The SS State of Nevada was built in 1874 as a single-screw, three-mast passenger ship by the London & Glasgow Co. for the British-owned State Line. The length of the ship was just over 332 feet, and its speed was 12 knots. Launched on June 2, 1874, the maiden voyage for the SS State of Nevada began in Glasgow on July 19, and docked in New York.
In 1875, the SS State of Nevada was chartered by the Red Star Line, and sometime in July of that year docked in Antwerp, Belgium, to take on passengers. As it left the port of Antwerp, 731 people were on board: 87 crew members and 644 passengers.
35 passengers aboard the ship were in the first and second cabins. Among them there were about 25 “packages” of belongings. The 609 passengers who inhabited the steerage of the ship were accompanied by a total of about 400 “packages.”
After a journey across the Atlantic lasting about 15 days, the SS State of Nevada arrived in New York on August 5, 1875. The master of the ship for that journey, Captain A. G. Braes, submitted to the port authority the manifest listing the names of all the passengers arriving on his ship that day. The last ten names on that manifest are written down as: Franz Cows (some have transcribed this as Caws—it’s hard to tell whether it is an “o” or an “a” as written), age 62; Eliz., age 38; Klaas, age 17; Joh., age 16; Jac., age 13; Gerh., age 11; Pet., age 9; Hein., age 6; Anna, age 3; and Elizab., age ½.
What is interesting about this family is that the names and age ranges of the people listed match what we know about Oma’s great grandfather, Franz Toews, her great grandmother Elizabeth Dick Toews, and their children, including Oma’s grandfather, Jacob F. Toews!
Why, then, is the name Cows written on the manifest rather than Toews? Two factors may have been involved. One is that the spelling used for the family name was at times Tows. The second factor would be that the scribe writing down the hundreds of passenger names may have had “tired ears” after writing down almost 600 names, and when Franz with his strong German accent said his name was spelled T-o-w-s, the writer heard C-o-w-s. It is also possible that Franz said his name was spelled T-o-e-w-s, and the transcriber simply did not hear the “e.”
Not all the ages are accurately written down on the ship’s manifest. There was clearly a mix-up when it came to the youngest children of the family. Anna was born August 17, 1868, so she would have been about to celebrate her 7th birthday. Elizabeth was born on September 29, 1870, so she was nearly five years old when she arrived in New York.
However, the most interesting confusion in the list of the children is the name Hein. (Heinrich), who is noted on the manifest as being six years of age. It is true that Franz and Elizabeth had a son named Heinrich born on March 14, 1867. However, he died on May 3, 1868, having a lifespan of not quite 14 months. So he was not on board the SS State of Nevada seven years later when the family emigrated to the United States.
This is where it gets even more interesting, for Elizabeth gave birth to a son on July 17, 1875, less than a week before embarking on the journey across the Atlantic, and the name Franz and Elizabeth gave their son was Heinrich! The numbering of passengers in the family was accurate. The names of the passengers in the family were accurate. However, the order and the ages were not. Again, it would be interesting to know how large of a role the language barrier had in this case.
It is difficult to imagine the ordeal this trip was for Elizabeth Dick Toews. She was a 39-year-old woman who had given birth to her tenth child less than a week before boarding a steamship with her seven older, living children for a 2-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Thankfully, her 63-year-old husband was a considerate man who booked the family into 2nd Cabin accommodations on the ship rather than steerage, undoubtedly for her sake.
While we are discussing the Franz Toews (the spelling he seems to have used in other contexts) family, another set of names on the manifest list for that voyage of the SS State of Nevada included a different Franz Cows, age 23; his wife Margt. (Margaretha), age 25; daughter Eliz. (Elizabeth), age 3; and daughter Sara, age 1. This Franz was the son of the previously-mentioned Franz Toews and his third wife, Susanna Enz Warkentin Toews, who lived only five years after their wedding. In other words, this younger Franz was Oma’s half great uncle.
Evidently newborn babies were not typically listed on the ship’s manifest by this particular captain. Margaretha gave birth to their third child on July 21, 1875, either just before boarding the SS State of Nevada for the trans-Atlantic journey, or else while floating on the ocean waves! They named their first son Franz, and he became at least the fourth generation of men bearing that given name. However, just as with his baby uncle Heinrich, baby Franz was not recorded by the ship’s captain as a passenger.
The significance to us of this particular voyage of this particular ship at this particular time has not yet been exhausted. A third family listed on the manifest is that of Heinr. (Heinrich) Franz, age 46, with his wife Margt. (Margaretha), age 43; Peter, age 14; Heinr., age 8; and Anna, age 1. The older Heinrich is Oma’s great grandfather and son Peter is her grandfather on her mother’s side of the family.