A Wealth Greater than Money

If number of children contributed to a man's--or woman's or family's--wealth in the 1800s, I have several families who were very wealthy.  For this post I'm focusing on my mother's paternal grandparents, Henry and Elizabeth, who were, indeed, wealthy.  The 1900 U.S. Census records Elizabeth as the mother of 15 children.

Henry & Elizabeth Meinzen with two of their daughters,
Lula (& Charlie Sticker) and Belle (& Ben Hashman), and others

Henry and Elizabeth's known children are

1. Henry Meinzen (junior), b. 25 Sep 1870
2. William Meinzen, b. ~1872
3. Hannah Elizabeth Meinzen, b. 13 Feb 1875
4. Edward J. C. F. Meinzen, b. 5 Mar 1879
5. Marie Isabella Meinzen, b. 28 Aug 1880
6. Walter Meinzen, b. 13 Nov 1882
7. Elizabeth Wilhelmina Meinzen, b. 26 Jan 1885
8. Lula Bernesa Meinzen, b. 20 Jan 1887
9. Bertha Meinzen, b. 7 Oct 1888
10. Stillborn Infant, b. Jan 1891
11. William Carl Robert Meinzen, b. 8 Feb 1892
12. Jacob Increase Meinzen, b. 15 Dec 1893
13. Carl Nelson Meinzen, b. 3 Sep 1896
14. Naomi Faye Meinzen, b. 22 May 1898/99

You can see that there are gaps of more than two years between some births where another child could have been born and died or there could have been a miscarriage.  Without records or any other sources I may never learn when the 15th child was born.

Henry had seven sons, six daughters, and one stillborn infant who may have been male or female.

All children have the opportunity to carry on family traditions -- how birthdays are celebrated, foods that are prepared a certain way and eaten at a particular time, who sits where at a dinner table, etc.  In my mind it is a fine thing for children to carry on a tradition or two they learned at home with their parents.

Perhaps it is a broad generalization that men, in particular, hope to have sons to carry on the family name for future posterity.  If that were true for Henry, he must have been pleased to have seven sons with the possibility of grandsons to keep the family name alive through generations to come.

If children denoted wealth, then yes, Henry was a wealthy man, indeed, with seven sons and six daughters.  A wealth greater than money!


This post was written for Amy Johnson Crow's 2019 version of 52 Ancestors.  The post topic for the week was "Rich Man."

–Nancy.
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