William Eduard VON ROSENBERG

William married Metta BROSSMANN on 9 May 1889 in Bellville, Austin, Texas, USA. Metta (daughter of Charles Henry BROSSMANN and Elise UMLAND) was born on 12 Aug 1866 in Bellville, Austin, Texas, USA; died on 5 Aug 1928 in Houston, Harris, Texas, USA; was buried on 6 Aug 1928 in Hallettsville City Cemetery, Hallettsville, Lavaca, Texas, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Johannes was born at the Eckitten Estate. When he was a few weeks old, his mother died. The Veithofer-Froelich grandmother immediately took him and raised him until his father remarried. He was schooled at the Paul-Narmund Estate and was mobilized in the National Guards of East Prussia after having received his education. After serving his term in the Guards, he became a Sergeant Major in the infantry.

He held no fond feelings for the Germany he left in 1849 as evidenced in an letter he wrote his favorite cousin, Lottchen von Holty in Germany. “As the news came to me in Saxony, where I was Oekonomie Inspector at the age of twenty-three that our beautiful Eckitten was, to my notion, squandered by being sold at a loss, and that many unpleasantries were happening to my family, and also with much disagreeable and disturing news from my beloved Litthauen, my life was so embittered that I left for America with the vow never to be heard from again in Germany. Now it is nearly thirty years since, and this is the first letter that I send across the ocean; I never received one either and never cared to read one that did come; but as you, dear cousin, would like to know something about each of us, I shall write now to please you.”

Johannes married shortly after arriving in Texas. They lived on a farm that was a part of the Nassau Plantation in Fayette County. He had cultivated that land while boarding with his sister, Hannchen Hellmuth. He later bought a farm at Evergreen in Washington County. After the Civil War began, he and his older brother William served together in the Engineer’s Corps in East Texas.

After his return from the war he gave up farming, moved into Round Top, and resided there until his wife died in 1894. There he began a mercantile business and an inn which was well known to travelers. After the death of his wife he retired and moved in with his two unmarried daughters, Hulda and Wilhelmine.

Johannes was said to be a charming but quiet man who was sweet and gentle. As for a hobby, it was the same in Texas as it had been at Eckitten: raising pigeons.

Johannes married Julia Wilhelmine Christine GROOS on 26 Oct 1850 in Round Top, Fayette, Texas, USA. Julia (daughter of Carl Apollo Wilhelm GROOS and Sophie Wilhelmine Louise MARTIN) was born on 29 Apr 1829 in Straßebersbach, Dillenburg, Nassau; died on 22 Mar 1894 in Round Top, Fayette, Texas, USA; was buried in La Grange City Cemetery, La Grange, Fayette, Texas, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Julia came to Texas in 1848 at the age of 19 years with her father and siblings. Her mother had died in 1844, and the family had suffered business losses. The family lived their first year in Texas as renters on the old Ernst place near Industry, but the father soon bought a farm that had been a part of Nassau Plantation. With this move they became neighbors of the von Rosenberg family.

Julia was a busy housekeeper who also found time to help friends and neighbors. She was part of a group of women who took turns cooking soup for sick neighbors. Her only outside interests were quilting parties and the midafternoon “Kaffee Klatch” with the other women. Small in stature and energetic, she wore her hair in braids tied around her head with a black velvet bow. She is remembered for her gentle manners, good fashion taste and home decorations.

Buried:
originally interred 24 Mar 1894 at another location in La Grange

Charles married Elise UMLAND. Elise was born in 1845 in Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg; died in 1924. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Peter Carl Johann von Rosenberg was the third son of Otto von Rosenberg and his second wife, Maria Wilhelmine von Stempel-von Rosenberg, of Raddeilen and Eckitten Estates. He was nine years old when his parents were divorced and we know nothing of his early life and education. He enlisted in the Prussian Army at an early ago and at twenty-one he became a lieutenant in the cavalry. He was a member of the Uhlans and on the old scroll he is called a Jager, which was a title given to certain German cavalry regiments.

He later told his grandson Arthur von Rosenberg that in the Battle of Leipzig his horse's mouth was shot away, but he quickly mounted another horse whose rider had been killed.

He fought with the Prussian guards under Bluecher with Wellington. When Napoleon faced the English on Belgian soil at Waterloo, with the remnant of the once-defeated Prussians and the fresh Prussian forces under Bluecher, the tide of the battle turned on June 18, 1815. The histories tell us this Prussian Guard knew how to die but not how to surrender.

The Uhlans fought with lances. They were chiefly employed for reconnoitering, skirmishing, and outpost duty. Originally they were light cavalry. Peter Carl was a Lieutenant in this company at Waterloo, we learn from the old scroll and from letters.

In 1819 he inherited Eckitten Estate after the death of his widowed stepmother, and the same year he married Johanna Dorothea Froelich. They had four children before she died at the age of twenty-nine, six weeks after the birth of Johannes.

Peter Carl was a "Frei Denker" and in the disturbing days of 1848 was severely criticized for his political views. The consequent humiliation of the family was the direct cause of the immigration to Texas.



The family of Carl von Rosenberg departed from Bremen, Germany on 1 Oct 1849 and arrived at Galveston, Texas on 2 Dec 1849. They travelled on the ship Franziska.

Peter married Johanna Dorothea FROELICH on 2 Jun 1819 in Memel, Memel, Ostpreußen, Prussia. Johanna (daughter of Christoph FROELICH, Jr. and Johanna Dorothea VEITHOFER) was born on 12 Jun 1797 in Tilsit, Ostpreußen, Prussia; died on 30 Apr 1826 in Memel, Memel, Ostpreußen, Prussia; was buried in Memel, Memel, Ostpreußen, Prussia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From the Froelich book of 1909--

The very best line that has been established for the Johanna Dorothea Froelich line dates back to three brothers, born near Insterburg in about 1610-Michael, Jacob and Christoph Froelich.

Christoph was our Stamm Vater, according to church archives in Koenigsberg, Insterburg and Ragnit in East Prussia, definitely dating back to 1610. They were all churchly people and the ministry was the choice of men, as found in one generation after another.

The coat of arms is pictured in the Froelich book by Reinhold Froelich. The origin is rather indefinite as twelve different sorts and colors have been found. Reinhold Froelich, the compiler of that book, engaged an expert on heraldry, a Herr von Hasken, who advised him to be satisfied with that one picture as it had been handed down and should be right. The colors were faded but the design surely right.



Johanna Dorothea Froelich was born in Tilsit, East Prussia. Her father was the Pfarrer Christoph Froelich, a devout churchman and very prominent in that town. He died when she was ten years old.

Christoph Froelich had just become a teacher and rector in Memel when he married Johann Dorothea Veithofer in 1793. He lived only fourteen years longer, leaving three children whose ages in 1807 were Christoph thirteen, Johanna ten, and Reinhold six. Christoph soon began his studies in medical school in Koenigsberg; his life was filled with hardships which caused much sadness to his widowed mother.

Little Hannchen lived at home but also spent much time with her Uncle George Froelich and the Aunt Dorothea (Ogilvie) at their beautiful home "Aschoff Estate" near Memel. At Aschoff many children of the family were often invited on weekends to visit Hans, Herman and Heinrich. It was called the "Tummel Platz" of the families' children.

Johanna Dorothea's younger brother, Reinhold, was reared by his mother's beloved stepsister. They spared nothing in the care of this boy and for his education. This Reinhold was the grandfather of the man who published the "Familie Froelich" in 1909. After finishing at the university he served a year in the army, and soon thereafter his uncle died. Then his mother, the Frau Pfarrer Froelich, and his aunt, the Frau Pfarrer Holdschue, bought the estate Paul-Narmund and called young Reinhold to manage it.

He soon married Carolina Allbrecht and had then the opportunity to buy back her family estate Collaten, which had been lost by her father after a war. He bought it for only 12,000 marks, the value being 200,000 marks. This estate was near Paul-Narmund, so he managed both. The home at Collaten was very large. They invited four of Carolina's sisters to live with them and also Tante Holdschue when she was very old. The teacher Schiemann, an old friend of Pfarrer Christoph Froelich in earlier years, was invited to live at Paul-Narmund with the Grandmother Froelich as tutorfor all the grandchildren who spent years at a time with her. Here they had a lovely schoolroom and all the children from neighboring estates such as Eckiten, Colaten and Bertulischken attended. They owed much to this fine man for all the good he inspired in their young minds.

Christoph, the young doctor, married Eleonore von Rosenberg; she brought with her the "Gut" or estate, Bertulischken, the very old von Rosenberg home (possibly Raddeilen). It was later lost by fire, and they suffered many other reverses.

Little Hannchen Froelich married Peter Carl Johann von Rosenberg of Eckitten, and died after seven years of marriage, leaving two sons and one daughter. She was buried in the church-yard at Collaten Estate, the old Froelich burial grounds. Johanna was twenty-nine at the time of her death, which six weeks after the birth of Johannes. The children were then cared for by Grandmother Froelich at Paul-Narmund, and their uncles at Aschoff and Reinhold at Collaten.

For years a fine family life centered around these homes. Every Wednesday was family day at Paul-Narmund with Grandmother Froelich; all the relatives came no matter what the weather. If it rained they walked, as the roads were too bad for vehicles. Every Sunday all went to Collaten to be with Uncle Reinhold and Tante Carolinnchen. Eckitten was farther away, but Hannchen's children were always sent for after they again lived at home with their father and stepmother, Amanda.

The birthdays were always grand affairs when all the neighbors were invited. Long tables were arranged in their beautiful gardens, children played games on the lawns, and all had a merry time.

This Grandmother Froelich remembered the children of her daughter Hannchen in her will so that each received his share in his mother's part of her estate. She asked that "der Rosenberg and Amanda" take care of the money for young Johannes, as Wilhelm and Hannchen were older and could take care of their own.

The three children of Johanna Froelich von Rosenberg's brother Christoph and his wife Eleonore were double cousins of Johanna's children who later immigrated to Texas, with their father and stepmother. One of these double cousins, Libussa, was adopted by Peter Carl and Amanda and came to Texas with them. Adolph and Gustav Froelich, Libussa's brothers, came later.

Libussa, who lived in Hallettsville in her old age, had in her possession two lovely keepsakes from her Aunt Hannchen: a dainty cap, crocheted of linen thread, worn by baby Johannes at his christening in 1826, and her autograph album. These were very graciously given to Alma von Rosenberg Tomlinson after her death.



Buried:
in the churchyard at Collaten Estate, the old Froelich burial grounds

Carl married Sophie Wilhelmine Louise MARTIN. Sophie was born in 1805; died in 1844. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]