Christian D. Koch was a Danish merchant mariner who later settled on the Bogue Homa near Pearlington, Mississippi. He married Annette Netto in 1841, with whom he had twelve children. He farmed and sailed a schooner carrying produce and lumber to New Orleans, Louisiana. Peter Koch, a nephew of Christian D. Koch, emigrated from Denmark in 1865. He stayed with his uncle's family in Mississippi before moving to Montana in 1869. He married Laurentza Koch, the third child of Christian and Annette Koch, in 1874. They settled in Bozeman, Montana, where he became a successful businessman, banker, attorney, and one of the founders of Montana State University. Other children of Christian and Annette Koch also immigrated to Montana. John B. Koch went in 1880 and became partners in a steam planning mill with Peter Koch in 1883. Thomasine "Sine" Koch married Richard Biering and they settled on a farm near Bozeman.
The materials selected by Burlingame for filming centered heavily on Peter Koch, although the diary of Christian D. Koch, with entries from 1831 to 1836 was also included. In addition to Peter Koch's diaries, correspondence includes his letters from Montana to Laurentza in Mississippi, describing frontier conditions there between 1869 and 1874; letters from Peter and Laurentza Koch in Montana to the family in Mississippi; letters from Sine Biering and Laurentza Koch in Montana to their sister Annette in Mississippi.
For citation purposes, researchers are advised to credit Louisiana State University as the owners of the original documents.
Original diaries and letters created by the extended family of Christian D. Koch were accessioned by Louisiana State University and assigned accession numbers Mss 202, 1370, and 1479. Shortly before his retirement in 1967, Dr. Merrill G. Burlingame received funding from Montana State University to travel to Louisiana State University, make selections from their voluminous holdings of Koch papers, and have the gleaned material microfilmed. The resulting two reels of film, representing a selection of nearly 400 original items, were then placed in the MSU Library's Special Collections. The microfilm was subsequently reported to the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections and assigned control number 79-671.
This collection was processed 2012 August 31