Martin & Maria Froehlich

Select a yellow box to move around Lisa's paternal family tree.

Martin and Maria were born and married in Prussia. They immigrated to the United States in 1870 with their first four children. They traveled on the Silesia from Hamburg, with a stop in Havre, and arrived in New York on 20 April. Richard Valentine was born in Mayville, WI, but the family also lived in Neilville, WI. They traveled by covered wagon to Nebraska in 1875 and homesteaded in section 34 of Humphrey Township five and a half miles southwest of Creston on 20 August 1881.

Martin was one of the charter signatories to the St. John's Lutheran constitution when the congregation was organized in the Spoerry schoolhouse on 5 January 1879. The present-day church is located one mile to the east of that site a few miles south of Creston.

According to the 1885 state census, the farmland consisted of 85 tilled acres, 42 acres of forest or woodland, and 352 other unimproved acres. The farm was valued at $9000, the implements and machinery at $900, and the livestock at $950. The livestock consisted of 4 horses, 5 milk cows, 14 other cattle, 14 sheep, 45 swine, and 77 poultry. In 1884 the farm produced 38 tons of hay, 8 calves, 250 pounds of butter, 9 lambs, 42 pounds of wool, 500 eggs, 1600 bushels of Indian corn, 700 bushels of oats, 300 bushels of wheat, and 50 bushels of potatoes.

Martin and Maria moved to Norfolk, NE in 1902, living at 437 Pasewalk. Martin sold the homestead on 4 June 1914 to son Paul, who lost the property to foreclosure in 1922. Martin's funeral was officiated by Rev. J.P. Mueller at Christ Lutheran in Norfolk. Maria lived with son Fredrick in Stanton, NE after his death. Her funeral was officiated by Rev. Miller at St. John's Lutheran in Norfolk. Martin and Maria are buried in the Lutheran cemetary on Maple St. in Norfolk.

S.S. Silesia, the ship on which the Froehlichs crossed the ocean in 1870