In a message dated 9/16/05 12:55:34 PM Central Daylight Time, Peter917@aol.com writes: Does anyone have reference to an article which had appeared in a German newspaper about 4 to 5 years ago detailing the founding of Teutopolis by German immigrants from the Lohne area in Oldenburg?Thanks,Peter(Chicago) The following article came from the "Oldenburgische Volkszeitung" published on Saturday, January 18, 1986 Lohne Resident a Pioneer in America 180th Anniversary of the Birth of Clemens Uptmoor by Franz-Josef Tegenkamp The 19th of January,1986 marks the 180th anniversary of the birth of a man who did not leave any great marks in the "larger picture" of history, but did influence the lives and destinies of many persons to no lesser a degree than did many more significant politicians or lawmakers. Clemens Uptmoor was born on January 19, 1806 as the child of the Johann Heinrich Uptmoor (1771 - 1936) and Anna Margaretha Nordlohne (1774 - 1856) in a small farmhouse owned by the farmer Bokern-Kersting in Bokern near Lohne in what was then the principality of Oldenburg. His parents, who leased their land, were average farmers, neither particularly wealthy nor particularly poor. They earned their living by hard work. The young Clemens' childhood was over by the age often when he accompanied his father for the first time to work with him on his yearly summer job fishing for herring, joining the many other fishing boats out for the herring catch on the North Sea. During the winter Clemens Uptmoor attended the Bokern farming community's elementary school, where he received a basic education. The schooling took place only during the winter months because all the farmers' children were needed in the summer and in most cases the teachers also worked in the fields to earn extra money, and this claimed all their time. So it was that their lessons could impart only the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, a problem exacerbated by the realities that the teachers themselves often were not satisfactorily educated and that the schools consisted of only one class. In Bokern, for example, the sole teacher in the 1835 school year had to teach 110 children. The next few years passed similarly, until Clemens Uptmoor was called to the military by the lottery procedure that was usual at the time and was required to spend five years as a soldier in the Oldenburg infantry. Up until this time Clemens' life, as with most of his peers, had followed set tracks. After his discharge, however, he left his seemingly predestined life path and emigrated to America accompanied by his brother Hermann Heinrich and some neighbors and acquaintances (among others, the Hoying family from Krimpenfort, who settled later in Minster, Ohio). Of the 149 total passengers on the emigrant ship "Everhard", which sailed from Bremen to Baltimore, 35 came from Lohne, another 82 came from other area communities. On September 9, 1834, the ship reached its terminal port Baltimore, and approximately two weeks Later the Uptmoor brothers arrived in Cincinnati, the provisional goal of their journey. Here they worked during the next five years mainly as carpenters. Clemens Uptmoor had learned the occupation of ship carpenter in his youth, which served him well now. In the summer of 1836 Cincinnati experienced a cholera outbreak, and for this reason the Uptmoor brothers went for several months to Missouri to work. On the way they traveled for the first time through the fertile, at the time almost completely uninhabited areas of the American Midwest, which seemed just waiting to be settled. It is therefore not surprising that it was at this time that they formulated their plan to found a colony for German Catholic emigrants. After their return to Cincinnati, therefore, they founded the "German Land Company" or "Settlement Company" at the beginning of 1837 together with a partner, Johann Ferdinand Waschefort, who had emigrated in 1831 from Addrup near Essen. 141 people joined the company in a short time due to the constant stream of emigrants from Germany. They paid in regular contributions in order to later acquire a larger section of land. In April, 1837 Clemens Uptmoor, together with Johann Ferdinand Waschefort and Gerhard Heinich Bergfeld (from Lastrup), made their way on a 15-week trip through the states of Indiana, illinois, and Missouri to look for a suitable section of land. They finally decided on an area approximately 100 miles east of St. Louis near Vandalia, the capital of Illinois at that time, where some former residents of Hanover had already settled. After another trip by other members of the company to view the land, the land was acquired in 1838 (approximately 4000 hectares, or 40 million square meters, or 10,000 acres) and was distributed to the members in the fall of that year. On the suggestion of the Bishop of Cincinnati the new colony was given the name Teutopolis. In the spring of 1839 the first settlers moved to their new property. Clemens Uptmoor married Maria Elisabeth Niehaus, born on August 23, 1819 in Laer near Osnabrueck, in Cincinnati on September 24, 1839. The wedding took place between one of his frequent trips between the new colony and Cincinnati. On one occasion he walked the entire way (approximately 400 kilometers) by foot. Another time he simply left his horse, which had become sick along the way, and traveled the rest of the way on foot. Several weeks after the wedding Clemens Uptmoor made the journey to Teutopolis with his brother Hermann Heinrich and his brother-in-law Clemens Vahling, the husband of his sister Maria Anna, and their families (Clemens Uptmoor's siblings and his mother had followed him to America in 1837). The little group reached its destination on December 21, 1839. Since much snow had already fallen by that time and there was no other shelter to be found, they drove some sheep out of a stall which they had run into only by chance and lived there for the first few days. On the day after their arrival they began building a log cabin for Clemens Vahling, where the three families lived together until each possessed its own home. The next year Clemens Uptmoor opened a small store with goods having a value of approximately one thousand dollars. At the same time he began cultivating a large farm and worked as a carpenter for 25 cents a day, which seemed a high wage to the community at that time. In 1842 he started building a windmill with his brother, which became operational in 1845. Since the windmill worked with a great weight, however, a strong wind was necessary to start it running, and it stopped working in 1860. In spite of this the windmill was quite a sensation in those days, and it drew settlers from near and far to marvel at the structure. In 1882 Clemens Uptmoor and his son-in-law Joseph Siemer built a steam-powered mill which was subsequently expanded, and today the "Siemer Milling Company" represents one of the largest enterprises of its type in southern Illinois. Clemens Uptmoor played an equally essential role in the construction of the new church in Teutopolis, which was begun in 1851, and at the time was one of the most significant church buildings in a large area, and in the construction of the first Franciscan monastery of the United States by some monks from Warendorf which had begun in Teutopolis in 1858. In 1865 he built an imposing home in Teutopolis and a commercial building, which, in contrast to the other buildings in the region, were built not of wood, but of brick. In the same year he built a slaughterhouse in which more than 1,800 pigs were killed in the first year alone. From 1842 to 1869 Clemens Uptmoor worked as the first postmaster in Teutopolis and during this time was responsible not only for the postal coach station, but also for the operation of the postal coaches. There was never any complaint or grievance raised against him. In 1868 he founded with some others the first fire insurance company of the region, and he also encouraged the establishment of the volunteer fire department in 1883. As one can see, Clemens Uptmoor was active in many areas. His ventures developed well, so that in 1889, as he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, he could see a flourishing small town, booming enterprises and businesses. The fruitful development of the wilderness by German settlers was in no small part due to his initiative, planning and hard work, so that he can be considered one of the pioneers of German colonization of the American continent along with his many peers, for example, Franz Joseph Stallo from Damme, founder of the town Minster in Ohio or Johann Heinrich Ronnebaum from Damme and Johann Heinrich Plaspohl from Sevelten, founders of the town Oldenburg in Indiana. When Clemens Uptmoor died on August 2, 1898, three years after the death of his wife, he was one of the wealthiest and most esteemed citizens of Teutopolis. He left behind, in addition to his considerable fortune, no small number of descendants, who today live scattered throughout the USA, despite the fact that of his fourteen children five had died in their youth and two daughters became nuns; the remaining descendants married almost exclusively emigrants who also came from the Vechta area (Suedkamp, Thuele, Hoedebeck, Lamping, Siemer, Woehrmann), and looked after a large number of descendants.