Lippe Detmold: German Homeland of the Biesemeier Family

Our Biesemeier ancestors were settled in the Principality of Lippe by the 1600’s.  Many Biesemeier births, marriages, and deaths appear in the Evangelical church records at Horn and Bosingfeld beginning in the late 1600’s.  

Lippe is a small but ancient region in northwestern Germany.  It is located between the Weser River and the Teutonburg forest. On a modern map you would find it about 200 miles north of Frankfurt and 180 miles east of Amsterdam.  Originally included in the duchy of Saxony, Lippe became a lordship in the twelfth century and a county in 1529.  By the 1700’s Lippe was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire.  As Lippe underwent several divisions, the area where the Biesemeier family lived became known as Lippe-Detmold.  Detmold was the largest town in the area. By 1815, Lippe was a member of the German Confederation.  Today Lippe is part of the state of North Rhine - Westphalia.  

Cord Biesemeier was probably born between 1780-1790 in the Lippe region.  Some researchers record his birth in the year 1771 in Stumpenhagan (Bega) in Lippe Detmold, but this seems early. His marriage to Wilhelmine Ellerbrock is recorded in the town of Horn, Lippe Detmold in 1818.  

From his 1818 marriage agreement we learn that Cord Biesemeier is a Kotter – a farmer or cottager, who rents his land.  And, that he and his bride will be living on, and operating the Biesemeier farm at number 18 in Leopoldthal.  His father, Friederich Biesemeier will continue to operate half of the farm, until he goes into retirement.  His bride, daughter of Johann Ellerbrock, hails from Frommhausen number 18.  

The towns of Horn, Leopoldstatt (Leopoldthal), Stumpenhagen (Bega), and Fromhausen are all listed as historic towns of Lippe Detmold.  Horn is the largest, and today adjoins the town of Bad Meinberg, an early spa location.  All of these towns lay within about a 15 mile radius of the city of Detmold.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the farms of Lippe were clustered together in hamlets. The land belonged to the nobility and was leased to tenant farmers. Farms tended to stay in the hands of one family for generations, most often passing to the oldest son, but occasionally being divided for use by the next generation. Families tended to be relatively small and not all the children married.

The valleys of the Lippe region sport good amounts of arable land and supported numerous small, but prosperous, peasant farmers. The climate is considered mild and agreeable.  This allowed for the raising of grains, beans, tobacco, and a variety of vegetables and fruits. Apple wine and plum brandy were popular in the area.  Dairy products abounded and the Lippe families raised horned cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and fowl.  Game hunting and fishing provided further protein.  

Researcher Maggie Blanck includes this delightful description of typical farm buildings in 1865, northern Germany.  It comes from an article titled, The Sacristan’s Household, published in Anthony Trollope’s Saint Paul Magazine:  

The whole centre of the building is a large and lofty barn, piled high with hay and straw and store of grain. It is, too, a storehouse for farm implements, and so huge are its proportions, that a harvest waggon laden with sheaves, and drawn by three or four sturdy horses, can pass easily through the doorway, and stand beneath its ample shelter. From the barn, which entirely occupies the central length and breadth of the building, is the only possible ingress to the dwelling-house. On the right hand and on the left are doors and windows giving access to the living and sleeping rooms of the family. Nearly all the light and air which reaches these apartments gains admission through the wide-open double doors of the barn . .  

Interesting studies of German House Inscriptions (Hausinschriften) have been helpful to family historians. In certain rural regions of the German-speaking world they were part of the cultural tradition and custom for many centuries. They were often carved into wooden beams of half-timbered houses, but are also found over driveways and entrances. Several inscriptions related to the Biesemeier family appear in the Lippe region.  One of particular interest was located in Leopoldstal, number 3 Kuhlmanns.  It represents the household of Johan Biesemeier and Frederica Kuhlman.  Johan is a possible brother of Cord Biesemeier. The German inscription reads:

ES IST O GOTT DEIN WILLE DAS BAUEN NUR AUF ERDEN DU GIEBST DEINEN KINDERN BROD UND WOHNUNG HIER AUF ERDEN
JOHAN BERNHARD BIESEMEIER AUS DEN LEPPOLDSDAHL FRIEDERIKE KUHLEMANS DASELBST DEN 5. JULIUS 1810 M.T.S.P

English:
It is O God your will to build only on earth, you give your children bread and accommodation here on earth; Johan Bernhard Biesemeier from Leopoldstal, Friederike Kuhleman, this is 5 July 1810.
 

For more details on Cord Biesemeier, visit his page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.

Further Reading:
LWL Open Air Museum at Detmold;  lwl-freilichtmuseum-detmold.de/en/
Lippe Detmold DE; Geographical DNA Project for the area now known as Lippe, North Rhein-Westphalia;
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/lippe-detmold-de/about/background
Maggie Blanck Website; http://www.maggieblanck.com/index.html
Der Genealogische Abend: Naturwissenschaftlicher und Historischer Verein für das Land Lippe [Genealogy: Scientific and Historical Association for the state of Lippe]; http://nhv-ahnenforschung.de/

About the photo:
The district of Leopoldstal in Horn-Bad Meinberg, Lippe, North Rhein-Westphalia; shared by Grugerio, Aug 2014; Creative Commons.

Moving back in time:  Elba Josephine Hoffman 1898 > Josephine S Biesemeier 1866 > Rev William Biesemeier 1833 > Cord Biesemeier 1796.
Cord Biesemeier is my husband’s 3xgreat-grandfather.

Rev William Biesemeier and the German Evangelical Church in Ogle County Illinois

North Grove Evangelical Church of today is a country church that sits about five miles northeast of the small town of Forreston in Ogle County Illinois. The lovely stone edifice, dedicated in 1862, graces a relatively quiet lane – West Coffman Road.  A parsonage adjoins the church and behind rests the North Grove Evangelical Zion Cemetery.

Adeline Zion Evangelical Church is located about one mile south of the North Grove Church, in today’s small community of Adeline.  The original church structure was destroyed in the Cyclone of 1898, and was rebuilt thereafter.  This generally quiet northwestern corner of Ogle County seems bucolic in contrast to Chicago, one of America’s largest cities, sitting one hundred miles to the east.   

In 1860 the German Evangelical churches at North Grove and Adeline were combined into one charge, with alternating services led by the first official pastor, Rev William Jung.  By 1867, Rev William Biesemeier was called to this work, and served the two churches for the next thirty five years, until 1901. The 1870, 1880 and 1900 censuses place William Biesemeier and his family in Maryland township of Ogle county Illinois, and it seems likely that he lived for some years in the parsonage adjoining the North Grove Church.  

A biographical account for William Biesemeier indicates that, beyond his pastoral duties, he also taught school.  This teaching sojourn may have happened at the Green Prairie School, a one-room rural school located nearby.  He is said to “have had in all three hundred pupils.”  Accounts suggest that the churches and schools of the area were conducted in German well into the early twentieth century.  

Rev William Biesemeier had been married in 1863 to Hermine Gassman of adjoining Stephenson County.  They were the parents of six children, four of whom survived to adulthood.  The North Grove Church, and community, was their particular home throughout their childhoods.  In the 1952 obituary of their daughter, Josepine Biesemeier Hoffman, we learn that she “was a talented musician, serving as church organist for fifteen years in the Evangelical Church at North Grove, Illinois . . She received her education in the German and English School of the North Grove community.”

The North Grove Evangelical Zion Cemetery rests quietly behind the church.  William Biesemeier and his wife Hermine “Nina” Gassman Biesemeier are buried there, along with two of their sons who died in 1870 – Johannes, age five and Jonathan, age two.  Nina died in 1888, at the age of forty-two years.  William lived many more years, remaining unmarried and serving his congregations until 1901.  He died in 1913, at the age of eighty years.


A brief history of the North Grove church included at the USGenWeb site for Ogle County Illinois gives insights into the life of the community at the dawn of William Biesemeier’s tenure as pastor:  

The history of North Grove Church as an organized congregation officially began on October 20, 1860. However several families came to this area about 1845 and formed a Christian fellowship. These families came from the state of Maryland. The name - North Grove - seems to have been given to the area because it was the northern most timber land in Ogle County, Maryland Township.

The Coffman family was the first to locate in this area. They built their first log cabin in 1840. In the next years after Ogle county had been opened for settlement, these first families wrote to their family and friends in Lippe-Detmold Germany encouraging them to move here. Among the early families who came were the Fosha, Kaney, Schure, Korf, Kilker, Brockmeier, Moring, Paul, Runte, Stukenberg, Tadtman, Vietmeier and Zumdahl families. One of the main reasons for the exodus from Germany at this time was the unsettled political situation there and the compulsory military service.

The little group of Lippurs - so called because of the area they came from and the dialect they spoke - soon grew and prospered. They had not only a common bond of language, origin, thrift and energy but all had a deep interest in the church. In the early days they were served by a pastor from Freeport. The services were first held in the home of a Kaney family and later in the Green Prairie school house. The Rev. W. Kampmeier succeeded in uniting the Adeline and North Grove congregations into one charge and on October 20, 1860; both churches subscribed to the Constitution of the German Evangelical Synod of North America. Mr. Fredrick Moring attended a conference in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1862 and at this time the congregation was officially accepted into the denomination.

At the same time that the North Grove congregation was organized the members decided to construct a church building. The land for the building was purchased from the Schure family for $50.00 and a promise to keep up the fences around the land. Construction was begun in the summer of 1861. The stone for the building was quarried near Adeline on the banks of Leaf River, on land which was later owned by Earl Gesin. The stone was hauled in carts drawn by oxen or horses and most of the work on the building was done by members. This project cost a total of $2.745.00 part of which was raised by assessing each household a certain amount of money for each 80 acres owned. This practice of assignment was used for the building of the parsonage and for the school house on the church grounds. The church was dedicated on February 19, 1862.  The Rev. Wm. Jung was the first pastor . .


For more details on William Biesemeier, visit his page at the Family Stories website.

Further Reading:
North Grove Evangelical Church; from USGenWeb site for Ogle County Illinois.
Zion United Church of Christ of Adeline, Now Zion Evangelical; from the book "The First 100 Years," a book about Leaf River, Illinois, 1982.
“Little Markers”, a history of one room schools in Ogle County Illinois, 1990s; from the historyoglecounty.info website.
Cyclone of 1898 (18 May 1898) from newspaper accounts given at the genealogytrails website for Carroll County Illinois.

About the Photo:  
North Grove Church in Maryland township of Ogle County Illinois; from northgrovechurch.weebly.com.

Moving back in time:  Elba Josephine Hoffman 1898 > Josephine S Biesemeier 1866 > Rev William Biesemeier 1833.
Rev William Biesemeier is my husband’s great-great grandfather.

William Biesemeier and the German Evangelicals

 The German Evangelicals who came to America found their roots in several European church traditions – Reformed, Lutheran, and Pietism.  When William Biesemeier began his studies for the pastorate in 1858 he was associated with the Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenverein des Westens (German Evangelical Church Society of the West). This congregation of believers has passed through a long series of name changes, unions and mergers, both in Prussia (Germany) and America.  Today it is recognized as part of the United Church of Christ.

Pietism originated in Germany with the work of Philipp Spener (1635-1705), who emphasized “personal transformation through spiritual rebirth, individual devotion, and piety.” Several of his early proposals to reform the church have become the undergirding of modern Evangelicals:
Earnest and thorough study of the Bible in private meetings (little churches within the church)
Respectful evangelism that demonstrates kindness to the unbeliever
Theological training that encourages faith and devotional life

Smaller groups within the larger Pietistic movement included more rigorous practices:
Meeting together in conventicles (small groups) in order to mutually encourage piety
Identifying in their life an inner struggle with sin, a crisis, and a decision for a Christ-centered life
Shunning of worldly amusements such as dancing, theatre, and public games
Seeking union with God through spiritual exercises and the contemplative life

These Pietistic practices and beliefs, coupled with the traditions of the Reformed and Lutheran denominations, were significant pieces of the Evangelical movement in 18th and 19th century America.


William Biesemeier emigrated, along with two brothers, from his home in the Lippe Detmold area of Germany to Ogle county Illinois in the year 1854.  After settling in his new American home, he set out for the Seminary of the German Evangelical Church in Marthasville Missouri, where he entered for the 1858-59 school year. This must have been a brave undertaking.  It is unknown what educational opportunities William had participated in during his German childhood.  But, he likely attended the Prussian Volksschule, which provided an eight year course of “. . basic reading, writing, singing and Christian religious education in close cooperation with the churches and tried to impose a strict ethos of duty, sobriety and discipline.”

The Seminary, informally known as the Preacher’s Seminary at Marthasville, had been conceived by a small group of German pastors and teachers in about 1850, and was incorporated in the year 1859.  The original campus included, “. . a Farm House, Bake Oven, Friedensbote (Messenger of Peace) Publishing House, and the Dormitory.”  The seminary existed at this site until 1883 and then moved to St Louis (Webster Grove) and eventually became Eden Theological Seminary.

A list of the students for the year 1858-59 includes William Biesemeier:
1. Kirschmann
2. Haas
3. Christoph F. Stark*  
4. Andreas Muller*  
5. Haberle
6. Buchmiiller
7. Ehlers
8. Kirchhoff
9. Gobel
10. Heinrich Siekmann*  
11. Joachim Fr. Schulz*  
12. Wilhelm Biesemeier*  
13. Johannes A. Reidenbach*  
14. J. Christoph Feil*  
15. Karl F. Off*  
*New Students; Of the nine new arrivals only three could write, and the remainder were not able to write correctly.

During the 1830s and 40s a large number of German families settled up and down the Missouri river, west of St Louis. The Preachers Seminary at Marthasville was “founded to prepare ministers to serve the growing number of German-immigrant congregations on what was then the western frontier.” The early German settlers believed that their leader’s Christian faith should be supported by critical scholarship.  Today’s Eden Theological Seminary maintains an active and diverse archive.  A series of brief articles at their website, under the heading This Week in Eden History, give insight into the life of the seminary and the larger church.

This delightful photo from the Eden archive, is dated late 1850’s, and could possibly include William Biesemeier.  It adjoins the archive article titled Opening of Evangelical Preachers Seminary.

A biographical account of William Biesemeier informs us that he was ordained by the German Evangelical denomination in 1862 in Cincinnati Ohio and received a placement near Ackerville, Wisconsin in Washington County.  An effort was underway to more firmly establish the German  Evangelical church in Wisconsin, and over the next five years William Biesemeier served St John’s Church at Station and St Peter’s Church at Jackson. In 1867 he was called to Ogle County Illinois where he served the churches of North Grove and Adeline for thirty-five years.


For more details on William Biesemeier, visit his page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.

Further Reading:
The German Church on the American Frontier; Carl E Schneider, 1939.
Evangelical Minister Studied At Seminary in Marthasville; Sue Blesi, Franklin County Historian; 2016.
The Archives at Eden Theological Seminary; www.eden.edu/the-archives-at-eden-theological-seminary

About the photo:
Early building of the Seminary of the German Evangelical Church in Marthasville Missouri.

Moving back in time:  Elba Josephine Hoffman 1898 > Josephine S Biesemeier 1866 > Rev William Biesemeier 1833.
Rev William Biesemeier is my husband’s great-great grandfather.