1868 Amandus & Francisca emigrate to America

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Amandus and Francisca's passage from Canada to United States of America 

About 1868 or 1869 Amandus, Francisca and their ten children made their way from Ontario, Canada to the small farming community of Lena, Illinois.

There were many German speaking people in the vicinity and one hypothesis offers that some earlier immigrants from the St. Agatha area had informed them of the opportunities in this region. This information motivated their move to Lena, Illinois; located just northwest of Freeport in the northwest corner of Illinois.

It is believed that the Studers were accompanied on their journey by Franciscas' cousin, Aurelia (Heaner) (she was an adopted child) Dietrich and her husband Nazarus Hoffer, along with their children. Nazarus had also been a cobbler in St. Agatha and the two families were very close. After the move to Lena, the Studers made a change in their lifestyle and began farming. 

Four of the Studer children were married during the time period that the family lived in Lena. August married Mary Margaret Paul and his sister Mary (Maria Agatha) married Mary Margarets brother, Peter Paul. Ignatius also married during this time period. There must have been quite a path trod between those two households. Theresa married a gentleman named George Spengler, who evidently had no sisters. Joseph married someone he had undoubtedly know most of life, Catherine, the daughter of Nazarus and Aurelia Hoffer. They were married on January 21, 1872. 

Perhaps it was the promise of greener pastures or simply wanderlust, but after approximately five years the Studer and Hoffer families undertook another move. In the year 1873 or 1874 they moved to the Ackley, Iowa area and resumed farming. 

Ackley is located midway between Waterloo/Cedar Falls and Fort Dodge in central Iowa. This time the move did not include the entire family as Mary, Theresa and their husbands remained in the Lena and Freeport areas. Records show that Amandus' son Joseph owned a farm in Ackley and that five of his children were born while living there. Very little else is know about the life of the two families during the eight or nine years that they farmed this part of Iowa. 

For reasons unknown the two families of German speaking French pioneers moved themselves, once again, West. About 1882 they arrived in the Wesley and St. Benedict, Iowa area. These two small farming communities are located west of Mason City near Algona in northcentral Iowa. It was here, in the midst of some of the most glorious farm land on the planet, that the families settled on a mostly permanent basis. The remainder of Amandus and Franciscas' children married and settled in the Wesley, Corwith and St. Benedict areas.

Amandus and Francisca are listed as residing in Kossuth county on the 1895 Iowa census. [Iowa 1895 Census. Family History Library microfilm number for: Kossuth county, number 1022070].

Read Amanuds Sr.'s Obituary  ---  Read Francisca's Obituary