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The
SONSMITH - MOLL Family In America You are here: Photo Albums • MOLL / SONSMITH / SONNENSCHMIDT • The SONSMITH-MOLL Family in America • Page 1 Page 1
The bride, Wilhelmina "Minnie" MOLL (baptized Wilhelmina Fredericka Sophia MOLL), was born March 30, 1847 in Mechlinberg, Germany. She and her family came to the United States when she was sixteen years old. (Minnie's father, Heinrich Peter MOLL, was born in 1804 and died in 1884 at the age of 80. Minnie's mother, Anna S. MOLL, was born in 1807 and died in 1889 at the home of her daughter Minnie SONSMITH. She was 82.) Although the couple was born in the same area, there is no record that they ever met before meeting on shipboard. Since Henry was nine years older than Minnie, and he had been away sailing, this is understandable. The young couple secured 60 acres of land in Blumfield Township, Saginaw County, about six miles directly north on the main road out of Frankenmuth, Michigan. They were pioneers in the area, clearing the heavily wooded land gradually with much labor, and putting it under cultivation. A house and barn were built.
In the winters, Henry continued to sail the ocean but spent the rest of the year farming. (Henry was not the only sailor in the SONSMITH family. His brother, Captain Charles SONSMITH, was master of a ship, The Rosie SONSMITH & The Nellie BLY, which sailed the Great Lakes.) So primitive was the Blumfield area at that time that Minnie occasionally fed potato peelings to the deer when hunger lured them near the kitchen door. The winters were very cold and the snow was so deep that the deer had difficulty finding food.
Farming was a hard life but good neighbors helped make a rather enjoyable social life. Both Henry and Minnie had pleasing voices and they often sat on the porch during long summer evenings singing favorite songs, and sometimes they sang together at weddings and other social occasions. (Their daughter, Lina, inherited a very beautiful soprano, voice). The Martin GRANDJEAN (French for Big John) family were near neighbors. Their three children: Helen, Gertie, and Frances were playmates and schoolmates of the SONSMITH children, especially Lina. There was sorrow, too. Two of the SONSMITH boys: blond, curly-haired Fred and Carl, apparently fine, strong children, died of diphtheria during a terrible epidemic of the disease which ravaged the countryside. The bodies of the children were removed through the bedroom window at night, placed in a wagon, and taken to the cemetery where they were buried without ceremony. Minnie was pregnant with August at the time that Fred and Carl died, and the doctor warned her that the baby she was carrying would also have the disease. August, too, was a fine, healthy-looking boy, but when he was four or five years old, he came to Minnie one day, pointing a finger at his throat. She looked and recognized the horrible, gray, strangling phlegm already coating his throat. At that time, there was no medical way known to fight this disease. The victims either lived or died, and many of them died. So the SONSMITHS lost August, too. The three brothers lie buried in Blumfield Cemetery near their grandmother, Anna S. MOLL. The loss of these three strong, beautiful children was the great and lifelong sorrow of the parents' lives. As soon as the eldest surviving son, Louis, was old enough, he left home and worked variously at farming and lumbering. On September 10, 1893, Louis married Marie HOETZEL, born June 12, 1875. Marie gave up teaching Kindergarten to marry and the wedding took place in Blumfield but they lived in Saginaw for awhile. In May 1899, the SONSMITH family sold the farm in Blumfield Township and moved to a 20 acre farm in Arenac County, Lincoln Township, in an area called Johnsfield about 3 miles southwest of the tiny city of Standish, Michigan. This big change was made so that they could help son, Henry II, buy land to start a farm of his own, as he was planning on being married to Miss Olga BAUER. At first, the SONSMITH family lived in a log house, but about five years later, they built a new frame house which is still standing in good condition. A few weeks after moving into the new house, Minnie MOLL SONSMITH passed away on January 1, 1905 at the age of 57 years. The cause of death was a strangulated rupture. The doctor had urged surgery, but surgery at that time was little known or understood. Minnie refused it, later changed her mind, but the doctor said it was too late. Burial was in Woodmere Cemetery, Standish, Michigan. Minnie was a lifelong member of the Lutheran Church, and all her life she was a dedicated Christian: loving God, trusting in the salvation of Jesus Christ, always lending a helping hand to others according to their need. It was said of her that she never turned anyone away hungry. She was a superb cook and any tramp could be sure of a good meal, but she did require that he do some work for it, if only to chop some wood. Perhaps she believed with St. Paul that "If any will not work, let him not eat." (2Thes. 3:10) Henry I was a tall, extremely thin man, heavily bearded. Once, he asked his daughter, Lina, to trim his beard. Having never seen her father clean-shaven, she slashed into his beard in such a way that he had to completely remove it. The next day, when he went to the local precinct to vote, none of his neighbors in Johnsfield recognized him! (A family picture in the possession of his granddaughter, Eleanor, is an excellent likeness of him. It also shows that Minnie, in middle age, was a short, very stout woman, wearing long, full skirts covered partially by the inevitable big white apron.) Henry I was also quite deaf, but Minnie maintained that he always managed to hear whatever he was not supposed to hear! His granddaughter, Eleanor, remembers that he attempted to teach her German, that he was skilled in tying sailors' knots, and that he invented a mousetrap which would catch mice without hurting them! Henry I, at age 76, passed away November 15, 1914 at the farm home of his daughter, Lina SONSMITH DEMUN, near Standish. The cause of death was dropsy and heart failure. Burial was near his wife, Minnie, in Woodmere Cemetery, Standish, Michigan. |
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Seven
children were born of the marriage: six boys and one girl. Fredrick
(Fred), born March 5, 1866; died March 16, 1879 at age 13. 
