One Hundred years ago today, on 7 November 1921, my great grandmother Theresia (nee Kamenova) Pitzenberger passed away. Theresia was a wife, mother, farm worker, and merchant. This blog post will provide some information about Theresia, and in that way perhaps give a small glimpse into her life. I suspect her life in many ways mirrored the life of other small town farm women in the Midwest. My 1 November 2021 blog post was about her husband, Mathias, in honor of his 148th birthday. I am not sure how many of Theresia's descendants will even recognize that this is the 100th anniversary of her death. I may be the only one. This shows how time tends to affect us. We can lose our sense of history, our connections, as the day-to-day activities of life move us more to the present and future than to the past. While her life began in Bohemia it ended in the United States.
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| Koln Passenger Manifest Source: Ancestry.com |
To me, one of the most interesting aspects of Theresia's life is that she appears to have immigrated to the United States alone. Theresia, at times referred to as Lizzie, was born in Bohemia, in the village of Ujezd, on 13 April 1848. In 1872, at the age of 24, she appears on an immigrant ship manifest as passenger #420. What makes this unique is that, if in fact she was a lone traveler to the United States, she was more an exception, being female. Research shows that it was not unusual for a young male to travel alone. Lone male immigrants were often referred to as a lone wolf. One example, was my great grandfather Stephen Eireiner who arrived by himself in NY NY. It was a different matter for young woman, particularly in that era. It is possible she did not travel alone, but other nearby names on the ship manifest do not match her name, and there is no discernible relationship with other nearby names. Today, a traveler from the Czech Republic can hop a plane to the United States, but back in the mid to late 18th century it required a lengthy travel time, much of it aboard a crowded ship.
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| Immigration Card Source: Ancestry.com |
How long would travel time be in 1872? We can get a hint from a news article written about a relative on the Hovel side. The Hovel side is representative of what is known as Chain Migration, the whole family came over together in 1868, to join a burgeoning Bohemian and German enclave in southern Wisconsin. Jacob Fitzl, who would marry Anna Hovel, was already in place in Jefferson, WI, and he was from the same village as the Hovel family. Hence, he probably wrote back to the home village about opportunities in the United States, particularly Wisconsin. Anyway, the news article about my great grandfather Martin's sister, Catherine Hovel Popp, was on the event of her 50th wedding anniversary. The article noted that at age 5 she moved with her parents to America, the whole family--mother, father and children all moved at the same time. The article then notes that "the long trip across the ocean required seventeen weeks." That is over four months! That is over one-third of the year!
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| Memorial Card |
We know, from Theresia's memorial prayer card, issued for her funeral, that she was born in Ujezd Boehmia. She must have been proud of her Bohemian heritage because for decades it seems many Bohemians claimed they were from Germany, or Austria. For many years my Dad thought the Hovel family came from Germany. Probably understandable as his parents spoke German, different German, but German. Theresia would travel from Ujezd to Bremen, and depart on the ship Koln. Noted as passenger number 420 on the ship manifest, her age is listed as 24, but she is said to be from Germany. I suspect the recorder of the information rarely asked, and simply noted Germany at the top of the page, and used the ditto symbol (she is second down on the page, see first image in this blog) for all others on the page. The passengers of the Koln disembarked in Baltimore on 10 June 1872. Assuming Lizzie had a similar length journey to the Hovel family immigration of 1868, she would have spent her 24th birthday traveling to the US. The Hovel family traveled in 1868. and their ship, the Baltimore, departed Bremen and also arrived at the Port of Baltimore. I think the German Lloyd line had agreements with the Port of Baltimore. The shipping companies also had relationships with railroads to take the freshly arrived immigrants to the American heartland. As far as we know Lizzie made her way directly to Iowa.
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| Pitzenberger Farm, Fort Atkinson, IA Sec 20, Washington Twp, Winneshiek Co, IA |
The thing is I really have no idea why she came to the US, or specifically to Iowa. It appears, as I noted, that she traveled alone. Iowa, however, did make some sense as a destination. Spillville, IA, about ten miles from Festina, was a major site of Catholic Bohemian migrants. Was she a mail-order type bride? Was she coming over to work for someone? Or, was she simply stepping ashore hoping to find work and a better life? As with most of our immigrant ancestors we lack the answers. There are many questions we would like to ask, so we can rely on general trends. But, if Theresia did travel alone, she bucked the norm of a female traveling with others. We do know that she married Mathias on October 20, 1873, so one year and four months after her arrival in Baltimore. Whatever the case, if she indeed did travel alone, it was a gutsy move on her part. (As an aside, Winneshiek County, the location of Festina and Spillville, had the distinction of being the only Iowa County to condemn the KKK in the 1920's. This is probably due in large part to the large Catholic population, and the KKK being anti-Catholic.)
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| Theresia with son-in-law Rudy Hovel, daughter Ida and grandson Roy Hovel |
It may have been an odd situation with Mathias since he and Theresia reportedly each spoke a different language, High German and Czech, respectively. Theresia, with a fifth grade education, likely knew some German from her school years in Bohemia. If they had communication issues due to spoken language it did not affect their marital relations. The union between Mathias and Theresia produced seven children. Mary Therese was the oldest born about 1875, followed by Andrew (1876), John (1880), Frank (1882), Matthew (aka Mathias) who was born in 1886 giving Theresia a break of a few years. My grandmother, Ida, followed a few years after Matthew, in January 1890, and the baby of the family, Matilda, was born in 1892. All of these children lived into adulthood. All the children were, for some part of adulthood, involved in farming or as merchants.
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| Theresia with grandson Roy Hovel |
In terms of farm work it was common for the wife to undertake some of the farm chores. The children would assist her in some of the chores. As the male children aged they would assist with field work. We can see how the sons helped with farm and field work as in some of the census documents, they are listed as farm laborers. According to historians, the main effort for the farm wife was the care of the poultry and the harvest of their eggs. The Pitzenberger farm produced 500 dozen eggs in 1879, and were said to have had 70 poultry on hand as of June 1, 1880. The farm wife would also have been responsible for the family garden. Other chores may have varied by farm, or age of children, but the farm wife would likely have assisted with milking the cows, of which the Pitzenbergers had three, and from which they produced 275 pounds of butter. The butter churning was likely all the hand work of Theresia. She would have helped dress and preserve other items, fruites, vegetables, and butchering of the pigs, of which five were recorded for the Pitzenbergers in the 1880 agricultural census. Among other crops, the Pitzenberger farm produced 115 bushels of Irish Potatoes on one acre of land. It is quite possible that Theresia would have assisted with the harvest and packing of the potato crop. In a sense farm work is like child rearing, there was never a day off. Perhaps, that is why God gave women the ability to multi-task.
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| Theresia Kamenova Pitzenberger |
Multi-tasking is what was required for home and farm life in the mid to late 19th century. Changes were starting to occur in the nation that were bringing creative destruction to certain parts of the economy. Industrialization was one aspect of this, with its differentiation of labor. Changes were also occurring on the farm due to opening of lands on the prairies further west, along with disease and insects. For example, Wisconsin used to be a big wheat growing state, but the chinch bug infestation of the mid to late 1800's changed that. Wisconsin farmers tried a few other crops, such as hops, but mainly transitioned to Dairy. Chinch bugs did not like alfalfa. But, they did like corn, grass crops like wheat. Yet, as the agricultural census shows, these small farms remained diversified handling a variety of animals and crops. I recall my grandpas farm in Sun Prairie as having stalls for sheep, pig pens, chicken coop and accommodations for other animals. He started his Sun Prairie farm in the late 1920's.
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| Pitzenberger Clan, circa 1928 |
With her husband having died in 1912, the 1920 census has her living alone, with her occupation identified as farmer. She was a land girl to the end. We know this from the 1915 Iowa Census. While the census identifies her occupation as merchant, she also ran the farm. She had two milk cows valued at $80, one horse valued at $100, two swine at $20, and 50 fowl with a value of $15. The main census page notes a total value of farm at $4,100. Her total earnings for a year were identified at $1,000. An earning of $1,000 for a year would be equivalent to about $27,000 today, putting her in a lower class bracket. Although there were a good number of $1,000 annual income on the census forms, so the number is probably somewhat suspect. After all, who wants the census taker to know how much income they had? It is hard to tell if, at 67 years of age, she was being weighed down by chores on the farm and in the store. The census record has her age as 65, not 67, but we know she was born in 1848, per her memorial card.
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| 1915 Iowa Census for Theresia p 1 Source: familysearch |
Just as Theresia had to make accommodations due to the death of Mathias, both of them would have had to make accommodations in the farm chores she accomplished as children were born, were ill, or the other instances of life get in the way that would demand the attention of the mother. As the mother, she was probably the one who made sure the lesson plans were complete and prayers were said. All part of that multi-tasking required of moms. I think the 1915 Iowa Census shows a woman who ran a farm and also a store. A remarkable achievement, for this lone wolf.
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| 1915 IA Census for Theresia, p 2 Source: familysearch |
Great grandma Pitzenberger, whose daughter, Ida, gave birth to my Dad in September 1918, would have known my Dad for only three years. My Dad would have turned three years of age the September prior to her death. She would never have met Dad's only sibling, my Aunt Anita who was born in 1924. Theresia's youngest daughter, Matilda, turned 21 just five days prior to Theresia's death. Theresia did not die in Festina, but rather in Winona, MN. She may either have been living with, or visiting her daughter Mary Theresia, who was, with her husband, probably running a grocery store in Winona. However, she was buried in the St Mary's--Our Lady of Seven Dolors Cemetery, next to her dear departed husband, Mathias.
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| Mathias and Theresia Pitzenberger Grave Marker, St Mary's Cemetery, Festina, IA Source: Find-a-Grave |
Her last will and testament was rather simple. It bequeathed a sum of $1,000 to St Mary's Church and Fr Rubly, or his successor, for masses for the repose of her soul. The remaining sum, after payment of all debts and funeral charges, was to be equally divided among any of her surviving children. All seven children would receive their portion of the estate, since none predeceased her. I wonder if she was ill, or knew death was knocking, since the will was signed on 25 October 1921, or just shy of two weeks before her death.
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| Last Will and Testament Right side Source: Ancestry.com |
Theresia Kamenova Pitzenberger set herself apart by taking what appears to be a journey of one from Bohemia to the United States. It was a long journey lasting about 17 weeks from her village of Ujzed, Bohemia, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to the rolling hills of eastern Iowa. Only knowing Czech, and perhaps some German, on her arrival in Baltimore, she had to deal with unfamiliar surroundings, language and customs. It is also in this part of Iowa where she would marry her husband, and give birth to, and raise the seven children she had with Mathias. All the while being a farm wife and helping at the local hardware store in Festina. If it was not for passenger # 420 on the Koln, which arrived in Baltimore on 10 June 1872, my grandma, dad or me would not have had the lineage, or life experiences we have had since we are formed by our ancestors. Such is the luck of life.
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