Auguste's oldest son Wilhelm Wahrenburg was the only member of the family who stayed in Germany. He was engaged and married Friederike Führ on October 8, 1871 - as soon as he had received a telegram that his mother and sisters had well arrived in the "New World". 

Wilhelm took over the small cooper business of his father August Wahrenburg, who had died on January 8, 1871. Wilhelm never saw his family again. The story goes that he was very sad about that fact during the rest of his life. Every time a letter arrived from the States he cried. Auguste kept writing and informed her "German son" about the important events of his brother's and sisters' new lives. 

The scrap of paper below, written in Auguste's hand in the old German script, was saved only because it had the address of her daughter Bertha Seraphim on the back. It is written without punctuation and has many mistakes, but still makes sense.

"feelings I can bear it and God will lead everything after his pleasure I say farewell now and hope that you are in good health and that you will write soon God be with you and keep you faithful until we see each other again in heaven"

Lafayette Indiana
Tippecanoe County Courthouse

By 1850 Friedrich Huch and the Starick family were living in Lafayette. Johann Christoph Gottfried Huch arrived in America in December 1850 after a rescue at sea by a British sailing packet from the sinking German steamship on which he had embarked from Hamburg.

When Auguste arrived in America, she had been separated from her father and siblings for more than 20 years, and her daughters never knew their grandfather, uncle, aunt and American cousins until then.

August and Auguste Wahrenburg, Berlin

Auguste Wahrenburg, Lafayette