Children of Frederich Wilhelm and Catharina Kottkamp (1) - Fred Jr. (Frite)

Frederich and Catharina had four children. Three in Germany Fred Jr. and William that came over on their own and Henry that came over with them. In Kentucky they had a daughter Anna. Dates are as follows: Fred Jr. (Frite) The 1860 census has Fred Jr. as born in 1843 ans 17 in 1860. There are records of him as an ore digger but he disappears from the 1870 census. I thought that maybe he entered the Civil War and after a lot of searching I found an entry for Fred Kottkamp joining the Union Army in 1861 at Muldraugh Hills which is south of Louisville. It as a long way from Carter County but maybe the effort seemed more noble or at least maybe easier than hard rock mining. His military career seemed however brief. Enlistment: In hospital in Louisville: Death in Louisville Hospital: Death in Louisville again: There were no other documents regarding Fred Jr. and I found documentation that soldiers that died at the Louisville hospital were buried on hospital grounds. After the war the hospital was closed and those soldiers were re-interred in the National Cemetery in New Albany. I went through he records of the National Cemetery using the various spellings of Kottkamp with no results. Eventually I did find a Fred Cotcomb that was re-interred there. Curious, I could find no records of anyone by the name of Cotcomb ever being in the Civil War. If fact there was only a couple of obscure references to anyone with the surname Cotcomb ever and those were in the 15th century. With no further proof I have assumed that Fred Cotcomb is probably a miss-identified and re-interred Fred Kottkamp. Here is a photo of his marker in the New Albany National Cemetery.

Frederich Wilhelm and Catharina Kottkamp continued...

It is not clear where Frederich and Catharina lived at any particular time. Some census show them in western Greenup county in (now) Kotcamp Hollow on Leatherwood Creek. Some have them in the adjacent western Carter county in an area called "Grassy" just north of the town of Carter. Fred Jr. was 17 when he came to the US and disappears after the 1860 census. William was about 10 when he came over with Fred Jr. I suspect he lived with his parents after they arrived and he later stayed on the "Grassy" area. At some point Fred Sr. and Catharina seemed to have moved over the line into Greenup County. They had a fourth child after arriving in the US. This was the only girl and she was named Anna. There are only a couple or artifacts from Fred and Catharina Kottkamp. Oe is a bok that my Aunt Mary Lou (Kotcamp) Allen gave me that she said was brought with Catharina from Germany. It is written on Old German and appears to be a religious text. It may have actually belonged to or was given to Henry and Nellie Kotkamp since written inside are the birthdates of both Henry and Nellie as well as the birthdates of their first three children. One other artifact was a pair of wooden shoes also brought from Germany. Since they came from Northwestern Germany they used the same king of wooden shoes as were worn in Holland with a piece of leather trim for beauty and I guess comfort. My father took a photo of them on display at the Greenup Old Fashioned Days celebration an I will post it below. The photo incorrectly attributes then to Holland. They were eventually lost down the Darby line when they moved west. The photo also include some fiddle-head ferns that I know nothing about. Kottkamp name spellings... The paragraph above includes three different spellings of Kottkamp. Kottkamp is the original but it changed often after arriving in America. Fredrich and Catharina's children dropped one T to spell it Kotkamp with the exception of the oldest Fred Jr. The next generation down my (Henry's) side changed the K to a C and adopted Kotcamp spelling. William's family had many different spellings including Kotcamp, Cottkamp, Cotcamp and others.