About Bernard and Caroline Rottkamp

They met at St. Nicholas Church, New York City, in 1850 and after a courtship Bernard Rottkamp, in the United States since his twenty first birthday, and Caroline Engel, born on Second Street, New York City, received the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony in St. Nicholas R.C. Church on July 20, 1851. Caroline just passed her seventeenth birthday and Bernard was twenty-eight. At the time of their marriage Ber­nard Rottkamp worked on a farm located in the neighborhood of 8th Street and Astor Place then up-town New York. The salary was very small only five dollars a week and they thought they could do better if he worked for six dollars in a local factory.

The change was made but Bernard Rottkamp, being a farmer, was anxious to till the soil and within a few years the couple saved enough to purchase a farm in Astoria. Astoria was selected because of its closeness to Manhattan via a ferry. It was only ne­cessary to have one horse and a small truck wagon to cart the vegetables to market. They became par­ishioners of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church where some of the children were baptized. The family grew rapidly and the farm was exchanged for one of more acreage in Foster's Meadow, the area that is now called Elmont, in 1861. Two more horses were purchased because of the distance to market and all three horses were used on the truck from Elmont to the Toll Gate at the west end of Jamaica now Van Wyck Blvd. The third horse was taken home by one of the sons from Jamaica and ridden bareback.

The family became active members of St. Boniface Church and close friends to the founder Pastor, Father Joseph Hauber. The family of ten children became farmers or married farmers save one John, who desired to become a butcher and he went to the big city when he reached the age of twenty-one and continued in the meat business until his retirement. The other nine were very successful in their work, and the property purchased and used for farm land is now thriving communities.

As we look at the record of parents, Bernard and Caroline and the ten children who lived to maturity and married, we find the next generation brought citizens that were not only farmers, but attorneys, engineers, police officials, manufacturers, retail mer­chants, executives, school teachers, a Sister of St. Dominic, bankers, salesmen, nurses, mechanics, publishers, distributors, automobile agent.

The pa­triotism of the family was such that many served in the Armed Forces during all the wars, others are still in service as indicated in the record. Many are now attending college and working hard to find a lucra­tive place in the world. Today the record show One Thousand Three Hundred Fourteen with the blood line of Bernard and Caroline Rottkamp. Of these we find that over 90% are living.

The Achievements by the original couple, Bernard and Caroline Rottkamp, when conditions were dif­ficult, and then by their ten children and their help­mates is worthy of an accolade and deserve a prayer from us every now and then.