The Ziegler's
Transcript
Music Introduction
Ranger Jeff: Alright everybody welcome, to the very first episode of Stories from Ste. Genvieve, a podcast put out by Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park. My name is Jeff I’ll be your host today, and with me is one of my colleagues.
Ranger Alex: Hello my name is Ranger Alex, and I am a park guide here, and I will be talking with Jeff a little bit about the Ziegler Family.
Ranger Jeff: Yeah so, we are going to be learning a bit about the Ziegler’s today. So, let's start off with a real basic question, who are the Ziegler’s?
Ranger Alex: Yeah, the Ziegler’s are a large family that moved to Ste. Genevieve in the mid-1820s. And in the family, at least what comes here to Ste. Genevieve, there are at least three brothers; Sebastian, Mathew, and Francis, and one sister Rosine. And for Sebastian, Mathew, and Rosine they also bring their spouses and kids. And when they come here to Ste. Genevieve, they quickly settle into town finding work and making their space within the still growing community here.
Ranger Jeff: Interesting, so we’re learning a little bit more about the background of the family. So, what connection do the Ziegler family have to Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park?
Ranger Alex: The Ziegler family, and that of Mathew Ziegler, are the second and longest residents of the Green Tree Tavern, which is one of the national historical park homes. When the family ended up buying a home here in Ste. Genevieve in 1833, they purchased the Green Tree Tavern, and they will live here for three generations all the way until 1938.
Ranger Jeff: That’s a very long history here in town. So, why did they move to Ste. Genevieve in the first place?
Ranger Alex: While we don’t have the exact written reason of, “ah... yes we are going to Ste. Genevieve for blah blah blah reason.” We can kind of find a few reasons based on other arrivals in the period as to why Ste. Genevieve may have been intriguing for them. One big reason is business opportunities, in the 1820s Ste. Genevieve was very much the hub of a variety of businesses as communities were growing along the Mississippi, and all three of the brothers that do come here kinda find their own space within these businesses. Mathew, the owner of Green Tree, he will end up coming to town and working as a tobacconist, so he processes tobacco into, pipe, cigarettes, cigars, that can be used by residence here; and he also works a merchant with the Valle family. So, he has a store, and he is doing a lot of the mercantilism we see along the river. And then Sebastian, his eldest brother, ends up working as a lead miner, which is something we see a lot of the families of Ste. Genevieve participate in. So, he’ll be a lead miner out in what is today St. Francois County by Bonne Terre. And then Francis, which is Mathew’s little brother, ends up as a farmer. We are starting to see a lot of homesteads in the 1820s so as far as business opportunities go there are plenty of different avenues for the brothers to explore. And then another reason is that of religion the family was all French speaking Catholic. Previously they had been in Florissant, Missouri. When you look at Florissant’s church records, they transition from French to English in the mid-1820s, so they appear to also be chasing a similar religious experience as what they were used to.
Music Interlude
Ranger Jeff: Alright so that was some information on the why that they did move to Ste. Geneiveve. So, where did they come from and why did they end up here in the first place?
Ranger Alex: Yeah, so, the Ziegler family is originally from what is today Germany, from the border region of the Swiss Alps, so pretty close to Switzerland, and a little village called Waldkirke, which means Forest Church. That region of what is today Germany, in the 1800s, was in the midst of a lot of change. It transitioned from being a part of the historic Holy Roman Empire, to becoming a Grand Duchy and just as new Emperors and leaders came and went it was very much between stage. And Germany as a whole was also experiencing that it was starting to explore what Germany would be when they left. And, so, about 1817 the family will end up leaving, what is today Germany, and going to Amsterdam, where they board a vessel called the Ship Hope to Philadelphia. Which was quite an expedition and after six months at sea they will arrive in Philadelphia and from the tail-end of 1817-1820 we don’t know exactly where they end up, but we know come 1820 they are in Florissant. Where they will be until 1826 when they are here in Ste. Genevieve.
Ranger Jeff: Quite the journey, so when they finally made it to Ste. Genevieve, what role did they play in town?
Ranger Alex: So, the family had a couple different roles, each generation kind of played their own role within the community. With the first generation, which worked to establish themselves, you saw them start businesses. Mathew and Sebastian both had businesses within the community. And also serving as patrons for others. So, Mathew and Sebastian through their businesses became tied with numerous affluent families that were already established here, like the Valle’s, the Bolduc’s, the Janis. Through their connections there, they were able to secure a space within the community that allowed them to help welcome other new arrivals. So, in the early years with that first generation of Ziegler arrivals we see numerous documents, especially baptisms, where Sebastian and Francis Ziegler in particular are used as godparents for other new families to the community. The second generation, once the family is established in town, they do something that a lot of the other prominent families do, which is engage in politics. So, we see Francis, which was Mathew’s son, become the census taker. He’s the census taker for several censuses here in town, and then he also serves as a deputy and a sheriff in the community. And then Sebastian’s son, Conrad, actually ends up as a early State Senator in Missouri and is responsible for helping to create counties like Iron County. So, they end up doing a lot of political work to help create and document Missouri as we see it today.
Ranger Jeff: Alright, so, thanks to your research it sounds like we do know quite a bit about the family, but what else do we hope to learn about the Ziegler’s in the future?
Ranger Alex: Yeah, so, with the Ziegler’s there is definitely a lot more on daily life we are hoping to learn. We don’t have a lot on the women of the family and what happened in terms of home management. Especially with Mathew, Mathew Ziegler will end up passing shortly after he acquires the Green Tree Tavern, and leaving the home to his widow Barbara, and she manages the home for almost three decades. So we definitely want to more about what that looked like and how the home was managed. And also the businesses, as I noted, several members of the family are involved in numerous business endeavors. But, in terms of the logs, the ledgers, you know, kind of what space they took up and what they were dabbling in in terms of their merchant spaces we’ve yet to gain access to any of those. So, we’re hoping to see those and kind of see what they were selling and what they were trading and how they were making their money.
Ranger Jeff: Excellent, so for anyone listening out there if they wanted to learn more about the Ziegler’s how would they do that?
Ranger Alex: Yeah, a great way to learn more about the Ziegler’s would be to come and visit us here at Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park and tour the Green Tree Tavern. We do tours daily as long as staffing, weather and all those fun things allow. But in order to come catch a tour all you gotta do is come to the Welcome Center at 66 S. Main Street here in Ste. Genevieve and sign-up. We do sign-ups daily first come first serve, tour are free, but space is limited. So, be sure to get in early if you are really wanting to get on a tour. Hopefully, we will see y’all in the Green Tree Tavern soon.
Ranger Jeff: Alright, so that’s going to be it for today. I want to thank my colleague Alex for sharing that fascinating information about the Ziegler’s. Um and for those listening stay tuned in the future for more episodes.
Music Outro
Join Rangers Jeff and Alex to learn more about the Ziegler family, one of the numerous families tied to Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park.