IN DILL VALLEY IN THE DUCHY OF HESSE
Rosina T. Schmidt
Exactly 283 years ago from the time of this writing, back on 5th of April 1738 the pastor of the Ehringshausen’s Lutheran church wrote in the vital records book that “Anna Catharina Schmidt, age 14, did receive the sacrament of Confirmation that day, as the family would emigrate the next day to Kalaznó in the County of Tolna in the Austrian Empire.”
It took the author more than 20 years of diligent research to finally unearth this documentation and on the way that process opened a wide window in her ancestral past.
Anna Catharina was the youngest daughter and second last of her six siblings, the offspring of Caspar Schmidt and Elisabetha Pfeil, who were married in Ehringshausen on 26th of January 1708. So why did Caspar and his Elisabetha depart Ehringshausen 30 years after their marriage with seven children in tow, four of them already adults themselves? What were the conditions in Ehringshausen, a town that lies in the Dill river valley between the cities of Herborn and Wetzlar in the Germany’s state of Hesse that made the whole family depart for unknown destination?
Ehringshausen in Hesse
Map of Germany in 2021 – Source: Wikipedia
Thanks to his Honour Jürgen Mock, the town’s mayor of Ehringshausen in 2021, five booklets of the town’s history arrived that were published by the local Rector Hans Watz back in 1981. The booklet One gives us the early chronic of the town, starting with the year 772 a. d., the year when Emperor Charles the Great (768-814) donated to the Lorsch Abby on the Bergstrasse (an Hessian rural district) some land consisting of 30 Morgen fields, one meadow and a track of woods, that later became part of Ehringshausen. More donations were added in the following years, like the one in 802 when an Irinc donated also land to the Lorsch’s monastery, after whom the emerging town was named: Ihring’s Hausen (now Ehringshausen).
As per those Chronicles in the year of 1347 the landowner of Ehringshausen and surrounding area was Count Philipp von Solms-Königsberg. Three years later bad times rolled into town, looting, devastation and destruction during the animosities between the close by free city of Wetzlar and the reigning House of Solms.
One hundred years later, in 1437, the wages were no longer paid in goods but in florins, the currency at that time.
Map: Ehringshausen in Dill River Valley, Source: Wikipedia
Another 100 year later, in 1532, Ehringshausen’s citizens had to deliver 36 hens to the Solms’ Landowner at the Fastnacht (carnival) time.
1536 was a very important date to remember, notes the Chronicle, the year when count Philipp von Solms-Braunfels changed the religion in all of his holdings to the Lutheran religion. In the year 1579 as a result of the Reformation[1], the Braunfels counts removed the serfdom in their country. 21 years later, in 1600, count Wilhelm Moritz von Solms-Braunfels opened the first iron mine in the hills around Ehringshausen. The iron wheal is still the emblem of the town.
The Chronicle reports that as per the tax books in the city hall of Greifenstein to which Ehringshausen belonged, Ehringshausen had to provide 24 horses when needed for the public work in its jurisdiction. A year later Ehringshausen had its own cemetery. That same year the town brought the landowner count Wilhelm to court at the Reichskammergericht (Chamber of Commerce) in the city of Speyer as both insisted that they were the rightful owners of the Himmelberg hill where before stood a dissolved town. This rebellion stretched all the way to 1658.
From 1618 to 1648 raged the 30-years war in Central Europe. The end of that war decimated 90% of population by war events, starvation and illnesses.[2]
The Chronicle reported that in the year of 1622 foreign troops were stationed in the Dill valley: the Spain’s and the troops of the Austrian Empire.
Four years later, in 1626, Wallenstein’s troops were in the area. (Wallenstein became the supreme commander of the armies of the Austrian Empire under the Austrian’s Habsburg’s Emperor Ferdinand II crown, and was a major figure of the Thirty Years’ War.)
During the years 1624 to 1630 there were no harvests. Those were the hunger years noted the Chronicle.
In 1631 Sweden’s troops were in the Dill valley.
A remnant of the Lorsch Abbey that is still standing to this day, which was a former Imperial abbey in Lorsch, Duchy of Hesse, now part of Germany, about 10 km east of the city of Worms. It was one of the most renowned monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Sources: Wikipedia.
It was the Lorsch Abbey that kept the chronicles of their possessions, including one for Ehringshausen.
A year later the Greifenstein castle was strongly fortified. The citizen of Ehringshausen had to provide 28 men for this work. Their obligation was to work every third week in the castle. The names of those men: Ekhart, Fischer, Freundt, Friedrich, Haas, Hennemann, Jörg, Jung, Kiep, Knodt, Lippel, Löwe, Meissel, Miller, Nell, Schmidt, Schreiner, Stoffell, Trupp, Vintzenzt, and Werner. Note: this is the first mention of the Schmidt name in those chronicles, whose descendants, as per the Rector Hans Watz, still live in the town to this very day.
Greifenstein castle – Source: Wikipedia
The Chronicle mentions that on 14th of March 1635 Ehringshausen was plundered. Two years later, in 1637, there were 19 deaths registered in the church district. In 1640 the citizen of Ehringshausen together with the pastor of Dillheim were seeking protection in the fortified Greifenstein castle. Ten years later the town of Grefenstein received the first school in the church district. Each household had to come up with 20 Albus, 5 Mesten of Korn and 1 set of shoes towards the teacher’s salary.
In 1668 Ehringshausen was hit with a plague reports the Chronicle. The townspeople were forbidden to go to the next-door town Dilheim. All burials were at the town’s own cemetery. By 1673 the war was still ongoing. The France’s Commander Turenne was stationed in the area with his troops during that time. The newborns had to be baptized at home and not in the church do to the atrocities of the war.
Ehringshausen had to billet the Sweden’s troops for five days in 1690. The following Ehringhuseners had to deliver hops to the count’s brewery in Greifenstein: Conrad Hennemann, Carle Gross, Caspar Hahn, Johann Paulus Reutz, Hartmann and Peter Feuerbach as well as Johann Conrad Clöss.
As per the Chronicle in 1693 Ehringshausen had 164 residents.
In 1700 Georg Theiss was the Schultheiss (chairman of the council). Ehringhausen and Katzenfurt received their own schools.
One of the churches in Ehringshausen – source – Ehringshousen town
Adam Reutz was Schultheiss in 1724. Konrad Hennemann was ‘Zehnterheber’ (collector of the 10th part of the harvest) reported the Chronicle. He couldn’t write. A year later, in 1725, on the “Hütte” (mine area) an iron wire plant was opened.The Chronicle reported that on the 17th of May 1731 the first Ehringshausen’s ‘Eisenhammer’ iron ore oven was filled with ore and three days later the melted iron was poured into the molds. About 1000 pounds of melted ore was collected daily and made into iron rods. Foremost the local smiths used those iron rods. Alas, the mining industry slowed considerable down and by 1749 the “Eisenhammer” mine was no longer active. The Ehringshausen community bought the ground of the mine from the count and removed all structures on it.
1789, Holly Roman Empire – Source: Wikipedia
No wonder Caspar Schmidt took all of his family in 1738 out of the town with all those constant wars in the area and the mine industry slowing down. He did not see a good future ahead and was looking for better living conditions in the far away County of Tolna in the Austrian Empire. Having been living in a town like Ehringshausen Caspar was not only a farmer but also most likely a smith, and so would have been his sons too. Schmidt or Schmitt is the old German word for a smith. And it those times the sons worked along the father and learned the father’s trade.
Tolna County on the Pannonia Plains where Kalaznó was located, was opened for settlement after the Turkish Empire, who occupied that area for 140 years, lost the war with the Austrian Empire in 1688. The Turks were pushed out of the Pannonia Plains all the way to south of the Rivers Sava and the Danube, and occupied those lands for another 100 years. The Pannonia Plains were left mostly depopulated, and the Austrian Emperor Karl IV who was also the Emperor of the Holly Roman Empire, advertised for settlers in all of his Domains, including in the Duchy of Hesse, where his nephew Frederick III was the reigning Landgrave at that time.
Central Europe Borders in 2021 – red dot indicates the location of Kalaznó in Tolna County, today part of Hungary – Wikipedia Map
As we read at the beginning of this narrative, in the Lutheran church records of Ehringshausen the author was able to trace Caspar’s roots to his grandparents, with the help of her distant cousin Georg Müller of Pécs in Hungary, a great family researcher of the Swabian Turkey’s Protestant colonists:
Schmidt, Hans Georg, son of Schmitt, Hans of Ehringshausen, Hesse,
…………..Spouse: Braun, Katharina, daughter of Johannes Braun of Ehringshausen, Hesse;
…………..oo 1669 Sep 29 in Ehringshausen, Hesse;
Children:
…………1) Peter, *1670 Nov 16 in Ehringshausen, Hesse; + 1689 Jan 21 in Ehringshausen, Hesse.
…………2) Elisabetha, *1673 Jan 28 in Ehringshausen, Hesse; bapt. 1673 Aug 13 in Ehringshausen, Hesse;
…………3) Johannes, *1674 Jul (no day noted) in Ehringshausen, Hesse; + 1697 Feb 4 in Ehringshausen.
…………5) Anna Catharina, *1682 Oct (no day noted) in Ehringshausen, Hesse; conf. 1698 in Ehringshausen;
…………4) Caspar, *1679 Aug 24 in Ehringshausen, Hesse; conf. 1691 in Ehringshausen. Emigrated to Kalaznó, Tolna with family on 6th of April 1738. Died …………….before 1755 in Kalaznó, Tolna.
……………………….Spouse: Elisabetha Pfeil, daughter of P., Peter of Oberndorf, Hesse; oo 1708 Jan 26 in Ehringshausen, Hesse; died in Kalaznó, Tolna.
………………………Children
……………………..1) Anna Katharina, *1708 Dec 21 in Ehringshausen, Hesse;
……………………..2) Johann Georg, *1711 Aug 6 in Ehringshausen, Hesse; + 1800 Oct 26 in Kalaznó, Tolna.
……………………..3) Johann Otto, *1714 Dec 2 in Ehringshausen, Hesse; + Kalaznó, Tolna
……………………..4) Anna Maria, *1717 Sep 14 in Ehringshausen, Hesse;
……………………..5) Hanß Heinrich, * 1721 Jan 19 in Ehringshausen, Hesse; + in Kalaznó, Tolna.
……………………..6) Anna Catharina, *1724 Dec 1 in Ehringshausen, Hesse, conf. 1738 Apr 5th in Ehringshausen, day before the family relocated to Kalaznó, ………………………..Tolna;
……………………..7) Johann Jacob, * 1728 Jun 22 in Ehringshausen, Hesse; + in Majos, Tolna.
As noted before at the confirmation of 14-year-old Anna Catharina, the family departed for Kalaznó on 6th of April 1738. At that time the population of Ehringshausen would have been about 170 souls and today, 283 years later, the town’s population increased to 9324 citizen.
If one travels today on the shortest distance roads there are 1,135 km distance between Ehringshausen and Kalaznó, but during Caspar’s time the roads were non existent and he together with his family had to walk at least south to Regensburg on the Danube river and take a barge via Vienna and Budapest to the town of Paks. Just how long in took them we can’t know, but we found Caspar documented two years later in 1740 as a owner of one whole homestead owning two oxen and he had to work in the form of taxes in the Count’s vineyard for three days in the year. We know that Caspar needed 200 Gulden to purchase a homestead on the Count of Mercy’s estate, the landowner at that time in and around Kalaznó. That money Caspar needed to bring with him.
Caspar’s first-born daughter Anna Katharina, who was born in 1708, was already engaged back home to Hermann Knoch of Ehringshausen. They travelled together and married shortly after their arrival in their new homeland. In the conscription list of 1940 Hermann Knoch owned already a whole homestead as well as two oxen and had to work for the Count’s vineyard for four days.
Johann Otto, Caspar’s second son, who was born in 1714, at age of 24 married shortly after the arrival in Kalaznó the 18 year old Maria Margaretha Mülpert, daughter of Johann Martin Milbert and Anna Kunigunda Erdmann originally of Gross Rohrheim in Hesse, who were already back in 1723 taxpayers in Kalaznó. In the 1755 Kalaznó Conscription documents we found Johann Otto owing a whole homestead. There were no other conscriptions lists between 1740 and 1755. Johann Otto and his Maria Margareta raised their large family in Kalaznó, as the chart below indicates:
Schmidt, Johann Otto, *1714 Dec 2 in Ehringshausen, Hesse;
…………..Spouse: Mülpert, Maria Margareta, *1720 Oct 4 in Gross-Rohrheim, Hesse (daugt. of M., Johann Martin and Erdmann, Anna Kunigunda);
……………………….oo ca. 1739 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
………….Children:
…………1) Maria Elisabeta, *1740 Sep 13 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
…………2) Johann Georg, *1743 Jan 12 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
…………3) Anna Catharina, *1745 Jul 16 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
…………4) Johannes, *1747 March 28 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
…………5) Johann Heinrich, *1751 Feb 2 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
…………6) Johann Peter, *1754 Mar 11 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
…………7) Anna Barbara, *1758 May 10 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
A year later, in 1741, Caspar’s first-born son Johann Georg, born in 1711, married the daughter of Valentin Braun, the Maria Elisabetha, whose family arrived in Kalaznó from Elpenrod in Hesse. Valentin Braun was part of the early Kalaznó settlers.
As per the Hessian inheritance laws that was also practiced in the towns where the Hessian colonists settled, the oldest son inherits the family farm, but in exchange he had to support his aging parents, as well as support his siblings until they are on their own feet. In the 1755 conscription list we find Johann Georg as owner of what used to be Caspar’s homestead, therefore Casper passed away before 1755. The Vital record books for deceased have not survived, unfortunately. Here is the record of Johann Georg’s large family, who were all born in Kalaznó:
Schmidt, Johann Georg, *1711 Aug 6 in Ehringshausen, Hesse; + 1800 Oct 26 in Kalaznó, Tolna.
Spouse: Braun, Maria Elisabetha, * ca. 1714 in Elpenrod, Hesse; oo 1741 Feb 14 in Kalaznó, Tolna; + 1786 Sep 29 in Kalaznó, Tolna.
…………..Children:
…………..1) Anna Christina, *ca 1741; + 1776 May in Kalaznó, Tolona.
…………………Spouse: Ziegenhein, Johann Heinrich, *ca. 1740; oo 1760 Feb 29 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
……………2) Johann Heinrich, *1745 Mar 28 in Kalaznó,Tolna;
……………3) Johannes, *1746 Jun 4 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
……………4) Anna Catharina, *1747 Nov 12 in Kalaznó, Tolna; + bef. 1771 in Kalaznó, Tolna;
………………….Spouse: Filsing, Johann, *ca. 1745 in Izmény, Tolna; oo 1765 Sep 5 in Varsád, Tolna;
…………….5) Johann Jacob, *1750 May 26 in Kalaznó, Tolna, + 1798 Oct 29 in Majos, Tolna;
…………………..Spouse: Kolb, Maria Katharina, *ca. 1750 in Mekényes, Baranya; oo 1766 Jul 17 in Bikal, Baranya; + after 1795 in Majos, Tolna;
…………….6) Adolf, *1751 May 27 in Kalaznó, Tolna; + 1825 Jan 31 in Mekényes, Baranya.
…………………..Spouse 1: Schneider, Katharina, widow of Daniel Münch of Mekényes, Baranya; *1755 Nov 29 in Mekényes, Baranya;
…………………..oo 1777 Apr 15 in Mekényes, Baranya, Austrian Empire; + 1807 Apr 10 in Mekényes, Baranya.
……………………Spouse 2: Arndt, Elisabetha, *ca. 1760; oo 1808 Jan 7 in Mekényes, Baranya; + 1831 Jul 10 in Mekényes, Baranya.
Caspar’s third son, Hanss Heinrich, who was born in 1721 in Ehringshausen, married in on 11th of July 1743 in the Varsader church (the town next to Kalaznó) Anna Margareta Stolzenbach of Varsad, whose family settled in Kalaznó back in July of 1724. Hanss Heinrich was 22 at that time. This family also made Kalaznó their hometown.
We have not researched yet any marriages of Caspar’s daughter Anna Maria, who was born in 1717, and also not the daughter Anna Christina, who was baptized in 1738 the day before the family departed for Kalaznó. The sisters’ first name “Anna” was the name of the family’s saint and their used their second names under which they were called: Maria and Christina.
Caspar’s youngest son, Johann Jacob[3], was only 10 years old on arrival in Kalaznó, and would have attended the local parish school and learned the farming trade along his father and older brother. At the age of 32 he married in 1760 in another close by Danube Svabian town of Mekenyés, a town just across the county border in Baranya, the young widow Anna Katharina Kolb, the widow of Johann Konrad Karle, the mother of two year old son, Johann Georg Karle.
A year later a son was born to them in Mekenyés, whom they named after the father: Johann Jacob. Alas, three years later the young mother Anna Katharina passed away and left both of her Johann Jacobs, as well and Johann Georg Karle, grieving behind. The author’s Schmidt branch starts here with the baby Johann Jacob, who was born in 1761.
The elder Johann Jacob remarried two years later the Katharina Knittl of Kozár in Baranya County. Today this town is known as Egyházaskozár. Even though they had five children of their own, it was Katharina who lovingly raised her stepsons Johann Jacob and Johann Georg Karle to manhood. Their first two children, Katharina Barbara (*1770) and Franz (*1773) were born in Egyházaskozár but by 1774 the family moved to Majos in the Tolna county, where daughter Anna Maria (*1774) was born, as well as daughter Margareta Elisabeth (*1775) and son Johannes (*1778).
The baby Johann Jacob (*1761) grew up with his half siblings in Majos and when he came of age he married in 1786 the 20-year-old Anna Maria Mailach, whose roots go back to Frei-Laubersheim, today in Palatine state of Germany. Johann Jacob’s descendants called Majos they home-town for generations, as we can see on the chart below:
Schmidt, Johann Jacob, *1761 Aug 20 in Mekényes, Baranya, Austrian Empire; + bef. 1828 in Majos, Tolna.
………………..Spouse: Mailach, Anna Maria, *1766 Jun 12 in Majos, Tolna; oo 1786 Jan 10 in Majos, Tolna; + 1828 Apr 27 in Majos, Tolna.
……………..Children:
……………..1) Johann Georg, *1786 Dec 30 in Majos, house #89, Tolna; + 1787 Jan 7 in Majos #89.
……………..2) Johannes, *1788 Mar 30 in Majos #89, Tolna ; + 1863 Apr 15 in Majos house #142.
……………………Spouse 1: Bechtel, Christina, *1787 Oct 4 in Majos, Tolna, oo 1804 Apr 15 in Majos; + 1826 May 9 in Majos,
……………………Spouse 2: Rasch, Maria Katharina; widow of Fink, Johannes, and of Kanzelmann, Georg W. *1790 Jan 4 in Izmény, Tolna;
……………………mother of Anna Maria Fink; oo in Majos, Tolna; + 1859 Aug 9 in Majos, Tolna.
……………..3) Michael, *1792 Jul 13; + 1792 Jul 20th in Majos, Tolna;
……………..4) Anna Catharina, *1793 Nov 15; + 1793 Nov 17 in Majos, Tolna.
……………..5) Anna Maria, *1795 Dec 1 in Majos, Tolna;
Johann Jacob’s half brother Franz (*1773) married the Katharina Münch of Mekényes in 1801. Franz became a large landowner in Mekényes, and his numerous descendants prospered in that town for generations, until the expulsion after the WWII in 1948. The late Mr. Rolf Domke of Germany and Mr. Georg Müller of Hungary co-wrote a Family register book of Mekényes in Baranya County back in 2014. There are 16 pages of Mekényes’ Schmidt families listed in that great book, and 90% of those Schmidt families are Caspar’s descendants!
In the next generation the Author followed Caspar’s great-grandson’s Johannes (*1788) large family who established his homestead in Majos in the Tolna County listed as the house #142:
Schmidt, Johannes, *1788 Mar 30 in Majos, Tolna #89; + 1863 Apr 15 in Majos, Tolna #142.
.Spouse: 1: Bechtel, Christina, daughter of Bechtel, Heinrich and Anna Dorothea; *1787 Oct 4 in Majos, Tolna;
…………..oo 1804 Apr 15 in Majos; + 1826 May 9 in Majos, Tolna.
…………..Children:
…………..1) Anna Maria, *1806 Jan 11 in Majos, Tolna;
…………..2) Christine, *1809 Aug 15 in Majos, Tolna; + 1833 Jul 25 in Majos, Tolna.
……………………Sp.: Dittmer, Johann, *ca. 1805; oo 1826 Jan 31 in Majos, Tolna;
…………..3) Johannes, *1812 Feb 22 in Majos, Tolna #142; + 1897 Sep 26 in Pašijan, Croatia, Austro-Hungary.
……………………Sp. 1: Fink, Anna Maria, *1815 Sep 21 in Izmény, Tolna; oo 1831 May 29 in Majos, Tolna; + 1838 Aug 5 in Majos, Tolna;
……………………Sp. 2: Pflug, Kriztina, *1822 Feb 14 in Tolna; oo 1838 Nov 7 in Majos, Tolna; + 1860 Jul 19 in Majos, Tolna.
……………………Sp. 3: Magdalena Tress, *1824 Dec 22 in Mucsfa, Tolna; oo 1860 Nov 25; + 1907 Feb 25 in Pašijan, Croatia, Austro-Hungary.
…………….4) Michael, *1816 Jun 2 in Majos, Tolna;
…………….5) Susanna, *1819 May 13 in Majos, Tolna;
…………….6) Valentin, *1820 Oct 28 in Majos, Tolna;
……………………Sp.: Schild, Margaretha, daugt. of Sch., Johannes and Wachterl, Eva of Izmeny; *1824 Jul 5 in Izmeny;
……………………oo 1842 Jan 18 in Izmeny; + 1875 May 5 in Izmeny, Tolna.
Sp. 2: Rasch, Maria Katharina; widow of Fink, Johannes, and of Kanzelmann, Georg W.;
…………….*1790 Jan 4 in Izmény, Tolna; mother of Anna Maria Fink: oo in Majos, Tolna; + 1859 Aug 9 in Majos.
…………….Children:
…………….1) Elisabetha , *1826 in Majos, Tolna; + 1835 Sep 10 in Majos, Tolna.
…………….2) Konrad, *1827 Aug 18 in Majos, Tolna, + 1893 Feb 8 in Hrastovac, Slavonia;
…………………….Spouse 1: Krämer, Elisabetha , ev; *ca. 1825; of Majos, Tolna; oo 1847 Jan 19 in Majos, Tolna, House #142;
…………………………………..+ 1870 Sep 14 in Hrastovac House #11 on tuberculosis.
…………………….Spouse 2: Menz, Susanna, ev; 1838 Sep 4 in Mekényes, Baranya; res. Hrastovac; widow of Abel, Peter,
……………………………………mother of Heinrich Abel, (*1860); oo 1870 Dec 4 in Hrastovac; + 1891 Feb 17 in Hrastovac, Slavonia.
Johannes (*1788) would have been about 38 years old when his wife Christina passed away and left him with six children in the ages between 20 and five. A year later he remarried to Maria Katharina Rasch, who was a widow and brought her 10-year-old son Heinrich Abel into the marriage. A year later their daughter Elisabetha was born and in 1827 their son Konrad, the author’s great-grandfather.
When Konrad came of age he took his own family in search for new possibilities first to Váralja, also in Tolna County, and by 1866 all the way south, across the River Drava to the newly opened settlement area in Slavonia, the just established town of Hrastovac. The story of that town is excellently documented on the www.hrastovac.net pages, as well as the history of Tito’s ethnic genocide during WWII against the Danube Swabians.
Today Caspar’s descendants are windblown in all the corners of the world.
Nanaimo, BC, January 2022
[1] Protestant Reformation began in 1517, and the wars disrupted the religious and political order in the Catholic countries of Europe.
[2] The Thirty Years’ War was a conflict fought largely within the Holy Roman Empire from 1618 to 1648. … This divided the Empire into Lutheran and Catholic states, but over the next 50 years the expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries gradually destabilised Imperial authority. Sources – Wikipedia
[3] Johann Jacob – Johann was the family’s saint but the child was known under the second name.