Elizabeth Herber^{[1, 2, 3, 4]}

1830 - 1918  (88 years)

• Name	Elizabeth Herber
  Born	6 Jan 1830	Schweinsberg, Kirchhain, Hessen, Germany   [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
  Gender	Female
  Immigration	1831	, Ontario, Canada   [5]
  Immigration	1832	, Ontario, Canada   [8]
  Name	Elizabeth Hahn
  Residence	1849	Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [7, 13]
  Residence	1861	Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [10]
  	Lutheran
  Residence	1871	Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [9]
  	Lutheran
  Residence	1911	Petersburg, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [8]
  	Lutheran
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-327010
  Died	1 Jun 1918	Petersburg, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [11, 12]
  Buried	Emanuel Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery, Petersburg, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [11, 12]
  Person ID	I327010	Generations
  Last Modified	6 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	Heinrich Jacob "Henry" Herber,   b. 11 Apr 1796, Schweinsberg, Kirchhain, Hessen, Germany ,   d. 11 May 1866, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 70 years)
  Mother	Catharina Nicholi,   b. CALC 20 Dec 1797, , Germany ,   d. 25 Feb 1834, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age ~ 36 years)
  Family ID	F8859	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Johann George "George" Hahn,   b. CALC 7 Oct 1819, , Germany ,   d. 16 Nov 1889, near, Bamburg, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age ~ 70 years)
  Married	1 Feb 1849	Greenbush (Kitchener), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [13]
  Children	1. William Hahn,   b. 4 Feb 1850, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 20 Nov 1910  (Age 60 years)   2. Louis Hahn,   b. 23 Jan 1852, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 20 Aug 1945  (Age 93 years)   3. Jacob Hahn,   b. 14 Feb 1854, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 1946  (Age 91 years)   4. Henry Hahn,   b. 13 Feb 1856, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 27 Oct 1937, Peel Twp., Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada  (Age 81 years)   5. John Hahn,   b. 1857, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. Yes, date unknown   6. George H. Hahn,   b. 12 Aug 1860, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 10 Mar 1950, Roseville, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 89 years)   7. Mary Hahn,   b. 15 Sep 1862, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 24 May 1955  (Age 92 years)   8. Christina Hahn,   b. 1864, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. Yes, date unknown   9. Ernst Hahn,   b. 1868, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. Yes, date unknown   10. Conrad Hahn,   b. 23 Jan 1868, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 10 Nov 1955, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 87 years)   11. Andrew Hahn,   b. 22 Nov 1871, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 1955  (Age 83 years)
  Last Modified	7 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F244966	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  ELIZABETH HERBER came to Canada in either 1831 (per the 1901 census) or 1832 (per the 1911 census) at the age of two with her parents, Heinrich Jacob Herber and Catherina Nicolai and her younger brother, William. Verna Hahn, Elizabeth's granddaughter, said that: "It took 3 months by boat with a sail to come across the ocean from Germany." "Before 1835 emigrants were officially advised to make preparations for a voyage of 12 weeks, but in that year the period was reduced to ten. Some emigrants were fortunate to make a voyage of 25 days, while others were driven by contrary winds to the Azores or Greenland, & barely survived a terrifying experience of 4 months." [1] Conditions during voyages in this time in history have been described as: - 200 to 1,000 people crammed into tight quarters - wooden beds, stacked 2 to 3 high with two people sharing single berths and up to four people squeezed into a double. - passengers boarding with diseases like typhoid, cholera and smallpox which spread quickly in the poor ventilated un-sanitized close quarters (the only ventilation to the living quarters was provided by hatches to the upper decks, which were locked tight during rough seas and storms; bathrooms were located above deck and during stormy weather passengers were forced to relieve themselves and get seasick in buckets, which would overturn as the boat rocked). - food in constant shortage and often rancid and moldy; a lack of clean drinking water resulted in frequent bouts of dysentery [2] One month after Elizabeth Herber turned four, her mother Catherina died. It was February 25, 1834 and without a doubt another harsh cold winter in what was then Upper Canada (now Ontario). A Herber family bible lists Catherina Nicolai as dying of the plague [3]. We know that in 1832 there was a Typhoid epidemic, and in 1834 an Asiatic Cholera epidemic arrived in the area via a traveling circus. But we have no record verifying the cause of death. Catherina's death is recorded in the "Church Register of H. W. Peterson 1833-1835" under "Deaths" where there is no mention of the cause: It is recorded as death number "103. Died, February 25th 1834, Catharina Herber wife of Henry Jacob Herber (cooper [4]). She was aged 36 years 2 months & 5 days. Buried in the Berlin Graveyard, Feb 26. Discourse delivered by Revd. H W Peterson in German" [5] According to Herber family oral history, when Heinrich Herber went looking for someone to hire for domestic help raising his children (Elizabeth age 4 and William age 2), he asked Andreas/Andrew Schaeufele, a neighbouring farmer if he could hire one of his daughters. Andreas said "NO" and suggested instead that Heinrich marry one of the daughters. Heinrich married the farmer's second born daugther, Louisa. [6] (In the 1861 Tremaine Map of Waterloo County, a farm owned by Mathias Schaeffer is shown directly across Erb's Road from Heinrich Herber's farm. Mathias was the eldest son of Andreas/Andrew Schaeufele, lending support to the story of the neighbour offering his daughter for marriage. We acknowledge the surname is spelled slightly differently but this surname has appeared in a multitude of documents with altered spelling.) Louisa Schaeufele was born to Anna Marie Nagel and Andreas Schaeufele, 15 December 1812 in Hermannsdorf, Saxony, Germany. She was 22 years old when she married Heinrich Herber then age 39, in March 1835. Elizabeth Herber was 5 years old and her brother William was 3. The 1861 Tremaine map shows Heinrich Herber as owner of a 200-acre farm at what is now 1195 Erb's Road, St. Agatha, Ontario. In addition, in 1838, when Elizabeth was eight years old, there is a land record indicating that Heinrich bought 45 acres, identified as lot 2 south of Erb's Road, no. 232 Bargain & Sale 12/26/1838, reg.9/11/1844, from Francis Hibschwerbin (Last changed in Family Search: 26 August 2013 by rdouglass2718278). We surmise that Heinrich and Louisa had a good marriage as together over 14 years they had eight children. They named their first child Katherina Louisa honouring Heinrich's first wife as well as his current wife. In 1848 they would grieve the death of two sons Mathias (age 6) and Christian Peter (age 2) both from dysentery. Sadly, Louisa followed one year later while giving birth to Paulus. The date was 29 June 1849. She was 36 years, 6 months, and 14 days old. The death certificate lists cause of death "as a result of child bed." She was buried in the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery on Erb's Road east of St. Agatha. Heinrich, her husband, would die at age 69 in 1866, and be buried beside her. How Henrich managed with a new born child and 5 other children for three years, after Louisa died, we do not know. Elizabeth, his eldest child, had married 5 months earlier to Georg Hahn. Probably Heinrich's second oldest daughter, Katherina (from Louisa) age 13 years and son, Carl age 12 years, assisted with the four younger children and household duties. We do know that on 4 January 1852, Heinrich, then 56 years old, married Anna Margarethe Lindner. She was born 3 January 1816, in Queck, Lauterbach, Hessen Germany on 3 Jan. 1815. She was 37 years old and the widow of Johann Paul with whom she had two children, Johannes Paul (b. 1836) and Andrew Paul (b.1838). She and Heinrich lived together for 14 years raising his 6 children and her 2 children until he died in 1866. She lived another 24 years until dying on 18 June 1890 at the age of 74 years. She chose to be buried in St. Mark's Lutheran Cemetery, Wellesley, Waterloo Regional Municipality, Ontario. We assume Elizabeth and Georg Hahn moved to the Bamberg farm once married because in the 1851 census they are listed as living in Wellesley Township with one-year-old Wilhelm. An article entitled, "Crown Land Grants & Purchasing: Understanding the Crown Land Granting Process" states "If the settler took up residence on the land and fulfilled certain settlement duties, he or she would have ended up owning the land. Then, the Crown issued a patent to the settler, indicating that the ownership of the land had passed from the Crown to a private individual." [7] In 1860 Georg Hahn applied for and received on 17 July a Crown Grant of 100 acres of land in Wellesley Township, East Section, Concession 6, East Half of Lot 6. [8] Georg and Elizabeth soon designated a small corner parcel of their land adjacent to Hessen Strasse, for a church (wooden structure) and a cemetery (St. John's Lutheran cemetery). The church was built in 1850 and dedicated in 1852. This fact supports our supposition that they were living on their Bamberg farm prior to 1860 when they received legal ownership via the crown land grant. The church was originally called "the Hahn church" according to Verna Hahn. It burnt to the ground in 1870 and immediately a stone church was erected across the road on Katherine Reichart's land. It is identified as St. John's Lutheran Church. Today the church is considered architecturally and historically significant. It is locally designated under the Ontario Heritage Act and is listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. [9] By 1860, Elizabeth now age 30 and Georg now age 41 would have seven growing boys: William age 10; Lewis age 8; Jacob age 6; Henry age 4; John age 3; and young George born August 1860. The first girl would arrive in 1863, Mary was her name and she was followed quickly in 1864 by a second girl named Christina (Georg's only sister's name). Then three more boys arrived Conrad (1867), Ernest (1869) and Andrew (1871). As a mother in the mid 1800's, Elizabeth would birth her children at home. As well as nursing, feeding and disciplining her children, the chores of a farm wife of this time period would have included: > planting & weeding a garden; harvesting the vegetables and fruits and preserving for winter > milking the cows/goats; churning the butter; making cheese; feeding the chickens and collecting eggs. > making candles from tallow > cutting hair; pulling teeth; tending to cuts, scrapes and ill children > keeping the cast iron wood stove burning for the purpose of proving heat for home in colder months; boiling water on the cast iron stove for weekly baths in shared water; cooking of daily meals on the cast iron stove > boiling water for washing laundry in a wooden tub with lye soap; hanging laundry outside/inside to dry; making and mending clothes; turning old clothes into quilts and braided rugs "In the earlier part of the nineteenth century, the frequency with which a wash was done was directly related to social status. Upper-class households could afford larger wardrobes, and so washed every four months, or in some cases, even once a year. To wash clothes more frequently than every six weeks suggested poverty. At the same time, well-to-do nineteenth-century women wore their dresses several times before laundering them, since their outer clothing did not come into direct contact with the body." [10] Having successfully birthed 11 children over a 21-year period, Elizabeth's wash lines and fences were no doubt, always full of laundry. Like most farm wives, she would have developed a strong back, arms and hands from hauling water for both soap wash and rinse. The strength of her wrists would determine how well water was extracted from the laundry before it was hung to dry. On Sundays, George, Elizabeth and the children would have attended the Hahn Church on their property. George and his sons most likely were involved in the upkeep and heating of the church. In her lifetime, Elizabeth's blended family consisted of a father & mother, 2 brothers, 2 step mothers and 8 half siblings. This wide family circle grew exponentially as Elizabeth and Georg Hahn produced eleven children in a 21-year span. These 11 children would marry, bringing into the family 15 daughters-in-laws and 2 sons-in-laws and 45 grandchildren. Verna Hahn, Elizabeth's granddaughter, said this about Elizabeth: "Elizabeth spoke only German. She never wore a coat and instead wore a heavy shawl with a bonnet. In the spring she wore a lighter shawl. She dressed in full long skirts with pockets. She knit stockings, mitts, hats for the entire family and in later years gifted to neighbours. Her knitting was apparently quite fancy. She was a quiet woman. She had dark brown hair which never turned totally white. She regularly attended the Lutheran church. " When George Hahn died in 1889, Elizabeth was 59 years old and she may have had three unmarried children residing at home: Conrad age 22; Ernest age 20; and Andrew age 18. Verna Hahn said that "Elizabeth's sons, John and Henry, had a dispute over the running of the farm after their father died. Elizabeth favoured Henry, who in her opinion could do no wrong. Andrew drove John to the train station and he left Canada and settled in the United States after the dispute." However, records show that John was already in the United States where he and his wife Emilie were homesteading two separate parcels in arid eastern Colorado. Emilie would have been three months pregnant with their first child. Thus, we surmise that the dispute was likely between Henry (age 33) and Ernest (age 20). Ernest would still be living at home, before moving to the United States to work and marry. We know from the 1891 Canada Census records that Elizabeth was still living on the Bamberg farm with son Henry and daughter-in-law Veronica and their children (Maria Lydia, Louisa Catherine and Menno Andrew). But by the time of the 1901 census, Elizabeth is recorded living with her daughter Mary Heimpel. Thus, at some point in that decade Elizabeth moved off the Hessen Strasse family farm. Elizabeth was predeceased by her daughter Christina (March) and son William (November) 1910. She herself would die in Mary's Petersburg, Ontario home on 3 June 1918 and she would be buried in the Emmanuel Lutheran cemetery in Petersburg. Verna Hahn said that "Elizabeth's first gravestone was not good enough for Louis Hahn (second born son and owner of Hahn Brass in New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada), and so he replaced it with his own funds." Dianne Wittig email 2020

  
  

• Sources

  [S57] Vit - ON - Birth Registration. Verna Hahn Born: 10 May 1891 County: Waterloo Father: George Hahn Mother: Marria Bowman [S4] Vit - ON - Marriage Registration. Conrad Hahn Born: Wellesley Tp Ont Age: 27 Born: abt 1867 Father: George Hahn Mother: Eliza Hahn Spouse: Emma Stotz Age: 31 Born: abt 1863 born: Wellesley Tp Ont Father: August Stotz Mother: Eliza Stotz married 3 Oct 1894 married: Waterloo, Elmira [S4] Vit - ON - Marriage Registration. Andrew Hahn Born: Wellesley Township Age: 25 Born: abt 1872 Father: George Mother: Elizabeth Spouse: Elma Schweitzer Age: 20 Born: abt 1877 born: Mannheim Father: Jacob Mother: Dora married 7 Apr 1897 married: Waterloo Township [S3002] Vit - ON - Marriage Registration, 011188-76. Louis Hahn 24, occ. Carpenter, b. Ontario, res. Wellesley Village, son of George & Elizabeth Married Catharina Hammel, 23, b. Ontario, res. Wellesley Twp, daughter of George & Margaretha, Witn Wilhelm Hahn & Christina Hammel Both of Wellesley Twp, 2 May 1876 in Wellesley Village. [S133] Census - ON, Waterloo, Wilmot - 1901, Wilmot H-3 Page 8. [S113] Census - ON, Waterloo, Wellesley Twp. - 1881, Division 1 Page 51. [S6] Church Records - ON, Waterloo - Bindeman, F. W. - Card Index Kitchener Public Library. John George Hahn, 29y, farmer of Waterloo married 1 Feb 1849 in Greenbush by banns to Elisabeth Herber, 19, of Wilmot, wit: Adam Hahn - labourer of Waterloo & Wilhelm Klagholz labourer of Waterloo [S346] Census - ON, Waterloo, Wilmot - 1911, Div. 11 Page 1. [S269] Census - ON, Waterloo, Wellesley Twp. - 1871, Div. 4, Pg. 72. [S855] Census - ON, Waterloo, Wellesley Twp. - 1861, Div. 12 Page 77. [S183] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Wilmot - Emmanuel Evangelical Petersburg CC#4556 Internet Link. HAHN/ Elizabeth HERBER/ wife of/ George HAHN/ Jan. 6, 1830 - June 1, 1918/ aged 88 yrs. 4 mos. 25 days/ Resting in peace [S3231] Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80929463/elisabeth-hahn. [S13] Vit - - ON, Waterloo - Wellington District Marriage Register Part 1 1840-1852, Rev'd Frederick W. Bindemann, Minister of The United Lutheran and German Reformed Protestant Church, Greenbush, Waterloo Twp. report 127. John George Hahn, 29, Farmer of Waterloo, married to Elisabeth Herber, 19

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 6 Jan 1830 - Schweinsberg, Kirchhain, Hessen, Germany Immigration - 1831 - , Ontario, Canada Immigration - 1832 - , Ontario, Canada Residence - 1849 - Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Married - 1 Feb 1849 - Greenbush (Kitchener), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Lutheran - 1861 - Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Lutheran - 1871 - Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - Emanuel Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery, Petersburg, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth