Sometime throughout the years the name was "Gugal," "Gugel," and is now spelled G-u-g-l-e. There does not seem to be an explanation for the spelling change but not much detail was given to propriety in early days. My grandmother spelled her name G-u-g-a-l, when she ws narried.
The combinded fare for the trip from Germany was 116.40, American money.
In 1860, Christian married Katrina (Catherine) Wertz. Also, sometimes throughout the years her name was written as "Wartz," "Werts," and later spelled W-e-r-t-z. Not much is known about her, but she was 14 years of age when they married and he was 21.
They lived in Cass County, Indiana until 1862. On August 10 of that year he joined Company G, 73rd Infantry as an enlistee from Cass County for the War Between the States.
The battles he fought in were:
Champion Hills (or Chaplin Hills) Stone River
Day's Gap Crooked Creek
Blount's Farm Athena and Decatur, Georgia
My grandmother once told me that he was in the Battle of Lookout Mountain. He was taken prisoner in Rome, Georgia and was in many skirmishes. One time on a lengthy march, they stole a farmer's pig and carried it in a drum. While roasting it and the end of the march, they had orders to return at once to where they had started from.
A partial account of his time is the service of his county is in this book and was supplied on request by the Department of Interior, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
After being discharged from the army, he lived in Indiana until 1869. Then he came to Michigan to look for land and for a short time the family lived on 80 acres at Maple Hill about forty miles from Grand Rapids. This was in Montcalm County. Later he came to Hersey, Osceola County, to look for land.
In spring of 1871, under the Homestead Act, he took up a soldier's claim to homestead 80 acres one-half mile east and a mile and a half sount of LeRoy Township, and the other forty was on the east side of the road, Rose Lake Township.
He built a shanty on the east forty and covered the roof with elm bark. With a hoe, proably his only tool, he dug up some ground around stumps and planted potatos. The following August, his family came to join him, making the journey over log roads and brush.
In relating the story of the journey norht of Grand Rapids by oxen and a wagon, he told that they were overtaken by a heavry storm, during which it grew so dark that they could not continue the trip without light. He walked about a mile to the home of Henry Van Dusen where in the absence of a lantern he was given a lighted Norway pine root which he used to light his way back to the wagon. Grandma Gugle and the children spent the night at Van Dusen's and the men slept under the wagon. Next morning they continued their journey to the homestead.
The elm-bark covered shanty that they lived in burned. They rebulit a house north and on the west forty. A cemetery plot had already been started there. Seven family members are buried there.
In 1873, the land was cleared and tilled and wheat was planted, then harvest in 1874.
In addition to farming, Grandpa helped build the railroad from LeRoy to Cadillac.
The nearest post office and store was at Big Rapids, about 28 miles away. He walked many times to get food and mail, going one day and returning the next. Later the trip was shortened when Paris had a post office and stores for necessary supplies.
My first impressive recollection of Great grandfather Gugle dates back to about 1921 when i was nine years old. (Grandchildren and great-grandchildren alike called "Grandpa".) We had moved from Detroit to the old homestead southeast of LeRoy. It was the same acreage Grandpa had homesteaded many years earlier but was then owned by my grandparents, Jim and Lizzie Wilcox, at that time, lived in Detroit. Lizzie, my grandmother, was Grandpa's daughter.
Many of his characteristics come to mind as I reminisce about Grandpa. For one, he liked to tease and would sneak up behind you, tug on your hair, then laugh at your startled reaction. He was of short stature, had a beard and seems to shuffle somewhat when he walked, probably because of what age and a hard life had done to him. Even then, he seemed old to me and he was.
If I remember correctly, his eyes were light brown in color and not "yellow" as stated in the army's Description Book when he joined. According to their records he was five and a half feet tall, complexion fair.
I recall his admiration for Kaiser Wilhelm and his knowledge of the laws of Germany. When one of his grandsons was about to leave for Germany during World War I he told him, "When you see Kaiser Wilhelm, please wish him well for me." His grandson's reply was, "If I ever get close to that kaiser, I hope to get him between the eyes."
Grandpa was a religious man. He accurately quoted scriptures from the Bible to support his convictions. One of the strongest seemed to be his favoring of capitol punishment, referring to the Old Testament's "eye for an eye." When he first moved to the area, he attended the German Evangelical Church of LeRoy where the Nazarene Church is now located. He also attended the German Evangelical Church in Hersey. I recall Reverend Voelker as one of best friends who call on him often. They communicated in German.
In later years he attended the LeRoy Methodist Episcopal Church, walking two miles each way. As I recall, he usually sat in the second row from the front. He said his hearing was failing him and wasn't as good as it was years ago. It's doubtful that he heard any of the sermon anyway because he slept through most of the service. But he was there physically and to him that is what counted.
Grandpa's day started with the down-on-your-knees prayer in the living room following the scripture readings directly after breakfast each day. Quite often the prayers were said in German and they were lengthy. On Good Friday he arose before sunrise but did not eat until after the sun went down at night. I once asked my grandmother, "Why does he do so long without food?" She explained that it was a German custom of self-sacrifice and grew out of his praying to be returned to his family while being held prisoner in the War Between the States.
He seemed to adhere somewhat to the laws of Germany as they were when he left there. I remember one time when he noticed two tains following each other rather closely> He glanced at the clock and said, " Not so in Germany. They must be a half hour apart."
Grandpa Gugle passed away March 16, 1937. He was 98 years, 10 months, and 18 days of age. He lived a long and not one of us could say the entire time was easy, although he seemed to take one day at a time. He left several children, grand children, great-grandchildren, and even great-great grand children, five generation in all.
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Grateful acknowledgement, appreciation, and many thanks to Nancy Belville for typing the many pages, Ruth Gugle Jacobs for her help in assembling the pictures, and to all the rest of you for your generous help and suppestions, donations or photos and information for compiling the history of our family.
Bernice Leemgraven Boven, great granddaughter