Family: Johann Leonhard Benkelmann / Maria Dorothea St?hle (F35)

• Male Johann Leonhard Benkelmann

  
  

  Birth	6 Feb 1796	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	24 Feb 1848	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Burial
  Marriage	20 Nov 1822  [1, 2]	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany  [1, 2]
  Father	Johann Jakob Binkelmann, III | F37 Group Sheet
  Mother	Maria Catharina Baur | F37 Group Sheet

  
  

  Female Maria Dorothea St?hle

  
  

  Birth	5 Jan 1800	B?rtlingen, G?ppingen, Donaukreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	22 Oct 1853	Transit to America, Lost At Sea
  Burial
  Father	Georg Friedrich St?hle | F570 Group Sheet
  Mother	Anna Maria Leins | F570 Group Sheet

  
  

  Male Johann Friedrich "Fredrick" Benkelman

  
  

  Birth	6 Jan 1822	Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	28 Aug 1897	Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Burial	29 Aug 1897	Elkland Township Cemetery, Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Spouse	Rosine M?ller | F5018
  Marriage	26 Nov 1850	Bartenbach, Donaukreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Spouse	Christina Catharina Stadelmaier | F5019
  Marriage	17 Jul 1859	W?rttemberg, Germany

  
  

  Male Leonhard Benkelmann

  
  

  Birth	22 Dec 1823	Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	18 Jul 1824	Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Burial

  
  

  Male Johann Adam Benkelman

  
  

  Birth	13 Feb 1825	Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	30 Dec 1897	Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Burial	2 Jan 1898	Elkland Township Cemetery, Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Spouse	Anna Catharina Schaufele | F28
  Marriage	24 Feb 1851	B?rtlingen, G?ppingen, Donaukreis, W?rttemberg, Germany

  
  

  Female Maria Dorothea "Dorothy" Benkelman

  
  

  Birth	13 Jul 1826	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	5 Jan 1888	Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Burial
  Spouse	Johann Friedrich "Frederick" Krapf | F5020
  Marriage	Abt 1853

  
  

  Male Johann Georg Benkelmann

  
  

  Birth	7 Aug 1827	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	19 Sep 1827	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Burial

  
  

  Male Johann Leonhard "Leonard" Benkelman

  
  

  Birth	5 Jul 1828	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	25 May 1913	Manitowoc, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin
  Burial		Evergreen Cemetery, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin
  Spouse	Jane McCormick | F5021
  Marriage	19 Feb 1855	Manitowoc, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin

  
  

  Male Johann Georg "George" Benkelman

  
  

  Birth	25 Jun 1830	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	16 Jan 1908	Denver, Denver County, Colorado
  Burial		Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, Denver County, Colorado
  Spouse	Christina "Christine" Rommel | F1283
  Marriage	Abt 1861	Lancaster, Erie County, New York

  
  

  Female Maria Catharina Benkelman

  
  

  Birth	16 Aug 1831	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	9 Dec 1883	Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Burial		Elkland Township Cemetery, Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Spouse	George Anthony Kolb | F1090
  Marriage	6 Dec 1854	Greenfield, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin

  
  

  Female Anna Maria Benkelmann

  
  

  Birth	18 Oct 1832	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	25 Nov 1832	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Burial

  
  

  Female Luise "Louisa" Benkelman

  
  

  Birth	14 Sep 1833	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	22 Oct 1910	Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Burial		Elkland Township Cemetery, Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Spouse	Jacob Striffler | F1783
  Marriage	Abt 1853	Lancaster, Erie County, New York

  
  

  Male Johannes "John" Benkelman

  
  

  Birth	3 Apr 1836	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	18 Jan 1917	Portage, Columbia County, Wisconsin
  Burial
  Spouse	Sarah Jane Keech | F5022
  Marriage	7 Jun 1857	Emerald Grove, Rock County, Wisconsin

  
  

  Female Anna Maria "Mary" Benkelman

  
  

  Birth	22 May 1839	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	4 May 1913	Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Burial		Elkland Township Cemetery, Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Spouse	John "Uncle John" Striffler | F5023
  Marriage	14 Nov 1858	Lancaster, Erie County, New York

  
  

  Female Magdalena Benkelmann

  
  

  Birth	13 Sep 1840	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	22 Sep 1840	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Burial

  
  

  Female Rosine Benkelmann

  
  

  Birth	10 Mar 1842	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	25 Nov 1844	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Burial

  
  

  Female Maria Magdalena "Aunt Lena" Benkelman

  
  

  Birth	31 Aug 1845	Schneiderhof, Waldhausen Parish, Welzheim, Jagstkreis, W?rttemberg, Germany
  Death	22 Jan 1926	Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Burial		Elkland Township Cemetery, Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan
  Spouse	George Deverney | F1291
  Marriage	12 Feb 1864	Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
  Spouse	Johannes "John" Schwegler | F1292
  Marriage	Feb 1892	Cass City, Tuscola County, Michigan

  
  

• Documents » Slide Show		Benkelmann, Johann Leonhard and Dorothea (St?hle), Church Family Registry (German), page two German Church Family registry, second page, which lists the fifteen children born to Leonhard and Dorothea. Four of these children died young, the twelfth child was stillborn ("todgeborenes"), and the remaining 10 children all emigrated to the United States between 1849 and 1873.
  		Striffler-Benkelman Annual Labor Day Family Reunion, 1936 Newspaper article In the mid 1850's, in Erie County, New York, two sons of Jacob & Otilla Striffler married two Benkelman sisters. Shortly after their marriages, the couples moved to the Michigan frontier, many of their brothers and sisters following them. The two families remained intertwined for subsequent generations. At a reunion of the Henry Striffler family in 1930 it was decided to enlarge the scope of the reunion to include descendants of Henry, Jacob, Joseph, Christian, John and Susan Striffler. Members and "in laws" of these families first gathered at the Assembly grounds in Sebewaing for a reunion in 1932. As the Benkelman-Striffler family had remained very close over the years, all branches of the Benkelman family were invited to their Sixth Reunion, and since that time it remained a joint event. This articles from the 1936 "Cass City Chronicle" details one of the earliest joint reunions. Attended by over 170 family members, the reunion was held on the John Striffler homestead northeast of Cass City, with attendees travelling from Ontario, Ohio and many places in Michigan. President W.D. STRIFFLER presided at a business meeting in 1936, and Harry HUNT, Mrs. S.G BENKELMAN (the former Mary Striffler), and Mrs. Ben SCHWEGLER (the former Joanna Mark) were elected officers for the ensuing year. The first volume of the STRIFFLER-BENKELMAN BROADCAST was published for the September 1936 reunion.
  		Striffler-Benkelman Reunion 1954 Handbill Handbill advertising the annual Striffler-Benkelman Reunion, 1954, featuring Cass City's Main Street. At the fiftieth Striffler-Benkelman Reunion in 1981, Ruth Schenck Esau recalled a time when on Main Street, the owners of the newspaper, a farm implement store, both meat markets, the grocery store, paint store, insurance agency, funeral home, and photography studio were all members of the Striffler-Benkelman clan; not to mention a bank teller, many clerks, the music teacher, and many of the town's farmers.
  		Striffler-Benkelman Reunion Photo, 1961 Group Photo fromthe 30th Striffler-Benkelman Reunion, held September 4, 1961 at the Cass City Evangelical Church, founded by members of the Striffler and Benkelman families
  		B?rtlingen, Germany B?rtlingen 1683/1685 im Kieserschen Forstlagerbuch

  
  

• Notes

  Married: BonnieMargaret and her husband Bruce visited Germany in September, 1980. In a letter to Ben and Avis dated October 13, 1980, she shared the following information "Then we were on to B?rtlingen, where Adam and Catherine were married. The church there was built in 1484 and is one of the most beautiful we saw anywhere. I decided to see the village of Breech--for no particular reason except I that I'd heard Elsie Anthes speak of it and it had turned up in various records. WE had no real family association there--but it was nearby. What a stroke of dumb luck! Without that decision we might never have found the Schneiderhof, where Adam and his siblings were born and lived until they emigrated. The Schneiderhof is not a town and is not on any map. It's just a cluster of about 4 houses and supporting buildings, just down and across the road from Breech, and if you were looking away for just a second, you'd miss the sign to it. I cannot tell you my excitement! ...There is nothing new there. Adam would recognize it as if he had never left. The tools and equipment are there as they have been for who knows how long. It is surrounded by orchards (apples) and small plots of vegetables. B?rtlingen is on a hill and is lovely with good views. The Schneiderhof is on top of the world, looking out on miles of hills and valleys and villages. It is incrediably beautiful. Again I found myself out in some cabbage patch, trying to explain to some farmer that this was my family heimat (home)...Clearly Americans are accepted as eccentric and harmless!...Vocabulary doesn't reach the beauty of that hilltop and its vistas out over hazy valleys, looking at other hills where red tiled houses form little villages. I can just imagine it at night--looking out over perhaps two dozen sparkling little villages on other hills around. One climbs from B?rtlingen to the Schneiderhof. But going down the back side of the mountain, through dense forest, the trail winds back and forth across the mountain into Waldhausen--which the Schneiderhof also looks down upon. This is the trip the family took to get to church, and probably to work." In her 1981 unpublished manuscript, BonnieMargaret noted that only the top floor of the Benkelmann home shows from the road leading in. The house is three stories high on the back side, two stories high in the front. It was built in 1733, by the state, to provide housing for state licensed artisans who were not allowed in the town as guild craftsmen. Apparently it gained its name from its first inhabitants, since the name literally means "the place of tailors." The official state description of the Schneiderhof in 1845 states that it was a place with 22 Evangelical residents, lying on the mountain top about one-half an hours walk from Waldhausen. The rents were paid to the city of G?ppingen, in 1845 twelve of those residents would have been Leonhard and Dorothea and their 10 living children, others would have included Leonhard's widowed mother and some of her children by Herr Heller, and likely their families. The land was described as rocky and and lying on a mountainside, "even today it is impossible to use machinery to work the land" and that the "people who lived there would have to have outside work." The house itself lies on the very crest of the mountain, with the house built on the downside of the mountain, overlooking Waldhausen. A very small patch of is on the level crest at the top of the mountain. When BonnieMargaret visited the home in 1981, she said it had four or five dwellings in all, and barns and sheds nearby the house and in the orchards. Just west of the house stands the old Bauernhaus, perhaps the homestead of Leonhard's maternal grandparents. The fields to the south were planted in potatoes and turnips, the high production crops that all of southern Germany turned to in the early 1800's. Beyond the westernmost buildings were apple orchards, beautiful and well tended. (pp. 68, 69 and accompanying photos). BonnieMargaret also noted that German life centered in the family. Even today we're told that day to day life included few close relationships with people outside the family. Certainly they were cordial and friendly with neighbors and cooperating artisans, but the joy of living was carefully protected within the walls of the home. Country people had no protection but each other, and the trusted "other" were kinsmen. Unlike the towns that were structured to protect the citizens from difficult times, the country folk were on their own, in good and bad times. Parents carefully nutured the bonds of affection and caring, and though they may have experienced the sibling rivalry that modern children do, it was not expressed in the German home, where only mutual caring and consideration were approved and encouraged. Names and birthdates for this family were from the Waldhausen Parish Kirchlichen Familienregister Band I, Blatt 244, Dekanat Welzheim, Schw?bisch Gm?nd. BonnieMargaret noted that all the family information shown on pages 95 and 96 of her book were certified by Pastor Rau of the Ev. Pfarramt Waldhausen to be the complete record of the family of Johann Leonhard Benkelmann, with the exceptions of the dates of death, which were included by BonnieMargaret from other sources. They had one stillborn child, neither name or sex listed, on 4 July 1838. She also noted that they were married on November 20, but the year was illegible. The family register for the family of Georg Friedrich St?hle and wife, Anna Maria Leins shows that Maria Dorothea was the fifth of their 15 children. She was married at the Schneiderhof on 20 Nov 1822, approximately 10 months after the birth of eldest son Friedrich.

  
  

• Sources

  [S469] Williams, Dorothy Ball--Family Researcher (dotwfl@comcast.net) 3331 Southwest Villa Place, Palm City, FL 34990 ; based in part on BonnieMargaret Benkelman Jacob's unpublished typescript, THE FAMILY BENKELMAN. [S1610] Jacobs, BonnieMargaret McDonald "The Family Benkelman" Unpublished Manuscript, 276 pages, October 1981 Version, (Copy owned by Barney Benkelman, Helena, Montana; which he xeroxed and sent to Melinda McLemore Strong in San Antonio, Texas), p. 95 (Reliability: 3).