1. Schwenk Ancestry · 2. Lieb Ancestry · 3. Breymayer Ancestry
Fourth Generation
Herr Johann Friderich Lieb, Surgeon
As we already know, Johann Friderich Lieb was born on Mar. 18, 1692 in the village of Dürrwangen. He lived there until 1700 when his father took over as pastor or assistant pastor in nearby Ebingen. He was age 13 when Schopfloch became a new home for his family. He apparently served in the military before the age of 23, for when he married in 1715, his occupation was listed as Feldscher, which translates roughly to assistant medical officer in the military. And in the many subsequent birth entries of his children, he was always addressed as "Herr Johann Friderich Lieb, surgeon."
At the age of 23 in the town of Dettingen/Erms, where 113 years later one of his female descendents would marry a Schwenk, J. Friderich entered the holy state of matrimony. This occurred on May 14, 1715. His bride was Agnes Gwinner, born there in Dettingen only 17 years earlier. That was a very young age for a bride in those days! Her father was Johannes Gwinner, a member of the village court in Dettingen. Thus, J. Friderich and Agnes married within their social stratum. Her mother was born Anna Maria Gollmar, another prominent family name in that community.
Between April of 1718 and April of 1733, nine little Liebs would be born of this union. The first child was a Maria Agnes, born Apr. 21, 1718. She was the first Lieb child born in the town of Dettingen, or at least since 1554 when the recording of births in this parish was instituted! Their fourth child was named Christoph Adam, born in 1723. He married and followed the footsteps of his father, becoming also a surgeon. Their fifth child was given the name of his father and was born in 1725. He married and became a glazier, a glass installer. On May 6, 1727, twins were born. The girl, Sophia Margaretha died at birth. Her twin brother, Johannes survived, married, and also became a surgeon there in Dettingen. And what is even more remarkable is that this Johannes later had a son, Johannes, who likewise practiced his father's and grandfather's profession! And learning these facts in this summer of 1995 recalled words heard while visiting Dettingen in May of 1994, "Oh yes, the Liebs are rich people!"
The last-born child - most important for us - was Samuel Christoph Lieb; yes another one! He made his appearance on Apr. 10, 1733. Much more about him later.
Two brothers of our Johann Friderich Lieb. Let us for now travel back to Schopfloch, about 8 miles east of Dettingen. Back in 1728 on the morning of Dec. 16, our Johann Friderich's younger brother, Jonathan Martin Lieb, was about to tie the knot. His father, our Samuel Christoph Lieb then age 68, would officiate the ceremony. The bride was Maria Agatha Gollmar, almost certainly a close relative of the mother of Agnes, J. Friderich Lieb's wife. The bride's father was Johannes Gollmar, mayor of Dettingen in 1718 and member of the village court. This same Johannes served as Godfather at many of the christening ceremonies for Johann Friderich and Agnes. It may be that Agnes was his sister. The recording of this nuptial event was entered by someone other the the father of the groom, our pastor S.C. Lieb, because the name of the groom's father was entered as, "Herr M. Joh. Christoph Lieb, local pastor". We, the readers, can see the obvious error here. The "father of the groom" was Samuel Christoph Lieb, who was officiating the ceremony. Some clerk/scribe wrote in the name of the grandfather of the groom, instead! Apparently, the pastor/father never noticed this clerical error; in any event, it never was corrected. So what's the big deal the reader may well ask? Well, one must keep in mind that the search down the ancestral trail moves from the present, so to speak, to the past. When this document - and several others - was first received from the Rev. Fritz Braun, present pastor in Schopfloch in the summer of 1994, and studied by this writer, the records of the children born in Samuel Christoph Lieb's first marriage had not yet come to light. The conclusion drawn from that marriage entry is that Jonathan Martin Lieb had to be a brother of Samuel C. Lieb, albeit a much younger brother. And so the relationship between these two Lieb men remained a confusing puzzle for nearly a year. The Ebingen microfilms, viewed on June 20, 1995, revealing the birth of Jonathan in 1701, with the proud father being our Samuel Christoph Lieb cleared up this little mystery in a most satisfying way!
Jonathan Martin Lieb's occupation was shown as expert saddler on this marriage entry. He and Maria had let things get a little out of hand some nineteen months earlier; as a result, a baby Christian Martin was born 10 months before the wedding; this occurred in Dettingen, the home town of Maria. And this only proves that this kind of thing happens in the best of families! After the wedding, this couple moved to Dettingen. All eight subsequent children were born there, with the exception of Johann Erhard, who was born in Schopfloch. This son followed the occupational footsteps of his father. He married in Dettingen. His name was seen as being a Godfather at a christening in 1768 for a child born to his cousin, Johannes Lieb, surgeon, son of our Johann Friderich Lieb. Maria Jonathan's wife died in Dettingen on Feb. 11, 1777. Jonathan joined her spirit on Jan. 9, 1778.
The youngest brother of our Johann F. Lieb was Johann Erhard Lieb, born in 1706 in Schopfloch. He married there in the village of his birth on Oct. 25, 1729. His father again conducted this ceremony. The bride was Anna Maria Fischer. Her father was Johann Fischer, Schultheiss in Schopfloch. The marriage entry listed his occupation as barber. He and Anna brought five children into the world. She then died sometime around 1742-1743. He remarried in around 1744; this second wife's name was Anna Catharina. Five children were born in this marriage. Only the last one, a Johann Christoph, born in 1752, survived infancy; he died at the age of 35.
It is interesting that J. Erhard was always addressed as "Herr Lieb" in the various church book entries; interesting in view of his occupation. We need, however, to keep in mind that a barber at that time in history not only cut hair and trimmed beards, he also let blood and applied leeches for those who were ailing. The barber was "kind of a doctor" and can be considered the precursor of the physician of today. In any event, Johann Erhard Lieb had garnered the respect of this community, and was addressed by its citizens as, Herr Lieb! A search was not made to find his death date, but he probably died there in the village of his birth.
The chapter of this generation comes to an end in 1755 in Dettingen on the Erms River, in the Duchy of Württemberg. The words entered into Dettingen's death register some 21 years before the American Colonists would cry out for independence and some 154 years after the birth of our Conrad Schwenk "the Great" were rather terse:
"18 Dec. 1755 Herr Johann Friderich Lieb, Surgeon, died of tuberculosus age 63 years, 9 months."
Ten years later, on Aug. 22, 1772, his widow Agnes died at the age of 73 there in Dettingen.
Fifth Generation
Samuel Christoph Lieb, Farmer
Before we get into the life of this ancestor, let us take just a glimpse into the history of Dettingen. It was a settlement founded perhaps as early as the Third Century A.D. Its age, then, is about that of the "Schwenk villages" , which we visited earlier. Its population, today around 9000, is nearly that of Laichingen and much larger than that of Feldstetten and Mundingen. It lies in a fairly narrow valley cut out by the Erms River. The old city of Urach lies a few miles eastward up the river from Dettingen.
Dettingen, like the communities where the Schwenks had lived, suffered greatly from the Thirty Year's War. The population just before a great battle in November of 1634 stood at 2140. After that battle, the village was nearly totally abandoned. Of 296 buildings before 1634, only 108 survived. Eighteen years later, the population was still only 515. It was not until around 1800 that the population, economy and the buildings were restored to the conditions before 1634. The source of this information comes from a very informative booklet published in 1990 by the community of Dettingen. It was written and published to help celebrate this town's 900 Year Jubilee; it was in 1089 when this community was first mentioned in a preserved document and hence the celebration.
We can see from the above that when our Johann Friderich Lieb settled in Dettingen in 1715 this village was just beginning to recover from its devastation. And now to his youngest son, our Samuel Christoph Lieb.
He was born on April 10, 1733. He grew up with three older brothers and perhaps one surviving sister, Maria Magdalena. As mentioned earlier, he saw his brother Christoph Adam and Johannes become surgeons in the community. He, instead, chose to work the land. On June 5, 1755, he married Maria Agnes Magdalena Häring there in Dettingen. He was age 23, she age 22. Her father was Georg Adam Häring, a local farmer; her mother was born Katharina Haas. Between the years 1756 and the end of 1774 they had nine children. The Godfather for the first two babies was the father's brother, Herr Christoph Adam Lieb, surgeon. The last-born was our Johann Friderich Lieb - yes, another one! The second-born was a Christoph Adam, born in 1758, died 1827. We know that five others died in infancy. As to the outcome of the remaining two, one would have to search the marriage and death registers of Dettingen. This is because the pastor or clerk would enter the cross symbol beside the name of the child in the birth register after its death. If the death occurred one year or more after its birth, the exact date of death might or might not be entered in the birth register - it seemed to be at the whim of the pastor or clerk in those days.
On Nov. 14, 1790, our "great-grandmother" Maria Magdalena died in Dettingen. The death entry showed her to be the wife (not the widow) of Samuel Christoph Lieb, farmer. It also showed her age as 56 years, 3 months, and 29 days. That very detailed age at death gives us her precise date of birth. And also from this death entry can be concluded, that our Samuel was still living. A persistent search through the death register in the years following her death brought nothing to light as to his death date. This was apparently missed/overlooked by the searcher. Though we don't know exactly when this "chapter" ended, we will now move onto the next.
Sixth Generation
Johann Friderich Lieb, Farmer, Town Council Member, Innkeeper
He was born on Dec. 2, 1774, two years before the Declaration of Independence. He, like his father, was the last-born of nine. He was age 25 as he stood before the alter in the ancient church in Dettingen; his betrothed, standing at his side, was only 16. The date was Jan. 28, 1800. Her name was Maria Agnes Handel. Her father was the late Herr Jacob Friderich Handel, keeper of the Hirsch Inn in Dettingen and local judge who had died two years earlier. Her mother was Maria Agnes Weber, then still alive. Wishful thinkers might wonder whether this Handel family was related to the renowned composer George Friderich Handel, born in 1685 in Halle, Saxony, some 275 miles NE of Dettingen. Beginning in January of the following year, and ending in April of 1824, fifteen children were born of this union. Only six survived infancy and childhood and grew up to marry. Only one of those six was a male; he moved and married in Entringen just west of Tübingen in 1840. Thus, anyone carrying the family name of Lieb living in Dettingen today most likely did not descend from this Johann Friderich Lieb, but rather from his grandfather of the same name, or from his great uncle Jonathan Martin Lieb, the first Liebs to settle in Dettingen. **
When the first child was born in 1801, our J. Friderich Lieb was shown simply as "farmer". In 1808 with the birth of our Maria Barbara, future wife of our Johannes Schwenk, the words, "town council member" followed his name. The same was true in 1810 with the birth of daughter Eva. Incidentally and interestingly, Eva married there in Dettingen, but ended up in the tiny village of Mundingen, where she died in 1848.
In 1816 with the birth of daughter Christina, the father was addressed as "Herr Johann Frid. Lieb, Gemeindepfleger" which translates approximately to town hall administrator or assistant mayor. In only one christening entry was there any reference made about an innkeeper occupation, and that was made with the words, des Wirths (the innkeeper's) and nothing about the Hirsch Inn. As mentioned earlier in the Johannes Schwenk chapter, Johann Frid. Lieb was referred to as "former Hirschwirt in Dettingen" when Johannes and Maria Barbara married. The following is partly conjecture, but probably fairly close to fact: It is very likely that Johann Friderich inherited/purchased the Hirsch Inn from his mother-in-law, the widow of Herr Jacob Friderich Handel, the former judge and Hirschwirt. This may have been a small, not very profitable local watering hole/lodging place in Dettingen. Perhaps farming was the principal source of income for this Lieb ancestor rather than the inn. We do know that our Johannes Schwenk in 1828 took over this inn after the death of J. Frid. Lieb and then moved away from Dettingen in circa 1835. This writer recalls seeing no inn with the name of Hirsch on his two day visit there in 1994. Perhaps the doors, swinging on rusty hinges, closed for good with the departure of Johannes Schwenk in 1835?
It appears from the meager information preserved in the church books of Dettingen, that this Johann Friderich Lieb was a hard working, competent man. It is interesting to observe his growing prestige within the community as reflected in the birth register entries. He and all his Lieb predecessors, with the exception of his father, were honored in their communities with the envied title of Herr.
He did not live a long life. A search in the death register was not made because his date of death was recorded on his Family Register. The latter never shows the cause of death; that is found only - and not always - in the death register. He was 53 and one-half years upon his death on June 13, 1828.
His widow Maria Agnes, our "great-grandmother", remarried in 1840 to a Jacob Müller in Rosenau near Tübingen. She was then age 57. Her death entry appears in the Dettingen death register on April 22, 1853. She died as a widow. "Old age" was cited as the cause of death. And so with her death we have come to end of the Lieb line - but only from our perspective. As we already know, the Lieb ancestry is transmitted down to us through the children born to Maria Barbara Lieb and Johannes Schwenk, saddler and innkeeper from Mundingen.
** Since writing the above chapter, it has been learned that our Johann Friderich Lieb (1692-1755) does indeed have descendants - our cousins - living in Dettingen and the region today. They descended from his son by the same name, the glaser and surgeon born in 1725. DES 3/96.
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