Struckman, Haase, Goodpaster, Block
Contributed by Bobbie Smith
On 26 Dec 1855 a family of Struckman stepped off the Von Stein in NY NY. Those listed for that voyage out of Bremen were: Ludwig age 18 farmer, Friedrich age 20/1 blacksmith, Conrath age 16/3 shoemaker, Heinrich age 29/5 blacksmith, Mina age 27/4, Mary age 24/7, Louise age 14/2, Sophie age 10/3, Christian age 59/6 blacksmith, Dorothea age 50..all from Hanover Germany. All traveled to Ripley Co and by the 1860 census Christian, Dorothea (wife), and son Freidrich were listed. Though we do not know what happened to the other brothers of Freidrich we do know that Freidrich married in 1867 to Dorothea Haase also of Hanover. Together they raised a family of 12 sons and 2 daughters. Some of the descendants of those sons and daughters today still live in and around Ripley Co. Freiderick(sic) and Dorothea along with about 3 of the 12 sons are buried in the old German Lutheran Cemetery in Old Milan. There you will find many of the original German immigrants buried there who came to Ripley in the mid 1800s. You also will notice that there are 5 generations of Struckmans buried there. One son of Fritz(Frederick) and Dorothea was William who died about age 30 before marrying. He was killed in Galena, ILL in 1903 in a train wreck invovling a passenger train and freight train. This was to be his last run before getting married. He was a fireman and well thought of.
Another son buried there was Charles who was hit and killed by a train in Weisburg, IN. The B&O Railroad played a prominant role in this family of "blacksmiths". This family is inter-related thru marriage to the Block, Smith, Hollins, Goodpaster, Wetzler, Croxton, and many many more.