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The Dreisbach Book |
|
The Dreisbach Book |
Berleburg Castle
The Dreisbach Book, pp. 3-7
[Note: We are indebted to Wittgenstein historian Gustav
Schneider of Bad Laasphe for most of the information presented here and
in the following sections on Abraham of Balde
and his descendants in Wittgenstein.]
The majority of the Dreisbach/Treisbach place-names in Germany are concentrated in a relatively small area somewhat east of the Rhine River where the federal states of Hessen (Hesse), Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine Westphalia) and Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland Palatinate) meet. Places called Dreisbach are for the most part hamlets and villages.
Today a number of persons bearing the family name Dreisbach are still found in this part of west-central Germany, particularly in the district of Wittgenstein. As for the Dreisbachs who emigrated to the New World in the 18th century, some were asked upon arrival to state their place of origin. In the few cases where this was recorded in the official documents, the only place of origin which Dreisbach immigrants cited was Wittgenstein. This does not exclude the possibility, of course, that certain Dreisbach immigrants may have come from other German-speaking regions.
The district adjoining Wittgenstein to the west, Siegerland, was also home to Dreisbachs early on. Here, up to about 1600, the name was often written "Dreispe", "Dreispecher" and "Dreispach." This form of the name occasionally occurs in the 18th century ships' lists. Later the name was generally spelled "Dreisbach". Just south of Wittgenstein and Siegerland, and still in the same geographical area, lie the towns of Dillenburg and Schönbach. Dreisbachs are known to have lived here from at least the 17th century onward. There is another, smaller, concentration of Dreisbachs in southern Hesse, centering around the town of Flörsheim, which is situated between Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. Here Dreisbachs have resided since the 1500s. No record has yet been found showing Dreisbach emigration from this area to North America.
What is this Wittgenstein which is not found on most modern maps and which is the place of origin of so many American Dreisbachs? On a relatively detailled map of Germany, find Cologne (Köln) on the Rhine River. Look eastward until you find the city of Siegen, principal town of the Siegerland district. A bit farther east still is the town of Laasphe, now known as Bad Laasphe. North of Bad Laasphe is Bad Berleberg. You have now located the two main towns of Wittgenstein.
Wittgenstein, once an Imperial County ruled by the Counts of Sayn-Wittgenstein, was always somewhat out-of-the-way. It had no large cities, its agriculture was marginal and there were no raw materials to speak of, only endless stands of beech and oak covering the steep slopes of its hills. The amount of land that could be farmed has always been limited. The valleys which lie between the wooded slopes are not broad, and even today forest covers 60% of Wittgenstein. Villagers combined a little farming, some pasturing and woodcutting and perhaps a trade. Life in Wittgenstein was literally life at the edge of the forest. It was a countryside that could not possibly absorb large increases of population.
The neighboring principality of Nassau-Siegen (today's Siegerland) now forms one administrative district together with Wittgenstein: Kreis Siegen-Wittgenstein. In the 18th century Siegerland had iron mines and forges. Forges need high-quality fuel to smelt the ore, and it was Wittgenstein that provided the fuel in the form of charcoal. There were many charcoal burners' huts in the forests of Wittgenstein, and the charcoal they produced was transported westward, overland to the forges of Siegen (in the 18th century up to 6000 wagon loads per year.) By decree of the Count, some forges were established in Wittgenstein too, including one in the village of Balde where several lines of Dreisbach emigrants originated. However, most attempts at implanting industry into Wittgenstein failed.
By the end of the eighteenth century many of the hills were totally denuded. These naked hills could not be farmed, but they could be quarried for slate. Such were the hills around Raumland, where Martin Dreisbach was born. Today slate has lost its economic importance, but many Wittgenstein houses are still sheathed in slate shingles arranged in decorative patterns. Thus Wittgenstein has several traditional types of houses, the half-timbered houses with their white plaster and dark beams, the slate-covered ones and various combinations of the two.
In 1603 the county was divided between two brothers of the house Sayn-Wittgenstein. The seat of the southern half remained at the centuries-old Castle Wittgenstein near Laasphe. The northern half was ruled from Castle Berleburg in the town of that name. In 1801 the Counts were elevated to the rank of Prince. (Today Castle Wittgenstein is a boarding school, and the head of the southern line, Prince Bernhart of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, lives in a smaller castle in Schwarzenau. Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein, head of the northern line, resides at Castle Berleberg. He is married to Princess Benedikte, sister of the Queen of Denmark.)
At the time when families began to emigrate to North America, Wittgenstein
was still a feudal state. Martin Dreisbach of Raumland and his forebears
in Balde were subjects of the northern counts. The parents and grandparents
of Simon Dreisbach lived in villages ruled by the southern Counts.
The Counts had enormous power over the personal and economic circumstances
of their subjects. Most villagers did not own sufficient land to
earn a living, and therefore they leased extra land for eight-year periods
from the Count and/or from the parish. Taxes and revenues were levied
not only on the land owned by the villagers, but also on their cattle,
poultry and other livestock. They had to pay firewood fees and charges
for the Count's messengers, watchmen and threshers. One tenth of
their grain, hay, sheep and calves went to the Count. Moreover they
had to perform certain services involving hunting for the Count, transporting
wood for him and working for set periods on the Count's farms. Taken
separately, these obligations to the Count were not excessively burdensome,
but when put together they were a crushing weight on the villagers of Wittgenstein,
who had to live from their marginal agriculture and auxiliary trades.
Even emigration was linked to a fee which had to be paid to obtain official
permission to leave. Several Dreisbachs, including Simon, are recorded
as having left without permission!
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Krombach in Siegerland: birthplace of Anna Eva Hoffman, wife of Martin Dreisbach. |
Paul Riedesel has an excellent site with additional information about
this region:
Wittgenstein History
and Genealogy Resources
Cousin Andreas
Saßmannshausen of Germany also has a Wittgenstein site for researchers
(in German):
Genealogie
Ahnenforschung - Wittgenstein
The earliest known progenitor of many North American Dreisbachs is a certain Abraham, who lived in the hamlet of Balde. The story of Abraham's descendants is of interest to all Dreisbachs, Dresbachs, etc, whether or not their relationship to this line has been established. In the first place, there is much here that is valid in a general way for other Dreisbach emigrants from Wittgenstein. Moreover, there are sufficient details known about these Dreisbachs to help us form an idea of the life both they and the other Dreisbachs must have led in the 17th and 18th centuries. Then too, we may expect that with time more North American Dreisbachs will discover their links to Wittgenstein, and perhaps to Father Abraham himself.
We start, then, with Abraham, who emerges in 1575 on a list of militiamen which is preserved in the Archives of Berleberg Castle (Akte M 30). No other name is given, for last names were not generally used in the villages of Wittgenstein before about 1600. Abraham appears on the list as a "Schütze," or rifleman in Balde. This indicates that in 1575, when such militias were established throughout Germany, there was something to be defended in Balde. It had not always been so. Old records state that in 1510 not a house was standing in the village, and that in 1518 it was a forsaken place. In 1538 Count Johan of Berleberg rebuilt the village, and established a "Hof" or Count's farm there, such as the Counts had in most of the villages of Wittgenstein.
Balde, however, lay in a problem area close to the border between this Count's territory and the southern Wittgenstein territory of his brother, Count Wilhelm, who resided in his castle in Laasphe. Wilhelm disputed Johan's right to rule the village, and for years Balde suffered from their rivalry. In 1575 a forge, which up to then had been located in the village of Berghausen, was moved to Balde. Whether it played a role in the Dreisbach family is not known, but it must have brought some employment to the village during the time that it existed.
By 1606 we find a Georg Treisbach or Dreisbach, listed in the "Schweineregister" which can still be consulted in the Wittgenstein Archives at Laasphe. The Counts kept a tally of their subjects' livestock, including swine. Thus we can read that Georg had a house or small farm (in this period house and barn or stable were all one structure), and that in 1606 he possessed 11 full-grown and 2 young pigs. The house had a name, "Wahnersch" (in modern German "Wagners"=at the wagon-maker's or cartwright's), indicating that one or more of the preceeding inhabitants, perhaps a forefather, had exercised this craft. Balde and neighboring villages were part of the parish of Raumland. Unfortunately, the church records of St. Martin's in Raumland were not begun until about 1659. Thus there must remain some uncertainty as to whether Georg Dreisbach was in fact a son of Abraham, or whether he might have married one of Abraham's daughters. In either case, descendants of Georg Dreisbach would still have Father Abraham as their ancestor.
After record-keeping began in Raumland, it became possible to follow some of the subsequent generations of the Balde Dreisbachs. Thus, from the church records it can be deduced that Georg Dreisbach of "Wahnersch" in Balde had at least two sons and one daughter, and that the two sons gave rise to three American lines of Dreisbachs. Thus the "Simon" line is descended from Georg's son Johan Dreisbach (Treisbach), and the "Martin" and the Berghausen lines have their origins in Daniel Dreisbach. In other words, three lines of North American Dreisbachs emerged from "Wahnersch", a small farm or house in a disputed borderline area of Wittgenstein.
Descendants of Abraham of Balde
1 "Father" Abraham 1535 - 1575
....... 2 Georg Treisbach 1560 - 1615
................... 3 Johan Treisbach 1580 - 1635/36
............................. 4 Daniel Threisbach 1623
- 1685
........................................ 5 Georg Wilhelm
Dreisbach 1668/69 - 1712
.................................................. 6 Simon
Dreisbach, Sr. 1698 - 1785
................... 3 Daniel Dreisbach 1580 - 1630
............................. 4 Johannes Dreisbach 1625
- 1699
........................................ 5 Valentin Dreisbach
1656 - 1719
.................................................. 6 Anton
Dreisbach 1700/01 - 1752
............................................................. 7
Anton Dreisbach 1736 - 1796
........................................................................
8 Georg Dreisbach 1765 -
Unknown
........................................ 5 Hans Georg Dreisbach
1670 - 1734
.................................................. 6 Martin
Dreisbach 1717 - 1799
............................. 4 Hans Henrich Dreisbach
1639 - 1724
........................................ 5 Johann Henrich
Dreisbach 1673/74 - 1730
.................................................. 6 Johann
Heinrich Dreisbach 1702/03 - 1757
............................................................. 7
Johann Phillip Dreisbach 1748/49 - 1804
........................................................................
8 Christian Georg Dreisbach 1790 - 1857
..................................................................................
9 August Dreisbach 1827 -
.............................................................................................
10 Christian 'Oscar' August Dreisbach
1864 - 1936
............................................................. 7
Johannes Dreisbach 1751 - 1796
........................................................................
8 Georg Heinrich Dreisbach
1782 - Unknown
