Miami-Erie Canal User & Pioneer Liwwät Böke 1807-1882 - Dave’s Midwestern Ohio Memories

A Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s.

Miami-Erie Canal User & Pioneer Liwwät Böke 1807-1882

Continuing our series of Miami-Erie canal stories, notable canal users were Natz and Liwwät (nee Knapke) Böke during their separate trips to the United States from Germany in 1833 and 1835 respectively. The map above shows their route along the Ohio River and up the canal to the point where it was completed. Natz and Liwwät were engaged to be married, so Natz came first to find low-cost land, which after a six-month trip he found near St. John, now Maria Stein, in Mercer County. Once land was acquired, Natz send a message to Liwwät that took another six months to arrive.

During her preparations and travel to join Natz, Liwwät kept a diary with detailed sketches. Those records in the Low German dialect of the northern region of Germany where the couple originated were discovered in the mid-1970’s by their great grandson Vincent Boeke, who translated it to English and had it published by the Minster Historical Society. The information and sketches included in this blog entry are from the diary. Note especially Liwwät’s Low German script and Vincent’s English translation on each sketch. As an example, refer to the couple's packing list below.

Both lived on farms in the Neuenkirchen region, near Hannover, Germany. Since Natz’s older brother, according to custom, was to eventually inherit the family farm, Natz & Liwwät decided to venture to the New World for access to low cost land. Their separate travels, first by Natz, followed more than a year later by Liwwät, took them by wagon to Bremen near the North Sea where a wooden sailing boat was boarded destined for Baltimore, MD in the US. From there, a covered wagon was ridden over the Appalachian Mountains to Wheeling, WV, where a flatboat (as shown in the sketch below) was sailed down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Miami-Erie canal in Cincinnati. Early in 1835, Natz returned from St. John taking the canal boat south to meet up with Liwwät in Cincinnati as she was coming down the Ohio with their belongings. They were immediately married there, after having been apart for almost two years.

Returning to St. John with all their belongings was a challenge, because the Miami-Erie canal was only partially completed by that time. As a result, there were occasional portages required as depicted in the following sketch.

After Natz and Liwwät arrived in St. John, a few acres of land were quickly cleared to build a log cabin and some livestock pens, which also provided tillable space for a few crops and a small garden. Up until that time, Natz had been living in a lean-to shack on the property. The sketch below depicts their new homestead.

Liwwät and Natz raised a family in St. John as shown in the sketch below. He died in 1857 at age 57 of complications after falling from an oak tree and she died in 1882 at the age of 75. Both are buried in the parish cemetery in St. John (Maria Stein).

Liwwät’s diary is one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read. It chronicles the life of an extraordinary women filled with determination, faith and love. Pick up or order a copy on-line from the Minster Historical Society.