William “Bill” (in childhood also called “Willie”) Eggers is connected through marriage relationships with a great many other members of the Calumet German Band (see box below).
He was one of 11 children of Claus Friedrich Eggers (1849-1913) and Kathryne “Katie” Rochel (1849-1932), both born in Germany, who emigrated with seven of their children around 1885. In a familiar migration pattern for many German immigrants to Iowa at this time, the family stopped first in eastern Iowa (Scott County), then Tama County, where William “Bill” was born, before moving further west.
The 1900 census shows the family, comprising Claus, Kathryne, and six children, living in Liberty Township of O’Brien County. By 1910, Claus and Kathryne were living in the town of Calumet with their two youngest daughters (Katie and Ella); older children had married and established their own households. Among these was William’s younger sister Amanda (1884-1938). She and her spouse Edward W. Meier (1878-1913), during their brief eight years of marriage before Edward’s early death, had settled on the Liberty Township farm of Edward’s father, William Meier (1844-1936), who in 1891 had been a founding member of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Calumet.
Six months after this Calumet German Band photo was taken, on 28 January 1910, Bill Eggers married Dora Maria Dreessen (1888-1981) in Paullina. Dora had been born in Germany and had emigrated with her parents, Johann Hans “John” Dreessen (1843-1903) and Sophie Magdalena Zornig (1846-1932) in 1892.
The young couple initially farmed in Liberty Township, where their first two children, Viola Sophia (1910-1992) and Evelyn (1912-1989), were born, but by 1914 they had moved to South Dakota where they farmed near the town of Rowena in Minnehaha County for the remainder of their lives. This move apparently coincided with that of other family members, including Bill’s parents, Claus and Kathryne.
On the Rowena, South Dakota, farm, Bill and Dora raised their girls Viola and Evelyn as well as five additional children: Earl John (1914-2008), Helen Dorothy (1917-2008), Gladys (1920-1990), William Dale (1924-2005), and Merle Charles (1927-1996).
Incidentally, among Bill Eggers’s brothers was Claus Fred Eggers (1879-1949), who served as both a South Dakota state representative and a state senator.
The large family of Claus and Kathryne Eggers produced significant numbers of Eggers descendants in Iowa, South Dakota, and elsewhere. At Kathryne Eggers’s death in 1932, she was survived by 59 grandchildren and 44 great-grandchildren.
For Bill and Dora, most of their children and their families stayed within the close region of northwest Iowa and southeast South Dakota, and many continued in the farming tradition:
• Viola returned to Iowa upon her marriage to Calumet-area farmer William Jacob Faust (1908-2000) in 1931.
• Evelyn married another O’Brien County resident, Clarence Reinholt Strampe (1911-1982), and after living for a short time near Paullina they eventually farmed in South Dakota near Bill and Dora’s farm.
• Earl married Hazel Alice Schliemann (1915-2019) and spent his farming career working with his father and several other South Dakota farmers.
• Helen married Mervin Christian Anderson (1913-2006), who also farmed in South Dakota.
• Gladys and her husband Carrol J. Stevenson (1919-2007) settled in Sioux Falls.
• William and his wife Maxine Estella Hall (1926-2014) also established themselves in Sioux Falls.
• Only the youngest son, Merle, who served in the U.S. Air Force, moved away from the Midwest, to Prince George’s County, Maryland.
William and Dora Eggers are buried in Beaver Valley Lutheran Cemetery, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Subscribers to Ancestry.com may wish to further explore some family connections of Bill Eggers by accessing an Ancestry profile page (within the context of a “Mugge Family Tree”).
Connection to Other Band Members
There are a remarkable number of connections between Bill Eggers and other members of the Calumet German Band. Through cousin or marriage relationships he was connected to more than one third of the entire band.
• Bill was the first cousin to brothers Harry Detlaf Rochel (1883-1965) and Charles Hans Rochel (1888-1967). Bill’s mother, Kathryne Rochel, was the sister of Peter Holmer Rochel (1855-1942), father of Harry and Charles.
• Within three years after this photo, Bill would become the brother-in-law of band members William Anton Shafer (1888-1954) and Ernest Paul Shafer (1891-1964). As detailed on their biosketch pages, brothers William and Ernest married two of Bill’s sisters — Ella Eggers (marriage to William in 1911) and Kathrine “Katie” Eggers (marriage to Ernest in 1912).
A schematic, available here, illustrates these cousin and in-law relationships.
• In another in-law relationship, Bill Eggers would become related to the third set of brothers in the band — John Mehrens (1889-1941) and Albert Mehrens (1891-1957). Bill’s niece Alice Meier (1906-1982, daughter of Amanda Eggers and Edward Meier), in 1924 married Elmer William Mehrens (1897-1955), who was John and Albert’s brother. See a schematic of this relationship.
• Bill would also eventually become the father-in-law of the nephew of his bandmate Henry Jacob Lorenzen (1890-1976). As noted above, Viola Eggers, daughter of Bill and Dora, married William Faust in 1931. William Faust’s mother, Henrietta Wilhelmina “Henny” Lorenzen (1876-1952), was a sister of Henry Lorenzen.
• Finally, through the Eggers-Faust connection above, Bill Eggers would also be distantly related to band member Henry W. Mugge (1891-1967). Viola Eggers’s brother-in-law, Carl Henry Faust (1913-1986), married Gladys Caroline Mugge (1916-2000) in 1936. Gladys was the daughter of Henry Mugge’s brother Harry Dietrich Mugge (1893-1956) and Frances Catheryn Schimmer (1892-1919).
These last two connections are shown on a schematic for easier comprehension.
Connection to the Mugges
To expand on the connection noted above between Bill Eggers and Henry Mugge, Gladys Mugge was the sister of Clarence John Mugge (1915-1989) and Delbert Herman Mugge (1918-1990) and the half sister of Gordon Harry Mugge (1943-1976). (Following Frances Schimmer’s early death, Harry D. Mugge married Viola Ida Withoelter (1908-1980) and had an additional son, Gordon.) Gladys Mugge and Carl Faust were the parents of Carol Faust (1940-2022), Don H. Faust (1940-2002), and Cindy Faust (b. 1951).