Indiana Hirlingers My mothers mothers mother, Edith Bonham, lived to 86, dying in 1957, when I was 10 years old. She was the oldest person I knew. We visited her frequently at her home at the foot of North Mountain in Luzerne County. Her mother, Huldah Hirlinger, died at the age of 90, seven years before I was born. Nevertheless, she seemed to be ever present. Her (abandoned) home, an octagonal building, was a short walk away. I knew it had been designed and built by her husband John M Hirlinger, who was famous (in the family) as an inventor and general crank. I didn t know much more about their background. Obviously German, but that s about all I knew. I started looking into family history seriously in 2012. I found out quickly that John M was born in 1837 as Johann Michael Hirlinger in Philadelphia. His parents were Wilhelm Friedrich Hirlinger and Christina Goehring, who had emigrated in 1837 with their two boys, Wilhelm Ludwig (1833) and Matthias (1836) from Leidringen, Wuertemberg ( a town in what is now Baden- Wuertemberg near the Black Forest). Sometime in the late 40 s a group of 50 Philadelphia German families were recruited to build a road from the top of North Mountain to the the north branch of the Susquehanna near Mehoopany (to get the timber on the mountain to market). After this Lee road was completed a number of the families, including the Hirlingers, settled at the south foot of the mountain near today s Red Rock.
John and Hulda Hirlinger in carriage in front of their Round House, about 1900. Red Rock, Luzerne County PA I have told this story in greater detail before, and won t elaborate further now. In my mind the Hirlingers were North Mountain and that was that. Then in 2009 we bought a place in Warren County Indiana, about an hour from the Purdue campus where I had worked since 1981. The mailing address is Williamsport, the county seat, although our place is a few miles south of the town. Once I started looking at family history in earnest, I was astounded to find a family of Hirlingers who had lived in Williamsport in the late 19 th and early 20 th century. They are buried in the cemetery we drove past going to Lafayette.
Since the name is unusual and comes in a wide variety of spellings (this one being right ) I was sure these folks had to be related somehow to my Hirlingers in North Mountain. But how? I found an obit of Anna Martha Luttrop Hirlinger in the Williamsport library. It said that she was born in Kirchberg, Germany, spent a few years in London, and then went to South Africa where she met and married a soldier, Christian Hirlinger. They had five children. Two died there, as did Christian, leaving Anna up in the air. In 1884 she took the survivors, John William, born 1858, Charles Frederick, born 1861, and Dorothea, born 1870 to Williamsport. The reason for that choice was not made clear in the obit, though I imagined there had to be some family connection. From Warren Review, Feb 2, 1899: Anna Martha Luttrop. This lady was born near Cassell, Germany, January 6th, 1830. At the age of sixteen she became a member of the German Reform Church and always lived in that faith. At the age of twenty-four she went to London, England, where she remained three years. From London she went to East London, South Africa, where, in 1857, she was united in marriage to Christian Hirlinger. Mr. and Mrs. Hirlinger resided there five years. To them were born five children, three daughters and two sons, of whom three survive her-frederick, William and Dora. Her husband and two daughters, died in South Africa. Mrs. Hirlinger and her three children moved from Elephant's Fountain, South Africa, to Williamsport, Ind., in 1884, two months and one day being required to make the trip from that place. At this place deceased resided until her death, which occurred Saturday, January
28th, 1899. Mrs. Hirlinger always was caused by paralysis. She was an exceptional good woman and always gave her influence and voice for the good. She was bitterly opposed to the wrong, and believed in the right and a firm believer in the hereafter. The funeral was conducted at the Presbyterian Church on Monday, January 30th, 1899. Rev. William Wilmer officiating. Remains were interred in Hillside Cemetery. The pallbearers were: John Reiff, Abe Clawson, N. T. Vanderbilt, Howard Robb, Enos Moore and Shederick Ross. She was 69 years and 22 days of age. The names are suggestive John William would, of course have been Johann Wilhelm. Charles Frederick would have been Karl Frederich. My Wilhelm Frederich had a son Christian G (younger than Johann M). And most family trees I found claimed that John M s mother was Christina Dorothea (I later found out this was wrong, and the truth was more explicable). I also gathered that Christian was born in 1833, the same age as Wilhelm Ludwig, John M s oldest brother. So it seemed plausible that the SA Christian might be a cousin. But as much as I wanted this to be true, I thought the odds were low and the odds of proving it were lower. The first thing I thought to do was look for descendants of the Williamsport Hirlingers, who might know something of family history. To do that I set out to reconstruct their lives. Anna Martha died in 1899, so she was never captured in a census (1890 was burned.) In 1900 both sons live as boarders in Springwells MI (now part of Detroit), where they are listed as Stone Masons. That is the same profession that was listed for William F Hirlinger and his first two sons, William L and Matt. Curiously, in the 1900 census the older brother is listed as Fred W and the
younger as Charles. On his gravestone, the younger is listed as C Frederick, suggesting that he normally went by Fred. I d guess the census taker just got confused between the two names. This census also lists the immigration year as 1885. Anna Martha s obit says 1884. In 1910 Charles F is nowhere to be found, but Dora lives alone in Williamsport. In 1920 and 1930 Charles and Dora live together in Williamsport. Charles is listed as a Contractor in Concrete and Brick. Charles never married, died in 1937 and is buried with his mother and sister. In 1940 Dora lives with a single boarder near the Williamsport Hospital. Dorothea (Dora) never married, died in Williamsport in 1960, age 90. She is buried with her mother and brother in the Hillside Cemetery. So any living descendants must come from John and Hope. John William married Hope Amelia Reiff, daughter of John Frederick Reiff of Williamsport, in 1893. John was the son of Ludwig Frederich Ernst Reiff, native of Wuertemberg, who emigrated to Reading PA in 1819. His son John went west as soon as the railroad reached Williamsport in 1857, and married a local girl Sarah Percy in 1859.
It is possible that the Reiffs were the family connection, the bridge from South Africa to Indiana. But I can t prove it, and it s a long time from 1819 to 1884. John W was in Williamsport in 1900, with Hope and 4 kids: Harold R(eiff), 11, John F(rederick), 7, Christian L(orenz), 3, and Christiana L(ouise), 3. The youngest are clearly twins right down to the initials. John s profession remains Stone Mason. Hope and her son John F about 1935 In 1920, John is listed as William J, occupation Mason. The children are John F, 17, Lorenz, 13 and Louise, 13.
Both sons, John F and Christian L attended Purdue, majoring in engineering : JF a EE in 1924 and CL a ChE in 1928. In 1924 the whole family lived on Sheetz St in West Lafayette, two blocks south of State Street, on the south edge of the Purdue campus. Louise attended the Lafayette Business College. Christian L, 1928 Purdue Debris John F, 1924, from Purdue Debris John W died in 1924. He is buried in the same cemetery with his mother and siblings, but in a separate plot for his immediate family. According to a brief death notice in the Williamsport paper, he had TB. They may have moved to Lafayette because the medical care there was better (as well as their kids going to school there.)
In 1920 the oldest son, Harold, was in the army in California. He appears in the 1922 LA directory as a chauffeur. On Oct 22, 1922, he dies in LA. Traffic accident? He is buried with his parents in Williamsport. One oddity in the 1920 census is that Harold lists his father as born in England with native language English. Maybe this reflects the anti German feelings right after the war. (Although he was born in an English part of South Africa) That leaves three : John F, Christian L and Christina Louise. John F, the EE, is found in 1935 and 40 in Summit NJ working for RCA (the plant is still there). He is single. In 1936 he took a ship from NYC to San Diego. Again listed as single. It appears he never married. He died in 1979 in Florida. Christina Louise. In 1930 she lived with her mother in Cleveland OH, working as a stenographer. I couldn t find her in 1940. In Oct 1951 she shows up on a ship bound from NYC to Europe with an indeterminate stay. Her name is listed as Christine Louise Landorff, address 304 E 58 th St, NYC. There is no hint of a husband, except we can presume it was Landorff. She returned to NYC in Jan 1952. I did find a 1930 directory listing in Akron OH (near Cleveland) of a business called Landorff & Case, with principles T K Landorff and C L Case ( C L?) A little more poking on T K revealed him as Tryggve Knut Emanuel Landorff, born in Sweden in 1903, arrived in NYC in 1924. In 1939 he lived in Darien CT. In 1948 he lived in Manhattan at 304 E 58 th St. Bingo! I never found a document that had Louise and TK on the same page, but they were certifiably living together.
Moreover there is a passenger list from Oct 1952 which shows him returning from Europe, address 304 E 58 th St. TK died in 1982. CL moved to Chico California shortly after, where she died in 1994. There is no record of any children. (which doesn t mean there weren t) The search for descendants is down to Christian Lorenz, the Purdue ChemE. He got married when he graduated, 1928, to Helen Vergia Fletcher of Williamsport. In 1930 they lived near Columbus OH, where Lorenz worked in a gasoline plant. They had one child, 3 mo, Charles Louis. In 1935 (as noted in the 1940 census) they were in Midland MI, and by 1940 had moved on to Beaumont, Jefferson County Texas, where Lorenz worked as an assistant chemist in a oil refinery. By this time they had two more kids: Mary Jane in 1935 and Hope Louise in 1937.
CL and Helen, 1928 (courtesy of B Stone) The eldest, Charles Louis, attended Purdue for just a year in 1948, then went back to Beaumont Texas, eventually graduating from UT Austin in 1953 with a degree in Personel Management. He appears to have been married three times: First to Marilyn Collwell, 1935-1990; Second, in 1993, to Vernette M Olander, 1937-1997; Lastly to Nell J. Couch in 2000. Charles had one child by his first wife, Michael Wayne Hirlinger, born 1960. Michael is a professor of government and department chair at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa OK, where Michael grew up. Both Michael and his father are still alive (in 2016). I was able to contact Michael, but he has little
knowledge of family history (and probably little time to pursue it if he had the interest.) Hope Louise seems to have been married three times as well First, in 1976, to Bobby Harmening (1941- ) in Montgomery County Texas; Second, in 1983, to David Malcolm (1932- ) in Bexar Texas; and last, date and place unknown, to someone named Lucy. The evidence for the latter is a 1999 High School reunion roster where she is listed as Louise Hirlinger Malcolm Lucy. I have found no evidence of any children. Of course it is hard to find out about living people without contacting them, and it can be hard to find contact info. And if you do find contact info, a lot of people don t want to talk or don t know much. Anyway, I haven t got any more about Hope Louise. That leaves Mary Jane. Actually I couldn t find anything about her at first. What I did find was an Ancestry member who listed Christian Lorenz and Helen as great grandparents and a living grandmother who was their daughter, who married a living man whose parents were Zach McCain and Norma Lee Tatum. That was enough to identify her grandmother as Mary Jane Hirlinger McCain. So I contacted the user who told me she was Brittainy Stone, that she was the daughter of the son of a Hirlinger. She had tentatively identified one Johann Christian Hirlinger, born 1833 in Tischardt, Wuertemmberg, as the mysterious South African émigré. I couldn t see an obvious link. That was about 45 km from Leidringen. (Curiously Ludwig Reiff seems to have come out of Tischardt also). Then one day shortly after getting back my Ancestry DNA results, I suddenly saw her show up as a DNA match. That was very exciting. But she said she had done both herself and her
Dad, and her Dad didn t show a match with me, which only made sense if we were related on her mother s side. Very confusing. She suggested I put my data on Gedmatch. It took quite a while for me to get around to doing that, but when I did it showed a clear match on the same chromosome for her and her Dad and me, with an estimated common ancestor at 7.5 generations, which I estimated to be between 1790 and 1830. Re- energized, I spent a lot of time trying to find a link of Johann Christian to my ancestors. Worked it back into the 1600s without getting the two lines closer than an eight hour walk apart. Too far. Then by chance I happened on a baptismal record from Leidringen of a Christian Hirlinger, son of Matthaus Hirlinger and Anna Barbara Dannecker. I recognized the parents: he was the brother of my third great grandfather Wilhelm F. That made much more sense. In fact Christian was named for his grandfather, Christian Dannecker (1773-1842). If he was the man, then he was the first cousin of my second great grandfather Johann Michael Hirlinger. And the common ancestor was Wilhelm F and Matthaus parents, Wilhelm Ludwig Hirlinger and Christine Dorothea Bischoff, who dated to the latter half of the eighteenth century. (I suspect the common attribution of Wilhelm F s wife as Christine Dorothea is a confusion of Wilhelm F and his parents. There is a record of Wilhelm F s parents being Wilhelm and Christine Dorothea Bischoff. I found no records that said Wilhelm F s second wife was also Christine Dorothea. Finally it would be unsurprizing for Christian to name his daughter for his grandmother. ) But was this Christian the man, or another red herring? There was a Wuertemmberg record of Christian declaring his intention, in 1853, to emigrate to North America. If he went, he
couldn t be right. Fortunately Brittainy pointed me to two breakthough websites. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/british_german_legion The English, in its zeal to pursue the rather unpopular Crimean War, solicited a German baron to raise a company of Germans to fight for the British. Using some pretty dubious methods, he formed the corps and it was shipped out, but the war ended before they saw any action. Since it would have been awkward for these mercenaries to go back to Germany, or to England, they were sent to South Africa instead. The other web site, http://www.eastlondon-labyrinth.com/germans/index.jsp, gave info on the members of this legion This showed Christian Herlinger recruited in Leitringen in 1855, age 22. So there is no doubt now He declared his intent to go to North America in 1853 but for whatever reason did not go (I did check for entry records to the US and nobody matched.) Instead he stuck around, joined the mercenary army and got shipped to South Africa, mustering out in 1856, marrying Anna Martha in 1857 and having Johann Wilhelm in 1858. So that s that. Or is it? Why did Anna Martha take her kids to Williamsport Indiana in 1884 (or 1885), of all obscure places? Was there something here already to attract her? While browsing through the Williamsport library archives I happened on a list of graduates from the local high school in the early twentieth century (only about 10 per year).
There was John Hirlinger as expected in 1920. But just below in 1922 a name caught my eye: Martin Dannecker. Dannecker! Christians mother. So I searched the census for a Martin D, born 1905. Found him in 1910 living with his dad William D, 39, his aunt Mina D, 46, and his grandmother Christiana D, 76. William and Martin were born in Indiana, Mina in New York, and Christiana in Germany, immigration year put at 1857. William and his Mom were widowed. Looked for William in 1900 and found William Danacker, 29, born March 1871 in Indiana, Minie D, 36, born Apr 1864 in NY, and Chr* D, 66, born Feb 1834 in Germany. William was listed as a Stone cutter. Find a Grave shows them in Hillside Cemetery (also known as Highland) in Williamsport, the same as the Hirlingers. It gives Name: Christiana Dannecker Birth Date: 23 Feb 1834 Birth Place: Germany Death Date: 23 May 1914 And her husband: Name: Martin Dannecker Birth Date: 5 Jan 1828 Birth Place: Germany Death Date: 2 Jan 1892 So William s son was named for his father. There was an obit of Martin published in the local paper on Jan 7 1892, and transcribed by the library: Obituary. Martin Dannecker, whose death we record, was born in Leidringburg, Province of Wertumburg, Germany, June 5th, 1823,
where his boyhood days and youth were spent after the manner of the youth of that country. In 1844, at about the age of twenty-six, he immigrated to this country, landing at Philadelphia, and began working at his trade, that of a stone mason. In 1852 he was united in marriage to Miss Christina Steinbrenner of Corning, New York. In after years to them were born four children, Henry, Mary, Mina and William, all of which are still living. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Dannecker resided in New York until the later part of 1865, when they immigrated to Indiana, arriving at Williamsport where they settled in October of the same year. From that time until his death his life has been before our people, and it is without reproach. During this time he has filled numerous offices of trust, being a member of the town board a number of terms, and also a member of the school board, and was always found carful, honest and conscientious. He became a member of the German Presbyterian Church in early boyhood, and its teachings ever remained with him. He always attended, while able, the Presbyterian Church here. In August of 1888 he received a stroke of paralysis, which was thought to have been induced by heat, and his decline has been steady, but gradual since the above date. He was, however, able to be about most of this time until the past two weeks, since which time he grew worse until death came at 10:30 o'clock Saturday night, Jan. 2nd, 1892. The funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Monday from the family residence, the Rev. Wm Wilmer officiating, attended by a large circle of friends, after which interment was made in the family lot at Hillside Cemetery. The bereaved family has the sympathy of our entire people. Funny thing about obits: they are often written by people who don t necessarily quite know the facts. Also, things get messed up in printing and again in transcription. This one is easy to pick on: the obit says June 5 1823. FAG says Jan 5 1828. Its easy to turn a 3 into an 8 and a Jan into a Jun. But either way being 26 in 1844 doesn t work. The obit says he was born in Leidringburg, but that can only mean Leidringen.
But focus on the important point: Martin came from the same town as Christian Hirlinger and was almost certainly a cousin. He was an important and respected figure in Williamsport. If Anna Martha didn t know this already she could no doubt have learned of it by writing to Christian s family in Leidringen. Moreover Martin was in the same business as her two sons. To me that would be more than enough motivation to haul my family half way across the world to a town I never heard of. So I think the puzzle of why Anna Martha came to Indiana is pretty well solved. There is, however, an interesting story to be told (made up?) about Martin. If the obit is to be believed about an 1844 arrival, then the first census would be 1850. In fact we do find a Martin Denaker, age 23, in a large gang of Stone Masons (mostly German and Irish), working in Abington township, Luzerne county PA. Today that s part of Lackawanna County and just north of Scranton. In 1850 Scranton did not yet exist, but the Scranton brothers were busy building up their steel mills and building new railroads in the area. His age in 1850 is consistent with the 1828 birth, in which case he would have been 16 in 1844, not 26. Anyway, my theory is this: My Hirlingers came into Philadelphia in 1837, and Wilhelm F was naturalized there in 1844. It would have been about then that they started recruiting German stone cutters in Philadelphia to go build the Lee Road. I suspect Wilhelm wrote home to Leidringen about the opportunity and Martin jumped at it. If this is right then Martin came specifically to work beside the Hirlingers on the Lee Road, which went from the top of North Mountain to the river at Mehoopany. By 1850 it was done, the Hirlingers moved to the south base of the mountain at Red Rock and Martin moved a few miles east of Mehoopany to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Scranton brothers. Not long after, Martin decided to go to Corning New York. Probably the only way to get there then was back along
the Lee Road to where it intersected with the Berwick-Towanda Turnpike. From there, you head north to Towanda and on to Corning. I like to think he made a short jog south for a few miles to visit the Hirlingers, who lived along the Turnpike. It s a pretty theory. Don t know if it s true. POSTSCRIPT: MARTIN DANNECKER New York does censuses in years ending in 5. In the 1855 census of Corning we find: Martin Dinaker, 30, Stone Cutter, 3 years in Corning Rosina D, 20, wife, 3 years in Corning (both born in Germany) Then a couple of doors away we find their kids Hendrick Dinaker, 3 Christiana Dinaker, 6mo Hendrick will eventually Anglicize to Henry. He is buried in Highland Cemetery. His FAG memorial says he never married but lived with his sister Mary. Born 1852, died 1933. The names Rosina and Christiana are puzzling. I suspect the daughter was Christiana Maria, later called Mary, and the mother was Christiana Rosina. If so, the record is consistent with them getting married in 1852 shortly after Martin came to Corning, as stated in the obit. The ages of the parents appear to be rounded to the nearest 5 (which was done in earlier federal censuses). Martin should be 27, not 30 and Christiana 21, not 20.
The next time we see them is in 1865, shortly before they moved to Williamsport. Here the entry is consistent with the obit: Martin Danneker 39 Christiana Danneker 30 Henry Danneker 12 Mary Danneker 10 Mina Danneker 1 except Martin s age is off the expected 37 by two years. (the census was taken on July 5 1865). The railroad had come to Williamsport by 1857. Once the war was over it would have been much easier to whisk the family west, which they did in October of 1865, no doubt seeking new opportunities in a younger place. It would be nice to confirm Martin s immigration date of 1844. It would be nice to know his Leidringen roots and how he was
related to Christian s mother. Whatever the relationship was, it was powerful enough to pull Anna Martha across the ocean.
Postscript: Where they lived I found an annotated map of Williamsport in the local library which revealed where these folks lived in 1923. The houses are still there and well kept.
William J and Hope Hirlinger lived in a large house on Washington St (on the south edge of town), three doors from Falls St. It was fixed up, with the railing above the porch added, about 2010. (We drove by it regularly on the way to Lafayette and always admired it. I never dreamed it had family ties). The Reiff s lived next door in a clearly much older farm house. In the 1923 map it is labeled Mrs J Reiff. That would be John Reiff s 2 nd wife Rosetta, who died in 1925 ( John himself had died ten years earlier from a fall off a roof he was working on in State Line City). Hope s mother died young in 1880 before the Hirlingers arrived. I would imagine the Reiff house dates to the 1860s and
likely was where Hope was born. The house next door would have been built after Hope and William married. The 1923 map also shows one labeled D Hirlinger, ie Dora, just a block away on Lincoln St. This would also have been where Fred lived for much of his life, and where he died in 1937. Dora lived to 1960, in the same house till the end.
311 Lincoln Street, Williamsport
Freds Obit
Doras Obit Jan 28, 1960
William John s death notice, jan 18, 1924 Unfortunately I couldn t find an obit, though it seems likely there was one. Rosetta Reiff obit Jan 8 1925
This shows that Hope stayed in Lafayette after John died and her sons graduated and moved on presumably living with Louise. By 1930 they were both living in Cleveland.