Date of Birth: June 19, 1856
Interment source:
Daughters of the American Republic, Corpus Christi Chapter. Texas
Marriage Records of Nueces County: Wills, Cemetery, Church and Bible Records.
Compiled by Mrs. C. C. Miller and Annie Laura McFadin.
Daughters of the American Revolution, Corpus Christi Chapter, 1957.
NO HEADSTONE
The records from the Old Bayview Cemetery indicate that Mary Busch was born 19 June 1856. The Marriage Records of Nueces County (Vol. D, page 160) list the marriage of Henry C. Bush (Busch) to Mary Bergh (Berg) on 1 January 1876. The Daily Gazette of 4 January 1876 carries the announcement of the marriage of “H. C. Busch†and “Miss Mary Bergh†which appears to have taken place at the residence of Mr. Terrell (name is difficult to read because of printing smear). By the 1880 federal census of Nueces County, Henry was already remarried to Barbara Uehlinger (Nueces County, p. 1B). They had married on 29 January 1880 (Vol. E of Nueces County Marriage Records). Since an article on the Uehlinger family (Corpus Christi Caller, 3 June 1952, page 4A, columns 3-5) states that no children were born of the union of Barbara and Henry, the children listed in the 1880 census must be the daughters of Mary Berg. This would mean that Mary died sometime after the birth of daughters Emma (about 1876) and Nettie (about 1878), but before the January 1880 marriage of Henry Busch and Barbara Uehlinger. In the 1880 census Mary’s mother, “Kate Berg†is also living with Henry and Barbara. She states that she is 54 years old, a native of Sleswig Holstein, and is serving the family as a house keeper. Henry is a butcher from Nassau, and Barbara is from Switzerland. The girls indicate their mother (like their grandmother Kate Berg) is also from Sleswig Holstein. These citizens of Corpus Christi were probably all German speaking as Nassau was clearly a part of Germany. The Uehlingers came from the northernmost part of Switzerland on the border with Germany (which was predominantly German speaking). Kate Berg calls the land of her birth “Sleswig†Holstein. This is the “low German†name for the area that is presently called “Schleswig-Holsteinâ€. Historically this referred to a large area that is the northernmost part of Germany on the Jutland peninsula that lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The northern section was the Duchy of Schleswig (at times an integral part of Denmark), and the southern section was the former Duchy of Holstein. Mary’s husband Henry Busch was a butcher who by 1886 (C. C. Caller, 14 February 1886, page 5 col. 4) invites his friends to check out the choice meats and sausages of all varieties to be found at the Market stalls of Mrs. Ricklefsen where he serves as manager. Besides Mary Berg, there are at least two other “Berg†women whose names are preserved in early records of Corpus Christi. One is “Annie Berg†who was the second wife of Perry Downs. Perry married his first wife, Martha Ewers, in Jackson County, Texas, in April of 1877; and she is buried in Old Bayview Cemetery also. Her mother, Mrs. Christina Berg, died at the home of her son-in-law in November of 1904 and also was buried in Old Bayview Cemetery. Her obit says that she was born in Braumstadt, Hamburg, Germany and came to Corpus Christi about 1873. She was survived by a son Henry Berg and a daughter Annie (see her obit in the Caller of 11 November 1904, page 4). The Perry Downs family later moved away from the Corpus Christi area and settled in San Antonio and Falfurrias. For a while Perry and his family also lived in the area of Concepcion, Texas. It is certainly possible that Mary Berg, her mother Kate Berg, Mrs. Christina Berg, and her daughter Annie Berg-Downs were relatives. The Busch family also seemed to have moved away from Corpus Christi, possibly back to New Braunfels after the death of Henry’s mother (see notice of her death in Caller, 27 June 1886, page 5). The 1870 federal census (Comal County p. 170) lists Heinrich Busch (40 year old farmer from Prussia) with wife Johanette (39 years old), son Heinrich (Henry, 19 years old), and daughter Emma (16 years old). Both children are listed as born in Texas. If Henry was from New Braunfels, he may have returned there at least for a time to settle the family land.
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell