Person:Amelia Setzer (1)

She spent her early years in Germany, part of it in the family home in Glinde outside Hamburg. She was described as a “pretty little girl,” with blond hair and blue eyes like her mother. Her sister also admired her skill as a writer and poet.

They sailed for America in October 1836 from Gluckstadt, Holstein, Germany. They ran into a storm near England, so they spent Chrismas on land in England with one of her father’s business friends. Getting to America took four months total, possibly partially delayed by the drunken behavior of the captain. They arrived in New Orleans and took a steamboat up the river to St. Louis and eventually to Hermann.^[3]

Amelia was originally an ardent Lutheran and, as Oscar was Catholic, they had the traditional arrangement where she would raise the girls Lutheran and he would raise the boys Catholic. However, Oscar was not terribly religious and Amelia worried that her sons were getting no training. She approached the priest at the local Catholic church and told him she wanted to become Catholic to teach her sons, even though she would never believe in Catholicism. The priest said she couldn’t join the church, of course, but he gave her some literature to read. She eventually did join the church (baptized at St. George’s Oct 23 1865^[4]) and then trained all her children as Catholics. The baptismal records of her children follow this story.^[5]

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Setzer family bible, in possession of J.P. Morrow, Phoenix, AZ.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Death certificate of Amelia Monnig, No. 14327, in Missouri, United States. Death Certificates. (Missouri State Archives).
3. ↑ Letters from Bertha Setzer Williams to Hugo Monnig. 1913-1915.
4. ↑ St. George’s Catholic Church Baptism Records, Hermann, MO, Reprinted in Morrow’s The Monnig Family (1980).
5. ↑ Morrow, James Peter. The Monnig Family