Conrad and Lucia (Lucy) Weinheimer
Conrad and Lucia Weinheimer were my great-great-great-grandparents. They moved from Norwich, Connecticut, to Mobile with their daughter, Otilia (later Odelia) in 1845. Odelia married Thomas Franelich, and they were my great-great-grandparents. An excerpt from the vital records of Norwich, 1659–1848, (page 800 entry {413} show three separate entries, one (Conrad Winheimer to Luzia Desselbruneray) may represent Conrad and Lucia's marriage, but, considering the marriage date (October 4, 1835) and Otilia's birth date (January 10, 1836), something may be off.
A page from the manifest of the ship, Charles Carroll, departing Le Havre, France, and arriving NY, NY, May 12, 1834, shows Conrad Weinheimer, 21 years old (born in 1813), as a passenger. Just above his name is Philp Weinheimer, 20 years old (born 1814). The time line fits perfectly for he being my relative.
There is a death record in New Orleans of a Philipp Weinheimer who was born about 1813 and died November 20, 1840. The 1840 U.S. census showed New Orleans to be the third-largest city, edged out of second place by Baltimore. The New Orleans area was well populated by Germans since 1721, with immigration peaking 1840–1850. These years coincide with the ships from Europe not going directly to New Orleans for cotton but to New York which had become the cotton brokerage hegemon. The Civil War stopped all German immigration directly to New Orleans.
In the 1800's Le Havre was the second-largest port in France, and the ship Charles Carroll made several trips from there to New York. Some arrival dates were May 12,1834; April 26,1838; September 17,1838; May 6,1839; September 16,1839; May 15,1841.
In 1704 the ship Pelican, carrying food, soldiers, livestock and merchandise made it to Dauphin Island, Alabama, (then Massacre Island) to resupply the newly established Bienville's Mobile. However, the most appreciated import were the twenty-three French girls that came with the ship; all but one were married within a month. The Pelican, like other ships, unloaded their cargo into lighter boats, and they then made their way over the bars and shallow bay to Mobile. Later, the port of Le Havre supplied Europe with grain, cotton, oil, wood and coal imported from America. Le Havre was not only an entry for American goods but also an exit point for migrants to the USA. Transatlantic steamer travel grew in the 1830's, and the trade boom was on.
Conrad moved from Norwich, Connecticut, to Mobile with his wife Lucia (later spelled Lucy) and daughter Otilia (later spelled Odelia) in 1845. Little is known about Conrad and Lucia, but Odelia spent the rest of her life in Mobile and was my great-great grandmother. There was a close connection between Norwich and Mobile based on trade: cotton went north and manufactured goods went south. Conrad Weinheimer may have been connected to the cotton industry and the reason for moving to Mobile.
As early as 1818, Norwich had a cotton mill with 1,200 spindles (the total number of cotton mills throughout Connecticut was sixty-seven, by 1845 that number increased to 136). Cotton went to Connecticut and manufactured goods came back. Mobile's population increased as the cotton export increased: The population was 800 in 1817; 2,672 in 1820; 3,194 in 1830; an explosive 16,000 in 1839; 25,000 in 1850; and 35,000 at the outbreak of the Civil War. Mobile exported 7,000 bales of cotton in 1818; 16,000 bales in 1820; 45,425 bales in 1822; 100,000 bales in 1830; 300,000 in 1840; and within ten years half a million. In 1860 Mobile was shipping more cotton than any port in the world, except New Orleans.
Cotton was king not only in the south but in New England as well: In 1839 Rhode Island had 2 cities with cotton mills; Massachusetts had 29 cities with mills; New Hampshire had 22 cities with mills; and Maine had 9 cities with mills. In the state of Connecticut, Windham had 6 mills; Westport had 3 mills; Voluntown had 2 mills; Sterling had 4 mills; and East Haddam had 6 mills. Cotton was to the world then what oil is today—and it all came from the south. Fifty percent of the United States exports were cotton in 1860, and cotton textile was the most valuable manufacturing industry in the United States. Norwich had many small mills up and running processing this cotton and later, in 1866, opened the Ponemah Mill which was the second largest cotton mill in the world.
The South produced 65% of the world's cotton in 1860. Mobile was a major exporter of cotton grown throughout the Black Belt regions of central Alabama and northeast Mississippi. That cotton was transported down the Tombigbee river, merging into the the Mobile river, on to Mobile's docks and warehouses for processing. Once in Mobile the loose cotton bales were compressed by mechanical means for more efficient shipping, processed by cotton merchants, insured and sent on its way to the Northeast or Liverpool, England.
The fishing industry is another possible link with Conrad's Connecticut to Mobile—although I believe that unlikely. Commercial fishermen made regular trips from New England ports to the Gulf of Mexico to harvest the overwhelming supply of sea food the Gulf of Mexico supported. Seeing 30 fishing schooners in the Gulf from Connecticut each season would not be unusual. For a detailed geographical and political history of the Gulf read The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea, by Jack E. Davis.
One interesting story is the 21 year old Leonard Destin left New London, CT., the same port Conrad and his family left for Mobile, around 1834 on one of his family's two 80 foot fishing schooners, his father George and older brother William were on the other. Their intention was to sail to the Keys to supply fish to Key West and the Havana markets and then continue on to the abundant fishing grounds of the Gulf. Along the way they planned to salvage as much as they could along the shores in the Keys from the numerous ship wrecks. As fate would have it, a hurricane rolled in and smashed their boats against a reef sinking them and turning their schooners into ship wrecked spoils similar to what they intended to salvage. Everyone was lost except Leonard and a cabin boy on his father's ship who the Indians discovered and saved. Leonard made his way to an island and survived for 3 months off the abundant seafood before he was discovered by a fishing crew and rescued. A few years later he finally made it to his family's original destination, the east side of the East Pass at the east end of Santa Rosa Island. He married, sired seven children and built a commercial fishing business with a fleet of boats. Two decades after his death in 1881 the name of the area was changed to Destin.
I don't have any records of Conrad and Lucia (Lucy) after their daughter, Odelia, married Thomas Franelich. It is conceivable Conrad followed the cotton industry to Galveston, Texas, though. Galveston was the largest city in Texas between 1839 and 1880 and had the best seaport between New Orleans and Veracruz, Mexico. From 1845 to 1854 ship traffic grew from 251 to 600 ships a year and the cotton trade filled most of them. Although the cotton industry closed down during the Civil War due to the embargo, Galveston came back after the war strong as ever.
Thomas considered moving to Galveston after the Civil War, possibly to be with the in-laws. If they were in Galveston on September 8, 1900, (which would put him around 80 years old) it is quite possible they died with 8,000 other residents in "the great storm," the worst hurricane to hit the United States. Another cataclysmic event that took 1,800 lives, and possibly Conrad or/and Lucy's, was the yellow fever epidemic of 1867. This is more plausible because it was around the time, August 31,1867, Thomas was going to move to Galveston but didn't. I believe Thomas didn't move his family to Galveston because Lucy moved back to Mobile, as supported on other pages in this site. In any event, Conrad or Lucy, if they died in Galveston, will be lost forever because the old city cemetery in use during that period has been refilled several times creating a higher elevation in which, in some places, the plots on top of each other were resold for new remains to be placed and most older markers disappeared. This is now the Broadway Cemetery Historic District— Broadway between 40th & 43rd
Odelia, Conrad and Lucy's daughter, reported Conrad was born in Connecticut in an 1880 Census. Lucia's (Lucy's) nationality is up for interpretation in one Census or this name taken from that same Census. I am assuming they were moneyed people based on the following conclusions.
- If Conrad had connections to the cotton
industry and was successful, he would have been relatively wealthy as
so many other people were from the cotton boom which continued until
the Civil War.
- Their daughter Odelia and Thomas Franelich had 8 children. Thomas died when he was forty-four years old, while all of the children were still young and very much dependent on him. I've found no record of Lucy ever working, and without external support this would have been an impossible situation to handle.
- In 1882, after Thomas died, Odelia lived in a
house at the sw corner of Conception and Madison, an area with very
nice houses,
while maintaining ownership of her Bloodgood St. home. Some of these
very upscale houses still exist today in the area south of Ft. Conde.
One possibility is Odelia's mother came back from Galveston and lived
there with Lucy and her family.
- When Odelia died she was acknowledge as an estimable lady base
on the many people and flowers at her funeral. This isn't
consistent with the life of a young widow with many children and no
source of income. Thomas couldn't have made much money from his shoreman position or
very short career as a liquor store owner.
- There is a considerable size headstone
monument at her burial location.
- Conrad and Lucy's grandson, my great grandfather
(Nicolas Franelich) had
a very large store, etc.
located on a premium property in
1907 when he was just 41 years old. Odelia, his mother, died in
1905.
- Another grandson, Nicolas's brother, Edward Thomas Franelich, had a wedding for his daughter where an article described her as being "highly educated and having a large circle of friends."
- Nicholas' family gave him a house in 1900, and according to Mobile County records, Nicholas bought no less than 14 lots for investments in the Orange Grove Tract between 1902 and 1906. And remember, Nicolas had five siblings that certainly would not have been left out.
Currently there are many families with the Weinheimer name in Texas, and I'm assuming from the sound and spelling Weinheimer is German along with there being a Weinheim, Germany, where the name may have originated.
The largest ethnic group in Texas derived directly from Europe was persons of German birth or descent. As early as 1850, they constituted more than 5 percent of the total Texas population, a proportion that remained constant through the remainder of the nineteenth century
The failed 1840s German Revolution cause many Germans to emigrate to avoid political persecution. Illinois was one destination: in 1860, with 130 thousand, Germans consisted of the largest ethnic group. St. Clair County had the largest concentration. Also, Between 1844 and 1847 more than 7,000 Germans reached Texas. Some of the immigrants perished in epidemics, many stayed in cities such as Galveston, Houston, and San Antonio, and others settled in the rugged Texas Hill Country to form the western end of the German Belt. The Adelsverein (a German Emigration Company) founded the towns of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg with the intention of making Texas a new Germany through organized mass migration.
After the Civil War, ships loaded with German immigrants once again unloaded at the Galveston wharves. From 1865 to the early 1890s, more Germans arrived in Texas than during the thirty years before the war. The number probably reached 40,000. Many of them settled in the rural areas and towns of the German Belt.