Kensing

Great Great Great Great Grandfather

I can trace my Kensing heritage back to Johann Heinrich Kensing, born in the early 1700's. There isn't any record of his birth date, but on November 26, 1745 he married Anna Elisabeth Busse.

Johann Ernst Kensing, was born November 25, 1751. Johann Ernst married Anna Dorothea Louise Stummeyer, on May 2, 1776 in Beber, Hannover, Germany. From the record it is noted that the bride came without garland which means she was not a virgin. The pastor wanted to express his displeasure of their immoral behavior. Anna Stummeyer was born November 9, 1754, the daughter of farmer Cord Heinrich Stummeyer, in the village Schmarrie. Johann Ernst Kensing was a blacksmith and farrier-master.

Dr. Kai showed us around the area where the Kensing's lived and we got to see how the people lived during that time. The farmers share cropped the land owned by the noblemen. They were not slaves, but it was hard to advance because land was scarce and the farm lease was always passed on to the oldest son. When news spread about new land in America, many chose to leave their homeland and immigrate to Texas and other parts of America, to try to improve their life and the future of their children.

The Society for the protection of German immigrants and the Fischer-Miller land grant, offered for $240, free land (320 acres) for the head of a household, a free log house, provisions and goods necessary to began farming, on credit until two crops were harvested, plus public improvements, and more. With these promises, they decided to leave their homeland, friends, and family. Shown is the document signed by David Kensing and the Consulate of the Republic of Texas.

On November 13, 1845, Georg Christian David Kensing and his family set sail from Bremen Germany on the Brig, "Gerhard Hermann". They arrived at Galveston in January of 1846 and on to Indianola by February. The transfer to smaller vessels in Galveston was necessary since the bay leading into Indianola was too shallow for the larger ships. The Port Indianola, was selected by Carl, Prince of Solms Braunfels, as the landing place for German immigrants on the shores of the Republic of Texas. Later, Indianola was favored by the Germans who were headed for the Texas Hill Country, and by the US Government sending supplies to its forts in West Texas, because there were fewer rivers to cross going west.

The family of eight consisted of the father, Georg Christian David, mother Henriette Bremeier Kensing, children Rosine Caroline Charlotte Kensing, Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Kensing, Johann Freidrich Heinrich Kensing, Dorothea Friedericke Louise Kensing, Heinrich Friedrich Carl Kensing and Justine Louise Charlotte Kensing.

Here is what happened to the family. Rosine Caroline Charlotte Kensing died at age of 24 in Germany in 1841. The mother, Henriette Bremeier Kensing, died in 1846 at Indianola, TX. The son, Heinrich Freidrich Ludwig Kensing, died in 1846 at Indianola, TX. The daughter, Dorothea Friedricke Louise Kensing died in 1846 at Indianola, TX. I don't know exactly what caused their death. Some say cholera, and from the horrible conditions both on the ship and on land after they arrived at Indianola. The rest of the family moved inland to Victoria, Texas where David started a blacksmith shop, but he also became sick and died in July of 1846.

I have found a petition by Dr. Felix B. Webb, to the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Texas, trying to recover his cost from the immigration company for medicine and visits by the German immigrants. He gave an itemized statement of services rendered and in that statement was listed (To the heirs of David Kensing, $32.) In his statement, there were charges of ½ cents. He also engaged an interpreter, since none of the immigrants could speak English. Attached to the petition was an affidavit by Anna Willmen, who had been hired for six dollars a month to help treat the immigrants. The following is the affidavit of Anna Willmen.

"In the year 1846, I was living with the family of Dr. F. B. Webb. A number of German colonist who left Indianola, Texas on account of sickness came to Victoria County and called on me to aid them in getting medicine from Dr. Webb, stating that other doctors refused to do for them, wherefore Dr. Webb told me to tell them not to die without medicine but to call at his office and get it, and as I spoke German and English, I interpreted for both, and in a few days he was employed by a Mr. Miller, German agent at Indianola, for German Immigration Colonization Company, to practice and furnish medicine for any of the Colonist that might call on him for medical aid, which they were to demonstrate of their colonial book, and as they could get no other person to interpret for him, I had to do so towards which he paid me six dollars per month out of his own funds on which business I was closely engaged for seven months or more expecting to receive an additional sum from the Company but have never rec'd anything from said Company. I also assisted in keeping and marking up accounts and I know he paid great attention and gave general satisfaction and took many to his own house and fed and nursed them without charge as far as I know much of which labor I had to perform he also hired a black woman and she and myself carried food for the sick to many outsiders some of whom were nearly supported by his aid." Signed, Anna Willmen.

In the petition, there were seventy listings, some of which included families, so the total number of people treated is unknown.

The three surviving, two sons and a daughter, made it to Fredericksburg, Texas, in 1846. The son, Johann Freidrich Heinrich Kensing, was massacred by Indians in 1865 at the age of 43. The other son, Heinrich Freidrich Carl Kensing, lived till age 74. The daughter, married Johann Wolfgang Braeutigam. She lived until 1924 and died at the age of 92. Her husband was murdered on September 3, 1884. He had a store at the site of the old Fort Martin Scott, and was killed during an armed robbery.

Margaretha Freidericke Reeh, was born on September 11, 1825, at Willingen/Westerwald the daughter of Johann Sebastian Reeh, born May 31, 1800, and Catarina Elisabetha, whose maiden name was also Reeh. Her parents were Johann Sebastian Reeh, born September 27, 1759, and Anna Elisabeth Wehr born September 1, 1757, who were married January 14, 1781.

Margarethe Freidericke Reeh Bickel was married to Peter Bickel, who had two wives who didn't get along, so he deserted and went back to Germany. That left Friedriche alone and pregnant. When she and Carl Kensing married, she brought into the marriage a three year old daughter, Minna, who was later adopted by Carl and raised as one of his own.

There is also a site where a Geistweidt family had homesteaded, and also nearby is the Welge homestead. These sites are not too far apart, so if you allow your imagination to take over, there was a lot of activity in this area with lots of children.

Also of note, is that the range surely has changed from grass land with only a few trees, to the cedar covered wilderness it is today.

Karl Kensing and his wife raised a family of 10 children. Minna, born in 1847, married Henry Doell, lived near the Llano river in Mason County and had 5 children plus 7 more children with her second husband, Herman Thiers. Henry, born in 1853 and married Kathernia Strackbein, lived near the Llano River in Mason county, and later mover to Doss, TX. They had 6 children. August, born 1855 and married Bertha Houy, lived near Live Oak Creek, and in Fredericksburg, having 7 children. Christina, born in 1857, married Jacob Baumann, lived near Fredericksburg, TX. and had 5 children. Lena, born in 1859, married Julius Lange, lived near Doss at Lange's Mill and had 5 children. She was my grandmother. Anna, born 1861 and married Karl Schmidt, lived in Stonewall and had 5 children. Ida, born in 1863, married Harry Bierschwale, lived in the town of Mason, and had 4 children. Mary, born in 1867, married Christoph Feuge, lived near Doss and had 6 children. Charles, born 1869, married Mary Jung, lived in the town of Mason and had 5 children. Sophie, born 1871, Married Willie Caulder, lived in the Houston area and had 5 children.

In 1882, Karl purchased 640 acres of land from Theo Smith for $1,200. The land is located in the heart of Doss Valley with rich soil and clear running water in the Threadgill Creek. This is where they lived the rest of their lives, farming and ranching.

Karl was one of the first to plant cotton in Doss. They worshiped at the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church just north of their home, whenever Lutheran services were conducted by Rev. H. Krienke from Mason. In 1896, St Peter Lutheran Church was organized and soon a church building was constructed. In about 1900, Karl's oldest son, Henry, purchased the 640 acres allowing his parents to live out their remaining years there. Karl died in June of 1902, and his wife of fifty two years, Freidericke, died about a year later. They are buried in the Kensing Family Cemetery, located on their property.

The following is a story published in the June 6, 1930 edition of the Fredericksburg Standard. It is a first hand report by Henry Kensing, the brother of my grandmother Lena nee Kensing Lange. It gives you a good idea of how the pioneers lived to survive.

This article is reprinted, courtesy of the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post. I thank publisher, Ken Cooke for his kindness.

"Henry Kensing was born at Honey Creek, March 10, 1853, in the home that his father had built. The father, Karl Kensing, who came to Fredericksburg with the first settlers in 1846, was a blacksmith. He made in his shop anything that was used on the farm. Henry Kensing is still using the cultivator which his father made 45 years ago, and he would not trade it for a new one.

While Henry Kensing was a boy, his family moved to Squaw Creek. They were the first to settle in that section of the country. There being no road, his father started out with a two wheel cart, to which he hitched a yoke of oxen, bought in New Braunfels, to make the road from Honey Creek to Squaw Creek. The first neighbors to move there, and make the Squaw Creek community, were Hy Bierschwale, Hy Welge, John Dietz, and Conrad Mund. A log school house was built at Squaw Creek, a building sixteen by eighteen feet. It was located between Lewis's and Fritz Mund's places. For the first three years of the war there was no school. Henry Bierschwale, who was later county clerk, taught the three R's for three months of the year. Henry Kensing remembers him as a good teacher. His school mates were Louise Lehmann, Henry and Mina Kensing, Jacob Dietz and sister, Conrad Welge, Hannah and August Mund, Betty Bierschwale, and Johanna and Dorthea Kensing.

Almost at every full moon the Indians came to visit the homes of the settlers and steal their horses. When they found the horses chained, so that they were unable to loosen them, they usually killed the horses. Kensing remembers hearing the signals of the Indians, of following the horses out of the pen. But no one was sure of his life with the Indians near, and so the single settler dared not defend his property.

Farming was a crude process at first. The Kensing family grew their first wheat at Squaw Creek, on a two acre patch of ground from which they reaped fifteen bushels to the acre. On a naturally flat rock sixteen feet square, they thrashed their wheat. At first their bread was made of corn meal, ground at home, in what Mr. Kensing calls the "Armstrong Mill". Later their flour was ground at Doss.

People lived simply and were healthy. They planted their own corn, cane, pumpkins, and melons. They lived on corn bread, milk and butter, and manufactured their cheese in a hand press at home. They had all the wild game and fish that they wished. Fishing and hunting were the favorite pastimes with the boys. The water in Squaw Creek at that time was deep enough to swim a horse, and the Kensing boys caught large cat fish there. They usually shot one deer a week, so the family was supplied with venison. To this day Henry recalls the pleasure of accompanying his father on a deer hunt. He still likes to hunt, and at 77 years is still a good shot.

To the fishing and hunting, the boys added another pleasure, wasp fighting. They delighted in finding a large wasp nest and teasing the wasp into a fight. It was necessary for the people to find their pleasure at home, for there were few opportunities for visiting one another. When they did go visiting they had to ride horse back.

There were no church services near Squaw Creek, but they attended camp meetings at Canaan, so named because the bees were plentiful there. For confirmation, Henry went to the Verein's Kirche and was confirmed by Rev. Dangers.

Their clothing was usually homespun cloth or tanned hide. John Joy at the head of the Guadalupe made leather from hides. The boys wore coats and pants of leather and made their own shoes out of cowhide, when they did not go bare footed. He says that the youngsters in those days were almost little Indians.

During war times they were entirely dependent upon their own resources for clothing. They made hats from wheat and rye straw, or from bear grass, shawls from home spun wool, and rope and saddle girth spun from hair, or a cattle tail or horse mane.

The first cloth that was brought into the country after the war was smuggled in from Mexico. A spool of thread was worth $1, and an oxen was worth $7. So for seven spools of thread one could buy an ox. Calico sold for $1 a yard and a saddle was worth three oxen, while a blanket was worth two oxen.

A Mexican, Benivides, came into the community with a freight full of smuggled merchandise. He traded with the settlers, and when he left the country, he was the owner of seven hundred head of steers.

After the war, there were better crops. Kensing's father was among the first to raise cotton. The first cotton crops were better than the crops of later years. There were no insects then, and there was no trash among the cotton. By taking it to Austin to market they received 10c a pound.

When he was only thirteen years old, Kensing went for the first time to haul freight. When he was twenty years old he used oxen team to haul freight for the government from San Marcos and Austin to Fredericksburg. When there was much rain, the trip often took 21 days. The oxen wagons went so slowly that when they pitched camp at night, they could see the smoke from the last fire.

The freighters whom Kensing accompanied were the first to come upon the spot where the Ft. Concho and Ft. Mckavett mail had been attacked by Kickpapoo Indians. The mail driver was killed, and the mail was scattered over the ground.

It was not unusual to come upon a herd of five hundred buffalo or antelope on these freighting trips. Some times the freight wagons were loaded with bacon. Then when camp was made at night, and the freighters were ready to prepare the meal, they simply held a frying pan under the wagon to catch the grease, and they had fat to fry their eggs or meat.

Mr. Kensing also worked in the hayfield for the government at Ft. Concho. The government needed hay for the soldiers horses. At mowing time men were contracted to harvest the crop.

To reach San Angelo the men traveled with oxen teams. The heavy wagons were large enough to haul five tons of hay. They made slow progress along the road in rainy weather. The road was so muddy, that for miles along the way it was necessary to cut mesquite logs and lay them ahead of the wagon wheels. When the wheels slipped off the logs, they sank to the hub into the soft mud. In good weather the road was easily traveled. The grass was usually green and grew a foot high on either side of the road. At first the hay was cut by hand scythe, but in 1874 they were using a mowing machine.

The Indians often attacked them. The men in the hay camps put up extra tents to make the Indians believe they were a larger number. At night they built a corral for the horses by moving the wagons to form a circle, inside of which the horses were penned. If they did not do this the Indians were likely to steal their work horses.

The soldiers who were stationed at Ft. Concho to protect the region from the Indians were of little use, in the opinion of the settlers. When they were summoned to a certain place, they came marching along singing, shouting, and making noise that could be heard for miles around Mr. Kensing compares them to hounds after a cat. Of course the Indians heard too, and were careful to give plenty of room.