THE TRAPP FAMILY Michel Trapp or John Michael Trapp II (m. Maria Anna Friedmann) Anton Trapp (m. Franciscka Elizabeth Back) George Buselmeier (m. Maria Anna Deuft) Joseph Trapp (m. Caroline Buselmeier) Odelia Trapp Settles (m. Emmett Settles) Helen Carolyn Settles (m. Frank M. Stephens) Mary Margaret Stephens (m. Cyrus S. Eaton, Jr.) Cyrus, John (m. Beth Ferree), Cathy (m. Michael Murphy), Elizabeth Eaton Colin (m. Nicole Cornwell) and Devon Murphy
ANTON TRAPP AND FRANCISKA BACK (parents of Joseph Trapp) MATERNAL GREAT-GRANDPARENTS OF HELEN C. SETTLES Anton Trapp (born April 14, 1793) and Franciscka Elizabeth Back are the parents of Joseph Trapp. They were married on January 8, 1817 in Unzhurst, Rastatt, Baden-Wurttemberb, Germany. It is likely they lived in Baden Baden Germany. According to Keitt Wood, Anton’s father was John Michael Trapp II (September 5, 1754 to November 7, 1805). Anton’s mother is Maria Anna Friedmann from Zell, Baden, Germany.
Michel Trapp (born in 1754 and died on November 17, 1805) is possible father of Anton.
GEORGE BUSELMEIER & MARIA ANNA DUFT (parents of Caroline Buselmayer MATERNAL GREAT-GRANDPARENTS OF HELEN C. SETTLES Georg Buselmeier(Busalmayer) (1794-1869) and Maria Anna Duft, (born in 1799) are the parents of Karolina Busalmayer, the wife of Joseph Trapp. She was born in Nordwell, Emmendingener Landkreis, Baden-Wuttemberg, Germany and christened on September 5, 1818. It is possible they migrated to the US between 1855-1857. She had a sister, Maria Anna Trapp born in 1821. Karolina had other siblings: Ignatz Hennsie and Barbara Disch, Franz Xaver Buselmayer, Saver Buselmayer, Veronica Buselmeyer, Rosa Buselmaayer, Juliana Buselmayer, Katharina, Maria Anna Buselmayer, Severine Buselmeyer, August Buselmeyer, Georg Buselmeier died on August 10, 1869 in Colchester, Illinois.
JOSEPH TRAPP AND CAROLINE BUSELMEIER MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS OF HELEN CAROLYN SETTLES Joseph Trapp was born in 1820 in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany on March 29, 1820. Joseph Trapp married Carolyn Buselmeier who was born in Baden, Germany on September 5, 1829 in Baden, Germany. It is likely that Georg Buselmeier, emigrated with his family to North America between 1855-1857. "Mrs. Caroline Trapp, widow of the late Joseph Trapp, died at the family home, 930 Maine street, in this city yesterday morning at 11:30 o'clock, death being due to senility [old age.] She had been confined to her bed for the past fortnight.Mrs. Trapp was one of the city's pioneer German citizens, having resided here since 1855, a period of fifty-eight years. During her life in Qunicy, she had been a faithful member of St. Boniface church, and was one of its most active workers, as long as her health would permit.She was born in Nordweil, Baden, Germany, September 5th, 1828. She is survived by six children: Anton Trapp, John Trapp, Mrs. Veronica Vollbracht, Mrs. August Kientzle, Mrs. E. Settles, and Mrs. J. B. Gillespie.- The Quincy Daily Whig, Sunday, March 30, 1913; page 4.
JOSEPH TRAPP AND CAROLINE BUSELMEYER: SHIP’S PASSAGE, In the 1800s, Germans suffered from unfavorable weather conditions that caused food shortages which made the price of food skyrocket. With a continually increasing population, some areas experienced devastation. When sons did not inherit the ancestral farm to support themselves and their families, emigration was one way out. Huge numbers fled Baden, Germany, hoping for better work opportunities and wages in America to support their families.
Before emigrating to the US, Joseph Trapp would have had to travel from Baden Germany to Le Havre, a port city on the eastern coast of France. This was a distance of 536 miles, but the passport controls were not so strict here as they were elsewhere. Some of the journey might have been by boat on the Rhine River. In the 1830s the passage to America cost was 120-150 francs. Passengers often had to wait weeks before boarding n a ship. In 1852, 45,000 Germany immigrants sailed from Le Havre to America.
Joseph Trapp at 26 was a passenger on the “Charles Hill,” which left Havre and arrived in New Orleans on May 31, 1852. The trip on a wooden sailing ship crowded with emigrants took about a month, sometimes seven or eight weeks. Caroline (age 25) with Anna Buselmeyer (nine months old) arrived on the “Mulhouse”) on April 24, 1854 two years later. Joseph Trapp married Caroline Buselmeier the less than a month later on May 16, 1854 New Orleans. Emigrants were required to bring equipment on board, such as eating utensils, bedding in form of straw sacks and some food items.
MARRIAGE, CHILDREN, NEW ORLEANS New Orleans, situation on a bend of the Mississippi, was the most significant city of Louisana. It was founded by the French and ruled by the Spanish for over forty years. The United States bought it in the 1803 Louisana Purchse. Major battles in the war of 1812 and the Civil War were fought there. After living in New Orleans, he traveled over 800 miles to Quincy, Illinois in 1854 just before the Civil War. Starting in the 1840s, many Germans flocked to Quincy. The couple had eight children: Josephine Trapp (1855-Unknown), Marie J Trapp (1856-Unknown), Veronika Trapp (1858-1931), Anton Trapp (1861-1939), Frances Magdeline Trapp (1863-1946), John A. Trapp (1866-1932), Rose Trapp (1869-Unknown), Odelia Trapp (1871-1941).
BACKGROUND OF GERMAN IMMIGRANTS COMING TO QUINCY, ILLINOIS & ST. BONIFACE PARISH “Quincy sits on the banks of the Mississippi River. For centuries the site was home to Sauk, Fox and Kickapoo Native American tribes. Quincy’s earliest 19th century settlers were primarily from New England, Yankees who moved west in a continuing search for good land. They brought a culture of progressive values, such as support for public education. In the 1840s they were joined by a wave of German immigrants, who left Europe after the Revolutions in German provinces. The new residents brought with them much needed skills for the expanding community.” (Quincy, Past & Present) Perhaps the revolutions in Germany precipitated the Buselmeier family and the Trapp family’s move to New Orleans. In 1849 the Prussian Army arrived in Baden, Germany, to maintain order against the insurgents. (Revolutions of the 1948-European History- Encylopoedia Britannica).
“Quincy grew rapidly as a river town with the increase in steamboat traffic in the 1850s and became an important shipping point and stop for travelers. Because of the city’s proximity to Missouri (a slave state), the issue of slavery created much political controversy. Quincy was a part of the Underground Railroad (a system by which slaves were assisted in escaping to the North and to Canada). The city declined with the passing of the steamboat era in the 1870s, but after 1920 industrial development stimulated its growth.” In 1860, 25,000 people inhabited the city.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
“As Quincy's German population grew in the middle to late 1800s, so did the number of German churches and parochial schools. By 1870, there were 13 German churches, most of them in the southwest area of Quincy that became known as “Calftown,” “Herford Meadow” and “New Bielefeld.” St. Boniface was the first Catholic church in town and offered daily German Masses. St. Boniface also started Quincy's first parochial school. German was taught in the school, along with English.” (“Quincy’s 175th Anniversary”, Herald Whig, Nov 15, 2015)
JOSEPH TRAPP’S CAREER: Joseph Trapp made his living as a tailor. In the 1866 Quincy City Directory, it was recorded that Joseph Trapp Tailor Shop and residence was at 256 Maine on 3 W Tenth in Quincy, Illinois. He lived at 256 Maine Street in 1861. In 1869, he lived at # 156 Quincy Ward 5 in Adams, Illinois, and his occupation was listed as merchant tailor. At that time he was 49 and had five children.
In 1863, Joseph Trapp, age 43, of Quincy Illinois is registered in the Civil War Draft Registration Records.
In the 1870 census, Caroline was listed as keeper of the house, and Joseph was listed as Merchant and Tailor. Veronica, Anton, Frances, John, and Rosa Trapp were living with their parents. His personal estate was valued at $400, and his real estate was valued at $2500. Later in 1873 his home and tailor shop was located on 930 Maine Street in Quincy, Illinois. In 1880, they lived at 222 North Seventh Street, and Odelia (Adelia) had joined the family. Joseph was 60 years old. He continued to live there until 1887. In 1895, his will was probated on January 30, 1896, in Adams County Court, Illinois. He died on October 4, 1895. The will online is illegible.
Joseph Trapp worked as his tailoring trade until shortly before his death. In The History of Adams County, Illinois, it was recorded that his sons Anton Trapp was a laborer on 202 N. 5th. Their home was near Washington Park a few blocks from the Mississippi River. John Trapp was a tailor on 930 Maine in Quincy. His shop was a few blocks from St. Boniface Cemetery, where family members were buried. In a book called Past and Present of the City of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois by William Herzog Collins, Cicero F. Perry on page 249, it lists Anton F. Trapp and John A. Trapp as sellers of Wall Paper and Window Shades. An A Trapp of Peoria, Illinois (123 First Street) was a member of the General Executive Board of Tailors according to The Tailor: Official Organ of the Journeymen Tailors’ National in 1897-1899. The trade of tailoring was a lucrative and necessary trade in this era before the production of readymade clothes. “The word “tailoring” means “the art of cutting” in many languages, and indeed, it is the cut of the fabric that makes a garment fit the body to perfection. “A tailor’s skill in measuring an individual’s body and making a pattern from those measurements determines how well a garment fits. Tailors made clothes for both men and women. Shirts, stockings, hats, and capes were ready made, but coats, weskits, breeches, stays, and gowns were custom made for individuals. So, no matter what a person’s social or economic status, everyone was a potential customer of a tailor. … Women’s clothes made by tailors included stays, riding habits, Jesuits, Brunswicks, and hoops, but the real bread and butter of the tailoring trade was in the making of men’s coats, weskits, and breeches. Tailors also made cloaks, Newmarkets, hunting coats, great coats, wrapping gowns, and banyans – a type of loose-fitting coat with origins in India – which men often worn at home, or in a tavern or gentlemen’s club. In the sultry weather of Virginia, the banyan served as a comfortable replacement for tight fitting clothing men normally wore. Colonial tailors also made Sherryvallies – overbreeches made of cotton, linen, brown denim, or leather that buttoned from knee to hip. These utilitarian breeches protected a man’s finer clothing from dust, dirt, and horse sweat.” (Colonial Williamsburg website) JOSEPH TRAPP’S DEATH AND BURIAL Joseph Trapp passed away on October 5, 1895 at age 75 at his home, 930 Maine Street, Quincy, Illinois of Asthma. All the family were at his bedside when he passed away; Mrs. F. Volbracht, Mrs. Gustave Kinzle, Anton F, and John Trapp of Quincy, Illinois, Mrs. James Gillespie of Cairo, Illinois, and Mrs. Emmet V. Settles of Hannibal Missouri. This event was reported in The Quincy Daily Herald on October 7, 1895 on the front page. Joseph Trapp is buried at Saint Boniface Cemetery in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois; the plot is Block 2-Lot22, Kientzle-Trapp. Memorial ID is 124589224
CAROLINE BUSELMEIER TRAPP’S DEATH After Joseph died, Caroline became a landlady. Still living on 930 Main Street. Caroline Buselmeier passed away on March 29, 1913, seventeen years after her husband died. She is buried at the Saint Boniface Cemetery in Quincy, Illinois, sharing a headstone with her husband. It is likely the Trapp family attended St. Boniface Catholic Church.
In 1893 outside of Quincy, Illinois their youngest daughter, Odelia Trapp married Emmett Vincent Settles from Hannibal, Missouri.