Appendices
49
DRAFT
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The following blog post has been prepared for submission to the Lutheran Heritage Center & Museum blog in memory of Claus Heinrich Korte who would be 171 years old this year if he were alive. Discussion is included as to why Claus has often been confused with his brother-in-law, Heinrich Cordes.
Researched and written by Dale Kirmse and Lori Adams.
When Claus Heinrich Korte was born on August 10, 1849, in Scheeßel, Lower Saxony, Germany, his father, Hans Korte, was 19 and his mother, Anna Sophia Wahlers, was 25.
In 1881, Claus Heinrich Korte and his family immigrated to Perry County, Missouri, USA.
Claus H. Korte was a farmer from Germany and was travelling with his family to the United States of America aboard the SS Ohio. As shown by the Passenger Manifest of the ship and its transcription, the Korte family were included in the 1195 passengers taken aboard the ship at Bremerhaven, from where they departed on October 5, 1881. After two weeks and one day at sea, they arrived at the Port of New York on October 20, 1881
Note that there is only one child (Margr. age 7) listed on the Ohio ship passenger manifest for the Claus H Korte family. A ship passenger manifest was usually generated at the time the ship left port and sometimes corrections were added at the end of the passenger manifest. However, there were no additions to this passenger manifest.
There is a question as to where their daughter Anna was born. According to the 1900 US Census, Anna Korte was born in Germany, but she is not listed as having immigrated to the USA. However, in the same census record. the rest of the Claus H. Korte family is noted as having immigrated in 1881. And, no documents from Germany have been found to give any information about Anna’s birth or baptism.
Fred Eggers has noted that Anna’s confirmation record shows that she was born October 9, 1881.
If this information is correct, then Anna was born at sea, and could explain the absence of her name on the ship’s passenger manifest as well as in the lack of records in Germany.
Claus Heinrich Korte married Margaretha Cordes in 1873 in Germany. They had three children during their marriage.
FRONT ROW: Claus Heinrich Korte
BACK ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: Anna Christine Korte, daughter of Claus Heinrich and Margaretha (Cordes) Korte; Margaretha Sophia Korte, daughter of Claus Heinrich and Margaretha (Cordes) Korte;Heinrich Mangels Steffens, son of Michael and Hedwig “Hattie” (Katt) Steffens and husband of Margaretha Sophia Korte; Margaretha (Cordes) Korte, daughter of Johann Peter Hermann and Margaretha (Lüdemann) Cordes and sister of Heinrich Cordes
LEFT TO RIGHT: Margaretha Sophia Korte, daughter of Claus Heinrich and Margaretha (Cordes) Korte; Heinrich Mangels Steffens, son of Michael and Hedwig “Hattie” (Katt) Steffens
Margaretha Sophia Korte was b