For more than 300 years, the Fechsers lived in Weikersheim, a medieval town in the Tauber River Valley. While many of our Fechser ancestors for generations were craftsmen, including tailors and shoemakers, the name Fechser has its roots in the grapevines that have been cultivated for centuries in this wine-growing region. A Fechser (or Fexer) is a cutting of a grapevine that is used to plant a new vine.
The association of our Fechser family name with the branch from which a new grapevine will spring, to produce fruit for potentially a century or more, is very symbolic to me. It also suggests that our earliest Fechser ancestors, going back to the 1500s or even before, were likely involved in wine-growing occupations.
Here is the dictionary definition of Fechser, from a German-English dictionary published in Germany in 1765. (Note that the letter “s” looks like an “f” in this old type font.) A Fechser is defined as “a layer of a vine, a provine, or a new fine spring.” Fechser legen oder sencken means “to lay or sink your vinebranches in the ground, in order to let them take root and so to get slips or sets for new vines.”
Source: Ludwig, Christian. Christian Ludwig Teutsch-Englishces Lexicon (Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Gleditschens Buchhandlung, 1765), p. 575. Google Books. (https://books.google.com/books?id=am1pAAAAcAAJ : accessed 31 Dec 2017).
The modern German word for Fechser is Wurzelrebe, meaning “rooted vine cutting. Grapevine cuttings can either be set in the ground to grow into a new vine on the spot, or allowed to lay in the ground until they begin to take root, then transplanted elsewhere as rooted cuttings. A Fechser may also refer to cuttings used to start other plants, including cuttings of rhizomes from hops or root cuttings from horseradish.
Johann Friedrich Fechser came to the city of Hamburg in 1850 at the age of twenty-five, reuniting with his parents whom he had not seen in more than seventeen years. They had moved there in about 1832 to find a better living conditions, having been very poor as a tailor in Nassau, Württemberg. Since the age of seven, Friedrich had remained with aunt Ursula in Württemberg before apprenticing in the miller trade and working for seven years as a journeyman.
“I wrote to my father that I was tired of being away from my native country and wanted to come and see my parents again if my father thought it wisdom for me to come to Hamburg. To this he answered me directly that he wanted me to come there.”
Johann Friedrich Fechser
Friedrich found work at a cabinet maker’s shop and on December 26, 1850, married Rosina Friederica Kayser, who had followed him to Hamburg. She was from Ebersbach Germany and met him when he was a journeyman. On 17 March 1852, she gave birth to their first child, Georg Friedrich Fechser, but he lived only three months, until 21 June 1852.
That summer, Friedrich heard Daniel Garn, first mission president of the German Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, preach of the restored Gospel. He was convinced of its truth and was baptized with his wife and parents in August 1852.
“This was a source of much joy to me. I had found the way of Salvation and were united not only in relationship but in the everlasting Gospel with those whom I loved, so we had hope not only to be connected in a short time in this dark world, but to be united in all eternity in an everlasting bliss.”
Johann Friedrich Fechser
German Mission Plaque, Hamburg Meetinghouse, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Placed by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1967.
Daniel Garn established the first Latter-day Saint congregation in Hamburg on 1 August 1852. The following year, Friedrich and his wife decided to move with the Saints to Zion. His parents chose to remain in Hamburg. The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers placed a plaque in the Hamburg Latter-day Saint Meetinghouse commemorating the German Mission on the first immigrants to Zion. It reads, “The first group of 17 Saints left Hamburg on 13 August 1853 to settle in the Salt Lake Valley.” Friedrich and his wife Friederica were among them.
They sailed first to Liverpool, England, arriving on August 16th. There is no ship’s manifest for this voyage, as Hamburg Passenger Lists for indirect passage did not begin until 1854. There is, however, a mention of this journey in the Millennial Star. In Liverpool, they embarked with about three hundred Irish immigrants on the ship Rufus K. Page, departing 24 August 1853 and arriving in New Orleans on 28 October 1853.
Announcement of German Latter-day Saint immigrants in the Millenial Star, 3 September 1853
The ship manifest for the journey from Liverpool to New Orleans includes Johann Friedrich Fechser and his wife Friederica. As they and the other few German Latter-day Saint families were traveling with hundreds of Irish immigrants, they are listed as being born in Ireland.
Passenger List (excerpt), Rufus K. Page, Arriving in New Orelans 28 Oct 1853. J. F. Fechsen [sic], age 27, and wife Fredericke, age 34
Friedrich and his wife traveled with the other German Saints up the Mississippi River to St. Louis where they stayed the winter. A daughter, Emma was born in St. Louis on 28 December 1853.
In the Spring of 1854, they left St. Louis for the trek west by wagon, in the James Brown Company, departing June 18th.
They had come on this journey to “gather with the saints of the Most High in valleys of the Mountains” as Friedrich recalled, but he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley alone—a widow, bereft of children. Having already lost his firstborn son in Germany, he buried his dear beloved wife on June 21st, seven miles from Fort Leavenworth and his daughter three days later, fifteen miles from the fort. They died of cholera along with several other members of the compnay. Friedrich buried them with his own hands.
“It pleased the Lord to try the Saints who emigrated this year very hard. . . . This was a very heavy blow for me; but I will say with Job of old: The Lord gave and the Lord took, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Johann Friedrich Fechser
He spent the first winter of 1854-1855 working on the public works in Salt Lake City and lived and worked in that city for a few years. In 1859, he became one of the original settlers of Mt. Pleasant, Utah. There he made a living as a prosperous miller and and several wives and many children.
Sources:
“Arrival from Germany”The Latter-day Saints’ Millenial Star, Vol. XV, no. 36 (3 September 1853), page 587, BYU Library Digital Collections, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University (https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/MStar/id/7084/rec/15).
Beyond History, “Family Research FECHSER Report 01,” January 2016, page 2; citing Staatsarchiv Hamburg, 512-5 St. Jacobskirche A VII c 10, p. 182, No. 154/1852, George Friedrich Fechser death (21 June 1852).
Brigham Young University, Saints by Sea: Latter-day Saint Immigration to America, database online, ship Rufus K. Page, Liverpool to New Orleans 24 Aug 1853–28 Oct 1853 (https://saintsbysea.lib.byu.edu/mii/voyage/325). (Lists him as Fred Fichzer.)
Johan Frederick Fechser, “Biography of Johan Frederick Fechser,” mimeographed copy of typescript by Clyde Isaac Fechser, [of Provo, Utah, ca. 1950], page 1; privately held by Joseph B. Everett, Mapleton, UT, 2020.
Karl‐Werner Klüber, “Die ersten deutschen Mormonen wanderten 1853 nach Amerika aus: Mit Ahnen‐ und Ver‐ wandtschaftslisten des Bischofs Daniel Friedrich Lau,” Genealogie, vol. 9, issue 7 (July 1969), page 625‐638.
Johann Friedrich Fechser, who went by John Frederick in America, told his story during his lifetime. These are his own words. The provenance of this history is not precisely known. It is evident from the descriptive details and the voice of this narrative that is was told by Johann Friedrich himself. The facts, though containing some minor discrepancies, have been corroborated with historical records, evidencing the authenticity of this record. Whether he wrote it down himself by hand or dictated it is not known. At some point, this typescript copy was made, apparently by his son Hyrum. This copy was given to me by my grandfather, John Frederick Fechser (1933-1996), great-grandson of Johann Friedrich.
Maria Ursula Spörer was Johann Friedrich Fechser’s half-sister, the daughter of his mother Anna Maria Kiessecker from her first marriage to Johann Georg Spörer. She was born 11 October 1815 at the Scheinhardsmühle, a mill near Nassau and Weikersheim owned by the Kiessecker family. This research report includes background about the discovery of Maria Ursula and traces her paternal lineage for four generations.
Fechser Family History 