History:

Darrell's Great-Great Grandparents were Louisa "Emelia" Kind and Heinrich "August" Schoeneberg.  They farmed in Elxleben, Germany.

They had 4 children, including their youngest son, Frederick Gustav Schoeneberg.  In 1884, when Fred was 17 years old, he traveled by Steam Ship from the port in Bremen, Germany to New York and then on to the Town of Leeds, Wisconsin.  A year later, Emelia & August joined him. 

Emelia had an Uncle named Johann Heinrich Ludwig Kind (a.k.a - H.L. Kind) already living in Portage, WI.  H.L. had arrived here in September of 1848.  He worked in the grain elevators along the Portage canal for 8 years, before opening his own grocery store.1

The farming economy in Germany was very poor in the 1880s, and many farmers chose to emigrate to Wisconsin.  There was affordable land here, and the landscape was very similar to that in Germany.  There was also an extremely large German presence here.  In fact, in 1886 there were two German language newspapers in Columbia County.