Mary Fisher & Conrad Much

            A tiny slip of paper was found among the family records of Gertrude Kunz Menehan, daughter of Amelia Much and Michael Kunz. It reads, in part: “Mrs. Mary Much, Amelia’s mother, was born in Germany near Rein-berg on de dorna [sic] on May 9, 1836.” This minute scrap provides the furthest glimpse back at the origins of Mary Much.

            A search of the Catholic baptismal records in Keokuk, IA turned up evidence of Mary Much's maiden name: Mary Fischer, daughter of Andrew and Mary Fischer.¹ The federal census of 1860 lists Andrew and Mary Fisher, immigrants from Bavaria who had settled in the fourth ward of Keokuk. They had at least four daughters: Margaret, Mary, Victoria and Amelia. According to other records, Mary and Andrew Fisher also had a son, Michel.

            On November 26, 1850, the Fishers arrived on the ship Edmund from Bremen, Germany to the Port of New Orleans. The ship's registry lists Andrew Fischer (a tailor), his wife Marianne, their daughter Marianne (age 17), their son Michel (age 16, also a tailor), their second daughter Victoria (age 15) and their youngest daughter Amelia (age 6). Some discrepancies exist between this registry, however, and later censi: Michel is not listed with the family in later documents, while an older daughter, Margaret, is included in the 1860 Keokuk census. Perhaps Michel remained in New Orleans, or perhaps he set out on his own some time between his arrival in North America and the 1860 census. And did Margaret come on a different ship, either before or after her family? The records remain silent.

The 1860 census also list Andrew's trade, and the 1859 and 1860 Keokuk city directories confirm it. Andrew worked as a tailor in Keokuk and had a house on the south side of Main Street between 13th and 14th.² At this time, Keokuk was a bustling town, likely because boats could navigate up the Mississippi to Keokuk but were then stopped by the rapids just north of town. This made Keokuk a point of transfer for goods and people. The 1868 city directory lists twenty-one hotels in the city, almost all situated on or just off of Main Street, between 1st and 14th.³

Family records indicate that Mary Fisher, wife of Andrew, died on October 16, 1872 in Van Buren County, IA. We do not have a record of Andrew Fisher's death.

            Sometime before 1857, the young Mary Fisher met and married Conrad Much, a fellow German immigrant living in Keokuk. Conrad had immigrated from either Bavaria, Germany, apparently by himself.   From the 1860 census report, his year of birth can be approximated at 1820, though the 1870 census seems to indicate that he was born in 1825. In comparison, both census reports indicate that Mary was born in 1834, though her tombstone gives her date of birth as May 7, 1836.

            Conrad, who was christened Corbidian, was born the son of Konrad and Catherine Much. His parents emigrated from the Pfalz (Paletine) to Bayern (Bavaria) in 1818 and settled in the village of Bachhausen along with Konrad senior’s father Michael. The couple had eight children born in Paletine, and four born in Bavaria. Among Conrad’s siblings were Anna Catharina, Mathaus, both born in Pfalz, Eva Magdalene, Christopher, Elizabeth, Corbidian and a younger brother Johann, the later two were born in Bavaria. We do not know where the others were born nor do we know the names of some. Some of those unnamed children died in infancy. Because the family were Luthern and there were no protestant churches in the area, the younger children were brought to the Catholic Church for baptism and registration, however, the family continued to consider themselves as Luthern, and attended worship when a travelling minister would arrive in the area.

            The family settled on the farm "Mentl"- a former monastery courtyard of the Tegernssee. Tegernsee was "a celebrated Benedictine abbey of Bavaria that was of much importance for the civilization of the early Middle Ages. It was situated on the state road to the Tyrol by Lake Tegern in a south-southeasterly direction from Munich. According to the latest Germanistic researches the word Tegern signified in Old High German ‘large,’ consequently the name meant 'large lake.' The monastery was founded in 746 by Counts Adalbert and Otkar of Warngau and Tegernsee. The monastery had an uneven history, depending on the favour of the governing powers. In 1803, the monastery was secularized and this sealed its fate. It became property of the state. In 1817 the former monastery became the property of King Maximilian I who also bought the building owned by the Benedictines. The king had the place altered into a royal summer residence."⁴ It was the next year that the Much family arrived in the area and must have rented farm land from the king.

            When in his twenties, Corbidian, or Conrad as we will from now call him, immigrated to America. A Conrad Much of Bavaria is listed on a New York Passenger list arriving May 3, 1849 on the Zurich, departing from Le Havre, France. There is another C. Much who arrived aboard the ship Gutenberg, departing from Hamburg, Germany and arriving in New York on July 5, 1850. In both cases, the gentleman is listed as 27 years old. With this limited information, it is impossible to determine if either of these are the Conrad Much who is a part of our family tree.

            By 1854 we know that Conrad Much was living in Keokuk, IA because there are records of his purchase of land from Charles Mason in Mason's Lower Addition. Conrad wrote his family back in Bavaria shortly after the end of the civil war (1861), possibly as late as 1865. He states he himself did not serve in the war but writes about all the men returning home. He apparently planned to bring his unmarried sister, Anna Katharina, with her three out-of wedlock children, and his brother, Johann to live with him. From the source of Edgar Much⁵, we learn that Anna Katharina had eight or nine illegitimate children, some whom had died. Their sister Eva Magdalene also had two illegitimate children. Since the family was Protestant in a dominantly Catholic area, these young women might have had Catholic partners but were not considered legally married if they had not converted to Catholicism. We have no further information that Katharina, her children, or Johann ever came to Iowa.

By December of 1857, Mary and Conrad had their first child: a daughter, also named Mary. The city directories tells us that the family was still living in Mason's Lower Addition (1857),⁶ more specifically at the corner of Cedar and 16th (1859).⁷ Later searches of land deeds confirm that Conrad Much did indeed buy land in Mason's Lower Addition from Chief Justice Charles Mason himself.Interestingly enough, the 1860 census which lists Mary and Conrad Muck [sic] and their two daughters (Mary, aged 21 -- likely 2 years, 1 month? -- and Amelia, aged 1 year) as living in Ward 1 of Keokuk is the same census which also lists Mary as living with her parents in Ward 4. Likely her parents did not make a distinction between children living at home and those in their own households when the census taker had come knocking. We know that Conrad Much was a labourer⁸ in 1857, though by 1870 "Conrad Moak" [sic] is specified as being a carpenter with an estimated real estate value of $1000.⁹

Amelia, the second child born to Conrad and Mary, was born on June 15, 1859. She was possibly named after her godmother, Amelia Hafer, or perhaps her young aunt, Amelia Fischer, sister to Mary. A third daughter, Elizabeth (Lizzie), was born in 1861, followed by William Conrad in 1863, Frank Joseph in 1865, Carl (Karl) in 1868, George Anton in 1870, and Hattie Caroline in 1872. (This may be the "Hedwig Caroline" who was Amelia's witness for her wedding.)

The total children born to Conrad and Mary Much were:

Multiple griefs struck the family, beginning with the death of the infant Karl. While his date of death is difficult to decipher on the tombstone, it appears to be Oct.__1868 the month in which he was born. There is a carefully handwritten document, likely written by Amelia Much Kunz, which states that “Grandmother died Oct 16, 1872, Portland, Van Buren County, Iowa." This would be Mary Fisher the elder. the document goes on to say, "Father [Conrad Much] died October 19, 1873.” He died of consumption and was buried in common ground in the Keokuk Oakland Cemetery¹⁰, unlike the rest of his family, who were buried in the Catholic cemetery. This would have been one month short of the first birthday of Hattie, the youngest child. Mary Much was left with a family of seven children for which to care on her own. In five short years, Mary had lost her infant son Karl, her mother, and her husband. Life must have become considerably harder for this young family.

By 1880, seven years after Conrad's death, we learn from census records that the oldest child, Mary, was out of the house, working as a servant for the Speisberger family, while Amelia, age 20, worked as a "tailoress." Lizzie is not listed in these records and was perhaps working outside the home or married. Willie, age 15, and Frankie, age 13, were labourers, while the last two children, age 10 and 8 respectively, were still at school.¹¹ Gertrude Kunz Menehan spoke of her mother, Amelia, walking three miles to deliver her completed sewing work and pick up new work from the tailor who employed her. In 2005, while on a genealogical quest, Amelia's granddaughters and great-granddaughter measured the distance between the site of Amelia's home and that of her grandfather, Andrew Fisher, who was a tailor. A round trip totalled about 3 miles, making it likely that Amelia worked for her grandfather and walked the road to and from work every day. There is another story in the family that Amelia did some tailoring for Samuel Clemens’ mother, who lived in Keokuk for many years at Seventh and High Streets.¹² Evelyn Gaffney (Amelia's granddaughter) has a quilted bedspread on her guest bed that is hand quilted by Amelia. It has such fine and careful hand stitches and is a beautiful, precious remembrance.

In 1881, another tragedy fell upon the family with the death of young George Anton on December 29. He was buried on the first day of January, 1882 at age 11 years, 10 months and 3 days.

           Mary, the oldest daughter of Conrad and Mary Much returned to live with her mother until the latter became too ill to live at home. It seems that Mary, the daughter, entered the Lee county home the same year her mother died. "Since 1916 Miss Much had been at the Lee County Home, where she died Sunday, November 7, 1926 at the age of sixty seven years."¹³

            Dorothy Bahr (a granddaughter of Amelia) tells the story that Amelia was hired by the newly widowed Michael Kunz of Elvaston, Illinois, to do some sewing for his family. This is how Amelia Much and Michael Kunz met. On November 25, 1891 at 9:00 a.m. Amelia Much was married to Michael Kunz at Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Keokuk, Iowa. Rev. Father Hurdt officiated. George Stahl and Hedwig Much were their witnesses. "A splendid wedding dinner was served at the residence of the bride's mother on the Hilton road."¹⁴

            By 1900, William Much married Matilda (family name lost) and was living in St. Louis, MO. They had two children: Ruby, born in 1889, and Pearl, born in 1893. We have no record of William's death.

            In the 1910 census, Frank was listed as married to a woman named Elizabeth. Together they had three children -- Elmer (born c. 1889), Gertrude (born c. 1892) and Ralph (born c. 1897) -- and lived in St. Louis, MO. Gertrude Kunz Menehan (Amelia's daughter) recalls her Uncle Frank and his son Ralph coming to Washington and visiting when Gertrude was a child. Some time after the death of Frank's wife, and Amelia's husband, Frank came out west. His arrival was quite a surprise to his sister. He stayed and lived with his sister, helping on the farm until his death. He is not buried in Sherman and so his body must have been shipped back to St. Louis to be buried alongside his wife.

            In the same 1910 census, Lizzie is listed as living in St. Louis and married to Frank Schell. They had a daughter named Bertha, another named Emily and a son Frank. Lizzie died on October 8, 1914.

            Hattie, the youngest of the Much family, was also listed in the 1910 census under the married name Roths, though by 1910 she is listed at the head of household. Hattie and her three children -- Hildagarde (born c. 1895), Elsa (born c. 1898) and Arthur (born c. 1901) -- were living in St. Louis, where Hattie worked as a cook in a hospital and her oldest daughter, Hildagarde, worked as a printer in a soap factory.   By 1930, Hattie was living with her daughter Elsa, son-in-law Louis Helfrish, and granddaughter Arline.

            Mary Fisher Much died on April 24, 1916. At the time she had been residing at Mount Pleasant State Hospital in Iowa. She had been in poor health for some time. Old age, combined with heart trouble, was responsible for her demise.¹⁵

Charles

[Son of]

C. & M. Much

Died

Oct __ 1868

Mary Much

Dec __ 18__

Nov 7 1926

Rest in Peace

George Anton

[Son of C. & M.] Much

Mary Much

May 7, 1836

April 24, 1916

² 1860 Keokuk City Directory, p. 61; and 1859 Keokuk City Directory. "In 1857 Samuel Clemens, or Mark Twain, moved to Keokuk to help his older brother Orion publish Keokuk’s first city directory [in 1857] at "The Ben Franklin Book and Job Office," formerly located at 212 Main Street. His first paid articles were also printed at the shop." Source: History of Keokuk, 1850s

⁵ Personal communication (e-mail) from Edgar Much to Mary Ann Bresba, November 22, 2007.

⁶ The 1857 Keokuk City Directory listed a Mugh C., laborer, res Mason's Lower Addition.

¹⁴Keokuk, IA newspaper clipping, courtesy of Patricia Kunz or Evelyn Kunz Gaffney