Person:Barbara Fredericka Teusch (1)

Friedarika Barbara (Grossmutter) came to America at age 70 to live with her daughter, Karoline C. Winterbauer. She died at the age of 92. Friedarika had one sister but we are unsure of any other siblings. She was married at age 27 to Johann Winterbauer, who was considedred a well -to-do land owner. He took her as a bride to a very nice, stone wall house closed in by a high brick fence which you can still see standing in pictures today. Evelyn Horstman, a cousin, visited the relatives in Sulzfeld in the 1960's and took pictures of this house. It is still there and used for storage and the present owners have built a new home. The stone wall has a bit of history. During one of the uprisings, Grossmutter and her family fled to safety by climbing over that wall. In their haste they dropped Louise, and it was said that she capitalized on the situation her entire life to beome a full fledged hypochondriac. She was quite a character - never got out of bed until her husband brought her a cup of coffee. She always wore a nightcap or hood trimmed with fine lace. She would stay in bed for weeks on end but if a wedding came up with a dance, she would put her dress on over her nightgown and dance the night away, then back to bed to recover. Her favorite, common expression was, "I'm so sick; I think I'm dying," but she lived to be past eighty leaving the family some very beautiful, hand made lace.

Just out of Sulzfeld, one can still see the ruins of Ravensberg Castle. It was the home and property of the Von Galers, one time Feudal Lords. When Grossmutter was mararied, they were flat broke. Their land had been requisitioned by the government. Grossmutter was their new neighbor, so Mrs. Von Galer sent word for Grossmutter to come see her, which Grossmutter did. Mrs. Von Galer wanted to give Grossmutter a wedding gift. Since they had no money, she went to her pantry and selected some used pieces of pewter: 12 dinner plates, a platter and the soup tureen with a ladel. Later Grossmutter gave the plates to her son Karl, the platter to Karoline C. Winterbauer who left it with a neighbor in France and the soup tureen to Louise who brought it to this country. When Louise's husband died, she gave the tureen to Frieda who had it for years as parat of her family inheritance. At the time of this typing (3/17/2009) the tureen still sits in a place of honor in Frieda's china cabinet in the home of Stanley Beal.

1.   Friedarika was called "Grossmutter" to distinguish her from the other Grandmothers.