Andrew Sr and Mary (Smithers) Hirt

Compiled by Jim Oehler (jimoehler3 at gmail.com)

Andrew Hirt Sr., date unknown.

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Andrew Hirt was born in 1810 in Bremen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany a very small farming hamlet east of Ravensburg. His parents are currently unknown. Ravensburg is a historic town that dates back to at least 1088. It still has 10 intact towers of the medieval fortification.

Explore current day Ravensburg by viewing this short travel and tourism
video that shows many of the town's historic buildings.

Location of Ravensburg, Germany. Click here to explore the area in Google Maps.

Sometime before 1840, Andrew migrated to America and settled in Lancaster, NY just east of Buffalo where he established a farm. In that year he married Mary Smithers. Mary was born about 1812 in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France. The exact town is not known. By 1831 she migrated to New York. How and where she met Andrew is not known.

Between 1841 and 1854, they had six children: Magdalena (1841–1935), Louis (1842–1893; perhaps my grandpa's namesake), Mary (1844–1904), Frances(1849–1883), Henry (1850–1949), and Andrew Jr, my great grandfather (1854–1916).

In 1855, Andrew and Mary settled in Allegany, where Andrew cleared 100 acres of woodland on Nine Mile Road and established a farm along the Allegany River. Mary died August 21, 1878 at the age of 66 of unknown causes. She is buried at St. Bonaventure Cemetery in Allegany.

By 1880, only Andrew Jr. resided at home with his father until he migrated west to Wisconsin. By 1892, Andrew Sr. remarried to a Catherine Hoffman, originally from the Bayern region of Germany. They resided on the same farm along with Andrew's son Henry and his family. Andrew Sr. died on October 1, 1897, in Allegany at the age of 87. He is also buried at St Bonaventure Cemetery, along with his original wife Mary. Several of the Smithers-Hirt children remained in Allegany and so there are likely distant relatives still there.