CONRAD GIES (Johann Heinrich, Johannes Adam, Adam, Konrad)

Conrad Gies was born February 6, 1794, in Neustadt, Kurhessen, and Christened at St. Trinity Catholic Church. He was raised to maturity in that town, his grandfather a flour miller, his father with no listed occupation. Conrad Gies listed himself, on the passenger list, as a farmer.

In about 1827, Conrad Gies exchanged the vows of marriage, in Hesse Electoral, with Marianne Schmaus. Their children: 1) Frederick Nicholas Gies, b. June 8, 1830, in Hesse Electoral; 2) Marianne "Annie" Maria Gies b. 1834, Bamberg, Ontario, Canada; 3) Nicholas Gies, b. ca 1835; 4) William Gies, b. June 6, 1836; 5) Charles Gies, b. ca 1839; 6) Carolina Gies, b. ca April 23, 1841; 7) Blasini Gies, b. ca 1843. NOTE: The church book in St. Clement's, Ontario, Canada, as translated to me by Father Ryan, list his wife's maiden name as Schleif. This is either an error or Conrad Gies married Marianne Schmaus, the widow Schleif.

With the Napoleonic era now fifteen years in the past, and the beginning of Germany's half century turmoil over unification still ahead, in 1832, with his wife and son Frederick, Conrad Gies, left Hesse Electoral and set sail for a new home in Canada. They sailed from the port of Bremen, aboard the "Columbus," and arrived in the port of New York, July 16, 1832. On that same ship were twenty-two other Gies family members, a Schmaus Family couple, a pair of Kleinman Families, and a Schmidtdeil Family. All of these names fall into his ancestry. Information picked up on a visit to Newustdt: "the three years of emigration to Detroit from this congregation was based on the state government ordering the Catholic Church abolished and the instalation of the Lutheran Church as the only means of worship." I'm further informed that the two religions remain on bad terms today.

Whether Conrad Gies went to Detroit first we do not know but that he settled in the village of Bamberg, Wellesley Twp, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada. The 1832 Ontario Census shows that he had three children (This doesn't agree with the facts). With his seven years of residency completed, in 1839, Conrad Gies was naturalized as a Canadian citizen.

A Conrad Gies has been identified in the 1840 US Census for the City of Detroit, Michigan. The numbers of children listed does not agree, but the other information concurs with him and his wife. His name is not found on the 1850 US Census.

In 1843, in Bamberg, Ontario Conrad Gies owned a Conc. A, Lot 11 and Conc. Viii, lot 1.

The 1851 Canadian census has him listed as a Lutheran. During my research into this family history, I was informed: "that it is likely that all of the Gies family in the area, Catholic and Lutheran alike, had descended from Conrad and Mary Ann (Schmaus) Gies."

It was related that "Conrad Gies came into conflict with the local priest over some financial issue." At about this same time he was recorded as a member of the church committee for the building of a Catholic School at St. Clement's, a school that some members [no names mentioned] of this committee disputed in favor of the local public school use. "Conrad Gies," according to the story, "left the Catholic Church and join the Lutheran Church. Some of his children remained in St. Clement's Roman Catholic Church while others followed their father into the Lutheran Church." No record of Lutheran Church membership has been found for Conrad Gies, but his son, Blasini Gies, was married in the Lutheran Church at Heidelberg, Ontario.

There is a field of thought, by a family researcher that says "a second Gies family, led by Nicholas Gies, arrived from Darmstadt, Germany two decades later. This is the Lutheran family." I have found no evidence to deny or substantiate this claim.

In the 1861 Canadian Census, Conrad Gies is listed a resident living with his family in a single family two story home in Bamberg, Ontario. In 1860 he received patent for lot 1 and lot 2 (in St. Agatha)

Conrad Gies died September 10, 1869, in Bamberg, and is buried in the Brothers Cemetery in St. Jacobs, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada.