Martin Wolf / Mary Catherine (Katharine) Eirich

INDEX

[1] Seventh generation known Wolf ancestor in Bavaria, Germany. He emigrated
to Mt Palatine, IL in the United states in 1848 and became the first known
ancestor of the Wolf family in America.

[2] Click here for photo of Old Prospect Place
Click here for photo of Roden Church and High Altar
Click here for view of Roden, Germany, Countryside
Click here for photo of Old Prospect gravestones placque

[3] Click here for view of contryside surrounding Roden, Germany

[4] Katie (Katharina) Wolf lived only a few months after the death of her
mother, Catharine (Katharina) Wolf. There is question about whether the
mother, Katharina, died in 1851 or 1852. Accounts have it both ways.

[5] There has been question about whether Katharina Wolf's name was Erick or
Eyrich. An investigation of the records by professional German genealogist
Heidrun Keller, Koloniestr, 6, Helmbrechts, Germany in March 1993, shows that
neither spelling is correct. The correct family name is EIRICH. The names of
immigrants frequently got changed by immigration officials who did not know
the exact spelling and just used their own judgement in spelling the name like
it sounded. Once that spelling got on the immigration papers that spelling
was oftentimes used thereafter by persons in the belief that they had to use
it spelled that way because the name on their immigration papers appeared that
way. The records also show that Katharina's first name was Mary (Maria)
although she apparently never used it as a first name. Records for the area
in Germany, are kept at Wurzburg, Bavaria, Germany.

[6] When Martin and Katharine Wolf left Roden, Germany, the name Wolf
disappeared in that town. Theirs was the only family with the name Wolf in
Roden.

[7] Katharina, however, left relatives bearing the name Eirich and there are
still numerous persons named Eirich living in Roden today who are probably the
descendents of some of Katharina Eirich's relatives.

[8] Martin Wolf, along with his wife Catherine (Katharina) Eirich and
their four sons left Bavaria, Germany in March, 1848. They traveled by boat
down the Rhine river to Hamburg where they boarded ship for America. They
landed in New York in May 1848 and made their way completely by boat
to Peru, IL, after a stop in Chicago. (The word-of-mouth information that
came down thru the family says the Wolf's embarked from Hamburg, Germany,
but the Naturalization Papers of Michael Wolf state that it was Havre
(LeHavre) in France. This is confirmed by the information that the Joseph
Eirich family (who were thought to be relatives of Katharine (Eirich) Wolf)
embarked from Havre when they came to America, probably acting on the advice
of Martin and Katharina who emigrated before them.)

[9] The following is an extract from the ship's records concerning Martin Wolf
Country of origin : Deutschland
Family # : 998515
Ship Name : Bavaria
Port of Departure : Havre
Port of Arrival : New York
Arrival Date : May 30, 1848

[10] In that same year, they purchased Old Prospect Place,
a stagecoach overnite station on the route from Chicago to St Louis, MO.
The seller was Jesse Lynch. The property was located on the highest point in the south
1/2 of the NW 1/4 of Section 8, Twp 31 N, Range 1 E in LaSalle County, IL being,
located on what is the McNabb Highway 1 mile south and one mile east of Mt
Palatine. Maartin Wolf also purchased the following parcels of property from
Jesse Lynch located in the village of Mt Palatine and described as follows:
the west 1/2 of Lot 43, Lots 44 and 50 and the North 1/2 of Lot 55. Catherine
(Katharina) Wolf and her very young daughter, Katie, and her husband, Martin,
were all buried in the family cemetery on Old Prospect Place, which was
located only a few yards from the house site, there being
no public cemetery near at the time.

[11] Martin Wolf purchase Old Prospect Place on July 19, 1848, paying $1300
for it in gold which was carried from Germany by his sons in the linings of
their coats. This was an improved tract of 120 acres to which they added
other land later on. Martin Wolf was a reasonably prosperous man by the
the standards of the time.

[12] On December 8, 1859, to keep a promise made to his wife Catherine
(Katharina) before she died, Martin Wolf purchased the then defunct Judson
College building in Mt Palatine to be used for a church and school. The
ground floor was used as a church and the upper floor used for a school. It
served this double purpose until 1911 when structural failure required that
the building be razed and the present Immaculate Conception Church was built
on the very same spot even using many of the original bricks.

[13] Very early on, a room in Old Prospect House was set aside for use for Mass
on those annual occasions when a priest came, usually during Lent, so folks
could fulfill their Easter Duty. The room even had a small altar. Almost to
the day of its demolition the racks for holding beer barrels were still in the
cellar! It is said that, before the Civil War, slaves on their way to
freedom in Canada sometimes stayed overnight in the cellar of Old Prospect
House.

[14] In August 1989 there was still a pile of bricks at Old Prospect House
location, but all the tombstones had been laid flat and placed together. The
stone for Martin Wolf was readable. A second stone of equal size which
seemed to read Katharina was broken and had the lower half missing was not
readable. This could have been the tombstone of Catherine Wolf. There were
also smaller unreadable stones.

[15] There is this information which may provide the basis of a search for the
ancestors of Martin and Catherine Erick (Eyrich?) Wolf. In March 1852 Joseph
Eyrich, born March 1, 1793, the son of Michael Eyrich (1760-1829) and
Katharina Hartman (1773-1843), along with his wife Dorothea (Brunn)
Eyrich (born January 29, 1805) who was the daughter of Johannes and Anna Maria
Behling, prepared to leave Roden, Bavaria, Germany for America.

[16] Joseph and Dorothea Eyrich were accompanied by their unmarried children
whose names were:
Johann Joseph born September 17, 1828
Katharina Agnes born January 20, 1831
Maria Magdalena born August 15, 1833
Theresa born April 23, 1836
Margaretha born September 14, 1838
Susanna born January 22, 1841
Theodor born February 5, 1844

[17] The Eyrichs left Havre, France, May 28, 1852 and landed in New York, July
16, 1852. They settled at Mt Palatine, IL, probably because Catherine Eirick
(Eyrich?) Wolf and her husband, Martin, and four sons, who also came from
Bavaria, were already located there. Catherine Wolf and Joseph
Eyrich were probably related.

[18] This relationship between the Eyrichs and the Wolf families is further
suggested by the fact that Maria Magdalene Eyrich kept house for Martin Wolf
and his four sons after the death of Martin's wife in 1851 (1852?). On March
27, 1856, Maria Magdalene Eyrich married John Kapraun, a blacksmith. Martin
Wolf, who had introduced the couple, gave Maria a wedding gift of a milk cow
as payment for her housekeeping service. Michael Wolf, oldest son of Martin
was the best man at Maria's Magdalena' wedding. Determining the
relationship between Maria Magdalena Eirich (Eyrich) and Catherine Wolf is
complicated by the unique fact that Catherine Wolf's father and mother both
had the same family name, Eirich (Eyrich)! Church records from Roden,
Bavaria, kept at Wurzburg show the Eyrich family as long-time residents.
Dorothea Brunn's parents lived in the neighboring town of Waldzell, Bavaria.

[19] Click here for photo of Michael Wolf
Click here for photo of Eva Matern daughter of Anne (Lorenx) Matern
Click here for photo of Joe and Anne(Lorenz)Matern family

[21] Joseph Wolf and his family. along with Charles Wolf moved to Kansas
sometime after 1876. Joseph returned to Illinois in the Fall of 1890 but
Charles remained in Kansas

[22] Fridolin Wolf attemded the district schools and remained at home until his
marriage. In 1865 Fridolin and family moved to Section 3 in Magnolia
Township. The farm was 100 acres of wild land. By 1896 he had added 60
acres and acquired 160 acres elsewhere.
The house was erected in 1881 at a cost of $2,600; and the barn, which was
built in 1868 cost $1000. Fridolin was a general farmer raising both stock
and grain. Like his father, he advocated democratic principles.
Both Fridolin and Clara were members of the Catholic Church at Mt Palatine.
The family's devotion to the Catholic Church is illustrated by the purchase
of Judson College in 1860 by Fridolin's father, Martin, to be used as a
church and school. The lower level was used as a church; the upper story was
used as a German school until the new church was built in 1911. The Wolf
children attended this school
The home Fridolin and Clara Wolf is located just north of McNabb on Route
89 and is now the home of Donald and Betty Glenn. Betty is the granddaughter
of Fridolin and Clara's youngest child, Frank Henry, and is, thmerefore, a
great granddaughter of Fridolin and Clara.
Fridolin and Clara liked traveling, and, after Clara's death in 1912,
Fridolin spent a great deal of time traveling, staying with his children when
was in the McNabb area. Fridolin died on May 1, 1930 at the home of his
daughter Katie Ioerger and is buried in Mt Palatine.

[20] For many years the information concerning Charles(Karl) Wolf was
limited and somewhat inaccurate but essentially factual
Until quite recently the descendents of three of Martin and Katharina
Wolf's sons, Michael, Joseph and Fridolin, kept contact with one another
so that the general history of their descendents was generally known.
But Charles (Karl) Wolf maintained very limited contact with his
brothers and their descendents in his adult years. In the course of time
it was not known exactly what had happened to Charles and his
family. There was only limited word of mouth information available.
In November 1988, Michael Wolf, great-great grandson of Martin Wolf's
eldest son, Michael, initiated a search for data about Charles (Karl)
Wolf via the internet and he managed access to the 1880 Censue of
Sedgewick County Kansas.
From the 1880 Census it was learned that Charles Wolf and his family
were then living near the hamlet of Valley Center in Grant Township,
Sedgewick, County Kansas, near the larger town of Clearwater and the
metropolis of Wichita. The Census stated that the children were all
born in Illinois (presumably in the Mt Palatine vicinity). A daughter
Minnie, was listed as 4 years old so the family must have moved to
Kansas in 1876 or later.
There were obvious errors in the Census statement. The name Wolf was
spelled Wolff. Charles's only son was listed as Marlain Wolf and his
sex listed as female - but he was also listed as a son !!!
By computer E Mail, Michael Wolf, made contact with a gentleman who
had copies of the cemetery records of Sedgewick County, where Charles
and Mary Wolf are both buried. Their dates of death and burial and
grave locations are listed in the genealogy.
According to several Censuus reports, Charles and Mary raised two
grandchildren. One was Fannie Ray, Daughter of Susan "Minnie" Wolf
Ray. The other was Fred "Freddie" Wolf who was born Sep 1893 in
Sedgewick, County but no parents are listed.
There is this bit of Western lore connected with the Wolf family.
Thomas and Catherine Masterson, parents of the famous western figure
"Bat" Masterson, were neighboring farmers of Charles and Mary Wolf.
Charles Wolf's nephew Martin (Son of Joseph Wolf) tells the story
that he once "rode for a time with "Bat Masterson". The actual
incident may have been very brief and may not be verifiable.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Much credit is due to Cecelia Zeruski, descendent of Joseph Wolf,
who accumulated and contributed most of the detailed information about
Charles (Karl) and Mary (Werling) Wolf and their descendents. It is
more information than all that was previously available the Charles Wolf
family.

HOME

Mail comments and questions to Clare Wolf