Franz (Frank) Ziegenhagen and Dorothea (Dora) Schmidt, his second wife, emigrated from Steinborn, Kreis Schlochau, West Prussia (now Słupia, Gmina Debrzno, Poland), a small farming community. Franz and his adult son, Franz (also known as Frank), immigrated to New York in July of 1880, via Hamburg. They settled in Millerville Township, Douglas County, Minnesota. Other emigrants from their area were already living in this farming area. Two months later, Dora, her four young boys, aged 1 to 7 years old (Oscar, Albert, Arnold and Theodore), her two adult stepdaughters, Antonia and Maria Ziegenhagen, and Maria’s young daughter Ida Ziegenhagen immigrated together. The family traveled from Stettin to Hull, England, then to New York via Liverpool. Franz and Dora lived in Minnesota for a short time before settling in rural Kidder Township, Day County, South Dakota, where they became homesteaders. A few years after Franz’s death, in 1901, Dora moved to the nearby town of Bristol, Day County, South Dakota. Dora and Franz had five more children born in the US, three surviving past childhood; John, Ernest and Nellie. The family were Catholics in Prussia and also in the United States.