JN. The GROH Famly. Two typewritten pages (incomplete) document found in the possessions of my mother Ruby (Anderson) Klamm. Origin unknown. It contains a number of interesting stories about the family. I have made comments in italic font preceded with my initials JN. The genealogy is confusing with so many people named Christoph and Peter, but I think my analysis of their error in ancestry is correct. All of these people are descended from Peter Groh (1753-) and Eva Katharina Fry (1777-) but I believe sometimes by different paths than described here. This is a common kind of error, especially when the same names duplicated in every family. If you are not interested in the details of the ancestry, just enjoy the history and stories.
During the 1840s. Christoph Groh (b. 1796 14 Nov 1795-d. January 5, 1853), his brother Peter Groh III (b. 1786 7 May 1788-d 18 Dec 1846), and their families over the course of several years immigrated to America from their place of birth Rheingoenheim, Bavaria then under the rule of King Maximilian.
JN. Both immigrated 27 Jun 1843 on the Baltimore to New York. Christoph came with some of his children. Peter Groh came with wife Maria, Heinrich, Christoph, Michel. Some other of Peter’s children were adults and also came to America. This is the same ship as the Brenners arrived on.
Christoph and Peter III were the sons and grandsons of Peter Groh II (b, 1753) and Peter Groh I (b. 1723) farmers from Rheingoenheim. They first settled near Parkville, Missouri along the Clay and Platte County line.
In 1844, they founded the St. Peter’s German Evangelical Church there which lists as charter members Adam Renner, Henry Burixter, Henry Hartman, Fred Hartman, Valentine Filger, Henry Groh, Peter Groh, Daniel Groh, P. Klamm, S. Klamm, together with the wives of all these. Christoph and his son Johann Peter left Rheingoenheim March 6, 1842 for America. Upon arriving in the Missouri River Valley near Parkville, they discovered that it resembled the valley of the Rhein they had just left. They soon set about building comfortable homes followed by church and school. Unfortunately the summer of 1844 was harsh on farmers in the rich bottom lands because both the Kansas and Missouri Rivers flooded. This was followed by much suffering because of malaria and typhoid. In spite of these difficulties, most remained in the Parkville area leaving only when problems over slavery arose in 1854 locating in Buchanan and Atchison counties in Missouri and Doniphan and Leavenworth counties in Kansas.
JN. If they left Rheingoenheim March 6, 1842 and arrived in New York June 27, 1843, they were over a year in transit. In the paragraph below, Michael Kirshcner left December 15, 1842. But I see them both on the Baltimore arriving in New York on 27 June 1843. Could they have made an earlier trip?
Peter Groh III married Maria Elizabetha Traenckler. To them were born nine children. Christopher (b. April 22, 1805), Phillip H., Henry, Anna Barbara (b. August 27, 1813), Maria Elizabeth (b. March 12, 1815), Peter IV (b. March 20, 1817), Jacob (b. January 19, 1820), George W. (b. 1822), and Michael (b. July 6, 1831). Germany was reorganised many times in the late 18th and early 19th centuries reducing 300 small principalities to 39 larger ones only four of which were self governing. The remaining 35 were ruled by kings or princes under their own laws. An indication of this is that Rheingoenheim and neighboring Neuhofen within a few years time were under German rule, then French, and German again. It was considered at one time part of Bavaria, Pfalz, Koenigreich, later Baden, and today Reinland-Pfalz. In 1813, the birth certificate of Anna Barbara was in French. Later ones were in German. On March 6, 1836, Anne Barbara Groh married Joseph Michaei Kirschner (b. December 20, 1808) son of Wilhelm and Katharine Reichart Kirschner. On December 15 1842, Joseph left for America. The following April 15 Anna Barbara and her youngest brother Michael secured his birth certificate in Neuhofen to depart for America to join the rest of the family. Anna Barbara and Joseph Kirschner lived in St. Joseph, Missouri most of their married lives. She is buried in the King Hill Cemetery. Her brother Phillip became a minister in Leavenworth. County Kansas.
JN. The birth date of Christopher (1805) appears to be incorrect. The German records are now online and their son Christopher was born 6 July 1831. We have a marriage record for his parents and they were married 11 Jan 1810. My list of children is not quite the same. I also see online trees are confused as to this Christoph’s parents. But the birth record for him that I have is clear on the date and on the parents’ names and it does include his mother’s maiden name. One can also confirm from this paragraph why Susanna Groh Klamm called herself Susanna Groh in the ship’s log. She had a birth certificate in her birth name and no husband traveling with her (he had died in 1838).
Christoph married Katherine Elizabetha Becker. It is not known for certain how many children was born to then. Christoph lived only ten years in his new homeland and is buried in a small neglected Clay County cemetery along with a Jacob and Peter Groh, Klamms, and other friends and family members from the town of their birth. Their first born was Johann Peter (b. April 15. 1820- D. August 2, 1881). He married Anna Catherine Bolinger (b. April 14. 1829 -d. September 23, 1885) of Scotch ancestry on June 8, 1848 registered in Platte County Missouri. In 1856 after the birth of the first 3 of their ten children, they moved to Nebraska City where their fourth child, Jacob, was born. The following year they settled on one section of prime bottom ground near Wathena, Kansas just west of St. Joseph. According to the 1865 agriculture census, Peter made 360 gallons of wine and sold ties to the railroad which borders his then heavily wooded land. Today decendants of Peter and his son Jacob still farm this land which grows 10,000 apple trees under the Valley Pride trademark as well as land south of St. Joseph or old 371 highway previously known as the Connett Orchard.
JN. This seems to indicate that the Christoph who married Katherine Elizabeth Becker was a son of the Peter Groh who married Maria Elizabeth Traenckler. My Johann Christoph Groh, born 1795, who married Catherina Elisabeth Becker, is the child of Johann Peter Groh and Eva Katherina Frey (from the birth record). Peter Groh married in Germany and his wife died before he and the children came to America. The Christopher Groh (born 1828) son of Peter Groh (1788-1846) and Maria Traenckler also arrived on the same ship, with his father and he was only 14 years old at the time. I do find him in 1863 on a Civil War Draft Registration form. He is 34 at that time, which is consistent with the above birth date, and a single farmer in Buchanan County, Mo. He might have married and had children but I did not take the time to try to prove it.
Peter died after only a five-day illness and was attended by his nephew Dr. Peter J. Kirschner, city physician of St. Joseph. Over 400 friends and relatives attended his burial the first in Belmont Cemetery. His children were: Mary Francis Fetter (b. September, 1849), Adam (b. October 13, 1851 -d. July 31, 1929) married Elizabeth Stuart, Elizabeth Groh (b. February 22, 1854 -d. 1862) m Jacob (b. May 11, 1856 -d. April 16, 1911) married Sarah Jane Stuart, Lucinda Jane Miller (b. October 2, 1858 -d.February 26, 1885), Peter Joseph (b. February 8, 1861 -d. October 10, 1930) married first Clara Freda Ritschard and later Ethel, Charles (b. February 1, 1863 -d. January 11, 1920) married Bertha McPherson, Nancy Ellen
JN. This Peter is not who the writer thinks he is. He is the son of Johann Christoph Groh (1795-1853) and Catharina Elisabeth Becker (1796-). He was born in 1820 and the birth record lists his father and mother’s name. Although Peter Groh and Maria Elisabetha Traenckler had a son named Peter, he did not come to America with them and I see no records for him except for his birth record, so I assume he died young in Germany. I have not tracked down the children of Peter Groh (1820-1882) son of Johann Christoph and Catharina Elisabeth Becker, but I see a lot of children on online trees, some with names similar to the above list.