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Heinrich Landwehr's Roots in Germany
Heinrich
Landwehr was born on Sunday, 3 January 1847 in Lechterke, a small
farming village then located in the Königreich Hannover (Kingdom
of Hannover). Today, Lechterke is in the modern German state of
Rheinland-Pfalz and is still quite small.
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The Landwehrs and their ancestors were from several communities in the vicinity of Quakenbrück. They included Grönloh, Wehdel, Menslage, Langen, and Lechterke, which lies about half-way on the road between Quäkenbrück and Badbergen.
Detail from 1856 map of Hannover, Braunschweig,
Oldenburg
Geographisches Institut (Weimar, Germany)
David Rumsey
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Lechterke—and the other small communities in which the Landwehr ancestors lived—are in a general area known as the "Artland," a rich agricultural region that now protects numerous picturesque, historical
farmsteads of the kind that were home to the Landwehrs and related
families.
One of Heinrich Landwehr's nephews wrote a poem about the Artland. The story is here.
A typical farmstead in the Artland
Photo by Tourismus Niedersachsen |
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Five days after his birth, Heinrich was baptized on 8 January 1847 at
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. George [die
evangelisch-lutherische Pfarrkirche St.-Georg] in Badbergen. The
witnesses were Johann Budke, Hermann Hildebrandt, and Catharina Maria
Wahlert.
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The
Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. George, which serves many of the
surrounding small farming communities, lies at the center of the town
of Badbergen.
The Landwehr ancestors lived in this area for hundreds of years and the
church was the place for their baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and
burials.
The church has a written tradition dating to 1221, while the current building dates from the Middle Ages.
| Uncredited photo from a postcard |
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Heinrich's
parents were Johann Hermann Landwehr (born 3 September 1812 in
Grönloh) and Marie Adelheid Hildebrandt (born 30 September 1815 in
Lechterke). They were married in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Badbergen on 29 March 1836. Heinrich was the sixth of seven children in
his family, all baptized in the same
church.
The seven children were:
Johann Wilhelm
Landwehr, born 11 August 1834 (nothing more is known about him)
Catharina Margaretha Landwehr, 28 September 1836 (remained in the area)
Johann Hermann
Landwehr, 20 March 1839 (emigrated to New Orleans about 1854-1855)
Catharina Maria
Landwehr, 26 October 1841 (emigrated to New Orleans in about 1861)
Hermann Heinrich Landwehr, 10 April 1844 (died as an infant)
Johann Hermann
Heinrich Landwehr, 3 January 1847 (emigrated to New Orleans in 1866)
Gerhard Heinrich Landwehr, 8 January 1850 (remained in the area)
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Little
is
known of Heinrich Landwehr's life as a young man in Germany. Perhaps he
had some schooling, since his signature was neat and legible.
Presumably too he was confirmed at his church, but no record of this
has been sought. His father was a farmer, so he was likely raised
to be a farmer as well.
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Since
his father was a tenant farmer [Heuermann] who did not own any land,
prospects for the future of his children were presumably limited. When
Heinrich was seven or eight, his older brother Johann
emigrated to America and settled in New Orleans. Six or seven years
later, his sister Maria also left home and joined her older brother in
New Orleans. There was surely correspondence and encouragement to
Heinrich to join them in the city where opportunities for work
abounded. At about the age of 19, Heinrich chose to leave as well.
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Go to next section: Landwehr
Ancestors
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Return
to Landwehr Family History Opening Page
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