Gerhard Herschbach + Anna Josepha Sheid
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Anna - William - Charles - Henry - Frederick - Robert - August

Gerhard Herschbach, his wife Anna Herschbach, and their daughter Anna are shown on the manifest of the Belgian ship Harriet. The Harriet, captained by John Henry Banning, set sail from Antwerp and arrived in New York on January 13, 1844.

Gerhard and his family arrived a year and a half after Heinrich and his family. I can only surmise that perhaps Heinrich, as the older brother, went ahead to make the initial journey to the United States. Perhaps he then sent word to Gerhard to bring his family.

Most of the information I have on the early history of the Gerhard's family derives from a single document, a copy of the obituary of Anna Herschbach provided to me by Dorothy (Herschbach) Koopman. The obituary gives a detailed early history of Anna and her husband Gerhard's arrival in the United States. While the information given is quite interesting, the article was the source of an error in most Herschbach family tree documents. It appears that Anna's actual maiden name was Anna Josepha Scheid, not Anna Yousopha Scheidt as given in the article. The writing on the ship's manifest is difficult to make out, but Ann's middle name clearly starts with a "J", not a "Y". This is confirmed by research done at the behest of James V. Herschbach on Anna's parentage (see here) and by Gerhard's will, which clearly leaves everything to Anna Josepha Herschbach. The article also misspells Gerhard's name as "Gerard".

Anna Josepha Herschbach

From Chester Newspaper (Vol. 40 No. 35) Chester, Illinois March 1, 1907

Died at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. Henry Ahrens, in this city, Sunday February 17, 1907, Mrs. Anna Y. Herschbach.

Mrs. Herschbach, whose maiden name was Anna Yousopha Scheidt, was born in Schleswig, Holstein, Germany, September 2, 1818; she grew to womanhood in her native country and while employed in the city of Coblenz, she met her future husband, Gerard Herschbach; they were married in 1842 at Koln on the Rhine. Shortly after their first child, Anna, was born they emigrated to America landing at Hoboken, New York in 1843, after a sea voyage of sixteen weeks; for three months they remained at Hoboken and then went to St. Louis going through Easton and Pittsburgh to Cincinnati by railroad, thence down the Ohio to Cairo and up the Mississippi to their destination by steamboat. They lived in St. Louis one year during which time a second child William was born; after leaving the city they went to Old Manchester where Mr. Herschbach engaged in farming. Three more sons were born to them while living at this place, namely, Charles, Henry and Frederick; they again went to St. Louis to live but remained only a short time before coming to Chester. When they first came to this city, they occupied the Phillips Building, here they lived for one year and then moved to the Thos. Douglas farm, which is now owned by Julius (illegible), in 1853. Their sons Robert and August were born at this last named place. The family lived on the farm until 1877, when they, wishing to live nearer town, bought the Jacob Knapp place, which is now owned and occupied by Emil Zimmer.

About three months after moving to their new home, Mr. Herschbach died, and Mrs. Herschbach went to live with her children; from that time until her death, she had continued to make her home with her children and grandchildren. Surviving her are five sons, thirty-three grandchildren and thirty-four great grand children. Her sons, William, Henry and August are well-known citizens of Chester; Charles is one of the prosperous farmers of Kaskaskia Island, and Robert makes his home in Watsonville, California. Frederick died while the family was living at Old Manchester, and the only daughter, Anna, who was the mother of Jos. Knapp, of this city, died several years ago.

Very few people live to the ripe old age that Mrs. Herschbach did and still have control of all the faculties, and be blessed with such good health as she was. At the time of her death she was 88 years, 5 months and 15 days of age. On Saturday afternoon she was going about as usual and retired about nine o’clock telling her children who had called to look after her welfare that she was feeling well and that there was no use for them to remain with her; however after they had assisted her to bed they observed that she was quite weak and appeared to be sinking. Dr. Fritze was at once summoned, as soon as he made an examination he realized that she was suffering from no disease, but that senility was the ailment-that her life’s race was nearly run and that the worn-out organs of the body could not much longer continue to perform their functions. All that could be done by loving hands and a skillful physician was done during the night, but she grew rapidly worse and just as the sun rose on the Sabbath morning, she passed away.

Funeral services were held at the residence at 2 o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, followed by the beautiful and impressive service of the Lutheran church of which the deceased had been for a number of years a consistent member. The last sad rites were administered at the grave and the body was laid to rest in the family lot in Evergreen cemetery. The burial services were conducted by Rev. Evers, of Steeleville, Rev. Strasen being sick and unable to attend. C. F. Weinrich, Ernst Fey, Henry Eggers, Sr., Henry Gilster, Sigmund Aszman and William Brinkman acted as pallbearers.

Mrs. Herschbach lived a good and noble life and by her many acts of kindness she had endeared herself to a large circle of friends and acquaintances who join in extending sympathy to the bereft family. During her lifetime she was a great admirer of flowers and many were the bouquets that were procured from “Grandma” Herschbach's garden when flowers could not be obtained elsewhere; her relatives and friends remembered this and seat an abundance of beautiful floral offerings for her funeral. Among the special designs were a lovely pillow from her children; an anchor and a beautiful dat bruget from the children of Henry Herschbach.

From the 1850 Census of Missouri:

The 1850 Census of Missouri, of which I have a poor copy, documents the ages of the family in 1850. Frederick, Robert, and August were born after 1850.

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