Written by Patricia Tippman Ley 
June 28, 1995

	Mary Gasina Abeln was my great-great Grandmother.  She was born September 8, 1824 in Meppin, Hanover Germany, one of six children of Joannis Bernardus Abeln and Aveloides Offen.  She emigrated to the United States at the age of 26 in 1849.  She left from the port of Bremen on the ship Yorkshire and traveled in the steerage area.  She traveled with a party of seven including Henry Schnelker and his wife Helena Buter Schnelker and their son Henry aged 3 years.  Mary was credited with saving the child's life during the voyage.  As he was playing on the ship's deck, he fell through an opening in the railing.  Mary grasped him by the foot to save him from falling overboard and certain death.  They landed in New York City on June 19, 1849 and traveled immediately to Fort Wayne through Albany and Buffalo, traveling from Toledo on the Wabash and Erie Canal.
	On April 30, 1850 in the St. Mary's Catholic Church in Fort Wayne, she married another German immigrant, Bernard Heinrich Bueter (Henry Bueter) who immigrated to the US according to Naturalization Records at the same time as Mary.  I did not find his name on the same passenger list as Mary.  He arrived in New York on June 18, 1849.  They lived at the corner of Washington and Clay Street until they purchased a farm in Adams Township on the New Haven Avenue adjacent to the Wabash & Erie Canal in 1858.  She lived on the farm until the death of her husband in 1893.  She then resided with her daughter Ludmilla Bueter Violand in the original family home at Washington and Clay until her death at the age of 76 on September 4, 1901.  She suffered from a stroke and died shortly after.  She was buried from St. Mary's Catholic Church to the Catholic Cemetery in lot A-19.  
	She was one of the 30 founding German families of the St. Mary's Congregation and attended daily Mass while she lived with her daughter in town.
	Bernard Heinrich and Mary Gasina Abeln Bueter had seven children , five surviving until adulthood.  Three of her sons, Barney, Frank and Herman were extremely active in the Democratic political Party, each having held a political office at the township of county level.  They were also prominent businessmen.  The children were:
	John Bernard (05 May 1851 - 23 Dec 1903)
	Frank Henry (05 Feb 1854 -16 Apr 1906)
	John Henry (07 Aug 1856 - 29 May 1898)
	Anna Maria (18 May 1859 - 15 Feb 1875)
	Ludmilla Marie (11 Feb 1862 - 16 Feb 1928)
	Mathilda Marie (22 Oct 1864 - 26 Dec 1864)
	John Herman (23 Feb 1866 - 06 Nov 1946)

	Records from St. Mary's Church indicates probably relationships with several people.  Herman and Helen Schnelker were godparents for John Bernard Bueter.  It also lists Helen's maiden name as Buter.  This indicates a probable relationship to Heinrich (brother or cousin).  Helen died on 20 Mar 1858.
	Franciska and Margaretha Dahman were godparents to Frank Henry Bueter.  Margareth's maiden name was Abeln and the parents listed in her marriage records are the same as Mary Gasina Abeln's.  This would mean she was her sister.
	Leekla Bueter married Nicholas Schuckman on 25 May 1844.  Anna Thecla Bueter (same) wife of Nicholas Schuckman died 26 Dec 1851.  I don't know what relationship she would be.