The Brimmer Conundrum

By Eilene Lyon

For this story, I have to begin at the ending. The whole shebang is much more complicated—but this is bad enough!

Who Are Louisa’s Parents?

My 2nd great-grandmother, Louisa Mary Dills, died on February 29, 1928 in Sioux City, Woodbury County, Iowa. Her death certificate gives her name as Mary Louisa Dills, her birth as January 17, 1850 in Germany, widowed, father as John Brimmer, no mother’s name. The informant was her youngest child, Hulda (Dills) Beedle.¹

Louisa’s husband was Adolph Dills. They had fourteen children together (two died as newborns). The other documents with a maiden name for Louisa are her children’s marriage and death records. This gets a bit crazy: Brimmer, Bremer, Brennen, Brinner, Bummer (!). There are three records with Brimmer and two with Bremer.

The 1900 census indicates Louisa and Adolph married in 1870, but I have no supporting documentation. It also states she arrived in America in 1855.²

Going back a bit further, to the 1885 Iowa census, the Dills family lived in Wolf Creek Township, Woodbury County, in far western Iowa. The estimated birth year for Louisa is 1850. Her first five children were born in Jackson County, the next two in neighboring Jones County, and then two born in Cedar County (south of Jones County, southwest of Jackson County—all in far eastern Iowa).³

Who were Louisa’s parents and siblings? John Brimmer could be her father, per her death certificate. From her children’s birth places, it seems probable that she lived in Jackson County, Iowa, when she married Adolph around 1870.

John Brimmers in Jackson County, Iowa

There is a John H. Brimmer buried in the St. Nicholas Catholic Cemetery in Bellevue, Jackson County. The inscription says he died on May 3, 1876 at age 64 years, 5 months, and 18 days. That calculates to a birth date of December 15, 1811.⁴ Is this Louisa’s father?

There are two possibilities for this man in the 1870 census: John Breman and John Brimer. Neither one appears to have used a middle initial in any written records found to date.

Table 1. Comparison of the two possible John Brimmers of Jackson County, Iowa, in the 1870 U.S. census. John Breman lived in Maquoketa Township and owned no real property. ⁵ John Brimer lived in Bellevue Township and had $4,000 in real property.⁶ Birthplaces are transcribed as written on the census forms. Estimated birth year for Louisa Breman is 1848. *These two males may not be children of John and Magdalena given that they are listed after the younger ones. **Caroline is listed as an “orphan-ward.”

John Brimer (also spelled Bremer, Brimer, Bruemmer, Brinnur, Brenner, Bremmer, and Brahmer) is enumerated in the 1860 U.S. census and the 1856 and 1852 Iowa census, always in Bellevue. His residency in Iowa dates to 1844. All his children were born in Iowa.⁷

A John Brammer in Maquoketa Township wrote his will on October 7, 1872. He states he is sixty-five (b. ~1807). He gives his wife’s name as Mary (not Dora). Then he names his children as follows:

My oldest daughter Sophia…

My 2nd daughter Mary…

My oldest son John…

My 2nd son Peter…

My 3rd son Henry…

My daughter Louisa…

Why doesn’t he call Louisa the “3^rd daughter”? If she is the Louisa Breman in the 1870 census, then she is older than Henry by a decade and should be listed above him. Unfortunately, John Brammer did not give surnames for the daughters, who were probably all married. Why not? Likely because of the bequests. All six offspring received exactly the same thing: one dollar.⁸

If this is the same man as John Breman (and I believe he must be), he had no assets (real or personal) per the 1870 census. There is no mention of real property in the will, nor is there a probate case. His wife, Mary, inherited whatever miniscule personal property he had. Why he bothered to write a will is a mystery.

Recall that the John H. Brimmer headstone gives a death date of May 3, 1876. John Brammer’s will was recorded May 4, 1874, almost exactly two years earlier. Could the year on the stone be incorrect? I’ve seen many wrong inscriptions, so it is possible.

The problem is that this cemetery is in Bellevue where John Brimmer, husband of Magdalena, lived. John Brammer/Breman lived in Maquoketa, quite a distance from Bellevue. Wouldn’t he have been buried closer to home? Besides, Louisa’s father seems to have been too poor to have a headstone like this one.

The DNA Evidence

The rest of this case relies on DNA evidence. I have plenty of matches descending from Louisa. But in order to find her family, I need matches descended from her siblings. Fortunately, I do have some. There are eight matches descending from her brother, Peter J. Brimmer. There is one match descended from her brother, Henry J. Brimmer.

Henry J. Brimmer was born in January 1858, which matches Henry Breman from the 1870 census.⁹ But he gave his birth place as Milwaukee, not Iowa. This actually makes sense, because I have not been able to locate the Brimmer family anywhere prior to 1870, when they lived in Maquoketa, Iowa. Milwaukee was a big draw for German immigrants. On his marriage return, Henry gave his name as Heinrich Bruemmer, and his parents as Johann Bruemmer and Maria C. Panz.¹⁰

Peter J. Brimmer stated in census records that he immigrated in 1853 or 1854. He also has his mother, Mary Brimmer, living with him in the 1880 census (consistent with the Mary Brammer named in John’s will and Maria [Panz] Bruemmer on Henry’s marriage record).¹¹ I’ve not found a death record for Mary, yet. I also found Peter’s photograph on Ancestry. I think he looks a lot like Louisa. Don’t you?

Given that both Peter and Louisa consistently state they were born in Germany, and that they came to America in the 1850s, it follows that their older siblings (from the will)—Sophia, John Jr, and Mary—were also born in Germany. I have been unable to track any of them. They might not have immigrated with the rest of the family. Clearly, Louisa, Henry J., and Peter J. Brimmer were not the children of the John Brimmer who lived in Bellevue, though they might have wished they were!

Feature image: Louisa Mary (Brimmer) Dills, date unknown, cropped. (D. Abell)