The Luers Family in America
Polli
Jost Turner, Editor
I have taken this information,
as well as the family tree of the early generations of the
Luers family, from a book, The Luers Family in America,
compiled by W. H. Meyer in 1940. I’m using only the information
about the direct line we can trace back--if we included the
rest, this, too, would turn out to be a book! I will quote
directly, using elipses when omitting sections.
We have recently found that
Sudweighe is now known as Sudweyhe. It is south of the city
of Bremen, in the district of Syke.
"The setting for the
first part of the story of the Luers family is in Sudweighe
amt Syke, in Hanover. Hanover, now a province in northwestern
Germany, was at the time our story begins, an independent duchy
or electorate. At that time, the Elector of Hanover was also
the King of England. He is known to us as George III, against
whom the American colonies fought in the Revolutionary War.
"Sudweighe was (and
still is) a little German village most of whose residents tilled
the soil of the surrounding villages. The farmer did not live
on his farm but in a village along with all the other inhabitants
of the neighborhood. He left for his work in the fields each
morning and returned to his home in the village each evening.
This is still the rule over most of continental Europe.
"The story opens in
the year 1767, eight years before the opening guns of the Revolution
were fired at Lexington and Bunker Hill. In that year a daughter
was born into the home of one of the villagers of Sudweighe.
She was christened Anna
Margarethe Wetzen.
Near the same time, though we do not know the exact year, a
son was born into another Sudweighe home, who was named Herman
Luers. The birth of these two is of interest to members of
the Luers clan in America for they are the ancestors of us
all.
"These two grew up
in the village and in 1795 they were married. To them were
born two sons and three daughters. These all grew to manhood
and womanhood in Sudweighe. Heinrich, the firstborn, married
Anna Margarethe Schersell in the year 1830. They lived in Sudweighe
until the year 1851. They had two children, Herman and Margarethe,
who were born and grew to young manhood and womanhood there.
"Anna Christina, the
secondborn, in the year 1821 married Johann Albrecht Meier,
from the neighboring village of Wachendorf amt Syke. This couple
made their home in Wachendorf until 1839 and during this period
five children, three sons and two daughters, were born to them.
. . . The youngest of these, Johann Heinrich Meier [John Henry
Meyer], was the writer’s father.
"Herman
Luers, the
third child of Herman and Margarethe Wetzen Luers, married
Meta Koch in 1829. This couple made their home in Sudweighe
where four sons and one daughter were born to them. The mother,
Meta Koch Luers, died there in 1854. The third son, Frederich,
was drowned in or near Sudweighe in 1855, then twelve years
old. The two older sons left Sudweighe in 1851 as young men.
The father, daughter and younger son remained there until
1861.
"Marie
Elizabeth Luers,
fourth child of Herman and Margarethe Wetzen Luers, grew
up in Sudweighe, lived there until 1845, but did not marry
there. Her younger sister, Adelheid, also grew up in Sudweighe, married George Grimma
in 1844 and remained there for only one year after their
marriage.
"All the sons and daughters
of Herman and Margarethe Wetzen Luers emigrated to America
between the years 1839 and 1861. Their mother also came with
them, the father having previously died in Sudweighe. This
is the very brief story of the German origin of "The Luers
Family in America."
"In this chapter begins
the exodus of the Luers family which takes it far across land
and sea. They did not all leave at one time but in four groups,
in 1839, and in 1845, in 1851, and 1861.
"In 1839, one hundred
and one years ago [151 years ago now!], the first group bade
goodbye to Sudweighe, to their neighbors, friends and relatives,
and turned their faces toward the New World. And this new world
was a world of strangers with strange customs and a strange
tongue. It must have taken courage of a high order to sever
all ties with life as they had known it, to accept whatever
this new and strange world might have for them, and without
hope of ever returning to the old again.
"This pioneer group
was composed of my grandparents, Johann Albrecht and Anna Christina Meier and their five children, then from four
to seventeen years of age. It is said Grandmother persuaded
Grandfather to make this move that their growing sons might
escape the compulsory military service that would have been
their lot in Hanover. She wanted her sons to escape being targets
for bullets in the wars so common in that era. . . . And in
addition they both wanted for their children the greater opportunities
they hoped to find in America.
"They sailed about
the first of June from the nearest port, Bremen, and experienced
a very stormy passage. After the severe hardships of thirteen
weeks passed in the steerage of an old sailing vessel in rough
seas, they first set foot on American soil in the port of New
York on the first day of September, 1839. . ."
The family lived in Kentucky
for three years and then moved on to the Dutch Creek Township,
Washington County, Iowa. The family spread out from there.
". . . Induced, no
doubt, by reports from those already in America, a second contingent
of the Luers family severed home ties in Sudweighe amt Syke
and sailed for America in 1845. In this group were Grandmother
Meier’s youngest sister, Adelheid and her husband, George
Grimma, and Grandmother’s other sister, Maria Elizabeth
Luers, then unmarried."
They joined the earlier
group of pioneers in Iowa, and settled nearby, again, their
descendants spreading across the country from there.
"The exodus . . . did
not stop there. In 1851 a larger group from the little village
of Sudweighe embarked upon the long voyage to America. In this
group were Grandmother Meier’s oldest brother and his
wife, with their son, Herman, then nineteen, and their daughter,
Margarethe, then sixteen. Two nephews, Herman and Johann Dietrich
Luers embarked with them, the first then twenty-one, the second
eighteen. Also with these came Great Grandmother Anna Margarethe
Wetzen Luers, though she was then eighty-four years old. .
. .
"Johann
Dietrich Luers,
the younger nephew [and our ancestor], . . . married in 1859
Anna Mary Straiter. A short time previous he had purchased
from the government one hundred sixty acres of farm land
and eighty acres of wood land, near the farm on which George
Grimma had settled a few years before, at Hebron in Adair
County. He had built a log house on this farm which became
their first home. Johann D. and his wife lived all their
life on this farm and it is now the home of their youngest
son, Frank Luers and grandson John Lyle Luers. The wife of
John Lyle Luers is Fern Grimma, great-granddaughter of the
George Grimma who first settled in Adair county, and a third
cousin of her husband.
"Johann Dietrich Luers
and Mary Straiter Luers raised a large family on this old homestead
and a large number of their descendants are living now on farms
and in towns in that section of Iowa. The whole number of their
descendants living today [1940] is over 130. Theirs is the
second largest branch of the clan.
"The exodus of the
Luers family was not completed with the sailing of the third
group in 1851. Still left behind in Sudweighe amt Syke, were
Herman Luers, . . . [Johann Dietrich’s father] . . . ,
and his wife Meta Koch Luers, with their two younger sons and
their only daughter. . . .
"Of those left behind,
Meta Koch Luers died in the year 1854 in Sudweighe. The third
son, Frederich, was drowned there in the year 1855 when twelve
years old. These two deaths left but three of the family in
Sudweighe, Herman Luers, his youngest son, Heinrich, and his
only daughter, Anna Mary. In 1861 these three sailed from Bremen
to join the rest of the family in America. Anna Mary was 21
at this time, and Henry was 16. The Civil War was being fought
at the time. Before their ship reached the port of New York
it was blockaded and they could not enter there. They were
frightened by the prospect of having to enter through New Orleans,
and being faced with the almost impossible task of getting
through the military lines into the northern states. However,
their ship finally succeeded in entering the port of Baltimore,
and they were landed there. Their arrival in Iowa, a few weeks
later, reunited the entire family in America which had been
divided since the first group left Sudweighe 22 years before.
. . .
"A large gathering
of the clan occurred in 1916 at the "Old Brick House".
The occasion was the 50th wedding anniversary of Uncle Henry
and Aunt Elizabeth Luers. About 120 members of the clan gathered
there for the celebration. At this gathering the writer compared
the coming of the family to America with the Biblical story
of Abraham leaving Ur of the Chaldees and going into a far
country to find a land flowing with milk and honey. Uncle Herman
Luers, [Johann Dietrich’s father], immediately arose and
said it was literally, as well as figuratively, true that the
family came to America and found a land flowing with milk and
honey. That cows which pastured along the creeks furnished
milk in abundance, and a plentiful supply of honey was obtained
from the bee trees in the woods.
"One of the most worthwhile
things handed down to us by our forebears is a sound religious
faith. Those born abroad were all brought up in the sound doctrine
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. When they came to America
they settled in communities with other Germans of the same
faith, and within a few years an Evangelical church was organized
in each community. . . . at Hebron, in Adair County, an Evangelical
church was organized early, of which Johann Dietrich Luers
was a charter member. This church is still in existence, and
a number of Johann Dietrich Luers’ descendants are still
members of it.
"These churches were
all German language churches originally, but for many years
the services have been held in English. Many of the Luers clan
are still members of the Evangelical church. Most of the others
are members of the Methodist, Episcopal, the Baptist, the Presbyterian,
and Congregational churches. As far as the writer knows all
are protestants. Let us be proud of the fact that our ancestors
contributed largely to the upbuilding of Christian citizenship
in these communities."
The Luers, about 1905
Mattie, Frank, Anna, Emma
Christine, Anna Mary Straiter Luers, Lydia
The author
counted the Luers family and their descendants in the U.S.
(all those whom he listed in his book, both the dead and
the living), and came up with a total of 801 clan members,
as of 1940. He estimated that over 630 were still alive at
that time. The four Joneses (Marge, Jeane, Helen and Ray)
were the most recent he had in our line of the family. It
would be interesting to get an update on the total number
of clan members today, 50 years later!
March 1, 2013
Polli Turner
