Steinberger Family

 

 

Church in Johannesburg, Germany

John George Steinbachor was born in Bavaria, Germany on 7/31/1771.
He married Anna Maria Gorg, daughter of Christian Gorg and Magdalen Leitsinger Gorg  on 7/15/1815. This may be the church where they were married. He had a first wife, Catherine Elizabeth Eisert. I do not have any dates for her.

 

Village of Johannesberg, probably similar to how it looked 200 years ago.

History passed on in the family, I have not yet verified: J. George followed Napoleon for 20 years and was wounded at Marengo, Austria. He was a very tall man, a farmer and village wagon-maker. He had a brother, John.

According to Ignatius' "Samuel" obituary: John George (J. George) and Anna Maria's son Ignatius was born in Johannesberg on 7-28-1831. They came to the US and settled in Baltimore, MD in 1836 when Ignatius was 5 years old. They heard that Jackson County IN was a great place to live and they  moved on to Madison in Jackson County, "the most promising town in Indiana". J. George engaged in mercantile pursuits there.

J. George Steinbacher and Anna Mary Steinbagmer gravestone in Madison Indiana
(Not sure why hers is spelled this way)

Son of J. George: At the age of 13, Ignatius started as an apprentice at J. M. & L. Machine Shop in Madison. He was a pioneer to the railroad work, traveling to Cincinnati to learn drafting and then rising to master mechanic for the railroad. The Irish workers could not pronounce his name so he changed it to Samuel. The Irish workers were experts at using dynamite to blast through the rock for the railroad.

 

Ignatius "Samuel" Steinberger married Catherine Schnell.

12/18/06: I visited Rosemary Cleveland today. She is the daughter of Clara M Steinberger Prenatt, who was the daughter of Sam and Catherine Steinberger.
Rosemary lives in Indianapolis, at St Augustine, where she has lived for 20 years.
She thanked me many times for coming and said she wanted me to stay all day, and asked me to come back as soon as I could. For 97 years old, she is doing really well. The only medicine that she takes is for blood pressure and we had a good conversation about family history, places, etc..

I showed the photo of Rosemary and her sister (above) with their Grandmother Catherine and she said that Catherine learned to speak English but she would lapse into German or a mix of German and English. She said her Grandmother was very sweet and it was a huge trip to Madison back then but they did ride the train and visited once in a while. It was always a big family party when they went, they all had such fun together she said.
 

The 4 boys of Samuel and Catherine:
John, Leo, Sam and Joe

When Joseph Steinberger was born, Rosemary said that Catherine handed him to her mother, Clara, and told her that it was her job to take care of Joe. Clara was very partial to him, Rosemary said they all loved Uncle Joe. Her mother and Joe wrote back and forth when he was in Washington and they always stayed in touch.

The 5 girls of Samuel and Catherine Steinberger:
Kate, Josie, Mary, Helen and Clara

I thought Rosemary may be able to tell me who the 5 women are in the photo are. (scanned from Georgene). When I asked Rosemary about it, she reached around on a shelf by the TV and pulled out a matching photo!
This is Joseph Steinberger's sisters! Top left is Kate top right is Josie, the center is the one that moved to Terre Haute, Mary McNellis, bottom left is Helen and bottom right is Clara, who was Rosemary's mother. She said that the sister in the center was Sam's  favorite and when she got into a disagreement with her father about getting married, he would not talk to her and she married and moved to Terre Haute. She said that this sister did fine and did not care as much as it hurt her father; that he was not the same after that.
 

Joseph Steinberger, son of Ignatius, husband of Bertha Zapp Steinberger

 

 

 

Bertha (Zapp) Steinberger and children:

Mary Lou, Kathryn, Bertha Cecelia, George, Frank, Bertha Claire

 

 

Josephine Bumen Steinberger

 

 

 

Mary Louise Steinberger Werner 1931 - 2006