rehberghistory

Somewhere around 1840, George Frederick Rehberg and his wife, Sophia Howse , came to America. George was born December 26, 1804 in the Kingdom of Hanover. Sophia was born January 16, 1807 in Hessen-Cassel. Both areas were later united to form present day Germany but in the early 1800's there was a lot of unrest so going to America must have seem like a dream come true. Our distant relative, Richard White, says that the oral history of the family tells of them coming to St. Marks, Florida but so far we have found no records of immigrant ships landing there. Wherevere they landed, by the 1850 census, "Fred" and "Sophy" and their 8 children were listed as residents of Decatur County, Georgia. And 10 years later, Sophia would have to watch as her 5 sons prepared to fight for the Confederacy in the American Civil War.
Our distant relative, RICHARD WHITE, has done alot of work researching the time the REHBERG brothers spent in the Civil War. There is a link to his Civil War Page on The Index and Link Page, it is well worth a visit.
Our REHBERG line is through the youngest son, LUKE RILEY REHBERG, who was born August 8, 1845 and was our great-great grandfather and who was RICHARD WHITE'S great-great-great uncle. LUKE married JULIA SHIREY, daughter of LITTLETON P. SHIREY and NANCY OSTEEN, on October 30, 1870. In 1882 LUKE and JULIA became members of the Little Ochlocknee Baptist Church in Ochlocknee, Georgia, near Thomasville. In December, 1914 there was a call to the church for donations for the orphan's home and LUKE is listed as donatiing 5 gallons of syrup and 4 bushels of potatoes. JULIA died February 18, 1935, LUKE died April 13, 1936. Both are buried in the graveyard beside the church. Church membership rolls for April 19, 1902 list LUKE and JULIA as well as their son, LOUIS FRANKLIN REHBERG and his wife, PAULINA HUBER REHBERG, our great grandparents. LOUIS FRANKLIN was born July 30, 1871 and PAULINA was born May 13, 1872 in Pennsylvania to ANTON and JULIA HUBER. The 1880 census lists ANTON HUBER's birthplace as Australia and his wife's as Whellinburg but we've been unable to find any place with that name. Their marriage license is dated January 8, 1893 in Thomas County, Georgia. She and LOUIS had four children; twin boys, FRED and EDDIE, son LONNIE and a daughter, JULIA MAE REHBERG, our grandmother. JULIA MAE said she remembered going to town in a wagon, riding in the back with her mother because her father was so fat he took up the whole seat. LOUIS abandoned PAULINA and his children; we have no record of when he died or where.