SEPTEMBER 1995 NEWSLETTER
REPORT FROM TRUDY SCHENK ON BRILL RESEARCH: Dear Jerry, After 40 hours of research on the BRIEL/BRILL line, I have come up with the following conclusions, after checking these sources:
1) The ship list of Halifax from Rotterdam, 22 Oct 1754 which shows Martin, Johann Henrich and Johann Herman Briel/Briehll, Briell, includes many passengers from Alsace-Lorraine. Some of them I have done research on some time ago, others are listed in Annette Burgert's book, Emigrants from the Alsace Regions.
I'm sure some are Wuerttembergers, yet a good group of them are Hessen names. In my opinion, the Briels are Hessen people. One reason for my thinking is that no other Palatine area used the given name Herman.
2) The Springfield Twp., Bucks Co. Lutheran and Reformed church records from 1752-1770 shows several Hessen names along with the Briels. For instance, Langsdorf, Reifschneider and Franckenfeld. Some of the names appear in both congregations. I looked at the original church records, not the transcripts.
Martin Briel must have gone to Springfield right away after his arrival in Philadelphia. Therefore, there must have been friends or relatives there who perhaps invited him to come.
At this point, I'm not sure if Johann Heinrich and Johann Herman were sons of Martin or brothers. Do you know this? Where did Christopher Briel marry Anna Margaret Maurer?
Martin Briel must have had smaller children when he came to Pennsylvania. Was Christopher's confirmation found in Springfield Twp. or in Nockamixon? Since Christopher and Andrew Briel were communicants in 1767 for the first time, they would have been 14 or 15 years of age and could have been 2 or 3 years old when they came to America. Since Herman took communion already in 1756 with his wife in Springfield, he would be more Martin's age.
3) Herman Priel has a child christened in Springfield Twp., Lutheran Church where he uses a man by the name of Zagmeister for a sponsor. I will go into this a little later.
4) Now I looked at German records, in particular the Marburg and surrounding area, since Marburg had come into the picture before. The FHL has the lineage book on film that was mentioned in previous research. The film is even worse than the faded book. Yet there are many Briel families and I looked them over and also extracted some of them. Most of them were butchers. I looked at the family Johann Michael Briel, who has the son Johann Martin born in 1717 which information you already have from correspondence. I made up a family group sheet for you to look at. The three older children which include Martin were not confirmed, indicating they died in their younger years. This rules out Marburg as the immediate town of origin of the Briel emigrants.
5) There are sever places given where Briels went to from Marburg. The bad thing is that very few parish records have been microfilmed from this area of Hessen which is actually Hessen-Nassau.
6) One of the towns mentioned in Marburg is Biedenkopf and this is one which has been filmed. On film #1475759 Ev-Luth Church I found several Briel families earlier spelled Priel and Pruehl. I extracted all of them.
7) Other towns where Briel should be around Marburg is Hohenkirchen, Oberstein, Merxheim and Oberndorf. No records have been filmed before 1800.
8) IGI and addendum of 1995 shows several places in Hessen where the name Brill shows. This is near Eschwege and Schluechtern, especially Abterode and Wellingerode. Both places have been extracted.
9) There is a book by Inge Auerbach, Auswanderer aus Hessen-Kassel, although the years are 100 years later than your people emigrated, it still gives places where Briels and Brills come from. It is interesting that the spelling Briel comes from the Marburg district and Brill from the Eschwege area. I checked the computer on all places, no records available. (List enclosed)
10) Another booklet on Hessen emigrants to Pennsylvania is the 18th century does not include the name Briel. The area is more South district Hanau.
11) Checked also Frankfurt a.M. and many parishes around Giessen, Hessen. No Briels.
12) Coming back to the name Zagmeister which I mentioned in conjunction with Herman Briel in Springfield Twp.
The IGI shows one Zagmeister entry. This came from a catholic military record of Heidelberg, Baden in 1724. I looked into this entry and found that this Sebastianus Zagmeister came from a town in Hessen, (so far, I have not been able to make out the town). This is obviously a very uncommon name for it shows in no other record. Therefore, the Zagmeister in Springfield Twp. and the one from Hessen must come from the same area, possibly where the Briels come from.
13) I checked a series of Hessen books entitled, Hessische Familienchronik and Hessische Familienstiftung by Sippel. I found some Briels, but no connection to your ancestor. Future research will include a letter to the archive in Marburg, perhaps Miss Inge Auerbach is working on another book on emigrants. I also will extend the research in the Hessen parishes.
On the Maurer, I forgot to enclose the letter from Kupferzell. I will write to the archive in Stuttgart, perhaps they have land and probate records for all of Wuerttemberg. Sincerely yours, Trudy Schenk.
Partial History of Henry Mower Jr., 1824-1902 son of Henry Mower Sr. and Mary Amick
Henry MOWER (Jr.) was listed as an immigrant in 1849 crossing the plains in the 3rd Company with Captain Silas RICHARDS. Henry was listed as age 24, Susan 22, and John A. age 1. This company was outfitted at Kanesville, Iowa on the Elkhorn River on 10 Jul 1849. About 100 individuals were in the company and arrived about 27 Oct 1849.
Since Henry Mower Jr. did not keep a journal of his trip across the the plains we must go to other sources for a day-by-day account of this journey. The following is from the journal of Silas Richards:
72 wagons in camp left Winter Quarters on July 10th, having been organized by Bros. George Albert Smith and Ezra Taft Benson. Captains of Ten were: William B. Huntington, Elam Luddington, Augustus Farnham, Isaac Clark, Samuel Clark, Moses Clawson, Albert P. Rockwood (Marshall of Camp), Lyman Stevens (Captain of Guard) and Bro. Harvey (Captain of Herds).
July 10--- Traveled twelve miles, camped on prairie.
July 11--- Delightful morning, started at 8 o'clock, nooned at papea (?) seven miles, started on at two o'clock, traveled seven miles to Elkhorn River. Very warm. Our manner of encampment is to form a corral with the wagons into which we put our cattle, horses and sheep, and keep a sufficient armed guard, dividing the night into two watches.
July 12--- Morning very warm and clear. Prepared for crossing our wagons on a raft, and at six o'clock P.M. had thirty-five wagons safe over the river, and some of our cattle and horses crossed by swimming. Our camp being a portion on each side of the river, and the corral broken we placed a strong guard to keep the stock.
July 13--- Morning cool, north wind, all the wagons (34) and stock over at two o'clock. Started forward at four o'clock, went about three miles to a delightful camping place, a small still creek. Weather delightful.
July 14--- Morning clear and fine. Called a council of officers. Gave some instructions and adopted more speedy and efficient regulations for the guard. Directed the Marshall to call all the men of the camp together at 4 o'clock P.M. and inspected their arms. Council dismissed. Evening beautiful. Marshall made report of inspection of arms as follows: 61 men in camp. 54 on parade. 44 well armed. 4 in bad order. 3 without arms.
July 15--- Sunday. Camp assembled for meeting at 10 o'clock A.M. Much good instruction was given and a good spirit prevailed. The Pres., his counsel, and all the captains spoke, and expressed themselves satisfied with the camp rules which had been read, and recommended a strict adherence to them. In the evening Capt. Dan Jones and Capt. Hopkins arrived at the Horn.
July 16--- I (Silas Richards) went to the Horn River with a number of our most efficient men, to assist our brethren of the back companies in crossing. About 10 o'clock a violent thunderstorm, with hard wind was upon us, which lasted about one hour, but the sun was soon shining again and our faithful men were hurrying the wagons over, when I left them at noon. Wind strong from the S.E. Another heavy rain storm about midnight.
July 17--- I went to the Horn with some letters to send to Kanesville by Mr. Hewett who had come to camp for the purpose of carrying the mail. Pres. G. A. Smith directed me to move my company forward and a little before noon our camp was in motion, except Capt. Clark's Company, which waited for some wagons that were behind. We traveled about 11 miles to the Platte River and encamped, a good water, wood plenty.
July 18--- Morning very foggy. Capt. Clark's company not having arrived we lay in camp till noon, when the company came up and we went five miles and encamped at the head of a long lake. Evening fair and beautiful. Near this place there was an old Indian encampment which appeared to have been made about 6 to 8 weeks ago. There are a number of fresh Indian graves near. We saw 3 skulls, and other human bones lying about the wigwams, also a number of old buffalo skins. It appeared the bodies had been left without any other burial than being covered with skins and grass.
July 19--- Morning cloudy, S. Wind. At a quarter past 7 o'clock our camp started, and before noon halted where the road strikes the Platte, opposite an island of heavy cottonwood timber. Here we determined to remain till the next morning, that the companies that we left at the Horn might gain on us. Heavy thunder shower about 6 o'clock.
July 20--- Morning clear, cool. N. Wind. Traveled 10 miles to Shell Creek, road good, evening clear, this is a good place to camp.
To be continued...