David August Hilpert
1827–1906
Immigrant, pioneer farmer, and founder of the Hilpert family farm in Washington Territory
- Parents
- Not yet established in this biography.
- Spouse
- Magdalena Gephart (also recorded as Gebhardt)
Married April 24, 1869 - Siblings
- August · Christel (Christina) · Ernst · Friedrich
David August Hilpert’s life took him from the weaving trade in Prussia to a home beside Washington’s Skookumchuck River. Letters from his family preserve something of the years of separation: plans to leave, worries about money, news of children and the wish to hear from one another. In 1869 he married Magdalena, and together they developed the farm where they raised eight children. Their descendants’ photographs and memories carry the story forward.
Some parts of that journey are firmly documented; others survive as family recollections. Both belong here, with their uncertainties made clear. Open the research notes for the fuller evidence and alternative readings.
About the research behind this story
David's story has been reconstructed from letters, photographs, land records, newspapers, family histories, and later research. Some conclusions have changed as original documents have been rediscovered; this biography brings together the current evidence while keeping family traditions and unresolved questions in view.
Work in progress: This biography reflects our current research and will be updated as additional family documents, photographs, and records are reviewed.
Places in a Life
Follow places associated with David’s life, including work, arrival, marriage and home. Numbers connect the map to dated records; gold marks a birthplace. Markers show approximate towns or regions, not exact houses. A recorded year does not establish an uninterrupted stay.
David August Hilpert
Dated entries correspond to the numbered places. Enable JavaScript to select entries and zoom.
August says his brother had left Gotha and travelled through northern Germany. The family inventory identifies the recipient as David; the letter itself calls him his brother. Approximate town marker, not a dated residence record.
Source for this placeAugust says the recipient had returned to work in Königslutter after six weeks at home. David is the contextual identification; the month remains uncertain in the reviewed reading. Approximate town marker.
Source for this placeThe Amaranth passenger is the project’s probable, not conclusively established, identification of David. This marks the reported arrival port, not a home or exact landing site.
Source for this placeBiography states David settled on the Skookumchuck River claim approximately four miles north of Centralia. Town-area marker; no exact land parcel is plotted. Marker precision: town area; farm sites are not pinpointed.
Source for this placeThe marriage license and recorded certificate date David and Magdalena’s marriage. Town-level marker, not an exact venue or proof of continuous residence. Earlier correspondence recalls a stay, but does not securely date it.
Source for this placeBiography explicitly describes David and Magdalena returning to the Washington property and developing their home and farm. Return date is not exact; narrative follows family farm history. Marker precision: town area; farm sites are not pinpointed.
Source for this place
Birth, 1827: Prussia is established broadly; the exact birthplace remains unresolved. The Wiehe–Nordhausen area is a research hypothesis, so no birthplace pin is shown. Proposed visits to Wiehe and departure via Bremen are not confirmed journeys. Other travels reported in later family histories lack sufficiently secure dates and locations for additional pins. Markers distinguish work, arrival, marriage and home; they do not trace a proven continuous route.
Present-day coastline: Natural Earth. Historical place names are retained in the records. The map and dated list also remain available without JavaScript.
Early years · Prussia
Early Life in Germany
Born in Prussia in 1827, David trained as a silk weaver. His exact birth date and village remain unresolved; current research points toward the Wiehe–Nordhausen area, and a candidate church entry now offers a lead, discussed below.
Birthplace and birth-date research
David August Hilpert was born in Prussia in 1827. Later family histories generally describe his birthplace as being in Saxony. Current research points more specifically toward the Wiehe–Nordhausen area of the Prussian Province of Saxony, although his exact birthplace has not yet been conclusively established.
A different family tradition connected the Hilperts with Düringen or Thuringia. Evidence located so far increasingly favors the Wiehe/Nordhausen area, but the connection between the candidate German record and his later life remains unproved.
His exact birth date is also under review. One later farm history gives November 1827, while obituary and genealogy research has pointed to December 16, 1827. Until a German birth or church record is securely linked to him, the year 1827 remains the most appropriate date to use without qualification.
David trained as a silk weaver, a trade that would later become an important clue in research into his arrival in America.
The family identifies David’s siblings as Christel (Christina), August, Ernst and Friedrich. Meet them together and explore their individual stories.
Brothers keeping in touch
By early 1849, work had taken the brother identified as David away from Gotha and through northern Germany. August’s letters brought news, songs and hopes of meeting again. America was already part of their conversation, although neither the letters nor their plans describe a completed departure at this point. Read August’s February 1849 letter.
The brothers’ letters: work, travel and songs
Work, distance and the first talk of America
In February 1849, David was part of a family whose work already kept its members apart. August’s letter from Cologne answers a brother who had left Gotha and travelled through northern Germany. The family’s inventory identifies the recipient as David, although the letter addresses him simply as his brother. August hoped they could meet and travel home together, along the Rhine or through the Harz. He also answered a question about America: he had considered going himself, but warned against being swept away by stories of California gold. Emigration was a possibility they were discussing, not yet an accomplished journey. Read August’s February 20, 1849 letter.
The brothers shared more than travel plans. August sent requested songs and wrote about Carnival, clothes, money and the political news he read in his workshop’s Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Later he promised to teach his brother the tunes when they met. One song had been sent to August by his former sweetheart, Friederike Winkler, in 1845; neither its inclusion nor the other copied verses establishes that August composed them. These details show the everyday companionship the brothers tried to maintain while working in different places. Letter 1; Letter 5, February 1850.
A Wiehe baptism offers a lead
A church entry from Wiehe records Christian David Hilpert, born and baptized December 18, 1827, son of Johann Gottlieb Hilpert and Hanne Christiane, whose maiden surname is indexed as Knauffin. The place, year and connections with other Hilpert records make him a promising candidate for David. But the record says Christian David, not David August, and December 18 differs from the December 16 date in later family accounts. It contains no American destination or later-life identification. David’s exact birthplace and parents therefore remain unresolved. Read the baptism record.
The candidate’s parents closely resemble those in Johann Friedrich Hilpert’s 1826 baptism. Christiane Friederike Hilpert’s records instead name a mother Hanne Charlotte, formerly widowed Vollrath. Similar surnames and the shared father’s name suggest a connection, but do not yet establish whether these people were full siblings, half-siblings or members of different families. Christina’s research · Friedrich’s research.
Revolution · 1848–1849
The Revolutions of 1848–1849
The upheavals of 1848–1849 reached into David’s family. His brother August refused a militia call-up and spent months working without papers, afraid of arrest. His letters show how difficult it became for the brothers to meet and keep in touch. David’s own involvement in resistance to the call-up is not independently established.
A story passed down through the family said August was executed in 1849. His surviving letters from 1850 and 1852 show that he was still alive—a significant correction to the family’s understanding of those years. Read August’s account or explore his life.
August’s military dispute and the evidence that corrected the family story
David came of age during the revolutionary upheavals that swept the German states in 1848 and 1849. His brother August Hilpert became directly involved in a dispute over service in the Prussian Landwehr, or reserve militia.
In a surviving letter written to David from Brühl on January 13, 1850, August explained that he and other Landwehr men believed they should only be called into service in response to an external invasion. The men initially agreed not to report. Most eventually did, but August refused. Several weeks later, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
August spent months moving between places and working without legal papers. His documents were in the hands of the police in Cologne, and he believed retrieving them could result in four or five years in prison.
Later Hilpert family histories said that both August and David resisted the 1849 call-up. August's role is directly documented by his own letter. David's precise role has not yet been independently established by an equivalent primary source.
August Hilpert to David Hilpert
Brühl · January 13, 1850
August's account of the Landwehr dispute and his circumstances after refusing to report provides direct evidence of his experience.
Read all six manuscript pages and the current English translation →
Finding a way to keep in touch
Two letters written in Brühl on December 16, 1849 show how August’s predicament affected the whole family. One addresses his mother and siblings: an employer had agreed to shelter and employ him despite his lack of papers, while August feared denunciation. His instruction that the family say he was in Holland was a cover story, not evidence of a journey there. In the other letter, he asked his friend Lenkroth to tell David how much he wanted to see him. Later family records identify this intermediary as Gotthold Leukroth, also written Lenkroth, the brothers’ brother-in-law. Letter 2; Letter 3.
David had apparently not answered an earlier letter, and August wondered whether unpaid postage had offended him. He asked that the correspondence be kept from outsiders and supplied the concealed name Wilhelm Meyer for receiving mail. Police restrictions also affected a parcel of August’s land; the passage concerns attached property, not an arrested father. By January 13, 1850, August could finally acknowledge a letter received from his brother the previous day. The sequence records renewed contact, though it cannot show whether Lenkroth’s intervention brought about the reply. Letter 3; Letter 4.
On November 24, 1850, August told his brother that he intended to report the next morning and might be sent after a regiment. He made arrangements for his possessions if he did not return and expressed discouragement about his money and prospects. This was a change from his earlier concealment, but it was still a statement of intent: the surviving letter does not prove that he reported, joined a particular unit or fought. His September 1852 letter establishes that he was alive then; his later fate remains unresolved. Letter 7; Letter 8.
Family correspondence · 1850–1852
Preparing to Leave Germany
Leaving Germany took time. Early in 1850, David and August discussed a possible March departure, but money, papers and family obligations stood in the way. A letter headed May 30—possibly June 30—reports that the brother understood to be David had returned to work in Königslutter after six weeks at home. Read that letter.
By September 1852, their mother wanted to emigrate, the family house had been sold, and arrangements for passage were being discussed. Writing from Wiehe, August urged his brother to come and help settle the remaining business. He also wanted his songbook brought to him: a small personal concern amid the preparations for a much larger change.
The family hoped to leave via Bremen in mid-October, but the letter does not prove that this schedule was followed or that David came to Wiehe. August said he could not yet accompany them. Read the September 1852 letter.
Departure plans, family arrangements and uncertain dates in the letters
August's January 1850 letter shows that America was already being discussed within the family. He wrote about the cost of crossing the Atlantic and considered traveling through Rotterdam or Le Havre if political conditions did not improve.
Another surviving letter, written by August to his brother, probably David, on September 29, 1852, is particularly important. Written from Wiehe, it asks the recipient to come there and connects the family’s emigration preparations with Bremen. The request does not establish that David was already in Wiehe or that he completed the proposed journey.
A departure postponed
The earlier letters show that leaving took more than deciding on a destination. In January and February 1850, the brother identified as David was discussing a March departure. August could not accompany him without papers and money. He hoped they might wait until autumn, meet at home and spend time together in Leipzig before separating. His February letter answers one dated January 28, another trace of David’s side of the conversation even though that outgoing letter has not been identified. Letter 4; Letter 5.
A later letter reports that the recipient had spent six unhappy weeks at home and returned to work in Königslutter. It is headed May 30, 1850, but references to June and a proposed July meeting leave open whether June 30 was intended. Either reading places him in Germany after the earlier March plan. August offered help arranging a visit and mentioned possible work with weavers near Cologne; these were suggestions, not evidence of a new job or a completed reunion. Friedrich, meanwhile, had leased August’s field, showing how family property and practical obligations remained part of the brothers’ decisions. Read the letter headed May 30, 1850.
A family home being sold
By September 1852, emigration had become a practical undertaking involving their mother and sister. August reported leaving Cologne on September 17 and reaching Wiehe on September 28 after eleven days. Their mother was glad to see him. Christel was unwell and severely hoarse following childbirth, according to the reading supported by the historical translation; the letter does not establish a more specific diagnosis. Letter 8.
Their mother wanted to go to America. The house had been sold for 450 thalers, with payment or completion expected on October 10. August urged his brother to come to Wiehe so that land, debts and travel arrangements could be settled; if he could not come, authority to act on his behalf was needed. The letter discusses money for the journey and a reserved passage. Even in the middle of these preparations, August wanted his songbook brought to him, or left with a contact in Cologne if they missed one another. Letter 8.
A final note envisaged leaving Wiehe and embarking at Bremen in mid-October. Individual day numerals remain uncertain, and no ship is named. August explicitly said he could not yet accompany them. The letter therefore records a family preparing to leave and the pressure of an approaching deadline, not proof that everyone sailed together or that the October schedule was carried out. Read the complete September 29, 1852 letter.
Atlantic crossing · 1853
Immigration to America
David probably reached New York on January 24, 1853, aboard the Amaranth from Bremen. Passenger-list research identifies a David Hilpert, about twenty-five, from Prussia and working as a silk weaver. Those details fit, but the identification remains provisional despite the close match of age, origin and occupation.
The 1852 letters make this later arrival more plausible than the old account of an 1849 crossing. Mary and Regina appear with the passenger named David as mother and daughter; whether this was our David’s first family remains unresolved. The letters do not settle that question.
Passenger identification and family relationships
Older Hilpert histories generally stated that David came to America around 1849. Newer research indicates that he more likely reached New York on January 24, 1853, aboard the immigrant ship Amaranth, which sailed from Bremen.
Passenger-list research identified a David Hilpert approximately 25 years old, from Prussia, whose occupation was listed as silk weaver. Mary and the young child Regina appear with him and remain part of ongoing research into his German family connections.
The September 1852 family letter, combined with the January 1853 passenger-list evidence, makes 1853 substantially more consistent with the surviving evidence than the older 1849 immigration tradition. This identification is the project's current evidence-supported conclusion. The original image and archival citation are now linked below; the passenger’s identification with Washington David remains open to further review.
Amaranth passenger-list record
The original record is linked in the transcription below.
The UW correspondence strengthens the account of emigration preparations in 1852, but it does not independently identify the Amaranth passengers or bridge every step between the October plan and the proposed January 1853 arrival. In particular, the letters do not establish that the women recorded as Mary and Regina were David’s mother and sister. The passenger identification and the family relationships attached to it remain separate questions for further evidence. Letter 8.
The original passenger list
The original Amaranth list has now been examined. Entries 98–100 name David Hilpert, twenty-five, a silk weaver from Prussia; Mary, whose age appears to read thirty-nine; and Regina, one year and six months. Under the printed “Sex” heading, the clerk wrote “father,” “mother” and “daughter.” This is strong evidence that the passengers were recorded as a parental couple and child, rather than David traveling with his own mother and sister.
Those relationships are on the manuscript, but identifying the passenger as Washington’s David August still requires a link between the two lives. Mary’s age differs from Eileen’s earlier reading of twenty-seven or thirty-seven. Regina’s age suggests birth around July 1851, not an exact birthday. No securely matching later record for Mary or Regina has yet been found; their absence from the searches does not establish death or separation.
Original entries 98–100 · Ship heading and column headings · Open saved manifest image. NARA M237, reel 123, list 36; Bremen to New York, sworn January 24, 1853.
Across America
Across the United States
Later family histories say that David initially worked in woolen mills in Massachusetts and then traveled widely through the United States. Family accounts mention New York, Kansas, Arizona, and California before his eventual arrival in the Pacific Northwest.
Not all of these movements have yet been independently confirmed with contemporary records. They remain part of the later family-history account of his life.
By 1856, David was reportedly in Washington Territory. Family histories say he worked on a survey crew after arriving there, although no primary survey-employment record has yet been located.
A family connection in Indiana
David’s travels did not end his ties to the family. In a letter dated November 18, probably 1857, the brother-in-law identified as Gotthold Leukroth wrote from Mount Vernon, understood to be in Indiana. He answered news about California, reported on David’s mother and sister, and recalled a house where David had stayed. The letter gives a glimpse of his American family connections, rather than a complete account of his travels. Read the letter.
Mount Vernon: the letter’s date, people and disputed readings
News from Mount Vernon
A letter dated November 18 brings David’s American family connections into view. A brother-in-law writing from Mount Vernon replies to news about California. The historical translation and the family’s 1978 inventory identify the correspondent as Gotthold Leukroth/Lenkroth and supply a probable year of 1857; the historical translation also identifies Mount Vernon as being in Indiana. The manuscript itself gives neither a secure year nor the state, so those details remain inherited identifications rather than a fully dated address in David’s own hand. Letter 9, November 18 [1857].
The writer answers questions about David’s mother, sister and young Reinhold. His sister had a daughter, Reinhold was attending school, and the household reported reassuring news about his mother. He described his shoe business and recalled a house where David had previously stayed. The reviewed historical translation supports a business figure of 700 dollars and supplies from Cincinnati, but the amount should not be treated as established annual income or wealth. These details place David within an existing American network of relatives and remembered visits, without supplying a complete itinerary. Letter 9.
The household was also waiting for an answer from Europe about a brother David had asked after. That brother is unnamed; the inquiry cannot establish August’s death or survival. Nor does the California discussion securely date David’s arrival in Washington or resolve the chronology of all the journeys in later family accounts. It preserves news exchanged across a distance rather than a continuous record of his whereabouts. Letter 9.
Washington Territory · 1858–1863
A Claim on the Skookumchuck River
On August 3, 1858, David settled on land along the Skookumchuck River, approximately four miles north of Centralia. On September 23, 1858, he filed a claim for 160 acres at the United States Land Office in Olympia.
His first home was described as a one-room house with one door and one window. According to information derived from his pre-emption papers, by 1863 he had cleared approximately ten acres, fenced about twenty acres, and established an orchard containing roughly 400 fruit trees.
On September 14, 1863, David pre-empted 160 acres using a military bounty land warrant instead of paying the normal government price of $1.25 per acre.
The warrant had originally been issued on November 22, 1860, to Catharine Brown, widow of William Brown, a second seaman aboard the U.S. naval ship Congress who had served in the Mexican War. Such warrants were transferable and could legally be used by another person to acquire public land.
Archive note: record or photograph still being prepared
Land & pre-emption records
Original claim and warrant documents to be added.
Family correspondence · June 1859
An uncle, his oxen and a hoped-for visit
In June 1859, David’s nephew Reinhold wanted to see the oxen his uncle had bought. His little sister Selma was well, their mother had recovered from a winter illness, and David’s mother was still living. These are the children of David’s sister—not the Reinhold and Selma he would later raise with Magdalena.
Their father joked about David bringing an ox when he visited. The family hoped to see him the following summer, though the surviving letter does not tell us whether the visit happened. Across the distance, news of children and everyday life kept the connection alive. Read the June 11, 1859 letter.
The June 1859 letter: identities, ages and travel plans
On June 11, 1859, the Mount Vernon brother-in-law acknowledged a letter received on June 3. David’s mother was still living, and his sister had recovered from ten or eleven weeks of chest and lung inflammation during the winter after Christmas. Reinhold wanted to see oxen his uncle had bought. The writer joked about bringing one on a visit and said that Reinhold was writing separately; that accompanying letter has not been identified. Letter 10.
Little Selma was well and was described as two years and five months old. Here Reinhold and Selma are David’s nephew and niece, not the children he would later raise with Magdalena. The identification of their mother as Christel comes from the family context and later annotations; her name is not written in these salutations. The age suggests a birth around January 1857 if exact, while the earlier letter’s reference to a spring birth is not forced into agreement with it. Letter 9; Letter 10; Letter 12.
The letter says David hoped to visit the following summer. It does not confirm that the visit happened, and the passage should not be read as a plan to begin farming. News of a house, German-language newspapers and paving Main Street accompanied the family news. Friedrich was still in Alsleben, but the difficult surrounding wording does not establish August’s whereabouts or survival. A later annotation associates David with Centralia; it is not a contemporaneous address proving his residence on June 11, 1859. Read the June 11, 1859 letter.
Indiana · 1869
Return to the Midwest and Marriage
At some point after establishing his Washington claim, David returned east. A later family account says he walked from Portland to Denver before continuing into the Midwest. That journey remains family tradition; contemporary corroboration has not yet been found.
David eventually worked as a day laborer in Indiana. In the spring of 1869, when he was about 41, he married Magdalena Gephart at Mount Vernon, Indiana. Her maiden name appears in different sources in forms such as Gephart and Gebhardt, and its spelling is not completely resolved.
The surviving marriage license and recorded certificate give the marriage date as April 24, 1869. Later family history says their courtship lasted only about three weeks.
The marriage license and certificate
This Posey County, Indiana record contains both the license and the certificate recording the marriage on April 24, 1869. David appears as August Hilbert; Magdalena’s name is written with spelling variants.
The marriage brought David back to a region where he already had family connections: the Mount Vernon letters recalled an earlier stay and the hope of another visit. They do not tell us how he met Magdalena.
What the earlier Mount Vernon letters tell us
The Mount Vernon correspondence shows that this part of David’s life had family connections reaching back before his marriage. His brother-in-law recalled an earlier stay, and the 1859 letter anticipated another visit. Those letters give context to the later return east, but do not establish when he made that return, whether the proposed visit took place, or how he met Magdalena. The 1869 marriage record supplies firmer evidence for the marriage itself. Letter 9; Letter 10.
Returning west
The Journey Back to Washington
David and Magdalena then made an extraordinary journey back to Washington Territory. According to the Hilpert farm history, they traveled by train to New Orleans, then by ship to Panama, crossed the isthmus, and continued by ship to San Francisco. David worked for wages there for several weeks.
The same account describes their passage north to Portland, then by boat to Toledo and by stagecoach toward Centralia. They reportedly walked the final portion of the journey to David's property. Magdalena was pregnant by the time they arrived.
Family tradition says that David had described the property as a fine farm. Magdalena instead discovered a small clearing in the forest and an old neglected house. David built a new home, and together they began developing the farm.
Across the Atlantic · 1877–1880
News from the family in Germany
As David and Magdalena built their life in Washington, relatives in Germany still waited for news. In a letter provisionally dated 1877, Friedrich asked his sister whether she had heard from David. He wanted a letter at least once a year. His words convey the strain of distance, without telling us why David had been silent. Read Friedrich’s letter.
In November 1880, the nephew identified as Carl Hilpert wrote to report his father Friedrich’s death. He explained that the family had been unable to find David’s address. Carl hoped to continue the correspondence himself. The next generation was trying to keep the family connected. The names are supported by the family inventory and later annotation; the letter does not state every relationship explicitly. Read Carl’s letter.
The later German letters: family identifications and uncertain dates
While David and Magdalena were raising their family in Washington, relatives in Germany still hoped for news. In a letter from Poplitz dated February 17, provisionally 1877, Friedrich wrote to his sister and her children. He asked whether she had heard from David and protested that he had done him no harm. His wish for a letter at least once a year shows how painful the silence felt to him. It does not explain David’s circumstances or prove that he had deliberately broken with his brother. Letter 12.
Friedrich mourned his brother-in-law, whose name is best read as Gotthold, and a daughter tentatively read as Emilie, who had died at twelve and a half. He reported losing four children and having three sons still living: probably Eduard, Carl or Karl, and Franz. Eduard is the preferred corrected reading, rather than Ernst; this is Friedrich’s son, not a change to David’s sibling group. Friedrich described declining strength after years of estate work and a support payment whose exact type is uncertain. The daughter has not been securely matched to a separate birth record. Letter 12.
The letter addresses Reinhold and Selma and asks them to stand by their mother. A separate historical note identifies her as Gotthold Leukroth’s widow, understood in the family context as Christel. Because the letter is to the sister and her children, it should not be presented as a reply sent directly to David. It preserves another part of the family’s conversation in which he was an absent participant. Letter 12.
A nephew takes up the correspondence
On November 14, 1880, Carl Hilpert wrote from Beesenlaublingen to an uncle about his father’s death. The family inventory and a historical annotation identify the uncle as David and the father as Friedrich; the letter’s body does not give the father’s first name. Carl reported a disabling stroke on May 28, probably that year, after which his father could no longer speak. The stroke date is not automatically the date of death. Letter 13.
Carl explained why news had been delayed: they could not find his uncle’s address. His father’s sister’s address was missing too, and he asked his uncle to contact her and send it. His mother remained in nearby Poplitz. Carl described himself as the second son, thirty-one years old, with three children, and intended to take his father’s place in maintaining contact. Here the letters offer a practical explanation for silence—lost addresses—as the next generation tried to keep the family connected. Read Carl’s November 14, 1880 letter.
Land & livelihood
Building the Hilpert Farm
During the 1870s and 1880s, David expanded his holdings. He eventually controlled approximately 280 acres, including additional property purchased from the Northern Pacific Railroad and forty acres acquired from the federal government under the Timber and Stone Act.
He logged timber, removed stumps, cleared fields, and brought more land into agricultural production. By the late nineteenth century, the farm was producing hay and grain and supporting poultry, hogs, beef cattle, dairy cattle, and horses.
A photograph dating from around 1898 reportedly shows the developed farm: the house, three barns, a machine shed, pig shed, large woodshed, split-cedar fences, and substantial orchards. The orchard reportedly contained numerous varieties of apples, pears, and cherries, as well as prunes, plums, and nectarines.
Archive note: record or photograph still being prepared
Hilpert farm panorama · circa 1898
Photograph awaiting identification in the family archive.
The farm in photographs and memory
The album’s farm caption recalls David walking to Portland for seedling trees and bringing them back to establish an orchard. It identifies the distant stumps as remnants of the original orchard before it was moved toward the river. This is a preserved family account, not an independently documented itinerary.
In his letter of December 3, 1990, David’s grandson Hamlet Hilpert described the farm’s orchards, livestock and daily work. He recalled an early orchard of 400 trees and a second planting around 1890, with many varieties of apples, pears, stone fruit and cherries. Gardens, berry patches and beehives added to what the family produced. Read Hamlet’s account of the orchards.
Hamlet described preserving fruit and vegetables, making cider and vinegar, curing meat and separating milk. Laundry and baking shared the heat of the kitchen range. Even when Magdalena sat down after the noon meal, he remembered her taking up sewing or knitting lace for the household. These later recollections give a sense of the work behind the farm’s prosperity; they are not a contemporary inventory of any one year. Farm produce and livestock · Household work and Magdalena’s lace.
Family & descendants
David and Magdalena's Family
David and Magdalena raised eight children: three sons and five daughters. Current research identifies them as:
- Reinhold Hilpert (1870–1954)
- Selma Anna Hilpert Pitzer Wagner (1872–1965)
- Johanna (Hannah) Hilpert Schaefer (1875–1961)
- Paulina (Pauline) Hilpert Reece (dates not yet established here)
- Elizabeth (Hattie) Hilpert Teeter (1880–1967)
- Otto Frederick Hilpert (born 1881)
- Phillip Hilpert (1883–1932)
- Helena (Helen) Hilpert Schaefer (1885–1978)
Names as recorded in the earlier family summary
- Reinhold Hilpert
- Otto F. Hilpert
- Phillip Hilpert
- Hattie Hilpert Teeter
- Selma Hilpert Pitzer
- Paulina Hilpert
- Hannah Hilpert Schaefer
- Helena Hilpert Schaefer
Reinhold, their oldest child, was born in 1870. Otto, their second son, was born in 1881. Descendant branches from these children eventually connected the Hilpert family with surnames including Townsend, Fuller, Pitzer, Teeter, and Schaefer.
Names carried between generations
The names Reinhold and Selma already belonged to the sister’s children mentioned in the American letters. A later handwritten annotation accompanying Friedrich’s letter says David named two of his own children after them. That is a family tradition recorded by the annotator, not a statement made by David or Friedrich in the surviving correspondence. It offers a possible connection between the two households while keeping the generations distinct. Letter 10; Letter 12 and its historical annotation.
Faces from the family album
The album assembled by Eileen Townsend preserves these photographs of her grandparents and their family. Dates and identifications below follow the reviewed album captions.
The album identifies Lona Pitzer, born in 1891, as the first grandchild. Its accompanying note says the house was later turned slightly, porches were added and the old log cabin removed.
August 1906
Death of David Hilpert
David remained associated with the family farm for the rest of his life. Current records place his death on August 20, 1906, at his home north of Centralia.
Earlier obituary research reports that he died following a paralytic illness. That account also describes him becoming ill after an outing that included a visit to a circus and to his daughter, Mrs. Carl Pitzer. These details come from the project's current obituary research; the original newspaper clipping still needs to be added to the website archive.
A family funeral photograph dated August 23, 1906 survives, together with an identification key naming Magdalena and several of David's children and relatives. David was buried at Washington Lawn Cemetery.
Archive note: record or photograph still being prepared
Family funeral photograph · August 23, 1906
Photograph and identification key to be added.
The next generation
The Farm After David
A legal agreement dated September 27, 1906, concerned the family property and timber after David's death. Current research notes indicate that Magdalena retained a life interest, that merchantable fir and cedar were involved, and that certain first-class cedar was reserved for farm buildings and fencing.
The document also refers to an $800 obligation divided among the sons Reinhold, Otto, and Phillip. The original agreement still needs to be fully transcribed for the website; this summary reflects current research notes rather than a complete interpretation of its legal effect.
The property later divided along family lines. Reinhold's descendants retained part of the original property in Lewis County, while Otto's daughter Eileen Hilpert Townsend and her husband Frank Townsend owned another substantial portion in Thurston County.
Members of the family continued to own substantial portions of the land assembled by David more than a century after he first settled there.
An enduring connection
Legacy
David August Hilpert's life connects revolutionary-era Germany with the settlement of Washington Territory. He began life in Prussia as a silk weaver and ended it as the patriarch of a large Washington family whose descendants retained connections to the land he first began clearing in 1858.
His story continues to evolve. Original letters and records are correcting or refining accounts passed down through the family, bringing his life and the experiences of those around him into clearer view. Preserving those documents alongside the family memories allows future generations to understand both the history and how it has been reconstructed.
Sources & Research Notes
The following source categories guide this biography. Complete citations, scans, transcriptions, and record references will be added as the material is prepared for the archive.
- Surviving Hilpert family correspondence, 1849–1880
- August Hilpert to David Hilpert, 13 January 1850
- August Hilpert to David Hilpert, 29 September 1852
- Washington Centennial Farm records / Hilpert Farm histories
- David Hilpert land and pre-emption records
- Passenger-list research for the Amaranth, 1853
- David and Magdalena Hilpert marriage research
- David Hilpert obituary and funeral records
- Hilpert family photographs and identification keys
- Family oral histories and later recollections
Some later family histories contain claims that conflict with surviving primary documents. Wherever possible, this site distinguishes family tradition from documented evidence and identifies conclusions that remain open to further research.
Have a source or correction to share? Contribute to the family history.
The UW correspondence and its limits
The numbered UW letter collection, together with the preserved historical translations and the family’s 1978 inventory, informs the additions above. Manuscripts, older translations and later annotations do not always agree. The current reading retains consequential uncertainties and distinguishes a writer’s words from later family identifications. The inventory helps identify David as a recipient, but is not conclusive for every item: Letter 2 addresses Mother and siblings; Letter 12 addresses a sister and her children.
The collection also includes a December 25, 1863 letter from J. B. Lancamp/Laucamp to Christoph Sawall. Its Iowa farming and business news belongs to a different correspondence, not to David’s biography. Its presence among the family papers does not establish that its experiences were his.
No complete outgoing letter by David, or matched pair of his letter and its answer, has been identified in the reviewed groups. Replies nevertheless preserve traces of his questions and plans: letters received on February 14, 1849, January 12, 1850, and June 3, 1859, and one dated January 28, 1850. Duplicate manuscripts and translations in the additional family packet repeat existing letters; they do not supply the missing replies or independent witnesses. Letter 1; Letter 4; Letter 5; Letter 10.
Explore all thirteen letters, their manuscript images, English readings and historical copies →
The Lives of Otto and Milly, assembled by Eileen Townsend: reviewed family photographs and captions, and Hamlet Hilpert’s December 3, 1990 letter. Hamlet’s recollections are attributed to him, not to the album’s compiler. Older immigration and birthplace claims in the album remain historical family research; the qualifications in this biography reflect the later reviewed evidence.
Earlier header-photograph catalog note
Hilpert family photograph from the family archive. Identification and dating are still being documented.
The header now identifies the couple visible in the family group; no exact date is assigned to this exposure.