Today’s post was written by a new guest blogger. Her name is Sue Sewing. I have met Sue a few times over the years when she visited our museum and was doing research on her Sewing family. I am told that she lives in Tennessee. Without me asking, Sue sent me everything I needed for today’s post in an e-mail. I did take the liberty to provide an additional baptism record and a marriage license for today’s birthday girl. You will discover by reading this post that there is indeed a connection between the Sewing and the Siewing surnames, despite the fact that I concluded that they were not connected. I appreciate the fact that Sue has now set me straight. And I hope that she becomes a regular contributor to this blog. Sue does outstanding family research, and there are plenty of Sewing persons in our German Family Tree that need to have their stories told.

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Earlier this month, Warren Schmidt posted wonderful “birthday boy” articles on Robert Herman Sewing (May 10, aka Herman Robert Sewing in baptism record) and Franklin Benjamin Harrison Siewing (May 22). Today (May 29) I am privileged to share with you information about the “birthday girl” Lydia Clara Grossheider Sewing, as well as how she is genetically related to the two “birthday boys.”

Lydia Clara Grossheider was born May 29, 1898, in the family home of her parents Charles Frederick Grossheider and Elizabeth ‘Clara’ Schroeder. She was their fourth child, third daughter. The family lived on a farm bordering Apple Creek near the end of present-day Cape County Road 405 near the community of Friedheim. (This road was once known locally as Grossheider Road.) Lydia was baptized June 19, 1898, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. Her baptism sponsors were HeinrichGrossheider and Emilie Mehner. Below is an image of her confirmation record from that congregation’s books.

She attended the public Arnsberg School until she transferred to Trinity Lutheran School in Friedheim for her confirmation training. Lydia was confirmed March 31, 1912; her confirmation verse was John 10: 27-28.

On April 20, 1919, Lydia married Robert Herman Sewing at Trinity/Friedheim. The wedding witnesses were Lydia’s sister Clara Martha Grossheider and Robert’s brother Martin Benjamin Sewing. The Missouri marriage license for this couple is pictured here.

Lydia and Robert set up housekeeping on a farm near the old Bruihl’s Ford (more recently known locally as Pohlmann’s Crossing) on Apple Creek on Cape County Road 501. In the 1920s, this area became known as the “Sewing Settlement” because Robert and four of his brothers owned adjoining farms there.

Lydia and Robert had five children – Floyd Herbert, Dorthy Clara (who died hours after her birth), Wilbert Royal, Nelson Fred, and Wanda May. In addition to raising the four surviving children, Lydia raised chickens and sold the eggs to local retail store owners. She also tended fruit trees and a large vegetable garden.

Lydia was a member of the Arnsberg Homemakers Club and the Trinity/Friedheim Ladies’ Aid Society. She pieced and hand-quilted many quilts for use in her home, and helped the Ladies’ Aid group hand-finish countless other quilts. About 20 of Lydia’s quilt masterpieces were found stored safely in cedar chests in the family home in 2020.

“Grandmother’s Fan” is the pattern Lydia followed to create the beautiful quilt.

Lydia also created this fabulous rendition of the “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” pattern.

Lydia died February 5, 1980, at age 81; her remains are buried in the Trinity/Friedheim cemetery in Row 8 Grave 13 (near the large cross in the middle of the cemetery).

Now let’s move on to explaining how the three “birthday children” are related. You have probably already caught the fact that two of them were married to each other – Robert and Lydia. But there’s more.

Franklin Benjamin Harrison Siewing (Frank), Lydia Clara Grossheider, and Robert Herman Sewing are descended from three siblings. Frank’s great-grandfather was Johann Philip Siewing; Lydia’s great-grandmother was Catharine Marie (Mary) Siewing Grossheider; and Robert’s grandfather was Friedrich Wilhelm Siewing (Sewing in the US). Johann, Mary, and Friedrich were the first, seventh, and eight children, respectively, of Gerhard Henrich Siewing and Catherina Elisabeth Tepe.

Gerhard Henrich Siewing’s family lived in a village called Kleekamp, which was attached to the Borgholzhausen parish (Evangelisch) in Westfalen (today known as North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). Their village was close to the governmental border between Westfalen and Niedersachsen (today known as Lower Saxony, Germany). Some of the records relating to Gerhard’s family are found, as expected, in the Borgholzhausen Parish records; however, many family records are also found in the neighboring Dissen Parish (Evangelisch) in Niedersachsen. (Yes, this is the same Dissen for which the Friedheim community in Cape County was first named.)

It is unclear why some family records are in one parish and some in the other. It is equally unclear why the family name is not always spelled the same, but careful analysis of the data contained in these records leads to the conclusion that the records in these two parishes and the spellings of the surname – Sewing, Siewing, and even occasionally Sieving – all refer to the same people in the same family. The different spellings may represent nothing more than how different recorders thought the name was/should be spelled.

Frank’s great-grandfather was Johann Philip Siewing, the first child, born May 1, 1789, in Kleekamp; married September 7, 1814, to Anna Maria Catherine Elisabeth Wemöller in Kleekamp; no immigration or death record has been found.

Lydia’s great-grandmother Catharine Marie (Mary) Siewing, the seventh child, was born January 22, 1809, in Kleekamp; married December 17, 1831, to Casper Heinrich Grossheider (from Westbarthausen in the Dissen Parish) in Dissen; arrived in New Orleans November 19, 1839, aboard the barque Sophie with husband and two children; settled in theDissen/Friedheim area; and died March 10, 1899, in Gordonville (buried in the Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery in Gordonville).

Robert’s grandfather was Friedrich Wilhelm Siewing, the eight child, born June 4, 1812, in Kleekamp; married Catherine Wilhelmina Koch October 8, 1836, in Borgholzhausen; arrived in New Orleans November 14, 1843, aboard the ship Diana with wife and three children; settled in the Dissen/Friedheim area on a farm next to his sister Mary; and died January 23, 1891, in Friedheim (buried in Trinity/Friedheim cemetery, Row 8, Grave 6).

Here are the bloodlines flowing from Gerhard and Catherine down to the three “birthday children.”

Gerhard Henrich Siewing and Catherine Elisabeth Tepe
2 July 1766 – 10 Oct 1827 3 Sep 1764 – 13 Mar 1841

Married 2 Oct 1788 in Dissen

All three of the “birthday children” were baptized at Trinity/Friedheim:
 Franklin Benjamin Harrison Siewing baptized June 26, 1892, with sponsors Friedrich Moeller, Jr.; Wilhelm
Sewing; Wilhelm Elbrecht; and Franz Meyr, who was also the pastor.

 Robert Herman Sewing baptized June 5, 1892 under the name Herman Robert Sewing, with sponsors Heinrich Emde and Sophie Emde
 Lydia Clara Grossheider baptized June 19, 1898, with sponsors Heinrich Grossheider and Emilie Mehner

My path to discovering the connection between Siewing and Sewing started in 2016, when I read a reprint of a 1915 “Cape Girardeau Republican” newspaper article about the community of Friedheim and reporting that William Sewing had sold his Friedheim store to Louis Klaus in 1891. I asked Nelson and Wanda Sewing, my aunt and uncle who were Robert and Lydia’s children, who was this William Sewing referred to in the article. They said they had never heard of a Sewing owning a store, nor did they know of a William Sewing who would have been of age to own a store in 1891.

Over time, I figured out that the name should have been William Siewing, who lived in Friedheim in the 1880s and early 1890s. This William Siewing, aka Henry ‘William’ Siewing, Sr., was Frank’s father and was married to Mary Emde, who was a member of the Trinity/Friedheim congregation.

William became Friedheim’s first US Postmaster August 27, 1886, and served in that capacity until replaced by Louis Klaus May 25, 1894. To the best of my knowledge, William’s Postmaster appointment was the first official use of the name Friedheim for the Cape County community formerly known as Dissen. You may have noticed that I used Dissen/Friedheim in some instances above, and Friedheim in other instances; the Dissen/Friedheim references are to distinguish it from the Dissen in Germany, as well as indicate the event was before the name Friedheim was officially adopted.

After learning that the Friedheim store owner was actually a Siewing, it took a while longer to fit enough pieces together to learn that Frank Siewing and I, Sue Sewing, are third cousins once removed through my ancestor Friedrich Wilhelm Siewing, and third cousins twice removed through my ancestor Catherine Marie (Mary) Siewing Grossheider, the two siblings of Frank’s great-grandfather Johann Philip Siewing.

Warrren Schmidt is a remarkable researcher, genealogist, historian, and writer. His daily blog posts are amazing, filled with facts and source material often gleaned that same day. I am honored to step in for him today. Please forgive my weaknesses of taking years to collect data and failing to retain and share my source materials.