|--------Adam SCHMITT ( - ) | |---------Lukas SCHMITT (1776, Germany - ) | | | |--------Margaretha VOLLERT ( - ) | |------Gregor SCHMITT (1805, Germany - ) | | | | |-------- | | | | |---------Barbara ROTTMÄNNIN ( - ) | | | |-------- | Margaretha SCHMITT (1838, Germany - 1872, Illinois) | | |-------- | | | |--------- | | | | | |-------- | | |------Margaretha NEUGEBAUER ( - ) | | |-------- | | |--------- | |--------
To get to Margaretha's grave at Singer Cemetery, take Stagecoach Trail east out of Galena for about seven miles. Watch for a place called Christmas in the Valley. The cemetery is just past that on the right, just before you get to the sharp corner in the road. There is a little driveway through the ditch and a gate. The cemetery itself is 100+ yards from the road through the meadow. You can see it from the road, but you have to be looking. As of 1996, you have to go through three gates to get there. When we visited in 1996, the cemetery was kept up very nicely. Margaretha's stone apparently broke and fell over at some point and has been reset, flat in the ground, in some cement. It's very easy to read ``Margaretha Nicklaus, GEB. DEN 15 Jan 1838, GEST. DEN 10 Dec 1872, Alter 35 Jahre'' (``Geb.'' = german for born, ``gest.'' = german for died, ``Alter 35 Jahre'' means aged 35 years.) There are also two lines of text which are difficult to make out. According to a reading taken by Brenda (Nicklaus) Swailes and translated with the help of a german friend, the first line appears to read ``Ruhe sanft in Schosse Gottes Mitten'' which translates as ``rest gently in the middle of God's lap'' or ``rest gently in the depth of God's lap'' (a somewhat archaic form). The word ``Mitten'' or ``mitten'' (= middle) was read as the name ``Miller'' at one point by Georgia (Nicklaus) Rewerts, and she thus interpreted it as meaning that Miller was Margaretha's maiden name. I no longer believe that to be true now that we have a better reading. The last line ends in ``der irdischen Dinge'', literally ``the worldly things'' or ``worldly affairs.'' Our german friend and translator couldn't read the first part of the last line but suggested it might say ``un (or und) vergiß\ (or vergiss)'' in which case the last line would mean ``and forget worldly affairs'', which wouldn't be uncommon for tombstones. His alternate suggestions was that it might be ``im Wechsel der irdischen Dinge'' (``in exchange of worldly affairs'') which he termed ``coherent but a bit unusual.''
To summarize, the best reading so far for the tombstone inscription translation is ``Rest gently in the depth of God's lap and forget worldly affairs.''
Margaretha is buried near several members of the Valentine Bentz family. Margaretha's brother-in-law George Nicklaus married a Bentz. From their tombstones, the Bentz family was from Undeheim (or Undenheim), Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany.
Sources for this individual: @S13@ @S9@ @S7@ @S27@ @S28@ @S10@ @S8@ @S17@
