Katharina Kerber with son, Heinrich Ludwig Kerber 1883 or 1884 after her arrival from Westpruessen to Buchanan County, Missouri.
I have uncovered very little about Peter Kerber; only his name on the death certificate of one of his children. Men very often remarried several times after wives died from childbirth etc. At this point, I am only guessing that Katharina (born August 15, 1818) was his only wife. Family history, passed down, said that Peter was killed in a flood when a dyke broke which held back the Baltic Sea and that this place was located in Westpruessen (West Prussia).
Quite by accident, I found a website containing a paragraph that gave me the actual year of the flood. Below in green I have copied verbatim in green font.
"The German coasts are located in the zone of predominant westerly winds due to their geographic position on approximately 55-degree northern latitude. Storms from south-westerly directions can become violent at the North Sea coast and often cause heavy tidal storm surges that can lead to high water levels of 4 m above MSL combined with a heavy sea state, especially in bights. In 1962 more than 300 people died due to a storm surge at the German coast of the North Sea. The Baltic Sea has nearly no tidal influence, but north-easterly storms can cause high water levels of more than 3 m above MSL, as happened in 1872, when more than 60 people died. Serious erosion problems exist at the German coastlines of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Mean erosion rates of about 1 m per year occur. Today, many coastal areas are located within national parks or nature reserves with strict regulations often leading to conflicts with the needs of settlements, agriculture, and recreation." Katharina would have been 54 but she somehow survived the flood that is still remembered to this day for its devastation.
A 1872 map of the Westpruessen coastline showing the names of villages, towns or cities. Some of these villages, towns and cities now have polish names. I have new information, however, that Herman's family, which included Katharina, was living in Berlin before they left Hamburg for America. Berlin is a little over 250 miles away from Danzig (Gdansk). I can understand why the family would move away from the coastline to a inland city like Berlin.
Wherever they lived, Peter and Katharina ran a hostel (hotel) 
that may have looked something like
these in Gdansk. They would have been apart of the merchant class in their
society. The surname Kerber,
a variation of Korber, is an old one; the occupational name for
basket maker.
Besides raising their children and making a living, their lives would have also been centered around their worship of God. At what time, our Ashkenazi Jewish Kerber ancestors became Christians I do not know. It would have depended under which German Prince and the social pressure under which they lived. I believe it can be safely assumed that by the time of Peter and Katharina's lifetime, they were apart of the Prussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church) - the "old" Lutheran branch from the time before the 30 Years War. Since their children were founding members of St. Paul Lutheran Church in St. Joseph, MO; it's only reasonable to believe that their parents were Protestants in West Prussia. Church records from those villages and towns would yield better information for Peter and Katharina than civic records.
We know that the couple had at least 3 children who lived to adulthood.
Herman was born in 1845 - Henry in 1856; an eleven year difference. It's safe to assume that there were children born in between those years given the fact that all families had many children unless there was a problem with fertility. However, it was very unusual for all children in a family to make it to adulthood and beyond due to disease, accidents, wars etc. Frederick was born three years after Henry. That would have been a normal interval between pregnancies. It is possible that there were daughters who married and stayed in Germany but I don't believe that's the case. It's highly unusual to see children's names carved into the gravestone of the parent, which was done on Katharina's stone. So for these reasons, I believe this was the whole family living at the time Katharina left Westpruessen.
I have not found Henry's immigration history who I think may have been the first to leave West Prussia. As you will read on his page, Fritz came next in 1881 and then Herman left with his family and Katharina in 1884.
This document
is the passenger list from Hamburg, Germany showing Katharine's departure with
her oldest son Herman's family 1884, although her name was misspelled and
shortened to Catha. She was 65. The list shows that their residence
was in Berlin
before leaving on the
S S Rugia 1 Hamburg
America Line.
This document shows the family arriving in New York on the Rugia, April 2, 1884.
Their immigrations records will most probably be found among those from
Castle Garden, New York
immigration station.
Once in
Buchanan County, Missouri,
Katharine
chose to stay rather than go on to California with Herman. The picture
above shows her standing with her youngest son and my direct ancestor, Henry,
not long after her arrival and before her death. I'm sure she had little
choice in staying in Germany with her husband dead and her sons in America, but
it's amazing to me that this woman who was my Great-Great Grandmother was tough
enough to live through a flood, make the long trip by ship across the Atlantic
Ocean, go through the grueling process of Ellis Island, and travel overland from
New York City to Buchanan County, Missouri. Also I believe that along the
way, she had to endure the loss of a daughter-in-law, Auguste and granddaughter
Helene. She was amazing.
It would have been human nature for her to want to stay in West Prussia if she had any other choice. It is this fact that makes me almost positive that she had no other living children with whom she could have lived out her life. Records from St. Paul Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod show entry #8 Katharina Kerber died January 21, 1885 with the funeral service held on the 25th. Her age was 66 years, 5 months, and 6 days. Carol, the church contact said that the cause of death is written but she could not read it. I want to thank her for her provision of facts.
She is buried in
Ashland Cemetery,
which was begun as the church's cemetery located on Ashland Blvd. in St. Joseph,
Buchanan County, Missouri under a finely engraved red granite headstone engraved in
the German language.
