Wenzel Anton Vogel was born in at Grulich in Bohemia on 5 Dec 1839. His parents were millers. Wenzel Vogel and Christine Beschorner married on 8 May 1862 in Saint Mary Magdelene Church at Batzdorf in Bohemia. Christine was a daughter of Anton Beschorner and Marie Beschorner (Prause). At their marriage, Wenzel was 22 years of age, and Christine was age 25 years. Wenzel and Christine Vogel settled in Batzdorf on property #145. Prior to their marriage, the property belonged to the Beschorner. They operated a guest house and farmed.

Nine children were born to Christine and Wenzel Vogel at Batzdorf in Bohemia. The oldest, Wenzel Vogel, Jr. was bon on 31 Jul 1863. The youngest, Christine Vogel was born on 27 Jan 1878.

Wenzel and Christine Vogel immigrated from Bohemia to New York in the United States of America. They sailed from Bremen on 28 Sep 1897, arriving at Ellis Island on 7 Oct 1897. They traveled on the S. S. Trave, operated by Norddeutchester Lloyd Steamship Company of Bremen. According to the S. S. Trave Manifest of Alien Immigrants, Wenzel Vogel was 58 years of age and a farmer from Batzdorf, Bohemia and Christine Vogel was 61 years of age. They stated their first destination as Des Moines to visit friends.

The 28 Sep 1899 edition of the Farnhamville Record mentions: “Mr. Vogel, a German, who bought the D. A. Evans farm a couple of years ago, is improving it by ditching and building. He has built a new double crib and is now building a tool house.”

The 1900 federal census of Reading Township of Calhoun County, Iowa enumerates the household of Wenzel Vogel, age 60 years and born in Austria, and his wife Christine Vogel, age 63 also born in Austria. Rudolph Vogel, age 24 years and born in Austria was living in his parents’ household. The 1900 census records Wenzel and Christine Vogel as immigrating to the USA in 1897. Their son Rudolph Vogel immigrated before his parents in 1892. The census records the marriage of Wenzel and Christine Vogel as occurring in 1862.

Wenzel and Christine Vogel apparently returned to Batzdorf, Bohemia before 1905 as neither are readily identified within the 1905 Iowa State Census or the 1910 federal census.

Wenzel Anton Vogel died in Feb 1916 at Batzdorf, Bohemia from injuries incurred in a lumbering accident. He is buried in the Batzdorf, Bohemia cemetery.

Sources

1900 U.S. Federal Census, Reading, Calhoun, Iowa; Roll: 421; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0031; FHL microfilm: 1240421. Images, Ancestry.com

Vogel, Tom, Vogel & Beschorner Immigration Story, artbookbindery.com, Canada, 2010.