The two youngest children died on the ship.
They planned to settle near Cincinnati because a relative had
come there earlier, who was married to a Schott.
The Schott family owned Coney Island, a famous amusement
park in Cincinnati.
Two brothers of Anton: Wendell (who was unmarried) and
another (name unknown), were said to have emigrated at the same
time.
Wendell went to California to participate in the gold rush.
He later returned & told of finding gold, then went back & died
under mysterious circumstances.
The other brother was never heard from again.
Anton & family started up the Mississippi by river boat, but
there was a storm & fire & they had to return to New Orleans to
start over.
A boy was born on the river boat, but died soon after. He was
buried at Petersburg, in Boone County, KY.
Anthony Raymond, was born the next year, 1853.
Not liking KY after 2 years, Anton moved his family across
the river to either Indiana or Ohio. There he worked in a gravel
pit but a cave-in occurred.
Then he bought a farm of 400-500 acres in Dearborn County
near Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
They had no water when they arrived at their home site, and
they had to make coffee from the water in a hollow tree stump.
Eventually Anton and Katherine (now known as Kate) had 5
more sons, including twin boys, Frank and Charles.
Tragically they too died at the age of three.
Anton had been to town
to buy rat poison and while he was putting the team of horses
away,
the boys found it.
Anton and Maria “Kate” Ziegler had a total of 13 children,
but only four survived past childhood: one girl and three boys.
The 3 surviving brothers married the 3 Wilhelm sisters
who lived nearby. The
oldest surviving brother, Anthony Raymond, married Veronica
Wilhelm, who died after giving birth to their six children.
Then Anthony married Caroline Reusch within a year, and
had 8 more children, including Raymond B. Ziegler.
They all lived on adjoining farms probably divided from
the original homestead.
Kate’s brother, Bernhard Bimmerle, had also emigrated as well
as their mother, and they, too, lived nearby.
Anton died at home on his farm, after he asked that his bed
be moved near the window so he could watch the sunset for the
last time on his beautiful land and orchards.
“It is a saga of incredible hardship and heartbreak. Yet they
clung to their deep faith, eventually prospered, and survived to
old age.”
--- MCK 2002
