I hadn’t intended on making this a two-parter but I got some new information this week. While doing some random Googling on this subject, I came across a book called “St. Joseph: Preserving a Heritage” by Idelia Loso that appeared to be about the German Catholic community in Stearns County. An online index of names […]

When we last examined the Kreifels family, we learned how the two Kreifels brothers (Herman and Sebastian) married two Blommer sisters (Anna Margaretha and  Anna Gertrude). The families were living in Osage County, Missouri near the small town of Loose Creek. I’m not entirely sure about why the Kreifels and Blommer clans left Missouri en […]

Elizabeth Helen (Kreifels) Rademacher‘s grandfather was Herman Kreifels. Herman was the youngest of seven children born to a farming family in Serm, Germany. Serm is a little farm community on the banks of the Rhine River, just north of Düsseldorf. It’s right across the river from the city of Krefeld and that is probably the origin […]

The great-grandfather of Elizabeth Kreifels was Mathias Blommer, who was born in Germany in 1800 and emigrated with his wife and children to America in 1840. The family settled in Loose Creek, Missouri where many other Rheinlander Germans lived. Life in Missouri at this time was very difficult. Land had to be cleared of trees […]

Last time we talked about the Kreifels family, I introduced you to Elizabeth Kreifels’ great-grandfather, Mathias Blommer. He came to America in 1840 with his wife and eight children. Although the Blommers originally settled in Lisle Town, Missouri, they soon settled in Loose Creek, Missouri. Here they found an established community of Rheinlander Germans. The […]