Katharina Gering, August 7, 1871 to 1874

Shared by Rosie Goering:  A story recently came to light in the “Switzer Salt” a little paper by the Swiss Volhynian ancestry association on Moundridge. It reminded me of a little story. Dad Goering (Johnnie B) was researching dates for his genealogy book in 1979. He wanted badly to find the death date of a small child, Katharina, who was born August 7, 1871 (just about 3 months before the death of her father, Johann (pastor in Kotosufka). We searched all of Hopefield cemetery and did not find that child’s death date. His genealogy and other genealogies were published without a death date. Now new research has brought a new history to light. When the Kotosufka group landed in Peabody in 1874, the group stayed in an “immigrant house” and the men and older boys took a train to Halstead and then walked/rode horses to the current sight of Moundridge to scout out the land and to purchase the land. When they returned with their good news of finding good land, they found that a disease had run through the immigrant house and as many as 17 children died. Many of the dead children were carried to a farm known as the Henry Hornberger farm where there were already a few graves and were buried there. This place is now known as the Catlin Mennonite Cemetery and is some three miles north, then west of Peabody. Seventeen names have been researched, among them “Katharina Gering, August 7, 1871 to 1874″ which is our direct relative. (To keep things in perspective, this little girl would have been an aunt to Johnny B). Of the 17 children all have a death date of 1874. Some have death dates ranging from September 9 to 25. All are under three years of age, except one who was five.
The Swiss association now proposes to place a memorial at the cemetery in Catlin, Kansas. The cost is someplace over $2000. It will have the names of all of the little ones buried here and probably also at Peabody (which had no cemetery at the time). The Memorial Stone will read “In memory of the Swiss Volhynian Mennonite children who died at Peabody on the journey from Russia to Kansas in 1874 and were buried here in September 1874. Those who are buried here are among the following:”
I think Dad Goering would be pleased to know the mystery of the little girl’s death and burial place is solved.
Editor’s note: Dedication of the memorial

See also:  Goering Family History, Part 1, by Jan Regier
See also: Aunt Rosie tells the story