Robert Was a Quiet Man, Rarely Angry or Excited

Robert DeLang (1857-1931)

A son of immigrants Leberecht Delang and Bitha Nickle.

He was my father’s grandfather.

Robert DeLang, at age 18

Robert DeLang, family man, farmer and shopkeeper

Robert Delang was the son of Leberecht Delang and Bitha Nickle, immigrants from Prussia in 1856. They settled in Lee County, Iowa, near the town of Denmark which is where Robert was born on 30 July 1857, just a few months after their arrival in this country.

Robert was only 12 or 13 when his mother died, sometime in 1870. His older siblings, Mary and Karl were able to get along on their own. But Robert and his almost 2-year-old sister both needed a family to care for them. Lena was reared by a family named Goody. I found her with them in a census in which the census-taker spelled her surname DAY LONG which is the way my grandfather always pronounced it. Robert went to live with friends of his father, Gottfried and Auguste Altmann, who owned a farm close to the Melcher Pottery where his own father worked as a potter.

In the summer of 1872, Robert worked with Gottfried Altmann to build a new house on the Altmann  farm-place, located in Henry County, Iowa, close to the DesMoines County line. The house had four rooms downstairs and two large rooms upstairs, with the house’s second floor extending over a porch that went along the entire east end of the house, eight feet wide.  A huge ban was probably built about the same time, and over time, still more farm buildings were constructed. All the lumber and stone for the buildings came from the farm, hand cut and hauled and assembled by a crew of men who had learned building skills by trial and error or observing older workers. From these men, Robert learned about construction along with farm operations and put those skills to work for the rest of his life.

At the age of 14 or 15, Robert started to work at Melcher’s Pottery Shop and was employed there six years, walking the two miles from home daily.   Part of the time, he drove the Melcher delivery wagon, taking pottery to market, often into Burlington, then buying supplies and returning home--a full day.  One winter day on the homeward trip as dusk came early, he was attacked by wolves.  They could smell the fresh meat he had purchased.  He fought them off, tossing them various things from the wagon, finally his jacket and at last the meat.  He had forced the horses to go at a fast trot, trying to outdistance them and was nearly home with nothing left for the wolves.  His dog heard him coming and came out barking and scared off the wolves. Gottfried was skilled in older farming methods—mowing hay with a scythe, cradling wheat and oats. Much later, after Robert became his son-in-law and farmed with him on increased acreage, Robert persuaded Gottfried to try some of the newer inventions.

Robert DeLang and Paulena Altman were married March 5, 1879. They were nearly the same age, both born in 1857, he on July 30, and she on October 24, and they had lived in the same house from the time they were 12 years old. All their children were born in the house Gottfried and Robert built.

Robert DeLang Family, 1891
The two older children are Laura and Ernest; the baby is Louis.

               Below is a listing of all the children born to Robert and Pauline:

             Laura Augusta, Feb. 1, 1880 - Aug. 21, 1918.

             Ernest Gottfried Leberecht, Jan. 21, 1882 - Dec. 27, 1967.

             Henriette, Dec. 10, 1885 - Sept. 5, 1886.

             Mildred Augusta, Dec. 4, 1887 - Dec. 17, 1887.

             Louis LeRoy, Sept. 5, 1890 - Feb. 11, 1963.

             Myrtle Rose, Nov. 8, 1897 -  Jan.  5, 1990

             Marion Julius, June 4, 1899 - July 10, 1844.

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Robert DeLang Family, 1902
Louis is in the back. Myrtle and Julius are in front.

In 1903, Robert DeLang and the family moved to nearby Lowell, where they operated a general store in the east part of the village for about three years.  He bought a house with a couple of acres on the west edge of the village. The house had three rooms in a row, and each one had a front door. He added to the house for a total of nine rooms. The east room of the original three was Grandpa Gottfried Altman’s room; it had both a front and a back door.

Robert’s wife Pauline died in Lowell on 18 February 1908 after having measles. Gottfried Altman died less than a year later, on January 20, 1909. Two years after Pauline’s death, Robert married Sue Gill, 12 April, 1910. She had kept house for the family part of the time after Pauline DeLang’s death. Born in 1870, she was almost 40, had never been married. She was a good cook, a neat housekeeper, and was kind to the step children she had acquired.  

Robert, called Bob by his Lowell neighbors, had a small farm operation at his Lowell home. He had a barn in which to keep his horse, King, a few pigs and one or two cows. He had a chicken yard and a big garden, bordered by grapes trained on a trellis.

From 1903 until 1916, Robert rented the farm to s series of renters. Then in 1916, his son Louis moved back from living in Arkansas to farm it. Robert would often go out from Lowell to help out. He would drive out to the farm every day in the busy season, always arriving at 9:00 A.M. and leaving for home at 4:00 P.M., knowing almost exactly what time it was, day or night, without looking at a clock, never carrying a watch. He was always punctual, wanted his meals on time, and always got up at 5:30 A.M., summer or winter, without an alarm clock.

On his 60^thbirthday, Robert’s children gave him a Morris chair, a forerunner of today’s recliner, which he greatly enjoyed in his quiet way. Aunt Ruth told us that Grandpa DeLang was temperate in all ways, his only vice being smoking one cigar a week on Sunday afternoon while sitting in that chair.

Robert DeLang died 13 Apr 1931 in Lowell, Henry County, Iowa, and his widow Sue remained in the house there. I remember going with my dad frequently to visit “Grandma Sue,” and among my possessions is a small celluloid doll which she gave to me, which I promptly named Sue. The doll’s dress was a brilliant pink fabric to match the pink bow in her hair.

--genieBev (genealogy Beverly)

For ideas about how to do Family History, visit:

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Pauline’s Treasured Photo Album

Pauline Altman, daughter of Gottfried Altmann

and wife of Robert Delang. 

She was my father’s grandmother.

Pauline Elizabeth Altman (1857-1908)

 I’ve already written about Pauline’s parents and made references to her husband, Robert Delang about whom I will write more in my next blog. In this entry, I’ve decided to write about Lena’s treasured possession, a photo album, which came to me just a few years ago.

In the front of the album is transcribed: "Presented to Lena Altmann for Christmas present. Lowell, Iowa. A date appears which looks like 1889, but since Lena and Robert DeLang married in 1879; perhaps it is 1869.   I hadn't realized she was called Lena. I wonder if Robert called her Pauline or Lena since he had a sister Lena, whose given name was also Pauline. My father and grandfather said her name was pronounced in the German way as if it was spelled Paulina.

My grandfather, Louis LeRoy DeLong, remembered that his mother enjoyed music and played a concertina (a small version of an accordian). Louis was only 17 years old and away at school (Howe’s Academy in Mount Pleasant, Iowa) when his mother died in a measles epidemic. He was devastated by the loss and cherished her memory. Years later, among the poems he wrote was this one, beautifully describing the album and its significance to its owner and to her son as well.

MY MOTHER'S ALBUMby Louis LeRoy DeLong

I have a little album, queer,

A remnant of the long ago;

It was my mother's treasure dear,

The friends and faces she loved so.

A book of plush with neat design,

Of color gilt, and gold and gray;

White studs, and gilded hasp, so fine,

A gift of beauty in its day.

The quaint tin-types beneath its band,

Depict a garb of ancient lay;

The relics of a foreign land

Were once the glory of their day.

And as I turn to faces there,

That knew my mother's fondest gaze,

Their features now are still as fair

As they were in those long-gone days.

I thrill to think that as I look

Upon these objects of her love,

That there reflects from this small book,

Her thots and features, from above.

My mother's gift, oh, gift divine!

Its sacred histories came to me

Across the fleeting years of time;

Thru lives that I shall never see.

Unfaded still, the rose of youth,

Beyond the toll of stealing years

Is there displayed in honest truth

'Mid mem'ries that my thot reveres.

The mem'ries that thru life shall last,

Dear is their ancient history;

The ties that link us to the past

Are still as sweet as yesterday.

--genieBev (genealogy Beverly)

For ideas about how to do Family History, visit:

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Bitha Nickle became Beate Nichols Delang

Bitha Nickle (1826-1870), wife of Leberecht Delang

She was my father’s great grandmother.

To the best of my knowledge, no photograph of Beate exists today. Very little is known about her birth, life or death. A family Bible gives her name as Bitha Nickle. Bitha would be pronounced in German almost the same as Beate in English. It is Beate on her tombstone, so when she came to America, she probably Anglicized the spelling. My grandfather suggested that the name was used by some as a shortened version of Beatrice.

Family notes state that Beate was of the Amish faith. She was born in Prussia in 1826 and died in Iowa in 1870 at about the age of 44. Her death is said to have been caused by an “inflammation of the bowels” which is an old name for appendicitis. At least three of her grandchildren and one great grandchild had difficult appendectomies; her granddaughter Laura died after her surgery.

Beate shares a tombstone at Williamson Cemetery in Lee County, Iowa, with her husband Leberecht Delang whom she married before 1850, back in Prussia.

The family Bible shows the names of three of Beate’s children who died very young. A daughter Rose was born in 1854 and died the same year, in Prussia. The name Louise was inserted into the family Bible between two sons who survived—Charles (Carl/Karl) and Robert. Some family notes suggest that Carl might have been a twin, suggesting Louise as the twin. However, I  recently found the passenger records for when the family arrived in New York (April 15, 1857, on the ship Borussia). The ship’s manifest lists Louise as an infant, 4 months old. A son Gustave was born in Lee County, Iowa in 1860 but died prior to the Iowa state census taken in 1863. Daughter Maria (age 6) and son Carl (age 4) came to America with their parents.   A few months after the family’s arrival in America, my great-grandfather Robert was born, July 30, 1857, in Lee County, Iowa.  

  

The four surviving Delang children were:

Mary (Maria)                 1850-1930            married Charles Rothe

Charles (Carl/Karl)       1852-1934            married Sarah Foster

Robert                             1857-1931             married Pauline Altman

Pauline                           1868-1936            married Asa (Esop/Ace) Donnolly

I have a fork, a teaspoon, and a sugar spoon which belonged to Beate and Leberecht Delang, brought here from Germany. The fork has a wooden handle. I also have their set of glass salt and pepper shakers which I often use with my holiday family table settings -- the salt shaker is clear glass; the pepper is royal blue glass. 

--genieBev (genealogy Beverly)

For ideas about how to do Family History, visit:

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He Was My Most Recent Immigrant Ancestor

Leberecht Delang (1824-1890)

He was my father’s great grandfather.

Leberecht Delang (1824-1890)
Potter from Prussia, arrived 1857

Leberecht Delang was the last one of my ancestors to immigrate to America, arriving in New York on April 15, 1857. He brought with him his wife Beate, a daughter Marie, age 6, a son Carl, age 4, and a 4-month old baby girl, Louise. The family departed from Hamburg, Germany, aboard the ship Borussia. Leberecht, age 32, was a potter. His wife was also 32. The ship’s passenger list shows that they were passengers “between deck.”

The Steam-Ship "BORUSSIA"
Regular Packet between Hamburg and New York
This Currier & Ives lithograph comes from the Museum for the History of Hamburg.

Leberecht was born 2 March 1824 in Naumburg, Schlesiem, southwest of Leipzig. Apparently the birth was registered at Leipzig, because his 1860 Intention papers for Naturalization list the place of birth as Leipzig, Prussia.  In the 1930 census, his son Robert specifically records his father’s birthplace as Naumburg, Germany. Although there was another town of Naumburg located close to the Czech border in what is now south central Germany, the Leipzig area appears to be accurate.



In the 1880 census, Leberecht names the birthplace of his father as Saxony and his mother's as Prussia, and his own as Prussia. According to family legend, Leberecht's ancestors had lived on the border between France and the many small German states, in Alsace or Lorraine, and that the surname was French. A story that came down through the family traces back to around 1800, during the Napoleonic rearrangement of Europe's boundaries when border raids were common. The story is that the pregnant wife of a man named DeLong was kidnapped by German soldiers and taken to Germany. Her son was born in Saxony, and he married a Prussian woman. We do not know the name of this French child, only that his son, Leberecht DeLang, half French and half German, came to America and died in Iowa.


My grandfather explained to us that Leberecht's father, growing up in Prussia, spelled his name (DeLong) the German way (DeLang) which sounds very similar when pronounced by a German. When Leberecht came to America, the name was spelled DeLang but prounounced De Lahng.

Leberecht had been a potter since childhood. Upon arrival in America, he came on to southeast Iowa to work as a potter with Dennis Melcher, whom he had known in Prussia. The Melcher (Melchoir) brothers David and Dennis had built the Melcher Pottery near the edge of Des Moines County, Iowa, just east of the village of Lowell. It was on the road to the present-day Geode Park. The road bore the name Agency Road because it was originally the Indian Agency Road. One of the buildings still exists, and I have been by it many times. In the mid-1990s, it was converted to a restaurant with historic emphasis.

The Melcher Pottery in southeast Iowa

Some members of the family still have a few pieces of pottery made by Leberecht. In my possession are two small jugs (about 4" high) which were made at the Melcher Pottery where Leberecht worked but probably not by him.  

Two jugs made at the Melcher Pottery, geode rocks, and Indian arrowheads.
All are from the same location, near the county line
between Des Moines and Henry Counties in southeast Iowa.

                                            

Leberecht lived across the Skunk River from the pottery and did some farming in Lee County, Iowa, near what became the town of Denmark. Sometimes Leberecht rowed across the river to get to the pottery; in the winter he crossed on the ice. Years later, he moved across the river and lived on the property of his friend Gottfried Altmann whose daughter married Leberecht's son Robert. The 1880 census shows the young couple and Leberecht Delang all with Gottfried Altmann. Leberecht lived in a small cabin on the property.  Leberecht spoke German almost exclusively. Even his oldest two children, Mary and Charlie (Karl) spoke little English.



Leberecht's wife Beate was in poor health for several years prior to her death in 1870. She had lost a daughter Rose back in Germany, and the infant Louise who was aboard the ship upon arrival in 1857 apparently died young. My ancestor, Robert, was born in October, 1857, just a few months after the family’s arrival in America. His brother Gustav, born in 1860, died in infancy. A sister, Pauline (Lena) was born in August of 1868; from age 1, she lived with the Goody family. At about the same time, Robert, at the age of about 12 or 13, went to live with the Gottfried Altman family, and in 1879, he married Gottfried's daughter, Pauline Elizabeth Altman. 

After Beate's death in 1870, Leberecht married Tabitha Williamson, but she doesn't appear in the 1880 census. Leberecht appeared in Iowa census with a variety of spellings of his surname. He and his neighbors pronounced the name with a German twist as DAY-LONG, which led many years later to a name change spelled DeLong but still pronounced Day-long by his grandson Louis, my grandfather. Census in 1863 wrote “L. Dalong.” In 1870, it was “Earl Daylang.” In 1880, it was “Delang, L.”

Leberecht's naturalization INTENTION record reads: State of Iowa, Des Moines County: Before the undersigned, Clerk of the District Court, for said county, this day came Leberecht Delang, an alien, a free, white person, and a native of Prussia who being by me duly sworn, on his oath, declares and says: "That it is BONA FIDE his intention to become a Citizen of the United States of America, and to renounce forever, all allegiance and fidelity to any Foreign Prince, Potentate, State or Sovereignty whatever, and particularly to Frederich William 4th King of Prussia of whom he is a Subject. Sworn to and Subscribed, before me, the Clerk of said District Court, this 15th day of August 1860. [Signed both by the clerk and by Leberecht Delang.]

In early 1863 when the state census was taken, Leberecht is shown as being a "foreigner, not naturalized." In the 1870 census he is shown as a "citizen." Family records indicate that he was admitted as a citizen Oct. 9, 1863, recorded in Book B, page 467. However, I have not been able to acquire a copy of this record. My father was told that no citizenship admission papers prior to 1900 are available at the Des Moines County Clerk of the Court office. The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization Services at Omaha, NE have no naturalization records prior to 1906. Nor did I find the record at the National Archives Branch in Kansas City. In September 2006, at the Mid-Continent Library in Independence, Missouri, I found a Naturalization Index for Des Moines County, Iowa, 1849-1857. This index was created by the Des Moines County Genealogical Society and published by the Iowa Genealogical Society in 1983. It listed DELANY, LEBRECHT, B467, County Court Records; this matches our family records.

A death record was made in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa on Feb. 27, 1890, with thedate of death given as Jan. 30, 1890 for Leberecht Delang, male, age 65, potter, widower, born in Schlesiem, Ger. He had been a resident for 30 years. The place of death was Lowell, Henry Co., IA. with burial in Lee Co., IA. [Williamson Cemetery]. Cause of death was hypertrophy of Heart and the doctor was F. R. Wilson of New London, IA.

--genieBev (genealogy Beverly)

For ideas about how to do Family History, visit:

 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gentutor/