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Dr. Christian William Stempel began the
CHAIN OF WENDISH MIGRATION
TO IOWA.
He, his children, & his
GRAF in-laws were the FIRST
KNOWN WENDS
to enter
He had moved to PEITZ, where
his first 11 of the children, of 1st wife Louise
SCHINDLER
& her sister,
2nd
wife,
Dorthea
Charlotte Emilie
SCHINDLER
had been born. In 1831, the retired Dr. & family moved to
DRACHHAUSEN;
Dr. Stempel was a retired army surgeon who had served during the
opposition to the invasion of Napoleon. Being a doctor may have played a
role in the survival of so many of his children. The four older
children, being married, with children of their own, stayed behind;
along with his 3rd wife, Johanna, & their 7 children, while
the rest traveled together to the
1) Christian Wilhelm
STEMPEL, 72, retired doctor,
of DRACHHAUSEN & 7 Children
from his 1st & 2nd marriages a Sister-in-law &
Brother-in-law:
2) Herman
STEMPEL, 23, Missionary
3) Pauline
STEMPEL, 18
4)
Adolph STEMPEL, 17, farmer
5)
Adelheit STEMPEL, 16
6)
Hugo STEMPEL, 14, farmer
7)
Louis STEMPEL, 11
8)
Loui GRAF, 27, farmer from
PEITZ (brother-in-law)
9)
Emile GRAF, 25 of Peitz
(possibly the wife of Loui Graf)
10)
This group
traveled 7 weeks, from
They then took a
land route through the Alleghenies, to Brownsville, Ohio, by horse drawn
wagon; followed by a boat ride up the
MONOGAHELA
RIVER, turning west on to the
OHIO RIVER, & eventually
north on to the MISSISSIPPI
RIVER to KEOKUK, IA,
where they were forced to stop due to ice on the river. They tried to
settle in KEOKUK but could
not find housing; so, the next day they quickly backtracked south, by
wagon, to
It was their
intention to continue their journey when spring came; though the
original destination they had in mind is not known. When spring arrived,
the family had so many new friends; they decided to stay in
According to his
son, Guido ‘s biography, hoping to invest his money, Dr. Stempel
purchased a large piece of land he believed to be of the best quality,
according to local “sharpers,” who apparently mislead him.
Situated between
On the 2
February, 1848, just 10 weeks after Dr CW STEMPEL arrived in
Part this piece
of property was located on the 1874
The “SE
¼ in section 20 of Township 68 N, Range 3 E/W of the 5th
PM”
In
1874, this 160 acre parcel sat 1 ½ miles north of the
By
2008, the south east corner of this property is known as:
It is
once again about one mile from the
Much of the rest
of the land was of questionable value. It was located closer to the
river, some of it likely adjoining or being river front, on the 1874 map
it is clearly on the Mississippi shore line and by 1916, much of it is
under water, and from one foot to 60 feet under water, some of it a mile
out in the water. The
exception, or better piece of land, is the one described above, which
may have been far enough back to be relatively safe from the yearly
spring floods.
In the summer of
1848, 12 year old son Louis Guido and two of his older brothers moved on
to the farm, living in its one room log cabin. The oldest was the
manager, the next was the cook, and young Louis was a “roustabout,” with
the main job of tending the cattle by riding about through the 5 to 6
foot high grass. He also carried a gun and was also responsible for
hunting and fishing.
In the winter of
1848, or perhaps early in 1849, Dr. Stempel’s third wife and the
remaining younger children arrived in
The boys from Dr. Stempel’s second family, were hugely successful men,
even with this shaky start. Among them, the oldest, Hermann
STEMPEL, who had been a
teacher in
Hugo Carl (HC) became an attorney and Deputy Clerk of Courts in
Guido Louis also became a medical doctor; while he was the Stewart of
the Iowa Penitentiary in
Daughter Pauline married Friedrich
HERMINGHAUSEN, a produce
merchant, about 2 years after her arrival in the
Daughter Adelhiede married tailor Frank
KOEHLER, 3 October 1855, and
had 6 children, before her early death at 38 years of age, very likely
in childbirth. Her niece,
Anna STEMPEL, the oldest daughter of her older brother Robert, came from
Though experiencing many hardships, the
STEMPEL FAMILY was hugely
successful in their careers and lives in
Several
extensive biographies are found in various county histories of (Revised
May 10 , 2008
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