Amos Rudolf Ludwig Moll
(1836 - 1917)
Amos Rudolf Ludwig Moll was born on October 13, 1836, in Rothen Klempnow, Prussia, or what is now known as the norhteast corner of (East) Germany. His father, Ludwig Wilhelm Moll, was a carpenter, and his mother was Christine Frederike Charolotte Herzfeld. At the time of his birth he had a seven year old sister, by the name of Bertha Christine Albertine Emilie Moll. Three years later his parents had another son, which they named Johannes.
Amos and his family were a part of the group of Lutheran immigrants who left Prussia, and came to the U.S. in 1843. Amos was six years old at the time. He traveled from his home in Rothen Klemnow by boat to Hamburg with his parents, his sister Bertha, then fourteen, and his brother, Johannes, three years old.
Together with 137 other passengers, he left for New York, aboard the bark Kammonham Roy on June 20, 1843. The 59 day trip was spent with much seasickness and hymn singing. All Lutherans coming to America in 1843 were steerage passengers; that is, they were quartered below the main deck in a large open area that was not subdivided by partitions. Wooden sleeping bunks were stacked three deep along the sides. Limited cooking could be done in one corner of the steerage deck. The cost of the trip from Hamburg to New York for steerage passengers was about 27 taler (dollars).
Amos' mother was pregnant at the time, and on July 18th, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Maria Theresa. The arrival date of the Kammonham Roy to New York City was August 18, 1843. The Lutheran group did not stay here more than a day or two, since there was no established reception center or formal immigration service, and things in New York City were expensive. They were also unaccustomed to the noise and bustle of the big city, especially since they knew no English.
The group took a boat down the Erie Canal to Buffalo, where the families were taken to a settlement house, prepared by Lutheran families already living in Buffalo. These new families organized themselves into a Lutheran Evangelical Association. They decided to purchase 2120 acres in Wheatfield, Niagara County. The settlement was called New Bergholz. It was divided into 121 one-acre building lots and a public square and church property. Each male member of the Associatin, age 21 and over, received one of the 121 parcels in the village. The selection was entirely by lot, so that no one would have unfair advantage. Amos' father owned farm lot #83. The cost ranged from 9 to 15 dollars depending on the location.
Contrary to the practice then prevalent in Prussia, where all homes were located inside the village, many Bergholz settlers chose to build their homes on land they had acquired outside the village. This was part of an economic plan by which they also cleared their vacant village lots of trees and underbrush. Several yeras later they sold these lots to the newly arrived Lutheran immigrants from Prussia. The village lots which had cost them an average of 12 dollars now netted tham 80 to 100 dollars each. In this way the poorer families were able to pay back the travel money they had borrowed and also pay off what they owed for the land they bought. Because of these dealings, however, by 1859 only 9 of the original 121 village lots were still occupied by the same settlers who had owned them in 1843.
In 1859 Amos was 23 years old. That year, on November 30, in the Holy Ghost Church of Bergholz, New York, he married Justine Marie Beccue, age 22, also from Bergholz, New York. Justine was born in Prussia, to Peter Beccue and Maria Westphal. Her family had immigrated to the U.S. in 1857. However, only her mother landed on U.S. shores because her father died of cholera enroute to America and was buried at sea. On May 11, 1861 Justine gave birth to their first daughter, Albertine Marie, in New Bergholz, New York.
Because of the continued migration of Prussian Lutherans to Western New York, available farmland became so limited that by the mid-1850s many families were seeking land for settlement in states farther west. Several families moved at this time to Michigan.
As the Lutheran population in Western New York increase, so did the disunity caused by Pastor Grabau's domineering conduct of the Buffalo Synod. Grabau, as head of the Synod, had chosen to run church matters in the strict manner of a European bishop. He claimed absolute authority which extended even to the personal lives of church members. While his purpose was to safeguard doctrinal purity, his administration practices caused increasing tension in the congregations. Serious conflicts erupted in 1859 when Grabau required his pastors to have each of their church members contribute "a cent a month" to the Buffalo Synod treasury. This levy was to help pay off the remaining debt on the Martin Luther Seminary building which Grabau had erected in Buffalo five years before. Many congregation members bitterly objected to what they considered a tax imposed by Grabau.
Besides the increasing church dissension, New York residents also felt a growing anxiety over the slavery issue. The secret Underground Railway actiivties which helped slaves escape to Canada were going on along the Niagara River only a few miles away. Also, talk of an impending Civil War disturbed especially those parents whose sons were of military service age. These concerns added to the feeling of general unrest among the farm families who lacked sufficient usable land, intensified their urge to move west. Substantial purchases of farmland would be made in central Illinois, eastern Minnesota and central Michigan. The most extensive of these new communities was established in central Illinois around what later became the city of Altamont.
The following article explains how Amos and Justine Moll moved to the Illinois region in the spring of 1862. The article was written by Mr. B.F. Kagay, Sr., an attorney of Effingham County, Illinois, supervisors. It appeared in "The Effingham Democrat" newspaper of June 18, 1897, and reads as follows:
"We find on investigation, that at Bergholz, a village near Buffalo, New York, in the spring of 1860, at a meeting held here, it was resolved that a committee be selected to go West and look up a place to emigrate to, for the purpose of permanent settlement. Samual Yagow, August Wolf and Erdman Wurl were at said meeting and selected as such committee.
"Money was raised to pay the expences of this committee. They traveled over several states hunting for good country to settle in and finally the company entered into contract with the Illinois Central Railroad Company for the purchase of 5,000 acres of prairie land in Mound and West Townships, and also 600 acres of timberland in the same townships, the company paying $6.00 per acre payable in four, five, six and seven years.
"The committee reported their acts to the society in Bergholz, a plot of land was made, and in the center of the same a 40 acre tract was reserved for church, school and cemetery. Fifteeen acres was laid off and named Bethlehem. The land was divided into 40, 80, 120 and 160 acre lots, before any of the stockholders had seen it.
"In the spring of 1861 the first emigrants started for Effingham County from this emigrant society. They were George Duckwitz, William Deshem, Carl Zaknow, Godfried Hoffmeister, Fredrick Wolf, John Laatsch and brother Christian.
"They commenced fencing and breaking the prairie to fit it for cultivation. In the spring the remainder of the company came and settled on thier land in West and Mound Townships. After that time many settlers came from other states.
"Many came direct from the country so all the land within five or six miles of the church was taken and settled."
In the spring of 1862, Amos took the challenge to move to the new farm land in Illinois. He and his wife and daughter were among the remaining families of the association to move to the Bethlehem Church Community in Mound Township of Effingham County, Illinois. The village of Bethlehem was subdivided into building lots in anticipation of the railroad coming through there. However, these hopes never materialized and the intended building lots reverted to farmland.
The farming conditions this group encounterd in Illinois were much different from what they had faced in New York. There were no trees to uproot, no rocks to remove and no swamps to drain. But breaking up the tough prairie sod required much unanticipated effort and hard work before cultivation could begin. These settlers were completely unaccustomed to the absence of trees and sorely missed the shade they provided. So they planted trees around their houses and marked the boundaries of their farm land by planting hedgerows of trees along them. Until their fields could be brought under cultivation, they became quite weary of the incessant waving of the tall prairie grass as far as the eye could see. Because the acreage of farms in Illinois was many times greater than it had been in New York, the farm family's closest neighbors were much farther away, even a half mile or more. All this added loneliness and homesickness to the physical hardships that had to be endured in the earliest settlement years.
The farmer's tools probably consisted of grubbing hoe, axe, and saw to clear the land. His farming equipment would have included a walking plow, harrow or drag, some crude kind of planting equipment for sowing wheat or planting corn, a sythe or cradle for harvesting, and a wagon. He kept oxen or horses to pull his implements and several cows and hogs to provide milk and meat for his family.
Soon after they arrived from New York, Justine became pregnant with their second child. It was here, in their new Illinois home, of Mound Township, Effingham County, that their second son John Amos Moll was born on May 2, 1863. In the following years they had four more children. Augusta Mary Moll was born on July 21, 1865. William was born in the year 1868. In the 1870 U.S. Census, William was two years old, but he did not live much beyond infancy. Martha was born on January 8, 1871, and Mary was born in October of 1873.
In the 1870 census, the value of Amos and Justine's real estate was $1,000 and their personal property was listed as worth $340. Although the children did attend school, it was for a short time only in these days since they were needed on the farm. The girls probably went to school until they were about 10 years old and then worked at home. John, being the only boy was attending school even at age 17, but also worked on the farm.
According to the 1880 U.S. Census, Amos, then 43 years old, was a farmer living in Mound Township, Effingham County, Illinois, with his wife, Justine, age 42. Living with them were their children, Albertina, age 19, working at home, John, age 17, working on the farm, Augusta, age 14, working at home, Martha, age 9, and Mary age 5.
Soon after, Albertina, at age 21, got married on April 20, 1882 to August Siebert, a 25 year old farmer from Mound Township, who was also born in Niagara County, New York. They were married in the Bethlehem Lutheran Church by K. Theordore Gruber, M.G. and the marriage was witnessed by Albertine's brother John Moll and Mary Siebert. The following year, Albertine and August had one daughter, Ida. Albertina, however, only lived four more years, dying in 1886, at the age of 25.
On November 13, 1884, John Moll was the best man at the wedding of Charles Berg to Rickey Yonnk. Also standing up at this marriage was Wilhelmine Berg, John's future wife. It is not know if this was their first meeting, but it was not uncommon for young people to meet at the wedding of a relative and then get married later. John Moll and Wilhelmine "Minnie" Berg were married four years later, in the Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Effingham County, by J.G. Hild, M.G. on April 8, 1888, witnessed by Martha Moll and R. Moll. Together they had five children; Albert born in 1889, Walter in 1896, Lorna in 1899, Louis in 1902, and Cordelia in 1908. In the 1900 U.S. Census, John was a grain farmer, living in West Township, Effingham County, with his famiily. In 1911 John's wife Minnie died of pnemonia. Two years later, in 1913, he married a widow, Anna Sophia Friedericke Meyer Rohlfing, who had three daughters, aged ten, nine and five. Together John and Anna had a child in 1919 named Martin. He died of a stroke in 1945
On May 5, 1890 Augusta married Charles Karl August Siebert, a farmer and brother to her sister Albertina's husband, August Siebert. Before her death in 1911, Augusta had four children: Jennie in 1891, Martin in 1896, Olga in 1898, and Mabel in 1903.
About 1890, Martha was married to August Schwerdfeger. They had five children: Louis born in 1891, Sophie in 1893, Cordelia in 1896, Juliana in 1898 and Henry in 1902.
By 1900 Amos was still living on a farm, which he owned free and clear, in Mound Township, in Altamont Village, of Effingham County, Illinois. He was 63 years old, employed fulltime as a lumber dealer. He owned his own souce of lumber and also worked as a bookkeeper for a Mr. Hilleman, owner of a lumber business and furniture factory. He was living with his wife of 40 years, Justina, who was 62 years old and a housekeeper. The census states that Amos and Justina can read, write and speak English, however, German was still most often spoken. With them also was their daughter Mary, age 26 and single. In the 1910 U.S. Census Amos was 73 years old, living with his wife Justine, age 72, and their unmarried daughter Mary, aged 36.
When John Moll's wife died in 1911, John sent his two year old daughter, Cordelia, to live with his sister Mary, who was keeping house for her parents, Amos and Justina. In Amos' later years he was a Justice of the Peace. In 1994, at the age of 86, Cordelia recalls that her grandfather was referred to as "Squire" Moll, due to his position as circuit court judge. She remembers him "as a man of erect stature, walking with dignity, using a 'walking stick', not a cane. He had a special Sunday stick, the top of which was pearl and gold, and an everyday stick, which was rather rustic or gnarled. "
The four lived together, until, in 1915, at age 77, Justine Moll died. Cordelia recalls that after her grandmother died that "Grandfather and I, on my tricycle, would go visit her grave often, a distance of four blocks or so. My grandfather and I would go to the grocery store where he would purchase 'oysters in the shell' from a bag on the floor. He then would take his silver pen knife from his pocket and open the shell. My first introduction of eating 'raw' oysters - I loved them, and still do! It was a special treat for me, of couse, we only had those during the 'oyster season'.
Cordelia also remembers the time "when Grandfather worked as a 'bookkeeper' for Mr. George Hilleman, who owned a furniture factory in Altamont. Mr. Hilleman was a wonderful man also! He employed many local people, and was the owner of a very pretentious home, especially for Altamont. His wife was a lovely, charming 'lady', and the owner of the only 'electric' car, which at that time looked like a 'glass cabinet'. It had glass all around it, would seat perhaps 2 or 3, velvet uphostery, and speed about 10 to 15 miles per hour - quite showey!
"Grandfather was a very devout Christian, and did what he could for the church. Aunt Mary told me he bought a silver chalice, etc. for the communion service, and many times also the communion wine.
"I loved my grandparents and Aunt Mary! Grandfather would have loved tv, etc."
Amos followed his wife in death in 1917, at age 79. He was buried next to her in the Union Cemetery of Altamont, in Effingham County, Illinois.
Mary and Cordelia went on to live together. In the 1920 U.S. Census, Mary was aged 46, still single, and Cordelia was 11 years old. They were living at 151 North St. Clair Street, Mound Township, in the City of Altamont. In the 1920's, Mary married a German widower by the name of Herman Tappendorf.
1836 - 1917 (81 years)
