By Alice Freese Molitor

On June 25, 2023, Alice Freese Molitor of Foristell and her daughter, BeverlyAnn Creely from Troy attended the Meinershagen Reunion in Higginsville, MO. Alice is related through her Great-Grandmother, Christine Wilhelmine Amelia Meinershagen, from Wersen, Germany.

Heinrich Adolph Meinershagen (January 1, 1785 – May 22, 1870) and his second wife, Christiana Maria Wilhelmina Manecken (1793 – April 16, 1865) and family, arrived on October 19, 1836, in Baltimore, Maryland by ship, the Gustav, from Bremen. They settled in Femme Osage, MO and are buried at Hickory Flat Cemetery.

One of the sons, Friedrich Wilhelm, married Maria Wilhelmine Brinkmann, and moved to Lafayette county in 1882 in the Higginsville, MO area. There is a family tree booklet written by one of his descendants. Copies are available.

Christine Wilhelmine Amelia was born on January, 28, 1828, and was 8 years old when she arrived in America. No records were found of her date of death or where she was buried. It is believed she died about 1860 and was buried in an unmarked row of graves at St. Paul Church in New Melle. MO. She married Wilhelm Friedrich Nieweg February 4, 1849, at St. Paul Lutheran Church, New Melle, MO. They had three children, Henrich Adolph, born in 1850, Friederich Peter, born in 1852 and Eliese Catherine Marie, born in 1854. Eliese married Wilhelm Freese on February 24,