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Johann Peter Ackermann born 17 Dec 1796 in Weilbach, Germany, passed away at age 67 on May 1, 1863 in Jugenheim, in the State of Hesse, Germany. He was alone when he died, except for two old, and close friends, witnesses to his death: Adam Jung and Friedrich Pystamus.

About 17 years earlier, around 1846-47, Johann Peter Ackermann, a Miller Master, and his wife Anna Barbara Jost, born 1796, left their hometown Weilbach in Bavaria and relocated to Jugenheim an der Bergstrasse, in Hesse, Germany. With them were their six children, all born in Weilbach: Michael *1826, Barbara Ann *1830, George Peter and Johannes Peter *1834, Elisabetha *1835 and Friedrich, the youngest *1839.

In 1848, son Michael *1826, a Miller Master, then 22, married Margaretha Rindfuss born 1827 in Jugenheim. At the time, she was pregnant with a child, George, born later in 1848, fathered by another man who passed away just before an intended marriage. Michael had promised that man, a friend, that he would marry Margaretha and adopt her child after it was born. After the wedding, Michael and Margaretha made plans to immigrate to America in 1849, following another friend of Michael's, a Konrad Gerhardt who had emigrated from Germany earlier. They arrived in America with little George, landing in New York on the 18th of October of that year; then continued on to Mansfield, Ohio, where they settled down.

In 1851, daughter Barbara Ann *1830, then 21 and unmarried, gave birth to a child in Jugenheim, named Friedrich; the father of the child remained unnamed.

In 1853, son George Peter *1834, a Shoemaker then 19 years old and single, was next to emigrate. He arrived in New York in the same year and went on to Mansfield, to stay near his brother Michael.

In 1855, on February 17, daughter Elisabetha *1835, then 20 years old and unmarried, gave birth to her first, an out-of-wedlock child in Jugenheim, Friedrich Ruehl (Hermann Jacobi's grandfather), named after his unmarried father Heinrich Ruehl.

After Michael and Margaretha had settled down in America, plans had been made for the rest of the Ackermanns to immigrate to America, following Michael and Margaretha to Mansfield. Elisabetha's pregnancy became a problem but there was no choice; - mother Anna Barbara Jost the elder, daughter Barbara Ann and her son Friedrich born in 1851, and Elisabetha's younger brother Friedrich, born 1839, were ready to leave for America. Michael's wife Margaretha had come over from Mansfield to help and assist them with the move and the immigration. They landed in New York in June 1855. Left behind were Elisabetha and her son Friedrich born 1855, father Johann Peter Ackermann the elder, and brother Johannes Peter. The immigrants continued on to Mansfield, to Brother George Peter, who at the time was still unmarried.

In 1856, Elisabetha, still in Germany and unmarried, became pregnant again with a second out-of-wedlock child, Michael, born Nov. 30, fathered by another, this time un-named man.

In 1858, on August 15, Johannes Peter *1834, a Miller, married Anna Katharina Becker, born 1831 in Zwingenberg, Germany. Their first child Margaretha was born on September 13, of the same year. They too had made plans to emigrate and arrived in New York in 1859. They too moved on to Mansfield, Ohio.

In 1859, Elisabetha, then 24 years old was the last one of the Ackermann Children to emigrate. She left together with her younger brother Friedrich who had come over from Mansfield to help her with the move and the immigration. Her sons Friedrich Ruehl *1855 and Michael *1856, were left behind to be cared for and raised by Johann Peter Ackermann the elder and his friends, until later.

This brings us back to Johann Peter Ackermann the elder, born 1796: he was left behind, and died alone in 1863 at age 67. Resigned to the changes that happened over the past years, he apparently, had felt too old to emigrate and decided to stay in the place he was familiar with, and to stay with his two old friends and to die in Jugenheim, Germany. Here are the others:

Anna Barbara Jost, Johann Peter Ackermann's wife born in 1796, lived with her son George Peter Ackermann and his family in Mansfield, Ohio, until her death of old age in 1880, at age 84. After her immigration to America, she had never gone back to Jugenheim, never saw her husband Johann Peter Ackermann again.

Son Michael, *1826, was naturalized 19 Dec 1854. An Ostler when he arrived in 1949, he later owned a Salon/Restaurant with a "Mathies" as partner, and again later on with his son John. It was called, in 1894, "The Bank Restaurant, Wine Parlor and Billiard Hall". An article from the History of Richland County, Ohio, states that Michael, Margaret and daughter Ann went back to Germany in 1892 for a four months Vacation to see the old country again. His Tax records showed that in 1883 he was worth the, at the time, large sum of $4650. They had eleven children. A well-known Citizen, he died of complicated decease in 1909, at age 83. His wife Margaretha died of apoplexy in 1889, at age 71.  Both are buried in Mansfield, Ohio.

Daughter Barbara Ann, *1830, married George Rettig, a Tailor, a German Immigrant from Hesse, in 1861 in Mansfield who adopted her son Friedrich, born 1851 in Jugenheim. Together they had two more children. Barbara Ann died in 1901 in Mansfield at age 71. Her son Friedrich, became a barber, married and had four children. He died of blood poisoning in 1915, in Toledo, Ohio, at age 74.

Son George Peter, *1834, a Shoemaker, in 1856, three years after his arrival in Mansfield in 1853, met and married Sophie Schneider born 1840 in Mansfield, who was then 16 years old. They had six children. A prominent citizen, he died in 1913 in Mansfield at age 79, struck by an automobile. Sophie had died earlier in 1897 of a complicated decease, at age 57. Both are buried in Mansfield.

Son Johannes Peter *1834, a Miller, married to Anna Katharine Becker in 1858 in Jugenheim. They had three children, the first one born in Jugenheim in 1858, before their immigration to America in 1859, the other two in Mansfield, but the third child was a stillborn. Nothing else is known about Johannes Peter and his family, and his later years in Mansfield after the 1870 Ohio Census. Perhaps they had moved away. Katharina died in Mansfield in 1888, at age 67. All are buried in Mansfield.

Daughter Elisabetha *1835, emigrated from Germany in 1859 in the company of her younger brother Friedrich and it could be assumed that she at first would stay with one of her siblings in the Mansfield area. While he returned to his brother Georg Peter and showed up in the 1860 Ohio Census, she was not found to have been living with any of her siblings in the Mansfield area or elsewhere. No further records were found. Her whereabouts in America after her immigration remains unknown. Neither public nor cemetery records shed any light on her life in America. Her sons Friedrich Ruehl *1855 and Michael *1856, had been left behind in the care of Johann Peter Ackermann the elder until his death in
1863.

Elisabetha's son, Friedrich Ruehl *1855, after the death of Johann Peter Ackermann the elder in 1863, was raised by his biological father Heinrich Ruehl in Alsbach who had married a Katharina Walter in that year. In about 1879 he married Theresa Huber with whom he hd one daughter, Malchen, born 1884.  Therese passed away shortly after. in 1889 he married Katharina Becker from Kirch-Beerfurth near Erbach and moved to Darmstadt, Hesse where he became an Inspector. They had six children from 1892 to 1905. Katharina Becker passed away shortly after her last child in 1905.

Elisabetha's son Michael *1856, what happened with him after the death of Johann Peter Ackermann is not known. Perhaps he was raised together with his step brother Friedrich in the Ruehl family in Alsbach ... It is certain that he too, immigrated to Amerika. A Michael Ackermann from Hesse showed up later in an 1880 Census from St. Louis, married to a Mary, with one child named Annie. This could be him... Son Friedrich *1839, the youngest of the Ackermann siblings, a Shoemaker, in 1861 married Christina Wagner, born 1843 in Mansfield. They had eleven children. He died of epilepsy in 1915 in Toledo, Ohio, at age 76; Christina died of nephritis in 1912, in Mansfield, at age 69.

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This is the story of the ACKERMANNS of Weilbach and Jugenheim in Germany, later in Mansfield in America - Immigrants who sought to better their lives in America. While not much is known of their individual personal lives, I know, as an immigrant, what it takes to leave all your possessions, family and friends, and the beloved land of your birth behind. And, while knowing that you have to start all over again, in a foreign land, in another culture, another language, not yet fully realizing the possible difficulties and the hard times that may be waiting for you. There is no doubt about their expectations and wishes, their hopes and anxieties, disappointments and successes, and some occasional dramas, perhaps all of which, like a cloud, covering their ways of life and living in America. Very good for some - perhaps not so good for others. In addition, from the beginning to the end, the shadow of their earlier memories following them in their daily lives.

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Note by the researcher, Hermann P. Jacobi, a descendant, written in September 2003:
Born in 1920 in Darmstadt, Germany, I remember my mother telling me, as a child in 1932, about someone, a brother of her father Friedrich Ruehl in America, or of people that had never been mentioned before. Somebody had written her father, asking if any of the young ones in Germany wanted to immigrate to America. Of course, my mother wanted none of it and it was completely forgotten.  In 1949, after World War II, I immigrated with my wife and little son to "America", not thinking or knowing of any Ackermanns. Then, about in 1980, I remembered what my mother told me in 1932 and I wrote her sister, then still alive. From her I received a number of old documents, required during the time of the Hitler Regime in Germany. Reading my grandfather Friedrich Ruehl's birth document, I realized he was born out-of-wedlock in 1855, by an Elisabetha Ackermann in Jugenheim, Germany. Learning of this, I found myself determined to find out where I came from, and what became of "Them". With the help of genealogical Information from the LDS Family History Library it was possible to piecemeal the Ackermann Story together, over many years, bit by bit, many times coming to a dead end and trying to give up, but finally most of it coming together. One word, the name "Mansfield" in grandfather Friedrich's birth document of 1855, and the naming of a Michael Ackermann from Ohio in America as his "godfather" in absentia, became the light at the end of the tunnel, - and the start of a long search for my ancestors, "The Ackermanns in America".

A few years ago, I noticed a message on the Internet, somebody looking for information regarding a Michael Ackermann from Jugenheim, Germany. Writing her, a person in California, we found out to be distant cousins having the same Ancestors: Johann Peter Ackermann and his wife Anna Barbara Jost.  Her line starting with their son Michael of 1826, mine with their daughter Elisabetha of 1835. The later one, however, the only one, remaining a total enigma, - undocumented, except for the birth of her two Children, born out-of-wedlock, and her emigration from Germany in 1859: I found out when she left, but not
when or where she arrived. In my grandfather Friedrich Ruehl's 1889 marriage document it stated; "The son of the deceased, unmarried Elisabetha Ackermann, without trade, last living in town in America unknown",

Hermann P. Jacobi, 2234 West Berridge Lane, Phoenix, AZ 85015, USA
September 2003

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