The town hall and market plaza of Darmstadt, from a steel engraving by F. Abresch, circa 1840, around the time Marie Dressel and her brother Hermann traveled to America.
Children from Hesse-Darmstadt in traditional costume.
Floriculturist extraordinaire and orchid specialist, Frederick Dressel,
nephew of Marie Dressel Schuckmann.
Frederick's accomplishments were considered
to be so noteworthy that he was mentioned in Carl Wilhelm Schlegel's
"Americal Families of German Ancestry in the United States", published in
1918.
You can read all about Frederick's life by clicking the link in the
left-hand column.
Our Dressel clan has been traced to its earliest representative so far, Georg Dressel, born around 1700; by occupation he was a "Gerichtsverwandter", a lay member of the court or juryman, in the city of Großzimmern. From him descend generations of highly-skilled (and perhaps in today's terms) "gourmet-level" butchers. His son Johann Philipp Dressel, born about 1730, followed this trade and in 1751 he married a widow, Sophia Friderica Gegenbach, daughter of a royal chef.
Heinrich Philipp was their son, born about 1752 in Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1782 he married Catharina Elisabetha Künzel, and their oldest son Johann Philipp, born later that year, continued in the family trade, attaining the rank of "master-butcher" in Darmstadt. His grandchildren would recall that he managed one of the most highly-respected abattoirs in the city.
Johann Philipp Dressel and his wife Elisabetha Mass had three sons and a daughter, Anna
Marie, whose portrait (below left, painted in 1827 when she was sixteen years old) was said to
commemorate her presentation at court. Its existence also suggest a certain
level of family wealth.
Marie married Johann Ludwig (Louis) Schuchmann, later spelled Schuckmann, a dry-goods and embroideries merchant, in 1828. Their two children were Elisabeth Margarethe (Elise, who later married watchmaker G.W. Jatho in Charleston), 1829, and Johann Philipp, 1830.
Marie's younger brother Friedrich Hermann Ferdinand was known as Hermann. He spent some time in Darmstadt as an apprentice grocer, then set out for New York to pursue the trade in the new world. In the early 1840s he joined up with his sister's husband Louis Schuckmann, who had already emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina, and together they set up Schuckmann's Store on King Street. Louis' wife Marie and their children were to follow.
In the late 1840s Hermann returned to Darmstadt to arrange for Marie's ship passage so she could join Louis in Charleston, but on arrival back home was told that she and her two children had already embarked for America. Rather than continue to travel, Hermann settled in his home town and married Elisabeth Pattberg, daughter of Hilarius Pattberg and Magrethe Luise Schöhl, with whom he had seventeen children.
Seven survived to adulthood and the lure of economic opportunities---evidenced by their aunt and uncle Schuckmann, who were doing well on King Street---persuaded four of them to come to Charleston themselves. George, Philip, Elisabeth, and Frederick Dressel emigrated between 1874 and 1882. George and Philip went into business with their cousin Elise Schuckmann Jatho's grown offspring. Elisabeth married August Sibberns and raised a family of her own in Charleston.
Frederick had further ambitions which led him to New York City. He had a background from Darmstadt and London in floriculture, and he had a yen to pursue it seriously. After establishing himself in a series of florist shops in Manhattan, he became an expert in orchids, travelling to exotic locales in South America to collect rare varieties of Cattleya and Cyprepidium orchids.
Three other Dressel sisters remained in Germany (Susanna, Maria, and Wilhelmina) but clearly the Dressel/Schuckmann/Jatho clans kept in close touch and helped each others' families find success, in both the old and new world.