Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024
Anna Maria Wolf was born March 8, 1870 in St. Joseph Township, daughter of Mathias Mather Wolf (1835-1925) and Anna Deutsch Wolf (1831-1922.). According to the John Wolf-Margaret Gerardy Wolf Family Tree, Mathias had emigrated to America with his parents and brothers and sisters in the year 1854 when he was 20 years old.
Because of Tettingen’s location close to the Moselle River, many immigrants followed the stream to LeHarvre, France, and left the continent from there. They would have arrived in the port of New York, going overland to Chicago, and on to Galena, Illinois, where they traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Paul. From St. Paul, it would have been on to Shakopee via the Minnesota River and from Shakopee, they walked the distance to St. Joseph Township, carrying all their possessions.
Johann Wolf (Anna Maria Wolf’s grandfather) had declared his intention to become a U.S. citizen on May 19, 1855, and therefore he became eligible to receive homestead land from the government. Under the pre-emption plan, settlers-colonists could purchase surveyed public lands for $1.25 per acre through the government land office. Wolf filed his claim at Red Wing, the land office for Minnesota Territory, on Sept. 12, 1855, and received a deed for 120 acres of land in Sand Creek Township. The deed was signed by President Franklin Pierce on Nov. 1, 1856, in Washington, D.C.
The land that Johann and Marguerithe Margaret Gerardy Wolf settled on was hilly with heavy clay soil and covered with trees. Before the family could farm, the members had to clear the trees, and they used the wood for erecting farm buildings. Johann and Margaret saw their children marry – John Jr. to Magdelina Ruppert; Mathias to Anna Deutsch; Peter to Frances Kerrer; Frank to Mary Meyer; Margaret to Matt Hennen: and Katherine to John Deutsch.
It was in 1857, three years after coming to this country, that Mathias took Anna Deutsch as his bride. She had come to America from Besch, Germany, in 1855, with her parents, five brothers, and one sister. Anna’s parents, John and Mary Deutsch, had settled nearby in Helena Township. The couple was married at St. Joseph where the parish had just been established and was without a formal church structure. In fact, it was John Wolf, Peter Ruppert, and Wilhelm Budde who donated the land for the eventual church building and cemetery of St. Joseph.
The pair turned to farming like their parents and ancestors, buying a 100-acre parcel in Helena Township. The papers were filed at the land office in Henderson and signed by President Abraham Lincoln, Aug. 1, 1861.
Together, Mathias and Anna Deutsch Wolf did their full share of subduing the Scott County wilderness and converting the woods into fertile fields. After Mathias’s father died in 1873, the couple shared their home with Mathias’s mother until her death from pneumonia in 1885.
In the 1880, after all their nine children were born, Anna and Mathias sold their farm and moved to one near St. Benedict. The couple became active in the church and school of St. Benedict, and it was in 1887, when the present church was built, that Mathias joined his neighbors in donating the labor to raise the structure.
Eight of the couple’s children married and struck out on their own. The children and spouses included: John and Mary Haus; Margaret and Michael Beckius; Mathias Jr. and Rosalia Koelzer; Peter and Catherine Cenzius; Frank and Frances Schloesser; Anna and Andrew Busch; John Michael and Sophia Pranke and Helen and Andrew Busch and Anton Scheffler. Their daughter Mary, second youngest child, died at the age of 27.
The couple watched with pride as their children grew to be respected citizens in their communities. In 1905 they lived with son Frank and family, according to the census but the children of Frank’s stated that their grandparents never lived with them.
Perhaps they were visiting the day the census was taken. At the time of their deaths in 1922 and 1925 Mathias and Anna were living with their son Michael and his family on Michael’s farm. (Both Mathias and Anna’s death certificates have wrong information on them. It is stated that Mathias was 79 years, 11 months and 13 days and buried in New Prague. The birth and death dates are correct so subtract the 2 dates and you get over 90 years old. Also, Mathias is buried in St Benedict as the stone marker is there. On Anna’s death certificate, it is stated that her father’s name is John and it should have been Mathias.)
In 1883, Anna Maria Wolf had her first communion at St. Benedict. She was 13 years old, and Fr. Asimirus Hueppe, O.S.F., was the pastor. In May 1893, she married Andreas Andrew H. Busch (1869-1947) who was born in Sand Creek Township Aug. 17, 1868, son of Henry Busch (1837-1919) and Anna Maria Roentgen (1841-1886). According to the John Wolf- Margaret Gerardy Wolf Family Tree, Andrew was a well-known Marystown farmer and retired in Jordan. The witnesses for marriage were Peter Busch and Lena Wolf, and the priest was Fr. Pulthoff.
Anna and Andrew had several children: Florian Henry; Julian; Hildegarde; Bertha M.; Francis; Alphonse M.; Alice; Rosetta; Loretta Rosalia; Elmer John; and Emma.
Andreas Andrew Busch died March 17, 1947 in Jordan, and was buried at the cemetery in Marystown. Anna Maria Wolf Busch died Aug. 19, 1958 at age 88 in Sand Creek Township. The service was at St. John’s Catholic Church in Jordan, and Anna was buried at St. Mary’s Purification Catholic Cemetery in Marystown, next to her husband.