The Schlepers and Weidners of Minnesota:Information about Johann Weidner Sr.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Home Page |Surname List |Index of Individuals |InterneTree |Sources

Johann Weidner Sr. (b. September 11, 1797, d. April 13, 1889)

Johann Weidner Sr.

Johann Weidner Sr. (son of Joseph Weidner and Anna Stang)^{88, 89} was born September 11, 1797 in Kummersreuth (Wattendorf), Bavaria, Germany, and died April 13, 1889 in Buffalo Grove, Cook, IL, USA. He married Margaret Popp on June 30, 1817 in Stadelhofen, Bavaria, Germany, daughter of Johann Popp and Maria Margaretha Kreuer.

Notes for Johann Weidner Sr.:
The first Weidners immigrated to America from Germany in 1846, and theirs is a classic story of a family looking for a better life in the New World. It is a story of hard work and perseverance, deep religious faith, and a strong desire to make a better life halfway around the world from their home.

Bavaria, in the southeastern part of Germany, is known for its rich, softly rolling landscape and mountain ranges on the Austrian border. Its climate is temperate, with cool, cloudy and wet summers and winters. During the early 1800’s in Wattendorf, northeast of Bamberg, a man named Johann Weidner lived with his wife, Margaret. The family name came from the nearby town of Weiden, meaning “meadow,” that was settled around the year 900 and whose residents came to be known as Weidners.

Johann, Sr. was born on September 11, 1797 in Kummersreuth, Bavaria, Germany. His wife, the former Maria Margaretha Popp from nearby Lichtenfels, was born on April 23, 1790 in Schederndorf, Bavaria. She is the daughter of Johann Popp and Maria Margaretha Kreuzer. They were married on June 30, 1817 in Stadelhofen, Bavaria, Germany. Although his father, Joseph, was a farmer, Johann became a blacksmith as he grew older. In addition to shoeing horses, he also made wagons, including the steel rims for the wheels. Johann and Margaret had six boys: Gross Jacob (Big Jake), Johann Jr., Gross (Big) George, Pancraz Georg or Bonagratius, Klein Jacob (Little Jake), and Klein (Little) George. Johann Weidner and Margaret Popp also had two daughters, Catherina born in Schederndorf in 1822 and who may have died in infancy, and Barbara, who was born and died in Schederndorf in 1835.

In 1846, when Johann, Sr. was 49 years old, he and Margaret decided to find a better life for their family. Their boys were all between 13 and 28 years old, and life in Germany at the time was one of difficult political, religious, and economic conditions. Germans suffered from poverty caused by crow failures, overproduction, and over population in the industrial areas. Johann and Margaret wanted their family to have greater opportunity, more religious freedom, and a better life than what they could have in Germany.

The family decided to send young Klein Jake, then 26, to America to find suitable land for their family and a number of other German families who were interested in giving up everything they had in Germany and going to the New World. So Klein Jake sailed to America, passing through the port of New York like thousands of other immigrants. He then sailed up the Hudson River, though the Erie Canal, into the Great Lakes, and eventually to the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. There he settled in new Trier in northeastern Illinois, northwest of Chicago, where he lived with other German families from Trier and Bamberg.

Klein Jake found work cutting trees for wood for the furnaces at the Brick Yards in Chicago. It is unclear how long he lived in New Trier before deciding his family should join him, although it was probably a short time. Because of the cost and the time involved in crossing the Atlantic, he did not return to Germany himself. Instead he sent his family some sore of communication telling them where he was and how to find him. Upon receiving word from Klein Jake, his parents, his five brothers and their wives, and his Uncle John George Weidner prepared to leave for America, along with several German families.

It must have been a sad occasion to leave their relatives and friends in Wattendorf, knowing full well that they would never see them again. The Weidners sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on a trip that lasted 68 days. Johann, Jr. later said that some days when the wind was blowing the opposite direction it seemed like they did not move at all. They brought along just a few of their belongings and enough food for the first ten days of the trip. After that they ate from the ship’s larder. It cost $38 to ride between the main decks, the “swishen deck” as the Germans called it.

Once these families arrived in America, they traveled the same route that Klein Jake did, up the Hudson River and eventually to Lake Michigan. Finally, sometime in 1846 the Weidner family joined Klein Jake in New Trier. The men immediately found work in the forests as woodcutters.

Northeastern Illinois, which includes New Trier, had just been purchased from the Native Americans and opened to homesteading in 1834. Once it was opened, the first settlers came from New England and the East and brought with them a mix of English, French, and Scotch names. They were industrious, thrifty and progressive people. Claims were staked out, forests were cut, and homes were made from logs. Furniture was handmade; stoves were unknown. Clothing was made from flax-woven cloth, and wool was spun and carded. Crops were raised, and the grain was carried on horseback to the horse mills and later to the water mills erected by the settlers. Log schoolhouses and villages soon appeared. Roads were made where once only Indian trails had existed. All travel was done on horseback or in wagons; railroads did not appear in the area until 1853.

In 1846 when the Weidners arrived, the Germans of New Trier had already had a Catholic Church and a resident priest, Rev. H. Furthmann, for a year. The following year Rev. Furthmann learned of the presence of Catholics living at the settlement of Buffalo Grove, just 15 miles to the west. He visited them and was welcomed warmly. He celebrated the first Mass in Buffalo Grove on September 16, 1847 in the log home of John Simon Hennemann, Buffalo Grove’s first German immigrant. John Simon Hennemann left Schederndorf, Bavaria, Germany and arrived in Buffalo Grove Illinois in 1846, the year the Weidners arrived in New Trier, Illinois. Hennemann later became the father-in-law of Bonagratius Weidner.

Shortly after that first mass in Buffalo Grove, Rev. Farthmann, while traveling from New Trier to Johnsburg, 35 miles away, to take care of a mission church there, talked to some of the Weidners about inexpensive land that was available in Buffalo Grove. Once again, Klein Jake was sent to investigate. He rented a house and rode to Buffalo Grove and found some land for sale. A short time later, the Weidner family bought 120 acres in Buffalo Grove for $3.00 per acre.

Originally there was just one farm for John Sr.’s entire family. The land was covered with trees and tree stumps and had to be cleared first. They sawed the wood and used it for building houses and barns, and they used the scraps to burn for heat. The land was mostly flat, with fertile, black soil. The farm was on McHenry road, which still exists today.

John Weidner, Sr. did not practice blacksmithing but instead devoted himself exclusively to farming. Later more land was purchased so that each son had his own farm. Klein Jake’s farm was just to the north, Big Jake’s to the west up on a hill, Big George’s to the northwest, and Uncle John George’s to the south. On Sundays after mass it was the custom of the families to meet at the old homestead and discuss farming, their families, church activities and their children. In the summer the men would sit under the big chestnut tree, while the women would sit in the house.

The land around Buffalo Grove was initially settled chiefly by non-Catholics, many of whom had received free or low-priced land from the government. During the 1840’s this land was being bought for speculation and quickly resold to German Catholic like the Weidners who had heard favorable comments about the area from their countrymen. In this area the Germans could build a new homestead for little money, and they came eagerly to find liberty in this free country. They saw America as a land of opportunity where even the poorest had a chance to make a living. They came to this vast wilderness because they loved God and desired to serve Him as they wished. As a result of all the German Catholic settlers, Buffalo Grove, named for the buffalo that roamed daily between the nearby woods and the creek that never went dry, became a Catholic settlement.

German immigrants brought to Illinois an element of culture and education that was to affect the life of their new community. Undoubtedly the Weidners contributed to that, as did some of the other early German immigrant families who were prominent in Buffalo Grove history, including the Raupps, Hennemanns, Schoenebergers, Pfisters, and Horchers. The Germans furnished themselves with new and better homes, flowers, fruit trees, books and music. Initially church services and school lessons were held in pioneers’ homes. Church and school buildings appeared at an early date, however, because immigrants realized they would be important additions to their community. The German immigrants adapted themselves to the simpler standards of people about them, and then gradually elevated the ideals of western life. They were grateful that Illinois had so liberally provided a haven in a land of freedom where religious persecution did not exist.

The Weidners and the Raupps were two of the most prominent members of the Buffalo Grove community. John Weidner, Sr.’s family flourished and played a large role in the development of Buffalo Grove. In May 1852, when the immigrants decided to build Buffalo Grove’s first Catholic Church, John Weidner, Sr. provided one acre of the necessary land, Bonagratius Weidner two acres, and John Simon Hennemann, who would later become Bonagratius’ father-in-law, four acres. The first St. Mary’s Catholic Church was begun in June 1852, and in addition to providing much of the land, the Weidners also contributed to raising the necessary $300. In fact, John Sr. contributed $21 of the first $88 raised. They undoubtedly also contributed their own labor for the actual construction of the church. That church lasted only three years until it was destroyed by fire. The second church stood from 1856 to 1897. The present church was built in 1899.

Even 100 years after their arrival, the Weidners are still very prominent in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. In 1947 St Mary’s School held a celebration to commemorate the centennial of the first Mass in Buffalo Grove. A book was published, and an entire section was devoted to the Weidners and Raupps. It begins, “Anyone coming into Buffalo Grove community for the first time is most likely to be confused by the recurrence of the Raupp and Weidner names.” It explains that “About three-fourths of the (current) parishioners are related directly or indirectly with the Weidners.” These two families were so prominent in the community that the Church had a very practical reason for including detailed genealogies of the two families in the book. As it said, “To help the members of these two families to understand better their relationship to one another…It will enable them to avoid the marriage impediment by which the church forbids the marriage of persons who are related within the third degree of blood relationship.” There were so many Weidners that the Catholic Church had to help keep them all straight!

Today the Village of Buffalo Grove lies just off Interstate 94 that runs north from Chicago to Milwaukee. Buffalo Grove is about halfway between Chicago and the Wisconsin border, not far from Lake Michigan and 35 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. No longer a farming community, it is a suburb of Chicago with a population of over 40,000. Many of the streets and parks are named after the towns’ original settlers, including Weidner Road and Weidner Park.

Margaret Popp Weidner died on April 12, 1864 at the age of 74. She is buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Twenty-five years and one day later, Johann Weidner Sr. died on April 13, 1889 in Buffalo Grove at the age of 92. After leaving Germany at the age of 49, Johann (John) lived with his family in America for 43 years. He was buried on April 16, 1889 in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

More About Johann Weidner Sr.:
Burial: April 16, 1889, St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Buffalo Grove, IL.

More About Johann Weidner Sr. and Margaret Popp:
Marriage: June 30, 1817, Stadelhofen, Bavaria, Germany.

Children of Johann Weidner Sr. and Margaret Popp are:

Gross Jacob Weidner, b. June 13, 1818, Schederndorf, (Stadelhofen), Bavaria, Germany, d. date unknown.
Klein Jacob Weidner, b. December 28, 1819, Schederndorf, (Stadelhofen), Bavaria, Germany, d. date unknown.
Catherina Weidner, b. February 03, 1822, Schederndorf (Stadelhofen), Bavaria, Germany, d. date unknown.
+Pancraz-Georg Bonagratius Weidner, b. April 07, 1825, Schederndorf, (Stadelhofen), Bavaria, Germany, d. October 11, 1893, Lake Henry, MN, USA.
Barbara Weidner, b. August 04, 1825, Schederndorf, (Stadelhofen), Bavaria, Germany, d. August 10, 1835, Schederndorf, (Stadelhofen), Bavaria, Germany.
John Weidner, b. November 25, 1827, Schederndorf (Stadelhofen), Bavaria, Germany, d. date unknown.
George W. Weidner, b. June 15, 1830, Schederndorf (Stadelhofen), Bavaria, Germany, d. date unknown.
John George Weidner, b. May 05, 1833, Schederndorf (Stadelhofen), Bavaria, Germany, d. date unknown.