Rech Family Moves to Indiana

This story comes from the Rech-Freyling Family Story as written by Marie Elizabeth Freyling and passed down to the Freyling family. Earlier in the week I posted from the first page of the story, recounting the arrival of the Rech family in New Orleans in 1854.

We pick up the story with Nikolaus Rech and wife Susanna Euler Rech moving to Vanderburgh County, Indiana.

"Their first home in the New World was in Scott Township, Vanderburg County, Indiana, where on April 1855, Grandfather Nikolaus Rech bought a farm from Richard Lankford for which he paid $1,125. The farm was located on Boonville-New Harmony Road, 12 miles from Evansville and was later the location of the Rescue Mission's Camp Reveal.

On February 20, 1855, a daughter, Susanne was born to them and on April 24, 1861, their son, William Jacob was born. A son, Nicholas, Jr. was born after the birth of Susanne and before the birth of William Jacob. He died in infancy. Their daughter, Karolina Wilhelmina, our mother, was born June 11, 1868.

In December 1868, Nikolaus Rech developed pneumonia, after having taken a load of hay to the market in Evansville and returning home in the empty wagon, was exposed to the extremely cold weather. On December 29, after an illness of two weeks, he died at the age of fifty-three. He was buried on New Year's Day, 1869, in the Salem Evangelical Church Cemetary, Darmstadt, Indiana, of which he and Grandmother Rech were members."

Photo source: Nancy Maurer via Ancestry.com

In the 1860 US Census, the Rech family appears in Scott Township, Vanderburgh County, Indiana.

The following image is of the northern half of Vanderburgh County, showing the location of Scott Township. This comes from the Atlas published by Baskin, Forster & Co. of Chicago in 1876 (Source: David Rumsey Map Collection).

Source: DavidRumsey.com

A present day map of Scott Township shows the location of the original Rech farm, not far from the Oak Meadow Golf Course (my wife and I held our wedding reception at Oak Meadow in 1999).

Scott Township, Vanderburgh County (Rech farm is purple place pin)