Family History

   On this page you will find Mary Goddard's brief history of the Lux Family. The pictures below that are from Mary, Lisa, Chis, Jo and Britney's trip to Wassalone, France. This is where Jean Baptiste and Magdalene Margraff lived before they departed to America. With the assistance of a hundred year old faded map, we channeled our Indian Joans, and we found the houses they lived in and the church that they were baptized in (pictures below).

"Why are we stooping to pick up a stone at our feet? Well, family, I must tell you, it is in our blood. My 3rd great grandfather, Jean Rossenbach (1741-1805), was a stonecutter by profession and secretly I am hoping his work is still visible in the many century old buildings still standing in Alsace, France. His son, my 2nd great grandfather, Jean Baptiste (1792-1852), pursued a different profession, a hat maker in Wasselonne Alsace. Jean Baptiste married Magdalena Margraff (1805-1876) in Nov 1820. On 21 Sept 1832, The Rossenbach family of 7 must have had guts and nerves of steel as they departed from Le Havre France on a three mast boat, Havre, for New York. Magdalena gave birth to their 6th child on the Canalboat Alganee while in transit from New York City via the Erie Canal to Buffalo, New York only 14 days after their arrival in the United States.

My great grandfather, Charles Adam (1830-1897), was only 19 months old at the time of the arrival party of our 1st ancestors in America. Charles had 12 siblings, and he matured in the Buffalo, New York area working as a carpenter for a shipbuilding company, fireman for the city of Buffalo, later as a fireman on Great Lakes boats, even one article said he sang in a bar, I know other Rossenbach family members had singing careers. Charles married Wilhelmina Kalsow (1838-1921) Nov. 1856 in Buffalo, New York. Charles purchased 40 acres of land near Seneca, Crawford County, Wisconsin in 1860. He enlisted in the army to fight in the Civil War in 1861 and received an honorable discharge in 1865. In the early 1870s Charles, Wilhelmina and their 6 children traveled by covered wagon the 400 miles to their new farm in Waucapona, Cedar County, Nebraska. My grandmother Elmira/Almira (1872-1917) was the youngest child at the time of the trip. Elmira married Paul Lux (1868-1941), in 1892 at Bow Valley, Nebraska and 6 children were born to the couple, one being my father Melvin Lux (1900-1978). Now is the time to bring the Lux family into the story.

Paul’s parents, John Peter Lux (1833-1902), born in Duppach, Germany and Marie Schneider (1840-1902), born in Schwirzheim Germany, were married in 1861 in Duppach. John was a farmer in the Duppach area until he went into the German Military in 1866-1870. April 1, 1873, John, Marie, Paul and his two older sisters embarked on SS Saxonia for New York arriving on Apr 17th. The Lux family home was a dugout on

their farm in Cedar County, Nebraska. After Paul and Elmira’s marriage in 1892, he followed the Lux tradition of agriculture. The 1904 move to a farm near Lisbon, North Dakota included my dad, Melvin, who was almost 4 years old. The move to the cold climate was due to Elmira’s fatal illness, pernicious anemia, which she endured until her death in 1917. In 1907 the Lux family moved to Oakes/Fullerton, ND about 45 miles or more from Lisbon. Melvin and his siblings attended St. Charles Catholic School in Oakes for their primary education. When Melvin was a teen the Lux family moved to LaMoure County where his mother died in 1917. Melvin married Frances Barta (1908-1993) in Aug 1926. They too, went into farming, raising sheep, cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys along with the various grain crops. They had 10 children to help in the farming experience.

Mom, Frances Barta (1908-1993), born in Nebraska less than 150 miles from where dad was born. It was 1920, when her parents, Frank Barta (1873-1952) and Frances Abraham Barta (1875-1962) moved to their recently purchased farm near Verona, North Dakota. Frank and his wife, Frances had farmed the family homestead in Saunders County and sold it prior to their move to North Dakota. In 1920 and prior, was a time people were more self sufficient; the machinery was simple and easy to repair and it was pulled by horses to tend the land; geese were raised for food and their down for making pillows and winter duvets; home sown clothes; vegetables from their own garden; and animals raised for their meat and milk and poultry was raised for their eggs and meat. Electricity, along with TV was something in the far off future, therefore wood had to be chopped for heat and the cooking stove, and lanterns and lamps provided the light. Since I was born in 1940, most of those hardships were lessen by modernization and are a faint memory or passed on as recounted experiences.

Frank Barta’s (1873-1952), father, Thomas Barta (1840-1920) born in Hradiše Czechoslovakia worked as a blacksmith apprentice eventually earning a journeyman title. In 1866 he married a widow, Anna, who had a daughter, which he raised as one of his own. Thomas and Anna had two children, a boy and a daughter Marie. The Barta family of 5 left for United States in 1872 on Bark Gutenberg and before their arrival in Baltimore, Anna and Marie had both died en route. Marie was buried at sea and tradition is Anna was buried in Baltimore. Thomas married

Marie Masek (1844-1921) in Cleveland, Ohio just 2 months after his arrival in America. To support his family, Thomas worked as a cooper in Cleveland. Marie and Thomas had 5 children, 3 being born in Cleveland, the oldest being my grandfather, Frank, (1873-1952). In the late 1870s the Barta family moved to Nebraska where in 1879 Thomas applied for a homestead in Saunders County, Nebraska, which he farmed till his retirement in the late 1890s.

Frances Abraham’s (1876-1962) father, Anton Abraham (1845-1927) born in Chotebudice Czechoslovakia, to a weaver, Anton Abraham (1813-1848) and his wife Veronica Raczicky. Anton (1845-1927) married Cecilia Maca (1847-1913) about 1872. They left for America in 1875, on the SS Nurnberg manifest, Anton’s occupation was listed as a blacksmith. In 1876 he worked in the smelting works in Omaha, Nebraska with their residence on 14th between Pacific & Pierce, an area known as Little Bohemia. By 1880, the Abraham family were living and working the land on a farm in Butler County. He died in his home in Bruno, Nebraska from stomach cancer at the age of 82. His granddaughter said that Anton gave all his children $6000 when he died in 1927.

Now you know why you love to work the soil, raise various animals, collect rocks, of course cook, bake, sew, sing or play a musical instrument or travel- -it is in your genes." 

            ~Mary Goddard