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German Roots Trip 2003 - Contents

SEEKING OUR GERMAN ROOTS

Chapter IV

May 21 - 23, 2003

LINDLAR
Kemmerich Family History

Friday, May 23

Today is a travel day, and maybe that’s why we woke up extra-early again. About 7:30 a.m. all the bells in the Lindlar church across the valley suddenly started ringing! I guess we would have been up by 7:30 for sure, with all the wake-up calls from the bells. But, it was a very pleasant sound, mixed in with bird calls.

After another good breakfast, we settled up our bill with Frau Klee--only 45 Euros per night--there seems to be a correlation here: the nicer the accommodations, the lower the bill!

Bidding Frau Klee farewell, we strapped on our backpacks and trundled our suitcases over the cobblestone streets, back to Bruno’s.

After hugs with Marlene, Bruno drove us down to the bus station--just a few blocks, really, but we appreciated him taking us. What a very nice visit, with such kindly people--how lucky we are, to be related to these Kemmerichs.

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About August Kemmerich

My grandfather, August Kemmerich, was born on February 14, 1845 in the village of Frielingsdorf. When he was 16, August was hired out to a farmer. Three years, later, at 19, he went to Essen and worked in the coal mines for the next six years.

September, 1869, at the age of 24, August left Germany and settled first in Bredwood, Illinois, again working in the coal mines of that state. A year and a half later, in 1871, he moved to Shelby County in Iowa. In 1872, a railroad company developed the new community of "Westphalia" in this locale. While living here, August was elected Road Supervisor of the new town.

August farmed in Iowa for five years and also received his United States citizenship here. A series of natural disasters--crop-destroying hail and grasshoppers--convinced August to seek a more hospitable part of the country, and in 1876 he left for the Pacific Northwest, going first to Port Madison, near present-day Seattle--where he was employed as a logger and in the lumber mills.

In the winter months when the woods and mills were shut down, August explored the areas around Seattle for possible homestead sites. Eventually he found his way to the Skagit River Valley north of Seattle and on his birthday, Feb. 14, 1878, August took up his homestead in the tiny pioneer settlement of Birdsview, in Washington Territory. On April 1, 1884 August married Barbara Hommerding in Chicago, Illinois. They were true pioneers in the untamed wilderness of northwest Washington. August and Barbara later had nine children. A few years after the death of Barbara in 1903, August and his younger children moved from Birdsview to Mt. Angel, Oregon where he was a member of the City Council and St. Mary's Catholic Church. August died in Mt. Angel on January 28, 1926 just short of his 81st birthday.

Today, August and Barbara's farm in Birdsview has been turned into Rasar State Park.

More information on August and Barbara Kemmerich is in the Genealogy portion of this website.

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For more information on Lindlar, check out these websites:

http://web.ghs-lindlar.de

http://www.lindlar.de/

A nice website with pictures of Lindlar in different seasons: http://www.lindlar.de/freizeit-tourismus/index.htm

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