Rasche Family
The Rasche family lived on the homestead on the back portion of what is now Hermann Farm. After immigrating to America in 1837 on the ship Tiber, Heinrich and Dorothea, along with their infant daughter Sophie, settled first in Philadelphia and then made their way to Hermann.
In 1837 the Rasches – Heinrich, Dorothea and eldest (at this time only) daughter Sophie – boarded a ship called the Tiber out of Bremen, Germany. Heinrich’s occupation was listed as blacksmith, and the family brought only two trunks with them to begin their new lives in America. Like many German immigrants at the time, the Rasches first settled in Philadelphia, where at the time the German Settlement Society was drafting up its plans for Hermann.
During their time in Pennsylvania, Dorothea gave birth to their second daughter, Mary (Maria). Given existing census records and the context of the Settlement Society’s promotion of Hermann, it is likely the family moved here sometime between 1839 and 1842. An 1850 census record, the first showing the Rasches in Missouri, shows that all of their daughters had been born and were living with them — the eldest, Sophie, aged 15; Mary; Wilhelmine; Dorothea; Augusta; and the youngest, Ida, aged 1.
Life in Hermann proved complicated for the Rasches.
Eldest daughter Sophie seems to have gotten pregnant out of wedlock and left the home around 1858 to go to St. Louis, where she worked as a servant for an attorney and gave birth to her daughter, Charlotte Rose. Second-oldest Mary, on the other hand, married Simon Maushund, a tobacco merchant and cigar maker, in 1859, while third-oldest Wilhelmine married Gottlieb Rippstein, who would later become the owner of the successful White House Hotel, in 1863. That same year, however, Heinrich, the family’s patriarch, died at age 58, and as the family coped with his death, they also had to cope with the fact that there were no sons in the family to take over management of the farm. To add to this struggle, in 1864, Confederate soldiers came to camp at the Rasche Farm. Dorothea and her daughters who remained were made to cook and care for the soldiers, and while they caused no physical harm to the Rasche women, they concluded their stay on the farm by stealing all of the family’s food and livestock.
The Rasche family saw changes as the Civil War drew closer to its end.
Sophie married Edward Rose, the man with whom she’d had a daughter out of wedlock, in St. Louis on May 29, 1864. On March 6, 1865, 19-year-old Dorothea married Charles Beckman, who moved into the Rasche home and took over management of the farm. August 21 of the same year, second-youngest daughter Augusta married Conrad Ameiss and moved to St. Louis.
Dorothea and Charles had a daughter together, Minna (Minnie). On November 7, 1867, only a year after giving birth to Minna (Minnie), Dorothea Beckmann died of unknown causes. Only nine days later, word came from St. Louis that Sophie, the eldest, had also died, leaving behind her 9-year-old daughter Charlotte and widower Edward. Young Charlotte was brought to Hermann to be raised by family on the farm. Charles Beckmann continued to operate the farm even after being widowed, and in 1869 he married the youngest Rasche daughter, Ida. Charles was listed in the 1870 census as the head of household as well as a wine grower, and by the publication of the 1875 Land Maps Ownership record he was listed as the owner of what had come to be recognized as the Beckmann Farm.
Ida, now married to her sister’s widower, began having her own children with Charles. By 1878, Ida was mother to three sons and a daughter in addition to raising Charlotte and Minna (Minnie), the daughters of her deceased sisters. That year, a sickness passed through the farm. Due to this unknown illness, three of the children — biological son and daughter Armin and Laura as well as adopted daughter Minna (Minnie) — were left deaf and mute. They were even listed as “deaf and dumb” in the 1880 census.
By this time, Charles had gained a reputation as a distant husband and father, and Ida seems to have been largely alone in caring for the five children, three with lingering disabilities from the illness, as well as her elderly mother. Ida’s sisters who were still in Hermann, Wilhelmine and Mary (Maria), made a point to make weekly visits to the farm to help Ida.
Ida gave birth to another daughter in 1880 or ‘81, during which time she was assisted by her sisters during their visits, but tragedy struck for all the sisters when their mother, Dorothea Rasche, died on November 27, 1881. Ida had been pregnant when her mother died, and she gave birth to her last child in June of 1882. For a little under a year, Ida continued to raise the seven children with weekly assistance from Wilhelmine and Mary (Maria), but they could only do so much for their sister.
On May 19, 1883, after greeting her sisters on the first floor of the house, Ida excused herself upstairs and was gone for an extended period of time. When Wilhelmine and Mary (Maria) went to look for their youngest sister, they found her body — she had taken her own life. She was buried on the farm in the family cemetery, where her gravestone remains to this day.
Her children were moved from the farm, with three of them sent to family members in St. Louis, three others presumably being raised by family in Hermann, and the youngest, at only nine months, Ella, being taken in by Wilhelmine. Ella was raised as Ella Leisner, taking the name of Wilhelmine’s second husband, and did not know until later in her life the truth of her parents. When she learned of it, she returned to her original name, Ella Beckmann.
The Rasche Family:
The Rasches were listed in the 1850 census with the following ages:
Heinrich (Henry) Rasche, father — 45
Dorothea Faulhaber Rasche, mother — 45
Sophie Rasche Rose — 15
Mary (Maria) Rasche Maushund — 12
Wilhelmine Rasche Rippstein Leisner — 8
Dorothea Rasche Beckman — 7
Augusta Rasche Ameiss — 5
Ida Rasche Beckman — 1