A version of this post previously appeared here in 2017.
Union Private Peter Leies was born at Huberhof, Nunschweiler, Germany in 1841 and killed in action at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862 in the single most bloodiest day in American history. Peter is our cousin and left no wife or children. He enlisted at age 21 in New York City in the NY 4th Infantry, Company “D.”
I found a little information about Peter in an American Civil War Research database. I hope the link to him works for you before we hit a paywall. The only other information I know about Peter and the war are the records I found pertaining to him on Ancestry.
The enlistment officer wrote his name as Peter Leas. His pension card had that noted as his alias. LEIES also appears on the pension card, and with the names of his parents on the card, I knew he was the first cousin to my great great grandfather Johann Leies. I have all of the Leies baptisms and confirmations from Nunschweiler, Germany in a file. In my research experience, nobody but an actual relative of my grandmother spells their surname as L-E-I-E-S.
In 1865, his mother Louisa Knerr Leies applied for his pension after the war ended.
In 1874, his father then applied for the pension, probably after his mother passed.
I found Peter quite by accident. I was chasing down the Leies relatives of Grandma in NYC and trying to prove Peter’s brother Jacob Leies enlisted in the Union Army. I wasn’t looking for Peter until I found his parents listed on his pension card. We have long known we had no direct ancestors in the United States Civil War.
I wonder now what possessed the ethnic Germans to enlist in the Civil War and desire to learn more about the Battle of Antietam. I found a reference to Peter’s Company “D” on another Civil War page saying it was formed with the intent of being a solely German company. I know that didn’t work out because there is a shamrock on the monument to his regiment at Antietam. Follow this link to the memorial.
According to the 1855 NY State Census, Peter and his brother Jacob had been living in NYC since 1852. I found a Jacob Leies enlisting in the NY 159th in 1862. The problem is that on that enlistment record Jacob has his birthplace listed as Brooklyn. I have Jacob’s baptismal record from Nunschweiler. So I wonder if they put Brooklyn on the record if Jacob no longer had the German accent. I will have to research Jacob some more. He is the one that led me to Peter.
This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge is AtWorship. This is my fourth week of visiting my brick wall third great grandfather Johann Schuttler, and unless the wall crumbles, it might the last time I visit him during the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.
I feel like I have exhausted every place to look for clues on Johann except while he was at worship here, and potentially in Germany. Here in the states, a place to look for hints about Johann Schuttler are the German church records from Chicago’s St. Paul’s First Lutheran Church that were saved from the Chicago Fire.
As previously mentioned this month, the first record I found was from December 4, 1853. Johann was marrying my third great grandmother Louisa Gerbing.
The second record I found was from October 8, 1854, when my second great grandmother Christine Katharina Schuttler was baptized by Reverend Wunder. Her godparents were her uncle Christian Gerbing, and a woman named Katharina Rupp. To date, I have not been able to determine who this Katharina Rupp is living in Chicago. Perhaps she wasn’t living in Chicago at all? Is she related to the Rupp that married the oldest brother of Peter Schuttler – Johann Konrad Schuttler?
The last record with clues comes from Johann’s first born son Charles Schuttler when he was baptized Karl Wilhelm on Christmas day in 1856. His godparents, listed in order they were written by Reverend Wunder: Wilhelm Schuttler, Karl Schuttler, Katherine Bauer, Dorothea Gerbing.
To the best I can tell from digging around in Chicago censuses and city directories, Wilhelm Schuttler is William David Schuttler, a Chicago bookkeeper born about 1834 in New York, USA. He married English immigrant Amelia Cook. William David Schuttler appears to have great great grandchildren alive today. William died in 1872 in Chicago.
Karl Schuttler is Corporal Charles Schuettler, born in 1836 in Mannheim, Germany, the verified nephew of Peter Schuttler I mentioned last week. He served in the Union Army from 1861-1865. He also worked as a foreman for Peter Schuttler like my Johann did. Charles died in a Soldiers’ Home in Chicago in 1905. He married another German immigrant Mary Wilhartitz and they had three children together. While he had a stepdaughter named Emma who has a plethora of descendants alive today, Charles Schuettler’s biological descendants died without children. The last passed away in the 1990s. I will find NO DNA matches there unfortunately.
I searched for Katherina Bauer in the Chicago records and have no idea how she is related to my family or if she is even from or living in Chicago. Is she the Katharina Rupp from my second great grandmother’s baptism?
Dorothea Gerbing is a younger sister of my third great grandmother Louisa – making her aunt to the baptized baby. Dorothea’s story is coming along with Christian’s.
So we have siblings of my third great grandmother Louisa listed as godparents. Unfortunately, I cannot prove that Johann is the sibling of either Katharina Rupp, Katharina Bauer, William David, nor Corporal Charles.
These are all the records I have been able to find for Johann’s children in St. Paul’s. I did not search to see if Johann was listed on any church records besides his immediate family’s. That is another thing to try. I think the Rupp name is of interest because we know a sibling of Peter Schuttler married a Rupp and that I match DNA with those that have ancestry with the surname Rupp from Harxheim, Germany.
So, when funds are available, maybe I will purchase a one month subscription to Archion.de to see if I can locate anything of interest in Harxheim, Germany church records.
For what it is worth, I have a hunch who Johann’s parents were, but with no proof, I will not show such in my trees on My Heritage and Ancestry.
Dear Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandmother Kunigonde,
You have the most interesting name in my tree and your last name is not known to those of us researching you. You were the mother of my ancestor named Michael Kempf. He lived in a town named Hornbach. I have discovered that you were Roman Catholic and the historic church in Hornbach contains the bones of St. Pirminius. You must’ve worshipped there.
I didn’t know Kunigonde was even a name until I found you. I looked up the meaning and origin. It is from the Old High German and sometimes spelled as Kunigonda. The name dictionaries call it a two-element name. Kunni=the tribe, the clan. Gund=the fight, the battle. I really dig the two-element meaning of your name!
Apparently there was a St. Kunigonde and she was the daughter of King Bela of Hungary. She is the patroness of Poland and Lithuania where she is known as St. Kinga.
Was Kunigonde a family name in your family?
Did you know your third great grandson was named Heinrich Leies and he traveled across the ocean to the United States of America in 1848 with his family to have a farm in Wooster, Ohio? His brother Jacob Leies came three years later to the greatest city in the New World called New York City. Your fourth great grandson named Peter Leies joined the Union Army during the nation’s Civil War and died at a battle called the Battle of Antietam. He was only 21 and he was born in Nunschweiler, not far from Hornbach.
Anotherfourth great grandson followed Heinrich to Wooster, Ohio. His name was Johann Leies and Heinrich was his uncle. He was my ancestor. He ran saloons in Chicago and was a piano dealer. He had very religious sons. One became a Roman Catholic priest and died in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Did you know you probably have thousands of descendants across the ocean in America perhaps due in part to Heinrich’s emigration?
You are named in a book called the Rubenheim Register from Zwiebrucken. I would love to see that book. But, what can YOU tell me that the book doesn’t. What was Hornbach life like?
Sincerely,
One of your thousands of descendants
1550 Hornbach, via Wikipedia
Dear 9th Great Granddaughter,
Females rarely learned to write in my day unless they took a religious order. My good friend Sr. Marie Radegonde Belina is writing this for me. What an angel she is too to be able to translate English to our dialect and back to English for me. She was a half English/half French orphan the good Sisters took in.
Thank you for digging my name. I don’t know what you mean by “digging.”
What can I tell you about my life? I was born at a time of a long religious, political, and terrible war – The Thirty Years War. We would hear from the priests there was a peace and then another peace. But it would not end. Then a few years later there would be word of another peace.
We did not care about those far away princes fighting for power. We were more concerned with having food on our tables when the winter was through. Half the men in my family were gone and another quarter of my family uprooted themselves and were never heard from again. We just wanted it to end.
When I married, the war was coming to an end. My husband (your 9th great grandfather) and I lived near Hornbach at a time the entire surrounding area was almost devoid of citizens and buildings due to the many years of war. The country-side had been devastated due to famine, disease, and theft. The old town wall of Hornbach and our church were some of the few things left.
We were ruled by the Duke of Zwiebrucken.
Before the war, Hornbach was once surrounded by rich vineyards. Nobody came back to re-plant them. Instead, after the war, the Dukes invited people from the Swiss Cantons and from Tyrol to our area to farm. They were rumored to be excellent farmers.
Some of my descendants married the descendants of the Swiss immigrants.
My husband Johann Kempf and I had a farm. We had 8 children: Matthias, Anna Christina, Michael, your 8th great grandfather, twins Kunigonde and Johann, Maria Katharina, and twins Regina and Anna Margaretha.
Michael was my second born son and he was trained to follow his father as a farmer.
I died before I could see Michael’s children be born.
I died before France took control of the Hornbach-Zwiebrucken area in 1680.
Yes, I heard about Heinrich and the others. Nunschweiler was very tiny in my day.
Heinrich Layes (that’s how Sr. Marie Gertruda spells the surname) left Germany at a time when liberal nationalists pushed for civil liberties here. The cost of the war I lived through and cost of that war on our people was ingrained in their minds.
In 1848, these forward thinking men had to flee their homeland for your country – a country that had established those ideals when those in power began to silence their democratic plans.
Keep shaking those female branches of my tree in Germany. You aren’t even close to finding all of my descendants in America.
Recently, I discovered and can confirm that, yes, second great grandmother Emilia Bold’s mother Elisabetha Scheid Bold did come to America, at the age of 57 in 1880, sailing from Rotterdam, Netherlands aboard the ship the Scheidam and died in Manhattan in 1905. Her daughter Rosa traveled with her. They traveled in steerage and no profession was listed for either of them. Through clues in censuses, it appears Elisabetha’s husband, Jacob Scheid, Nunschweiler’s Head Catholic Schoolmaster, had passed away. Elisabetha came to live with her daughter, Anna Maria Bold, who had been in America for 13 years.
Anna Maria Bold Leies
I find Emilia Bold’s sister intriguing because of the age that she came here alone. According to church records, Anna Maria Bold was born in 1852 in Busenberg, Germany, a few miles from Nuenschweiler. At the age of 15, in 1867, Anna Bold’s name appeared in the Hamburg Passenger Lists on the ship named Cimbria sailing for the Port of New York. Her place of origin was Nunschweiler. She traveled in steerage. The passenger listing really specifies her age as 15! Anna Bold is also listed in the Germans to America index at the age of 15. Castle Garden lists her as arriving on June 13, 1867 at the age of 15 as well. The burning question is, did she know anyone on the Cimbria?! Is there anyone out there researching her that can shed light on this? What prompted her to leave her home at this age?
Cimbria’s listing for Anna. Literacy was not specified.
The next year, Anna Bold married Jacob Leies on December 6, 1868 at the age of 16, according to the recently released New York City Marriage Index. At first I thought this was a mistake that she was marrying at 16 and marrying a Leies. I actually discounted the index when I first found it. But no, it is all real and she is really Emilia’s sister. The marriage index listed the names of Jacob’s parents and also his birthplace as Huberhof – the same farm as second great grandfather Johann Leies.
What is our relationship to Jacob Leies?
Jacob Leies was first cousin to our second great grandfather Johann Leies. Jacob Leies and Johann Leies shared the same grandparents. Johann Leies (great great grandfather) is the husband of Emilia Bold – sister of Anna Maria Bold.
Jacob Leies was born in Nunschweiler to Johann Jacob Leies and Louisa Catharina Knerr, who immigrated to the United States around 1854 when Jacob was 14. He and his parents were living in New York City’s 8th Ward at the time of the 1855 New York State Census. Johann Jacob was listed as a laborer on that census. The entire Leies family had their surname misspelled as Lyse on that record.
Even though Jacob was about 14 years older than Anna Bold, Anna Bold would have been about the age of 2 when Jacob would have left for America.
Also, Jacob Leies is the brother of Union Soldier Peter Leies, 1841-1862, born in Nunschweiler, Germany and killed at Antietam. Jacob spent time in the Union Army as well, after his brother’s death at Antietam, in the NY 159th Infantry Regiment. I have had trouble locating information on Jacob in the Union Army and don’t want to spend the money to order the service records of a first cousin 4 x removed to me no matter how fascinated I am by immigrants in the United States Civil War.
Coincidentally, after the war, Jacob supported Anna and their children as a “manufacturer of artificial limbs.” That made me wonder if Jacob suffered an injury during the Civil War, so I looked for a pension. I couldn’t locate proof of one. The spelling of Leies in most records at this time in America is allover the place as well. On the other hand, his choice of profession choice could mean nothing.
On to Elisabetha Scheid Bold…
Elisabetha Scheid was born in 1822 in Rodalben to Johann Jacob Scheid and Catharina Buchler according to Rodalben’s Kirkenbuch and Familienbuch. She married Franz Jacob Bold in Nunschweiler, in 1842 where he was the schoolmaster. This current blog post is updating some of the facts regarding Elisabetha Scheid in this previous post.
On January 24, 1880, Elisabetha and her youngest daughter, Rosa, arrived in the Port of New York on the ship the Scheidam, which had sailed from Rotterdam, Netherlands.
This is the largest I can make this snippet of their manifest
American records point to proof that Elisabetha’s husband Jacob Bold had passed away in Nunschweiler by 1880. I found an Elisabetha Bold on the 1880 Federal Census living with her daughter Anna and son-in-law Jacob Leies, and their children Mary Ann, Richard Joseph, Louisa, Jacob Aloysius, and Anna. Her relationship to head of household Jacob was listed as “mother.” The box for widowed/divorced is checked next to Elisabetha’s name.
Back to Anna…
In 1885, Elisabetha’s son-in-law Jacob Leies passed away. In 1897, Anna Bold Leies passed away. Anna’s will on Ancestry.com listed all of her children as heirs and a man listed as her cousin Jacob Weinlin, as Executor.
A little on her children: Anna’s son Jacob Aloysius Leies joined the United States Navy in 1905. After his service, he was a post office clerk and never married. Richard was a merchant/salesman according to federal censuses and city directories. I have been able to trace Richard’s large amount of descendants to the 1990s while I am still trying to track down what happened Anna’s daughters Louisa, Mary Ann, and Anna.
Juliana Rosa Bold Ertl
Rosa (Julian Rosa) Bold was born in 1860 in Nunschweiler. As stated above, she came to the United States with her mother in 1880. It is unclear how long she was in New York City. She was not on the census with her mother in 1880, nor with her Chicago siblings Richard, Alex, and Emilia.
By 1883 though, she is found in Chicago marrying another German immigrant named John Ertl, They had three children: Elizabeth, Karl, and John. She passed away young, on April 4, 1891 in Chicago.
I could only find one of Rosa’s children in adulthood – Elizabeth, whose profession on the 1940 Federal Census was listed as a stenographer for an architect company. She never married. I am still searching for her sons.
Back to Elisabetha…
By the time of the 1900 federal census, Elisabetha was living with Jacob Weinlein, his wife Louisa, and their family in New York City. Elisabetha was listed as “aunt” as to her relationship with the head of household Jacob. (He is the same man that was the Executor of Anna’s will.) Elisabetha stated she was widowed, a mother of “8” children and when asked if any of her children were living the number was “0.”
I found that number interesting because her son Immigrant #1: Chicago Police Officer Alexander Bold, was still alive. You may remember that Alexander had a rocky family life and his wife had divorced him on grounds of cruelty. I suppose it could be that he was estranged from his family.
I too count 8 children born to Elisabetha in Germany, as follows:
Emilia – born in 1843, died in 1894 in Chicago
Rosalia Maria Magdalena – born in 1846, died as an infant
Catharina Michaelina – born in 1848, died unk.
Helen Catharina – born in 1849, died unk.
Alexander – born in 1850, died in 1910 in Chicago
Anna Maria – born in 1852, died in 1897 in NYC
Richard – born in 1854, died in 1889 in Chicago (have not told his story yet)
Juliana Rosa – born in 1860, died in 1891 in Chicago
The census taker wrote “yes” in the block under “Can Speak English” in the 1900 federal census for Elisabetha.
Elisabetha passed away on January 14, 1905 in Manhattan. Several of her descendants are buried in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Westchester County, New York. I wonder if her grave is there also. I have not located it yet. The New York Death Index did list her parents as Jacob Scheid and Catharina Bechler. That is so close to Buchler, there can be no mistake that 3rd great grandmother Elisabetha Scheid Bold came to the United States too.
On this Veteran’s Day weekend, I decided to count the amount of Veterans that I could find descended from Elisabetha Scheid and her husband Franz Jacob Bold. So far, this is what I have: 1 U.S. Navy Veteran, 1 World War I Veteran, 6 World War II Veterans (3 of which were brothers) including Colonel Gerard M. Leies.
I will find what happened to Rosa’s sons and Anna’s daughters!!!!!!!!
Sources:
Familien – und Seelen-Verzeichnissi fur Pfarrei Rodalben
Rodalben Kirchenbuch
Nunschweiler Catholic Church records via microfilm
Busenberg Catholic Church recrods via Family Search
Hamburg Passenger Lists
New York Passenger Lists
CastleGarden.org
Germans to America
New York State Censuses
United States Federal Censuses
New York City Directories
New York and Chicago birth, marriage, and death indexes
New York State Civil War Muster Rolls
Fold3.com
Various records from National Archives pertaining to the descendants of Richard Leies
Leimen/Merzalben/Leiningen: Reber, Helfrich/Helferich/Helferig (in Leimen before and after the Thirty Years War according to 850 Jahre Leimen. See also Die Helfriche)
Aeschlen bei Oberdiessbach, Bern: Rubeli/Strubel (from Langnau), Muller – Rubeli and Muller migrated to Fischbach, RP and lived in Messerschwanderhof and Contwig. The Rubeli were related to the Gungerich Anabaptists of Diessbach. See: Mennosearch.com and Der Tauferlehrer Christian Gungerich von Oberdiessbach (1595-1671) und der Streit um Seinen Nachlas by Hanspeter Jecker.
My DNA matches the Rubeli descendants that emigrated to Pennsylvania before the Revolution. They used Ruble and Ruple in America. See also this former blog post for sources and references on the Strubel/Rubeli: The Anabaptist Rubeli of Aeschlen bei Oberdiessbach, Switzerland.
Our newly discovered Union Private Peter Leies was born at Huberhof, Nunschweiler, Germany in 1841 and killed in action at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862 in the single most bloodiest day in American history. Peter is our cousin and left no wife or children. He enlisted at age 21 in New York City in the NY 4th Infantry, Company “D.”
Image from the Library of Congress
I found a little information about Peter in an American Civil War Research database. I hope the link to him works for you before we hit a paywall. The only other information I know about Peter and the war are the records I found pertaining to him on Ancestry.
His enlistment information from Ancestry.com
The enlistment officer wrote his name as Peter Leas. His pension card had that noted as his alias. LEIES also appears on the pension card, and with the names of his parents on the card, I knew he was the first cousin to my great great grandfather Johann Leies. I have all of the Leies baptisms and confirmations from Nunschweiler, Germany in a file. In my research experience, nobody but an actual relative of my grandmother spells their surname as L-E-I-E-S.
In 1865, his mother Louisa Knerr Leies applied for his pension after the war ended. In 1874, his father then applied for the pension, probably after his mother passed.
I found Peter quite by accident last night. I was chasing down the Leies relatives of Grandma in NYC and trying to prove Peter’s brother Jacob Leies enlisted in the Union Army. I wasn’t looking for Peter until I found his parents listed on his pension card. We have long known we had no direct ancestors in the United States Civil War.
I wonder now what possessed the ethnic Germans to enlist in the Civil War and desire to learn more about the Battle of Antietam. I found a reference to Peter’s Company “D” on another Civil War page saying it was formed with the intent of being a solely German company. I know that didn’t work out because there is a shamrock on the monument to his regiment at Antietam. Follow this link to the memorial.
According to the 1855 NY State Census, Peter and his brother Jacob had been living in NYC since 1852. I found a Jacob Leies enlisting in the NY 159th in 1862. The problem is that on that enlistment record Jacob has his birthplace listed as Brooklyn. I have Jacob’s baptismal record from Nunschweiler. So I wonder if they put Brooklyn on the record if Jacob no longer had the German accent. I will have to research Jacob some more. He is the one that led me to Peter.
Grandma’s great grandfather Johann Schuttler made supply wagons for the Army of the Potomac at Peter Schuttler’s wagon company in Chicago during the Civil War. See: What Grandma said: “SUPPLIED THE UNION ARMY DURING THE CIVIL WAR – SCHUTTLER WAGONS”. A man that I have been trying to prove is his brother drove wagons in the Illinois 24th Infantry Regiment during the Civil War and was promoted to a Corporal.
With the United States Army Heritage Center so close by, I intend to take advantage of the opportunity to research Private Peter Leies further because, he is a Leies and he died in action. He gets his own research binder.
In case you are wondering how we are related, Peter Leies and my great great grandfather Johann Leies shared the same grandfather.
Cinziarosa's Descendants (c) 