Our class was told we would be writing a genealogy paper, and I thought “great, time to show off how awesome my ancestry is!” My class downloaded ancestry.com to aid us in forming our family trees, and after a call with my mother, I was able to witness the magic of the website. Census reports revealed generations of ancestry. Reading the census reports of my ancestors, I happened to be the descendant of a lineage of farmers, something I had not known growing up in the suburbs of Akron, Ohio. “How am I supposed to write about farmers?”, I’ve been thinking; maybe it’s not the farming that matters, but the journey my ancestors made a midst a crumbling German economy to America, opening up opportunities for my family.
Germans immigrating to America to escape the poverty and corruption of Germany.
It is the early 1840’s; John Crock Sr., my fifth-great grandfather on my mother’s side of the family, resides in the corrupt German state Hesse-Cassel with a wife and two kids; all he owns is but a small plot of land to farm, a trifling house, and a single cow. Experiencing the aftermath of the 1830’s Paris revolutions and a revolution of their own, Hesse-Cassel was impoverished, facing high food prices and an unorganized government. John was a member of the poorer classes of Hesse-Cassel. Along with many others in the area, John led his family to the free lands of America. This would prove to be no fun task, though, as the long, treacherous ride packed thousands of people (mostly other Germans escaping the impoverished lands) on a small boat to America.
According to this 1860 census, John Crock resides in Fulda, Ohio as a farmer with his wife Barbara and kids. He owns $800 in real estate.
John and his family arrive in America to start their lives anew in lands of opportunity. Records show that they initially took refuge in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), though this was not the right land suited for John’s family. After a couple months, he bought and moved his family to a 160-acre plot of land in Fulda, Ohio, a city named after Fulda of Hesse-Cassel, Germany, where John and many other German immigrants have previously lived. Here, John had the determination to build his house and his farm that would raise his 12 children. According to fuldaohio.org, a site that traces family trees of those that have descended from Fulda, Ohio, John was the first to raise a team of horses among farmers in his area, and he was diligent in helping those around him raise their animals and cultivate their lands (German Beginning). When he died on January 19th, 1865, John left his farm to be passed down to generations of the Crock family. John rescued his wife and two kids from the poverty struck lands of Germany to content lives and opportunity in America. Here he helped his family grow and prosper. Here he was able to live out an American dream of his own.
Just as John Crock was able to create his own American dream with the farming of old America, I am coming to my own dreams in modern America. In the 21st century, it is important to receive a college degree, much like it was important to own land and a farm in the past. I am attending the University of Alabama, and just the fourth person in my family to attend a college. If I were to graduate, I would be the 1st engineering graduate, and the third person in my family to attain a four-year degree. This for me, is just the start of my American dream.
Works Consulted
“The German Beginning of Fulda, Ohio.” Fulda, Noble Co., OH. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
Menning, Ralph. “Hesse-Cassel.” Hesse-Cassel. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.