Liwwät Boeke: An Immigrant Story by Linda Harris Sittig

Although this month’s topic is about a strong female immigrant, there is no political agenda intended.

We all know that America was built upon the lives of people who came to our shores either in bondage, indentured or in independently seeking a better way of life. Liwwät’s story is not unusual, except for one thing – she chronicled her entire process from leaving Germany in 1834, to marrying in the United States, and becoming a pioneer wife on the Ohio frontier until her death at age seventy-five.

For almost fifty years, she kept journals, accompanied by her hand-drawn art. Because of her diligence in recording her daily activities, we now have glimpses 185 years later of an immigrant’s life on the American frontier.

Born in 1807 in Oldenburg, in northwest Germany, Liwwät’s father was the younger son and therefore could not inherit the lease rights to the small 15-acre farm where he was born. Even though the family was poor, the local monastery took Liwwät in as a pupil. It was here that she learned to read, write, and draw. Later, she became trained as a midwife.

Her father died in 1828, and under Germany’s feudal system, Liwwät had little hope of rising above her peasant status. America, the land of freedom and opportunity beckoned.

She had hoped to travel with a friend, Natz Boeke, but he left for the German settlement of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1833. Liwwät did not immigrate until 1834. Leaving her home, she walked with a group of people alongside loaded wagons 96 miles through the farmlands to reach the port city of Bremerhaven on the North Sea. She wrote about their slow progress in days of pouring rain, her injured foot, and the houses along the route where they were offered a place to sleep, but not necessarily a bed. Included in her entries are the lists of what each immigrant carried, like knabel (hardtack), extra strumpt (stockings), and a krusifix (crucifix).  

After eight days, they reached Bremerhaven where they waited to book passage. Here, she describes the commotion of strangers and strange customs, of pick-pockets and thieves, and the rough wooden benches piled with straw but no linens on which they slept with their money hidden in their underwear.

Finally arriving in Baltimore, Maryland, she joined a new group of travelers heading west in ox-drawn wagons. As Baltimore receded, Liwwät chronicled each town they walked through on their journey west: Ellicott City, Frederick, Hancock, Cumberland, Frostburg, Grantsville, and then into Pennsylvania.

Each day she records what they ate (often watery soup), where they spent the night (sometimes in barns), how her faith (Catholic) sustained her and how grateful she was for the kindness of strangers; especially those who could converse with her in German.

The group would travel together for 278 miles till they reached the Ohio River at Wheeling, (West) Virginia. There, the wagon masters headed back east and Liwwät’s group traveled by flatboat on the Ohio River, bound for Cincinnati, Ohio, 623 river miles southwest.

Finally, in Cincinnati, Liwwät reconnects with Natz Boeke. They marry, move to the forested, western frontier of Ohio, and begin a new life together.

It is here that we begin to see Liwwät’s personality mature with her midwifery career and her understanding of the difficulties that pioneer women faced. Her entries often detail how she provided advice to young pioneer wives who were struggling in isolation to raise a family, take care of a home, and still be a wife to their husbands.

Liwwät and Natz worked side by side in backbreaking labor clearing 4 acres of forest in 10 months to carve out a home in the wilderness. Liwwät had an extensive list of rules she insisted they follow to preserve their health. Here are a few from 1846:

1. wash hands every time before you hold a child, return from the outhouse, or feed the stock; bathe the entire body with soap every three days
2. only drink fresh spring water and boil even that before cleansing a wound
3. the animals must drink out of their own troughs
4. no animals should sleep in the house
5. no one should ever walk around outside in their bare feet
6. in summer, only drink milk the first day, after that make the milk into cheese
7. men, women, and children should wear hats in summer to keep the sun off their skin
8. all edible plants, fruits, and vegetables should be thoroughly washed before eating
9. avoid stagnant pools of water because of the mosquitos

They built their own house and furniture, while also erecting fences to protect the stock, and full-scale gardening to provide enough food for their family. Liwwät often chronicled her frustration in fighting off the Hessian flies, the black stem rust, midges, weevils, and chinch bugs bent on destroying their crops.

She also proudly recorded that they used manure from the animals to fertilize their fields, now yielding 280 bushels of potatoes per acre.

It was a life of constant hard work. In 1859 Liwwät wrote of her devastation in losing her only daughter at age fifteen. This loss was doubly hard because Natz had died just two years earlier. By age 52, Liwwät had buried both her husband and an almost-grown child.

In her elderly years, she continued to write in the hopes that her children’s children would one day gain some understanding of how difficult life was for immigrants and pioneers. Liwwät then commented on the importance of nurturing the soul with creativity, for humans to be able to express their ideas, images, and facts from the lives they lead.

Little did she know that her words went out this month to over 1,000 blog followers in over 64 countries around the world.

We applaud the efforts of strong women.

Thank you to blog follower Linda Schmitmeyer who sent me numerous pages, copied from Liwwät’s journals.

If you enjoyed this month’s story of an unsung strong woman, please sign up to become a blog follower on the right side-bar. In the meantime, stay posted for when my third strong woman novel, Counting Crows, will be published this fall. The other two, Cut From Strong Cloth and Last Curtain Call are available from Freedom Forge Press, in bookstores, and online.

~ Linda