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This is generally required if you would like to hold the service at the funeral home or if you will be needing any assistance from the staff for the service. In Germany, Henrietta’s father Simon Geisenberg died April 4, 1865, at age 74. He was buried in Schwanfeld, a town about 8 miles from Bibergau, in the Jewish cemetery purchased in 1579 and used by the Bibergau Jewish community for hundreds of years. On March 20, 1826, nine months after Bessla’s death, Bessla’s younger sister Kehla, from Gunzenhausen, married Simon in Bibergau. At that time, Simon was about 35 years old, and his bride Kehla, about 25 years old.
She married Milton Votroubek on Aug. 23, 1941, in Kahoka, Mo.; he preceded his wife in death on Aug. 5, 2000. Funeral homes curate a final ceremony that provides space for guests to begin the journey through grief together. This expertise contributes to a meaningful funeral service that gives mourners a chance to say their last farewells. You may purchase flowers through the funeral home or separately, if you wish.
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Simon was a single father for 18 months following Kehla’s death. In July of 1828, little Joseph, 3-year-old son of Simon and Bessla, died. Two months later, on September 26, 1828, Bessla and Kehla’s sister Feila, called “Fanni,” married Simon in Bibergau. Described in the Bibergau records as the widower of Bessla and Kehla, Simon was now 38 years old. Simon and Fanni’s household numbered five, with three children, namely, Lazarus , 12 years, Isaac, 6 years, and Carolina, 1 year old.

When the settlement of Walnut Hills was incorporated in 1825 as the city named Vicksburg, there were twenty Jewish families living in the town. Three Jewish brothers surnamed Sartorius moved to the area in 1835, 1840 and 1845, and brought two Torah scrolls. In 1841, the Jews of Vicksburg formed a congregation called the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation of the Men of Mercy. “Other steamboats helped make life enjoyable for Madisonians. These were the huge and famous Showboats, some carrying a full complement of circus entertainment that was quite comparable to shows traveling by rail.
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In 1840, the white population of the parish was 1,210 and the black population was 3,923; by 1860, the whites in Madison Parish numbered 1,293 and the blacks, 9,863. In the years before the Civil War, the western movement was in progress, aided by steamboats on the Mississippi River. From its beginning in 1811, steamboat traffic on the Mississippi River steadily increased. Gertrude Philippsborn, a local historian of the Vicksburg, Mississippi, area concluded that people moved to Millikin’s Bend because it was the big harbor for Vicksburg and money was made there. Simon and Fanni were married for 36 years and had 11 children, born in the years 1829 to 1845. Simon Geissberger, born about 1790 in Bibergau, was the son of Marx and Jenta Geissberger.
Low Rau possibly died before 1818, as a grandson was named for him in 1818. Henrietta likely never knew or could remember any of her grandparents. One of the old towns in Bavaria was Gunzenhausen, a town established in 1349. In the late 1700s, one family living in Gunzenhausen was the Jewish family of Loew Rau and his wife Jannet. Loew Rau was a Levite, so he is named in some records as Loew Levi.
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The site was the scene of heavy and important fighting in the siege of Vicksburg in 1863. The brothers were so upset that, when the opportunity arose to sell the land to Temple Anshe Chesed as a cemetery, they sold it, in August 1864. In spite of the growing prosperity of the area, Henrietta had lost all her property during the war and was unable to raise sufficient money to meet the expense of taking testimony for her claim. Did Henrietta and her son travel to Vicksburg for the auspicious occasion of the dedication of the new Temple? If she did, was she overcome with feelings upon hearing Jewish hymns sung in her native German language.

They had elephants, menagerie, ring performers and everything else comprising a circus. It often took a day and a half to disembark and set up the show. In addition to the Yiddish name given to her at her birth, Jandel had two other personal names in her life.
The Isaac Geisenberg family moved to Trenton, Louisiana, in the early 1860’s where Isaac died in 1863. Isaac’s widow Harriet remarried and shortly thereafter was again widowed. Harriet resumed the use of the name Geisenberg for the rest of her life.
In 1880 most of the inhabitants of Milliken’s Bend relocated to a new site one mile west of the old town, due to encroachment by the river. The original site of Milliken’s Bend has ceased to exist since the last family left in 1916. The Joe Witherow family left the “old” Bend in 1910, the next to last family to leave. Henrietta’s daughter Bettie, attending school in New Orleans, met James “Jim” Witherow, the younger brother of Joe Witherow. Jim came to New Orleans from Ireland in 1856, worked on the NO & Jackson Railroad under Union General Ben Butler during the war, and continued to follow railroading after the war. Bettie, age 15 years, and Jim, age 28 years, eloped, marrying in New Orleans on May 23, 1873.
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Bibergau, which means “Beaver District,” is a few miles east of the larger town or city of Wurzburg, in Bavaria. Wurzburg had been a principal Jewish community since the year 1000 CE. By 1816, Bibergau had a population of 499, of whom 131 (26%) were Jews. Loew and Jannet had sons named Moses and Jacob and daughters named Bessla, Kehla and Feila. Creating funeral cost comparisons and estimates for custom funeral packages is available to Funerals360 Premium Members.
Sadness hit the family only a few months later, with the death of Low Griebel, 8 years old, in November of that year. In March 1827, only weeks shy of her first wedding anniversary, Kehla gave birth to a daughter they named Carolina. Henrietta’s first grandchild, Bettie and Jim’s daughter Henrietta Jane Witherow was born July 18, 1874, at Waggaman, La. The following year, Henrietta’s first grandson Joseph Francis Witherow was born in December 1875. Did the new grandmother, perhaps with her daughter Jennie, make trips to Waggaman to help the new mother and cuddle the new babies? Given that Bettie was only 16 years old at the birth of her first child, I suspect that she did.
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This is the fee for the services the funeral home will provide during a visitation or viewing. This is generally required if you would like to hold a viewing and visitation at the funeral home or if you will be needing any assistance from the staff. Henrietta’s daughter Bettie, 14, was attending school in New Orleans. Jewish settlers also came to the Vicksburg and Millikin’s Bend area. They came overwhelmingly from German areas, such as Bavaria, Baden, Alsace-Lorraine, but also Prussia. If you are thinking about sending funeral flowers to a family who have a loved one here, you can send out funeral flowers to Vigen Memorial Home today.

That entry, made no earlier than 1857 but perhaps much later, records Moses Geisenberger’s birth in May 1816 in Bibergau. The same Bible records Henrietta Geisenberger’s birth in 1820 in Traustadt. No father’s name is given in the Bible for Moses or Henrietta. Again, the Bibergau register does not support the birth of any child to Simon in 1816 or 1820. As adults, Henrietta’s children Bertha Witherow, Jennie Witherow, and Louis Bowers pursued Henrietta’s claim for property taken without compensation by the Union army during the war. The government file does not reflect the disposition of the claim.
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