Johannes Martin Schirrmacher was born in Tessensdorf, near Marienburg (Malbork), West Prussia, now Nowa Wieś Malborska, Poland. Around 1875, after the death of his 4-year-old sister Elisabeth, his family moved to Berlin. After serving several years in the German army, Johannes came home to recover from an ulcer. He decided that he would not return to the army, and instead, he worked shoveling coal on ships to earn money for his siblings and mother to emigrate to America. He crossed the Atlantic at least six times, shoveling coal into the ships' boilers. He then took a boat up the Mississippi River to find land where the family could settle. He decided on Blue Island, then outside of Chicago. His brother, Friedrich August (called "August"), and his wife Emilie, with their adopted brother and friend, Gustav Fischer, arrived in 1891. His mother and youngest brother Karl Albert (called "Albert") arrived in 1892. In Chicago, and then called "John," he worked as a carpenter and had his own business renovating properties. He married Anna Maria Magdalena Schlaadt in Chicago on 30 August 1895. His gravesite is apart from the rest of his family, because he died several decades before anyone else. He died from stomach cancer, which also caused the death of his brother August and August's son William.
Johannes Martin Schirrmacher was born in Tessensdorf, near Marienburg (Malbork), West Prussia, now Nowa Wieś Malborska, Poland. Around 1875, after the death of his 4-year-old sister Elisabeth, his family moved to Berlin. After serving several years in the German army, Johannes came home to recover from an ulcer. He decided that he would not return to the army, and instead, he worked shoveling coal on ships to earn money for his siblings and mother to emigrate to America. He crossed the Atlantic at least six times, shoveling coal into the ships' boilers. He then took a boat up the Mississippi River to find land where the family could settle. He decided on Blue Island, then outside of Chicago. His brother, Friedrich August (called "August"), and his wife Emilie, with their adopted brother and friend, Gustav Fischer, arrived in 1891. His mother and youngest brother Karl Albert (called "Albert") arrived in 1892. In Chicago, and then called "John," he worked as a carpenter and had his own business renovating properties. He married Anna Maria Magdalena Schlaadt in Chicago on 30 August 1895. His gravesite is apart from the rest of his family, because he died several decades before anyone else. He died from stomach cancer, which also caused the death of his brother August and August's son William.
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