Ida Birky

Notes:

Birth:
November, according to gravestone

Died:
May, according to gravestone

Buried:
Groveland Evangelical Mennonite Cemetery

Daniel + Mary Hochstettler. Mary (daughter of Jacob Hochstettler and Elizabeth Ropp) was born on 10 Jun 1864; died on 28 Dec 1946. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Mary E. Hochstettler married Daniel Birky - her brother Dan's wife's brother. Together Dan and Mary farmed for forty-five years on good land two miles southwest of Morton. They had three children, Clara, Ida and Edwin. After Dan's death in 1927, Mary stayed on the farm. Her son Edwin and his wife lived near Mary. Mary died in 1946 at the age of eighty-two.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Naturalization: 1856?, Tazewell Co., IL
• Occupation: Farmer
• Reference Number: 171
• Religion: Amish Mennonite
• Immigration: 23 Sep 1845, Le Havre to New York
• Census: 1850, Tazewell Co., IL

Notes:

LANDES MENNONITE CEMETERY
On July 25, 1864, Joseph purchased a 5.5-acre timberland parcel at Elm Grove from Andreas/Andrew Birky and Catherine Litwiller. This added a strip along the south edge of his original Groveland land. The land was situated just north of a place on Dillon Creek where baptisms were held by the Pleasant Grove congregation.
After the trees were cleared, one-half acre was set aside to be used as a burial ground for the Pleasant Grove congregation. When the first five families bought portions from the congregation, it created Landes Mennonite Cemetery (also called Landes-Birky Cemetery).

Birth:
11.Oktober 1822 born Andreas Birki - normal birth with midwife N. Gunzler in Nymphenburg.
Father: Valentin Birki, Anabaptist leaseholder from Unterweilbach, No. 17
Mother: Elisabeth Hunzicker, farmer’s daughter from Wiesloch nearby Heidelberg

Naturalization:
Declaration of Intent for Naturalization (Rec. #1-201) in Tazewell Co., IL for an Andréas Birkey, dated 25/28 Jan 1856. This Andréas was “born in Willbach, Bavaria, and arrived at port of NY in 1846.”

Immigration:
Magdaleine Burki, 22, with husband Jean Ackermann, 26, and son Joseph, 1 yr, on the ship Emerald from La Havre, with Master Howe. Traveling with them was André Burki, 24 (Magdalena’s cousin, Andrew Birky (Valentine's son). Also with the group from Bavaria (all farmers) was George Eichelberger, 29.


Census:
Andrew Burkie, 22; Catherine, 18

Andréas married Catherine Litwiller on 20 Jun 1848 in Tazewell Co., IL. Catherine (daughter of Peter Litwiller and Marie Mosiman) was born on 28 Jul 1832 in Butler Co., OH; died on 24 Aug 1870 in Tazewell Co., IL; was buried in Tazewell Co., IL. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Reference Number: 180

Notes:

Birth:
1850 Tazewell Co., IL census gives place of birth as Germany: 1860 census lists place of birth as IL; 1870 lists place of birth as OH.

Buried:
Landes Cemetery

Jacob + Elizabeth Ropp. Elizabeth (daughter of Bishop Andrew Ropp and Jacobina Vercler) was born on 27 Oct 1837; died on 16 Sep 1881; was buried in Elm Grove Twp., Tazewell Co., IL. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Buried:
Railroad Cemetery

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: In Europe A Bauer (Farmer), In US A Farmer
• Reference Number: 36
• Religion: Amish
• Residence: Bef 1803, Völlerdingen, Alsace, FR
• Residence: ? 1803, Riedenburg, Bavaria, GR
• Residence: 1813, Dachau, Munich, Bavaria, GR
• PURC: 1825, Dachau, Munich, Bavaria, GR
• Residence: 1815 - 1828, Dachau, Munich, Bavaria, GR
• Immigration: 31 May 1828, Dachau, Munich, Bavaria, GR
• Residence: 1830, Pellheim, Bavaria, GR
• PURC: 8 Mar 1833, Gern, Munich, Bavaria, GR
• PURC: 15 Apr 1841, Ludwigsfeld, Bavaria, GR
• Death: 12 Aug 1848, Gern, Munich, Bavaria, GR
• Residence: 1831-1849, Gern, Munich, Bavaria, GR
• Immigration: 21 Jun 1849, NY
• Census: 1850, Morton Twp., Tazewell Co., IL
• Residence: 1860, Morton, Tazewell Co., IL

Notes:

Valentine, father of thirteen children, all of whom emigrated to America, although not all at the same time, lived in Gern, Bavaria, when his children were born. The year after his wife died, Valentine, with some of his family came to America. He left Gern near Munich, Bavaria with five children, and with 10,000 fl., one of the larger amounts taken out of the country--much more than most immigrants. His brother Christian took the same amount. Valentine was of the "Little Red" Birky's. The family’s emigration is documented in Friedrich Blendinger’s material (the emigration to North America from the governmental district Upper Bavaria in the years 1846-1852, in: ZBLG (magazine for Bavarian national history) 27 (1964), p. 431-487. The magazine is on line with full text.

Birth:
Probably born at either Lutterbacherhof or Buscherhof (both near Sarre-Union and Rimsdorf). Lutterbacherhof is now a part of the Cultural Heritage Inventory Department Palais du Rhin. See https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/merimee/IA67006033

Residence:
Lutterbacherhof, near Saar-Union/Saarbrücken, FR

Residence:
Lived on rented farms with brother Andreas (Country court Riedenburg [Flugelsberg]), and with Christian (in County Court Munich.
Google translation :
Gern and Riedenburg
lt. deed of citizenship of
In 1828 he stayed until about 1815
with his brother on the
Wing mountain.

Residence:
Unterweilbach tenant, of Court Spreti, near Dachau.

PURC:
Purchased an estate in Arzbach from his brother Christian.

Residence:
Tenant at Unterweilbach.

Immigration:
Received France to Bavaria immigration permit. ”Here appears Valentin Bircky from Lutterbach in Alsace, 34 years old, father of seven children, five boys, and two girls, the oldest 13 years of age, the youngest two years of age, asking for permission to emigrate.”

Residence:
Arzbach estate (about 2 miles north of the center of Pellheim) called Schloss Pellheim.

PURC:
Purchased Kandler farm estate, house No 3 from Joseph Stalter, Elisabeth’s step-father.

PURC:
Mayerrhof, house No. 8, called “Wurzer estate in Ludwigsfeld near Munich, and Dachau.

Death:
Death of wife Elisabeth Unzicker

Residence:
Valentin moved with his family to his father-in-law living in Gern near Munich

Immigration:
Via Liverpool on ship Minnesota. Evidently the family was originally booked to depart with ship agent Karl Dick from Augsburg via Mannheim-LaHavre-New York. Plans must have changed since they ultimately arrived on the ship Minnesota, via Liverpool to New York.

Census:
Age 67, living with son Joseph and Barbara (Eigsti) Birky; also living there was Christian Springer, laborer.

Residence:
Year of his death

Buried:
Birky-Landes Cemetery, personal visit, Plot #36 on cemetery map dated 8/12/2013

Valentin married Elisabeth Unzicker (Hunsiker) in 1812 in Munich, Bavaria, GR. Elisabeth (daughter of Unzicker (Hunsicker) and Magdalena Nafziger) was born in 1796 in Breimthal, Heidelberg, Bavaria, GR; died on 12 Aug 1848 in Gern, Munich, Bavaria, GR; was buried on 15 Aug 1848 in Gern, Munich, Bavaria, GR. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Reference Number: 37
• Religion: Mennonite
• USR1: Stroke

Notes:

Unzicker, originally Hunzicker= from Hunzicken, Canton Bern. The initial H was probably lost during a stay in France where an H is not pronounced at the beginning of a word.

















More likely, Elizabeth could have been a sister to Daniel b. 1798 who married Magdalena Kahn.}

Birth:
Near Wieslock and Heidelberg

Died:
Farmer’s wife, at age 54, on her father’s farm

Buried:
Gern Mennonite Cemetery

Notes:

Settlement of Valentine’s estate lists Joseph first and Jacob seond--the rest in the same order as here.

Married:
about 1812-1813 - 2,500 Guilders given to the bride and groom on the occasion of their marriage by the bride’s family.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: Butler Co., OH
• Residence: Tazewell Co., IL
• Immigration: 4 Dec 1830, New Orleans, LA

Notes:

Immigration:
After 53 days

Peter + Marie Mosiman. Marie (daughter of Joseph Mosiman and Anne Marie Zwalter) was born in 1807 in FR; died in 1871. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth:
1808 (according to Michael Holler)

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Farmer, minister and bishop
• Religion: Amish
• Census: 1870, Tremont, Elm Grove Twp., Tazewell Co., IL

Notes:

Ministers at Andrew’s funeral were Joseph Springer, Chr. Naffzinger, Andrew Buerky and Jacob Naffziger of Tazewell County and Joseph Buerky of Bureau Co. in the meetinghouse, and by J.P. Schmitt of Livingston Co. at the grave.

Owned land near Johannes Schrock and family in Tazewell Co., IL. Were the beginning of the Dillon Creek Amish settlement in 1834 when they settled 4 miles southeast of Pekin on Old State Rd.
—————————
“Smoking a pipe was the common lot of men where the Ropp’s came from and each one of the old men did more or less piping. You’d expect energetic Andrew to be the heaviest smoker. He was. When he went on the road it was whip in one hand, reins in the other, the old pipe puffing along. Perhaps part of its companionship was that it gave him something to do.

“He was about average height (about five feet nine inches tall) and apparently never weighed over 165 pounds. His hair and beard were always cut true Amish man style. At that he could always say to the brethren, do as I do, and to the sister, do as mother does, and they would never need to wander away after strange fashion plates....

“When their daughters and sons married, each of them was given a farm....”
———————

According to Steve Estes in Living Stones: A History of the Metamora Mennonite Church, Andréw “served as minister of the Dillon Creek Congregation until about 1840 when he was ordained as bishop. He was described as a person made up on a ‘a large measure of push and energy and prompt decision, driven by a wish to succeed in building up a home and accumulating property.’ Ropp was an agricultural innovator but a religious conservative. His sincerity inspired deep devotion among many, but others criticized him as a minister who did more scolding, fault finding, and preaching on ‘dress,’ than preaching the Gospel. Ropp was assisted in the ministry by Peter Ropp (1815-1893) who became deacon about 1843 and Valentine Birky (1817-1856) who was ordained a minister of the word about 1847. Also known as the Pekin district, the Dillon Creek Congregation became the Pleasant Grove Mennonite Church now part of the First Mennonite Church in Morton, Illinois.”

Census:
Andrew age 63, farmer, born in France; wife Jacobine age 60, keeping house; child Andrew age 19, farmer, born Illinois.

Buried:
ite Cemetery

Andrew married Jacobina Vercler on 10 Apr 1834. Jacobina (daughter of Joseph Verkler, Sr. and Catherine Ringenberg) was born on 27 Apr 1811; died on 24 Jul 1885; was buried in Tremont, Elm Grove Twp., Tazewell Co., IL. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Buried:
Pleasant Grove Mennonite Cemetery

Notes:

Married:
by Christian Engel