Stahlecker Family
History of the early families of the German-Russian Settlement near Bethune/Burlington, Colorado

 Stahleckers Stop in Columbus, Nebraska
      In a recent letter from my dad's Uncle Walt Stahlecker, I was reminded that great grand
father John Stahlecker was born in Columbus, Nebraska (about 140 miles from Omaha).  He
was the son of Martin Stahlecker and Katherina Jingling (Juengling) Stahlecker on September 1,
1876.   Uncle Walt has located the manifest (passenger list) of the Dampfschiffe (Steamship)
that Martin and Katherina boarded to come to the states.  After landing in New York City on
December 24, 1873, the family journeyed to the settlement of German-Russian people in the
central plain state of Nebraska.  Both Martin and Katherina would have been about age 25 years
old at this time. In the 1914 obituary of Martin Stahlecker, Sam Schaal (family friend and Church
Elder) sites that they resided near Columbus, Nebraska for six years.  "He moved to Tripp, South
Dakota where he lived on his homestead for 14 years.  Coming to Colorado in October 1893, he
took up his residence northwest of Burlington".
 
George Rath's Book
     A reference to Stahleckers in Columbus appears in George Rath's book,  on the German-
Russians.  He states that Ludwig Hildebrand, a teacher in Grossliebental and Neubrug, organized
a group of families, some from the  village of Friedental1 to emigrate to the states.  The families
were Ludwig Hildebrand, as the leader with five children, Johann Frederick Karlin with twelve
children, J. Gueldener, Gottlieb Albrecht with four children, Johann Stahlecker, and Ludwig
Lauenburg.  These families boarded the steamship Hammonia under the German flag -- Captain
Voss¯ to New York  on April 23, 1873.  The Hammonia had 900 passengers.   These people got
their passports in Kischinew.  They traveled by wagon to the sea port of Odessa.  After landing in
New York, they were put on the island of Castle Garden;  probably for quarantine and/or
processing.

They traveled westward, likely by train, stopping in Burlington, Iowa.  They inquired
about land and learned that prices had gone up from what they originally heard to $30.00 an
acre.  They went to Omaha, Nebraska, then to Columbus and bought land for $19.00 an acre on
Shell  Creek ten miles north of Columbus.  (Hildebrand managed a store for a short time in
Columbus and  Sutton, Nebraska, where there was another Black Sea German Settlement.  He
later moved to South Dakota, then to Chicago.)  The Shell Creek settlers soon began to move
away leaving only a few families in the area.

The manifest list Johann Stahlecker age 29, (born about 1850)  wife Barlia? age 23, children Conrad 8, Friederike 6, Gottlieb 4, Jesias? 2 and Catharina 1.  Rath notes that these families were among the first to go to Columbus,  Nebraska.
 
Karl Stumpp's Book
Karl Stumpp, list of village families, sites that Johann Gldner and Johann Karlin were two of the 87 families of Freidenstal2, Bessarabia.  Stumpp lists, a Wilhelm Albrecht --born six years before Michael Albrecht, and a Jasajas Stehlecker [Stahlecker] born in 1808.  I believe that there is a logical connection between Martin, Johann, and Jasajas Stahlecker.   Stumpp lists the 1834 village founders. Therefore, Jasajas would likely be the father of Martin and Johann. (Jasajas would have been age 40 when Martin was born and age 42 when Johann was born.)

In addition to the link between the names on the manifest  repeated by Rath,  the Jngling name appears in Stumpps village list of Friedenstal.  It would be highly likely that these people could be related to the Eva and Conrad Jungling, Katherina Stahleckers parents.  This would mean that both Katherina and Martin's families lived in the same village and were married before emigrating to the states.
 
Special Note
The obituary of Martin Stahlecker states that he was first married to Katharina Meideclich and had a son Christopher. (1871-1947) (Christopher married a Schmidke woman having 4 children and latter married Christena Scheterly, have eight children; Arthur O. Hildegard, Ila, Emma [McCarl], Reuben, Edgar, Ruth [Knorr].) Shortly after his birth, mother Meideclich died.  I have not fond any mention of the Meideclich name in Stumpp's list from Friedenstal or any other village in Bessarabia.   He was remarried to Katherina Jungling November 19, 1872, one year before emigrating.
 
The Bessarabian Village of Friedenstal
Friedenstal is one of about twenty-five villages or settlements in the region between the Dnjestr and Prut rivers called Bessarabian (modern day Ukraine).  This is just west of Odessa and directly above the Black Sea.  Stumpp lists the villages, the founding year and the number of families. These villages include Alt-Elft, Brienne, Leipzig, Kl”stitz, Nue-Alft, Teplitz, Wittenberg, and Freidenstal There was only one Catholic village--Krasna.   There are several other villages not listed here.  Fruedental3  was founding in 1834 with 87 families from Wrttemberg, Prussia and Poland (list modern names).  Below are selections from  Stumpp's list of families.
 

 
Footnotes
1 Note the spelling.  Friedental [without the s] is a village in the Krim Region. Friedenstal [with the s] is a village in the Bessarabia region.   I belive that Rath is referring to Friedenstal in Bessarabian, because of his  references to the Bessarabian Emigration and the village list of Friedental does not included any of the family names mentioned on the passenger list. There are also two other villages that may be confused with Freidenstal, that of Freudental in the Odessa region, and Friedrichsfeld in the Taurien region.
 
2 Note the spelling.
 
3 The Russian name was Tochterkolonie.  It was also known as Number 13.  In the first years of
colonization, the German villages were known only by numbers.
 
Bibliography
Rath, George.  The Black Sea Germans in the Dakotas, Pine Hill Press, Freeman, South
Dakota,  1977.  pp. 81-84.
 
Stummp, Dr Karl.  The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the years 1763 to 1862,
Tbingen 1973.  Published by the author.  American edition translated by Jos. S. Height.
 
Obituary of Martin Stahlecker. "Old Settler Passes Away" (date by hand, 1-24-1914).