Wilhelm Joseph Beermann – Cincinnati Blacksmith – 52 Ancestors #15

Entry #15

My three greats grandfather, Josef Wilhelm “William” Beermann, came to Cincinnati, Ohio, from somewhere in Hannover around 1859-1861. It is possible that he is the Wilhelm Beermann found on the ship’s passenger list for the Admiral Browning which arrived in Baltimore Harbor in November 1860. Three pieces of data make me like him as a choice for my William:

1. At 27 years, he is around the correct age – William was born 5 October 1832;
2. His destination was Cincinnaty (sic);
3. His city of origin was Osnabruck – I have strong suspicions that William was from the Osnabruck area.

One unexplained detail is that he was traveling with an Anna Beermann, who was 20 years old. If this was his wife, it would make it highly unlikely, although not impossible, that this is my forebear. She may have been a sister, though, or even a cousin, so I will not rule out that this is my William.

My great, great grandfather John F. Beermann was born in Cincinnati on June 6, 1862, so we know that this is the latest possible date that William arrived there. William Beermann married Mary Elizabeth Maune, who immigrated to Cincinnati around the same time. She may be the Maria Maune who arrived aboard the ship Anna in June 1861 with her place of origin being Belm, a town outside of Osnabruck. According to the 1900 census, William and Elizabeth (as she was most often known) had been married 40 years in 1900. I have not been able to find a record of their marriage among the Hamilton County records, but due to a courthouse fire in 1884, these are spotty. Some couples made the effort to document a “restored” marriage record, but many did not. I have not paid to have the Catholic records searched – that would be one more way I might find their marriage record. Another possibility is that William and Elizabeth were wed in Germany with Elizabeth joining William after he came to the United States. Finally, could Mary Elizabeth have been Anna Beermann?  The recorded age for Anna is close to that of Elizabeth and it would not be the first time that a relative has gone by more than one given name.

These are mysteries that I will need to work on, because it matters in terms of finding more records from Germany. There are times when I curse this side of the family for not keeping some oral tradition alive about where they all came from. The census tells us Hannover and nothing more.

At any rate, William became a blacksmith. The little bit that I know about him from my father’s stories is that he was a large man. Supposedly he was a big, barrel-chested man with large hands. My dad says his father had a giant gold ring that belonged to William. It was so large that my father could slip in onto his big toe. William seems to have been employed by others, working in large shops with other smithies. I think of him as a quintessential German worker with a strong work ethic that has come down through my family to me. I wish I had a photo of William, but he may have been camera shy. He lived until 1909, but he does not seem to be in any of the family photos.

I was surprised to learn that William Beermann was not naturalized until 1886. That seems like a long time to have been in this country without swearing fealty. I wonder if this had anything to do with the impediment that William Beermann could neither read nor write. While not uncommon for his day, it does seem strange that apparently Elizabeth was capable of doing both. Spelling of my surname has always been an issue, even among the literate. The Beermans eventually decided to standardize their surname to the spelling “Biermann” that the family uses today, but I have found records with the name “Behrmann,” “Baarmann,” “Beiermann,” and other permutations in between.

One last odd tidbit that surfaced in recent years is my father’s belief that William Beermann fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. I have not been able to verify this and it makes no sense. How would a recent German immigrant to Cincinnati become aligned with Southern politics?  Plus, I am dubious because I never heard this story from my dad when I was young. I am afraid that he has somehow become confused.