Individual Details
Casper "Johann Kasper" Nathe
(August 11, 1839 - May 20, 1893)
Johann Kaspar Nate was born in Repe, Germany, and baptized in the Catholic church in HeIden, Germany, on 24 August, 1839. He was the 6th child of 7 born on to Wilhelm and Anna Margaretha Nate. Kaspar was 3 years, 4 months old when his father died in 1843, leaving his 39 year old mother with 7 children from 1 to 14. However the baby died that same year.
He was a carpenter by trade. At age 18, Kaspar and his brother Joseph, age 21, left for America
He and Joseph travelled around working to send money home to the rest of the family, for their passage to America. They needed to bring the oldest brother Anton, and their mother, Margaretha, over. The oldest sister was already settled in Wisconsin, and Elizabeth and Anna Maria were married in Germany and raising families. However, Elizabeth's husband must have died shortly before their departure, because she and her daughter accompanied Anton and their mother to America.
So Caspar's family, except Anna Maria Schulte, was reunited in Milwaukee in 1858.
About 1860 Joseph and Caspar, who had been working as a farm laborer, supposedly left Milwaukee, and claimed land that the government had opened for settlement because the Indians had been pushed into the Dakota Territory. This area where they claimed land was eventually called Meire Grove.
While in Milwaukee, according to the June 27,1860, Milwaukee County census records.. Caspar Nathe (from Prussia), was working as a farm laborer on the farm of John Redmacher (from Wurttemburg). Coincidentally, the record showed the house servant at that time was Gertrude Serfas (from Prussia). .) The farm was located in Town of Lake, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Caspar was 19, and Gertrude was 23, according to the census, which means she was born in 1837, not 1839 as previously thought.
The first child of Caspar and Gertrude Nathe, Herman, was born in September of 1862, and was probably baptized in New Munich since they had a church before Meire Grove. They had 10 more children, thereafter. Caspar's name shows up often on church, school, and community organizational boards in the early 1860's.
In 1887, Gertrude died of heart failure, according to the court records in St. Cloud, but "dropsy" according to the church records. Dropsy at that time probably referred to the lungs filling with fluids, and then turning to pneumonia.
She left Caspar with 10 children, ages 25 to 6 years old. The oldest, however, was married. Gertrude was 50 years old when she died, not 48 as recorded in the records at the church.
On March 4, 1889, Caspar Nathe married Theresa Kemper. Within 4 years Caspar died, leaving his children with only a step-mother to keep the young ones together. Richard and his wife took over the farm, thereafter.
Obituary of Caspar Nathe, Der Nordstern (Stearns Co. MN German Language newspaper), 1 June, 1893, translated by Lidwina (Luetmer) Stacy:
Mr. Nathe settled in Meire's Grove approximately 30 years ago at a time when the whole region was still awaiting the cultivation of the land by extremely hard and unending work. And Mr. Nathe was one of the first to lay his hand to the arduous but rewarding tast.
Thanks to his German diligence he left behindfor his family, one of the finest fields (farms) surrounding a peaceful home, and in the evening of his days he could close his eyes in the knowledge he had truly worked at his calling and given his best to the duties of a family father only 55 years old. God, the Lord, to Himself to enjoy everlanding rest from his early work his first wife preceeded him into eternity by several years, and his second wife mourns with nine children, the bitter loss.
With the family mourns the whole parish, for its loses in him an enthusiastic, a trude and genial member, sincere sympathy was extended to the bereaved family in the hour of their difficult trial.
He was a carpenter by trade. At age 18, Kaspar and his brother Joseph, age 21, left for America
He and Joseph travelled around working to send money home to the rest of the family, for their passage to America. They needed to bring the oldest brother Anton, and their mother, Margaretha, over. The oldest sister was already settled in Wisconsin, and Elizabeth and Anna Maria were married in Germany and raising families. However, Elizabeth's husband must have died shortly before their departure, because she and her daughter accompanied Anton and their mother to America.
So Caspar's family, except Anna Maria Schulte, was reunited in Milwaukee in 1858.
About 1860 Joseph and Caspar, who had been working as a farm laborer, supposedly left Milwaukee, and claimed land that the government had opened for settlement because the Indians had been pushed into the Dakota Territory. This area where they claimed land was eventually called Meire Grove.
While in Milwaukee, according to the June 27,1860, Milwaukee County census records.. Caspar Nathe (from Prussia), was working as a farm laborer on the farm of John Redmacher (from Wurttemburg). Coincidentally, the record showed the house servant at that time was Gertrude Serfas (from Prussia). .) The farm was located in Town of Lake, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Caspar was 19, and Gertrude was 23, according to the census, which means she was born in 1837, not 1839 as previously thought.
The first child of Caspar and Gertrude Nathe, Herman, was born in September of 1862, and was probably baptized in New Munich since they had a church before Meire Grove. They had 10 more children, thereafter. Caspar's name shows up often on church, school, and community organizational boards in the early 1860's.
In 1887, Gertrude died of heart failure, according to the court records in St. Cloud, but "dropsy" according to the church records. Dropsy at that time probably referred to the lungs filling with fluids, and then turning to pneumonia.
She left Caspar with 10 children, ages 25 to 6 years old. The oldest, however, was married. Gertrude was 50 years old when she died, not 48 as recorded in the records at the church.
On March 4, 1889, Caspar Nathe married Theresa Kemper. Within 4 years Caspar died, leaving his children with only a step-mother to keep the young ones together. Richard and his wife took over the farm, thereafter.
Obituary of Caspar Nathe, Der Nordstern (Stearns Co. MN German Language newspaper), 1 June, 1893, translated by Lidwina (Luetmer) Stacy:
Mr. Nathe settled in Meire's Grove approximately 30 years ago at a time when the whole region was still awaiting the cultivation of the land by extremely hard and unending work. And Mr. Nathe was one of the first to lay his hand to the arduous but rewarding tast.
Thanks to his German diligence he left behindfor his family, one of the finest fields (farms) surrounding a peaceful home, and in the evening of his days he could close his eyes in the knowledge he had truly worked at his calling and given his best to the duties of a family father only 55 years old. God, the Lord, to Himself to enjoy everlanding rest from his early work his first wife preceeded him into eternity by several years, and his second wife mourns with nine children, the bitter loss.
With the family mourns the whole parish, for its loses in him an enthusiastic, a trude and genial member, sincere sympathy was extended to the bereaved family in the hour of their difficult trial.
Events
| Birth | August 11, 1839 | ||||
| Birth | August 11, 1839 | Repe, Westphalia, Germnay | |||
| Marriage | 1861 | Gertrude Margarete Serfas | |||
| Marriage | March 4, 1889 | Maria Theresa Kemper | |||
| Death | May 20, 1893 | Meier Grove, Stearns Co., MN--he was 53 |
Families
| Spouse | Gertrude Margarete Serfas (1839 - 1887) |
| Child | Herman Nathe (1862 - 1923) |
| Child | Peter Nathe (1864 - 1869) |
| Child | John Joseph Nathe (1865 - 1945) |
| Child | Richard John "Casper" Nathe (1866 - 1926) |
| Child | Casper Anthony Nathe (1868 - 1934) |
| Child | Anna Elizabeth Nathe (1870 - 1942) |
| Child | Pauline Theresa Nathe (1872 - 1936) |
| Child | John Henry Nathe (1874 - 1926) |
| Child | Lawrence Casper Nathe (1877 - 1937) |
| Child | John Anthony Nathe (1880 - 1941) |
| Child | Mary Anna Nathe (1881 - 1942) |
| Spouse | Maria Theresa Kemper (1843 - ) |
| Father | Wilhelm Nathe (1791 - 1843) |
| Mother | Anna Margaretha Besting (1802 - 1878) |
| Sibling | Anna "Catherine" Nathe (1828 - 1901) |
| Sibling | Anna " Elisabeth" Nathe (1830 - 1905) |
| Sibling | Anna Maria Nathe (1831 - 1920) |
| Sibling | Anton Nathe Sr (1834 - 1900) |
| Sibling | Joseph Nathe (1836 - 1896) |
| Sibling | Maria Katherina Nathe (1842 - 1843) |