Kienow Family History and Heritage

Leaving their homeland was not easy. They would be leaving friends and relatives for an uncertain future. Fortunately many friends and relatives had already gone to America or were planning to do so.

The first to leave was the oldest daughter of Ludwig and Minnie Kienow, Friedrike who had married Ferdinand Pofahl. They chose to go to Rice County in Minnesota because they had other relatives and friends there.

At last the day finally came that we would start our trip to America. I was only four when Grandma Minnie Kienow left with my Aunt Emilie and Uncle Fredrich Wolf for Minnesota in 1881. Now, almost 2 years later we were about to leave. Whatever we wanted to take we had to carry with us.

The plan was to take the train to Bremen where we would board the ship to America. It was my first train ride! At least it was a lot faster then walking or riding a wagon behind the horse. The ride was quite bumpy and not real pleasant. It prepared us for the much longer train ride we would have in America from Baltimore to Minnesota.

I had never seen such a big city like Bremen before. Such big buildings and such a busy place! And then we saw the Hohenzollern, the ship we would sail on along with hundreds of other passengers. It was such a big ship that all the people in my home of Meesow would not have filled it up. It was made out of steel and had two large masts for the sails. It also had engines to move us along in the water even if there was no wind. The trip wouldn’t be nearly as long as earlier immigrants had whose ships only had sails.

The trip itself was no picnic. There were so many people on board there was no room to run around. People got seasick, the food was terrible, and it was damp and cold. My mother was pregnant and she had to put up with 5 of us kids. Sometimes we wondered if we should have stayed in Germany.