"From the Old to the New World" shows German emigrants boarding a steamer in Hamburg, Germany, to come to America. The picture was first published in Harper’s Weekly, (New York) November 7, 1874. Source: Wikipedia
Poeppelmans in the USA
Emigration from Germany to the United States during the 19th Century
In search for more details about Poeppelmans in the USA and their migration history from Europe, we have contacted Christa Pöppelmann from Aschaffenburg (Germany). Christa is now living and working in the German capital Berlin. She is a professional writer and researcher who has worked on a comprehensive Pöppelmann family study for years. As majority of her work is in German, on this page we have translated a small portion of her family analysis - the one focused on Poeppelmans migration to the United States. Here is what her work has shown:
"During the 19th century several Poeppelmans immigrated to the USA. To my knowledge they are the following:
In 1833, Bernhard Pöppelmann, whose father from Gramke/Fladderlohausen had passed away, immigrated to the USA. It is likely that he is the same person as the 27-year-old farmer Bernard Poppelman who came to Baltimore/Maryland in 1834. To my knowledge, the only Bernhard Pöppelmann, who would fit this age, is Johann Heinrich Bernhard Josef Adam Pöppelmann - born on February 27, 1807 as the youngest son of the then owner of the farm in Grandorf. However, this makes the cross reference with Gramke not very clear to me. On July 30, 1844, Bernhard married Catharine Koppens in Baltimore. He may have later moved to Philadelphia and changed his name to Peppelman. In any case, on February 9, 1870, a 64-year-old German-born worker named Bernard Peppelman died there. The census from July of the same year mentions a 56-year-old Catherine Peppelman and her 15-year-old son George in Philadelphia. Catherine died on June 18, 1885. On July 30, 1878, George M. Peppelmann married the German-born Mary Elizabeth Bulterman, who was a year younger than him, and worked as a painter. They had the following children: Francis (born in 1879), Elizabeth (born on 2nd October 1880), Mary (born on 2nd February 1882), George (born on 12th June 1884), Anna (born on 25th December 1886), Catherine (born on May 26, 1889), Bernard (born on June 20, 1894), Agnes (born in 1896) and Ida (born on June 26, 1898).
Also in 1833, the 30 year-old Eduard Pöppelmann came from Hamburg to New York with his wife Amalia (29) and their children: Harald (3), Theresa (1) and Waldemar. The family's next destination was New Bedford.
On December 29, 1836, the 27-year-old Louise Pöppelmann from Herford arrived in New Orleans with the ship “Weser” from Bremen. She had a suitcase and furniture, including a table and a bed. Probably it was she who married William Koch on September 27, 1837 in St. Charles / Missouri. I guess that she is Johanne Louise Adelhaide Pöppelmann (born 17. August 1806), the daughter of the late pastor August Florens Pöppelmann of Lerbeck/Westphalia, even though this means she was 30 year-old by the time she immigrated to the USA.
In 1837, the 29-year-old teacher Heinrich Poppelmann, the 28-year-old Mathilde Poppelmann and the 21-year-old Charlotte Poppelmann from Bielefeld came to New Orleans with the ship “Elize” from Bremen. Their destination was St. Louis. I suppose that Heinrich was the son of August Florens Pöppelmann, born in Lerbeck / Westphalia in 1808 and raised in Bielefeld, and Mathilde was his sister Eleonore Sophie Johanne Matilde, born in 1802, even though she should have been 34 or 35 year-old when immigrating. I believe Charlotte is - in spite of her also faulty age - identical with Charlotte Henrietta Poppelmann, born on 17 September 1811 in Lerbeck. On 11 January 1843, she married the merchant Hans Theodor Merkel (born on April 23, 1812 in Altenburg) in St. Charles / Missouri. According to some Internet sources, her parents were Henry Poeppelman and Matilda Koch. Since these are nowhere else detectable, I think it’s probable that her companions were mistaken for her parents during immigration, and she was another daughter of August Florens Pöppelmann. I assume that Heinrich is identical to Heinrich Pöppelmann, who was one of the first German teachers in the USA in 1840 in Cincinnati. He was a director of the school in Walnut Street and a supervisor for two other schools. He retired in 1885 and died on March 22, 1895 at the age of 86. His sisters, however, probably moved together around 1846 from Missouri to Pennsylvania. According to the 1850 US Census, the doctor William Koch (40) lived with his wife Luisa (36), his mother Catherine (64) and his children Herman (12) and Adelheid (6) in Buffalo, Butler County (house No. 115) Their neighbor in House No. 116 was the 38-year-old Matilda Peopleman. The Merkel family can also be found in Butler (house no. 105). Although the name of the wife is Catherine (instead of Charlotte), the first names of the three oldest children - Albert, Gumal and Flora - make the identification clear. In 1860, the Merkels moved to Jefferson, also in Butler County. Matilde appears to have lived as Matilda Peppelman (56) in the household of the Riddle family in Jefferson. I did not succeed in finding the Koch family. In 1870, Matilda moved to Cincinnati. According to the census she was Mathilda Pepperman, but in her household were also her niece Flora Merkel, her nephew Arno Merkel and a 19-year-old colleague. Apart from them, there was also a household of three young druggists in Cincinnati: Gustav Nolte, together with Hermann Koch (age 31) and Albert Merkel (age 25), both born in Missouri. Ten years later Hermann Koch and his wife Emma Lier also lived in Cincinnati. Meanwhile Mathilda was living alone. According to the census she was the 77-year-old widow Matilda Pebelman. We can make the check not only with the name and the marital status, but also the age (the Mathilda from Lerbeck was born in 1802). She died on December 12, 1881 in Cincinnati. In their wills, both Mathilda and Heinrich (who died in 1895) named the children of Charlotte Pöppelmann (died April 9, 1888 in Saxonburg / Pennsylvannia) and Hans Theodore Merkel (died on October 17, 1887 in Saxonburg) as well as Hermann Koch as their legal inheritors.
On September 25, 1837, Johann Heinrich Pöppelmann from Rüschendorf near Damme emigrated with his wife on the ship "Ernst & Gustav" from Bremerhaven to Baltimore and settled in Minster, Ohio. Minster was founded by the Dammer teacher Francis Stallo, who had campaigned for emigration when he was still in his home country.In America, Johann Heinrich changed his name to Henry Poeppelman and had eight children, most of whom made own families of a similar size. Their descendants still live mainly in the four neighboring counties Auglaize, Darke, Shelby and Mercer in western Ohio. The names of many other families there are clearly traceable in the Damme area.
Johann Heinrich's sister Maria Anna emigrated in 1844 and married Johann Bernhard Schmiesing, who also came from Damme to Minster, Ohio in 1845. The youngest sister Maria Angela Elisabeth emigrated together with her husband Johann Bernhard Bäumer, whom she had married in 1843.
There is no information about Caroline Poeppelmann (born in 1848 in Egypt / Auglaize), who married Theodore Wehrmann in 1865 and had six children (Anthony, Mary, Henry, John, Catherine, Frank).
In 1838 Catharina Elisabeth Pöppelmann from Fladderlohausen (a cousin of Johann Heinrich) emigrated with her husband Johann Arnold Wessling and at least one daughter to the USA. This daughter died in 1926 in Cincinnati. Between 1833 and 1840 her sister Anna Catharina Pöppelmann, together with her husband Johann Gerd Uphaus and the eldest son Heinrich (born 1832), also immigrated to Ohio, but north of Putnam County. The youngest sister Catharina Adelheid Pöppelmann and her husband Johann Bernhard Macke arrived in the same area between 1869 and 1880. Out of her eight children, the oldest three remained in Germany. The family initially moved to Ohio, where the eldest son settled in Cincinnati, while the parents moved to Minnesota. Two of their children accompanied them, but it is unknown what happened to the other two.
Catharina Pöppelmann from Fladderlohhausen emigrated in 1845. She is probably the 22-year-old Catherine Popleman, who arrived in the US that same year by the ship “Rajah”. It may also be the same Catherine Poppelmann, who married Charles von Lehmann on September 12, 1847 in Hamilton, Ohio.
In 1847, the servant Henrich Pöppelmann emigrated from Fladderlohhausen. Perhaps he is identical with the 40-year-old farmer John H. Pappelmann from Oldenburg, who came in 1848 with the ship “Meta” from Bremen to the United States.
On June 25, 1856, Jenny (Johanna) Poeppelmann married the widower and dairy merchant Ernst Henry Elbrecht from Buer in St. Louis / Missouri. Children: Caroline (born 1860), George J. (1864 - 1890), Caecilia (1865 - 1913), Louise (born 1868), Frank (1870 - 1894), Elisabeth (born 1872), August J. (born 1872) born 1874) and Edward (born 1878). Presumably she came from Hunteburg (not far away from Damme) and arrived in New Orleans on November 22, 1854 from Bremen with the ship “Itzstein & Welcker”, even though the name on the passenger list was Peppelmann. She was 20 years old at this time. The destination pointed on the passenger list was Cincinnati.
In 1858, the 23-year-old maid Elizabeth Poppelman came to Baltimore by the ship “Wieland” from Bremen. Perhaps this was the Elizabeth Poppelmann who married William H. Coors in Cincinnati in 1863. Her daughter Bernadina was born in 1864.
In the same year (May 17th), the 19-year-old seamstress Maria Elisabeth Poppelmann from Damme-Rüschendorf arrived in Baltimore on the ship “Luna”. Her destination was also Cincinnati. Probably she was born on 17 November 1838 as a daughter of Johann Bernd Pöppelmann (and was another cousin from Johan Heinrich from a different line).
In 1866, the 27-year-old carpenter August Poppelmann from Wuerttemberg came to the USA by the ship “Hansa” from Bremen. Possibly, however, Württemberg is also a misinformation and the same person is identical with the likewise 27-year-old Heinrich August Pöppelmann from Hunteburg, who emigrated to St Louis in June 1866. This is possibly the ancestor of Bessie (born 1922) and John Poeppleman (born 1924, name according to census), who lived in 1940 together with her mother Augusta in St. Louis.
On November 5, 1867, the 27-year-old farmer H. Poppelmann and the 23-year-old Johann Poppelmann arrived in Baltimore by the ship “Johanne Wilhelmine” from Bremen.
In 1871, the 29-year-old Lisette Poeppelmann came by the ship “Weser” from Bremen to the USA.
In 1873 (or a little later), the brothers Arnold and Clemens Pöppelmann emigrated. As the sixth and seventh son of a large family, they had no inheritance to expect. Besides, as Arnold later told his grandson, he had wanted to escape the Prussian military. Arnold could be identical to the 23-year-old merchant A. Poppelmann, who traveled in 1874 with the ship “Parthia” from Liverpool to the United States, whereas Clemens could be identical with the 30-year-old farmer Clemens Peppelmann, who arrived on March 22, 1879 by the ship “Oder” from Bremen in New York. The brothers were assigned farmland in Grant County, South Dakota. Clemens was the first to farm the land while Arnold worked in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Later Arnold took over the farm and Clemens founded a soap factory in Racine, Wisconsin. His descendants remained largely in the area of Racine, while Arnold later moved with the family of his son to California. The two brothers called themselves in the US “Poppelman”.
In 1875, the 70-year-old Catharina Poppelmann (probably from Damme) came by the ship “Braunschweig” from Bremen to the USA. Maybe she is identical to the widow Poppelmann from Hüde, who emigrated to the USA the same year.
On October 23, 1876, Katharine Ludovica / Louise Pöppelmann (born March 12, 1837) from Mainz married Joseph Hanloser (born in 1842 in Altbreisach / Baden) in Manhattan, New York.
The Census of 1880 mentions Herman Boeppleman in Cincinnati. He was born in 1817, a childless worker, married to a Maria. Given the often incorrect spelling in the old files, he could be a Pöppelman.
On April 18, 1891, the 16-year-old worker Herm. Pappelmann (from Hannover) came with the ship “Fulda” from Bremen to New York.
William Poppelman lived with his wife Hannah and son Willie in 1892 in Brooklyn, New York. He was 26, she was 28, their son was 2 years old.
Catharina Caroline Pöppelmann from Fladderlohhausen presumably married Joseph Bernhard Heil in 1897 and emigrated with him to the USA.
Clara Poppelmann, born in Calonea Galicia as the daughter of Hershel Poppelman and Marie Binder, married Charles Jellinek on March 31, 1906 in Manhattan. New York. Jellinek was the son of Israel Jellinek and Fanny Zven from Austria.
C.M. Poppleman lived in South Dakota in 1915. He was 21 years old, born in Illinois, belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church and had parents who were both born in the Netherlands.
The daughter of Moses Poppleman of Kentucky was Amda E. Bell, a widow who died on June 17, 1917, at the age of 79. She was buried in Rutherford County, Tennessee.
Christian Poppelman lived in Franklin, Maine in 1920. He was born in England. At the time, he was 78 years old, living with his 40-year-old wife Elizabeth. M. Poppelman.
Hans Poppelman lived in Brooklyn, New York in 1930. He was 60 years old, born in Germany and lived together with his 53-year-old wife Christine and his 48-year-old sister Adle M."
Author: Christa Pöppelmann, Germany
More information about Poeppelmans in other countries is available in German on Christa Pöppelmann website.