Our Spoering Family

Front Row: Lydia, Father Henry (my great-grandfather,) Amelia, George, Mother Mary (my great-grandmother,) Sophia
Back Row: Mary, Fred, Anna, Henry, Ida (my grandmother,) Freida, Kate


 
Front Row: Sophia (Marksch), Fred, Henry, George, Mary (Baden)Back Row: Anna (Helmke), Lydia (Loudon), Freida (Lange), Amelia (Schlegel), Ida Elling and Kate Tietje Elling

Since I've told the stories of Grandma Elling and Aunt Kate, it seems the right time to talk more about their family - the Spoerings. My Spoering great-grandparents immigrated from Germany through Bremen on the ship called the SS Main, arriving at the Castle Garden immigration station in New York City on March 6, 1882. On the ship's list for the trip, Henry, age 36, stated that he iwas from Prussia and his destination was Defiance, O.

It is likely that he had friends or relatives from his German town to come to in America. On his naturalization papers, Charles Evers and George Daum gave oaths that he had lived in the U.S. for the required five years and that he was of good moral character. Henry farmed in Richfield Township and at various times also lived in Monroe and Bartlow Townships in Henry County. It is said that he spoke only German.

Mary Floke Spoering was 26 years old at the time of immigration and we know her birth village was Nindorf, Prussia. Mary was born Catharina Maria Benien on October 26, 1855, the illegitimate child of Anna Catharine Benien, daughter of Harm Benien and his wife Gesche, born Meyer. The birth record states that "the illegitimate child is born in the house of the parents of the birth mother." Mary was baptized on October 29, 1855, in St. John's Ev. Lutheran Church in Visselhovedre. No godparents were listed. 

A later supplement to the birth record dated May 17, 1861, stated that "Carsten Heinrich Floke, resident of Jeddingen, and his wife Anna Catharina, born Benien, have declared before me, as parents of the illegitimate child entered on this page, and is now to be regarded as a legitimate child who will take the surname of the father Flocke." This was signed by a pastor and noted that it would be placed in the church records.

According to my helpful German researcher, this legalization of a child after marriage was quite common in these times. Illegitimacy rates were high because there were strict laws concerning marriage, especially that the male have a certain level of income before vows could be made.