The First Meetings: Johann Wilhelm Gausman and John Baptist Bauer

John Baptist Bauer and Johan Wilhelm Gausman met in St Mary’s in either 1850 or 1851. This is the first of many to come. Travel to this isolated area in the mid 1800s is coming soon.

Early picture of St Mary’s taken in 1868 atop one of the surrounding hills. This picture can be found in the Straub Brewery book, which is part of the Images of America series.

There will be a story on each of the other three settlers, told through the eyes of Baptist.  In 1850, there was a lot of work that needed to be done if Marianstadt (St Marys) was to survive, let alone thrive.  Many of the things we take for granted simply didn’t exist.  If these pioneers didn’t work together, St Mary’s could be a ghost town instead of a small city like today.

I used AI to help with images and research, however every word I write is my own. I have a voice and AI won’t drown it out.

As stated in the last article I wrote, both of these men came to America by coffin ship. You can read about coffin ships and the trip across the Atlantic in my article