This was originally published on Culture Kitchen. But thought it might be of interest here. I have written about my Jewish ancestry several times (e.g. here) but seldom about my German ancestry, which is also quite interesting, though I feel less of a direct affinity to it. I also, as I look over my original diary on Culture Kitchen, realize that I really want the last line to be ambiguous, not necessarily snarky. Well, not necessarily. I think it really is an open question as to whether or not the "American Dream" leads to Paris Hilton.
American history is full of interesting characters, many of them immigrants who came to America from Norwegian farms or German industrial cities. America has always been nervous of immigrants, and cherished its natives as long as those native Americans weren’t Native Americans. Yet it is from the immigrant that the native (as opposed to Native) Americans are born. And the stories of immigrant families become icons of America can be fascinating and unexpected.
The Wasems were a tough Lutheran family from Darmstadt, Germany, who homesteaded in Marshalltown and Ft. Dodge, Iowa during the late 19th Century and many of whom ultimately retired to Long Beach, California. Their earliest known ancestor was Johann Heinrich Wassem (there are several variations on the spelling of Wasem) born June 28th 1682 in Hessen Darmstat. This is probably the earliest traceable record of the family since this was probably about when they converted to Lutheranism...and it is thanks to the excellent records kept by the Lutheran church that the family can be traced back that far. The conversion of big chunks of Germany did not happen easily or peacefully. It took the bloody and quite complicated Thirty Years' War (1618 to 1648) to firmly establish Lutheranism in Germany. This war began as a German civil war between Protestants and Catholics. Ultimately it became a power struggle between the Hapsburg family and its rivals that blurred the religious boundaries, but it was devastating to Germany with as much as 20 percent of Germany’s population killed by war, disease and famine. In many ways Germany didn’t recover until the lead up to World War I. It is in the aftermath of this devastating war that the lives of the Wasems should be considered and it explains a great deal of why these people were eager to leave Germany for a tough but ultimately successful life in America.
Johann Heinrich Wassem married Maria Margaretha, also born in Hesse Darmstadt. From them came many long lines of descent where most of the men were named Johann Something, and most of the women had either Maria or Margaretha as part of their names and they all lived in Hessen Darmstat in places called Ober Ingelheim, Autishof, Dorrenbach and Nieder-Ingelheim. Darmstadt is in the very heart of Germany, a little south of Frankfurt and Mainz. The closest I have come to visiting was a stopover in the Frankfurt airport on my way to a trip covering Finland, Estonia, Russia and my ancestral homeland on my mother’s side, Latvia. Darmstadt was where Goethe was active during his early career and is where the Merck family started dabbling in the chemical industry.
Adam Wassem was born 12 Nov 1799 in Ober Ingelheim and died at the age of about 80 in Ft. Dodge, IA. The Wasem families were large and the men often had more than one wife during their lifetimes, so the exact relationships are sometimes fuzzy. But Adam married at least twice. Adam’s family was part of a wave of German migrations to America. Many German immigrants huddled together among other German speakers forming German enclaves in America that were eyed with suspicion by "native" Americans. Davenport, Iowa, where my father was born, was one such enclave of German settlement (close to 50% of the population?), but so were other parts of Iowa. About half of German immigrants to the US in the 19th century settled in the Midwest, predominantly in rural and semi-rural areas.
But not all remained farmers. The Wasems came from a chemical producing center of Germany and this may have affected their choices as immigrants. Seven Wasem brothers were founders and owners of The Wasem Plaster Company in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The brothers listed are John, Otto, Charles, Adam, Henry, William and Walter. The officers of the company were: Adam F. Wasem, President, William A. Wasem, Vice President, Otto E. Wasem, treasurer and general manager, Henry M. Wasem, Secretary, and John M. Wasem, Plant Superintendent. The Directors were Adam F., Ella E., Otto E., Henry M., and William A. Wasem. Signers of the articles of incorporation were Otto E., John H. Etta A., Ella A. Bertha I., Mary A., Adam F. William A., Henry M., Walter M., Carrie E., Lena M, and Charles A. Wasem. These Wasems were all descendants of the Adam Wasem born in 1799 who led the way, and his second wife, Maria Hirshman. My mother met Ella and Lena Wasem after they had retired comfortably together in a rather avant-garde home in Long Beach, CA., presumably living off the profits of selling the Wasem Plaster Company. Ella died in 1966, and Lena lived to be around 90, dying in 1982. The father of Ella, Lena and the whole Wasem Plaster Company crew of Ft. Dodge, IA, were children of an Adam E. Wasem, son of Adam Wassem and his second wife.
The Iowa Plaster Barons were all children of Adam E. Wasem, son of Adam Wassem. Among Adam Wassem’s many children there were also a Mary Wasem and a Carolina or Caroline Wasem. And with these two sisters or half-sisters we reach an interesting genealogical link.
Mary WASEM was born 09 November 1842 in Ober Ingelhlem, Hesse, Darmstadt, before her family moved to Iowa, and died 31 March 1922 in Long Beach, Los Angeles Co, California. In between she lived in Iowa where she met and married Martin Kunkel, another tough Lutheran from Germany who homesteaded in Davenport, Iowa. Mary Wasem and Martin Kunkel are my great-grandparents on my father’s side. My brother is named Martin after Mary’s husband. Martin Kunkel came to America in 1857. He Enlisted as a Musician in the Civil War, in the 45th Illinois Co, on 09 October 1861, and was discharged 24 July 1862. His citizenship papers were issued on 24 May 1866 by Judge J. Scott Richman, in District Court of Scott Co, Iowa. There is a long-established Kunkel sporting goods store in Davenport, Iowa that was founded by Martin Kunkel and his brother Balthazar.
Mary Wasem’s sister or half-sister, Caroline Wasem, married Conrad Laufersweiler and their daughter, Mary Genevive, married a Norwegian immigrant named August Halvorsen Hilton. August was born was born on Hilton farm, at Kløfta, just outside Oslo, and settled in Ft. Dodge, Iowa, where he met Caroline’s daughter. The son of Mary Genevive and August was Conrad Hilton, founded the Hilton Hotel Chain. August Hilton would have been an even tougher Lutheran than the Wasems, coming not from the mildly austere Germany, but from the even more austere Scandinavia.
Both the Hiltons and Wasems lived interesting, tough, successful lives spanning an ocean and touching on many parts of America itself. Iowa in particular, felt the shaping hands of Hiltons, Wasems and Kunkels, who farmed, built and fought for their new home.
It is from these pioneering, entrepreneurial, immigrant families that America produces Paris Hilton, a native born American. What a long, strange trip we travel on. Would Adam Wassem and August Hilton be proud of where their hard work led?