Albert Hinrich Rottmann u. Sophie Anna Margarethe Marie Brümmer Rottmann [first spouse: Anna Sophia Wilhemina Mühlenfeld]
| The Albert Hinrich Rottmann family first lived with his brother, Heinrich Friedrich Rottmann near Berlin [Otoe], Nebraska. They rented farm land and moved nearby to a small farm house for the first growing season. In the fall of 1893, they moved to a rental farm one half mile north of First Lutheran Church, Avoca and two and a quarter miles west [presently known as Berner land]. Albert Hinrich became known in the community as Heinrich or Henry; Heinrich Friedrich was known as Friedrich or more commonly as Fritz. |
| Albert, who had worked both as a farmer and as an assistant to a cabinetmaker back in Kampsheide, continued to work his own rental farm, worked out on other farms and did odd jobs and cabinet work in the North Branch community of Otoe County. Sophie had the job of caring for the children and the home, had the never-ending jobs of milking, cooking, tending the garden, sewing and knitting many clothing items for the family, kept an herb garden, had potted plantings indoors, made most of the common medications used by the family and worked by candlelight [or the lamp if there was oil] long after other family members had gone to bed. |
| The Rottmanns were involved members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, North Branch, Nebraska; they had close associations with the pastors and their families. The first shepherd for this church, Pastor Naumann and a child of Pastor Gundel are buried in the Rottmann family plot at the North Branch Cemetery adjacent to the church--one of the many examples of close ties among the German families of the community. The Rottmann horse and buggy was served with a team of Hamiltonian horses which made the trips to church and for shopping at Avoca and Syracuse nearby. One horse of the team had been trained as a riding horse. When her husband or son was not available to harness or drive the team for buggy trips, the mother [Sophie] was up to the task. |
| Two children were born to the Rottmanns in the U.S.--Johann Heinrich Friedrich in 1895; and Emma Marie Margarethe Dorothee in 1900. John Henry Fred carries the name of a father's brother and a long line of grandparents; Emma carries the names of her mother and grandmother along with many family members before her. This was a 3-generation household made up of parents, teenagers, young children, a baby and a grandmother. One can only wonder how eight people covering an age span of 80 years could be fitted together in a small house and make it work. But they seemed not to be aware of anything but love and respect and family--and their hope for better times. |
| On March 10, 1901, Maria, the second child died at the age of 13. It was a typical spring of freezing overnight and thawing during the day. The Rottmann children attended confirmation classes at the church twice a week following the day at rural school. On one of those warm days, Maria felt that the knitted wool hose and underclothing were too much. So, she enjoyed the walk home in the mud in bare feet. It was the beginning for a cold and what was described as croup; what was thought to be an illness that she would handle in a few days caused her death. The church records indicate that Maria had heart, kidney and lung troubles and had been sick for a long time. The text used for the homily at Maria's funeral by Pastor Gundel was based on Isaiah 60:20. |
| Sadly, a week later, on March 16, 1901, the grandmother, Maria Margarethe Dorothee Antholz Rottmann, died at the age of 79 years, 4 months and 2 days. Grandma Rottmann was buried beside her grand daughter, Maria on March 18. Pastor Gundel used Isaiah 46:4 as the text for the memorial service. "After all these hours of sorrow which you have patiently suffered, God gives you the golden crown of heaven" marks her tombstone in the North Branch Cemetery. |
| The father, Albert Hinrich Rottmann died on March 30, 1906 at the Presbyterian Hospital at Omaha, Nebraska at the age of 58 years, 6 months and 26 days after being in the U.S. for 16 years. The records indicate that he was admitted to the hospital on March 26 under the care of Dr. C.C. Allison for surgery and a diagnosis of stomach cancer. Dodder Funeral Home of Avoca was in charge of arrangements; burial was at North Branch Cemetery, North Branch, Nebraska on April 2, 1906. Pastor Gundel used Luke 23:43 as the text for the homily offered at the divine service. |
| The mother, Sophie Anna Margarethe Marie Brümmer Rottmann died on February 17, 1918 at the home of her brother-in-law, Fritz Rottmann, Otoe, Nebraska at the age of 57 years, 9 months and 23 days. The records indicate that she was under the care of Dr. D. H. Scharze from February 10 through 18 and that she also died of stomach cancer. R.B. Paaf funeral home of Berlin, Nebraska was in charge of arrangements; burial was at North Branch Cemetery, North Branch, Nebraska with Pastor Luecke officiating. The eldest son, Fred, had left the home for marriage in 1909 and moved to a farm at Elk Creek, Nebraska; the second daughter, Emma, married in 1916 and moved to a farm one and 3/4 miles from home. The second son, Henry married the year following his mother's death in 1919 and moved to Elk Creek, Nebraska; the oldest daughter, Meta, married in 1924 and lived in Lincoln, Nebraska. |
| The dream of being able to work their own farm had been fulfilled. While they never owned land in the U.S., they were no longer Brinksitzers and they were managers of their own destiny to farm and till the soil. Sophie and Albert had a 22-year marriage; they worked together for 16 years in the U.S. on leased farm land; Sophie managed that farm for 9 more years. She left an estate of something over 20,000 dollars. She was a woman of strength and courage; she was described as a "true Christian woman in every respect and loved by all who knew her" in her obituary which appeared in The Berlin Weekly of February 19, 1918. |
Heinrich Friedrich Rottman u. Sophia Maria Dorothea Mühlenfeld Rottmann
| Heinrich Friedrich, the younger brother of Albert Hinrich and Albert Hinrich both married Mühlenfeld girls from the village of Herbergen. Both Heinrich and Sophia and Albert and Anna were married in the church at Staffhorst which is about 7 or 8 miles from Asendorf [Kampsheide]. Albert's wife Anna died early in the marriage--likely from childbirth although there is no record of the cause of death. Albert's second marriage was to Sophie Brümmer, a relative of his first wife. |
| Heinrich and Sophia, who were married in 1879, had two children born in Germany; Sophia Maria Margarethe Rottmann born May 5, 1880 and Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich Rottmann born October 9, 1887 . They had no additional children in the USA. Note: the ship log for the Spree records that the trip to New York for July 7, 1892 and the children, Marie and Bill, being 6 and 4 years old and the parents, Fritz and Sophie as 32 and 37. |
| The Heinrich [Fritz] Rottmann family immigrated to the U.S. in 1892. His older brother with his family and Heinrich's mother came a nine months later in 1893. The Fritz Rottmann family first settled on a rented farm northeast of Berlin [Otoe], Nebraska and in 1900 moved to a farm he owned two miles south of Otoe. In 1910, he moved into the town of Otoe where he lived to the time of his death. |
| The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Otoe [now St. John's] had a sister congregation northeast of town [St. Lucas] which the Rottmanns attended on first coming to the area. The St. Luke Cemetery, now the Union Cemetery, which was adjacent to the church, has many graves of older residents. Heinrich, known as Fritz, was the oldest member of St. John Church and the oldest resident of Otoe at the time of his death on March 7, 1941 at the age of 86 years, 4 months and 14 days. His wife, Sophia, died on July 4, 1929 at the age of 74 years, 8 months and 6 days. Fritz died of cardio-vascular disease with associated arteriosclerosis along with complications of renal disease; Sophia had the condition of chronic intestinal nephritis with the actual cause of death being senile pneumonia. |
| Friends, cousins and relatives of early marriages into the Rottmann family were honorary pall bearers at Fritz's funeral: Friedrich Reuter, Sr., Johann Ehlers, Wilhelm Kirchoff, , Johann Köhler, Albert Siemers, Sr., Hermann Hillmann, Wilhelm Amende, Friedrich Paap, Hermann Meyers, Wilhelm Kammann. A long-term German Pastor friend, The Reverend Heinrich Johann Dieckhoff of Ohiowa, Nebraska officiated at the divine service and final rites for Fritz. Burial was at the Union Cemetery, rural Otoe, Nebraska. |
| Fritz was a
stronghold for the Rottmann brothers and their families. He came
first to Oto Counti; he helped his older brother to get settled; he helped
his brother's wife when she was widowed; he and his wife took his
brother's wife into their home when she was ill and nursed her until her
death. He was a stalwart and faithful member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
and represented his Christian faith to his family, in his work and to
others. He carried on the family traditions and many aspects of his
German heritage. He was quietly Fritz; he was a brilliant man who
lived his life with dignity and humility. The stuffed eagle he kept
on his front porch was a symbol for him of the freedom and choices
he had found in Amerika.
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