Barbara Strohm's Diary
Barbara Strohm was the daughter of Johannes Strohm and Barbara Lehmann. She was born in Kriegsheim, RheinHessen, in 1807, and died in Summerfield, Illinois, in 1864. In 1812 Johannes Strohm moved his family from Kriegsheim to the Boßweilerhof in the Palatinate and in 1820 to the Schwaige bei Wagenried in Bavaria where the Strohm family was affiliated with the Eichstock Mennonite community. In Bavaria Barbara married Jakob Ruth, the son of Gerhard Ruth and Elisabeth Rupp. Barbara and Jakob setteld at Harreszell near the Eichstock Hofs. Jakob died in 1848 and in 1852 Barbara sold the Harreszell property and emigrated, with her children and a second husband Franz Kraemer, to the vicinity of Summerfield, Illinois. This community established a church at Summerfield whose members were Mennonites who had emigrated from the Palatinate and from Bavaria. Throughout her lifetime Barbara maintained a diary which in its translation by Albert J. Ruth, a descendant, was called Remembrances from 1807. This diary relates Barbara's experiences in Bavaria and gives the names of many of the families affiliated with the Eichstock Mennonite Congregation and thus provides information for present day descendants of these Palatinate/Bavarian Mennonites. Many of the families in the Eichstock Congregation were intermarried, a not unusual situation in many Mennonite groups. My interest in the diary was to establish some of these interrelationships. Barbara's mother, Barbara Lehmann, was the sister of my great great great grandfather Michael Lehmann who was the ancestor connecting me to the Krehbiel family. This made many of the persons mentioned in Barbara's diary distant relatives of mine.
I have two machine copies of Albert Ruth's translation of the diary. One of these is comprised of two pages per sheet without annotations by me. The other copy comprises one page per sheet with annotation by me. At this time (Feb 4, 2001) the first copy has been scanned and is the copy found here. The scans are named "Diarxx-xx.jpg", the xx-xx being the page numbers for that scan. I am in the process of scanning the other copy for anyone who might be interested in my comments. These scans will be named as "Diaryxx.jpg, Diaryxxa.jpg, Diaryxxb.jpg." Again xx is the page number of the scan; the a, b, and c are additional pages of handwritten notes by me. Some years ago I made a feeble effort to locate the original of Barabara's diary. I failed.
Lyle von Riesen
