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Although it is not known where in Baden the family came from, they had spoken of seeing the famous clock in the cathedral of Strasbourg, which seemed to indicate they lived fairly close. They were as much French as German and their region had once been part of Alsace. (Erlach is about 20 miles from Strasbourg across the Rhine).

Anton Ziegler and Katherine Bimmerle had seven children in Germany, but the twin girls and a girl and boy died under the age of three.

Anton sailed with his wife and three remaining children from LeHavre bound for New York. However, due to bad weather, the ship was blown off course and landed in New Orleans on Jan 27, 1852, after 4 weeks on the ocean.

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

Both of Carrie’s parents had been born in Germany.

Her mother had died young, probably in childbirth and the two girls, Carrie & Louise, were raised in an orphanage in Cincinnati. She also had a brother, Ed, and a half-sister Catherine (Miller).

At the age of 25 she married Anthony Ziegler, who was recently widowed with 6 children, one an infant named Susanna, who died at about 1 yr. She and Anthony had 8 children, one of whom died in infancy. Two of their sons, Joe and Bill, were mentally handicapped.

About 1900, Carrie persuaded her husband to move from their farm in the country into Lawrenceburg so the children could go to Catholic school. They bought 100 acres there, and their home at 524 Front St. was a large, square brick house with barn & outbuildings in back, dropping steeply to the farmland below, but unfortunately it was in the floodplain of the nearby Ohio River. The floods of 1927 and 1937 came up to their 2nd story of the house, and all the furniture downstairs that could not be moved upstairs was ruined, including a piano.

In the 1940's, about half of their land was taken by condemnation, so that a levee for flood control could be built. Later, a Seagram’s Distillery plant was built on part of the property that had been taken, causing much bitterness. They sold another parcel to build the public high school.

Copy of photograph found at the Ziegler home in Lawrenceburg at the time of its sale, after the deaths of all of the family. This is probably the home of Anthony R. Ziegler at “Sand Run”, the original homestead.

Uncles Frank and Bill ran the farm, and Aunt Nettie sold milk and cheese, and kept house. Uncle Joe spent many years at the state hospital at Madison doing farm work there. Aunt Ceil, the youngest, returned home after her husband died and WWII ended, and was employed as an executive secretary at Schenley Distillery. These four kept the farm and house going for many years.

“Our family visited Lawrenceburg nearly every summer during these years and Dad helped in the fields with the uncles. As the only children in the family at the time, we were fussed over by all the aunts & uncles, including Aunt Rose & Uncle Otto Wellcamp, who lived nearby in Aurora. It was a great treat for my brother & me to ride in the hay wagon, play in the barn or ride horseback.

There was no indoor plumbing until after the war, and everything was done in the “old way”. Uncle Frank never owned a tractor and continued to farm with a team of horses. We were there at least once during the threshing when men came from all around to help, and a huge dinner was prepared at noon. It was truly the end of an era.”

Carrie was an invalid for a number of years before her death at age 67. She died of lung congestion and paraplegia. The unmarried children continued to live at the home.

“I don’t remember hearing much about Grandfather Anthony, except that he was very stern and expected the children to work hard from a very early age, while Carrie tried to be more lenient.”

--- MCK 2002