Hilla Busch...More

Thom and Suzanne,

The concert at the St Martini Church in Siegen was mindblowing!! Not only
because of the music, and the musician, a very famous organist in Germany, there
for our benefit, but also because the Holtzclaw family had quite a link to
this church:
The 7th Great Grandmother of Hans Jacob Holtzclaw, the Immigrant, was Hilla
Busch. Hilla was born around 1475 and she died around 1554 in Siegen. Hilla
was the daughter of Gotthard Bush and the first cousin of her husband, Gerhard
Busch b. around 1470 in Schneppenkauten and died around 1502 in
Schneppenkauten. Gerhard was the son of Hen Busch, owner of a Hammer at Buschhuetten and the
nephew of Gotthard Busch, owner of a Hammer at Buschgotthardshuetten and
Hilla's father--both of these Hammers were located in the Weidenau District of
Nassau-Siegen. In fact one of them, Buschgotthardschuetten, may still exist in
the town of Weidenau, founded in 1465 by the Holtzclaw, Brumback and Flender
families!!! I'm hoping this will be a stop on our next trip. No pressure,
Thom, I can hire a car!! Check out what BC says of Gotthard Busch:
"Gotthard Busch was one of the wealthiest and most enterprising iron-masters
of the 16th century in Nassau-Siegen. In addition to his own Hammer at
Buschgotthardschuetten and his part ownership of the Hammer at Schneppenkauten,
inherited through his wife(Gertgen Scholt, dau of Henchen Scholt of Alchen), he
also owned property and a part of the Hammer at Buschhuetten, owned part of an
iron-mine called Kirschbaum near Eiserfeld, was part owner of some smelter
(probably also inherited through his wife), accumulated considerable captial, and
was owner of a house in Siegen." Gottard died at Buschgotthardschuetten in
1498. The Flender surnames arise from the Busch families, i.e. Hen Busch,
brother of the above Gotthard and son of Cone Busch, and Hen's sons, Johann,
Tilchen and Gerhard(Hilla's husband).

Gerhard and Hilla Busch inherited both of the Hammers. Hilla was a member of
the Miners Guild and the Steelsmiths Guild in Siegen around 1550, the
memberships would have been inherited from her husband, probably a citizen of Siegen.

Hilla Busch lived in Siegen for many years and she had a nickname, "Hilla uff
dem Ort ", or "Hilla on the corner" because she owned a shop on a prominent
corner in Siegen--I sure would like to find this corner!! Hilla also attended
church at St Martin's church and contributed substantial amounts of money to
the Church in 1514 and 1516 for repairs, so it was quite overpowering to be
sitting in that same church!!

All of this information is from BC Holtzclaw's book, Ancestry and
Descendants, which I took along with me on the Germanna Germany Trip. I would check out
our itinerary for the next day, then open the Red Bible to see who lived where
and what we might find there, it worked out great and kept me in touch with
the history of our ancestors.

Barb Price


http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GERMANNA_COLONIES/2003-12/1071427643