Three daughters, Ida, Joanna, and Marie, of Peter and Emilie Pickering had considerable artistic talent and created some exceptional watercolor paintings and drawings of life at Muggau, They give us a lovely insight on how the area must have looked in the early nineteenth century. In November, 2023, Connie Pickering Stover was informed that the estate home no longer exists. There are plans to build contemporary homes on the land, but that there are also plans to renovate the gardens in tribute to the historic features of Muggau’s past.

Maire was an excellent artist and quite a few of her sketches, watercolors, and drawing still exist.

Notes for Marie Pauline Pickering: Two sketchbooks, 89 and 42 leaves with ~ 140 image-wise executed, some double-page pen and pencil drawings, this mostly watercolors, mostly titled and mostly dated, mainly seascapes and vistas of the island of Usedom Heringsdorf and Ahlbeck and resin scenery and views to Gdansk, sheet size up 24 x 16.5 cm, 1878-1885 4501 Many of the finely executed drawings showing views of the seaside resort Heringsdorf and Ahlbeck with palatial villas and beach games, the exact labels can be localized to the views and give an impression of this rare seaside resorts to frühwilheminischen time Marie Pauline Pickering was the second child of Mr and Mrs Peter Pickering (1785 – 1865) and Emilie Henriette Steffens (1794 – 1877), born Peter Pickering came from a distinguished English artist Dynasty and Emilie Henriette came from the significant and rich Danzig merchant family Steffens (Steffen house Gdansk), 1822 the family moved to the estate Müggau in Gdansk.

The Pickering / Steffens Estate in Müggau, Prussia

Muggau documents date back to 1379, when the village was called Emgowo. It was a largely rural area with arable acres of gardens, meadows, pasture and wasteland. In 1868 the village had nine houses, 156 inhabitants, including 120 Catholics and 36 Protestants. On 16 June 1454, King Casimir IV provided the village for the city of Gdansk after the war, the village belonged to the Catholic parish of St. Adalbert.

Throughout its history this area had several names: Müggau (1874), Michau (1807); Mickau (1780); Mugkow (1437); Emngow (1379).

Carl Gotleib Steffens and Carolina Dorthea Weichbrot were the wealthy parents of Emilie Steffens, Peter’s wife. The ancestral home of the Weichbrodt family was located about a mile from Danzig in Muggau. Peter Pickering and Emilie Steffens bought this estate from Emilie’s grandfather, Paul David Weichbrodt (1740-1808), father of Caroline Weichbrodt on the November 1, 1822. David Weichbrodt owned this estate since 1773. Their first child (died infant), was born earlier in the year 1822, before they purchased the Muggau home, and the rest of their 10 children were born in Muggau.

The children of Peter and Emilie born in Danzig, Prussia Muggau:

1.1 John William Robert Steffens Pickering
b: 27 May 1819 Sankt Marien Kirche, Danzig Stadt, Westpreussen, Prussen
d: 01 Jan 1822 [age 2]

1.2 Marie Pauline Pickering
b: 31 Aug 1820 Sankt Marien Kirche, Danzig Stadt, Westpreussen, Prussen; d. 1901 [age 79]

1.3. Carl Edgar Pickering
b: 22 Feb 1822 Sankt Marien Kirche, Danzig Stadt, Prussia; d. 15 Aug 1863 [age 41]
m: 15 Aug 1853 to Adelaide Frances Ann Walford
In a 1851 census, he was listed as a General Merchant. At age 29 he was a visitor at the home of the Walford’s, Liscard, Cheshire, Eng.

1.4. Albert Wilhelm Pickering
b: 12 Sep 1823 Muggau; d. 1895 [age 72]
m: 28 Mar 1855 to Rose Starke, b. 31 Dec 1831; d. 1906

1.5. Eugen Francis Pickering
b: 19 Mar 1825 Muggau, Danzig; d. 05 Feb 1895 Gross Semlin, near Danzig [age 70]
m: 08 Feb 1866 to  Margarete Doering, b. 20 Jul 1844 Marienburg, West-Prussia; d. 03 Dec 1923 Berlin, Germany

1.6. Mathilde Emilie Pickering, b. 24 Nov 1826, Gdansk Pomerania, Poland;
c. 6 Feb 1827 Sankt Marien Kirche, Danzig Stadt, Westpreussen, Prussia; d. 1905 [age 78]

1.7. Jola (Ida) Friederike Pickering, b. 1827, Danzig, Prussia; d. 1912 [age 85]

1.8. Johanna Helene Pickering, b. 4 Jun 1829, Danzig, Prussia; d, 1911, Brandenburg, Germany [age 82]

1.9. Klara (Clara) Henriette Pickering, b. 31 Dec 1831 Danzig, Prussia; d. 1895, Berlin, Germany [age 64]

1.10. Hermann Walter Pickering, b. 08 May 1833 Danzig; d. 26 Dec 1870, Danzig, Prussia [age 37]