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Neighbors Again After 100 Years
Descendants of three families who were neighbors in Germany in the 1880s are neighbors again west of Aspinwall. Although they took different paths over the 5,000 mile trip from Patersdorf, Bavaria, Germany, members of the Kasparbauer, Wanninger and Mueller families now live within 1/2 mile of each other.

Frank and Helen Kasparbauer moved to the former Guth farm one mile west and 1/2 mile north of Aspinwall in 1973. A quarter mile south of the Kasparbauer farm live William and Teresa A. Wanninger, who have lived there since 1953. Across the road to the east were Katharina (Mueller) Brandt and her children, Joe and Rosie. Katharina and her husband Joseph moved to the farm in 1931; she died April 25, 1982.

Frank Kasparbauer is the great-grandson of Sebastian Kasparbauer, who lived in Germany. Sebastian had three sons; one was Frank Xavier, who married Franciska Pfeffer and came to the United States in 1890. They settled near Templeton, where son Paul John was born. Paul John was married to Catherine Hacker in 1910, and Frank is their oldest son. He lived near Templeton until moving to Aspinwall.

Katharina Brandt, born in 1895, came to the U.S. in 1921 at the age of 26, from Germany. Her parents were John and Maria Mueller. John died in 1910 and Maria lived another 20 years in her home in Germany. Katharina was married to Joseph Brandt in 1922 and they farmed near Gray for nine years before moving to Aspinwall.

William Wanninger is the son of John Wanninger, who lived in Germany in the 1880s. John came to the United States in 1898 and William was born at Gray in 1903. William lived at Gray for the next 50 years, moving to the former Lacy farm west of Aspinwall 29 years ago.

Our Trip To Germany
Ida Roggendorf Dethlefs related this story to Dorothy Kusel. Ida passed away March 29, 1982.
In the year 1909, my father, Pete Roggendorf and family (three step-daughters, his daughter and son) sailed for Germany. We left Aspinwall July 17th.

Mr. Art Case was the operator at the depot; he made arrangements on that fast train traveling to Chicago. About 8 o'clock, the train would stop to pick us up -- the train didn't regularly stop at Aspinwall unless there were more than a couple getting on. We arrived in Chicago next morning, stayed there a couple days visiting with our mother's aunts, and then we traveled on to Michigan City, Indiana, where we enjoyed meeting for the first time and visiting with my dad's cousins. From there we went to Niagara Falls and New York and finally on to Hoboken, New York, where the next morning we got on board the steamer, the "America" that would take us to Hamburg, Germany; the trip took nine days.

It was a very pleasant trip (after getting over a little seasickness). Once in Hamburg, we took a train to Wilster, to where mother's brother was to meet us. He picked us up at the station; then we went on out to his farm. We had more relation there, so after visiting here and there, we took a train to Cologne, Germany where we boarded a pleasure boat. The boat took us up the Rhine River as far as Mainz where they were holding a Zeppelin Balloon display. After spending a few days there, we boarded another train and traveled to Berne, Switzerland and took in the beautiful sights there; we finally returned to our relatives in Schleswig-Holstein.

It took nine days of sailing back to the "good old U.S.A." The trip has never been forgotten. Today we would not get very far on the small amount of money it took to travel then -- round trip by steamer -- per adult, $120.

P.C. Roggendorf and family lived just across the railroad tracks at the first place north of Aspinwall. He came to the U.S.A. when just a boy of 10 with his father. The whole family attended school in Aspinwall. Pete was president of the school board for many years; he was also Justice of Peace for years until he finally sold the farm and moved to Manning.

ODDS AND ENDS
The 1875 census shows Hayes Township with 315 people, Iowa Township with 223, and Nishnabotna Township with 98; Crawford County had a total of 6,038 residents. In 1885, there were 792 in Hayes, 945 in Iowa, and 577 in Nishnabotna.
History of Crawford County, published in 1911