John Ferdinand #1

All dates are subject to verification --
John Ferdinand Armga was born 25 June in 1866 in Stettin, Germany (or between Stettin and Hamburg on the Order River). His father, August, died 4 days later on 29 June, 1866.
John had two brothers and one sister. His oldest brother, Will, was born and died in Germany. His brother Ernest was born in Germany in 1864, lived in Appleton, Wisconsin and died in 1919 or 1920 at age 52. (It is believed that Ernest spelled his last name "Armge"). His sister Augusta was also older than John and lived near him in Waupun, Wisconsin.

John Ferdinand is our paternal great-grandfather, the father of William Carl.

The family (mother, Ernest, Augusta and John) immigrated to the United States in 1874. They entered North America through Nova Scotia. They settled in the Waupun, Wisconsin area.

John used to tell about the voyage from Germany to North America and remembered that whales bothered the boat so the crew threw empty barrels overboard to divert them. He also remembered people dying at sea during the trip across the Atlantic. Their bodies would be thrown overboard and sharks would immediately take the bodies.

John was 5 feet 10 inches tall, had light brown hair and blue eyes. He was a jolly, happy man who never lost his temper. Others found him very easy to get along with. He was always ready to help someone else and never worried about what others had that he didn't. He was honest. Others said of him that he would "never get rich, he was too honest." He chewed tobacco and said he smoked a pipe "to get the nasty taste out of my mouth after dinner" to tease his wife.