The early Barkmeyer ancestors lived in the district of Osnabrück Germany (Lower Saxony, Germany) in the farming community of Buer.  This region in northwestern Germany is approximately 108 kilometers southwest of Hannover, Germany. Philipp Barkmeyer, who was married to Anna Maria Quelle, lived in Buer in the late 1790s. Their youngest son, Johann Matthias Barkmeyer, was born in 1796 and was baptized in the nearby town of Riemsloh (Lower Saxony, Germany), just south of Buer, in the Catholic Church of Riemsloh.

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Philipp and Anna Maria (Quelle) Barkmeyer lived in Buer with at least three children – the oldest probably Christian Barkmeyer (born around 1776 and died October 27, 1848), Anna Maria Elisabeth Barkmeyer (born about 1789 and died January 3, 1819) and the youngest Johann Matthias Barkmeyer (born December 2, 1796 and died in 1857).

Philipp was not a wealthy man. He owned no real estate, neither a house nor dwelling of any kind, nor any field or other land.  He moved around, always on the lookout for opportunities to maintain his family. It was difficult to make a living and support his family. He was a spinner by trade. A spinner produces long thread by joining and twisting thin flax fibers and usually using a spindle or spinning wheel.  He would have lived in a small dwelling that he was provided on the farm where he worked. Philipp Barkmeyer died in the early 1800s and his wife Anna Maria seemed to have survived him.

Christian Barkmeyer, son of Philipp and Anna Maria (Quelle) Barkmeyer, married three times.  He married his first wife, Anna Maria Margaretha Kellerman, in 1803 and she died in 1817.  He then married Anna Maria Brinkmann in 1818 and, after she died in 1831, he married Maria Elisabeth Schmit in 1833.

Christian and his first wife Anna Maria Margaretha (Kellerman) Barkmeyer had seven children including Franz Carl (Johann Franz Carl) Barkmeyer.  Of the seven children, five appeared to have reached adulthood with one dying at the age of four months in 1816 and a six year old dying of “fever in the chest” in November 1817 one month before his mother’s death.  Anna Maria died of “cramps” in December of 1817 at the age of 38 years.

With Christian’s second marriage to Anna Maria (Brinkmann) Barkmeyer, they also had seven children with only one surviving to adulthood.  A nine month old died of dysentery in 1819, a two year old died in 1823, and then the two youngest children died on March 21, 1831 - a two year old of consumption (TB) and a one month old of “cramps”.  Mother Anna Maria (Brinkmann) Barkmeyer died a month after her two youngest children died, at the age of 44 of “nervous fever” in April 1831. Her older sons both later contracted dysentery and died a few weeks apart in October 1841 at 19 and 17 years of age. Christian Barkmeyer had no children with his third wife Maria Elisabeth (Schmit) Barkmeyer.

Franz Carl (Johann Franz Carl) Barkmeyer was born February 5, 1814 in Riemsloh, Germany and died in Westendorf, Germany on July 31, 1871.  He was the sixth child of Christian and his first wife Anna Maria Margaretha (Kellerman) Barkmeyer.

Franz Carl married Maria Catharina Schulte on October 3, 1837.  She was a widow and nearly 10 years older than him.  Her first husband Johann Henrich Möller died of consumption (TB) at only 33 years of age on January 4, 1837.  She had four children with Johann Henrich Möller of which none survived, all dying before one and one-half years of age.  Johann was a hireling at the Wissmann farm in Westendorf, Germany.  The Möller family lived in a cottage on the Wissmann farm (cottage #12).  The cottage still stands to this day.

By TUBS, CC BY-SA 3.0
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It can be assumed that after her first husband’s death, Maria Catharina was allowed to stay in the cottage.  However, it can also be assumed that she certainly had to find a new husband quickly, so that the farmer Wissmann could use him as a hireling.  Franz Carl Barkmeyer took this opportunity, married Maria Catharina, moved into cottage #12 on the Westendorf farm, and worked as a hireling for Mr. Wissmann.  Franz Carl Barkmeyer remained there all his life until he died in 1871.  Unlike many other hirelings, Franz Carl did not change his farmer, nor did the farmer ask him to leave.  This indicates that Franz Carl was an industrious laborer and that the two families maintained a good relationship through the years.  The latter is supported by the fact that members of the Wissmann family acted as godparents to several of Franz Carl Barkmeyer’s children and witnesses to Barkmeyer marriages.

Cottage #12 – Barkmeyer Home on Wissmann Farm - Westendorf, Germany

Franz Carl and Maria Catharina (Schulte) Barkmeyer had three children: Anna Maria, Johann Friedrich and Ferdinand Friedrich.  Maria Catharina died of consumption (TB) in 1850 leaving behind her widower with three children (ages of 11, 7 and 1 year).  Franz Carl remarried Anna Elisabeth Huning from Altenmelle (near Riemsloh), with whom he had another three children. None survived; they all died of weakness at the age of one to seven months.

Franz Carl and Maria Catharina (Schulte) Barkmeyer’s daughter Anna Maria married the hireling Georg Heinrich Böhne and they had five children.  There is no additional information about this family. They must have left Westendorf and the parish of Riemshoh.

Franz Carl and Maria Catharina (Schulte) Barkmeyer’s youngest son Ferdinand Friedrich died of an inflammation of the brain at the age of 37 years in Westendorf on July 20, 1886.  It is assumed that he died a bachelor since no record of marriage or children has been found.

Franz Carl and Maria Catharina (Schulte) Barkmeyer’s oldest son Johann Friedrich Barkmeyer was born at the Wissmann cottage #12 in Westendorf on December 1, 1886.  Johann Friedrich Barkmeyer married Maria Catharina Tepe on September 25, 1866.

Maria Catharina was born in Krukum, Germany on January 7, 1846.  Her parents were Johann Heinrich Tepe and Maria Elisabeth Schnitker.  During his professional life Johann Heinrich Tepe worked as a hireling and bricklayer at various farms in the Riemsloh area.  His wife Maria Elisabeth Schnitker (mother of Maria Catharina Tepe) was born on the Schnitker farm in Krukum.  This was a small farm that was owned by the Schnitker family for several generations.

Of note, it was Maria Elisabeth Schnitker’s mother, Anna Maria Theresia Schnitker, who had inherited the farm.  According to local customs, her husband Johann Heinrich Massmann – because he moved to her farm – dropped his last name of Massmann and adopted the farm name of Schnitker.  That also happened one generation earlier, when Anna Maria Theresia’s mother, Margaretha Elisabeth Schnitker, heir to the Schnitker farm, married Bernhard Heinrich Schnück, whose last name was changed from Schnück to Schnitker.

Like his father, Johann Friedrich Barkmeyer worked on the Wissmann farm and lived at the cottage near the Wissmann farmhouse.

In 1887, Johann Friedrich Barkmeyer’s eldest son Franz Ferdinand, being 20 years of age, left Westendorf and immigrated to the United States of America and settled near Exeter, Nebraska.

Ferdinand Friedrich Wissmann, the 72 year old farmer died on May 19, 1888. According to the current owner of the former Wissmann farm, Mr. Lagemann, Wissmann had two sons.  The eldest son took over the farm and the younger Wissmann son immigrated to the United States.*  The farm heir died during World War I and his widow remarried Mr. Lagemann’s grandfather, which is how his family came into possession of the property.

*Note: Christian "Henry" Wiszmann and Mary (Polzin) Wiszmann homesteaded near Exeter, Nebraska. The Wissmann surname transitioned to Wiszmann in America. Henry and Mary Wiszmann had 14 children. Two of their daughters married sons of Johann Friedrich and Maria Catharina (Tepe) Barkmeyer. Anna Catharine married Georg Heinrich on September 24, 1896 in Exeter, Nebraska and Clara Elizabeth married Friederich August on October 4, 1916.  Leo Ekeler, son of Johann Friedrich and Maria Catharina's daughter, Anna Maria (Barkmeyer) Ekeler, (Anna Maria married Frank Ekeler who immigrated to Exeter area from Melle, Germany) related that the family of Johann Friedrich and Maria Catharina (Tepe) Barkmeyer initially stayed with the Henry Wiszmanm family on a farm northwest of Exeter following immigration to the United States.

On December 29, 1888 Johann Friedrich Barkmeyer requested the authorities’ consent for his family’s immigration to the United States of America.  The request was granted on January 29, 1889. The Barkmeyer family departed Bremen, Germany on February 27, 1889 on the S/S Lahn.  They arrived at Ellis Island, New York on March 8, 1889 and went through the immigration process.

S/S Lahn

Immigration information from Ellis Island, New York:
Family Freidr. BARKMEYER, 47, wife Anna 46, Heinr. 19, Georg 10, August 7, Anna 6, Johannes 4, Wilhelm 3, Friedrich 10 mo – all from Riemsloh, Germany.

Family of Johann Friedrich and Maria Catharina (Tepe) Barkmeyer

Top Row: Franz Ferdinand Barkmeyer, Heinrich Matthias Barkmeyer, Georg Heinrich Barkmeyer and Franz August Barkmeyer
Middle Row: Anna Maria Barkmeyer, Maria Catharina (Tepe) Barkmeyer, Johann Friedrich Barkmeyer and  Johann Ferdinand Barkmeyer
Front Row: Friedrich Wilhelm Barkmeyer and Friedrich August Barkmeier

THE EARLY BARKMEYER

 FAMILY TREE

(Note: Yellow highlight shows direct lineage to Barkmeyer/Barkmeier family
 who immigrated to the United States and settled near Exeter, Nebraska.)