Frau Müllermeister Vetter
Catherine Sophie Kleinfeld (1802-1858)
What life did this woman have – raising a
family appears to be it’s sole purpose.
She buried 4 of her children, 2 of which
did not live beyond a few hours.
How does a woman cope in the early 1800s in
a village that even in 2013 only has about 20 houses.
Catharine Sophie Kleinfeld was born on
January 25, 1802, in Wahrburg, a small village outside of Stendal, in the
Prussian province of Saxony, which is now part of the State of Saxony-Anhalt in
Germany. She was the daughter Johann Michael Kleinfeld, a tenant farmer, and
his wife Marie Sophie Zedau.
Sophie grew up in Stendal, but by the
beginning of 1819 she was living in Brunkau, where her sister, Anna Elisabeth,
lived with her husband Christian Schulze.
Sophie’s parents having died by 1819.
Brunkau was a small cluster of about 5/6
houses about 6 kms from the neighbouring town of Luderitz. Also in Brunkau was a young man who worked as
a foreman (Holzaufseher) in the local mill, Johann Andreas Peter Vetter. Johann was born in Magdeburg on the 26th
July 1793, the son of Johann Michael Vetter, a Tax Supervisor (Steueraufseher) in
the town of Lüderitz. Johann’s mother
Dorothee Friederike Striecher had died when he was a child. He was baptized in the Sankt Sebastian
Catholic Kirche in Magdeburg on the 1st of August, 1793.
Johann Vetter would most likely have been
working with Christian Schulze, who was a mill hand in Brunkau. When Anna & Christian’s second child was
born in January 1819, both Sophie and Johann were godparents.
On 11th April 1819 at the age of
17 Sophie married Johann in the local Evangelist Lutheran Church in
Brunkau. Being under age her guardians
gave consent, but the register does not record who her guardians were. Although Johann was 25, his father gave his
consent, verbally at the ceremony.
Sophie and Johann’s first child was born in
Brunkau. Johann Ludwig Wilhelm was born
about 1 o’clock in the afternoon of February 1, 1821. But sometime during 1822,
or early 1823, Sophie with her husband and their young baby moved south from
Brunkau to Briest, a small village outside the town of Väthen. Briest even in 2013 is a small village of approx.
20 houses situated around the Manor (das
Gutshaus) that belonged to the Bismarck family. Here in Briest Johann was a master miller
(Müllermeister).
The first ten years in Briest were very
hard on Sophie. She lost two babies at
birth, both male. One in August 1823,
and another in June 1827. Then in 1828
her son Johann contracted measles, and at the age of 7 died on March 11th. He was buried in Väthen 2 days later.
But there were other children born to
Sophie, Friederike Henriette in 1824, August Ludwig in 1828, Friedrich Albert
in 1832, Ernst Ferdinand in 1834, Charlotte Ernestine in 1837, Carl Otto in
1840 before her last baby, Sophie Louise, was born in Briest on the 19th
of August, 1843.
During this time both Sophie and her
husband were very much part of the village, often being godparents to other
children, Frau Müllermeister Sophie Vetter
often appearing in the register.
Sometime during the 1840s the Vetter family
left Briest and moved in to Väthen, a town of approximately 345 inhabitants in
1840. An Ironworks had opened there in
1842, and by 1852 the railway had come to the town. Johann worked again as a master miller in Väthen.
In May 1847 little Sophie Louise fell ill
with Scorfula, and on the 18th of that month died aged just 3 years
and 9 months. She was buried in the same
cemetery as the older brother she never knew.
Living in the town of Väthen perhaps gave
Sophie an easier life than the early years in Brunkau and Briest, and that with
her surviving children she would have been able to see them grow up to be young
adults. Despite having married a
Catholic, she raised all her children in the Lutheran church.
Sophie died from a pulmonary chest
infection (Brustkrankheit) in Väthen at 11:30 on the morning of February 26, 1858, and was
buried there on March 2nd.
Of her grown up children 5 were to marry
after her death, the eldest Friederike may have already had a family but I have
not been able to find any record of this.
So again I ask what was this woman’s life
like, strong on faith and hard work? Did
she have any inkling that she would have descendants around the other side of
the world?
Was she able to sit back and be proud of
her family?
I hope so.
Catharine Sophie Kleinfeld (1802 – 1858)
|
August Ludwig (Louis) Vetter (1828 - 1882)
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Theodore Wilhelm Vetter (1866 – 1943)
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Alan Louis Brady (1916 – 1995)
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Kevin Reginald Brady (1961 -
