The Giesy Family
We Were All One Family
Our summer 2011 exhibit on the Giesy family is our latest with a focus on the lives of the Colony family members. Andrew Giesy Sr. was one of Dr. Wilhelm Keil’s earliest and devoted followers near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He and he wife Barbara and their fourteen children all played important parts in the Colony story.
Three of Andrew Sr.’s sons were evangelists for Keil and brought spiritual enthusiasm to his mission. The Giesy’s were also active in Colony business enterprises and they were always interested in politics. As much as the Giesy’s may have been responsible for the formation of the Colony they were also leaders in the decision to bring it to an end.
More about this exhibit and photosThe Zimmerman Family
With Faith and Dedication
David Zimmerman Sr. and Maria Stauffer, who married in 1830, were members of two Swiss families who met in Pittsburg and forged strong relationships that eventually led some of them to join Dr. Wilhelm Keil’s Bethel Colony in 1845. This alliance continued as well in Aurora. Since Dr. Keil originally managed a drug store in Pittsburg, and also first started to preach with the Methodist church there, we are now exploring the important influence of the Swiss heritage in the formation of Dr. Keil’s colony in and around that city. These first Swiss supporters, including the Giesy’s, provided some of the most fervent support for Dr. Keil. Without their enthusiasm it seems unlikely that the communal society could have been formed and then later maintained.
More about this exhibit and photosThe Miller Family
The Lord Has Blessed Us All
George and Mary Ann Miller were the parents of eleven children born in Pennsylvania and Mahoning County, Ohio between 1801 and 1821. Nine of these children were sons and two were daughters. Of those eleven children only Isaac did not participate in some manner in the life of Dr. Keil’s colony and that is because he died in 1839. A namesake of his, Isaac Hewitt, played a very poignant role that illustrates the sacrifices often made by people who commit themselves to an ideal. George, the patriarch, did not live to see the colony either but Mary Ann Miller lived a long life and went all of the way to Aurora with those of her children who also made that decision.
More about this exhibit and photosThe Kraus Family
We Have Everything Plenty
The family of Michael and Elizabeth Kraus and their descendants will be featured in the museum’s first exhibit for 2010. This continues our recent trend of focusing on one colony family so as to discover their broader connections to the total colony story.
Michael, born in 1801 and Elizabeth, born in 1808 were married near Pittsburg in 1829. In the early 1840’s Michael became particularly impressed with Dr. Keil and we have evidence that suggests that the vote taken to form a Christian communal society was cast at Michael’s house. Michael and Elizabeth brought their growing family to Bethel, Missouri, in 1845 where he contributed $2132.18 to the common treasury, the largest portion committed by any individual or family group.
While little is known of Michael’s life at Bethel, we do know that he and his wife had nine children, the last being a boy named William in 1854. The first four children were girls, followed by two boys, two more girls and finally, William. Mary Kraus, the eldest child, married Sebastian Giesy in 1855 and left with him for Willapa in the Peter Klein wagon Train, the migration that preceded Dr. Keil’s by one month. The people that arrived at Willapa in 1855 were greeted by the ten scouts who had selected Willapa as the site for Dr. Keil’s new “Eden”.
Gifts to the Colony
2009 Donations Enrich the Collection
Gifts to the Colony is our annual recognition of artifact contributions made to ACHS during the current year of operations. Each year descendants or others approach ACHS with an offer to contribute artifacts to our collection. While we cannot take everything offered we do accept items that enhance our total understanding of life within the Aurora Colony. Additionally we have become increasingly interested in the lives of the colony descendants and now often incorporate portions of their stories into our annual family exhibits which we have held since 2006.
More about this exhibit and photosThe Will Family
Commitment to Community
Based on the heritage of the John Will Sr. and Wolfgang Will families
When thirty individuals of the Will family, made up from the families of five brothers, arrived in Muscatine County, Iowa in late 1839 they did not anticipate that some of them would soon be committing their lives and fortunes to a Christian communal society. New emigrants from Bavaria, they first settled with other Germans who had gathered at Bloomington.
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AURORA
An American Experience in Quilt, Community, and Craft
Based on the book by Award Winning author Jane Kirkpatrick
“Aurora: An American Experience in Quilt, Community and Craft, “ opens as the featured exhibit at the Old Aurora Colony Museum February 1st, 2009 and continues through June 6th. This spectacular exhibit incorporates the original Aurora Colony artifacts that are shown in Jane Kirkpatrick’s latest book by the same name.
View Artifacts as Depicted in the Book
Scenes depicted in the book will be faithfully reproduced so that visitors will be able to use the book as an exhibit guide. Artifacts have been drawn from a variety of private collections as well as items owned by the Aurora Colony Historical Society. Those familiar with Kirkpatrick’s uncanny ability to create vivid fictional scenes will be astonished when they are able to literally take a tour through the book as they view the new exhibit. Hint: Bring your book along to enhance your experience when you tour this exhibit.
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When Do We Get To Aurora?
George Wolfer & the Building of the Colony Village
A History Through the Eyes of Two Men
This exhibit, opening July 15th and continuing through September of 2008 looks closely at the history as it was described by William Keil and George Wolfer. Largely focused on the complicated and at times antagonistic relationship that the Wolfers and Wills had with Dr. Keil, we explore some of the reasons for the challenges these families faced in retaining their belief in the colony ideals in the face of what some of them considered poor treatment from Keil.
Carving out a Community
Although William Keil had brought his first colonists to the site that he named Aurora Mills in 1856, there were less of hundred of them at the village before 1863. In that year, 250 of the colony’s best craftsmen emigrated across the Oregon Trail and began building the village. Wolfer and the others were generally stunned by what they considered the lack of progress made in carving a community out of a very large wilderness.
More about this exhibit and photosAll About Emma
Emma Wagner Giesy
By all accounts, Emma Wagner Giesy was one of the most independent minded members of the Aurora Colony—-not just among the women but also among the men. Acclaimed author Jane Kirkpatrick has fictionalized Emma’s story in a trilogy of books, with the third book’s publication coinciding with this exhibit. Research has indicated that, in Emma’s case at least, fiction does not stray far from truth.
More about this exhibit and photosIt Seemed He Was Missing
The Mystery of William Keil’s Extended Family
From his Diary
Heinrich Wilhelm Daniel, from the town of Bleicherode in Saxony, wrote the following in his diary:
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