Semd, Germany, a small farming village in Hessen, southeast of Frankfurt, was home to Peter Bingel and his wife Maria (Voegler). The Bingel family’s roots in the area were deep: Peter and Maria were married in Semd in 1802, and by 1820 four children were born and baptized in the village. Peter’s parents lived nearby, and the town was familiar and comfortable. Unfortunately, it provided Peter with very few opportunities for growth; it was virtually impossible for a common man to buy land.
A solution lay nearly 1,000 miles from home, in a central European region known as the Banat. The Habsburg Monarchy – which ruled Germany, along with much of the rest of northern Europe – was offering land to Germans in exchange for their agreement to serve as border guards. Peter and Maria Bingel leapt at the chance. In December 1820 they joined eleven other families, departed Hessen, and became the first German settlers in the tiny village of Mramorak in the Banat.
Journey to the Banat
Peter and Maria Bingel, their 10-year old son Nicholas, and three other children said their goodbyes, the excitement of the upcoming adventure undoubtedly tinged with the certain knowledge that these goodbyes were final. The Bingels would never see the village, or their remaining families and friends, again.
They traveled the first 175 miles or so by wagon and on foot, crossing eastward from Hessen through Bavaria. Over the next two weeks they traveled through Würzburg and Nuremberg, rich in medieval history and architecture, and past countless farming villages, each clean, well organized, and well kept. Their destination was the Imperial City of Regensburg.
Officials there issued passes to the Bingels that allowed them to travel to Vienna. Peter, and perhaps his young son Nicholas, joined fellow travelers in cutting timber, chopping wood, and building the boat that would take them down the Danube River from Regensburg to their new home.
They sailed on a boat known as Schwabenplätten, which translates roughly as “Swabian raft” (Swabia is the region of Germany where Regensburg is located). The vessels typically carried 50-100 passengers and traveled only during the day.
When the Bingels’ craft was ready, they climbed aboard and set sail – or, more accurately, began to float downstream. From Regensburg they drifted past the Austrian Alps, through Vienna, then into the broad plains past Budapest, south toward the Banat. They would remain on the Danube for nearly 700 miles and more than two weeks, including Christmas 1820 and New Years Day 1821.
The Banat
Early Settler Life in the Banat
The Banat derives its name from ban, the title for military governors in the Middle Ages. For centuries the Banat served as a military frontier between warring nations, including the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires (i.e., between the Austrians and the Turks).[1] It is a region that has nearly always known conflict.
By the early 1700s Austria had expelled the Turks from the Banat, but the area remained wild. Administrators in Vienna planned to utilize the Banat for two purposes: protection and production. Protection from the Turks and from diseases such as the plague that were common in southern Europe; production of food in the area’s rich, but largely undeveloped, land.
The Austrians colonized more than 800 border villages in the Banat with German citizens. Many early settlers, like the Bingels, arrived from southwestern Germany (Swabia) via the Danube (Donau) River. As a result, the local population in the Banat referred to the settlers as Donauschwaben, including those who, like the Bingels, originated from Hessen or other parts of Germany.
Today the Banat is known as the ”breadbasket of Europe.” When the Bingels arrived, however, it was known as “The German’s Grave.” In the early 1700s thousands of the earliest German settlers had been killed in Turkish raids or died from bubonic plague. Despite those deaths, the Austrians continued the colonization program for more than a century, and the offer of land continued to prove irresistible to German settlers.
When Peter and Maria Bingel arrived in the Banat in January 1821 the region was a military frontier, administered through the Austrian War Council in Vienna. As in Austria, the official language of the Banat was German. The inhabitants of the Banat, however, were nearly all Romanian, Serbian, or Hungarian – groups whose languages and cultures were very different from the Germans and, indeed, from one another.
All residents of the Banat shared one trait in common, however: they made their living through agriculture. In 1821 there were no industrial centers in the Banat; the same is true to this day. Native residents were renowned for their hunting and fishing skills; they also raised livestock (primarily sheep, pigs and goats) and crops for their own consumption. One of the most important products in the villages was silk, and the Banat countryside was dotted with the mulberry trees that were home for the silk worm.
Perhaps the most significant adjustment for Peter Bingel and his family was for the soil and climate. The soil was much sandier than in Germany; the climate was much warmer and wetter. Heavy rains, common in the Banat, created swamps, damp houses, contaminated water, and made many of the early settlers sick.
Mramorak
The twelve families from Hessen, including Peter Bingel’s family, settled in the Banat village of Mramorak (pronounced “Mamrack”). The nearby Carpathian Mountains were an excellent source of marble; early Slav settlers named a nearby spring “Mramor,” meaning “marble,” and the village took its name from that spring.
Because it was a border village within the Austrian Empire, Mramorak was laid out on a plan established by administrators in Vienna. Due to the contours of the land the village lay in a NW-SE orientation. Mramorak was built in a checkerboard pattern, with a church and public square in the center of town and wide streets with housing lots extending outward from the square. Each lot was about 2/3 of an acre. Romanian and Serbian settlers had populated the first 241 house sites in the community, so the first 12 families from Hessen were allotted sites 242 to 253, in the northwestern part of the village. Peter Bingel selected lot 249, on the town’s main street, surrounded by fellow Hessens in each adjoining lot, three blocks northwest of the town square.
The Bingel home consisted of a series of adjoining rooms, with the parlor facing the street and sheds in the rear for horses, cattle, pigs, chickens, and geese. A covered porch wrapped around the home, and a fence surrounded the lot. The Bingel family kept a garden in their courtyard, growing grapes, peaches, apricots, melons, and tomatoes; they raised more substantial crops on land nearby – 45 acres of fields and meadows on which they raised sugar beets, wheat, corn and alfalfa.
In exchange for the land he received Peter Bingel – like the men in each of the 12 Hessen families with whom he arrived, and like most of the Romanian and Serbian men in town – served the Austrian Empire and local community as a border guard. Military action was rare; instead, the chief duties of the border guards lay in clearing and maintaining roads, draining swamps, constructing public buildings, and work of that nature.
After building his own home, one of the first projects for Peter Bingel was construction of a school. He took a deep and personal interest in the effort, writing to Vienna directly. When the Hessens arrived in the Banat, 80% of the native population was illiterate, and only 38% of eligible children attended school. Peter had four young children and he intended for each of them to receive an education. He requested permission from Vienna for land on which to build a school.
One month later, the Council of War Court, sitting in Vienna, provided the land the settlers had requested. The villagers built a school house on a lot across the street and three doors down from the Bingel home. In future years Mramorak provided Vienna with reports of student examinations and other detailed information about the progress of the school; administrators in Vienna evidently monitored the educational progress of the village carefully.
The teacher in Mramorak was J.H. Lange. Despite the fact that the majority of students were Serbian or Romanian, he taught in the German language – the official language of the Austrian Empire. Villagers paid Mr. Lange with food, silk, leather goods, and other natural products; rarely did he receive any money for his services.
Social life for the Bingel family, as for all villagers, revolved around church-based activities. Regardless of whether a family was pious or only casually observant, baptisms, weddings, and funerals were the most significant milestones in their lives. Throngs processed down the wide streets of Mramorak, the women wearing a tracht, a distinctive dress, shawl, scarf and aprons unique to the village, and special dinners were prepared for the occasion.
Changes in the Banat
The Bingels did not lead an idyllic or romantic existence in Mramorak, however. Life in the Banat was uncertain and difficult, and as time passed the community was increasingly disrupted by ethnic tensions.
Peter Bingel and his son Nicholas were each born in Hessen, Germany. In 1832, when Nicholas married Anna Merkel, the daughter of one of the original 12 Hessen settlers, Mramorak was still firmly within Austrian control. The next two decades saw significant conflict between Serbians, Romanians, and Hungarians in the Banat.
By 1851, when Johann Nicholas, the son of Nicholas and Anna Bingel, married Elizabetha Kanz the Austrian, German-speaking influence in Mramorak was fading in the face of a newly dominant Hungarian state. In 1867 the Austrian Empire was split in two in 1867, becoming the dual monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
When Phillip, the son of Johann Nicholas and Elizabetha Bingel, married Julianna Thurr in 1874, Mramorak was in the portion of the Empire administered by Hungary. Phillip and Juliana lived in a village that was very different from the village that Peter had helped to settle.
The official language had changed from German to Magyar (Hungarian). Ethnic Germans were prevented from celebrating German traditions and culture, and the new government enacted laws that favored Hungarians over Germans with respect to land ownership and employment.
Travel Through Europe
Whether because of changes in the village over time, or perhaps because of the opportunities newly available in America, in April 1892 Phillip and Juliana Bingel decided to leave Mramorak. They chose wisely: the climate for ethnic Germans in Mramorak, or for most other inhabitants of the area, did not improve after 1892. For example, a riot during 1893 municipal elections left several residents dead. For a brief period in the early 20th century the ruling Hungarians renamed the town Homokos (meaning “sandy”), but the name didn’t take.
Over the following decades, innumerable atrocities were committed by Hungarians, Serbs, and Romanians against German residents; Germans responded with harsh brutality during World War II. As a result, following the defeat of Germany the German community in Mramorak disappeared, its members having either emigrated, been killed, or been expelled. The village today is in the country of Serbia, and 85% of its residents are ethnic Serbian or Romanian. None are ethnic Germans.
One option for the Bingels was to depart via Fiume (now Trieste), a busy port on the Adriatic Sea, 400 miles west of Mramorak. Another option was Bremen, a town on the North Sea, nearly 1,000 miles from Mramorak. A glance at the map suggests that Fiume was the natural choice; digging a bit deeper, however, it is clear why the Bingels chose Bremen.
Trieste sits where Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia converge today. Emigrants who boarded in this port were nearly all from Southern Europe, comprising a community that was culturally distinct from Northern Europeans and who were often treated with disdain upon reaching America.
Bremen, on the other hand, was a point of departure almost exclusively for Northern and Eastern Europeans. Due to earlier waves of German emigration, shipping lines and port infrastructure had been developed to move massive numbers of people for a reasonable price. The railway network laid in East Central Europe in the time since the Bingels first arrived in Mramorak was impressive; a traveler could reach Bremen nearly as quickly and easily as Fiume.
Bremen it would be.
Mramorak to Bremen
When Phillip and Juliana Bingel left Mramorak in 1892 the family included seven children, ages 16 to 2. Phillip and the older children walked on the road out of town, while Juliana and the younger children took a wagon. The local train station was just a few miles south of Mramorak.
Once on board the train the Bingels rode with other emigrants in packed third- and fourth-class carriages. Their route was similar to that taken by Phillip’s great-grandfather Peter Bingel decades earlier – the difference was that Peter’s family traveled by river for several weeks, while Phillip’s family was able to make the journey by train in a few days.
The Bingels traveled northwest, leaving the Great Hungarian Plain, passing by tiny medieval villages and some of the greatest cities in Europe. The train wound through Budapest, Vienna, and Prague on the way to the German border.
When they reached the border, the Bingels and other German-speaking passengers were met by agents of the Norddeutscher Lloyd company, the shipping line on which they would sail to America. The agents assisted the Bingels to a special wagon, where they proceeded to the German hub of Leipzig.
At Leipzig, their names were recorded and they were inspected for cholera, trachoma (an eye disease), and other infectious diseases. After about an hour, the Bingels continued by train from Leipzig to Bremen.When they arrived in Bremen the Bingels were guided from the train station to an emigrant hostel, where they ate, slept, and prepared for departure. None of them had even seen the ocean before, and they prayed for a safe transatlantic crossing. On May 12, 1892, the family boarded the steamship Oldenburg and began their voyage to America.
Crossing the Atlantic
S.S. Oldenburg
The Bingel family – like nearly all of the 2100 passengers on board – traveled in third (steerage) class. Sleeping quarters were cramped, the food was unappetizing, and the passengers were frequently seasick.
The Oldenburg departed Bremen at 1 p.m. on May 12, 1892. Twenty-four hours later, she sailed past the cliffs of Dover and through the English Channel. The ship’s log describes the harrowing remainder of the journey in the typical understated tone of a mariner:
In the North Sea and English Channel had moderate winds with hazy weather; afterward, to the Banks of Newfoundland, frequently fresh and strong westerly winds, with rough sea and rain squalls. On May 20 [near Nova Scotia] an iceberg was passed, 500 feet long and 100 feet high. Off the Banks to Cape Henry had fair weather, with moderate winds and sea. Arrived May 25.
Prior to this voyage, the Bingels had never seen a seafaring ship; they found themselves on a roiling ocean, unable to see land. For a farming family, this was likely as terrifying as any aspect of the voyage – except for the iceberg. Decades later, Magdalena (who was nine years old during the crossing) remembered the iceberg more clearly than any other aspect of the voyage. The ship could not communicate with shore from its location in the North Atlantic and would be utterly helpless if she ran into the iceberg – and the berg was far larger than that which would would sink Titanic two decades later, while the Oldenburg was less than half the size of Titanic. Magdalena was right to be concerned.
Arrival in Baltimore
The Oldenburg arrived, on schedule, on May 25, 1892. The ordeal aboard ship for the Bingels was not yet over, however. A preliminary health inspection revealed that one of the ship’s passengers, a child, was infected with smallpox. As a result of that discovery, all 2,153 passengers who had traveled in steerage were quarantined for two days until a medical inspection was completed (the 49 passengers in first class, presumed to be clean and free from disease, were permitted to disembark immediately).
On May 27, 1892, fifteen days after leaving Europe, the Bingels set foot in the United States for the first time.
The Bingels had sailed to Baltimore, Maryland, rather than New York or Boston, for one simple reason: train travel from Baltimore to the farmland of the midwestern United States was seamless. In 1867 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad made a deal with the Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping line: if the line agreed to send at least one immigrant ship per month to Baltimore, the B&O Railroad would build an immigration pier in Baltimore harbor – now known as Locust Point – and connect it to the vast rail network of the United States. The exchange worked better than anyone could have expected; by the time the Bingels arrived, several ships per week were arriving at the B&O pier, disgorging passengers who purchased passage on the B&O tracks. Ships returning to Europe were laden with wheat, cotton, tobacco, and other products brought to Baltimore by the B&O.
Home
Westward Bound
The journey on the B&O took the Bingels through Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia and west to Cincinnati, Ohio and St. Louis, Missouri. At St. Louis the Bingels reached the western limit of the B&O Railroad.
They had not reached the end of their journey, however. The Bingels switched trains, boarding the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad (affectionately known as the Frisco, it never ran anywhere near California), traveling southwest from St. Louis, through Springfield, to the railroad’s terminus in Seneca, on the western border of Missouri. From there, they walked or took wagons south to a farm in nearby Buffalo Township, McDonald County, the southwestern corner of Missouri. Arkansas lay to the south; Indian Territory (its formal name) was less than a mile to the west.
Missouri
The Bingels chose to relocate in southwestern Missouri for reasons that must have been important to them – the area was not easy to reach – but which are now a mystery. McDonald County had fewer than 100 foreign-born residents. Friends and families often emigrated together, but the 1900 U.S. Census does not reflect any other families from Mramorak or surrounding villages in Europe living in southwestern Missouri. The Bingels identified their country of origin as “Hungary” on that census; there were no other families in the surrounding area that identified as Hungarian.
The Bingel family chose Buffalo Township, in the southwest corner of Missouri, to begin their lives as Americans. They had set out from a small village in Central Europe, sailed across an ocean they had never seen, and traveled west as far as the train would carry them. Now they lived on rough, wide open land less than a mile from Indian Territory. The terrain was striking in its similarity to Mramorak, but their lives had changed in a fundamental way:
The land was theirs. They were free.
The family would flourish in America, but that is a story for another day. The journey from Europe was just the tip of the iceberg. But the Bingels were now home.
Timeline
1. Peter Bingel and Anna Maria Voegler
1780: Peter Bingel and Anna Maria Voegler are born near Semd, Hessen, Germany.
1802: Peter Bingel marries Anna Maria Voegler in Semd.
1810: Nicholas Bingel is born in Semd to Peter and Anna Maria
1820: Bingel family departs Semd, Germany for Mramorak in the Banat
2. Nicholas Bingel and Anna Maria Merkel
1832: Nicholas Bingel marries Anna Maria Merkel in Mramorak; Johann Nicholas is born
3. J. Nicholas Bingel and Elizabetha Kanz
1851: Johann Nicholas Bingel marries Elizabetha Kanz in Mramorak
1855: Phillip Bingel is born in Mramorak to Johann Nicholas and Elizabetha; Julianna Thurr is born to Christian Thurr in the nearaby village of Bulkes (now Maglič) about the same time
4. Phillip Bingel and Julianna Thurr
1874: Phillip Bingel marries Julianna Thurr in Mramorak
1892: Phillip and Julianna Bingel, with seven children, emigrate to the United States
– Katherine
– Nicholas
– Christina
– Magdalena
– Juliana
– Phillip
– Augustus
1894: Sedonia Bingel is born in Missouri to Phillip and Julianna, the first – and only – member of the family born in the United States
5. Bingel Children Begin Families in the United States
Annotated Bibliography
Baltimore Immigration Museum. Gallery. https://www.immigrationbaltimore.org/gallery.html : 2021. Includes photographs of the Locust Point Pier and a general history of the role played by the B&O Railroad and North German Lloyd role in immigration.
“Baltimore, Passenger Lists, 1820-1964.” Database and images. http://www.ancestry.com : 2021. Includes the manifest of the S.S. Oldenburg reflecting the Bingel family immigration.
The Baltimore Sun, May 25-27, 1892. Articles reflecting the sailing details of the S.S. Oldenburg, its route and iceberg sighting, and the smallpox outbreak that occurred upon arrival.
Bonsor, N. R. P.. North Atlantic Seaway: An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New in Four Volumes. United Kingdom: David & Charles, 1975. Includes a physical description of the S.S. Oldenburg and history of its sailing routes.
Clarkson, Susan. “History of German Settlements in Southern Hungary.” Foundation for East European Family History Studies, 2003. https://feefhs.org/region/banat-german-settlements : 2021. A well-sourced, general history by a scholar of immigration from the Banat to the U.S.
Evangelical Church of Semd. Chronicle. https://semd.ekhn.de/startseite/geschichte/chronik.html : 2021. Website for the Bingel family’s original parish in Semd, Germany.
Fessenden, Brigitte V. “Locust Point Immigrant House.” Explore Baltimore Heritage. https://explore.baltimoreheritage.org : 2021. A brief and general history of immigration in Baltimore.
Find a Grave. Database with images. http://www.findagrave.com : 2021. A website reflecting burial information for millions of individuals worldwide, including members of the Phillip and Julianna Bingel family.
“Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898.” Database. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com : 2021. Includes an index of births and baptisms in the Bingel family while living in Semd, Germany.
“Germany, Select Marriages, 1558-1929.” Database. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com : 2021. Includes an index of marriages in the Bingel family while living in Semd, Germany.
Hays, Mrs. Bill [Mae]. “The Path of Yesterday.” Rich Hill (Missouri) Mining Review. ca. 1960. Reminiscences of Magdalena Bingel Boyd of her early childhood and immigration.
Kemle, David, translator. Mramorak Church Books 1821-1877. Rastatt, Germany: privately printed, 1990. An index of births, marriages, and deaths within the Protestant community of Mramorak.
Kemle, David, translator. Mramorak: Community in the Banat Sand Desert. Kent, Washington: Privately printed, 1998. English translation of a history produced by descendants of the German residents of Mramorak.
Kemle, David, translator. Mramorak Picture Book. Kent, Washington: Privately printed, 2003. A companion work to Mramorak: Community in the Banat Sand Desert; includes additional photographs and brief commentary about German life and traditions in Mramorak.
The Metz (Missouri) Times, August 8, 1924. Obituary of Julianna Thurr Bingel.
Missouri. Death Certificates, 1910-1970. Digital images. Missouri Digital Heritage. https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives : 2021. Death certificates reflecting biographical details for Phillip Bingel and Juliana Thurr Bingel.
Missouri. McDonald County. 1900 U.S. census, population schedule. Database with images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com : 2021. Includes the family of Phillip and Juliana Bingel in Buffalo Township.
Norway Heritage. “S/S Oldenburg, Norddeutscher Lloyd.” Norwayheritage.com (http://www.norwayheritage.com : 2021). Description of the physical characteristics and sailing history of the S.S. Oldenburg.
Poor, H.V. and H.W. Poor. Poor’s Manual of the Railroads of the United States. New York : American Bank Note Co., 1900. General information regarding the B&O and St. Louis & San Francisco Railroads.
Schmidt, Allison. “Emigration Routes from Austria-Hungary: Germany.” Parts I and II. Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies, 2019. https://botstiberbiaas.org/emigration-routes/: 2021. Well-sourced articles by a scholar describing the journey from the Banat to Bremen.
Springfield-Greene County (Missouri) Library. “The Frisco.” Digital images. https://thelibrary.org/lochist/frisco/ : 2021. St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad photographs and maps.
Sturges, J.A. Illustrated History of McDonald County, Missouri. Pineville, Missouri, 1897. digital image, Google Books, https://books.google.com/books?id=8n8UAAAAYAAJ : 2021. A description of McDonald County written around the time the Bingels settled in the area.
Swabian Trek. http://www.swabiantrek.com : 2021. Broad history of the German community who lived in the Banat, written by members of that community or their descendants.
Tewey, Francis A. “Lost Piers and Streets.” Baltimore Immigration Museum. http://www.immigrationbaltimore.org/newsletter/LostPiersandStreets.pdf : 2021. Brief paper describing the sights, sounds, and scene for immigrants arriving in Baltimore in late 1800s.
University of Minnesota. IPUMS National Historic GIS. http://www.nhgis.org : 2021. Database including demographic details at the county level of all U.S. censuses.
Wikipedia. http://www.wikipedia.org : 2021. Starting point for further research on the Banat, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and railways in the United States.
[1] In this text the Habsburg Monarchy is referred to as “Austrian,” while the Ottoman Empire is “Turk.” Each empire was far larger and more ethnically diverse than those names suggest, but the shorthand conveys the essential demographic and cultural point.
[2] Phillip and Juliana Bingel chose wisely: the climate for ethnic Germans in Mramorak, or for most other inhabitants of the area, did not improve after 1892. For example, a riot during municipal elections in 1893 left several residents dead. For a brief period in the early 20th century the ruling Hungarians renamed the town Homokos (meaning “sandy”), but the name didn’t take.
Over the following decades, innumerable atrocities were committed by Hungarians, Serbs, and Romanians against German residents; Germans responded with harsh brutality during World War II. As a result, following the defeat of Germany the German community in Mramorak disappeared, its members having either emigrated, been killed, or been expelled. The village today is in the country of Serbia, and 85% of its residents are ethnic Serbian or Romanian. None are ethnic Germans.
[3] The child Juliana died sometime between 1892 and 1900, after arriving in America.