Friedrich Conrad Strohmeier

• Birth Notes
  • Friedrich Conrad Strohmeier was born June 10, 1825 in the town of Pollhagen, Germany.  He was the 2nd son of his fathers first marriage, and the third child.  He was christened two days later of June 12.
    
    His father was:
        Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Strohmeier born in the town of Ilse a short distance.
    
    His mother was:
        Ernstine Philippine (nee Sthlhuths) born in Pollhagen.  She wass 22 years of age.
    
    His Godfater was:
        Friedrich Christian Bartles, a relative from Pollhagen, age 54.

• General Notes
  • The year was 1861.  Conrad and Philapena Strohmeier came to the United States.  It is almost certain they came across the ocean on a sailing ship as it was in the late 1870's and early 1880's before crossing were made by the first steamers.  They came to the Fort Russell area probably at the invitation of F.G. Stahlhut, who came to America several years earlier, from the same area of Germany.
    Conrad applied for and received a land grant from the United States government.  Parts of this original land grant was still in use by some of the Strohmeier family as late as the 1950's.
    Conrad and Philapena had no children so in the year 1866, he asked his brother in Germany to send on os his sons to America.  Henry Strohmeier was 11 years of age when he came to live with his uncle and aunt in Fort Russell Township.
    Also, in the year 1866, Conrad became a newly naturalized American citizen.  His "good moral character" was vouched for by his friend F. Gottlieb Stahlhut.
    In 1881, Conrad and three friends, F.G. Stahlhut, Gustave Stahlhut and Henry Brockmeier, made a trip back to Germany for a three month visit.  In September of the same year, they returned to America and this time on a steamship, the Hapsburg, one of the first steamers to carry Atlantic passengers.  A group of young men returned with them and amound them was Gottlieb Strohmeier, another nephew of Conrad's and brother of Henry.  Gottlieb was 19 years of age at the time.
    Conrad could well be termed a successful farmer.  He sold off some of his original land grant and purchased other land he thought more suitable.
    His nephew Henry stayed with him after he married and when Conrad lost his eyesight around 1892, he turned over the farm to Henry.
    Conrad's wife, Philapena, died on January 13, 1900.  She was 73 years, 6 months, and 19 days of age.  Both she and Conrad were born in Pollhagen , Germany.
    Conrad lived only 2 years longer and died of a paralytic stroke on April 10, 1902 at the age of 77 years.  The year of his birth in Germany was 1825.  Both he and Philapena are buried in the St. James Cemetery, 3 miles north of Edwardsville, Illinois.  It was formerly known as the Gardner Cemetery, the older spelling being "Gaertner" after Fred Gaertner who owned the land around the Three Mile House area and donated the land for the cemetery and the first Evangelical Church, which was located just west of the Cemetery.