In the opposite direction from the beginning of the ancient
"Logenstrasse" in an area far from the urban center of the old colony
Dona Francisca, a Swiss man intended to transform into reality the
immigrant dream of crossing unknown oceans and forests and trying his
luck in new settlements. Of given name Storrer, he acquired many
lands in that locale, still uninhabited.
It did not take long for the trail that led to the land to be known
as "Storrerstrasse," Storrer's Street, which, in the first half of
the twentieth century, became known as Imaruhy Street and is today
called Henrique Meyer Street.
But who was this immigrant who came to inhabit these lands? The
oldest of records indicate that three members of the Storrer family
left Siblingen, in the canton of Schaffhausen in Switzerland, in the
mid-nineteenth century, with Brazil as their destination and they
reached the colony of Dona Francisca which was in the process of
being founded by the Colonizing Company of Hamburg.
Their names were Gottlieb, Georg, and Conrad Storrer. It is neither
known precisely what their relationship was nor which one gave their
name to the actual Henrique Meyer Street. They were, nevertheless,
natives of the same region and left Switzerland motivated by the
financial crisis that was plaguing that area in the decades of the
40s and 50s of the previous century.
It is most likely that Conrad was the first to live on Henrique Meyer
Street since Gottlieb followed the path already established by many
Swiss of the time, following the "Mittelweg", the present-day 15 of
November Street and settling down on the "Guigenstrasse", the
present-day Colon Street, in the neighborhood of Gloria. Georg
already lived on "Peterstrasse", the path that eventually became the
end of the Principe Street, and which today is known as Ministro
Calogeras Street.
A farmer, Conrad was born in the canton of Schaffhausen, on the
17th of August in 1811 and died in Joinville, with 69 years of age,
in 1880. He arrived in the company of three children (still young) in
1852, on board the Florentin. But sadness was already in his future.
Not able to resist the hardships of the voyage, his first wife died
on the journey. Later, already in the new lands, he remarried twice
and came to have more children.
Like the other trails opened by pioneers to allow use of the new
lands, the "Storrerstrasse" incorporated itself, little by little,
with the colony, and, gradually, served as an access to the lots of
the new inhabitants that had moved to the region. Until the middle of
the twentieth century, meanwhile, it remained a small trail, situated
between the 15 of November and 9 of March Streets.
Dona Francisca is now Joinville, Santa Catarina state. Most of the
current Storrers live in Curitiba, Paraná state. This is
southern-most Brasil.
Conrad was born in Siblingen 17 Aug 1811, son of Hans Melchior
Storrer and Elisabeth Müller, and his second wife, who went to
Brazil was an Elisabeth Müller of Löhningen (we do not know
the relationship between the two Elisabeths). We have five children
listed for this marriage. Sons Conrad and Daniel went to Brazil, and
possibly the second child, Ursula. Peter Paulus was born but two
years before they left Switzerland, and we have no information on his
death date or place. There seems to be no information on another son,
Jacob.
The lines of both sons, Conrad and Daniel, are present today in
Brazil. Daniel's living descendants number about sixty. A descendant
of Daniel, João, came with his wife Geane, to the worldwide
Storrer reunion in Siblingen, Switzerland.
Gottlieb Storrer was born in Siblingen 15 Nov 1822, son of Johann
Balthasar Storrer born in 1799 and Elisabeth Äbi, both of
Siblingen.
Georg Storrer may be the Georg born in Siblingen 3 Oct 1811, who
married Barbara Schüehelin of Beggingen. If so, he is the son of
Conrad Storrer born in 1782 and Anna Wäckerlin, both of
Siblingen.
In a US NEWS & WORLD REPORT article in the 8 June 1998 issue, Curitiba, 2 hours down the coast from Sao Paolo, was described as one of six "Cities that Work." A major share of the credit for this goes to former mayor Jaime Lerner, governor of Paraná state (when the article was written), and a mass transportation system that works. A "surface subway" with "loading tubes" helps buses load even in rush hour in less than 30 seconds.
There are Storrers from Siblingen, Switzerland, in Curitiba, Joinville and elsewhere in southern Brazil. There are Storrers from Ertingen, Germany, in Paraguay and Argentina.
The entire contents of this web site are copyright © MMII William Allin Storrer.