From a phone conversation with Theodor’s Grandson, Hermann Welp (1949-Present) of Nortrup, Ankum where he was asked if there ever was a Welp Bauernhof: “Wir Welps sind hier, meine Vorvatern direkt, meine Opa Theodor Welp und sein Vater, die waren Holzschuhmacher, und ich meine der Vater auch noch. Die haben immermal Holzschuhen gemacht. Ah so, Welp ist kein Bauernhof hier in der Gegend gewesen. Und mein Vater war der letze Heuerman, der hatte ja noch ein Pferd und hat da mit gesammelt auch Lohn gegangen. Und in 1964, könnten wir hier die Heuerstelle kaufen. Und hat mein Vater den gebaut. Ich hab 1990 hier den angebaut. Und des ist ah so hier einfach noch Heurstelle, aber wir haben jetzt hier ein grosses Haus, wo ich mit mein Sohn lebe. Ah so, ein [Welp] Hof hat es in unsere ganze Gegend auch in Ankum und Bersenbruck nicht. Kein. Das war alles Heuerleute.”


Theodor’s ancestors and descendants were all considered heuerman, or laborers/serfs/peasants. They were part of a feudal agricultural system in northwest Germany that had been in place since at least 800 AD. The peasant class made lifelong commitments to perform agricultural duties for their Bauer (farmer) to which they were assigned. Their Bauer, in return for thier labor, provided a place to sleep and meals each day for the peasant and his family. There were no wages paid. They often got a small house with a garden and possible strip of land for their own crops. Younger single heuermann and single housemaids were provided minimal sleeping quarters, often just a small space in the hayloft above the cow and pig stalls. The farmer was required to provide food and shelter for all children of a heuer family as long as they remained unmarried. If they wanted to marry or had to marry due to a unplanned pregnancy, like Henry Welp and Theresa Kobbe experienced, the heuer class had to find their own place to work and live. But because of high birth rates in each family, often there were no work/living places available in their local area. This explains why each generation of the Welps since the 1600s tended to live in a different village. By 1841 when Theresa Kobbe was pregnant, a new option existed and rather than move to another village with hopefully some open heuer positions, they could move to America.

Just as the serfs were subservient to the farmer (Bauer), the famers were subservient to their land lords. No bauer owned his own land. All land was owned either by royalty (Kings, princes, or designated earls, counts, dukes, etc) or the Catholic Church. For the nobility to generate wealth from the land, the lords gave inheritable farm leases to Bauers, who raised crops and tended livestock. Each Bauer was required to give 10% of the gains from his farming activities to the landlord. The landlords also collected taxes and fees from the Bauers for allowances to marry, redefine farm boundaries, allow for collection of wood and grazing rights on communal lands etc.


These Heuer peasants did have the opportunity to earn extra cash from their own “cottage industry” labor in the evenings and on weekends. Many spun and wove flax into linen and sold such. Theodor Welp was a “Holzschuhmacher” as were many of his direct Welp ancestors. In the Welps case they carved out wooden shoes for their fellow peasants as all were too poor to afford leather shoes. Bernard Henry Welp then used some of his savings from this work to pay for he and proably Theresa’s journey to America in 1841.