THE BUCHMANN OF HOCHDORF FAMILY TREE

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Sepp Buchmann



Joseph Anton Xaver

Born: 9.3.1793 Hochdorf
Married: 28.4.1817 Luzern, Barbara Scherer of Meggen
Emigrated to USA 1833
Died: 27.6.1876 USA.
Son of Johann Georg Buchmann and Anna Maria Suter

(Anton, a brother of Joseph also emigrated to Highland, Illinois)

Elisab. Barbara Cresentia Buchmann
Born: 3.2.1818 Hochdorf
Emigrated to USA 1833
Died: 1904
Married Valentine Bellm (1824-1906) in Highland
Burried at St. Joseph Cemetry, Highland
6 children 		Joseph Alois Xaver Buchmann
18.4.1819 Hochdorf
Emigrated to USA 1833
Married: Susanna Häuptli
Married: Elise Uebersax
Farmer in USA
Died: 1898


Higland, Madison County, Illinois, started as a Swiss settlement in the 1930s. The most prominent settlers were the Suppiger and Dr. Köpfli families from the Sursee (Luzern, Switzerland) area. Anton Buchmann, the younger brother of Josef, married a Suppiger daughter in 1837; he ran the 'zum Adler' tavern till 1839 when Durer acquired and, I assume, renamed it to 'Hotel Helvetia'. Hotel Helvetia was the social hub of the small town.

The first Suppiger and Knoepli families emigrated in 1831. They had problems finding suitable ship accommodations in Le Havre (Havre de Grace), so they rented the below-deck section of a three-masted ship (referred to as the steerage), had a carpenter build a simple living space for them, and sold passages for the remaining space to about 120 emigrants. The crossing took 50 days, much longer than expected due to inclement sailing weather. Surprisingly, the two families traveled from the arrival port in New York via rivers and water canals to Sait Louis, rather than by boat via New Orleans as most later emigrants did. They traveled up the Hudson River to Albany, then on the new Erie Canal up to the Great Lakes, then down on canals through Akron (describing it as a 'small beautiful village') to the Ohio River, through Cincinnati, Louisville to the Mississippi. They left home end of April and arrived in Highland end of August, four months of traveling. The private room is shown in the sketch below as #20. I am not sure on what route Josef Buchmann and his brother Anto traveled two years later.



I am also reading the book 'New Worlds to Seek Pioneer Heinrich Lienhard in Switzerland and America, 1824 - 1846'. Heinrich Lienhard traveled to Highland, Illinois in 1843. He crossed the Atlantic from Le Havre to New Orleans, then traveled up the Mississippi to St Louis. He waited for someone to take him to Highland (then called Helvetia) about 30 miles east of St Louis. Lienhard later left Helvetia and traveled to California and worked for Captain John Sutter, the famous California Gold Rush explorer.

Quoting from the book:

'On the fourth day two farmers arrived in a wagon drawn by two yoke of Oxen. Both were Swiss; the older was Joseph Buchmann, a man of about fifty, tall and well-built, with pleasant features, an enlightened, well-read man from the Canton Lucerne, the other, Mr. Iberg...' (The Joseph Buchmann is the son of my Great-great-great-great father Johann Georg, born 1757)

'Old Buchmann told Iberg to hand out the jug of whiskey, which he did, after first taking a good swig for himself. Then Buchmann followed his example, and they handed it to us, saying 'Here, take it, it's good for times like these'. I was astounded that people in this country drank something like that, for I associated the name 'wiski' only with whitewash and therefore felt that this could neither be good to drink, nor healthy...'

'We had now arrived at the house of our old, good-natured Buchmann, but he found his only son Wilhelm, a fine looking young man of about twenty-two, in bed in great pain from a broken leg...' (Note: Buchmann's only son was Josef Alois, not Wilhelm).

'On the day after our arrival, the Schneiders hauled our baggage from Buchmann's. Buchmann had sent a request through them that Aebeli and I might be so kind as to help get his son Wilhelm to Highland where he would do better under the excellent care of his brother Anton and wife, and also to be closer to a doctor...' (Note: Buchmann's house was about two miles east of Highland village.)

'That evening I bought material for trousers and underpants, and, since Mollet often bragged about his wife's sewing ability, I decided to test him... And it was the response I expected; she did not trust herself to make clothes for someone else for fear they might not turn out right. That was just what I wanted. I there-upon took the material to Mrs. Buchmann in Highland, who was an experienced seamstress and not expensive...'

'One humid Sunday afternoon in June we had been at Durer's {Helvetia House], drunk cider, and each of us had received three cigars. I had smoked barely an inch of mine when I felt as though I were getting seasick. We were going to Mr. [Anton] Buchmann's house, where there were several young girls, including a couple of Mrs. Buchmann's sisters, and one of my friends Bernhard Suppiger...' (Note: Mrs Buchmann comes from the Suppiger family, one of the original settlers of Highland. The Suppigers come from the Sursee, Switzerland area)