I have written quite a few blog posts that told the stories of people whose surname was Hellwege. Probably the most notable one was Heinrich Hellwege, who got his notoriety from the fact that he had 4 wives over the years. Henry’s story was told in the post, The Fourth Marriage. Today, you will read the tale of his younger brother, Johann Hellwege. However, it will take us a bit of time to first look at the woman who became his bride because she is today’s birthday girl.

Christine Rosine Sittner was born on November 14, 1814, which makes today her 210th birthday. Rosine was the daughter of Samuel and Johanna (Nietzsche) Sittner. An Ancestry.com family tree says that Rosine’s father was from Braunsdorf, Germany, but he got married in Niederfrohna. That tree also says that Rosine was born in Braunsdorf, but her father reportedly died in Mittelfrohna. Braunsdorf is is about 65 miles from the “Frohna towns”. Rosine was one of the original immigrants who were part of the Gesellschaft. She came to America aboard the ship, Johann Georg, that arrived in this country in January of 1839. She is called a maid-servant from Braunsdorf. I will add that there were a few other families who came from Braunsdorf.

Not long after arriving in Perry County, Rosine married another member of the Gesellschaft. His name was Johann Gottlob Kramer, who was born on October 4, 1811 in Paitzdorf, Germany. Gottlob was the son of Gottfried and Maria (Bernhardt) Kramer. His mother died just prior to the family’s trip to America. Gottlob and his family are found in a passenger list of the ship, Copernicus. Gottlob, along with his brother and father, were called cartwrights.

It was not long after Gottlob arrived in Perry County that he married Rosine Sittner. Those two were married on May 5, 1840. If this was a church marriage, they would have been married on the second floor of the Rev. Loeber’s parsonage in Altenburg, which was where church services were performed prior to Trinity’s first church building which was built in 1845. However, weddings were also held in people’s homes in those early days. The church marriage record for this couple is found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. In some of the early records, Kramer was spelled Krahmer.

Here is a translation that we have for this record. It indicates that Gottlob’s father had died prior to this marriage. It also says Rosine was the daughter of a stocking weaver from Mittel Frohna (not Braunsdorf).

We can also view 2 different civil marriage records for this pair.

Here is the other one.

Our German Family Tree says that Gottlob and Rosine had 3 children, 2 girls and a boy. All of them were baptized at Trinity, Altenburg. Then, shortly after their 3rd child was born, Gottlob Kramer died in 1844. Rosine would get married again, and that finally leads us to Johann Hellwege, who would become her second husband.

Johann Dietrich Hellwege was born on May 1, 1815, the son of Peter and Mette (Mahlers) Hellwege. He was baptized at the church located in Lamstaedt, Germany, which is in the Hanover region of that country. I located this baptism record for John.

When John was about 27 years old, he came to America in 1842. I do not know the name of the ship on which he made the voyage, but in an obituary for him, it says he arrived in America at Birmingham. After his arrival, he was making the trip up the Mississippi River aboard the steamboat, General Pratt. His obituary is shown here. It says that the General Pratt burned just north of Memphis, and John was left with his clothes and some wagon-maker’s tools.

If I have his story correct, our friend, Fred Eggers, says that John asked for some advice about where he could find some Germans, and he was told about the new German settlement in Perry County. I think Fred also may have said that he thinks that the captain of the steamboat may have been Samuel Donald, who was a character in one of Fred’s recent blog posts, The Three Pilots Revisited. If that was the case, Samuel Donald would have knowledge of the settlement in Perry County.

After John Hellwege found his way to Altenburg, he became a wagon maker. As such, he must have also gotten to know the cartwright, Gottlob Kramer, and his wife. Then, on May 11, 1845, John Hellwege married Rosine Kramer. The church record for that wedding is also found in the books of Trinity, Altenburg.

I can also display this translation of that record.

At this point, I have to mention the possibility that this wedding may have been the first one to take place in the new church sanctuary of Trinity Lutheran Church. I know that when I wrote my book, Mama Buenger, I was aware that the new church was dedicated on Pentecost Sunday. I discovered that there is a bit of debate about the Pentecost date in 1845, but when I wrote my book, I settled on the date of May 11th. Is it possible that this Hellwege/Kramer wedding took place on the same day that this church was dedicated?

The Hellwege/Kramer pair had no children of their own, but John was placed in the position of being the stepfather of the 3 Kramer children, and he helped raise them. We find the Hellwege’s in the 1850 census in which it says John was a wagon maker. The 3 Kramer children were all younger that 10 years old. Included in the household was a young apprentice named Christian Wunderlich.

Next, we find the Hellwege’s in the 1860 census. The same 3 children are not given the name Kramer in this entry. All 3 of the Kramer’s were teenagers at this time. There were 2 other young children included in their household. Perhaps the Hellwege’s had taken in a few children who had become orphans. There was also a farm laborer and a 23 year-old student included in this entry.

On April 14, 1864, one of the most notable events that took place in the 1845 church building of Trinity occurred. On that date, all 3 of the Kramer children were married in a triple wedding. I will let you read about that special event in the post, Three in One at Trinity.

In the 1870 census, the Hellwege’s had an empty nest, and John was still in the wagon making business.

As it turns out, the last census in which we find John and Rosine was the one taken in 1880. John was retired at the age of 65, and for some reason, Rosine is called Theresa.

John Hellwege died in 1887 at the age of 72. I have already displayed an image of his obituary. Rosine Hellwege died 2 days after Christmas in 1894. All of the characters in this story, Gottlob Kramer as well as John and Rosine Hellwege, are buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg, but Findagrave.com has no gravestone photos for any of them.

Let me say that John Hellwege’s brother, Henry, also may have arrived in America in 1842. Two different census entries for him say he came in 1842. If Henry Hellwege came on the same ship as his brother, we have not heard about him being involved in a burning steamboat. Did they come to this country on separate ships during the same year. If so, was John the first Hellwege to settle in Perry County, or was it Henry. We do know that, since John was not the father of any Hellwege children, the many Hellwege persons that I have written about on this blog that were part of this Hellwege family tree were descendants of Henry.

Fred Eggers thinks that there is also a possibility that the original Eggers ancestor arrived in 1842 and may have come to this country with one of the Hellwege’s. Fred also thinks that the Hellwege’s and Egger’s are the families that also encouraged many other later arrivals of Hanover Germans to come to this country. Fred puts forth more evidence of possible Hellwege/Eggers connection in his previous post, The Perilous Journey of Some Early Lamstedt Immigrants.

Finally, let me say that our museum director, Denise Hellwege, is married to John Hellwege. He is the current pastor at Salem and Zion Lutheran Churches in Farrar and Crosstown. He can also trace his roots back to Henry Hellwege. I guess I should ask if he was named after the John Hellwege in this story.