History of the Weidert's Emigrating to the United States

Our story begins with Bernard Weidert, born in Tuntange, Luxembourg in 1794.  At that time the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg had been annexed into revolutionary France.  His father was Theodor Weidert born around 1743 though where in Luxembourg has not been discovered in any official document.  It can be deduced that Theodor was born in Tuntange because he died there in 1797 and in those days you stayed in your home town or village.  Bernard’s mother was  Anna Marie Brosius and she bore 10 children of whom Bernard was the last.  She was born in the village of Garnich, Luxembourg in 1755 and died in Tuntange in 1840. Garnich is 10 miles from Tuntange.   No information has been discovered about Theodore and Anna but it is assumed that they most likely had a farm.  Theodore may also have had a trade.  Anna may have made extra income making articles of clothing.  But nothing is known here.

An interesting side bit of history is that the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg changed many times over the centuries between the Austrian & Spanish Hapsburgs,  France, and finally Prussian rule.  As a result the surname in official documents had two different spellings.  Under French rule the surname was spelled Weydert while under Prussian rule the spelling was Weidert.  The derivation of the name is from the word weide which mean willow or willow clearing.  This is from the old Frankish dialect of German.

Now back to Bernard.  He appears to have been trained as a carpenter.  Under French rule when the parents died their estate was divided equally among the siblings as opposed to the oldest son inheriting everything.  Being one of ten siblings, that would have left Bernard and the other nine children with very small parcels of land for farming.  In fact in most cases inherited land was not enough to live on so many siblings would sell their shares to others in the family.  That may have been the case with Bernard.  

In early 1813 Napoleon’s Grande Armee needed new recruits for its continuing wars in Europe after its disaster in Russia in late 1812.  The French Army had to be rebuilt.  Each town or village was given a quota and usually the men of the community would draw straws to see who would go.  That may have been the case with Bernard at age 18.  He traveled to Metz, France where he was inducted into the French infantry as a sapper #4574 or, in today’s jargon, a combat engineer.  The details of his service are not known but Napoleon’s army was stretched thin.  Between October 16-19,  1813 the Battle of Leipzig took place between France and the 6th Coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.   This was the largest land battle in Europe until WWI.  Napoleon and his army were defeated and they retreated back to Paris where he abdicated on April 6, 1814.  The Coalition forces took command in Paris and Napoleon was sent into exile to the Island of Elba.  The Coalition mustered Bernard out of the French army and he returned home to Tuntange.  In 1823, at the age of 29,  he married Marie Bodevin.   She was born in Tuntange in 1798.  Between 1823 and 1847 she bore 12 children.  Managing a household of 14 people must have been a challenge for them.   As more children kept coming the older siblings would be given the responsibility to look after the younger one's.

Times were very hard in Europe after the Napoleonic Wars.  Anarchy broke out across Europe against the ruling elites.  Luxembourg, being a small country with few resources, fared among the worst.  Sometime around 1846 Bernard, Marie, and the children began discussing emigrating to America.  They had heard stories for years about the cheap land and economic opportunities that the U.S. offered to anyone willing to make the journey.   Being Catholics from a very Catholic country, there was desire by Catholic bishops in America to increase the small Catholic population.  Agents representing the bishops circulated around Europe enticing Catholics to emigrate.  At this time there were also many Catholic Irish leaving Ireland due to the potato famine.  Land agents representing the U.S. were in Europe as well promoting cheap land and lots of it for the taking.  That was a commodity in very short and expensive supply in Europe.  Though Bernard was 52 and Marie 49, late in life in those days, they made the decision to leave Luxembourg with their 11 children to give them a chance for a better future.  The oldest, Marie, was 21 and married to Johan Myer while the youngest, Lucy, was 6 months old when the adventure began.  No one in the family spoke English.

It must have been a hard decision to leave family and friends knowing that none of the family would ever go back.  They would have looked hard at their finances and sold everything they could not carry.  There is a family legend that the married daughter Marie and her husband traveled a month or two early to the Port of New York to make get familiar with this new country of the United States and make arrangements for the arrival of the rest of the family.  

What is known is that the family traveled to Le Havre, France in late Spring of 1847 and booked passage on the S. S. Monterey bound for the Port of New York.  In those days passengers had to bring their own food and supplies for the 6-8 week voyage depending on the weather.   They lived in cramped quarters below deck.  On the passenger list of the S.S. Monterey the emigrants were all listed as German as most were.  Luxembourgers were considered German as well.  

In the first week of August, 1847 the family disembarked at the Port of New York to begin a new life.  There was no emigration process at that time.  People would get off their ship and then go their own way.  Ellis Island, the federal immigration station in New York Harbour, was not built until 1892.  No one in the family died during the voyage.  Details are sketchy but by September they were in the small community of St. Mary’s, Elk County, Pennsylvania.   St. Mary's was founded in 1842 and settled mostly by Catholics from Bavaria.  The Weidert clan lived in temporary quarters until the following year when they finally settled on their own land in Rasselas, a distance of 18 miles.    Bernard purchased a tract of land across from what became the Holy Cross Church, also on Weidert land.  Land was also donated for the Holy Cross Cemetery where many of the early family are buried. 

The men in the family cut down timber and built a log home.  Bernard’s carpenter skills came in handy.  Oldest daughter Marie and her husband John Myers purchased an adjoining track of land and a home was built for them as well.  This would not have been possible in Luxembourg.  Seed for crops and farm animals were procured.  There were no grocery stores back then in this rural area.  A family had to produce what they ate.  The men became avid hunters for bear, deer, and turkey to supplement what they grew and raised.   Seneca Indians from the nearby Chief Cornplanter  Reserve would come by to trade deerskins, meat, baskets, and other items for things they wanted.  Almost everything the family required had to be made such as tools and clothes.  It was also the beginning of a family lumber business that was carried on for decades in the Allegheny Mountains on family owned timber land.   On August 12, 1848 Bernard took the oath to become a U.S. citizen before the Prothonotary Court of Common Pleas in Elk County, Pennsylvania. In those days, when the head of the family took the oath he or she did it for the rest of the family as well.  

Bernard, Mary, and family were the first Catholic settlers in the Rasselas area.  The initial name of the community was Williamsville where there was a leather tannery that Bernard may have worked at part-time.  There were a few Yankee settlers as early as 1844: Montgomery, Colt, and Rasselas Wilcox Brown after whom the community was named in 1882.    Before the Hoy Cross Church was built visiting Benedictine priests would stay and say Mass at the Weidert homestead.  The Holy Cross Church was built of logs by 1855.  The post office was also at the Weidert home for a number of years.  Connections with the outside world was by means of a stagecoach which made trips from Oleans, New York to St. Mary’s, Penn via the Smethport & Clermont Turnpike.  

A number of German emigrant families came by horse and wagon over the years.  By 1860 there were 40 families in the area and the Weidert siblings found spouses in many of these families.  This was all wilderness in the Allegheny Mountains.  Rasselas itself was never a town but a settlement.  The nearest commercial town, at least by 1858,  was Wilcox which was about 5-7 miles. 

Life in those days in a rural farming area like Elk County was difficult but everyone was dealing with the same conditions and it was accepted.  Families had to harvest timber and build their own homes.  Tools that were needed were usually made not purchased.  There was no electricity or running water.  A well for water had to be dug and water hauled in buckets for daily use.  Candles, made any home,  provided the only illumination at night.  Clothes had to be made at home and handed down.  Food was cooked in the fireplace and, then later, a wood burning stove.  Crops were grown and harvested.  Animals and poultry were raised and butchered. Hunting provided additional food such as deer and turkey. Transportation was a stagecoach, horse & wagon, or walking.  Illness would be treated by home remedies and death at an early age was common.

On August 21, 1855 Bernard Weidert died at home at the age of 61 of unknown causes.   Death records were sparse in those days.   His wife, Marie, lived until October 12, 1884 at the age of 86.  The cause of her death is unknown also.  As time went on all the children reached adulthood, got married, and had farms of their own.