The Reitzel family: True German pioneers

Sarah Catherine Reitzel, wife of Henry Spoon and the great great grandmother of the author of this work, faced many challenges in life we may never fully appreciate. But thanks to a detailed family history left for us by one of her relatives, we can see how she inherited her determination.

In his account entitled "The Reitzel Family'' and passed on to Spoon family members in the 1960s, Lyman O. Adams traces the family back to Germany nearly 300 years ago. Johannes Adam Christian Reitzel served as an officer in the Spanish War of Secession and was made a baron in Germany in 1722. This was a time of upheaval and considerable change in many European nations. The birth of Great Britain through the unification of England, Wales and Scotland altered the balance of power in Europe, and families began to reconsider their way of life.

Adam Reitzel I, the baron mentioned previously, probably was too ingrained in the German culture to pull up roots. But his son, Adam Reitzel II, decided to strike out in search of a new life. In 1755, he left the family home in Westphalia, far up the Rhine River, and set sail for America with his wife Margaret and their son Adam Reitzel III, who was less than 4 years old at the time.

In order to pay for the passage of his family across the Atlantic Ocean, Adam Reitzel II worked on the ship throughout the first part of the journey. Unfortunately, he was not an experienced sailor. During a storm at sea in the middle of the trip, Adam was ordered to climb up into the rigging of the ship to help trim the sails. Before he could finish the job, the raging waters tossed the boat so severely that Adam fell overboard and was lost at sea.

An artist’s view of the Charleston port in the late 1700s

Adam's wife Margaret, devastated by the loss of her husband and facing a life alone with a toddler in a strange land, suffered the fate of many passengers who couldn't afford the trip without providing services in exchange. Upon arrival of the ship in Charleston, a port in South Carolina, Margaret's services were sold at auction to pay the balance of her passage across the ocean.

Margaret Reitzel was sold to a South Carolina land owner for cash and an unknown quantity of tobacco. There is no record of how long she was forced to work as an indentured servant or whether she was separated from her child during that time. One can only imagine what a cold, hard life it must have been.

When her time of service was completed, Margaret was allowed to take young Adam III and leave. All she knew at the time was that some relatives lived near Liberty, North Carolina, an area just a few miles southeast of the Guilford County farm lands of the Spoons.

Seeing no alternative, Margaret started out on foot in the direction of Liberty, more than 200 miles to the north. The trip covered a treacherous stretch of land marked by swamps and stagnant waters. Malaria and yellow fever had already claimed many victims in that wilderness region. We don't know what time of year this trip was made, but only springtime would've been anywhere near comfortable. Summer in that region is unbearably hot and winter brings bone-chilling cold.

In a journey that must have taken weeks, Margaret soon became tired and discouraged. Twice along the way, she abandoned young Adam and continued her journey, apparently thinking she'd never make it with the child in tow. Each time, however, she repented and returned to get her son. The story does not say whether she left the child in the care of others on those occasions or simply left him wandering by the side of the road.

Finally, Margaret and her son reached the outskirts of Guilford County, where they settled with relatives. Adam Reitzel III grew to manhood and married Katrina Moretz. They had a son, Henry, who married Catherine Moser and became the father of 13 children. One of these was David Reitzel, who was born Nov. 21, 1806 in a fast-growing community near Liberty.

David Reitzel, father of Sarah Catherine

On April 1, 1830 -- while Henry Spoon was a 9-year-old living under the care of John Spoon Jr. a few miles away -- David Reitzel married Deborah Marshall. A year later, the Reitzels became one of the early North Carolina pioneers to strike out for Hendricks County, Indiana. Then on April 22, 1834, Deborah Reitzel gave birth to a daughter, Sarah Catherine, in Pecksburg.

The couple had 10 children before Deborah died in 1849. David remarried to Suzannah Leitzman on Mar. 4, 1858 -- less than three months before his third oldest child, Sarah Catherine, married Henry Spoon.

By this time, David Reitzel had acquired a substantial piece of farm land in Hendricks County. His daughter, a faithful member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pecksburg, had what she thought was a solid marriage to a man who would care for her and her children the rest of her life. Little did Sarah Catherine Reitzel know how severely her faith would be tested in the years to come.

Douglas Spoon

16 November 2008