Christoph was born on 30 September 1807 in Brussow, Prussia. (Prussia is now Germany) He wanted to go to the university to study, but there was not enough money, so he took up the shoemaker trade. He is often referred to as a slippermaker. At exactly 31 years of age, he married Louise Fredericke Grobengiesser.
Louise Camann's headstone in the St. James Lutheran Church Cemetery in Bergholtz, Niagara County, New York
In 1838 he was imprisoned for his religious beliefs and all his rights and privileges of citizenship were withheld from him. The Union Church was the state religion, and Christoph had come to believe that the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the church he wanted to be affiliated with. From a biography of his life published by the Synod of the Prussian Emigrated Lutheran Church in 1857, it states: "He openly declared his break with the Union church and for this he suffered imprisonment. This happened even before he made his official assertion as a result of the legal investigation which followed secret surveillance and persecution by the state police who were carrying out their duties at the instigation of the pastors of the State Union church."
He spent nearly three years in prison before being released and all his citizenship restored.
Translation of a documents referring to Christoph's imprisonment and release.
In 1843 he and his family, along with the Lutheran congregation he belonged to, emigrated to America. My 3rd great-grandfather, Augustus was eight at the time. From a biography about Augustus William Caman, it states: "his family, along with 500 other "Old Lutheran" emigrated to America. The group bought land and established the town of Bergholtz just east of Niagara Falls, New York."
In 1845 he became a sexton and a schoolteacher, at a salary of $18/month. He taught for ten years before he got consumption (tuberculosis) and died within four weeks of time, on 27 October 1857. I am unaware at this time of where Christoph is buried.
Augustus Caman and Carl Gotthilf Camann (brothers), circa 1920.
Direct line ancestry: Christoph Friederich Camann --> Augustus William Caman --> William Harrison Caman --> Clarence Chapman Caman --> Donald William Caman --> Donald William (Caman) Marshall --> Lora Marshall Nehring
In the short biography of Christoph Frederich Camann that I have it mentions that he and his wife had ten children. I have recently been able to figure out nine of them.
ReplyDelete1. Frederich August Camann, born 1839
2. August Wilhelm (Augustus William) Camann, born 1841
3. Wilhelm (William) Julius Camann, born 1842
4. Louise W. Camann, born 1845
5. Charles Gotthilf Camann, born 1846
6. Paul L. Camann, born 1850
7. Augusta Louise Camann, born 1852
8. Lydia Camann, born 1854
9. Martha Camann, born 1857
I spoke with the Historical Society of North German Settlements in Niagara, New York and I was told that Christoph Camann was buried in the cemetery of the Holy Ghost Church in Bergholtz, New York, but at one time the caretaker got tired of mowing around the headstones, and had them removed. (Gack!!)
ReplyDelete