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 twenty 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 September 12, 1855, and received a deed for 120 acres of land in Sand Creek Township. The deed was signed by President Franklin Pierce on November 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.
In 1857, three years after coming to this country, 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, August 1, 1861.
Together, Mathias and Anna 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 1880, after all 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 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 lived 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 two dates and you get over ninety 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 had her first communion at St. Benedict. She was 13 years old, and Father 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 August 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 Father 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 August 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 of Marystown Catholic Cemetery, next to her husband.
Bibliography
John Wolf-Margaret Gerardy Wolf Family Tree.