Welcome to the
Sourwine Family History

A Far Away Land

Once upon a time in a faraway land called Germany there was a village named Spitzaltheim. So tiny was the village that it rarely appeared on maps - deplorable lack of insight thought the genealogist frustrated in her search for antecedents. Worse, somewhere along the way, they lopped off that part of the name that envisioned brass cuspidors, leaving Altheim.

Altheim's billing on maps improved a little but only a little. Complicating matters, Germany claims at least seven towns named Altheim. Fortunately, only one had been called Spitzatheim in earlier days.

Iowa Sourwines could with some vigor disagree with Altheim's low ranking among German map makers. For here resided over 400 years ago the first known Sourwine, known in the old country, of course, as Sauerwein. Holding honors as the first known ancestor in our direct line was one Nikolaus Sauerwein who graced the scene from 1617 to 1689.

According to Lyman Sourwine, who visited there before his death, Altheim remains small, its shops and houses clustered around the spired Lutheran church which has stood there for centuries. A chance meeting in Riverside, CA with a German immigrant who had lived there for a couple of years left the impression that the community lacked activity--- a place where they rolled up the sidewalks at dusk. Lyman also visited the church cemetery where he photographed gravestones bearing the name Sauerwein, all of recent vintage. He also met a local Sauerwein but the language barrier precluded a meaningful exchange. It is believed, however, that all Sauerweins living in or around Altheim are related to our clan.

Certainly prolific if not lusty, Nikolaus sired 10 children, one of whom was Wendel Sauerwein, 1648-1729. He married Anna Rosina May, 1646-1672, and they had two children, the oldest of whom was George Sauerwein, 1669-1740. He and his wife, Anna Maria Kuhn, produced six children. The baby of that family, Johann Christian Sauerwein, 1711-1760, grew up to marry an Elizabeth Sennert. Their two two children were Johann Peter, 1746-1806, and Johann Nickel Sauerwein, born in 1774. Johann Nickel married Anna Katharine Loffler. Of their three children one son is of the most significance: this was Johann Wendel Sauerwein 2, born in 1806 in Altheim. Migrating to America in 1837, Wendel, as we shall call him, was the head of the Sourwine family in Iowa. Wendel had married Christine Luise Funck in Altheim. Four children were born to them in Altheim: Johann Georg, 1827; Anna Maria, 1830; Valentin, 1833; and Katharina, 1835. They all accompanied Wendel to America. It is unclear about Wendel's wife. Did she die at sea, or after arriving in this country? All that is known is that Wendel later remarried.

Before we march the family aboard the ship that would carry it to the United States, let's digress for a few minutes to relate what little is known about the Sauerweins in Altheim.

From church and town records, Pastor Helmut Walter, our researcher, was able to place Sauerweins in Altheim as early as 1563. The fading church records, for instance, show family members as parishioners as early as 1667. Court records reveal that a Hans Sauerwein was the victim of an assault in 1563. In the late 1500's Heinrich Sauerwein's bride, Margareth, was taken to court with another women when a Peter Fries complained that they permitted their sheep to graze in his garden. Found guilty, the ladies were ordered to pay damages to the sinned - upon Herr Fries. In another case, an Adam Sauerwein alleged that Hans Werner called him a liar and a swindler. Werner would; not admit to slander in court so the judge called a timeout to review the matter--- with no results ever reported.

In 1613 Michel Sauerwein reported that he had lost some flax (several Sauerweins were linen weavers). Heinrich Dorr was suspected of complicity but a search of his house revealed no stolen property.

Taxes are nothing new. In 1680 Nikolaus Sauerwein, a farmer, paid 70 florins in personal taxes. According to the same records, he owned a farm and dwelling with a taxable value of 130 florins, another old dwelling valued at 45 florins, and empty lot next to the church and other property. His property value was fixed at 519 florins and included cows, calves and pigs.

A son of Nickolaus, Wendel, paid 70 florins in taxes. He owned a farm, a dwelling and an empty lot. His livestock included two oxen, two cows, one pig and three beehives. Wendel's real property value was assessed at 370 florins but he owed 120 florins borrowed during church construction.

We don't know how all of the Sauerweins made a living in Altheim. Some were farmers. Georg (1669-1740) and his son, Christian (1711-1760) were linen weavers. Since it was common to pass their trades to sons, others, including Wendel, may have followed that occupation or, since his father was a farmer maybe he farmed as well.

None of the Sauerwein graves located by Lyman Sourwine in Altheim were terribly old. He learned that because of space scarcity in Germany (after all they have been burying people for 100's of years) gravesites are rented to families for specified periods of time, as short as 25 years in some cases. At the end of the lease a family (if still around) may renew the lease. Otherwise the burial plot may be leased to others, resulting in the disinterment of the older remains. Fortunately, as is the case in Altheim, church burial records remain intact.

Wendel's house still stands in Altheim. Pastor Walter located and photographed the structure. It looks surprisingly modern but it is believed that some kind of siding covers the original stone and wood walls. Sauerweins occupied the house as early as 1792 and continued to live there for a number of years after Wendel lived there.

We left Wendel and his family and his parents boarding a ship for the voyage to the new world. The family either sailed on the ship Baltimore or landed in Baltimore. Whichever, they made it to this country, eventually settling near Belleville, Illinois. Less is known of the family in this stage of their migration than about its life in Germany; a notable exception being Wendel's marriage to Helena Carman on January 1, 1842, in St. Clair County, Illinois. The name Helena, we concluded, was derived from Magdalen. Presumably she was a widow having been earlier married on October 27, 184l to a Thomas Carman. Her maiden name at that marriage was Jacobs.

Their first son, Bernard, was born on February 6, 1843, probably at or near Belleville. A second son, William, was born in or near Burlington during 1845. Other than Wendel's identification as the father on the baptism certificates at St. John's church in Burlington, there is no other known record of his presence in Des Moines county.

Clarence Sourwine recalled hearing that Wendel was a drayman on the Burlington river front. Family memories have Wendel dying of Cholera during an epidemic in 1849 or 1850. Reportedly he was buried with other victims in a common grave in Smith cemetery near Division street in Burlington. When school construction required disinterment of the bodies in the cemetery, some of those unidentified ended up unmarked in Potter's field at Aspen Grove Cemetery. Clarence Sourwine also recalled being told that some remains were dumped into the Mississippi river.

Neither Wendel nor his wife appeared in the 1850 Iowa census. In fact there is only one Sourwine listed. This was a 16 year old Mary Sourwine living with a Coolbaugh family in Burlington. None of Wendel's other children were mentioned. An Anna Maria Sauerwein was listed in St. John's Church records for 1869-1870 as being the deceased mother of Johannes Klein who was marrying Barbara Braunberger. Marriage records in Burlington list the union of a Mary Sauerwein with John Douglas on June 15, 1851.

Many in the family believed that the Sourwines owned a home on South Fifth street in Burlington. An exhaustive search of City property and abstract records in 1983 disproved this recollection. The home actually belonged to Tom Tressel, whom Helena (or Magdelen ) married in 1851 at St. John's Catholic Church. She lived there, presumably with Bernard and William, after her marriage to Tressel.

Helena's last known record was a census report in 1856 which showed her as being widowed for a year. After that, she disappears. Search is underway to consider the possibility that she married for a third time after the 1856 census.

So far as is known, the Sourwines had always been of Protestant faith. Helena was Catholic. It was surprising to learn during a search of St. John's Church records that Bernard and William Sourwine had been baptized as Catholic in 1850, There is no record that either followed that religion in later life. By the 1860 census, Bernard was living with his older brother, Valentine. William is not mentioned.

There also was a family legend that Wendel had five sons, one of whom reportedly remained in Belleville when the Sourwines moved to Iowa. Wendel actually had only four sons, none of whom remained in Illinois. Helena and Tom Tressel had a son, John Tressel, who became half-brother to Bernard and William. The two younger sons of Wendel remained close to John Tressel throughout their lives. John in fact helped build more than one Sourwine home including Bernard's in Burlington and houses for William and Harvey Sourwine near Sullivan Slough.

Family history in those early years after Wendel's death is hazy. Bernard and William stayed with Helena after her remarriage to Tom Tressel, where their older brothers, George and Valentine, lived is unknown. Did they continue any relationship with their step-mother. Clarence Sourwine recalled hearing from his father, Bernard, that life wasn't happy for he and his brother, William, and they left the home as soon as they could. An 1856 census shows them still with their mother. As mentioned earlier Bernard was living with Valentine in 1860.

That Wendel's oldest son, George, was married twice is a matter of family record. Was there an earlier marriage? Des Moines County marriage records indicate that a George Sourwine married a Mary Miller in August of 1847. At that early date there were only a few Sourwines in the County and so far as is known only one George Sourwine. Yet, there is no other known record of this event in family history or memory.

On October 2, 1853 George married Anna Katharina Sauer, sister to Johann Philip Sauer, who was to become the maternal grandfather of Bernard Sourwine's children. Three children, Henry, Mary Jane and Clara Ann were born before Anna Katharina died on July 29, 1866 reportedly of blood poisoning. This left him with young children and that same year he remarried to Anna G. Johnson and they became the parents of George Henry, Elva, James, Wilburn Oliver, Lydia and Reuben.

Early on George was buying property. In 1860 he acquired the historic Jimtown site and 195 acres near Danville. Jimtown had been a stage coach stop hotel on the plank road running between Burlington and Mt. Pleasant. Bernard Sourwine farmed the plot and all but one of his children were born there. Later, Ollie and Clara Sourwine took over the farm, several of their children being born there as well.

By 1873, according to early county maps, George and Valentine owned considerable land holdings south of Burlington, some of it singly, other plots jointly. Andreas historical Atlas of Iowa in 1877 described George as a boatman. At one time he also owned most of Big Island in the Mississippi and became a successful wood merchant, selling hundreds of cords of wood each year. At his death he still owned between 600 and 900 acres on the island.

Big Island was identified as Sourwine island on a map that used to hang in the courthouse in Burlington. Valentine Sourwine and Philip Sauer also had holdings on the island.

Harry Sourwine related that George hid gold coins in a heavy piece of timber he used as a door stoop outside of his house. He drilled holes in the wood, dropped in coins, then plugged up the holes. A pack of ferocious dogs helped to guarantee the safety of the hideout.

The family name has been spelled in more than one way. It was Sauerwein in Germany, Americanized to Sourwine in Iowa. Some early tax records for George and Valentine spelled it as Souerwine. For 1865, George paid income taxes of $33.35 while Valentine got by with $12.05.

George Sourwine was one of the founders of Spring Grove Methodist Church. The church was built on land donated by John Patterson, uncle to William Sourwine's wife, Harriet. George was on the building committee for construction of the chapel in 1869.

Regrettably, less is known about Valentine Sourwine, the second son of Wendel and Christine Louise Funck and born in Altheim on January 4, 1833. He of course came to this country with his family in 1837, probably living with his older brother George, after Wendel's death. By 1860, however, census records show him living independently with his own family. Valentine was known to many as Wallace, possibly a nick name, as this is not reflected in church records of his birth in Altheim. On July 25, 1857 he married Elizabeth Pash. Ten of their children survived to maturity. His children were John, George William, Edward, Frank, Bergie, Virgie, Albert, Walter, Horace and Valentine. His first child, Mary Ellen died as a baby. Albert passed away at age 15 and Valentine at age 17.

Along with farming and lumbering, Valentine and his sons also serviced the channel lights or beacons along their portion of the Mississippi river in the latter half of the 19th century. The hilltop upon which Valentine and some of his family are buried (Sourwine cemetery) served also as lookout point from which to watch for river steamers needing boiler firewood from the wood lots maintained by George and Valentine.

John Sourwine, one of Valentine's sons owned and operated the river steamboat Eloise, alto called the Pretty Pauline, with Capt. Thomas Peel. The craft was built in Harmar, Ohio and after years of service was dismantled at St. Louis in 1930. John also was a county supervisor at one time.

Burlington historian and author Philip Jordan wrote about Burlington history in his book, "Catfish Bend." In one passage he related how John Sourwine and a brother shot 68 ducks in one day during March 1890.

Valentine, on August 30, 1897, was the first of the brothers to die and is buried on the hill near where his home stood at Sullivan Slough.

The first child of Wendel's, second marriage, Bernard, was born in or near Belleville, Illinois, although an Iowa census of 1856 lists him as a native of Iowa. After Wendel's death he presumably continued to live with his mother, as did William. By 1860, as mentioned earlier, he lived with Valentine.

By now you probably are thinking: "Hey, his name wasn't Bernard. It was Benhard, Benhart, Bernhard or even Barnhart." Bernard was chosen for this history because that is the name shown on his baptismal certificate. At his death on 31 March 1914, two different newspaper obituaries identified him as Bernard and also Benhard. One called him Sauerwein, the other as Sourwine. Take your choice.

After his marriage in 1869 to Catherine Sauer, Philip Sauer's daughter, Bernard farmed George Sourwine's property at Jimtown. All of their children were born there except the youngest, Clarence, who was born at the Sauer family home on Summer Street Road. One daughter Josephine was buried in a cemetery near Danville, Iowa. His surviving children were Benhart, Charles, Anna, George Edward and Clarence. Two children, Josephine and Harry, died before age five. A son, Lewis, was nearly 15 when he died.

When Philip Sauer died on July 26, 1910, his daughter Catherine, Bernard's wife, inherited the Sauer property located across from what is now the Burlington airport. The family moved there and here Bernard started the dairy which was continued in operation by his sons, Ben and Charles after his retirement. Upon retiring, Bernard built a two story brick house in Burlington which is still standing.

"The hills were still inhabited by the Indians and trains had not been extended west of the Mississippi." when William Sourwine, last of Wendel's sons was born on September 1, 1845, presumably in or near Burlington. This was the comment in a newspaper obituary at his death in 1921 at age 76. Tragedy followed him throughout his life. An accidental gunshot took his left leg when he was 18. His wife died in childbirth 34 years before his death. A son, William Henry Sourwine, who farmed with his father, drowned under unknown circumstances on May 19, 1911. Some family members thought that he had been murdered but an inquest returned a verdict of " accidental" Another son, Harvey, died of pneumonia on November 7, 1915. A lumberman who rafted cut trees on the Mississippi, his death was attributed to the constant exposure to the elements.

William was married to Harriet Patterson, the union resulting in three sons, William Henry, Harvey Benhard, and Louis Emery, all of whom were born in Henderson county (at Shokokon) in Illinois. For much of his life he farmed and was engaged in commercial fishing and logging near Sullivan Slough in Iowa.

Half brother to Bernard and William Sourwine, John Tressel was close to them but is relatively unknown to younger members of the family. A carpenter, he built houses for William and Harvey Sourwine at Sullivan Slough south of Burlington. He also was a founder of the Hawkeye Natives Society and his picture, with other founders, hung on the wall in 1983 inside Hawkeye Log cabin in Crapo Park.

No history of the Sourwine family could be complete without attention to Philip Sauer. His sister, Katherina, married the elder George Sourwine. His daughter, Catherine, married Bernard Sourwine-- so a family connection existed on both sides of the clan.

Philip was born May 3, 1825 in Geilshausen, Germany, the third child of Johann Heinrich and Anna Maria Kausz. His father was a tailor. The family (perhaps minus the father) migrated to America arriving in Burlington in 1835. In census and other records the family name initially was written as Sowers or Sour.

Philip and George Sourwine were partners in many business ventures over the years. Both had holdings on Big Island. In later years Philip acquired property at the end of Summer Street in Burlington, across the road from the present airport. It was at this location that Sourwine & Sons dairy originated.

There were other Sauer families in Burlington but to date we have been unable to connect them to Philip.