Notes for Margaretha "Margaret" (Schmals) Schmares
Exerpts from the book, "All I Know About the Roots and Shoots of the Joseph and Elizabeth Nett Ahles Family" by Antonette Ahles, OSF, 1992 (distributed to family):
The Ahles family emigrated in 1854. John Ahles was 18 at the time he came to America. He described the voyage as long and tedious. Sailboats were slow and Atlantic crossings varied from three weeks to one month depending upon the sailship and the weather. The family partly consisted of his mother, Margaretta (his father had died in 1850), his brothers Christopher, Mathias, Nicholas and two other brothers, and himself. Mitchell, in his "History of Stearns County Minnesota" (Pg. 1045) states that Mathias and margaretta Ahles, my great grandparents, had eight children, seven boys and one girl; that following the death of Mathias, Margaretta brought the rest of the family to America. Mitchell also states that "Mathew", the oldest, came to America first. Actually, Christopher was the older than Mathias and the family came as a group. Mathias came to Minnesota before the others, so this could have given the impression that he came to America first. I have found no evidence of a girl coming to America, so I assume that she either married before the family left Europe or did not survive to adulthood. Dad told me that two of the brothers went to Michigan and "were lost track of". This seems to be accurate, since a first cousin met a descendant of a "Michigan" Ahles family "out west". We also know that one of John's brothers remained in Preischeid, which brings the count up to eight siblings. The family members found work on a farm, or farms, near Kenosha, a few miles south of Milwakee. They remained in Wisconsin for varying lengths of time, worked in Illinois, probably near the Wisconsin border, for another interval and then came to Minnesota. Mathias and possibly Margaretta in 1855; Christopher in 1856; and John in 1862.
Notes of Judy Johnson:
"When Margaret Schmals Ahles emigrated, eight of her adult children also emigrated with her (7 boys and 1 girl)."
Notes of Tim Ahles:
"They were farmers, of the Catholic faith, and went to church in Rockville, MN."
Naturalization Record for Margaret Ahles, Nov 16, 1860, Stearns County, MN:
"I Margaret Ahles do hereby, upon my oath declare that I first arrived in the United States, on or about the 29th day of June in the year A.D. 1854 and that I have ever since that time continued to reside in the United States, and that it is bonafide my intention to become a CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity which I in anywise owe to any foreign Prince, Potentate, State, or Sovereignty, and particularly all allegience and fidelity which I owe to the Reigning King of Prussia of whom I heretafare been a subject. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 16th day of Nov. A.D 1860 Margaret Ahles (her x mark) Signed by Clerk of said Court. "
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