click on any thumbnail picture for a larger version with captions October 8, 1761 - November 23, 1839 Jean Baptiste Steffens was born in Ernster, Luxembourg on October 8, 1761, the third child and second son of Nicolas Steffen and Susanna Junck.  Nicolas was believed to have been born in Ernster, Luxembourg in 1727 and had a listed occupation as "a farmer of the better class".  Nicolas married Susanna Junck on December 8, 1754.  They lived together in Ernster and had 7 children together (3 daughters and 4 sons).  Susanna was born on November 11, 1731.  Jean Baptiste from early childhood worked with Nicolas in the fields. Jean Baptiste, well trained by his father, eventually left the house and became a farmer of his own accord in the employ of Hubert Joseph Charneaux.  Some believe Hubert to descended of nobility.  He was a baliff and justice of the peace under the Austrian government of the Canton of Clervaux in Luxembourg.  Hubert, his wife Leis Marie (Orme) and family lived in and oversaw the Chateau Chibourg estate.  This estate is believed to have been misspelled in the Charneaux family records.  Church records tie the Charneaux family to the Chateau de Schuttbourg, built on a ridge above the Clerve river upstream from the city of Kautenbach.  There is evidence that since 1550, the owners of Schuttbourg also  possessed a fairly large farm in Holzthum (4 miles away), which was leased to tenants for services and deliveries of food, as well as monetary payments.  Schuttbourg has survived the centuries in rather good condition thanks to the Belgian family who lived in and restored it during the 1940s. Jean Baptiste, along with other farmhands and attendants, lived in the Chateau de Schuttbourg and tended the farm for the Charneauxs.  Jean was energetic and talented and worked himself into a position of favor with Hubert.  Jean became enamored with Hubert's oldest daughter Marie Elizabeth, and eventually asked for her hand in marriage.  Hubert and his wife were opposed to the marriage as Marie would then be marrying under her class.  Marie persisted and she and Jean-Baptiste were finally married on September 19, 1785 in Junglinster, Luxembourg.  Jean and Marie lived in the Chateau for several years and had their first child Joseph Hubert there in 1786, followed shortly by a daughter, Charlotte, in 1787.  They tired of living under the contempt and scrutiny of Hubert and Leis Marie, they eventually moved out and rented an estate known as Bois Rond ("round woods") in Hachy, a province of Luxembourg at the time.  Bois Rond was described as a large stone chateau with great rooms and the floors above and below were paved with iron stone with little wood used in its construction.  It had great rambling rooms and a kitchen large enough to feed a small army. Jean conducted his affairs and managed the lands at Bois Rond very well making the land productive and profitable, hiring and supporting numerous farmhands and attendants.  Jean and Marie had 2 more children in Bois Rond, both daughters: Marianne Constance in 1790, and Ambroise in 1794.  In an interesting twist of fate, Hubert's youngest daughter Marie Anne Charneaux married M. Duchenest, a count, who exhausted the Charneaux family resources with his gambling habits and Hubert was obliged to pay his debts to keep his daughter from dishonor.  Now penniless, the entire Charneaux family (including the youngest daughter) moved into Bois Rond with Jean and Marie.   Jean Baptiste and Marie's oldest son Joseph Hubert helped his father with the farming until Joseph was drafted into the French Army in 1804.  Joseph served in the 108th regiment under Napolean from 1805 to 1809 and fought in the campaigns of Germany and Poland.  In the battle of Wagram he was wounded in the knee disabling him from further service.  After a year in the hospital, he received his discharge along with a yearly pension.  Shortly after returning from the war to Bois Rond, he received the appointment of Forester, an office of some consequence in the rural districts of the area.  He married Marguerite Mathelin in 1815.  Joseph and Marguerite lived with Jean Baptiste and Marie at Bois Rond for a year before purchasing a home from his sister Marianne.  Joseph turned the house into a tavern, which he ran and managed for 7 years.  Joseph and Marguerite returned to Bois Rond in 1822 and went back to the farm working with his father in the fields and managing the farm hands they employed. The original rental arrangements for Bois Rond with the owners had the title to the estate to be transferred to Jean Baptiste after a number of yearly payments.  Once these payments were complete, the current owners unjustly claimed additional payments at a higher rate, and Jean Baptiste felt inclined to pay them to avoid trouble with his now affluent estate.   Marie would not consent to this and influenced Jean Baptiste to resist the claims by litigation resulting in a series of lawsuits that stretched on for many years. The Bois Rond estate lawsuits with the owners eventually took their toll, and in 1830 they were finally compelled to leave the grand house.  They moved around for several years and Marie passed away on June 1, 1834 while they were  living in  Hachy.  Now with Jean-Baptiste in declining health, the family finally settled in Heinstert, Luxembourg in 1836.  He passed away a few years later there on November 23, 1839 at age 78, a very long life for those times.  Prologue The family remained centered in Heinstert until the pull to America had them splitting up and emigrating there, led by the oldest son, Joseph Hubert, and his family in 1856.  One of Joseph Hubert's daughters, Aspasia Phillippine Steffens (sister of Joseph Jerome Steffens), married a French immigrant, Francis Bernard.  Aspasia died at the age of 28 after a long and lingering illness.  Her very short obituary was printed up in the Appleton Crescent on September 4, 1858 on page 2. This biography began as an Ancestry.com post by Christine Steffens dated August 11, 2000 that I stumbled across while trying to further the Steffens Family Tree ancestry beyond Nicolas Steffen born in Luxembourg in 1727.  Christine's account appears to have been flawed in that she had Jean-Baptiste's mother listed as Antionette Hardy and him being an only child.  From the actual Luxembourg church records archives from that period, researched by my distant cousin Carin Rhoden, Jean-Baptiste's mother is listed as Susanna Junck with 3 brothers and 3 sisters, so this biography was amended with those corrections.  The rest was pieced together with information found during searches of the Charneaux family, Chateau de Schuttbourg, Bois Rond, and history on many of the Steffens family members pulled together by Carin.