~  Siegfried Schievelbein  ~

Siegfried was born in 1817 Stöwen, Pommern, Germany. Stöwen is not far from where his two brothers were born..Some of Siegfried's children were born in Birkholz and grew up there. These are very small villages, so I'm not sure exactly where they lived and worked. But they are only a mile or so apart.

Sometime before 1848 he married Anna Lenz (sister to the wife of his brother Gotthilf). The Lenz family also came over to America and settled in the Olmos area very near the Schievelbein Family. Siegfried and Anna had 4 children. From the birth dates, the couple was already older by the time the children were born. The reason for this is unknown. . Anna died the same year (1857) the youngest daughter, Bertha was born. Perhaps she died during childbirth. 

After an unknown time, Siegfried married Wilhelmine Bartz (unknown maiden name) who had also been also been married before. Wilhelmine died in 1877 in Germany. She had at least one daughter (Auguste Martha Bartz) from her previous marriage. Auguste married Julius Briesemeister and had 2 children while still in Germany. When the Schievelbeins came to America, the Briesemeisters came with them. They arrived in Texas on Nov 22, 1878. They also first settled in the Santa Clara area, near Gotthilf's family, before moving to the Olmos area. In Santa Clara there were very few trees and lot of open pairie land. Barbed wire fences were against the law and so cattle and horses roamed freely. After giving the horses the weekend off, they were often found at Buzzard Creek on Mondays. It was a lot of work rounding them up each week. Siegfried and his children moved to the Post Oak area which had a lot of trees and they could put up a wooden rail fence. They already had Lenz relatives living in the area near Olmos, so this was a good move for them.

Siegfried joined (helped found) the Post Oak Evangelical Church located on the Neumann property. His brother Gotthilf helped found the Elm Creek Lutheran Church just 2 miles away.