Straatmeyer Family Stories

 From and email from  Muriel & Joan Van Loh   Your grandfather's name was?   Jacob Stratmeyer .   I think it was Jacob J.   Your grandmother's first husband?   yes   I think I know but it would be helpful for me to confirm it.  Her second husband was Jacob's cousin. Gene's grandfather.   This brought 10 children together--Jacob, Anna, Ella, Bena (Jacobena?), Albert and Grayce plus Claus, Henry, Ben and Gertie. Dad's family across the road about a 1/3 of a mile away had 11 children. Florence, John, Otto, Emmeline, Matilda (Matsie), Minerva (Minnie), George, LuVern, Ella, Esther, Elmore. There were other Stratmeyer cousins not too far away--Uncle Claus and family and many others. The young people liked to get together--and they had happy times. Our grandfather Jacob bought the farm on Highway 17 with the large apple orchard and I suppose the line of walnut trees beside the lane (probably planted by the family who planted the apple trees) and some time afterward he

  RALPH BOSSMAN   Ralph Bossman was born in Holthusen, East Friesland, Germany, September 4, 1838, and passed away at his home near Lennox, Thursday, September 20, 1928, at the age of 90 years and 16 days.   Mr. Bossman came to the United States in the year of 1867, settling at Freeport, Illinois, where he resided for a few years.   He then took up his residence on a farm near Wellsburg, IA, and was united in marriage to Miss Gertrude Kuper June 27, 1874.  This union was blessed with 13 children, two of them dying in infancy, and one son, Harmanus, at the age of 18 years in the spring of 1905.  Mrs. Bossman, his wife, passed away on May 25, 1923.   The children who remain to mourn his death are Mrs. Pete Vietor, Lennox; Jerry R. Bossman, Lennox', Mrs. J.H. Jacobs, Lennox; John Bossman, Cedar Falls, IA; Henry Bossman, Lennox; Tom Bossman, Lennox; Ben Bossman, Lennox; Mrs. Robert Must, Harrisburg; and Mrs. Ben F. Smit, Lennox;  Others who survive him are 32 grandchildren, eight great

  HENRY WILLIAM STRAATMEYER  (Cindee's Grandfather)   He grew to manhood in the Chancellor and Tea, South Dakota areas, attending the Brothersfield and Schoffelman Grade Schools. He said he skipped one of the early grades because the teachers said he was "smart."  He finished the 8th grade.   When he was first married he was a farmer renting land about two miles east of Lennox.  Losing everything in the Great Depression, he moved to Chancellor and Davis, South Dakota where he worked for the WPA (A government program to put people unemployed by the great depression to work).  His wages were $1 per day plus there was weekly welfare for his family which consisted of food items.  While working for the WPA, he built roads, worked for farmers during the harvest season, and even shoveled to free a freight train which was stuck in the snow southwest of Davis near Hooker.   In 1943, he moved his family to the Bement Dairy Farm about one mile South of Sioux Falls where he was given

  BOSSMAN   We found no Bossmanns in Germany in the graveyards.  I thought I had found them in the Freepsum cemetery when I discovered a lot of Busemanns.  I spoke with an elderly woman who remembered the "Buuhsmanns," and that sounded just like Bossman is pronounced in Low German.  She said Henry and Edward Buuhsmann lived in the village and she pointed to their houses.  I decided not to go because I wasn't quite sure.   After returning from Germany, we got a letter from Dirk Cirksena who had poked around in the Aurich courthouse files for us and he came up with the following:   Thomas Bossmann was born 10.24.1840 in Holthusen, Ostfriesland.  He came to America in 1866, settled in Grundy County, Iowa, near Ackley.  There he married Zwaantje Isebrands on 7.9.1872.  Zwaantje was born in Rysum, Ostfriesland 9.23.1851.   He died 10.23.1920.  She died 11.22.1927.   Harmanus Bossmann, was born in 1844 in Holthusen.  He also left for America in 1866.  His first wife was Renske

  WIBBEN   GREAT GRANDFATHER AND GREAT GRANDMOTHER : After coming to the United States, they lived at Ridot, Illinois.  Geerd Wibben was born 7.21.1845 (The Loquard Church book says his name is Gerd Claassen Wibben and he was born on 6.21.1845) and baptized in the parsonage on 6.29.1845  in Loquard, Ostfriesland. Then it says his father was Hilke Garrelts and wife Jan Eggerkes – I don’t understand this). His mother's name is listed as Anna Harms.  He married Metje Bentheim (There are Bentheims in the Loquard church book but no Metje) in Stephenson County, Illinois on March 11, 1872.  Metje had a four year old daughter when they married.  They had six children together.  My grandmother, Anna, was the first of the children of this marriage, born on May 18, 1872, two months after their marriage.  It is believed that Metje died around January 4, 1883 during or after the birth of Fraukelina Katavina and the child was raised by Berend and Elina Miller.  It is believed that Elina was Metj

  UR FAMILY TREE (as we wrote it in 1997 and 2011)   STRAATMEYER  - Throughout the years, the name has been spelled five different ways, Stratmeyer, Straatmeyer, Stratemayer, Stratemeyer and Stratemeier.  The last way I have spelled it above is the original spelling in the church book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Loquard, Ostfriesland, Germany.   Records I received from Robert Borchers has my lineage listed like this:   SIXTH GREAT GRANDFATHER AND GRANDMOTHER : Kordt Stratemayer, born 1662  (birthdate unconfirmed and death date unknown).  Married Gepke Hendrichs, born 1667, died 3.17.1720.  This grandfather was also known as Kordt Geerdes.  Several generations passed before the name came back.  From this point on the family name bounced around from Gerds, Gerdes, or Girds to Gerd Coorts to Coort Gerdes to Harm Coorts to Coort Harms to Harm Gerdes.  A son of  Harm Gerdes named Jan Harms added Stratemeier to make his name Jan Harms Stratemeier.  This happened sometime during his