Carl Hermann Crede immigrated to Missouri from Cassel, Hesse, in 1853 with his brother Wilhelm. He joined the household of his maternal grandmother, Margarete Versen Schroeder Classen, who had immigrated in the 1830s. In 1855, another Crede brother, Carl Albert Crede, also immigrated to Missouri. Among the siblings the Crede brothers left behind was their sister Therese Crede Winhold, known in the family as “Rösel.” Carl Albert Crede was killed in 1863 during the Civil War while serving as a member of the Enrolled Missouri Militia, an organization which fought for the United States. Hermann Crede became a farmer and local official in Osage County, Missouri; his brother (who anglicized his name to William) also lived in the same area.