Mary and Gottlieb had a son named Christian Gottlob Hummel who died in Germany before they came to the United States. We found the records of their infant son Christian Hummel, as we were preparing for this family reunion. I had gone on Ancestry.com to look at some additional information and records and stubbled across the records of Christian Gottlob Hummel, the son of Mary and Gottlieb that had only lived a few short months. Christian was born on the 4 March 1858 and died on the same year on the 24 August 1858, having lived only 6 months.
We are not sure if the reason Gottlieb and Mary moved to the United States was in part due to the heart break of losing their first son. But we do know that during this time period many Germans moved to the United States. One of the reasons was economics. In the 1850’s over 37% of all immigrants coming to the United States were German. Those that left Germany were generally small farmers, not rich by any means, but not extremely poor. They had enough money to be able to afford the travel over to the United States, but not enough to keep them rooted close to their hometowns. The promise of land in American appealed to many of these immigrants as land in Germany was hard to obtain, especially if you were not the oldest son.
Others also came because of politically upheaval. There was a revolution in Western Europe in 1848. Or some were seeking to get away from an autocratic society, as Germany was during that time. They had a hope of new freedoms and also maybe even just a bit of adventure.
Like our ancestors, Mary and Gottlieb Hummel, many of these same German immigrants found their way to the rich farmland in the triangle of Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee. So it is no surprise that they eventually settled just outside St Louis in Warrenton.
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