saving lives and livelihood.
The father of Günther Landes listened and said he also knew that story.  |  |
Not being quite so welcome at Lautenbach, we stayed on paved foot paths to look at a few buildings, which clearly were magnificent in earlier years. The Baron’s sister actually lived on the place, renting the farm to two or three families because it was so large (approximately 250 hectares). This place was not bombed during World War II. Because of high taxes and preservation laws, the buildings may continue to fall into disrepair. Repairs must conform to historic preservation laws; the buildings must be preserved exactly, so repairs are just not feasible. I left this farm with a feeling of discouragement; it shows us what happens when there are not enough people around to take things over and keep them up.
Adelsheim. Because of being short on time, we skipped Sindolsheim,
[Notebook]
the place the
Zeissets lived starting in 1851, since we didn’t have the location within the area of the
place the family farmed. We opted instead for Adelsheim,
[Notebook]
to the church where Jakob
Friedrich and Margaretha were married in 1864.
We left Adelsheim at 12:30, and drove through Möckmühl. At Möckmühl there is a cemetery containing an old Zeisset gravestone from the descendants of Heinrich Zeisset who lived at Willenbach, but to whom our relationship is not clear, so we didn’t stop. |
After a short wait, we were greeted by
the local tourism official, the pastor, and the mayor. Before we left, the mayor
presented Loretta with a copy of the 1864 marriage certificate in both the original
handwriting and with a typed English translation.
We had a quick lunch at a rest area on the Autobahn
and continued to the Hohenlohe Freilandmuseum at Wackershofen, a living history
museum with buildings moved from nearby farms and villages in the 1970s, and opened
in the 1980s. Our English-speaking guide was good, but his appearance made some of
us laugh to ourselves. (He was short, hunched in stature, had long hair and a quick
walk; and made some think of Rumplestiltskin.) The guide showed us farmyards with
pigs and sheep, led us inside an old farm building to show us kitchenware and furnishings, and demonstrated how simply flax could
be softened to make material for cloth.Bibersfeld.
[Notebook]
We walked down to take pictures of the old Hoerman home (now being remodeled on the outside). The old blacksmith shop appears little changed. Some of us also visited with Ernst Mugler of Bibersfeld, who is related to David Mugler and others back in our area of Kansas. (Ernst knew Harriet Mugler Semke, who was Paul, Ray and Carolyn Zeisset’s German teacher at Westmar College, and he said she had brought students to Bibersfeld when she sponsored German trips.) After a short drive to Schwäbisch Hall, we enjoyed a nice supper, with the room abuzz with laughter and good times. |
Our visit to the museum was shortened so we could make our appointment
with Pastor Uli Enders at Bibersfeld, where the Hoermans would have been baptized.
(Bibersfeld was also associated with the Baron von Gemmingen, according to the
history of Ilshofen given to us later by the Bürgermeister.) Pastor Uli Enders told us the
church had 1200 members. The building was originally constructed in the 15th century.
We sang “Amazing Grace”. Loretta told us we had been invited to return the next day
for the marriage of a distant Hoerman relative.| 5 | Saturday, August 5 | Ruth Swart |
A shower during the night gave the air a fresh smell with a cloudy overcast sky. After a delightful breakfast, we drove north toward more ancestral sites. In many places, trees hung over the road and touched the top of our 13-foot-high bus. The island between the traffic lanes was filled at times with blooming cone flowers. The countryside leveled out and fields of wheat, some grass and many apple and pear trees were scattered along the way. Once in a while a plum tree would appear. A small herd of red and white cows was grazing along the side of the picturesque Kocher River. On our way north, we passed under the Kochertal Bridge, second highest road bridge in the world (607 feet, with supports taller than the Washington Monument).
Orlach. We arrived soon in the village of Orlach, and drove to the church where Henry Zeisset was confirmed while he lived with his uncle and aunt at Niedersteinach. A woman was in the church and opened it for us. The interior was mostly modern, although the woodwork in the balcony was clearly old. Niedersteinach.
[Notebook]
Pastor Albrecht Sautter met us, as did Roland Wurmthaler, mayor of Ilshofen. Only 41 people now live in the village and it looked like much of the populace came out to greet us. The mayor gave prepared notebooks for distribution to the group, which included a history of Niedersteinach that mentions an association of the Hof with the Baron von Gemmingen. |
A few miles away we found the village of Niedersteinach, where
Bettie and Henry lived with their uncle and aunt Johannes and Elisabetha Zeisset from
1884 until their emigrations to America. Matthäus and Magdalena Baer, another aunt
and uncle, had also lived there. Niedersteinach was also the place where Christina
Baer Zeisset lived with her daughter Magdalena Zeisset Baer Bühlerand died in 1866. Christina Baer Zeisset was the great-grandmother of our immigrant
Zeissets. |
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A paved street now runs through the village, making it harder for us to connect what we saw to the farmstead that we have seen in paintings for many years. It helped when Jean-Paul pulled the bus out of the way so we could get a better picture. An older gentleman produced a small painting that showed the house and barn in earlier times. The village of Niedersteinach was almost completely destroyed in WWII. We walked down the street to see the village’s church bell, saved from being made into bullets during World War II. A gentleman rang the bell for us. After a few comments of welcome and thanking the Americans for aid after World War II, we were invited into their community center, on the first floor of a house, where once a stable had been. We were served drinks (juices, beer, local wine) and huge buttered pretzels, and many appreciated the opportunity to use the WC without payment of a half euro. |
Altenberg. Back on the bus, we followed Pastor Sautter to the church at Altenberg several kilometers away following the roads, but only a mile if one could have walked across the fields. This is still another place associated with Baron von Gemmingen. Christina Baer Zeisset (great-grandmother of the immigrants) was buried at Altenberg, as well as Magdalena Zeisset Baer Bühler and her 2 husbands, Matthaeus Baer and Jakob Bühler.
We parked near a pen holding ducks and geese. Because there was no bus parking near the church, we had to walk several blocks back to it. On the way we passed two men sawing blocks of wood. All homes here burn wood for heat. We saw women cleaning out their barns. Perhaps wheat is not a profitable cash crop, but it does provide straw for bedding for their animals. Here again we saw many sunflowers, and they made Kansans feel right at home.
We visited the graveyard around the church, and learned where Jakob Friedrich’s grandmother Christina was once buried. Whereas most people in Germany are buried for only 25 years, in this graveyard they may stay for 50 years, but what was left of Christina’s bones would long since have been dug up and combined in a pit with the remains of others. Pastor Sautter remarked, “Better to be buried in Kansas!”
Inside the church the interior was mostly quite modern, but on the ceiling one could see
molding that reminded one that the interior was previously in the ornate Baroque style.
The pastor passed out song sheets and we sang “Auld Lang Syne” and “Amazing
Grace”, with Loretta accompanying us on the organ.
Listen to the organ.
The pastor said the pipes were
made of very thin metal and may thus have been able to have been preserved through
the war, when pipes of many other church organs were melted down for war material.
We drove through Obersteinach, the home of two of Jakob Friedrich’s aunts.
As we drove north toward Kreuzfeld, we saw the usual green countryside, a team of draft horses, a pen of over 100 white ducks, oats, wheat, and once in a while a green corn field or windmill. The churches in this area do not have roosters on their steeples.
In one small town a car did not move over and wait for our bus. No damage, but it took some dust off the side of the bus! What a close call!
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Kreuzfeld. [Notebook] On our way to Kreuzfeld, John Ruth commented on the extraordinary welcomes we had received at Semd, Steinsfurt, Rauhof, Menzingen, Willenbach, Adelsheim, Bibersfeld, Niedersteinach and Altenberg. He wanted us to know we should not expect that every place we went. In most places in Germany we would just be more American tourists. As we entered Kreuzfeld, two ladies waved to us with handkerchiefs. John Ruth commented, “Not again!”
Loretta had contacted Frau Kraft in advance, and she was ready for us with refreshments. As we entered the room through a garage door, and saw a tile floor, cookstove, tables and chairs, it didn’t seem like a garage or like the barn it had once been. The two ladies passed around baskets of baseball sized “snowballs” made of a light thin noodle sprinkled with powdered sugar. There were also “roll-ups” like my mother made years ago out of pie crust, sprinkled with butter, sugar and cinnamon, rolled then baked. There were some cookies with chocolate.
We walked north to the farm where Jakob Friedrich and Margaretha made their home, and where their children (our immigrant Zeissets) were born and raised. We took many pictures and tried to think of our great-grandparents living and working in those buildings. These wouldn’t be the actual buildings, though, since it was the burning of the barn that got Jakob Friedrich in trouble. Likely the house has also been rebuilt, too, since the days our grandparents played in the yard. The property is no longer well kept. |
Krailshausen. Ever since his visit in 1970, Ray Zeisset had wanted to walk the “traurigweg” (path of sorrows) or “totenweg” (path of death) walkway from Kreuzfeld to the Krailshausen church. Now the walk is paved and doesn’t follow the same route along the first part of the way. Still, we walked the mile or so and imagined the funeral procession for Margaretha, with our grandparents as children walking behind their mother’s casket. Frau Kraft drove her car back and forth to carry those who didn’t want to walk the mile, but all but a few made the whole walk on foot. The church was on a hilltop, and there were many steps. |
Inside the church, the former sexton read to us from a history of the church, and John Ruth
translated for us. The first church on this site was built in the 8th century, and the
current building dates from the 1100's. We marveled at the ancient frescos on some of
the walls. When the sexton asked us to sing, the little church rocked with the singing of
“Amazing Grace.
Listen to singing followed by church bells.
Several climbed the winding staircase, then open wooden stairs up
into the bell tower. There were three bells of different ages and sizes.
We looked at the graveyard, and the sexton pointed out where our great-grandmother Margaretha would have been buried in 1881. The sexton reported that he recalled the name Zeisset on two graves, a man and a woman. The graves had been “removed” in 1969 to make room for others. Merton, Ina, Ray and Carolyn visited Krailshausen just a year later, and were unable to find Zeisset graves.
Just as the last person boarded the bus, it started to rain. Driving to Rothenberg ob der Tauber, we encountered more small villages, all with beautiful flower boxes at the windows, and usually a vegetable garden in the front yard with flowers mixed in. A gentleman was sweeping the street.
All roads have been paved with blacktop and very smooth (no potholes). The roads are narrow, though, with no shoulders to pull over on.
Eichenau.
On the way back to our hotel near Schwäbisch Hall, we detoured to visit the hamlet of
Eichenau, where Jake and Lizzie stayed with their Uncle Isaak after their father’s
imprisonment. A graceful arched bridge spanned the Jagst River. We watched some
brown chickens going in and out of a special opening in the corner of a building, and a
white rooster seemed to pose for us. A kilometer away, we looked at the church at
Landsiedel where Jake and Lizzie were confirmed. The large sundial on the side of the
church was unique.
We took the bus to into the heart Schwäbisch Hall, and walked to
the prison where great-grandfather Jakob Friedrich died of typhus, after he was
imprisoned for alleged fraud in connection with the burning of his barn. The sprawling
prison building is not currently in use, but it made a great background for a group photo
of our group.
We walked back up the hill to the square, then up the 53 steps into
St. Michael’s Church where we joined most of the rest of the group at the Sunday
service.
We arrived at the the MuseumsCafé and Hofladen Zeisset at Weisweil 20 minutes early, and
wondered if we could take the time to drive across the French border. Raphael and his
father responded by taking us to the Rhine River, through a park where the narrow road
was lined with wooden animal figures carved with a chain saw. We walked across a
hydroelectric dam to an island in the middle of the Rhine. Since France was given the
entire width of the river in the aftermath of WWII, we were in French territory as soon as
we left the German shoreline.
