General Notes

     John Peter Fengel II and his wife, Anna Margaret, were born near Deutenhofen, Germany, and lived there until their emigration to the United States in 1843.  Their reason for leaving Germany was to insure the exemption from military service of their sons, so abhorrent to them was the idea of war.  So in the spring of 1843, at Pentecost, with their four children, they set forth from Darmstadt to Gernsheim in a wagon. From Gernsheim they traveled by steamer, going down the Rhine.  While at sea, their sailing ship encountered severe storms, causing them to be 54 days upon the water.  At one point of the journey the captain of the ship noticed that there were sharks following close to the boat and said, "There must be someone dead on the ship."  He searched and found a mother carrying a dead baby in her arms, wrapped in a blanket.  He took the baby from her and tossed it into the Atlantic Ocean.  After that occurred they did not see any more sharks.  In the final days of the voyage their food supplies ran so low that they only ate one meal a day.  Finally, they landed in New York instead of Baltimore as they had originally planned. Upon arriving in New York, they went directly to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to visit some relatives.  Then they continued their journey westward as far as Burlington, Iowa.  They remained here a short time and then moved into the country, some ten miles west of Burlington and near the little town of Danville, where they purchased some land and established their home.
     According to family legend, the name of " Fenchel " was changed to it's current spelling of " Fengel " over an inheritance dispute.  There was old law in Germany, that when the father died leaving an estate, all of the estate fell into the hands of the eldest son, who then divided the estate as he saw fit.  There were two Fenchel brothers, and the younger brother felt that he did not get his fair share, so he changed the spelling of his name to "Fengal".  The word fengel ( fennel in English ) is the name of a plant used in making yeast.  The Fenchels had been bakers for several generations.
     It has also been mentioned that Johann Peter Fenchel II and his wife Anna Margaretha were "closer related that first cousins are".  It may be noted that her father is listed as Peter Fenchal and her mother as Maria Magdalena Kratz, but that Anna Margaretha was registered by her mother's maiden name.  It may also be noted that Kratz was the maiden name of Johann Peter II's mother, as well.

     INFORMATION SOURCES: Genealogical Records of Patricia Wade Riebel and Martin I. Shields
     Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1915-1918, by Clara M. Fengel-Shields
     Parish Records of the Lutheran Church at Deutenhofen, Germany, translated by M.I. Shields