Muench-Busch Connection?

10/1/2012

For a long time, it has been rumored that the Muenches have a family connection through marriage to the Busches of St. Louis beer fame, perhaps through John B. Busch, the brother of Adolphus Busch, who began a brewery in Washington, Mo.

However, although he has conducted extensive research, Karl Muench has been unable to find a connection between the Muenches and the beer Busches. There is a Gordian Ludwig Busch (1821-94), who married Pauline Muench (1827-91) and had 13 children with her in Washington, Mo., but so far, the connection between that Busch and the beer Busches has not been found. Unfortunately, our knowledge of Busch ancestry is sketchy. If you have any knowledge of a connection, please let us know.

14 Comments

Jim Muench

1/14/2013 02:59:29 am

In addition, Karl Muench has found documents from his father, Albert F. Muench, and from Judge Hugo Muench that indicate that Louise Fritz, the second wife of Friedrich Muench, was descended from a Jacob Von Busch, born 1542, at Gieshausen, Switzerland. His son, Abraham Von Busch, was exiled from Switzerland in the 1570s because of his Protestant beliefs. He renounced his nobility and moved to Darmstadt, Hessia.

Apparently, many of these Busches were physicians and often connected to the University of Marburg, in Hessia. Louise Fritz's mother was Barbara Christiane (sp?) Sophie Busch. Louise Fritz bore Friedrich Muench 12 children.

According to "Under the Influence," an unauthorized biography of the Busch family by Peter Hernon and Terry Ganey (Terry is a former reporter for the S.L. Post-Dispatch), the Busches were a noble family from Kastel on the Rhine river and were Catholic.

So we have two good potential connections to the beer Busches. My hypothesis is that there was a split in the Busch family during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation during the 16th century, and we Muenches are connected to the line that turned Protestant. And we may also be connected to a sibling or cousin of the beer Busches by marriage in Washington, Mo.

Unfortunately, the information on the Internet tends to revere the descendants of Adolphus and not his ancestors. The work of any genealogy sleuths in the family who wish to tackle the problem is most welcome.

David Crow link

7/12/2014 03:09:50 am

I need to make a better connection to the Muench Busch lines on my family website but I am descended from Pauline Muench (1827-1891) and Gordian Ludwig Busch (1821-1894).

This Busch line comes from Bilefelt, , Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany and the Missouri Clan centered around "Cedar Grove Farm, Washington, Franklin, Missouri, USA".

I too was curious (like trying to connect Crow to Car maker in Indiana and Whiskey producer in Kentucky) about the Busch Brewing connection (I was born in St. Louis). I too only have my Busch line back to George Ludwig Busch (1796 Hanover-1876 Cedar Grove Farm) marrying Marianne Anna Marie Schwallenberg (1792-1865) in 1819 in Osnabrück. This is not the Danish father of Sir Carl Busch musician.

Jim Muench

7/12/2014 10:34:07 am

David, very nice to meet you! I am sharing your comment with my Uncle Karl Muench, who is our chief genealogy guru. I'm hoping we can help you.

The rest of you MFA members: if you have any supporting information that might help David, please let me know.

Kayla link

1/16/2021 12:35:57 am

Hi great readding your blog

Jim Muench

1/16/2021 02:37:16 pm

Thanks, Kayla! If you find a connection, be sure to let us know.
--Jim Muench

Natasha

6/18/2021 12:14:33 pm

We purchased the Cedar Grove Farm home and are in the midst of renovating it. I have a few pictures that were left with the home but if anyone has more pictures or information I'd love to see them. Thank you.

David Crow link

6/19/2021 06:55:50 am

Natasha,

Wonderful that someone bought Cedar Grove Farm. It was a distant dream from the first time I visited in the 1970's and 1980's. My Uncle Robert Busch Crow (1922-1976) collected a lot of family information including Cedar Grove Farm. I will find details and can send them to you. Direct contact at [email protected] so I can send pictures and documents as I find them.

David Crow
Elizabethtown, PA

Tobias link

7/13/2021 02:08:45 am

Hello,

I am researching the Schwalenberg/Schwallenberg family and today stumbled by chance over the Busch-Schwallenberg connection. As Anna Maria Schwalenberg besides her birth record did not exist in any church records of the area she used to live I didn`t had any details until today.

Unfortunately I can`t help with your Busch-Muench connection further on but I am of course also interested where exactly that Cedar Grove Farm was/is.
If someone is interested in tracking back the Schwalenberg branch even more, here is the starting point:
https://www.schwalenberg.family/forschung/getperson.php?personID=I1905&tree=Lindemann

Greetings from Germany

David Crow link

7/13/2021 11:42:30 am

Tobias,

Guten Tag! Thank you for your contribution which I will pursue and share but Cedar Grove Farm is in Washington in Franklin County, Missouri. A winery in Washington produced some Friederich "Far West" Muench wine for our 1991? Muench-Follenius Reunion

See https://mo-germans.com/2021/05/18/reunion/ for 8-28-2021

Cedar Grove Farm appears in numerous articles like this one from 1906 about a record price paid for a Hog to Busch (free trial to see content).https://newspaperarchive.com/washington-citizen-sep-07-1906-p-1/ _I have a jpg you can view email [email protected]

Jim Frederick Muench

7/13/2021 12:29:10 pm

Thanks for the info. The Missouri Germans formed many connections to each other, especially those living near the Missouri River. There were many marriages across the region.

The wine to which you are referring, I believe, was made from the Muench grape variety, with Friedrich Muench's photo on the bottle and named after him. It was produced by the Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta, Mo., which is located on the site of Georg Muench's homestead, but the winery is no longer affiliated with the Muench family (since Prohibition).

Georg's farm was called "Mount Pleasant." He set up a small mom-and-pop wine-making operation, but it was his son, George Jr., who started a commercial winery there. Somebody else, not Muench-related, restarted the winery in the 1960s, and it has become well-known. It is close to the Katy Trail state park that crosses Missouri. I heard that a developer from Florida purchased it along with much other Augusta property last spring.

The Muench wine (I kept a bottle from it as a souvenir) was served at the 1984 Muench reunion. As I understand it, the wine had a bad aftertaste that consumers did not like, so it did not sell well. The winery wound up using much of it to create a tawny port wine that was very good.

I was a college student at the time of the 1984 reunion, which was held then because the family had decided to hold one every 50 years for some quaint reason. The problem with that thinking: people die. I have been trying to organize a new reunion but have not had enough Muench relatives send me their contact info.

David Crow link

7/13/2021 03:36:20 pm

Jim,

Perhaps I can help you with the 2034 Reunion. Rev. Richard Vieth who was at the 1984 (not 1991 just forgot the date) as I was and many cousins lives near my in Lancaster County, PA - he was involved in some reunion activities since 1984 as I remember meeting him at the German Heritage Museum in Washington DC. He may have more updated contacts?

I may have list of attendees and can help track down descendants as their should be more of us than in 1984 though different generations! My father Jack Hanna Crow (mother was Busch) was at 1934 and 1984. He just turned 97 and will be fascinated with family news.

David link

7/13/2021 03:26:56 pm

The Busch Family Cemetery which if I recollect correctly is on the private property of Cedar Grove Farm.

It is listed in Dundee, Franklin County, Missouri, USA. Here is FindAGrave link: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2373337/busch-family-cemetery

Location listed as: T.44N R.2W Section 13
Location: West of Washington South of 100 & North of Hwy.
KK. 14 graves noted but none have headstone photos. Will work with new owner of Cedar Grove Farm on those if possible.

David Crow link

7/16/2021 08:24:57 am

In my previous post I noted 14 Busch related burials listed in the Busch Family Cemetery in Dundee, Franklin County, Missouri - not all family members but here is the list - note young Julius Ferninand Muench moved to Wildey IOOF Cemetery in Washington, Franklin County, Missouri in 1912.

14 matching records found

Mrs Bollenhagen
unknown – Mar 1856

Mathilde Himburg Bosch
9 Aug 1852 – 9 Oct 1886

Adolph Hugo Busch
20 Feb 1864 – 29 Sep 1888

George Ludwig Busch
15 Aug 1796 – 26 Jul 1876

Gordian Ludwig Busch
26 Oct 1821 – 29 Jan 1894

Marianne Schwallenberg Busch
24 Apr 1792 – 12 Mar 1865

Pauline “Linie” Busch
20 May 1869 – 1 Nov 1870

Pauline Muench Busch
30 Jan 1827 – 17 Dec 1891

Rudolf Georg Busch
1849 – 1 Jan 1862

Bernadine Busch Himburg
4 Feb 1827 – 11 Mar 1853

Emma Himburg Muench
8 Sep 1848 – 27 Feb 1894

Julius Ferdinand Muench
1 Jan 1883 – 21 Jun 1894

Anna Overbeck
4 Mar 1875 – 26 Feb 1884

Henry Overbeck
1839 – 22 Feb 1884

Jim Frederick Muench

7/13/2021 09:29:43 pm

Sure, we can give it a go again. I know Dick Vieth; he's a good guy. The site has promoted his Muench book for kids. Life, and then COVID, didn't help the project get off the ground either. Maybe we need to set up a committee. Go ahead and send me an email at [email protected] or give me a call, and we can discuss it rather than talking through a public blog. There is some other interest from people here on the site, and I do have a growing database of relatives.

Muench-Busch Connection?

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