The Bridgewater

By superadmin | June 25, 2025

By Dr. Jim Foster

“The years like great black oxen tread the world, and God, the herdsman goads them on behind, and I am broken by their passing feet. — William Butler Yeats

In late April of 1859, a reporter for the Hannibal Daily Messenger newspaper (Hannibal, Missouri), witnessed a rodeo involving an ox, a human and dogs that took place on Market Street in Hannibal, Missouri. The ox pawed at the ground, bellowed, and snorted as his black male rider laughed with excitement until a pack of forty stray dogs became involved in chasing the ox who began to run to the dismay of the rider. Mayhem broke loose providing more excitement for the local shoppers and potentially those travelers who had arrived on the steamboats traveling to this port town located along the Mississippi River.

The steamboat Bridgewater arrived in mid-May of 1845 carrying 250 passengers as well as their personal belongings, furniture, tools, and they also brought their livestock including cattle. They had boarded at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and traveled on the Monongahela River which converged into the Allegheny River, the head of the Ohio River where more passengers boarded. The Bridgewater was guided by Captain Shrodes to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers on a vessel that had been purchased for this mission for $1,800.00. His passengers and cargo had been noticed as word had spread that they were a part of a group of 3,000 immigrants headed west to Missouri. News articles appeared in newspapers in multiple states including Missouri as their movement west was documented and questioned.

The Bridgewater passengers became travelers by land as teams of oxen pulled their loaded wagons to their new location that included rich Missouri land that had been purchased on their behalf by their leader whom they had entrusted with their personal wealth for the common good of all in their new community.

In the November 17th, 1846, edition of the Missouri State Times (Jefferson City, Missouri) a story appeared giving an update on these immigrants who had made their way to Missouri from the counties of Beaver, Allegheny, and Westmoreland in Pennsylvania. The writer marveled at the progress made in this new community that now numbered in the hundreds farming several hundred acres of land. A new steam powered mill was in operation in their new community that also included multiple workshops and a tanning yard.

These immigrants not only had great mechanical skills but some of them even had musical skills as the writer listened to the instruments being played by the first Bethel Colony German Band. The writer had traveled the old state highway to Shelby County, Missouri to the location of the new Bethel Colony located five miles north of the county seat of Shelbyville. These German families had followed Dr. Wilhelm Keil who was now their religious leader, and they had chosen to follow his method in communal living.

These however were not the first German immigrants to make this voyage to Shelby County. In the March 3rd, 1926, edition of the Shelby County Herald (Shelbyville, Missouri) it was reported that Wesley Schatz brought to the Herald office a tax receipt for the year 1842. The tax receipt belonged to Wesley’s grandfather, German immigrant Valdin “Valentine” Schatz, whose eighty acres of land near what would become the community of Epworth was valued at a total of $68.00. The total taxes paid on these eighty acres was ninety-one cents. Valentine Schatz was my father’s great great grandfather. And I am one of the last members of what was formerly known as the Bethel German Band. However, I am not one of the original members…. That is an inside joke for those of us members who are still able to toot our horns and bang a drum…

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