Haas and Thieken Family

The Haas and Thieken Family was researched and written by the late Leroy E. Haas
September 20, 2002

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Peter Haas Family (1824-1895)

Peter Haas was my great-grandfather. He came to America in 1849 or 1850 at the age of 25 years. He lived in Portsmouth, Ohio, and Wheelersburg, Ohio, both in Scioto County and finally in Pine Grove, Ohio in Lawrence County.

I first located Peter in the US census of 1850 in Scioto County, Ohio. He was living in Portsmouth along with many other German immigrants who came to this area to work in the iron ore mining industry. The hotel’s name is unknown but it was next door to the White Bear Hotel. The landlord was Nathen Kricker. This hotel was in the main part of town near the Ohio River docks where Peter must have landed.

Peter may have arrived or met with other Haas immigrants in Portsmouth as I found a John Haas, age 24, and a George Haas, age 45, in the same 1850 census. I later found the death records of Joseph Haas at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in Pine Grove, Ohio. He was killed on 27 September 1851 in the Pine Grove Furnace where he worked.

His death record stated that he “died in the hot furnace.” This passage was written in Latin and was difficult to read. I believe this man was the same man found in the 1850 census as John. I also believe that both John and George were Peter’s brothers.

My aunt Laura Blake Haas, wife of my father’s brother William Lawrence Haas, told me that she thought Peter arrived in the Port of New Orleans with two brothers but was not sure of their names. She said that one was George, and the other could have been John Joseph. Laura is 95 years old at this writing.

Peter was virtually invisible as far as local records were concerned. He has no citizenship records in the Scioto and Lawrence county courthouses. He did not serve in the Civil War even though he was only 40 years old at the beginning of the war. Many southern Ohio Germans did serve in the war. In fact, a pure German outfit was assembled in Portsmouth and Ironton, Ohio, and served their new country with distinction. This all-German unit was necessary as most could not communicate in English as yet.

The next time Peter became visible was in the 1860 census of Vernon Township, Scioto County, Ohio (the post office was Iron Furnace). He is 35 years old, a furnace laborer, listing his birthplace as ” The Rhinebarron ” or “Rhineland “. He listed the same for his mother and father. He claimed personal assets of $100. He was living with Mr. Leonard Laubner and his family. Apparently, they were good friends as Peter was always present at Mr. Laubners` children’s christening at Saint Peter’s Church in Wheelersburg. Laubner was also from the Rhineland in Germany.

While searching through some old records in the dark basement of the Scioto County courthouse, I found a marriage record for Peter HAUS and Fredericka Thieken dated 14 June 1862 completed by the probate judge indicating that both parties were not married, were of legal age and were no closer related than second cousins. A marriage license found at Saint Mary’s church in Portsmouth and dated 30 June 1862 joined Peter and Fredericka thereby starting the family in southern Ohio known as THE HAAS FAMILY.

The name HAAS means “one who lives at the sign of the rabbit”. Haas means rabbit in German and is closely related to the German dish of Hasenpfeffer. People with this name used a picture of a rabbit in front of their house long before surnames were used. It was Napoleon who decreed that those under his authority must select and register a last name to identify themselves.

A story related to me on April 13, 1963, by Mrs. Elizabeth Bihl of Wheelersburg was about Peter’s age difference. This is a first-hand story by one who lived in the community at the time. Mrs. Bihl lived next door to Peter and his family. She was only five or six years old but could remember seeing Peter come and go to and from work. He was a very old man compared to Fredericka and the Thieken family was very upset that she married a man so old.

Mrs. Bihl also told me that she was the same age as my grandfather Will whom she played with many times in their yards. This was William Henry Haas, my father’s father. It is my belief that due to Thieken’s objection to Peter, Fredricka waited until she was 18 years old to marry so that she did not have to have her parent’s permission. The age difference was 19 years.

Peter must have anguished over this age difference and perhaps did not get along with Fredericka’s family as well as he would have liked. In the 1850 census he was age 25, In the 1860 census, he was age 35. However, he reported his age in the 1870 census as age 40???.

He carried this age shortage of five years throughout his life presumably to make him more acceptable to his in-laws. Peter died on October 15, 1895. The age on his death record does not agree with any ages given earlier. The record says he was 80 but he had to be only 70. I believe that his family knew about his lifelong age problem and knew that he was older than he claimed ….but overshot the mark.

Peter’s civil record says:

“Peter Haas was born in Germany, was an occupation miner, and died of old age on October 15, 1895, at age 80 years, 2 months, and 20 days. Buried at Saint Mary’s Church, Pine Grove, Ohio. (ref: Ledger 2, page 188 Register 303 Lawrence Co. Courthouse, Ironton, Ohio)

Peter’s church burial record says:

Oct. 15, 1895
“hodie Hie sefunictus est”
Peter Haas at Pine Grove Furnace
die 15 Oct. 1895
Natus 80 annas, 2m, 23d, J.B. Schmitt
(this was found on page 63 of the 1886 death book at Saint Mary’s, Pine Grove, Ohio).

Research on Peter took me to the national archives in Washington, DC, where I found two Peter Haas immigrants arriving in the US. The Peter that seemed to fit our Peter’s circumstances came through Philadelphia on the ship “Louis Maria” on May 1, 1849, from Germany at age 24.

The index card, which is a transcription of the actual ship passenger list, indicated that he was a Lock maker. While checking the actual list, I found that the Lock maker was actually the passenger listed on the line above Peter and that Peter was listed as a Dyer from Eisfeld, Germany.

This information was enough to cause me to write to the Eisfeld Lutheran Church, which in turn sent me a birth record of Johann Peter Haas, born 8 December 1824. I believe at this point that this is not our Peter, as the US census records say that he was from the Rhineland area of Germany. Eisfeld is, or was, behind the Iron Curtain in eastern Germany.

The Rhineland is on the country’s western border. However, I have a great deal of documentation for this Peter sent by a very friendly pastor in Eisfeld. It goes back to late 1600 AD. So, after many years of work, we are still looking for our man.

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Anna Maria Fredericka Thieken
(Sept. 24, 1843, to April 11, 1903)

Fredericka Thieken Haas is my Great-grandmother and Peter’s spouse. She first appeared in the 1860 US census in Porter Township, Scioto County, Ohio, on July 15, along with her father Frederick, her stepmother Gertrude Renghen Thieken, two half-sisters, and one half-brother. This and other official records indicate that she was born Sept.19, 1843, at Molbergen, Oldenburg, Germany, to Frederick and Anna Maria Schwitzner Thieken.

She was one of four children born into this marriage. Her mother died when Fredericka was six years old. She came to the US with her father, stepmother, brother Frederick Anton, and sister Elizabeth. They lived in Pittsburgh, PA, with her father’s brother Michael and his family for about two years. Fred and Gertrude had two children, Margaret and Marie (Mary). Margaret died in Pittsburgh at the age of 18 months.

Sometime during 1854, Fred, Gertrude, Fredericka, and Mary moved to Scioto County (Wheelersburg), Ohio, leaving behind Fred Anton (named after their father and grandfather) and Maria Elizabeth. These two never joined their father in Ohio and lived their entire lives in Pittsburgh.

I believe that the fourth child to Fred’s first marriage, born in Molbergen, Germany, died AT SEA.** Her name was Maria Catherine. She never appeared in any records in the US. When I find the ship’s passenger records, we will know for sure. An old family rumor told to me by my father’s sister, Mary Francis, says that someone died during the crossing, but I never knew if this was a Haas or Thieken. I was nine years old at that time and still remember the exact conversation with Mary.

** May 16, 2004, update on the Thieken crossing to America. **

The ship’s manifest was found for this family after 15 years of searching. Mary Theresa Boll of Wheelersburg, Ohio, found it today. All members of the family departed from Germany, but seven-year-old Catherine died en route and was buried at sea.

The ship record follows:

Arrival: July 6, 1853
Origin: Oldenburg, Germany
Destination: Pennsylvania
Ship name: POST
Port of arrival: Baltimore, Maryland
Port of departure: Bremen, Germany
Ref: (National Archives Series #9, Microfilm # M255, List #3).

Fred was a farmer who spent the rest of his life in the Wheelersburg area, where he attended Saint Peter’s church. He is very visible in the Vernon and Porter Township tax records. He was a naturalized US citizen who took an oath on Nov. 14, 1859. The index card for his papers is on file at the Scioto County courthouse, but the actual papers have been lost.

Anna Fredericka was also known as Mamy, Marie, Anna, and Rika. According to the 1900 census, she lived with her son Andrew, who was married to Theresa Deck Haas, a German immigrant. Their son William and several of Anna`s children were in the household. Anna died April 11, 1903, in Ironton, Ohio, at age 59 and is buried next to Peter at Saint Mary’s church in Pine Grove, Ohio.

There are no grave markers for either of them. Anna was a parish member and was very visible there most of her life. She could read and write English, was a Godmother to Edward Thieken on Oct. 30, 1898, and was listed as a church member in 1870 as Mary Ticken Haus. She is named on the birth records of all her children and on her death record of April 11 and buried on April 14, 1903. She died of old age. The Priest was J. M. McCaun. Her death is also recorded in the Lawrence County courthouse ledger #3, page 200 in the death book.

Locating the Thieken’s origin in Germany was a five-year effort for me. I finally found a researcher in Oldenburg, Herr Falk Liebezeit, who referred me to a specific town and a Catholic church with the Thieken records.

This was in early 1991, the first time the name THEIKEN was found in Germany. The town was Schmertheim, near Cloppenburg, in the State of Oldenburg, in the northwest corner of the country, not far from the Dutch border. Ralph Haas, my brother, and I visited this area and met several Thiekens, all farmers, but we could not connect with our families during this trip.

However, in 1993, we returned to Germany after additional research at the local US branch of the Mormon library in Minneapolis. This time, we were successful. Ralph and I visited a retired school teacher named Herr Wilhelm Apke, who married a Thieken woman who is now dead.

Wilhelm met with us during our first trip, but we did not have enough information to connect our line. This current trip was very fruitful, as Wilhelm’s records and ours matched perfectly. It happens that Wilhelm’s deceased wife was the sister of Elizabeth Thieken, who owned the family farm in Schmertheim. Ralph and I reviewed our records with Elizabeth and her family, and all agreed that we, in fact, are connected.

The Thieken farm dates back to at least the 1500s and is a local landmark. This family is well-known and respected and appears to have a prosperous farming operation.

There are other Thiekens in the U.S., but very few. Michael, a brother to Fred, settled in the Pittsburgh area in Allegheny and Butler counties. There is also a family in Cincinnati, Ohio, who came from Oldenburg. (I found their ship passenger records in the National Archives; I believe they belong to our family. They came about 15 or 20 years after Fred. I talked to a granddaughter of Joseph Thieken in Cincinnati who knows no connection to our family. I requested Gertrude Thieken in Schmertheim, Germany, to search her local records for Joseph. I have no word from her yet.

The Thickens of Wheelersburg holds a family reunion each July. Mary Boll, whose father was Edward Thieken, makes the arrangements. More information is available through Mary and her family. They are well known in the area and easily found.

The Fred Thieken farmhouse still stands on Turkey Foot Road, across from the Vernon firehouse. This is the farm bought after Fredericka married Peter Haas and left home.

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Frederick Theiken
(Sept.18, 1811, to June 23, 1886)

Joannes Friedrich Ticken was born in Schmerheim, Oldenburg, Germany, and christened in Saint Andreas Catholic church in Cloppenburg on Sept. 19, 1811. His mother was Maria Angela Thale, and his father was Herman Anton Ticken. Schmerheim is located 4 km west of Cloppenburg in the northwest section of Germany and southwest of Bremen in Oldenburg.

Fred’s siblings were: Joannas Heinrich (1810 to 1819), Michael Joseph (1819 to ?) (died in Pittsburgh); Anna Catharina (1819 to 1842 ); Clara Elizabeth, born(?)and married Joseph Fucher in Garrel, Germany.

Fred married Marie Anna Schwitzner Teesken, a widow, at Molbergen, Germany, on October 30, 1835, at Saint John the Baptist church. Anna’s mother was Marie Elizabeth Werfels, nee Einhaus. She was born September 1, 1777, and died December 9, 1820. Anna and Fred had the following children: Frederick Anton, born in 1836; Marie Elizabeth, born in 1839; Maria Fredericka, born in 1843; and Maria Anna Catherina, born in 1846. Fred’s wife had four additional children by a former marriage to Joann Heinrick Teesken.

Anna Maria Schwitzner was born in 1803 and died on March 2, 1851, a year before Fred’s immigration to the US. She married her first husband on February 21, 1824, in Molbergen, where she died. She is buried UNDER the Catholic church, which was built over an earlier cemetery or in Deutsch, Friedhof.

Fred’s second marriage was to Helena Gertrude Hagen Renschen of Peheim, Germany, a short distance from Molbergen. They were married on July 22, 1852. They left Germany in 1853 for America to meet Fred’s brother Michael Joseph, who came to Pittsburgh, PA, prior to October 1, 1845, as he had a daughter, Margaret, there on that date.

Fred and Gertrude had another child, Margaret, born on June 24, 1853.** Margaret died on September 29, 1854, in Pittsburgh. Mary was also born in Pittsburgh when she arrived in Wheelersburg, Ohio, with Fred and her family. Maria Elizabeth and Fred Anton stayed with Michael’s family in Pittsburgh. They are listed in the 1860 census as ages 21 and 24, respectively.

** Update May 9, 2005, **

We now know that Margaret was born at sea during the trip from Germany. The family arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 6, 1853. Margaret was born June 24, 1853, only 12 days before arrival. It must have been very unusual for a family to lose a child and gain another during the voyage. As stated earlier, Catharina died at sea.

Fred’s family continued to grow, as he had John, Lena, Michael, Andrew, and Henry in Wheelersburg, Ohio. He was 45 years old when John was born and had four more after him. Fred died on June 23, 1886, and Gertrude died in 1899. Both are buried at Saint Peter’s Cemetery in Wheelersburg. The date on Fred’s tombstone is INCORRECT, as his family was not sure of his year of birth.

As one can see, Fred was responsible for many children during his lifetime. Four were born to his first marriage, four more were born to his first marriage, and seven more were born in the US—a total of 15!!!!

In my family record book, I am including real estate records regarding Fred’s farm in Molbergen, Germany. Fred inherited this farm by marriage to Anna Maria Schwitzner and sold it to Joseph Thieken in 1852, before his removal to the US.

A record found in Schmertheim, Germany, states:
“Schmertheim, Oldenburg, Germany- Thieken farm where Fred was born: The resident owner Thieken, the name stems from Dirich or Deitrich (circa 1574). Dirichs Joann- owner. Assets valued at the end of 1600: 17 1/2 mlt acres, grain meadows, wagon and two horses, one cow, one ram, one lamb, one pig, and two chickens. The wagon and horses were required to offer services in Cloppenburg for various pay.”

“In 1708 Johann Thieken and Frau Geste are the owners. The other residents are the 80-year-old farmer Frederick and his five children. In 1755 the son of Johann Heinrich inherited the place followed by Frederich Christian who died in 1770 leaving four children.

His widow married Michael Osterkamp, called Robke (1771) who for the amount of 25 Talers was entitled to the source of the yearly profit, but only until the coming of age of the oldest son from the first marriage. In 1780, Frederick Gottfried took over and paid his mother and stepfather 50 Talers for the assets of himself and his wife. The last time the property was valued was 90 Talers in 1842 For Frederick Thieken and Maria Anna Einhouse. The service agreement with the owner was canceled through the St.G.”

As I mentioned earlier, Ralph Haas and I visited this Thieken farm during both visits to Germany. Herr Apke, who married Hedwig Josephia Thieken sent us to visit the farm and meet Hedwigs sister Elizabeth. The farm now belongs to Elizabeth but will go to her daughter Gertrude upon Elizabeth’s death.

She is about 80 years old at this time. Both Elizabeth and Gertrude married and had their husbands assume the Thieken name in order to keep the farm, which is at least 500 years old, in the family. The same thing happened two or three generations ago when the eldest daughter inherited the farm.

Gertrude married Herbert Reselaga and has three children: two boys and a girl. Ralph and I met with the two ladies and reviewed our family charts. They were surprised that they had family in America. They told us during our earlier visit that none of their people went to the US or Canada. They seemed a little skeptical but finally conceded that our family tree was correct.

The Thieken line from my grandchildren goes back 12 generations. Our line split from Gertrude’s line seven generations ago (about 1761, when her ancestor Frederick Godefried Tyken inherited the farm). His brother, Hermann Anton Tyken, was left out and probably became a laborer in the area. As a result, two of his children, Johan Frederick and Michael Joseph, immigrated separately to Pittsburgh, the US. Frederick, of course, later moved to Wheelersburg, Ohio, but I do not know why.

We planned to meet with one of our distant relatives, Erich Schwitzner, a descendant of Maria Schwitzner, but he was on vacation in the Canary Islands. He did leave a short note with Gertrude saying that he felt that we would probably not find our people in his area, but fortunately, he was wrong.

END
April 12, 1995
Leroy E. Haas

** May 9, 2005 Update **
** September 20, 2002 Update **

A great deal of time has passed since the above writing. Additional trips to Germany were made, two HAAS FAMILY REUNIONS were held in Pine Grove, Ohio, where Peter and Fredericka are buried, and contact was made with Thiekens living on the tenant farm in Schmerheim, Germany.

This family is the direct branch of our Fred Thieken and lives on the farm where Fred was born. The Thieken farm visited earlier is the Main Farm or owner farm. The tenant farm was purchased from the main farm three generations ago and has been operated continuously since then.

Since my earlier writing, Ralph Haas, my brother, and I have visited the Thiekens twice more. We enjoyed our experience very much. In fact, we are beginning to feel at home in the Cloppenburg area. Prior to our last visit, Annegret Thieken from Schmertheim contacted us via the internet, as she found her surname on the web.

This data was on my Haas website and recorded by Ray “Pete” Haas several years ago. Annegret added a great deal of family information to our site and explained that she is a descendant of Fred Thieken’s father. Ralph, my daughter Tracy, and I met Annegret at her home and spent an afternoon with her mother, father, and brother. This was a very pleasant, interesting, and satisfying visit. Annegret was a graduate student at the University of Halle and, soon after our visit, obtained her Doctorate in Environmental Studies.

Our first visit to Germany, which produced very few family connections, was somewhat ironic for us. While sitting in our hotel in Cloppenburg, we studied the local telephone book for Thieken contacts.

The very first was a small farm on the Molbergen/ Schmerheim Road. We knocked on the door and were met by a young man who spoke some English. He told us that he knew of no one in his family who moved to America and telephoned his aunt to ask if she was aware of anyone. No connection!

After several minutes of discussion, this man told us we should inquire at the next farm on the same road as a Thieken family farm. He explained that the two farms were not connected now but were part of the same farm in the 1100s or 1200s when they separated. When I asked if he was related to the Thiekens on the other farm, he said NO! Well, after five years of research on this family and finding Thiekens only in this specific area of Germany, I found it hard to believe that he was not somehow connected to the other Thiekens. We said goodbye and moved on to the main farm down the road.

When we met with Annegret and her family to spend the afternoon, we were introduced to her brother, Heinrich! You guessed it! This was the same man who sent us to the main farm many years before. Annegret’s house was the very first place we visited during our first trip and WAS the farm we were looking for.

Heinrich remembered our visit five years earlier and was quite surprised. We were told that the original farmhouse burned, and a new one was built nearby by Annegret’s grandmother. This farm is where Fred Thieken was born, where he lived before marriage to Fredericka’s mother in Molbergen, and where his brother, who inherited the farm, lived when Fred left for America. We presented the family with a formal printed copy of the Thieken family genealogy, which seemed to please them very much.

The above writing mentions Eisfield Peter Haas, born in 1824. Since I discovered that this was not OUR PETER, I filed the research away and forgot about it. After several years, I received an email from Doctor Haas, who lives in St. Louis, inquiring about Peter Haas.

His information says that his ancestor is also Peter Haas, who immigrated from Germany about the same time as our Peter. He said that his Haas family in America was involved in leatherworking trades, as was the subject Peter, and that my information on the Eisfeld Peter appeared to match his information.

After a little more discussion, we determined that Eisfeld Peter was HIS ancestor. I sent him all of my data, and he was grateful for the connection. I spent a great deal of money supporting the minister in Eisfeld, but our Doctor Haas reaped the benefits.

I have yet to find Peter’s origin in Germany and will probably never do so as there seems to be no information available in this country to lead me to a specific place in Germany. Karlsruhe, Germany, is the only lead I have, and there are many Peter Haas there.

I did, however, determine that one of the spouses of Peter’s child, who came later from Germany, came with her family from Moersch, in Baden. This was Theresa Deck, the grandmother of many Haas folks in Ironton, Ohio, today. Theresa and her two sisters, Celia and Sophia, lived in Lawrence County, Ohio, along with her mother and father. She married Andrew Haas, Peter’s second child, and her sisters married Laber gentlemen from Ironton, Ohio. In addition, some brothers settled in Jackson County, near Lawrence.

I was pleased to prove a connection between the Lawrence and Jackson Deck families. This was done via a ship manifest listing all of the family found in the publication “Germans to America”. The Deck family is found throughout Scioto County, and one particular member, Ed Deck, who lives in Waverly, Ohio, is a personal friend of my brother Ralph and worked for the Columbia Gas Co. with Ralph. Ed was very pleased to get the family data from my research. My website contains all the specifics for the research mentioned here.

During our last trip to Germany in April 1999, we were finally able to meet Erich Schwitzner and his wife Inge. Erich’s ancestor was the brother of Fred Thieken’s first wife in Molbergen, Germany. Erich gave me lots of information on the Schwitzner family and mentioned that his grandfather was a Swiss Guard member of the Vatican in Rome.

He had the medals to prove it. Erich spent most of his life as a teacher in Brazil. He still has a son and family there. Erich and Inge are retired and live in Cloppenburg. Our visit was very emotional as I corresponded with him for five years before our first meeting.

The Scioto County, Wheelersburg, Thieken family reunion is still held on the first weekend following the Fourth of July. The German Thiekens are aware of this but have not yet attended. However, one member of the family, Monica Thieken Acox, and her husband, Terry, visited the main farm in Germany.

At this point, we hope to see other Thiekens from Germany at future reunions. In 2002, I was in Pittsburgh, PA, researching Fred’s children’s families and his brother’s descendants. Frederich Anton and Elizabeth, Frederica’s brother and sister, stayed in Pittsburgh.

My family data contains the details of their respective families. I could find no evidence of contact between the Ohio and Pittsburgh members, but there must have been some. They lived a lifetime and all died in their respective places, so there must have been lots of communication. Fred Anton in Pittsburgh has descendants there who are providing a great deal of information and photographs to me and the Wheelersburg Thiekens.