In Germany
there is a big family:
Ted’s
parents may have begun living on the main street at 69 Long Street (Lange
Strasse) Kapellen about 1840. The
parents had moved there from the nearby village of Sonsbeck about 1840. In
1840, about the time of the move, the Ted’s parents (Johannes Korting and
Petronella Hagelstein) had 3 children.
The
Korting house in Kapellen was not very large.
The house was known then as the Overfeld house. According to Hans
Korting (of Kapellen), the house was then just 3 meters (10ft) wide. In the 18th
century the house had an open fireplace for cooking. The house was rebuilt from
the cellar in the early 1960’s. Today, some of the 18th century
furniture remains in the house as well as some furniture made by Ted's brother,
Mathias Korting (born 1853).
If
they were poor, they may have all lived in one house. And, if they all lived in
the same house, with three children in each family, then it may have been too
many people for one small building
Living near Essen: Just prior to coming to the USA, Theodore Korting and family lived in Essen-Borbeck. Borbeck is a small town, now a part of the city of Essen. It is today about 90 minutes by train from Kapellen to Borbeck; it is maybe 60 miles. Also, it is said my Hans Korting of Kapellen, that a Korting girl married into the Aldi (food market) family and moved to Essen. According to Nel Jensen of Eindhoven, NL, the birth Ted's second son, Franz Korting, born 1881, was registered in the Catholic church in Borbeck.
Ted’s Father and siblings:
On
June 9, 1830, Ted’s father had married his first wife, Anna Elisabeth
Jorissen of nearby Xanten. Their marriage records are in the Sonsbeck city
information. In 1830 they had a girl, Anna Katharina Korting. We assume that
Anna died before 1835. Nothing
more is know about the Jorissen family or the death of the first wife except
that is thought she died in Sonsbeck.
Ted
Korting’s father Johannes Korting was married to his second wife, Petronella
Hagelstein on September 19, 1835. With the second wife he had 6 children. The
oldest girl was Elisabeth Korting, born 1836. The next girl was Gertrudus was
born in 1841. Hendrina was born in 1847 and died in 1865. The youngest boy,
Mathias (Matthew) was born in 1853 and lived until 1949. His younger sister,
Joanna Korting, was born Jul 12, 1857, death date unknown.
Joannes
Korting (born 1799), Ted’s father, died in Kapellen on March 9, 1864, at
about 65 years of age. The death of Ted’s father occurred when Ted was just
13 1/2 years old; in addition, at the time of the death, Ted has two younger
siblings. It must have been financially difficult for the family.
Joannes
Korting’s burial site is now under a walkway in Kapellen and is not marked.
Ted’s
sister Gertrudus Korting married Johann Steegmann of nearby Wetten / Kevelar
Ted’s
mother’s family, the Hagelsteins, was Roman Catholic. They had lived in past
centuries (maybe the 1500’s and 1600’s) in what is now Netherlands.
There is now a village in central Netherlands, south of Utrecht, named
“Hagestein”. Near the village, maybe half mile (1km) is where the
Hagestein Castle once stood. Today, nothing, not even a stone or tree remains
in the area where once the castle was. There is only a marker along the road
noting the castle once existed that in the nearby hayfield. The hayfield is
perfectly flat, suitable for soccer. If you’d like to see a drawing of the
appearance of the castle, there is a small drawing of the attack on the castle
of William VI of Denmark on the Hage(l)stein castle.
Both Hans Korting (Kapellen) and John Korting (Columbus) have a copy of
the castle drawing.
There
is some question regarding the spelling of the Hagelstein name. Some places it
is shown without the “l” and someplace with the “l”. It means “stone
fence” (hagel=fence) in Dutch.
Since the Reformation times, Netherlands has been mostly the Protestant, the Dutch Reformed Church. And, at times, the land was very anti-Roman Catholic. There is Korting family story that many years before, the Dutch Protestants (or the area’s leaders) wanted the Hagelsteins to leave Netherlands. The family sold the farmland for gold bars. Each of the three sons received a gold bar. They then took the gold the other side of the border, to the Catholic area in Germany, near Sonsbeck, and purchased land.
The
borders were sometimes drawn based upon bishops and not based upon countries.
At one time in Kapellen, the main road spilt the village. There was a strict
Catholic Bishop on one side of the village, and a more tolerant bishop
controlling the other side of the village.
Also,
some of Ted’s first cousins, the Hagelsteins (from his mother’s side)
had already gone to the USA in the early 1880’s. Cousin Henriette
Hagelstein, daughter of Uncle Peter Hagelstein, had married August Stolz and
moved to Paterson, New Jersey. Also, Henrriette’s brother, Mathias
Hagelstein, had also moved to Paterson.
Klassen
Family:
There
is some Dutch influence in the Kapellen area. Ted’s mother was more Dutch
than German, and she spoke in the local Dutch-German dialect.
Even today Kapellen, like most areas in Germany, has a special dialect
only for that village.
Overfeld
Family:
The
decision to leave Germany:
By
1881 Ted and Mary had 4 children, Johann (or Joannes or John), Franz (Frank),
Margareta, and Theodore. Johann
was born in 1873. Mary was born 18 September 1876. Franz Joseph was born in 26
July, 1880 There was likely little family wealth to be divided among the two
brothers, their wives, and the combined family of seven children.
Life
was not so perfect at that time in Germany. The government was becoming more
militaristic. There was conscription into the military. There were conflicts
that needed soldiers. And too, there must not have been a very good economy
since, of course, so many German workers left. It must have been a difficult
time because so many Germany workers traveled to a far away, strange American
land.
As
well as the economic times and the lack of family wealth, in 1881 Ted had these
issues consider:
1)
Both of
Ted’s parents had died; the father had died 17 years before, the mother’s
death was 8 years before,
2)
One of
Ted’s sisters had died, Hendrina,
3)
Ted had
four children and a wife to support,
4)
His
half-sister, Anna, had married to Henry Overfeld and moved to the State of Ohio
in the USA. In 1881, Anna was a widow, since her husband, Henry Overfeld, had
died the year before, in 1880.
5)
His
Hagelstein cousins were in America.
Ohio Wants Coal Miners:
However, in the growing economy, more laborers, especially coal miners, were needed. Coal miners worker unions were being formed to improve the working conditions. And, as a special concern to both workers and the companies, in early 1880’s there were several coalminer strikes. The coal companies wanted to break the strike and break the unions; to do this they had to look outside of the area for more workers.
The
southeast Ohio firm named “Sunday
Creek Coal Company” sent representatives to Germany to find more miners. The
company promised each immigrant worker a passage to America for him and his
family, a good job and a place for his family to live.
Ted’s
area of Germany had coal mines. Today, there is a coalminer memorial in
Kapellen and there is also a coal miner’s labor union memorial plaque in the
local pub. We might assume the
coal miners had meetings in the “Drei Kronin Hof(?)” or “Three Crowns”
pub in Kapellen. Ted learned about the Sunday Creek Coal Company job
opportunity and decided to move the family to the USA.
Photo of the Summer Festival Parade in Kapellen, 1995. The local coal miner's (wearing black coats) are marching as a group.
Certainly
it must have been a difficult decision to compare to less than perfect life in
Germany with a difficult voyage and an unknown future in another land. And,
with a wife and children, the decision must have been very difficult.
Travel to USA:
For
example, a similar ship, the Russia,
made the voyage in 1884 from England to New York in about 6 days, 9 hours.
The
“Helca” ship records show the
Korting’s head of the family “Theo”, age 31. The occupation of “Theo”
was written the ship’s log as “MNR” or miner. Noted in the ship’s log
was his wife, Anna, (age) 33, “Theod” (age) 11 Infant male, “Franz”
(age) 8, Child male, “Cath” (age) 5 child Female.
Our
family records show these births prior the trip to the USA and there
approximate age in 1881:
Joannes
(Franciscus?) Korting born 1873, age 8 in 1881
Mary
(Margaretha) Korting born 1876, age 5 in 1881
Franz
Joseph Korting, born 1880, age less than 1 year in 1881
The ship’s information and the ages are a little interesting. Ted was born in 1850, so an age of 31 is correct. Anna was really called Marie Catherine Klassen before her marriage, so the name “Anna” in the ship’s log is a little strange. Our information shows that Franz was born in 1880. In 1881, he would have been closer to 8 months old. And, “Cath” age 5 may have been “Margaretha Korting”, born about 1876.
It
is possible that the ship’s log’s information was written in the to book
from which we found the data. To correct the ship’s log (or the person that
entered the data into the book we read) here are the adjustments:
Theo
(father)
same name
Anna
(mother)
Marie (sometimes Mary) Catherine
Franz
(age 8)
Johannes (age 8)
Theod
(no age)
Franz (age 11 months)
Cath
(no age)
Mary (age 5)
Also
written in the Helca ship records was
Albert Heuseler (This name is likely handwritten incorrectly for “Henseler”).
The two spellings, Hensler (modern spelling) and Henseler (older spelling) both
appear in the modern Hensler family records.
Albert
traveled on the Helca without any other family members. We know that
Albert Hensler’s wife had a baby girl, Helena, in October of 1881 in Germany,
the same month he arrived in the USA. Later, in the spring of 1882, Albert’s
wife and children would arrive from Germany. Helena, 23 years later, in June
1904, married Franz Joseph Korting.
It
is not known where the Hensler’s lived in Germany, although “along the
River Rhine” and Düsseldorf are both mentioned as places the Hensler’s
knew or lived near.
And
also, the name “Johann Bossman” is also on the same ship. It is possible
that Mr. Bossman’s son “John Bossman” would later marry another daughter
of Albert Hensler.
It
is about 500 miles (800km) from the harbor in Philadelphia Pennsylvania to the
Corning Ohio area. The modern people of Corning have told stories about how
some of the arriving immigrants came by “flatcar” with wooded seats (a
flatcar is railroad car with no roof and no sides). The wooden seats (stools)
had no backs and must have been uncomfortable. It must have been a slow, cold
trip in October 1881 for those 800km over the Appalachians Mountains of
Pennsylvania. It is good that the Appalachians Mountains are only about 1,000
to 1,400m high where the railroad would travel.
Initially,
the Korting family settled in a nearby village of Buckingham. In 1884, there
were Korting two children buried in the Buckingham Cemetery. Later, after 1884,
its seems that none of the Korting’s were buried in Corning or nearby.
More American Children for Ted and Marie Catherine
Korting:
In
February 1885, Anna Korting, was born. She must have been named after her older
sister, the twin, who had died just six months before.
Theodore
Korting was born to Ted and Mary in 1887. Some records show him as Theodore
Junior. However, his father’s German birth records show also that his father’s
name as “Joannes Theodorus Korting”. Of course, Johann Theodore (born 1850)
had a father named Johann (born 1799) so Ted (born 1850) name became just “Theodore”
or Theo. None of the USA
information showed “Johann” as the real first name of the “Ted” born in
1850, nor do the USA records show a middle name for Ted.
Ted and
Mary Living in USA:
The 1900
USA census shows that they owned their home in Corning. (That home has since
been removed to enlarge the highway down the middle of the town).
Click here for a photo of the family about 1904
Ted
was a coal miner for some years. About 1907 Ted and Mary moved to Saginaw
Michigan, about 600km from Corning, Ohio. There were coalmines in that area of
Michigan, and we assume some of the family initially worked in the coalmines.
Later
in Michigan, when Ted was older, he became a shoe maker (shoe repairer). Of
course, in those days, every head of the household repaired shoes to some
degree. The old English word for shoemaker is shoe “cobbler”.
Because we now have a photo of Ted repairing shoes, we sometimes call
him “Ted the Cobbler”.
Ted’s
wife Marie Catherine died in 1910 of “Paralysis”. She died and was buried
in Saginaw Michigan, near her son’s Ted’s home. Her death papers show her
name as Mary Catherine Korting.
At
the time of Mary’s death in 1910, the obituary said that she had:
1)
Sons
John and Franz living in Corning, Ohio,
2)
One son
Theodore living in Saginaw Michigan, and
3)
Two
daughters were living in Saginaw Michigan.
Ted
died 14 January 1928, at the age of 77 years. He died while visiting his son
Franz (Frank) in Corning Ohio. He is buried next to his wife in a cemetery
Saginaw Michigan.
Notes about
living in Corning, Ohio
in the 1800s:
The
company houses were often make quickly with green wood. Certainly the houses
looked good when new, but with age, cracks appeared. To keep the wind and
weather out, it is said that the wives had to close the holes in the green wood
with mud and straw.
There
was no highway to the outside world from Corning until 1923, or about 40 years
after the Kortings arrived. Before the road was completed, one traveled to
nearby villages on foot, often by the walking on the train tracks. If one had
the money to purchase a train ticket, then travel to the outside world was by
the train. The area was too hilly for making water canals and there are no
nearby rivers.
The
first auto in Corning came in about 1917. It was a steam auto and it was driven
into town on the railroad tracks. A rich railroad owner owned this first auto.
Notes about
Each Child of Ted and Mary and their family:
1. John
was the oldest son. In 1894, son
John, at age 21, became a USA citizen and had renounced his allegiance to “Emperor
Willhelm” (of Germany) whose “was
subject he was”.
He moved to Montana in the early 1900’s, sometime after 1910. It is thought that he had a disagreement with his brother Frank. However, if that were singularly true, he could have easily moved to Michigan to be near his father, his brother and two sisters.
John Korting worked in the gold mines in Marysville,
Montana area. Marysville may be about 2,500km from Corning. John had two
children. John (born 1873) has no surviving family except an adopted grandson.
One daughter in law, Ann Korting, is likely still living in Montana.
2.
Frank was the middle son. He married Helena Hensler on June 7, 1904.
They had eight children. He worked in a coal mine in the Corning area until
1910 when an electrical accident happened. He as burned on the neck with an
electrical wire and he missed months of work. Next he worked on the railroad as
a “railcar inspector”. Frank has now about 400 to 500 living descendents,
mostly in Ohio. He died in 1947 of cancer; likely caused by tobacco.
3. Theodore was the youngest son. Ted got married and moved to Michigan about 1907 to get better work. His wife was Elizabeth Anna Kocks. Elizabeth Kocks Korting was born in 1888 in Buer Westphalia, Germany. Ted (born 1887) now has about 78 known descendents. Most of these descendents live in Michigan, however 22 descendents are living in California.
4. Mary Korting married John Neuhaus in Corning, Ohio in 1896. They too moved to Saginaw Michigan. They have 96 living descendents, mostly living in Michigan.
5. Anne Korting married Frank Igel. The Igel family was also from Germany. Frank Igel managed the “Mt Calvary” Roman Catholic Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. Several of the young family members got jobs in the Mt. Calvary cemetery, including William Korting (born 1910). Today, this Igel family group is also from 200 to 400 people.
About Kapellen Germany:
Kapellen is northwest of Düsseldorf between the cities of Xanten and
Geldern. It is about 15 miles, or
about 30km from the Dutch border and about the same distance to the great Rhine
River.
The
local dialect has some Dutch and Dutch-like words.
Today Kapellen has about 2,000 people. Kapellen was an independent town until about 20 years ago. As an independent town it had its own Burgermeister. Kapellen now shares a Burgermeister with Geldern (population about 25,000) and about 5 other nearby small villages. Geldern is where the mayor (Burgermeister) of Kapellen now has his office.
The
last Kapellen Burgermeister was Johann (Hans) Korting.
Genealogy and Other Notes:
There
was one visit by Kapellen Kortings to USA in 1995. There have been five visits
by USA Kortings to Germany. Today there are some USA Kortings that speak
German; and too, some of the German Korting’s speak English.
There
is a Korting genealogy web site. It is operated by Leo Korting of Hilversom
Netherlands. The best Genealogy Researcher of the European Korting clan is Nell
Korting Jansen, of Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Besides
Germany, there have been contacts with related Kortings that now live in South
Africa, Australia, England, and Netherlands.
Document Authors: John and Bill Korting, Columbus, Ohio. Telephone John at 614-457-7741 and Bill at 614-291-0720.
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