Lilly MEERSCHEIDT

Notes:

At age thirteen “Axel” was sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Emma and Karl Koerber, in Bad-Herzberg, Germany. This would be the first of eleven trips to Germany. It was there that he began his formal education, taking an advanced course in architecture at the University of Hildesheim and taking graduate courses in Paris. It was also in Germany that he married his cousin, Lilly Koerber who had become ill with tuberculosis and had fallen in love with him. Axel was fond of her and grateful to her parents for all of the assistance with his early life, that he married Lilly in July 1877 at Braunschweig. The soon left for the United States, where she died a year later.

Axel studied law under Judge Teichmuller in La Grange and passed the bar exam. Then he moved to San Antonio where he built a real estate business. He fell in love with Olga Remer of New Braunfels and married her in 1881. They lived twenty-five years in a beautiful home in San Antonio. He became rather successful in the real estate business there, where a residential district was named “Meerscheidt Addition.”

Axel and Olga also enjoyed an active social calendar. He belong to several clubs, such as the Beethoven Verein and the Casino Whist Club. He loved to travel to Europe, where he would visit his son, Arthur, a chronic invalid who lived with a famous physician. Axel would take his family to Europe for periods up to a year. While he and Olga traveled, the children would study in German private schools.

In 1906, after his tenth trip to Europe, he moved with his family to Seattle, Washington. He remained in the real estate business, but he also enjoyed political discussions and taking care of his garden, and parties, including the Sunday night suppers on Mercer Island. However, he succumed to a heart ailment in 1921.

Alexander married Olga REMER on 16 Feb 1881 in New Braunfels, Comal, Texas, USA. Olga (daughter of Dr. O. REMER and Franciska SCHLEIER) was born on 4 Feb 1864 in New Braunfels, Comal, Texas, USA; died on 26 Feb 1931 in Seattle, King, Washington, USA; was buried in Seattle, King, Washington, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Olga maintained a large home, but she was also expected to entertain in a beautiful manner. Axel’s wealth made it possible to hire servants, but Olga’s personality, devotion, and skill as cook and seamstress perfected her household. She and Axel enjoyed their many trips to Europe where she bought clothes, many designed for royalty and worn once at a state occasion. She filled huge bins full of Christmas cookies each year, sending them to friends in the U.S. and Germany, a tradition that her daughters carried on. After Axel’s death, her unmarried daughter, Emita, lived with Olga. Olga died of pneumonia at the of sixty-seven.

Birth:
1900 census: Apr 1866

Notes:

Married:
by T. G. Muelder

Notes:

Arthur Meerscheidt’s given name was Arthur Carl Wilhelm Gustav Anton Archibald von Meerscheidt-von Huellessem. He was educated in Braunschweig. At sixteen years of age he became a cadet in Prince Wasa’s Hungarian regiment and age nineteen became an officer in the Hungarian army. He was wounded while fighting as a revolutionary at Czegedin. After recovering from his wound, he traveled down the Danube en route to Constantinople when he was captured by Serbians. He was spared by a friendly Hungarian and was allowed to continue his journey. He then returned home to Germany where he attempted to join the army of Schleswig-Holstein, at his mother’s bidding. However, the war that army was in had ended. Shortly after he sailed for the United States.

He arrived at the Port of New Orleans, Louisiana aboard the “Ohio” on 2 Jan 1850. From there he met an acquaintance, a man named Jenski, who was from near Nassau in northern Fayette County, Texas. Arthur settled in that area and became a farmer and family man. He later became a merchant in nearby Round Top before moving to La Grange in 1874. There he was appointed Postmaster, in which office he remained until his death. He took a trip west because of ill health, but saw little improvement. He died in Boerne, Texas due to a heart ailment.

Arthur married Amanda Karoline VON ROSENBERG on 9 Nov 1850 in Fayette County, Texas, USA. Amanda (daughter of Peter Carl Johann VON ROSENBERG and Amanda Henriette Louise FALLIER) was born on 15 Jun 1832 in Memel, Memel, Preußen, Prussia; died on 29 Aug 1911 in La Grange, Fayette, Texas, USA; was buried in Old La Grange City Cemetery, La Grange, Fayette, Texas, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

“Lina” von Rosenberg was born at Eckitten Estate, was baptized at St. Johannis Kirche in Memel, and was confirmed at the Landkirche in Crottingen. She spent much of her youth with her mother’s relatives in Königsburg where she attended school and enjoyed musical entertainment.

She came with her family to Texas in 1849 and married Arthur Meerscheidt a year later. They lived in a log house near Nassau, but later moved to La Grange. After the death of her husband, Lina moved to San Antonio where she kept house for three of her children, Max, Otto, and Martha. She and Martha also raised Max’s two sons after his wife passed away. In old age she returned to La Grange to live out her days in an invalid’s chair, cared for at the home of her daughter, Lieschen Scholz. She enjoyed reading and stayed abreast of politics.

Birth:
at Eckitten Estate

in the Landkirche

Notes:

Married:
by F. Ernst, J. P.

O. married Franciska SCHLEIER. Franciska was born about 1826 in Prussia. [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 Amanda Henriette Louise FALLIER on 11 Feb 1830 in Memel, Memel, Preußen, Prussia. Amanda (daughter of Jean Pierre FALLIER and Anne Caroline MARQUARDT) was born on 6 Sep 1806 in Königsberg, Ostpreußen, Prussia; died on 22 Apr 1864 in Round Top, Fayette, Texas, USA; was buried in Richters Cemetery, Round Top, Fayette, Texas, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Amanda was baptized Amande Henriette Louise. Her godparents at the French Reformed Church in Königsberg were Mr. Jean Frédéric Marquart, Mr. Guillaume Schubert, Mrs. Marie Hagen, councillor and secretary, and Mrs. Marie Anne Matz.