Collection Information
Historical Background
Scope and Content Note
Box and Folder Listing
Cataloging Information
Processed
By:
Paul Brockman
11 October 1995
Updated 11 May 2004
Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 1 manuscript box, 1 oversize folder, 1 photograph
COLLECTION DATES: Inclusive, 1849-1979; Bulk, 1885-1927
PROVENANCE: Jacqueline Johnson, Martinsville, IN,23 August 1995
RESTRICTIONS: None
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society.
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS: None
ACCESSION NUMBER: 1995.0707
The papers in this collection center around Sophie Luise Eleanor (Ellen) Schwartz, Christian Ostermeier and Frederick Buesking. Sophie (Ellen) Schwartz (1849-1921) was born in Frille, Westphalia, Germany. She and her two siblings emigrated to the United States with her parents, Antoine and Caroline, around 1850 and planned to settle in Indianapolis. Two days after the family's arrival in Indianapolis, Antoine was dead of typhoid.
With the assistance of other family members who had arrived in the area earlier, Caroline and her children settled and farmed a plot of land in Buck Creek Township, Hancock County, Indiana. In 1871 Ellen Schwartz married fellow German immigrant, Christian Friedrich Anton Ostermeier (1842-1874), and they had two children, Charles Gottlieb and William Henry.
After Christian Ostermeier’s death, Ellen worked at the Anton Schildmeier farm where she met and married Frederick Buesking (1855-1936), originally from Neunknick, Germany, in 1878. They returned to farming on her homestead in Hancock County, which she had settled with her first husband. Frederick and Ellen Buesking produced four children, Albert, Edward, Caroline and Julia.
Source: Information in Collection (Jacqueline K. Johnson, The First Hundred Years in America: An Account of the Ostermeier/Buesking Family, 1979)
The collection consists of twenty-nine letters sent to Frederick Buesking and his family from relatives in Neuenknick, Depenbrock and Seelenfeld, Germany, 1885-1927. Topics include family news, local happenings, farming information exchanges, the military draft in Germany, and World War I. The tone of the letters are very religious and optimistic in nature. They included English translations by Ilse Edwards of Indianapolis, IN. Also included are family documents such as birth certificates, wedding licenses, naturalization papers, and certificates, 1849-1930. There is also a copy of the Ostermeier/Buesking family history by Jacqueline K. Johnson, 1979, and other related genealogical information.
BOX 1: Family Correspondence and Genealogical Information,
1849-1979
FOLDER CONTENTS
1 Correspondence from Germany, 1885-1898
2 Correspondence from Germany, 1899-1900
3 Correspondence from Germany, 1903-1914
4 Correspondence from Germany, 1919-1927 & n.d.
5 Family Documents, 1849-1930 (also OM 335 and VC)
6 Family History, 1979, Folder 1
7 Family History, 1979, Folder 2
8 Family History, 1979, Additions and Corrections
9 Family History Research, n.d.
For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://157.91.92.2/
2. Click on the "Basic Search" icon.
3. Select "Call Number" from the "Search In:" box.
4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, M 0665).
5. When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.