Notes |
- Peter Carl Johann von Rosenberg, soldier of Waterloo and pioneer of Texas, was born at "Eckitten", near Memel in East Prussia, on October 2, 1794. He was nine years old when his parents were divorced and we know nothing of his early life and education.
In 1819 he inherited the "Eckitten" estate on the death of his widowed stepmother, and the same year he married Johanna Dorothea Frölich. They had four children before she died in 1826.
In 1830 Rosenberg married Amanda Fallier, by whom he had five more children. They also adopted his niece, Libussa Frölich.
In June 1849 Rosenberg's eldest son, Carl Wilhelm von Roseberg, a royal architect, was proscribed because of his outspoken democratic ideas and was barred from further employment with the government. He thus decided to emigrate to Texas. When Carl was unable to dissuade his son, he concluded that the entire family should emigrate together. He had a historical connection to Texas: his brother Ernst Ludwig was one of the first Germans in Texas with the Long expedition of 1821 and was killed in Mexico in 1826.
From Vol. 1 of The von Rosenberg Family of Texas (8): "Peter Carl [the immigrant], the grandson of Sigismund Gustav, also chose to live at "Eckitten", although "Garossen" was not sold and was occupied by Peter Carl's brother Gustav and his wife Ida. Gustave and Ida reared, at "Garossen", two orphaned sisters of Eleanore von Rosenberg-Froelich, the sisters of LIbussa Froelich who was brought to America when she as 10 years old."
According to Alma Julie's notes on these children, "Ida von Ruckeshall-von Rosenberg [the third wife wife of Peter Carl's oldest brother Gustav Gotthard] was repeatedly referred to as the aunt and Guardian of the Froelich girls, who became orphans and went to old Garossen and then to Russia as Governesses and never returned. They were sisters of Libussa Froelich who came to Texas, adopted by Peter Carl Johann von Rosenberg, and she never saw her immediate family again!"
Peter Carl resigned his commission as a reserve lieutenant in the Prussian Reserve Army, and in October 1849 the family sailed from Bremen aboard the "Franziska"; they landed in Galveston in early December and traveled by mail coach and wagon down the coast to the mouth of the Brazos River. There they boarded the "Washington" and sailed up the Brazos to San Felipe de Austin. Carl and Wilhelm traveled to Bastrop and La Grange seeking to purchase a farm. Carl purchased the manor and 800 acres of Nassau Farm, a plantation in Fayette County that had been owned by the Adelsverein. He was a Freidenker (freethinker), and in his letters back to friends in Europe, he often wrote of the freedom he and his family enjoyed in Texas and America.
Carl and Amanda prospered on the farm and stayed there until all the children were grown. In 1861 they moved to a small home in Round Top, where Carl stayed after Amanda's death in 1864. Near the time of his death, he stayed with his daughter, Caroline Meerscheidt, in La Grange. He died of typhoid fever in La Grange on October 19, 1866.
Descendants in the first few generations after Peter Carl live in various towns around Fayette Co. (which sits about half-way between Houston and Austin), including La Grange, Round Top, Fayetteville, Colorado City. Family also lived in Hallettsville, just south in Lavaca Co.; in Bellville, just east in Austin Co.; and in towns just to the southeast in Colorado Co.
There are some genealogical materials for this family in the "Andrew Forest Muir papers" at the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX (see Box 27, folder 4: "Baker, Joe H. Genealogy materials and notes on related families on central and southeast Texas: Menke, Bettis, von Rosenberg, Baker, Affleck, and Hass (late 18th through 20th centuries)"). I'm not sure which branch of the family this would be. [9]
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