The Pellman Genealogy

William Henry Pellman

Vital Statistics

Biographical Information

Wilhelm was born in 1827, during a brief lull between outbreaks of hostility, but the Prussian Revolution came in 1848, when he was only 21.  It appears that Wilhelm served three years in the Prussian army during that conflict.  Although battling continued sporadically until 1865, brief cessations of hostilities occurred in 1852 and 1857, so those were the most opportune times for Wilhelm to emigrate from Prussia.  It is unlikely that any able young men would have been permitted to leave the country during hostilities, and it certainly would have been considerably more dangerous, even if permitted.

The 1900 U.S. Census states that William Henry immigrated to the U.S. in 1852.  The passenger manifest of the German vessel, "Harvest", lists a Henry Pöhlman as one of its passengers arriving at Baltimore on December 14, 1852.  The umlaut in Pöhlman gives it a pronunciation in German that is very close to Pellman, so it is very likely that the Prussian, Wilhelm Heinrich Pöhlman almost instantly became the American, William Henry Pellman upon arrival in his new homeland.

Before the age of computers, passenger manifests were written as people boarded the ship, so the passengers are listed in the order they boarded.  Following Henry Pöhlman on the manifest of the "Harvest" are Franz and August Meyer, probably father and son judging by their respective ages of 46 and 18.  It seems more that just coincidental that Henry would marry Elise Meier (or Meyer) within the next couple of years.  Furthermore, Henry Pöhlman is listed on the manifest as age 25, which coincides with Henry Pellman's birth date in 1827.  His first child, Elizabeth Pellman was born in Aurora, Indiana in 1858, so he had to arrive in time to settle there prior to her birth.

Under the feudal system of Prussia, William Henry had been a tenant farmer.  Life did not change much for him in his early years in the New World.  On the 1860 Census, he is listed as a laborer on the farm of James and Adda Gould in Aurora, Indiana.  Not long after the birth of his first son, Henry, William Henry joined the 45th Indiana Volunteers, which was later reorganized into the 3rd Indiana Regiment, and served three years in the U.S. Civil War.  Soon after his return, Louise (Maria Louisa) was added to the Pellman household.  Henry continued farming in Aurora, Indiana until mid-1868, a few months after the birth of his second son, George Frederick. 

The reasons for William Henry's move to Farley, Missouri will probably never be known, but the fact that a number of Meiers are listed as Farley residents in the 1870 Census suggests that the move may have been made in order to remain close to the support system of their extended family.  William Henry Pellman II was born shortly after their arrival, and it was in Farley that the rest of his and Elise's children would be born and raised.  William Henry was one of 13 men who founded the Lutheran Church in Farley in 1872, and it is from the church's detailed records that most of what is known of William Henry has been gleaned.  He remained in Farley as a share-cropper for the next 20 years until -- in the aftermath of tragic loss and the promise of a brighter future -- he moved onward one final time.

The winters of 1888 and 1889 were especially bleak and cold, conditions that were especially harsh for poor share-croppers.  His daughter, Louise died of pneumonia on February 4, 1888.  The following year, January 31, 1889 his wife of over 40 years also died of pneumonia, followed just six weeks later by his oldest daughter, Lizzie.  In March of 1889, George Frederick married and established his own household, leaving only the two youngest sons, John and Guss, still living with the widower, William Henry.  Coming on the heels of the deaths of Elise, Louise, and Lizzie, and the marriage of George, the great Oklahoma Land Run of April, 1889 surely must have sparked William Henry's imagination and rekindled his lifelong dream of owning land in the New World.  As additional land runs were announced in ensuing years, the allure must have steadily strengthened.  Sometime in 1892, William Henry set off for Oklahoma with his two youngest sons for one last chance to stake out a tract of land of his own.

At high noon on April 16, 1893, William Henry, John, and Guss Pellman were lined up with an estimated 100,000 other dream-filled or desperate contenders for the 40,000 available tracts of Oklahoma land being offered in the Cherokee Strip Land Run -- the most dramatic pursuit of land in American history!  The exact details have long been forgotten, but it is likely that the Pellmans were ill prepared for this adventure.  The going price for land was only about $10 per acre, so the fact that William Henry was racing for land instead of buying it suggests that he could not scrape together the price of a fast horse -- and certainly not the price of a team of fast horses to pull the family wagon.  They found themselves pitted against men who had invested everything they had in sturdy wagons and fast horses for the race, as well as rifles to defend  the land they claimed -- or in some cases to drive others off their rightful claims.  And they probably weren't prepared to deal with men who were willing to cheat or kill for a scrap of land, like the "Sooners" who hid out in the prairie and stole the claims of many honest contenders.  We will never know whether the Pellmans fell victim to Sooners, a broken wheel, if their wagon was just too slow, or if -- at age 66 -- William Henry was just too old for the rigors of the race.  We know only that the Pellmans were not successful in staking a claim in the great Cherokee Strip Land Run.

Despite his failure to obtain a homestead, William Henry lived out the rest of his days in the Oklahoma Territory.  Following the Cherokee Strip Land Run, he and his sons, John and Guss settled in Kay County, Oklahoma.  William Henry died in 1901 and is buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Ponca City.