Travel Tuesday: The Schneiders' Visits to the Nagels in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico was the regular vacation spot of my 2nd-great-grandparents Carl Joseph and Christina (Nagel) Schneider. Christina's brother Mathias Joseph Nagel had moved from Jefferson City, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1891, a year before the Schneiders emigrated from Germany and settled in St. Louis, Missouri. They would bring gifts with them, and would return with gifts from Mathias and his family.

Christina (Nagel) Schneider with Mathias Nagel and his family

The Schneiders would have traveled to Santa Fe by train. They would take a train from St. Louis to Kansas City, Missouri. They would then take the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to Lamy, New Mexico. Finally, they would take a branch line from Lamy to Santa Fe. The trip would probably take a couple of days.

The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe railroad system, 1899. 

Map available at http://www.loc.gov/item/98688582/.

Photo labeled "Christina Schneider, Grandpa Schneider's mother, in Santa Fe, New Mexico"

Photo labeled "Grandma Schneider & Aunt Anne." Although my great-grandmother Paulina (Gersbacher) Schneider had a sister, Anna (Gersbacher) Taschner, "Aunt Anne" is probably Anna (Schneider) Wegman, Christina (Nagel) Schneider's daughter and the sister of Paulina's husband John Schneider. Christina (Nagel) Schneider) may also be in this photo. It looks like it was taken on a visit to Santa Fe.

Image labeled "Grandma Schneider's brother Matt Nagel scenery"

Information on Santa Fe, probably brought back by the family on one of their visits

References
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe railroad system, 1899.
Conant, Michael. Railroad Mergers and Abandonments. University of California Press, 1964.
Missouri Pacific Railway. Rand McNally, 1886.
Railroads and the Making of Modern America. Santa Fe.

52 Ancestors: Week 49 "Holidays": Mathias Joseph Nagel Decorates the Churches

My 2nd-great-grandmother Christina Nagel's brother Mathias Joseph Nagel was a landscape gardener. Their father Johann Nagel was also a gardener. Mathias came to the United States from Germany in the 1860s. He had a nursery business in Jefferson City, Cole County, Missouri by 1875. In 1891, he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. In December 1892, he contributed his gardening and landscaping talents to his new community's holiday celebration. He used green and silver-tipped cedar and mountain laurel to create Christmas decorations for the Catholic churches. He made wreaths and strings of evergreens.

New Mexican, 17 December 1892

He may have created similar decorations in other years.  He had experience planting and growing evergreens.

Gardeners Monthly, vol. 29, November 1887, page 326. Available from Google Books.

The laurel that he used was probably Texas mountain laurel. It is listed in the book Native Plants for Southern Landscapes by Judy Mielke (University of Texas Press, 1993). Texas mountain laurel grows in Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. It blooms in March and April, so its purple flowers would not have been present when Mathias made the wreaths and evergreen strings. I think the plant's white beans would look beautiful on Christmas wreaths.

Sophora secundiflora beans at the Desert Demonstration Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 2003. Photo by Stan Shebs [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)]. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

One of the churches that he probably decorated was the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. The parish was founded in 1714, and the construction of the cathedral was completed in 1887.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. 4 June 2009. Photo by John Fowler [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]. Available from Flickr and  Wikimedia Commons.

He may also have decorated San Miguel Chapel, which was built between 1610 and 1626.

San Miguel Chapel. 15 October 2009. Photo by Shiny Things  [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]. Available from Flickr and  Wikimedia Commons.

Perhaps he also decorated Nuestra Señora de Luz Church, which is 13 miles southeast of Santa Fe. The church was built in 1880.

Front of the Nuestra Señora de Luz Church, Canoncito, New Mexico. Library of Congress, Prints and Photograph Division HABS: NM,25-CANCI,1-1. Image courtesy of the federal HABS—Historic American Buildings Survey of New Mexico project (rotated and retouched). Available from Wikimedia Commons.

I do not have photos of Mathias' Christmas decorations, but this image of evergreen decorations in Santa Fe, New Mexico may help to paint a mental picture of his creations.

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo by Bill Johnson [CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)]. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

52 Ancestors: #43 Mathias Joseph Nagel

Mathias Joseph Nagel, my 2nd-great-grandmother Christina Nagel's older brother, was born on 17 March 1845 in Hürth, Rhein-Erft, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. His name at birth was Mathias Aussem. His parents, my 3rd-great-grandparents Johann Nagel and Anna Maria Aussem, did not marry until 31 August 1848. It was necessary to obtain permission to marry. At the time of his birth, Anna Maria was a widow. She had a son, Peter Esser, from her marriage to Wilhelm Esser. Perhaps Johann was not seen as being capable of financially supporting a wife, stepson, and new baby at that time. 

Mathias immigrated to the United States, and he married Mary Hill on 20 June 1873 in St. Louis, Missouri. When they married, he became a stepfather to Mary's daughter Martha, from her previous marriage to Josiah Howard. After their marriage, Mathias and Mary took a trip to Germany, probably to visit his family.  When they returned, they sailed from Bremen, Germany to New York on the Weser, and arrived on 11 August 1873. The couple lived in Jefferson City, Cole County, Missouri, and had three children together: John (born 5 March 1875), Sarah (born 11 January 1877), and Mathias (born 15 October 1878). 

Mathias worked as a landscape gardener; his father had also been a gardener. By 1875, he had a nursery business at the corner of Madison and Dunklin Streets in Jefferson City, Missouri. When the Missouri governor's mansion in Jefferson City was remodeled in 1887, he laid out the grounds. According to the September 1887 issue of the Gardeners' Monthly and Horticulturist, he had one of the most beautiful Sago palms west of the Mississippi River.

Mathias sold his nursery to Hugo Busch and Charles Purzner in 1890, and in 1891, for health reasons, he and his family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He initially leased property, but then purchased 500 acres of land. In 1892, he decorated the Catholic churches with wreaths and evergreen strings. By 1894, he was shipping caña agria (also called canaigre) to Germany. In 1899, he built a sanitarium on his property, which consisted of three five-room stone houses. Patients came to stay to regain their health.

In 1900, Mathias and his sons struck a quartz ledge with ore containing gold and copper.

In 1914, a two-page article on the Forestry Service which had been written by Mathias was published in the Congressional Record, vol. 51, pages 11517-11518.

Mathias died in Santa Fe on 11 July 1922 and was buried on 15 July 1922 in Rosario Cemetery.

Mathias Aussem birth registration. Hürth (Rheinland). Bürgermeisterei. Zivilstandsregister, 1800-1875. Geburten 1833-1845. International Film 1237622. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Genealogical Society of Utah, 1978, 1979, 1981.

Mathias Nagel and Mary Hill marriage record, St. Louis, Missouri, 20 June 1873. Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Missouri Marriage Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives. Microfilm.

New Mexican, 6 June 1891

New Mexican, 17 December 1892

New Mexican, 7 March 1894

New Mexican, 31 August 1899

New Mexican, 30 April 1900

American Forestry, vol. 20, 1914. Available from Google Books.

Mathias Nagel family, about 1910. I think my great-great-grandmother Christina (Nagel) Schneider, sister of Mathias, is also in this picture.