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The first Mammel in our line who we have a record of, MARTIN MAMMEL, was born between 1470 and 1480 in Kuppingen (four kilometers northwest of Herrenberg), in what was then a district of Böblingen, Württemberg.¹ He was registered there as a farmer in 1500, and was still known to be living in Kuppingen in the year 1525. The Mammels would make Kuppingen their home base for the next 400 years, and many of their descendants can still be found there today.
The area that is now Kuppingen has existed since 700 AD; there are signs of a cemetery from that time the place with burial mounds even dating back to the Hallstatt period (700-500 BC). Kuppingen's 'place-name' ending (-ingen) indicates that it was an ancient Alemannic village and was watched over by large castle overseeing its even larger vineyards. When the area converted to Christianity, a church was built near their castle. (After a dispute with the Count Palatine of Tübingen, the castle was demolished in 1314.) Kuppingen was first mentioned in a document signed by King Otto I (which he called Chuppinga) in 961. Nearby Böblingen Castle, which was constructed between the 7th to 9th centuries, was first mentioned in documents in 1302 and became the "widows' residence" of the House of Württemberg during the 15th century (this castle was eventually destroyed during World War II). The lordly rights over the village were first recorded in documents from 1495, when Kuppingen was listed in the inventory book of the Böblingen winery (Kellerei Böblingen geführt),under Eberhard im Bart. From 1523 onward, it appeared in the Herrenberg winery inventory book whenever the wineries in the district had to be renewed.
Martin's farm prospered in this time, and the family gained prominence in the town. Martin's son, HANS MAMMEL (1500 - 1560), was appointed to the Kuppingen town council (court) in 1525. This was a dangerous time to be in the court, however, because of the ongoing the German Peasants' War (Deutscher Bauernkrieg). On May 12, 1525, Böblingen was the scene of one of the conflict's bloodiest battles in which the Swabian League, supporting the Hapsburgs, defeated 15,000 peasants from Württemberg, the Black Forest and the Hegau. Fortunately Hans came out of it all right: He became one of the richest residents of Kuppingen; In 1549, his estate was said to be worth 1200 gulden, which was about 4 times as much as the richest farmers. Ultimately, the Mammel family survived and lived on in the area for many generations.
Hans had at least two children:
CHILDREN OF HANS MAMMEL |
HANS MAMMEL II (Abt. 1525 - 19 Mar 1581/82) was born in Kuppingen. Not much is known about him, except that he married a woman named URSULA (d. 08 Apr 1613) and they had at least two children:
CHILDREN OF HANS MAMMEL II AND URSULA |
JAKOB MAMMEL (28 Jan 1571/72 - 01 Oct 1617) married AGATA WIDMAYER (b. 16 Nov 1571). They had a son, JAKOB MAMMEL II (23 Apr 1611 - 05 Dec 1689) who married KATHARINA SCHERER (b. 16 July in Kuppingen).
Jakob and Katharina had a son, JAKOB MAMMEL III (09 Sep 1642 - 24 Jun 1706). This Jakob was a farmer like all Mammels, but also a legal advisor and justiciary. He married MARIA WAYHING, who was born on the 12th of May, 1647, in Unteröchelsbrou.
Jakob III and Maria had three children:
CHILDREN OF JAKOB MAMMEL III AND MARIA WAYHING |
HANS MAMMEL fathered his namesake, HANS MAMMEL II (1709 - 1783), a baker and a member of the Kuppingen law court. He married ANNA MARIA BINDER.
They raised his namesake, HANS MAMMEL III (1730 - 1797), a burger, baker and member of the law court, who also was born and died in Kuppingen.
He married a woman named JOHANNA, and they had JAKOB FRIEDRICH MAMMEL, who was born in 1759 in Kuppingen, and became a tax collector (which was a good but unpopular job, because taxes were very high), and until 1820 the upper mayor.
On the 20th of July in 1784, Jakob married JUSTINA ROSINA BINDER (26 Jan 1764 - 04 Aug 1819)—her relation to Anna Maria Binder is unknown. They had four children:
CHILDREN OF JAKOB MAMMEL AND JUSTINA ROSINA BINDER |
GOTTLIEB FREDERICK MAMMEL (14 Jun 1803 - 14 Mar 1877) was our immigrant ancestor. He was born in Kuppingen on 14 Jun 1803 and became a farmer. It was not as privileged a life for Gottlieb as it was for our earlier ancestors. Times were hard. Land prices were very high at the time, up to $250 an acre for land that was not currently under siege by France or a rival kingdom. There wasn't a lot of land to inherit, either: property was divided equally among the children (at least among the sons) after their parents died—so with each generation, the farms got smaller (and being the youngest Gottlieb would get the worst tracts). By the early 1800's, family farms in Kuppingen were becoming too small to support a young family. Something had to be done—and emigration to America, with the vast amounts of cheap unsettled land it offered (not to mention democracy, capitalism, and other notions that Southern Germans could hardly understand) must have seemed very enticing.
During the early to mid-1800's, Württemberg had been ravaged by war and was economically depressed due to high taxation (thanks Grandpa Jakob), religious (Catholic/Protestant) battles, and the tyranny of local dukes. On top of the failing political system, there had been a series of failed harvests, putting small farms in peril. So when Gottlieb married EVA CATHARINA SCHMID on 27 Apr 1830 in Kuppingen, he had some serious decisions to make. Eva Catharina was born to JAKOB SCHMID and JOHANNA WOLPOLD on 06 Dec 06 1806 in Affstätt, Württemberg, but she died on 13 Sep 1842 in Kuppingen.² Before that unhappy event they had three children:
KIDS OF GOTTLIEB MAMMEL AND EVA KATHERINE SCHMIDT |
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Just as there was new hope in Gottlieb's love life, there was a new hope in Württemberg. Europe's "springtime of the peoples" was a series of revolutions across the continent from 1848 to 1849—and while there was no violence in the Kingdom of Württemberg, it still had an effect. Duke William succumbed to outside pressures and dismissed his crooked ministers to appoint men with more liberal ideas. William then proclaimed a democratic constitution... but as soon as the movement slowed, he dismissed the liberal ministers, and in October 1849, the crooked former ministers returned to power. In 1851, by interfering with electoral rights, the duke and his ministers crushed any hope for reform.
Gottlieb had seen enough and decided that 400 years in Kuppingen was enough for the Mammel family. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the population, which had grown to 1,100 inhabitants (1855), no longer had the necessary means of subsistence on the existing area. This resulted in emigration to America and to the southeast of Europe—to the Danube region. Gottlieb chose to sail to America, to a German settlement in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Fully 70% of the immigrants to Washtenaw County were Swabians from the kingdom of Württemberg and the mountainous areas of Baden. The Bethel Church in Freedom township has Gottlieb's signature on its constitution.
From a Sebewaing Township article: "And so it was that, toward the middle of the last century, many immigrants from Germany settled in and around Ann Arbor in Washtenaw County. It was from among these that Sebewaing received its early settlers.
"It was in the summer of 1851 that a group of 45 people from that area came to seek opportuity in a new frontier. They had moved in on the advice of the Rev. John J. F. Auch, first white settler, who in 1845 had been sent here by the Lutheran church at Ann Arbor as a missionary to the indians. In his movements about the neighborhood he had noted the superior type of clay loam soil and visioned the opening of a great farming area here. Frederick Ziegler, coming in 1849, was the first to follow. Mr. Auch, and his brother John followed three months later.
"The 45 men, women and children, with their meager belongings consisting of clothing, bedding and some food supplies, came up from Detroit on the ship called Julia Smith the first Monday in April A.D. 1853. Following is a list of the men who participated in this first meeting; Christian Augh, Frederick Schilling, Gottfried Beck, John Muellerweiss, Frederick Luckhard, Frederick Ziegler, John G. Baur, Andrew Auch, Jacob Roller, Peter Schairer, Jacob F. Fuehle, Andrew Volz, Jacob F. Armbruster, John Strieter, Jacob R. Streiter, Martin Gremel, John Ziegler and Gottfried Mammel."
The couple brought Gottlieb's three children to America—and had four more:
CHILDREN OF GOTTLIEB MAMMEL AND ANNA BARBARA RENZ |
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 Gottlieb F. Mammel's grave, Oak Grove Cemetery, Manchester, Washtenaw County, Michigan. Plot: Potter's Field.³ (Courtesy of Karen Jenter) |
His daughter SALMA KATE MAMMEL, (with WILLIAM GRIEB, shown below) was born in Freedom Township. Her parents moved to Sebewaing, Huron County, when she was four years old, where she "played with the Indians in the thumb area of Michigan when she was a child." The family remained there until she was 17, when they moved to Scio township.
Carl (Charles) Grieb and Catherine Mammel were attendents at Wilhelm and Salome's wedding at Zion Lutheran on Rogers Corners. They had the following children:
CHILDREN OF WILHELM GRIEB AND SALOME MAMMEL |
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THE MAMMEL FAMILY:
TEN YEARS OF SEARCHING FOR A FAMILY ON THE MOVE
by Marti Wenk Hause
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In the 1940's and 50's, my father and I drove by the old abandoned house on the corner of Scio Church and Fletcher Rd, beside the farm she and her husband, WILLIAM GRIEB, lived in after their marriage during the late 1800's.
By the time that I started trying to research the Mammel family—over a Century later—all that anybody in my family could seem to remember of Salome was her name. So when my husband, Carl, and I visited Chelsea from our home in California, where we have resided since 1961, we took my mother Dorothy Pritchard Wenk to the Manchester Library, and found The History of Washtenaw County, which had the following biography of Salome's husband, William:
"William Grieb, farmer, Lima tp., was born in Württemberg, Germany Jan 5, 1838. He is the son of Michael and Elizabeth Grieb. He came to America with his father and brother in 1855, and settled in Ann Arbor, where his brother John Michael, worked for about six years. About this time his mother came to this country and bought a farm in Freedom tp. March 14, 1873, he married Salome Mammel, born in Freedom tp in 1848. Her parents came into Scio tp when she was four years old, and remained until she was 17, when they removed to Freedom tp again. They have a family of 4 children—Catherine, Charles, Frank and an infant. Mr. Grieb is a member of the Lutheran Church, and a successful farmer. His parents were members of the same denomination. His father died in 1861 and his mother Feb 6, 1880." (This was taken from History of Washtenaw County)
I finally found a record of the family in the 1850 Census of Freedom Township, Washtenaw County, listed as family number 14:
Godlep Mammel age 47
Margaret age 39
Caroline 19
Jacob 18
John 12
Margaret 4 (Margaret is not found again in any census)
Salma 2
Caroline is also listed in 1850 Lodi Census (Washtenaw County) as a servant on the Booth Farm with Norman Burgess Line 31 (they later married.
Line 31
Virgil Booth 47
Rhoda 44
Mary 19
Phobe jame 16
Nathaniel 14
Covis 11
Rachel 6
Rhoda 4
Norman Burgess 21
Jacob Huber 26
Caroline Mamell 19
We were finally starting to put together a clearer family history. But I still had more questions than answers. I didn't know the names of Salome's parents—in fact, a search of the indexes for Washtenaw County did not show the Mammel name at all. And, most perplexingly, Washtenaw County was a German settlement... so where did the story that had so intrigued me as a child—about Salome "growing up with the Indians" fit in? Whatever records there had been seemed to have dissipated like smoke signals.
However, there was still some hope: My uncle, Norman Wenk, said he knew of a man with the last name of Mammel living in Chelsea. With Norman's introduction, I met Fred Mammel, who revealed that he was descended from a man named P. Jakob Mammel—but to my disappointment, his family was actually from the Sebewaing area, not Washtenaw County, and he never even heard of anyone in the family named Salome. I had hit a brick wall...
... But afterwards, I talked to Norman and my other uncle, Ernie Wenk, and upon reflection they said that there actually might be a Sebewaing connection to our family, as they remembered driving to Sebewaing with the Cannehls once, when they were young. Unfortunately our vacation time was up, and we had to return home.
Upon arriving back in California, I used the new information that I'd obtained to continued my research, and it led me to the Württemberg Emigration Index, Volume Three (P 129), where I found:
Mammel, Gotlieb Fredrich and F(amily):
Birth place Kuppingen
District; Herrenberg
Application Date: Feb 1847
Destination: North America
Number 834626
I compared this information with the papers that Fred Mammel had given me & and there were P. Jakob and Phillip Jakob with the same birthdates!!!!! Wow—a connection—and a new cousin named Fred, as well. Since Salome had been born after the family arrived in America, she was not listed in the Emigration Index. But now I knew I had the names of her parents. I phoned my "new relative" in Chelsea to let him know that his P. Jakob was actually half brother to my Great Grandmother Salome. It turned out that Fred's branch of Mammels was not aware that Gott was a part of their family.
He is listed as one of the first families that owned land that had previously been Indian land in the 1850's. So then I found Gottlieb in 1860 in Sebewaing. Indian country! A connection!
1860 Line 508 Dwelling 499, Huron County, Sebewaing Township:
Gotllieb Mammel 55 Farmer Germany
Barbara Mammel 42
Soloman Mammel 12 (Salome)
Catherine Mammel 4
In Stollsteimers Washtenaw County Relatives I found in 1874 in Scio Township Mammel (no initial) in Section 29 with 40 acres. Back to the Census line by line I found:
1870 Census Washtenaw County, Scio Township Line 418 Dwelling 426 Page 360 July 29, 1870
Gottlieb Mammel 72 M W Farmer 2300 1000 Württemberg 1 1
Barbara 52 F W Keeping House "" 1 1
Sally 21 F W At home Michigan 1 1
Kate 15 f W At home Michigan 1 1
Frederick 9 m w attending school Michigan 1 1
In 1870 Livingston County Michigan Putnam township line 102:
Norman Burgess 61
Caroline 58
Martha E 11
Frederick 8
Nelson 6
Catherine Mammel 15 (youngest sister of Caroline counted in census twice)
Then at the Library in Ann Arbor, my mother found in an old cemetery index that listed a Gott Mammel with his birth date and death date, buried in Manchester. So I contacted the Manchester cemetery & but they had no record of the burial! So where did the dates in the index come from? They coincided with Census records and Württemberg records!!! Finally in 2008, Karen Jenner found his burial record in the Potter's field section of Manchester cemetery.
I checked the Manchester census line by line & and—finally—there it was! 1880 US Census Washtenaw County, Manchester Township Anna Mammel (lines) 105, 107, 60 Frederick 20 Son Farm labor. I contacted the Emanuel Church in Manchester and they had funeral records for Gott in 1877. They also said that Bethel Church in Freedom Township had membership records for Gottlieb in the 1850's.
But now that I had finally uncovered my great, great-grandfather, I wanted to know more about his intriguing pioneer family. I typed "Mammel" into every search engine on the Internet and finally came up with a book titled The Mammel Family that was listed in a Kansas library. I then contacted the library for more information and they gave me the email address of its author in Canada. Through him, I was then able to connect with Mammel descendents who emigrated 50 years later to Canada and Minnesota. They had a family tree from a retired professor with the last name of Mammel in Germany. He was curious about Mammel name and researched the male descendents back to into three family trees from 1470. Through his family tree outline I was finally able to find the name of Gottlieb's father—and his father, and so on—back over 500 years.
The Mammel family continues to grow in my files: John Mammel, another half brother of Salome, was in the D 12 Michigan Infantry Company D and 70 Co., 2 Batt.'n Veteran Res Corps 12 Mich Inf. Civil War. Then in 1880 he lived near Gypsum Creek, McPherson, Kansas according to NA film number T9 0387 Page no. 444A. I applied for civil war papers and John's wife was the Frances French/Mammel who appears in the census with her mother, stepfather and siblings in Manchester, Washtenaw County. She later became a physician in Kansas. His widow applied for Pension from Kansas.
In Salome's obituary in 1932, which I found in Chelsea Standard microfilm at the Chelsea Library, it lists a sister Catherine as a survivor living in St Catherine's, Ontario. I found a Joseph Koch with wife Catherine and son Ina in the St Catherine's Census. My husband Carl and I visited the St Catherine's Ontario library in October of 2008 and discovered that Joseph was a butcher, and his son Ina never married -- so that line disappeared.
I have also talked with a descendent of Johannes Mammel in Denver, who is a physician that graduated from the University of Michigan, without ever knowing his family's Michigan connections!
We have also visited with some of Phillip Jakob's descendents who still live in the Sebewaing area!
I also connected with Caroline Mammel Burgess' great, great grandson, Daniel Hendee, but he could not provide any information on the Mammel family.
There were two Gott Mammel's that migrated to Washtenaw County one in the 1830's. The other one is listed in Salem Lutheran Church marriage records and could have lived in Lima Township where Gottlieb and Anna Barbara Renz Mammel resided in after returning to Washtenaw after Sebewaing.
Finally, I was contacted by a person in Germany who confirmed that Anna Barbara's last name was indeed Renz. I have not been able to connect any other Renz Washtenaw county relatives, although other Renz's are in the early and current Bethel Church records. My husband and I took a Rhine Cruise and were able to meet with distant Mammel relatives in Kuppingen, near Stuttgart. What a thrill. Some U.S. lines use the Mammel (as in mammal) pronunciation while others pronounce it Mummel—which is the German way.
Although I should never say "finally" with this amazing family. Their jorney from the aristocracy in Germany across the ocean to Washtenaw County, to, yes, "playing with the Indians," has been a continuing history lesson.
--Marti Wenk Hause, Vista, California
MAMMEL FAMILY TREE (CLICK FOR LARGE FILE)
GENEALOGY MARTIN MAMMEL (Bet. 1470 and 1480) begat... HANS MAMMEL (1500 - 1560) who begat... HANS MAMMEL II (Abt. 1525 - 1581/82) who married URSULA (d. 08 Apr 1613) and they begat... JAKOB MAMMEL (1571/72 - 1617) who married AGATA WIDMAYER (b. 1571), and they begat... JAKOB MAMMEL II (1611 - 1689) who married KATHARINA SCHERER and they begat... JAKOB MAMMEL III (1642 - 1706) who married MARIA WAYHING (b. 1647) and they begat... HANS MAMMEL (1671 - 1730) fathered his namesake... HANS MAMMEL II (1709 - 1783), who married ANNA MARIA BINDER and begat... HANS MAMMEL III (1730 - 1797), who married a woman named JOHANNA, and they begat... JAKOB FRIEDR MAMMEL (b. 1759) who married JUSTINA ROSINA BINDER (1764 - 1819) and they begat... GOTTLIEB FREDERICK MAMMEL (14 Jun 1803 - 14 Mar 1877) married ANNA BARBARA (b. @ 1818) and they begat... SALMA KATE MAMMEL (1848 - 1932) who married WILHELM (WILLIAM) GRIEB (1838 - 1901) and begat... MARTHA CAROLINA GRIEB (1880 - 1937) who married MARTIN WENK (1876 - 1964) and begat... ERWIN WENK (1910 - 1982) who married DOROTHY PRITCHARD (b. 1918) and begat... MARTHA WENK (b. 1940) who married CARLETON MARCHANT HAUSE, JR. (b. 1939) and begat... JEFF (who married LORI ANN DOTSON), KATHY (who married HAL LARSEN), ERIC (who married MARY MOONSAMMY), and MICHELE HAUSE (who married JOHN SCOTT HOUSTON). |
TOP PHOTO: Martha Wenk-Hause and husband Carleton Marchant Hause, Jr., at the Kuppingen Church.
NOTES
¹—The former municipality of Kuppingen became part of Herrenberg as a result of the administrative reform in Baden-Württemberg in 1971 and is now one of eight districts of Herrenberg in the Böblingen district in Baden-Württemberg. Today Kuppingen is located in the Heckengäu, three kilometers northwest of the core town of Herrenberg, near the A81 Stuttgart-Singen motorway.
²—Information provided on January 20, 2010 from Horst Hemminger (hhemminger@aol.com) of Remseck, Germany. ³—Gottlieb Fredrick Mammel's 'Find A Grave' Memorial (#61456003)SOURCES FOR THIS GENEALOGY
- "The Mammel Family Book," researched and compiled by Arnold Mammel (German) Self-published, the Family Crest on the top of this page was drawn for the cover of Arnold's book.
- Kuppingen Homepage: With 4,140 inhabitants, Kuppingen is currently the largest district of Herrenberg (as of December 2021); features travel info, sight-seeing and history.
- "The German Peasant War of 1525: New Viewpoints" by Bob Scribner (editor), Gerhard Benecke (editor); Taylor & Francis, Sep 5, 2021 - Political Science - 218 pages. This book, first published in 1979, presents a series of important investigations into the German Peasant War of 1525, the last great peasant revolt and the first modern revolution. Previously under-studied by English-speaking historians, these essays provide a valuable analysis of the aims and extent of the Peasant War, and are representative of the various elements in the historiographical debate. 1979
- "Germans to America: Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports, Vol. 9: Dec. 12, 1854-Dec. 31, 1855 (Volume 9)" by Ira A. Glazier (Editor), William P. Filby (Editor), provides both genealogists and researchers of family history with the first extensive, indexed source of German-surname immigrants who came to all ports in the United States between 1850 and 1893. This period witnessed one of the highest rates of German emigration in the nineteenth century. The series reproduces information from the original ship manifest schedules, or passenger lists, filed by all vessels entering U.S. ports. All volumes are arranged in chronological order by each ship's date of arrival. For every passenger list, the following information is provided: ship name, port of departure, port of arrival, date of arrival, and list of German-surname passengers. Ships that departed from German ports or carried passengers who declared themselves to be of German origin are included, with full name, age, sex, occupation, and, when this information is given, country, province or village of origin provided for each emigrant. One of the most important features of this series is the complete index of names at the end of every volume, making it easy to find a particular individual or family name. (1 Dec 1989)
- History of Washtenaw County, Michigan : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships...and biographies of representative citizens : history of Michigan Publisher: Chicago :: Chas. C. Chapman & Co., 1881. In the digital collection Making of Ann Arbor Text Collection. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAC4701.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. "William Grieb, farmer, Lima tp., was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, Jan. 5, 1838. He is the son of Michael and Elizabeth Grieb. He came to America with his father and brother in 1855, and settled in Ann Arbor, where his brother, John Michael, worked for about six years. About this time his mother came to this county, and bought a farm in Freedom tp. March 14, 1873, he married Saloma Marmmel, born Yn Freedom tp., in 1848. Her parents came into Scio tp. when she was four years old, and remained until she was 17, when they removed to Freedom tp). again. They have a family of 4 children-Catharine, Charles, Frank and an infant. Mr. Grieb is a member of the Lutheran Church, and a successful farmer. His parents were members of the same denomination. His father died in 1861, and his mother Feb. 6, 1880." (p. 815)
- http://www.auswanderer-bw.de/auswanderer is a German-language website that provides information and resources related to emigration (Auswanderung in German) from the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The website is maintained by the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg (State Archive of Baden-Württemberg) and contains information about historical emigration from Baden-Württemberg, as well as resources for genealogical research related to emigrants.
- "A Brief Description of a Typical Southern German Village in the Past Centuries," by Dieter Joos Ueberlingen, Germany (djoos@dieter-joos.de). April, 2006.
- "Germany and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a multidisciplinary encyclopedia, Volume 3" by Thomas Adam. ABC-CLIO, 2005.
- Washtenaw County Historical Society, aka, The Museum on Main Street: 500 N. Main Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104; 734-662-9092; wchs-500@ameritech.net
- Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan / by Samuel W. Beakes, together with biographical sketches of many of its prominent and leading citizens and illustrious dead, by Samuel Willard Beakes. Publication: Chicago :: The S.J. Clarke publishing co., 1906. In the digital collection Michigan County Histories and Atlases. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAD1054.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections.
- Combination atlas map of Washtenaw County, Michigan / compiled, drawn and published from personal examinations and surveys, by Everts & Stewart. Publication: Chicago, Ill. :: Everts & Stewart, 1874. In the digital collection Michigan County Histories and Atlases. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/3928074.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections.
- German Heritage Guidebook: Driving Tour of 19th and 20th Century Settlement and Farms; Washtenaw County, Michigan.
- "A History of the German settlers in Washtenaw County" by Dale R. Herter and Terry Stollsteimer, 2007.