52 Ancestors (2020) – Week 9: Disaster—Horoch Family Deaths in Oberhundem

This is my third year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

Over five days, three family members of the Horoch family in Oberhundem, Kreis Olpe, Westfalen, died.

The first was eleven-year-old Johan Joseph Carl, who died on 1 October 1857, just ten days short of his twelfth birthday. He died from dysentery.[1]

The next day on 2 October, the youngest child, Maria Elisabeth Horoch, died from dysentery. She was about a year and a half old.[2]

                                                

Lastly, on the 5 October, their father, Joseph Heinrich Horoch died from dysentery. He had been fifty-three years, eight months, and three days old.[3]

Dysentery is a type of gastroenteritis that ends up with diarrhea with blood. It is highly contagious and is often caused by the bacteria Shigella. Poor hygiene and sanitation are common causes. Today, antibiotics would be used to treat the problem.[4]

This was surely a disaster for the Horoch family. The death of  Joseph Heinrich left his widow, Maria Catharine (Trösster), with seven children, ranging from twenty-two to four years old. The two oldest sons may have been away on apprenticeships or military service. My great-grandfather, Johan Anton, was nearing thirteen.

How had she managed? The church records do not say. There may be town or court records, but that would involve visiting the town or hiring someone to do the research.

However, three known children emigrated and arrived in the United States at different times:

• Johan Anton (1843-1906) came first in 1870 aboard the SS Idaho.[5]
• Johan Albert (1853-1912) came first in the mid-1870s where he studied at St. Francis de Sales Seminary.[6] He returned to Europe to finish his studies and was ordained in Belgium in 1884.[7] He returned to the U.S. in the 1880s and served in many parishes in Nebraska and Oregon.[8]
• Maria Clementina (1851-1928) came to the U.S. with her brother, Albert in 1891.[9] She stayed in Brooklyn, working as a dressmaker.[10]

Someday, I hope to visit Oberhundem in Germany. I have been studying German and reading the old German handwriting, and perhaps I can find records showing how she managed to survive without her husband as the breadwinner.

Reproduction of Luke Fildes' painting The Doctor, by Joseph Tomanek [11]

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[1] Katholische Kirche Oberhundem, Kr. Olpe, Westfalen, Toten 1848-1878, p. 33, no. 26, Johan Joseph Horoch, 1857,  Family History Library microfilm, 1257843.

[2] Ibid, p. 33, no. 26, M. Elisabeth Horoch, 1857. There were two no. 26 on the page, one after the other.

[3] Ibid, p. 33, no. 27, Josef Heinrich Horoch, 1857.

[4] “Dysentery,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysentery).

[5] "Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), 5 Nov 1870, SS Idaho, line 39, no. 1030, Joh Hork, citing NARA M237, roll 336.

[6] St. Francis Seminary, Golden Jubilee of Saint Francis Seminary 1856-1906 (Milwaukee: St. Francis Seminary, 1906), 77.

[7] Archdiocese of Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska, Biographical Sketch of Albert Hork, 1902.

[8] Some of the parishes served were St James at Mequon, Wisconsin; St. James in Kearney, Nebraska; St. Aloysius in Lanham, Nebraska, and St. Louis parish in Gervais, Oregon.

[9] "Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), "Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945" (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 Dec 2010), manifest, S.S. Belgenland, 9 Nov 1891, Rev. Alb. M. Hork and Miss Cl. Hork.

[10] Lain & Healy, Lain & Healy's Brooklyn Directory, p 709, Clementine Hork, digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com).

[11] Reproduction of Luke Fildes' painting The Doctor, by Joseph Tomanek, this work is in the public domain.

Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.