R-U students meet people from the 1800s

Nikki Schubert grew up near a small Norwegian cemetery in Holstein and helped her parents maintain it.

"I've always been fascinated with the history there -- who were these people?" she said.

While Schubert is now a teacher at Remsen-Union High School, those childhood questions remained with her and recently helped spark a social studies class project for her freshmen.

R-U freshmen Cam Kuchel, Courtney Loutsch and Dalaney Langel work on a project for Nikki Schubert's social study class, researching names they found on century-old gravestones in the Remsen Cemetery. [Click to enlarge]

She took her two classes, 16 students, to the Remsen Cemetery and sent them on a history hunt.

"We each had to find three graves that were there before 1900," said freshman Courtney Loutsch.

That's only step one. The students collected the names and dates -- and any other information they could find on the headstone -- and headed back to school for research.

Information on people who died more than a century ago isn't easy to find, they discovered.

"Some of the records don't go back that far," said Dalaney Langel, another freshman.

And in the era of the Internet, even Google didn't offer much help.

When searching the web came up with scant information, the students hit the books and the microfilm at the Le Mars Public Library.

"In the digital age, we're so used to things being at our fingertips," Schubert said. "It was so cool to see them working on microfilm. Dinosaur technology is still good."

in the cemetery, Cam Kuchel, a freshman, based his headstone choice on finding the biggest, oldest one he could.

One of the three he picked was William Neuenschwander, a 56 year old who was murdered by Nic Lang Feb. 16, 1893.

Kuchel said he hopes to find out the reason behind the murder.

Classmate Loutsch picked Thomas W. Walker, who died at 25 with his brother in 1894.

"I found out from the newspaper microfilm that he died when a steam engine crashed through a bridge," she said.

Loutsch also picked a grave that simply proclaimed her "Mother" of Emma and Henry Weiddrich.

"I want to find out her name," she said.

Langel chose a 7-year-old girl, Emma Moeller, who was buried in 1887 with her brother who had died a few days earlier.

"I'm guessing it was sickness, but it could be almost anything," Langel said.

She also picked Anna Engelbrech, who died at 28 in 1862.

"She was born on my birthday," Langel said.

Kuchel, Langel and Loutsch agreed they hadn't really spent any time in the Remsen cemetery before or known there were so many historic graves there -- Schubert said there are more than 150 gravestones from before 1900.

"It's fun to see the personality that comes out through the gravestones," Langel said.

Schubert is glad her students' interest is piqued.

"One of the things I wanted with this project is for them to look at cemeteries not just as places of death, but also remembering," she said.

Schubert is hoping to find out where one or two of the people her students are researching lived.

"Maybe we could tour there homes, if they're still standing," she said. "It makes it a little more personal."

It's a different kind of history than, for example, World War I, Schubert said.

"That happened in Europe. This is here. It's much more local," she explained.

For more research, her students will meet with the historical society and look through the archives at the local newspaper, the Remsen Bell.

But they're also seeking help from the community.

We're hoping people in the community will have more leads, related knowledge to these people," Schubert said.

Anyone with information on any of the names below can contact Schubert at the Remsen-Union school.

"If they know anything, let us know," Langel said. "Even simple, little things."

Schubert's second semester freshman classes will pick up where these students' research leaves off. When it's finished, they hope to have a final product they can share.

"When I started this, I wanted to something more community-minded," Schubert explained.

Each person researched through the cemetery project will have his or her own page, all compiled into a book of sorts.

"We're going to give one to the Remsen Public Library and the school library," Schubert said. "We wanted to give something back."

Benjegerdes, Ludeweg (d.1890)

Borm, Lena (d. 1898)

Brugman, Claus (d. 1896)

Brunken, Dirk (d. 1894)

Engelbrech, Anna M. (d. 1890)

Erichsen, Dorothia (d. ??)

Oilman, Jessie (d. 1887)

Hanno, Hinrich (d. 1894)

Hansen, Anna C. (d. 1894)

Hansen, Anna M.C. (d. 1891)

Hamann, Carl (d. 1886)

Kahl, Edda (d. 1886)

Kallsen, Emme (d. 1881)

Kallsen, Laura (d. 1893)

Lang, Bodil Marie (d. 1899)

Lang, Clara M. (d. 1891)

Lang, John (d. 1892)

Lang, Mary Ann (d. 1886)

Lorenzen, J.B. (d. 1889)

Lotz, Cassie (d. 1895)

Luttmann, Emma (d. 1894)

Moeller, Emma (d. 1897)

Mohning, Katherine Maria (d. 1900)

Moser, Marie Anne (d. 1899)

Neuenschwander, William (d. 1893)

Peters, Celia (d. 1895)

Peters, George (d. 1895)

Schroeder, Emma (d. 1886)

Schudt, John (d. 1890)

Schut, Anna (d. 1897)

Siefke, Baby (d. 1894)

Sievers, Henry 0. (d. 1898)

Walker, Archibald (d. 1885)

Walker, Robert J. (d. 1894)

Walker, Thomas W. (d. 1894)

Wellendorf, Jochim (d. 1888)

Wentz, Rosa (d. 1898)

Wieddrich, Emma (d. 1886)

Wieddrich, Henry (d. 1886)

Wieddrich, mother of Emma and Henry (d. 1888)

Witt, George (d. 1885)

Zangger, Magdalena (d. 1890)