Wurster/MacDonald Family

Charles (Karl) Wilhelm Wurster was born August 28, 1844 in Rubgarten, Germany.  Karl is the son of Jacob Wurster and Anna Rosina Seiler and was married to Caroline Duerr on October 10, 1867 in the parish of Waldbach, Neckarkreis (Neckar County) in the Kingdom of Wuerttemberg, Germany.  Marriage records indicate that Carl was a schoolmaster at the time of his marriage, the same occupation as listed for his father.

​

Karl's wife Caroline was born March 29, 1848 in Nottingen, Germany to parents Jakob Durr (farmer/caretaker) and Katharine nee Kather.

​

The Karl Wilhelm Wurster Family is the family that brought the Wursters from Germany to America.  Karl, along with wife Caroline, son Carl, and daughter Emilie (German form of the name Amelia) departed Bremen, Germany on their voyage to New York aboard the ship Hermann, arriving on November 19, 1875.  On the ship's passenger list the elder Karl was listed as a miller from Germany and the family's planned final destination was Ohio.

​

After their arrival in the United States, Karl and Caroline would add four more sons to the family. Albert was born in May 1879 in Zanesville, Ohio, and Henry (July 1884), Otto (Jan 1886) and Harry (Nov 1887) were also born in Ohio, presumably in Zanesville as well.

​

The senior Karl died on September 7, 1889 in Zanesville after being crushed by an elevator under suspicious circumstances and his widow Caroline remarried in 1897 to her second husband, Henry Miller.  Caroline died in January 1916 in Cleveland, Ohio.

​

**It is important to note that the names Karl (with a "K") and Carl (with a "C") were interchangeable at the time, so in some cases the elder Karl's name was spelled with a "C"**