Rambows in Germany

Henry Rambow II, son of Henry I and Elizabeth Miller (Moeller) Rambow, was of a family of seven children, Henry, Hannah, William, Charles and their little sisters who died in infancy.

Henry Rambow II served Germany in the Six Weeks War in 1866. He also served in the Franco-Prussian War from 1870-71.

Mrs Wilhelmine Milhan Rambow, daughter of John and Marie Miller Milhan, was of a family of five children, Wilhelmine, Frederick, Fredericka, William and Christopher.

On Sunday, April 5, 1874, Grandmother Milhan attended church in her usual good health. After church, she was bidding her many friends and neighbors goodby and telling them of her plans to leave soon for America with her son-in-law, Henry Rambow and his wife, Wilhelmine, and her other three children, Fredereka, William and Christopher.

But, fate proved otherwise for on that same day, she was taken ill which proved fatal and she passed away on April 10, 1874.  With sad and heavy hearts they laid her to rest on April 12, 1874 at Mecklenburg, Germany.

This left Fredareka, William and Christopher motherless and homeless which made Wilhelmina’s bereavement much harder to bear. Being the eldest made her responsible for her brothers and sisters.  The help of her kind and loving husband made her task much lighter.

On the 13^th day of April, 1874, they, together with their two children, Frederick and Bertha, left their hometown of Mecklenburg, Germany for Hamburg, Germany. They arrived there on the 14^th of April.

On the following day, April 15, bidding their home country goodbye, they boarded the ship, Thuringia, to sail for America. They were on the water for eleven days and encountered several bad storms on the ocean. They landed at Castle Garden’s, New York on April 26, 1874 and stayed in New York one day.

The family traveled by train from New York to Monroe, Michigan, arriving on May 4, 1874. They lived in Monroe for a short time before moving to Dundee Township. In March, 1892, they moved on the pleasant farm home in Raisinville Township where our mother with her youngest son and daughter now reside.

Piecing together the narrative of how the Rambows came to America is drawn from several sources. These notes from Caoline (Weilnau) Rambow who was the wife of Fred Rambow, the eldest child of Heinrich and Wilhelmina Rambow.

One person who is not mentioned in the narrative above is Carl Christian Johann Frederick Martin Milhan who went by the name of Fred. He was the next younger brother of Wilhelmine Rambow and settled in Raisinville Township a mile or so from the home farm of Heinrich and Wilhelmine. From a newspaper article about Fred when he reached 100 years of age, it would appear that he came to America in 1873 a year before his sister and brother-in-law. Fred would have been 24 years old at the time.

Wlhelmine Rambow's mother, Marie Sophia Frederike (Möller) Milhan died at the age of 57. Wilhelmina's sister Fredareka was 19 and her brothers William and Christopher were 16 and 11 respectively when they emigrated to America.

Caroline Rambow had a reading given her at Adrian, Michigan by Madame Ellis concerning the whereabouts of Uncle Crist Milhan. She said that “he had been gone a good many years and he had died overseas many years ago.”  But, it did not come clear enough to tell just where he was buried.

On November 30, 1922, one of the most pleasant events occurred at our mother, Mrs. Wilhelmine Rambow’s, place, it being her 75^th birthday anniversary. The occasion was a joyous one as all of her sons and daughters and their wives and husbands were there except Fredaricke and Herman Heiden who were greatly missed.

Although she has passed her 75^th milestone in life, there were none more pleased and younger in heart than mother and some tokens of remembrance were left to remind her that her children were brought up to love her. We hope she may live many years yet to celebrate those golden days. A fine dinner was served at noon.