Fred Eggers is the author of today’s blog post. He really did me a big favor by writing this post. I was not going to have much time to write a story of my own. Fred always does such a great job researching for his stories, and this one is an example of that. Thanks, Fred.
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If you research the name Versemann (or Verseman for those that use the shorter version of the name) in these blog posts, you will find that Warren Schmidt has tagged this name over sixty times. Most of them relate to the family of Johann Versemann (1826-1894) who emigrated to the Farrar area in 1868. He was married twice and raised seven sons and two daughters. I am one of his many great grandchildren and I have a copy of his extensive family tree that was printed for me by another descendant, Andy Krauss at Liberty Glass Company in Perryville.
There are also fourteen blog posts related to the family of Johann Peter Versemann (1828-1889) who emigrated to the Altenburg area in 1866. He often went by the name Peter. The oral family history says that he built the steeple on the Trinity, Altenburg church in 1867. I would love to find documentation for that. He later lived in the Jacob, Illinois area and we have a copy of his family page from the Christ, Jacob church records.
Some years ago, when I was researching the Versemann family in Ancestry.com, I discovered another brother that came to America. Claus Versemann was born in Ostervesde in the Kingdom of Hanover on July 5, 1833, and was baptized in Scheeßel on July 7. This a copy of his baptism record.
The 1900 and 1910 United States Census tell us that he came to America in 1857, but we have no record of his emigration. The earliest record that we have for him in his new country is in the official roster of Ohio soldiers that states that he enrolled in the 107th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry on August 22, 1862. The unit was mustered in Cleveland, Ohio. That record also tells us that he was wounded on May 2, 1863, at the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia. His unit also fought at Gettysburg and suffered heavy casualties in both of those battles. In February 1864 the 107th was transferred to Jacksonville, Florida and stayed in the south for the remainder of the war. On March 31, 1864, he was transferred to 166th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Veterans Reserve Corp at Point Lookout, Maryland. He served there until he was discharged on June 27, 1865.
I located two books on the 107th. One was written by a member of the same company as Claus that was based upon a diary that Jacob Smith kept during his time in service. I enjoy reading civil war diaries and books based upon them because they give a better record of how the soldiers lived than the official records do. The second is a historical novel written by a descendent of an officer in the unit. It contains a lot of records and historical documents. Unfortunately, it turns into a soap opera about a love triangle which ends in the author’s ancestor being shot and dying.
The Flying Dutchmen title of the second book refers to the unfortunate reputation of the German-born Ohio troops in the XI Corp in the Civil War. This is what was posted on a marker on the battlefield at Chancellorsville:
The Flying Dutchmen
The target of [Stonewall] Jackson’s attack was General Oliver O. Howard’s Eleventh Corps, which extended for more than a mile along the Orange Turnpike. The Eleventh Corps was relatively new to the Army of the Potomac. Its 11,000 men included a large percentage of German immigrants – men with names like Peisser and Buschbeck, Schurz and Schimmelfennig.
Union pickets had warned Howard of the enemy’s approach, but he had ignored their reports. Headquarters had assured him that the Confederate army was in retreat. Now, as the Southerners bore down upon Howard’s flank, the men of the corps broke ranks and fled. Although the general and his officers eventually restored order, they could not restore the corps’ reputation. From then on, the Eleventh Corps would be known derisively as “the Flying Dutchmen.”
Claus Versemann’s residence was in the Cleveland area during his military service. He is found in the property tax records for 1862 through 1864 in Rockport Township of Cuyahoga County, which is just west of Cleveland.
We next find him in the 1870 Census living in the George Berg household in Henrietta Township, Lorain County, Ohio. He is listed as a farm laborer. Lorain County is the next county to the west from Cuyahoga County.
On April 25, 1871, Claus Versemann was married to Lucy Jane Rothfield in Cuyahoga County by George Berg. We have a record for that marriage. Today would be the 155th anniversary of that wedding. I was unable to find any other records for Lucy Jane prior to her marriage. We will continue to see George Berg in future records for Claus. His obituary reveals that he was a Methodist minister.
There is a 1884 plat map of the Henrietta, Ohio area that gives the location of Claus’s property and that of George Berg.
On September 1, 1876, Versemann applied for a government pension as an invalid. The index card does not give any indication of where he was living at the time.
By the 1880 Census, the Versemanns and the Bergs had located to Fairmount Township in Leavenworth County, Kansas. Claus is listed with his wife, a daughter Mary, age 8, born in Ohio, and an adopted son Charles Reager, also age 8 and born in Ohio.
Kansas performed additional censuses five years after each federal census, so we have that record from 1885. Now listed as a son is “Charlie Versemann”. That is the last record of any kind that I was able to find for him as a Reager or a Versemann.
On September 19, 1889, Claus’s daughter Mary married Charles James Kenton in Leavenworth County. Unfortunately, we have no document to record that wedding. Time does not permit me to give details of their family, but we do have a photo of that couple and their adult children.
We do have documentation for Claus’s enrollment in the Kansas Ex-Soldiers and Sailors from 1889.
On January 26, 1898, Claus’s wife died. The only record we have is from FindAGrave.com. Her name is given as Louisa. She is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Fairmount Township. The photo of the gravestone is too dark to be legible.
In the 1900 Census, Claus is living with Charles and Mary Kenton and their three children.
There is a Leavenworth County Plat Book from 1903 available online and it shows the location in Fairmount township just south of the town of Fairmount.
The 1910 Census is the final one in which we find Claus Versemann where he is again found living with his daughter and her family.
Claus Versemann died on October 30, 1911. He is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Fairmount Township. There is a photo of his gravestone on FindAGrave.com and his death notice was published in a Leavenworth newspaper.
I wonder if Claus Versemann ever contacted his older brothers living In Perry County, Missouri and Jackson County, Illinois. They were living around 350 miles from each other when he was living in Kansas. My theory is that since he left home at the age of 24 and they did not emigrate until 14 and 16 years later it is unlikely that they ever heard from each other again.