Minnesota Beginnings
and the Root of the Family Tree for all the Minnnesota Durrenbergers
The beginnings of the Allgäu Durrenbergers emigration to America and settlement in Minnesota starts with Gebhard Ignatius Dürrenberger in 1852. By this time Gebhard was already 34 years old and the only member of his family to come to America. His other siblings remained in Germany.
He was born in 1818 in the Rhein parish, Wangen-Primisweiler, Württemberg, Germany. Some records seem to indicate that he was married to a woman named Barbara in Germany. She must have passed away as he travelled to America alone in 1852.
We have not located him on a passenger list but it seems that he might have arrived in New Orleans and travelled up the Mississippi where he ended up farming in the Minnesota River Valley In southern Minnesota.
In 1859 he married Theresia Mueller (Miller), also from Württemberg in Saint Paul and on the 1860 US census, he is enumerated as a farmer in Henderson Township, Sibley County, Minnesota. At this time Henderson was a thriving village of log buildings that represented a point of departure for stage and freight lines taking people from the steamships running up the Minnesota from Saint Paul to Mankato. (ed. note: In the 1860 census he is recorded as Gesh Deermabergen.)
Some time before 1900 Gebhard was living in Le Sueur, Minnesota where he died 29 April 1900. During his lifetime, he and Theresia had nine children and it is from these nine children that all Minnesota Durrenbergers have descended.
The following photo of all the Durrenberger children was take about 1920 shortly after the death of Theresia in 1919.
The children of Gebhard and Theresia Dürrenberger.
Back Row: Theodore N. Durenberger, August 'Gus' Durrenberger, Gephardt Durenberger, II, Anton Durrenberger, Joseph Paul Durenberger
Front Row: Maria 'Mary' Durrenberger, Magdalena 'Lena' Durrenberger, Theresa Durrenberger, Rose Margaret Durenberger
It's interesting to note that some of the children spell their surnames as Durenberger (one r). It is believed there was a dispute in the family that caused some to drop an 'r'.