Not long ago, I made a quick stop at the museum. As it turned out, I stayed a bit longer than expected because a woman came through the door who was on a mission to find out if we had any information about her ancestors. Gerard and I were asked if there were ever any Damme’s in our records. Gerard and I had our doubts, but we went to the German Family Tree to check it out. We did find some Damme’s, but it was only because the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim have recently been added to our GFT that we were able to find success. When I looked for a story to write today, I ran across the name of a baby girl that was born on March 26th who would later marry a man with the surname, Damme, I figured I wanted to tell his story. It is the story of a man named Friedrich who married a woman named Charlotte, but throughout their lives, they were almost always called Fritz and Lottie. I will begin with Fritz.

Friedrich Heinrich Damme was born on August 6, 1858, the son of Johann Friedrich and Catherine (Rosswinkle) Damme. Let me backtrack a bit. Fritz’s father arrived in America in 1845 with his first wife and several children. They made the voyage from Germany to America aboard the ship, Adler.

Shortly after their arrival, Johann Friedrich’s first wife died, and in 1849, he married Catherine Rosswinkle. That wedding took place in St. Louis. When this Damme couple began having children, they were baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. So, when Fritz was born in 1860, we find his baptism record in that congregation’s books. An image of Fritz’s baptism record is pictured here.

Not long after Fritz was born, his father died in 1860. When he died, Catherine Damme was pregnant. Johann Friedrich died in July, and that child was born in November. Fritz was just 2 years old when he lost his father. In the 1860 census, Catherine was a widow and the head of the Damme household. This family was living in the St. Mary’s Township which is located in Perry County. Catherine is called a farmer, and her oldest stepson was a farm laborer.

Fritz’s mother married again in 1863. Her second husband was George Barth. In the 1870 census, we find a Barth household which includes 3 children. All 3 look as if their surname was Barth, but the oldest 2 were actually Damme’s, including Fritz. George was a farmer in the St. Mary’s Township. Fritz was 11 years old at the time. The youngest child, George, was the son of Catherine and George.

Sometime during the 1870’s, the Barth/Damme family moved to Nebraska. Also, at some point, George Barth died prior to when the 1880 census was taken. Once again, we find Fritz’s mother as the head of the household as a widow when that census was taken. Fritz was doing the farming. The children in the household are given the correct surnames in this entry. They were living in the McWilliams Township in Otoe County, Nebraska.

The map below may help you place some different locations that will show up in the rest of this post. You can see the McWilliams Township where the town of Talmage is found.

Now, we will turn our attention to the woman who would become Fritz’s wife. Her name was Catherine Maria Charlotte Brune, who was born on March 26, 1860 in Germany. That makes today Lottie’s 165th birthday. I must admit that when I saw that Fritz Damme married a woman named Brune, I figured she also had spent some of her life in Friedheim because there are plenty of Brune records found in the books of Trinity. However, I was unable to find any connection between the Friedheim Brune’s and the Nebraska Brune’s. Charlotte was the daughter of Friedrich and Anna Marie (Kamp) Brune. In searching for the time the Brune family came to America, I discovered that members of this family came over on several separate ships. Charlotte may have been one of the first to arrive in this country in 1878. She is found by herself on the passenger list of the ship, General Werder, at the age of 17.

Lottie is found in the 1880 census living in Nebraska City, Nebraska. It was a bit of a challenge to find this entry for Lottie, but when I looked for a woman named Lottie in the 1880 census for Otoe County, I found an entry for a Lottie Damm. I opened it up and discovered the entry shown below, and I determined the surname was actually Lottie Brune. What are the chances that Lottie’s surname would be transcribed by Ancestry.com as Damm when she would later marry a Damme? Lottie was a servant in the household of W.T. Sloan, an implement dealer in Nebraska City. Lottie was 20 years old.

Fritz Damme married Lottie Brune on April 9, 1881. Their Nebraska marriage record shown below says they were married by Rev. Theophilus Farmer, a Lutheran pastor. At the top of this form, Lottie’s surname looks like Brown, but toward the bottom, it is correctly written as Brune.

It appears that this couple had 4 children. When the 1900 census was taken, all 4 of those children are listed. Included in their household was Fritz’s mother, Catherine Barth. Fritz was a farmer in the McWilliams Township.

Plat maps were produced for Otoe County in 1902. The map below shows a piece of land owned by Frederich W. Damme. On the right side of the map, you can see the town of Talmage. Fritz’s farm was in the very southern part of that county near the counties of Johnson and Nemaha.

The 1910 census shows the Damme’s with 3 children. Their oldest daughter got married in 1902, so she is no longer living with her parents. Two sons were helping on their father’s farm. This time, their entry is found in the Osage Township, which is right next to the McWilliams Township. I am guessing the the Damme farm was located close to the boundary between those two townships.

Lottie Damme died in 1917 at the age of 57, so when we find Fritz in the 1920 census, he was a widower. He was living by himself in Syracuse, Nebraska, and at the age of 61, he was doing farm labor.

Fritz Damme died in 1930 at the age of 71. Prior to his death, both of his sons died. One of those sons, Frank, died in 1918. Fritz, Lottie, and Frank are buried together in the Park Hill Cemetery in Syracuse.

I found the woman’s name on our museum’s register that was researching the Damme name, and she was from Skidmore, Missouri which is found in Missouri not that far from Nebraska. I think I had a conversation with that lady and mentioned that I have crossed the bridge at Nebraska City on many occasions during my life when I was traveling on my way to Seward, Nebraska. I am thinking that woman may be a descendant from this Damme/Brune couple who settled in Otoe County, Nebraska. I am hoping that she reads this post and comments on it.

During my days attending Concordia Teachers College in Seward, the route included driving on Route 2 that goes between Nebraska City and Lincoln, Nebraska. Just 2 summers ago, my wife and I once again took that road on our way to our 50th year college reunion. Little did we know that Fritz from Friedheim is buried in the cemetery in Syracuse that can be seen from Route 2 as we drove by.