Grave marker of Christian Schroeder. St, Mark’s Lutheran Cemetery.

Grave marker of Christian Schroeder. St. Mark’s Lutheran Church Cemetery.

Documentation showing the Christian Schroeder Family arrival at Port of New York aboard the ship “Gaston.” (Nov. 15, 1854)

Historical Records from Ancestry.com.

Our Schroeder family has been traced back to 1741 with the birth of Heinrich Christian Schroeder. This information was obtained from the work of Barton James Schroeder on the web site Ancestry.com. Following Heinrich, his son Johann Christoph was born in 1766 who then fathered our current line of Schroeders with Heinrich (Christian)Schroeder, born September 24, 1811 in Jarchin, Prussia.

Christian took as his wife Dorothea Sophia Becker who was born on March 6, 1820 in Annstett, Prussia. Prior to their immigration to America, they had five children including their first born Charles (Carl), my great grandfather.

In 1854, the Christian Schroeder family sailed from Bremer, Prussia to America and arrived in the Port of New York on an American merchant vessel named the “Gaston”. After their arrival in the United States, the family traveled to Ohio. It is probable that Christian had a sponsor already living in Ohio but there is no record of that relationship. Henry County Ohio historical records state that the family settled first in Adams Township, Defiance County. It was at this location that the last of their children was born, Christian Otto. After living in Adams Township for only a short time, the family moved to Fulton County Ohio and then finally to an 80 acre farm in Henry County two miles west of Ridgeville Corners. This location would be known for years as “The Old Schroeder Homestead.” The farm was sold to Christian Otto prior to Christian and Dorothea’s death. Dorothea was buried at the St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery after her death in 1888. Christian died in 1894 and is buried at St. Mark’s Lutheran Cemetery, two miles south of the homestead in Defiance County. It is unknown why the two are not buried together.

On December 17, 1862, Christian officially became a citizen of the United States by renouncing his allegiance to Frederick William IV, King of Prussia. This document was signed by a probate judge in the first Fulton County Ohio courthouse located in Ottokee, Ohio. An interesting note is the spelling of Christian’s last name, SCHRODER. It is unclear why Christian waited from 1854, when the family arrived from Prussia, until 1862 to become a US citizen. This document also entitled all of Christian’s family to become citizens. There may have been some reasoning for Christian’s citizenship declaration in 1862 in that his son Carl was serving as a private in The Grand Army of the Republic in the US Civil War. Carl was located in the Kenawha Valley region of West Virginia when he automatically became a US citizen.