The Hass/Ranschau Families of Sioux County, Iowa

James and Dorthea Hass

James Hass was born in 1880 in Vadersdorf, Holstein, Germany. He was one of five children of Henry and Margaretha (Baut) Hass. At age twelve, he moved with his parents to America and settled in Gladbrook, Tama County, IA, where he went to school. He later moved to Superior, Dickinson County, IA; where he did four years of farming and married Dorothea Wendel in 1905. Dorthea was one of six children born to Jurgen Nicholaus and Katherine (Olsen) Wendel; and like her husband, Dorthea was also born in 1880 in Vadersdorf, Holstein, Germany.

James and Dorthea moved to Sioux County, Iowa in 1907 and farmed two miles south of Hawarden. In 1909, they bought 160 acres eight miles northeast of Hawarden, where they lived, raised two sons, and farmed for the next thirty years. And in 1930, they bought an additional 160 acres to the east of their place. During this time, they endured the dust storms from 1929 to 1932.

In November of 1939, James and Dorthea retired from farming. Their son, Lee Hass, took over the farm until his death in 1959. James and Dorthea spent their retirement in Hawarden until Dorthea's death in 1962 and James' death in 1963.

Sources:
Hawarden Centennial 1887-1987 (1987)
obituaries (Dorthea Hass, James Hass, and Lee Hass)

Anna Geldermann

Anna Zonker was born in Itzehoe, Germany in 1851. She married Karl Lahn. Their four children were Ida, Johanna?, Henry, and Karl. Two years after her first husband's death, Anna married Max Geldermann and had two more children, Anna and Theodore. Max was reported to have died in Germany.

Mrs. Geldermann and all of her children, except Karl, eventually moved to America. Mrs. Geldermann came to America with her son in 1908 and spent her last 26 years living in Sioux County, Iowa. She lived with the family of her youngest daughter, Anna.

Sources:
interview with Anna Ranschau
obituary (Anna Geldermann)

Henry and Anna Ranschau

At about age sixteen or seventeen, Anna Geldermann, along with her siblings, came to America with her mother, Anna. Her father had died back in Germany. Henry Ranschau arrived in America in his twenties.

Henry and Anna married and settled in the Rock Valley area of Sioux County, Iowa. Together, the couple had twelve children in all. Henry and Anna Ranschau farmed until moving to town in 1947.

Sources:
interview with Anna Hass
obituary (Anna Ranschau)

Genforum

Forums include the surnames: Hass, Ranschau, and Wendell.

Genforum

Forums include the country: Germany.

Forums include the US state: Iowa.

CompGen: a web site on German genealogy. The site is written in German with some English translations. German-only material can probably be translated using Alta Vista's Babelfish.

Germany Genweb Project: An area with links to resources for people researching their German ancesters.

Greater Sioux County Genealogical Society: the genealogical web site for Sioux County, Iowa which contains a variety of resources, including an on-line index of individuals buried at cemeteries throughout Sioux County.

Iowa Genealogy Society: genealogy of ancesters who lived in Iowa.

RootDigger: genealogy of the Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany.

A special thanks to my grandmother, Anna Hass, for sharing her family information on the Ranschaus.

I would like to dedicate this web page to Nick Wendell, the brother of my great grandmother. I remember meeting him only once, and will always remember him as the nice old man who fed the squirrels in his yard.