Michael Eirich / Margret Eirich

INDEX

[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.

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