A father, his wife, daughter, and his two sons made the precarious journey from their homeland in Germany to America in the early 1880s. The Meyer Family had lived and farmed in the small villages of Engter, Hemke, Achmer, Pente, and Rieste around Bramsche, Germany in Lower Saxony. Hermann Meyer, Sr. and his wife Anna, along with their daughter Elise, and son Hermann, Jr. traveled to America in 1882. Hermann Sr. was almost 70 years old when he made the trip.
Hermann, Jr. brought along his wife Caroline and their children. They traveled aboard a sailing vessel and the ship had packed food for only about three weeks. Their ship ran into unfavorable winds, and after three months at sea they were fearing starvation. They finally made it to America and settled in Freistatt, Lawrence Co., Missouri.
The other brother, (my great-grandfather) Rudolf Wilhelm Meyer, his wife Elise, and their three children made the journey over three years later in 1885. They traveled aboard a steam liner, the SS Rhein, and made the trip in about two weeks. They then traveled to Freistatt to meet up with the rest of the family. Click here to learn more about their journey.
Some of the Meyer family stayed in Missouri, while in 1908 some of the family moved west to Shidler, Oklahoma, and then later on to Texas, where some still reside.
On the other side of the family, William Sargent traveled from Bath, England to the Colonies in 1633. The Sargent family lived in and around Amesbury, Massachusetts for almost two hundred years. After 1800, some of the family slowly moved south over the years, to Virginia, South Carolina, and later on to Georgia where several of them fought in the Civil War. They then moved west to Hood County, Texas in 1875. There have been Sargents in the North Texas area continually since that time.
The Meyer and Sargent families have served this country well when called upon, serving in the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.
It has been my goal to capture the details as accurately as possible. If you find any mistakes, or can help complete more of the family tree, please send me an email. I am not a professional genealogist. Some, but not all, of the information has been confirmed, and I have tried to list as many sources as possible. I do not warrant the accuracy of the information and advise all visitors to validate all information independently.
I would like to thank Frank B. Fain for the information and notes on the Fain Family. I would like to note the excellent job done by Dr. Sylvia Moehle in providing us with research and documents on the Meyer family back in Germany. I would also like to thank Trumon Meyer, Doris Meyer, Loyd Myers, Ed and Sue Meyer, Sally Curry and the rest of my family members for all of the invaluable information they have given to me. And lastly, I would like to thank all of my newly discovered cousins who have sent family information to me...Dieter Butkus, Ruth Mullen, Kathryn Wykoff, Melba Riedel, and many more.
Be sure to sign my Guestbook!
Thanks, and enjoy the site,
Mike Meyer
Send e-mail to: [email protected]
This web site updated August 30, 2009