Charles Drosendahl, Hamburg > NYC, November 2, 1867

Charles (Carl) H. DROSENDAHL was born on April 11, 1837 in STETTIN, Pomerania, Prussia (now SZCZECIN, Poland). At the age of 25, Charles married Miss Minnie (probably Wilhelmina) STEDMAN of the same place. Charles and Minnie spent the first four years of the marriage in Prussia. There they had three children, two sons and a daughter that died as an infant. In 1867, Charles and Minnie traveled to America aboard the Eugenie, accompanied by their sons William (age 4) and August (age 11 months). Eugenie left Hamburg on September 14, 1867 and arrived at New York City on November 2, 1867. Even though the ship’s manifest lists their last name as DROSENTHAL, DROSENDAHL has become the accepted spelling of the name. Two additional relatives, Yoha (probably Johanna), a female, age 28, and Mina (probably Wilhelmina), a female accompanied them, age 9 months. The exact identity of these two is still not known, although it is theorized that Johanna was Charles’ sister-in-law, who either left her husband behind, or was widowed.

Charles was a veteran of a Prussian army that was fighting a series of wars in the 1860s as Chancellor Bismarck strove for unification of the German states. Soldier Drosendahl received a decoration from the hands of Prussian King Wilhelm I, who was to become the first emperor, or Kaiser, of a unified Germany two years after Charles left for America. Older members of the family refer to the decoration as "the cross." They don’t know whether it was the iron cross, traditionally Germany’s highest military decoration, or not. They do remember that the old man was immensely proud of it and wore it frequently. It was buried with him when he died after a lifetime of hard work as a farmer. Charles died on November 15, 1909 and Minnie, who was born in 1839, died in 1917.

On June 21, 1925, the children of Charles and Minnie got together for the first Drosendahl family reunion. One hundred descendants were in attendance at this reunion, and 41 were in attendance at the second reunion held the next year. These reunions continued annually, even through World War II, when it was recorded that 14 male and 1 female member of the family were in the service. The 60th (and last) Drosendahl family reunion was held on June 8, 1985 in East Aurora, Erie County, New York. At that time, there were 399 known descendants of Charles and Minnie Drosendahl.