The Fifth Generation
Conrad Schwenk, Brewer/Innkeeper
Because no artifacts survive except for those entered and preserved in the Kirchenbücher , we are left once again with conjecture, however it is clear that Conrad learned the skills of brewing beer and innkeeping from this stepfather. And then at age 24 it must have been these skills, this profession, which led to his decision to leave home and move to Mundingen.
Mundingen . This community, pop. circa 300 in 1997, lies about 12 miles south of Feldstetten, five miles west of the city of Ehingen, and just a few miles north of the Donau (Danube) River. It lies nestled on the southern end of a very small basin at an elevation of 2074 ft. Original forests of beech, oak, birch, and conifers grow on the high ground surrounding Mundingen and this basin. All the tillable ground, as in all areas of this region, is under cultivation.
The history of this village is somewhat similar to that of Feldstetten and Laichingen, and reaches back as far. Its first historical mentioning is preserved in a document in the archives in St. Gallen, Swizerland, and was dated in 854 A.D. That document tells us very little about Mundingen except that there existed at that time a small chapel.
To go into depth on the history of Mundingen is really outside the scope and intent of this story of our Swabian ancestors. Nevertheless, because Conrad's wife-to-be was a member of a very old and prominent family in Mundingen and whose family name is documented here as far back as 1497, let us take a moment to learn something of the history of the local inn, the Hirsch, of which Conrad soon would become proprietor. But before we do that, it must be acknowledged that the source of virtually all the information on Mundingen is a wonderful, comprehensive, scholarly-written book entitled "Mundingen, Ein Altwürttembergischer Grenzort" . It is of the history of this community and was published in 1983 by the city administration of Ehingen. The author is Dr. Rudolf Kiess, an historian, who, with his wife and children, began coming to Mundingen in 1976 as a "retreat" from their home in Stuttgart. As he indicated in the introduction section of his book, written in 1983: As an historian, he could not help from becoming interested in the history of his new surroundings; and this led, over the following seven years of much research, to the writing of this book. The family name Schwenk appears quite often in it. We Schwenks stand in great indebtedness to Mr. Kiess and his wife Pauline (she modestly declined to be named the co-author)!
Brief History of the Hirsch
For more information on the Hirsch Inn please see HIRSCH INN AT MUNDINGEN
In the mid 14th Century this village consisted of eleven Höfe, farms or estates. These included the houses, outbuildings, croplands, pastures and woodlands. These eleven properties were then owned by four different monasteries in the surrounding area, and the House of Württemberg. Although Württemberg was a minority landowner in Mundingen, it ruled this small community, which in effect was an enclave surrounded by other sovereignties. No land or buildings were then privately owned by the peasant farmer (with the exception of a few acres of garden-orchard plots and a very small amount of farmland).
One of these original eleven farms was what this book lists as "Haus # 7" , which today is the Gasthof Zum Hirsch , the inn. In 1366 this property and accompanying farmland was given to the Cloister of Urspring by a Berthold von Stein. At that time, the "occupants" of the property were a Hans der Weber and App der Mayer. In 1649, one year after the devastating 30 Years War, the Cloister of Urspring sold this property to a Jacob Breymayer, the most prosperous peasant farmer in Mundingen. This was very significant because it was the first farm owned freely by a peasant farmer in this community, and now not by the Church or Nobility.
Jacob Breymayer died in 1668. Sometime between then and 1713, this farm was subdivided. The smaller of these now two properties included the house (# 7). His nephew Georg inherited or purchased this smaller property; the larger property came into the possession of a Johannes Breymayer, first-born son of Georg. Sometime around 1726, Georg's son Friedrich, whose occupation was brewer, converted part of this house to an inn - a place of food, drink and lodging. He then built a three-story brewery/distillery directly adjacent to the inn (see photos on another page ). Friedrich died in 1734. Ownership passed to his widow and then to Jerg Koz, her second husband. Upon his death in 1763 the property passed to Johann Jacob Breymayer, the son of Friedrich. He died in 1767 and his widow then married an Elias Fischer in July, 1768. The property was then deeded over to Elias.
Johann Jacob Breymayer and his wife, Anna Elisabetha, born Blifers, had five children at home when he died. One of these was Felicitas, just three years old. For her, Elias Fischer was the only father she would know. More about Elias later in the Schwenk saga. It was this little girl, Felicitas, who in 1797 was a young, eligible bride (although already age 33) when Conrad Schwenk from Feldstetten came strolling into town.
Whether it was Felicitas or a possible job opportunity which initially drew Conrad to Mundingen, we'll probably never know. Perhaps Elias Fischer, then getting up in years, had put out the word for a reliable young man to run the brewery/distillery? But we can be quite certain that Conrad moved there in 1797. The church books recorded all the souls residing in Mundingen in 1796. The list categorizes married couples, widowed persons, single girls (Felicitas in that list) and boys, and even a column of "non-citizens", people living there at that time, but not permanent residents; Conrad Schwenk's name does not appear in the list. The number of souls was approximately 170.
As far as could be determined, the family name Schwenk had never been entered into any of the Kirchenbücher in Mundingen (which go back to 1641) until May of 1797. This occurred in a wedding on May 16, 1797. The groom was " Conrad Schwenk B. u. Biersieder u. Felicitas Breÿmaier." "B" means Burger or citizen of the community; Biersieder means brewer. Note the spelling of Felicitas' family name; this was written over the centuries in at least eleven different ways, with Breymayer and Breimayer now being the usual spelling.
This newly wedded pair made their home in the residential part of the "Hirsch" Inn, where Felicitas was born and had lived all her life. Her mother and stepfather Elias Fischer continued residing there also, but in makeshift quarters in the basement. With the marriage, the ownership of this property passed over to Conrad with the payment of 2500 Gulden. Fifteen Gulden then might buy a cow, thirty Gulden a horse. The property included the house/inn, storage shed/grainary, farm equipment, brewery and 8-9 acres of farmland.
Not long after the above paragraph was written, a letter containing startling information was received from our wonderful friend in Stuttgart, Dr. Rudolf Kiess. Yours truly then excitedly wrote a letter to his cousin Richard L. Schwenk, a copy of which is reproduced below.
Tuesday Aug. 22, 1995 Bellevue, Idaho
Dear Cousin Richard, care of sons John and Robert:
What a wonderful family reunion that was! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute! When I arrived home last Wednesday, letters from Heinrich C. Schwenk and Dr. Kiess were waiting. Heinrich and family were about to leave on a one month camping trip, and he apologized for writing his letter so hastily. He asked me to extend his greetings to you and Caring and wondered if son Michael had made connections with you. He also said his daughter with two children are/were in the Phoenix, AR area on vacation.
The letter from Dr. Kiess brought with it such interesting information that I wanted to share this with you (and Juanita and Darrel). I replied with a 3 page letter shortly after arriving home. I will enclose copies of my letter rather than write about those subjects again in this letter to you.
Dr. Kiess went to the Mundingen Town Hall and found the marriage contract, dated 28 April, 1797, drawn up before the marriage of Conrad Schwenk to Felicitas Breymayer. He (and probably with help of Pauline) then transcribed this long hand-written "prenuptial agreement" into modern German and enclosed a two page single-space typed document. It is still difficult for me to read because of so many archaic terms, but I will do my best to translate parts of this agreement, principally the 20 Conditions of this agreement or contract (that word, Contract, was in fact used in this document). First let me refresh your memories. Felicitas was then 33 yrs. of age. Her father had died in 1867 when she was three. Her mother remarried one year later to Elias Fischer, a brewery worker, who had come from Weilheim, a town perhaps 20 miles NW of Mundingen. So now thirty years later our Conrad comes strolling into this out-of-the-way hamlet, apparently having heard that Elias was looking for a buyer of the "Hirsch" (that is only an assumption of mine). Felicitas had never been married. Her mother then was age 66, and step father Elias, the owner of this property (a widow loses her right to own property upon remarriage) was then probably about the same age (I could never find his date of birth as hopefully revealed in his death entry; I checked again today for this in the years between 1797 and 1804; He must have been buried back in his hometown, but when his wife, our Anna Elizabeth died in 1803, she was a widow). Anyway, the 20 Conditions have mainly to do with the concerns of the parents there in their twilight years. If you will recall, the 3 story Brewery/Distillery building stood directly adjacent to the main Haus (the Inn) to the east of the present entry door of the Inn. It was torn down some 20-30 years ago. The brewery building had been built back in around 1720-1730 by our ancestor Friderick Breymayer, grandfather of Felicitas, and parts of the house converted to an inn.
Okay. Now to the 20 Conditions.
1. All the brewery equipment, vats, pots, casks and tubs are included in this purchase.
2. Whatever has to be built in the rooms of the brewery will be paid for by both parties (not clear if this meant the seller and buyer jointly, or the two buyers, Conrad and Felicitas?).
3. The seller reserves for his life long use the loft above the Brewery facing the well (village well directly across the street -north - of the property).
4. Likewise the small room by the Dürre (for drying fruit and presumably also in the brewery building).
5. The buyer must provide for the seller, at no cost, yearly 2 tankards of brandy, and one half tankard beer daily.
6. The seller reserves for his use the cellar in the large house, and will pay the costs of installing a door on the side facing the well. (It appears that this is where he and wife will reside).
7. The seller reserves use of the upper rear room in the event that son Philipp should become sick or otherwise run into misfortune, and where the seller can at that time put a couple clothing trunks (Philipp was youngest brother of Felicitas, and at that time age 31).
8. The seller must be provided one of the three pig pens in the event he should keep a pig.
9. The seller reserves two small plots by the well for the planting of lettuce, etc.
10. Likewise a small place behind the house for firewood storage.
11. The seller is allowed to keep one cow in the barn of the buyer, but is responsible for the acquistion of feed and the feeding of her.
12. The buyer is required to transport four wagon loads of manure to the fields of the father-in-law.
13. The seller reserves the right to one-tenth of all the fruit.
14. Likewise, one-third of the plot of the community-owned garden area. Also
15. A one-third share of the yearly firewood allotment (Each "full-fledged citizen" of the community, that is, one who owned his house, had paid the one time fee for this privilege of citizenship, could vote for the election of the mayor, schoolteacher, town council members, etc., likewise had the right to go into the community-owned forest land to chop a specified amount of firewood each year)
16. The seller retains the front upper part of the barn (part of the house structure) for the storage of crop harvest.
17. The Käuferin (female buyer, that is in this case Felicitas) receives, in addition to a 6 times the minimum dowry amount, two cows, one as part of the purchase and the other as part of the dowry.
18. Two tables along with three guest tables, three chairs and two Schrannen (boxes to sit on) in the main room, and also the sofa behind the oven are left for the Käuferin (Felicitas).
19. The father-in-law approves the common use of whatever household utensils/kitchenware there is (this suggests that both families would share the kitchen). And finally,
20. If either the father-in-law or the son-in-law should die, the widow is not allowed to remarry (this was very difficult to translate, partly because of archaic phrases and partly because it was not written very clearly). The Brauhaus (brewery) is mentioned in this last Condtion, but I could not figure out its connection. I think that Elias had concerns that should Conrad die, and his widow Felicitas then remarry, the new husband would then own the entire property and this could leave Elias and Anna Elisabeth in an uncertain situation and with no guarantee of a place of residence and all the other things which this marriage contract had provided for the sellers).
This was very difficult to translate, partly because of archaic phrases and partly because it was not written very clearly. The Brauhaus (brewery) is mentioned in this last Condtion, but I could not figure out its connection. I think that Elias had concerns that should Conrad die, and his widow Felicitas then remarry, the new husband would then own the entire property and this could leave Elias and Anna Elisabeth in an uncertain situation and with no guarantee of a place of residence and all the other things which this marriage contract had provided for the sellers.
In the section of this contract which preceded these 20 Conditions, the price was of course spelled out; 2500 Gulden. Conrad had already paid 500 Gulden down payment. The balance of 2000 Gulden, in cash, was required before the "deal" could be final. Whether Conrad had brought this with him from Feldstetten, or this had been paid jointly by he and Felicitas, this is not indicated. I would guess that this money came from Conrad and perhaps with some help from his step-father, the innkeeper and brewer in Feldstetten?
Along with the above mentioned building and equipment, the purchase included crop and pasture land. Perhaps 12-14 different very small parcels. The measurements shown are abbreviated symbols which I don't begin to understand. If I recall from Dr. Kiess' book, this property included something like 8-10 acres of land. Would Conrad have farmed this land himself? I don't know. PROBABLY he had his hands full with the brewery and inn and may well have sublet this land. Farm equipment was, however, included in this transaction. And did Elias still own other land? I don't know, but the Condition # 12 suggests that he did. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed hearing this interesting story. It was a pleasure for me to share it with you.
With affection, Don Schwenk
cc: Darrel and Juanita Schwenk
Children of Conrad and Felicitas
The first child born of this marriage was Johannes on July 5, 1798. This is "our" Johannes, our direct ancestor. He, of course, will be the central character in the Sixth Generation chapter.
Then on August 26, 1799, a baby boy christened Elias was born. He was confirmed in the church in 1813, but no further mention of his name was found in any of the church records. He probably died before reaching the age of marriage, though no death entry was found for him, and no date of death was entered into the Family Register?? As to whom he was named after is quite apparent - Elias Fischer, the stepgrandfather. This fairly uncommon given name had never appeared earlier either in the Schwenk or the Breymayer lineages. And in the following two generations the name Elias would be given to about six other Schwenk babies. One could infer from this new tradition that Elias Fischer, the man who filled the role as father to Felicitas, must have been a much loved man. He had come to Mundingen from Weilheim, a community some 25 miles north of there, apparently not long before he married Anna Elisabetha, the widowed mother of Felicitas. The church books show him to be still living in early 1802. He died not long before the death of Anna Elisabetha, who in her death entry of Nov. 12, 1803, was listed as a widow. His death entry was not made in the Mundingen Kirchenbücher. One wonders if he returned to Weilheim to spend his last days.
The next child born was Elisabetha . She died shortly after her birthdate of Sept. 8, 1800. A boy christened Conrad was born exactly 13 months later. He too died in infancy. The next child was born on the 8th of November, 1802. She was also named Elisabetha , but she survived those many maladies which afflicted and robbed so many infants and young children of their adulthood in those days. At age 26 there in Mundingen, on March 2, 1829, she married a Johann Friderich Ampfer, a gamekeeper from Hohen Wittlingen, a community not far from Mundingen - about five miles SE of Dettingen/Erms. She moved to his village, for no Family Register was established for this couple in the Mundingen Lutheran Church. She did have a child born out of wedlock two years earlier, a Johann Friderich, born May 23, 1827, who ten months later died. The father was that same Johann Friderich Ampfer whom she later married in 1829. And that is all we know of Elisabetha except that she served as Godmother in Dettingen for her brother Johannes' first two children. A death date could not be found in the Mundingen records, but she was presumbably living in Metzingen just west of Dettingen/Erms when her father died there.
Conrad was the sixth and last child born. He arrived on June 16, 1805. Across the Atlantic, Lewis and Clark and party were struggling up the headwaters of the Missouri. And Brigham Young, to whom the research of our past owes so much, was only four years old.
Conrad's name was spelled this way upon his birth, but on his Family Register, Conrad was spelled with a "K", as was it usually in Dr. Kiess' book. We will spell it as Konrad, mainly out of the hope of avoiding any further confusion on the part of the reader!? Konrad had a long and interesting life. He was the only one of the siblings who stayed in his home village; he married, raised a family of five (all of whom lived to marry and have children), and died there; and because he did not wander, we know more about him than our own Johannes, his older brother. He married on Aug. 28, 1832. He learned from his father how to run an inn and brew beer. In 1832, the year of his marriage, his father turned the business over to Konrad. In 1844 he sold the inn - the Hirsch - but continued operating the brewery/brandy business in the adjacent building. This was a three story building (torn down some twenty to thirty years ago) and it is probable that he and his family resided in the upper portion.
In 1862, when Konrad was nearly sixty, he built a new house in the upper, southeastern part of the village. In 1868, the brewery and land passed on to his son Elias (born 1839). Elias had married in January, 1869 and his wife bore a son posthumously who was named after his father. In 1901, Elias Jr. married his 2nd Cousin Katarina Schwenk in Mundingen. They had no surviving children, and he died in 1908. Elias Sr. died in 1869 following injuries sustained while working on the Danube Valley Railroad. And so after 220 years of remaining in the hands of the Breymayers' and the Schwenks', this property passed on to an non-related family. And one can still today lodge, dine and party there at the Hirsch. But don't expect that possibly a Schwenk might wait on you, for there is no longer anyone in Mundingen carrying this family name.
At about this time Konrad took on the job of local constable and nightwatchman. From the evidence at hand, it seems that had fallen on hard times. The job paid very little and probably didn't give him much to do, because the population of Mundingen stood at only about 250, though his sleep must have been interrupted from time to time - aside from having to make his nightly rounds. In Dr. Kiess' book, in a section entitled, "The Church Convent Watchs over the Morals " , the following excerpt, taken from the Church Convent Books, appears:
In 1873 the daughter-in-law of the constable was warned because she had had, particularly during Advent, several young single men at her place for a beer party.
This "sinner" almost certainly was Elisabeth Schwenk, the young widow of Elias, the late son of Konrad Schwenk, the local "constable" . This writer is tempted to relate more about this Elisabeth and Elias and their son Elias born after the early death of the father Elias, but that would take us too far afield. However there are people living today in Mundingen who descended from two of Konrad's five children and are thus blood related to us, and this then deserves space in this story.
Only one of the five children born to Konrad and Maria Eva married and raised their children in Mundingen. Maria Brigitta Barbara , born Jan. 9, 1846 - the last-born - married a Jacob Mayer in 1871. He founded a cabinetmaking business which his great-grandson Otto Mayer still operates today. He is the fourth cousin of this writer, with Conrad - the first Schwenk in Mundingen - representing their common ggg-grandfather. And we have relatives living in Ohio today who descended from this same Maria B.B. Schwenk. Her sister, Crescentia Felicitas married a Johannes Rilling in Pfullingen in 1877 and later emmigrated to the USA. During a return visit in 1893, apparently to visit her sister Maria in Mundingen, Maria consented to allow Crescentia to take three of Maria and Jacob's children back to America. Presumably these children, ranging in age from 17 to 21, were raised by Crescentia and her husband. A daughter of one of those children recently celebrated her 100th birthday in Worthington, Ohio. Her name is Toni Blackford.
One of those five children of Konrad and Maria Eva was Johann Jacob. He married in 1866 in a village not far from Mundingen. He farmed for a living. One of his daughters, Eva, married an Johann Georg Beck in Mundingen in 1890. One of her grandchildren is Frieda Rehm, born Beck. She lives today still in Mundingen in the same house that her gg-grandfather Konrad Schwenk built in ca. 1865. And so here is another descendant of our Conrad Schwenk, brewer and innkeeper, still in Mundingen. And there are other cousins living nearby which we will talk about shortly.
It is interesting to trace these kinship ripple effects. In this case one could say the origin of this kinship rippling was the marriage of Conrad and Felicitas in 1798, but then again one could say the same for the marriage one generation earlier between Conrad and Anna Ursula.
There is one more "connection" to our cousin Otto Mayer which deserves mentioning, and here it is. During a brief visit in Mundingen in May of 1994, a photo was taken of the only "Schwenk tombstone" in the church graveyard. This was of a Johannes Schwenk, b. 1910, d. 1984. Whose son was he? Was he our Conrad Schwenk's descendant? And if so, through which line? These were nagging questions which remained unanswered until recently, and then almost purely by chance. You see, there were one or two Schwenk families which settled in Mundingen during the mid-1800s. Were they related to Conrad? This could not be ascertained. In any case they did not stay long; they packed their bags some fifty years later and moved on. There were no names of Schwenk babies entered into the Mundingen birth registers during the 20th Century until the year 1947. And these were twin girls whose father was the Johannes Schwenk mentioned above. The family register of this Johannes was discovered purely from "wandering" through the Mundingen microfilms. Here is what it revealed, going backward in time: Johannes >Anton >J. Jacob >Konrad >Conrad Schwenk. But here is the connection to Otto Mayer and his 85 year old mother: The wife of this Johannes Schwenk is Pauline Haydt, the sister of Babette Mayer, Otto's mother! And there surely are other relatives living today in Mundingen, the descendants of that young ambitious brewer who strolled into this village in 1797; It would only require more time and patience to search out these living descendants from the "dusty old pages" of these microfilms. And those twin girls born in 1947, the ggg-granddaughters of our Conrad, brewer? They are still living in the Mundingen area and are married to local farmers. Dr. Rudolf Kiess ran across them during a Heimatfest in the summer of 1995. They told him they knew nothing of their father's ancestry. A chart was then sent by this writer so that they might learn of their Schwenk roots. And so now, thanks to historian Dr. Kiess, we have found two more cousins. And then there is a Straub family living in Mundingen. He descended from Maria B.B. Schwenk, daughter of Konrad. And so if any of you someday visit Mundingen, you will find several relatives there, all descendants, like us, of Conrad Schwenk, brewer/Hirschwirt.
We have gone a bit astray here with the story of the life of Konrad, our Johannes' younger brother. To bring a conclusion to it: Maria Eva, Konrad's wife of 47 years, died there in Mundingen in 1879. Konrad passed away two years later at the age of 76.
Before we turn our attention to our Johannes, we need to return to the parents, Conrad and Felicitas. Conrad, like his father, must have possessed considerable prestige in the community. But that was part and parcel of being a Wirt , an innkeeper. It was here where the village council held its meetings, at least in small communities where no Rathaus , town hall, had yet been constructed. The inn was the meeting place; wedding parties took place here; the town council held their "post meetings" here if they had, in fact, a Rathaus in the community. It was the Wirt who greeted the dignitaries and took care of their horses, their lodging and other needs. And it was the Wirt who was usually one of few in the village who always had cash on hand.
And so this Conrad, like his father, was requested often to serve as Godfather at christenings. He did this repeatedly during the years 1808-1815. He was designated as "Hirschwirth" each time; and during the years, 1810-1815, also as village council member.
The local Mundingen records show, as stated in Dr. Kiess' book, that a Schwenk built a new home in the first half of the 1800s just a stone's throw west of the Hirsch. This must have been our Conrad, because he had turned over the land, business and buildings to son Konrad in 1832. This home still stands and its address is "Haus # 9."
We can only assume that Conrad, then about age 60, had gone into retirement. There is nothing in the church books which reveal what he and Felicitas did in those retirement years. On Sept. 26, 1842, at the age of 78, Felicitas died of old age, according to her death entry. She had been the wife of Conrad for 47 years. And now he was alone for the first time in his life, although he then had four grandchildren there in Mundingen and six grandchildren a couple hours' walk south in Neuburg on the Donau (Danube) River. We do not know if he remarried. We know from an entry made on his Family Register in Mundingen that he moved to Metzingen (just west of Dettingen/Erms) in around May of 1866. And now back to the birth entry made in the Feldstetten church books back in 1773. Just above that entry, written in pencil, is the following statement:
This Conrad, later beerbrewer and innkeeper of the Hirsch in Mundingen, died on 14 Feb. 1868, reportedly in Metzingen.
Image of document coming soon
A search in the Morman Family History Library microfilms of Metzingen revealed that, indeed, Conrad died there, but the correct date of death was 13 Dec. 1867 . Quilled in barely ledgible ink in parentheses beside the name of the deceased was the name, " E . Ampfer ." This has to be Elisabeth, Conrad and Felicitas' only surviving daughter. It is extremely likely that he moved to Metzingen the year before so that Elisabeth could care for him. And so ends the story - after nearly 95 years - of the life of this Conrad Schwenk.
§§§
Conrad Schwenk (1601): First Generation
Andreas Schwenk (1641): Second Generation
Bernhard Schwenk (1672): Third Generation
Conrad Schwenk (1702): Fourth Generation
Conrad Schwenk (1773): Fifth Generation
Johannes Schwenk (1798): Sixth Generation
John Schwenk (1839): Seventh Generation
A. Elmer Schwenk (1881): Eighth Generation
