The group started their journey in Baden. Gottlieb, Joseph, and Caroline Ringwald lived in Wagenstadt, Herbolzheim, Baden and Maria Magdalena and Caroline Schnaiter were from Broggingen, Herbolzheim, Baden.
Maria Magdalena applied for a passport in Broggingen and it was issued on 10 May 1851. The passport says that she is going to America to visit relatives. It includes a physical description of Maria and her signature at the bottom.
Maria Magdalena applied for a passport in Broggingen and it was issued on 10 May 1851. The passport says that she is going to America to visit relatives. It includes a physical description of Maria and her signature at the bottom.
The passage in the Samuel M Fox was advertised in the Freiburger Zeitung a newspaper in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden on May 17, 1851.
The three couples traveled to Le Havre, France. Among the belongings they took with them was a trunk that was passed down from Gottlieb through the family to Mina Sennott, his great-grandaughter.
The ship Samuel M Fox sailed with 622 passengers from Le Havre on 10 June 1851 and the passengers disembarked in New York City 45 days later on 25 July 1851. There was a family story that there was a fire on board the ship and it almost sunk. There was no mention of the fire in the newspapers of the time but according to the New York Herald "The SMF has had a succession of light westerly winds and calms with continual fogs and rain."
On the day the group arrived the weather was very different from the area they came from in Baden, it was "one of the sultriest and most oppressively hot days of the present season. The heavy rain which fell on Thursday night tended in some degree to cool and rarify the atmosphere during the forenoon, but from about three o'clock pm until sunset the suffocating heat was almost beyond endurance. About six o'clock strong symptoms of heavy rain appeared; but the armament soon became cleared of it masses of black clouds and at night the neared blue sky was bespangled with brilliantly shining stars. The highest degree of head indicated by the thermometer yesterday was 85 at 3 o'clock pm yet we have seen the mercury rise above 90 degrees at times when the heat was more endurable and less stifling."
The group found rooms at 103 Liberty Street. Two of the couples married shortly after they arrived at a St. Matthew a German Evangelical Lutheran church in New York City. Gottlieb married Maria Magdalena 5 August 1851. Their marriage certificate survives. Joseph married Carolina Schnaiter a week later on 12 August 1851.
Shortly after their marriages, the two couples set off for Ross County, Ohio where there cousin, Daniel Ziebold and his wife Maria Katharine Ringwald lived along with other relatives.
Sources
- New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957; Samuel M Fox Passenger List, 1851 Arrival; Microfilm M237 roll 102, line 43; List 1002. Ancestry.com <www.ancestry.com>.
- Passport of Maria Magdalena Schnaiter. Original is part of the Joseph Rickert family papers in the manuscript collection at Southern Illinois University Special Collections Research Center.
- Freiburger Zeitung, vom 17 Mai 1851, digital Freiburger historische Bestande - digital Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg <https://fz.ub.uni-freiburg.de/show/fz.cgi?cmd=showpic&ausgabe=02&day=17x&year=1851&month=05&project=3&anzahl=2>
- New York Herald; "Maritime Intelligence", Morning Edition Friday July 25, 1851 and "City Intellicence", Saturday, July 26, 1851 page 4 col 4.
- Marriage Certificate of Gottlieb Ziebold and Maria Magdalena Ziebold, original in the collection of the author.
- New York City, Lutheran Church Records, 1834-1854; Ancestry.com <www.ancestry.com>.
