The August & Veronica Rausch family

"The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions to carry out public works projects".  Today, genealogists' appreciate the New Deal and that most useful WPA project:  the pioneer interviews done by out-of-work writers.  They're archived at your county historical society. In our case, that's the Weyerhauser Museum in Little Falls, Minnesota. 

 There are definitely mistakes in these biographies, but there are also invaluable facts that could have been lost otherwise.  Especially in a taciturn family like ours.

We've posted this particular bio before on HH, but this time, I've transcribed it  (so it can be translated by readers overseas).  Now, we're looking closer at some of the connections mentioned.  

(If you already know who these people are, skip this part:

August Rausch had a daughter

Louisa Rausch, who married Mike Sand, and they had a daughter

Elizabeth Sand, who married A.A.Hesch, and they had a son

Mike Hesch, who wisely had ME for a daughter,  

so August Rausch was my great-great grandfather, ok?)

RAUSCH and Simpfhen

Buckman, Minn.

Given by Mrs. A.A. Hesch

Recorded by N. Meyer

February 1937

Louisa Rausch was born in Oberschlesien, Germany on January 2nd 1854.  Her father, August Rausch, was a blacksmith and also owned a 30 acre farm in Germany.  August Rausch was married to Veronica Simpfhen in Germany. There were six children born to them, two boys, August and John; and four girls, Mary, Hedwig, Veronica and Louisa.

The August Rausch family came over to the United States and went to Little Rock, Arkansas, to the home of the oldest son, John, who had come here several years before the rest of the family.  Here in Little Rock, Arkansas the family lived for several years.  The country was wild and the people were lazy in this warm state and Mr. August Rausch took sick with yellow fever.  As he recovered, all of the family except John left to go north to St Cloud on the Great Northern Railway, which at that time went only as far as St Cloud.  As they came to St Cloud, they were met by John Otremba from Pierz township in Morrison county.  They went along with Mr Otremba with his ox team hitched to a wagon at Pierz.

Before the Rausch family came to Pierz, Mr Otremba arranged to have a farm for them to settle on.  This place is now owned by Julius Marshik of Pierz township.

After living on this farm for several years, Mr and Mrs August Rausch moved to Pierz village and sold their farm place to Wenzel Marshik, Julius Marshiks father, and it was afterward bought by his son, Julius.  After living in Pierz village for only a short time, Mr Rausch died in 1879.  One day he came home from St Cloud with his friend, John Otremba, and as he was almost frozen from the long trip of almost 30 miles by oxen, he went in his house by the stove to warm up and he suddenly fell over and was dead.

John was married and lived in Little Rock, Arkansas.  August Rausch was ordained priest in Cleveland, Ohio and had a parish in Franklin, Nebraska where he resided all of his life.  Mary Rausch was married in Germany to Florian Meyer at the age of 16 years and also came to the United States and settled in Pierz township, two miles north of Buckman village.  Hedwig Rausch was married in Germany to a baker by the name of Weiss, and Veronica Rausch was married in Germany to a blacksmith by the name of Robert Harnish and came to settle here in Pierz township.These were the brothers and sisters of Louisa.

Louisa Rausch came across with her parents and was married to Mike Sand who lived as one of the pioneer settlers of Buckman township.

Mike Sand and his wife, Louisa, soon became well known settlers in Buckman township.

We found the family arriving in Baltimore in January 1876.  August and Veronica appeared in Pierz township in 1880 and 1885, so "several years" in Arkansas was 3 or 4.  We've found various spellings for Veronica's surname: Simofhen and Simpfhen are only two of them...but we'll need to go back to the Kattowice (Poland) directories to find the correct name.
  

It turns out that Otrembas,  Hortschs, Rauschs,  Meyers, Schmolkes,  Mischkes and Kleins all came from the same part of Falkenburg, Schleisen (present day Poland, near Opole).  I imagine the connection between August Rausch and John Otremba was from their childhoods in the old country.

August (Augustine) Rausch is buried in St Joseph's Cemetery in Pierz, Minnesota,  but he died in Nov 1885, not 1879.   Probably Veronica is buried there, too.

John Rausch was still in Arkansas in the 1900 census.  Most likely he and Anna spent the rest of their lives there.

We did a post about Louisa and her brother August in May 2009.

Did Hedwig stay in Germany after she married Mr Weiss?  We don't know, but it'd be cool to find out.

Another mystery is Veronica & Robert Harnisch.  They're in the 1880 census in Pierz, with 3 children: August, Martha and Joseph.  More than that, we don't know yet.

An interesting connection, tho, is Mary Rausch, who was married in Germany to Florian Meyer at the age of 16 years, and also came to the United States and settled in Pierz township, two miles north of Buckman village.  

Of course we looked for Florian Meyer, who was indexed in only the 1875 Census, as Flora. M., but with a son named Florian, and a wife named Maria (Rausch, I assume).  They also had a son called William, or Billy.
This Billy later married Anna Otremba.  But, how did Billy and Anna come to our attention?  Because of THIS PHOTO, and now we've come full circle.  When we figured out who those people had to be, in a family photo from 1925, I recognized the name "Billy Meyer" but only from having heard it among relatives.  I assumed he was related because his wife was an Otremba, but now we know he was connected thru the Rausch side as well.
(Oh, and look at the name of the WPA worker who recorded the bio.  I'd bet most of the interview was done in German, Gramma talking to her cousin).


Knowing all that is just NEAT. ☺