44 – Spirits

In "37 – Prosperity" I blogged about my great-great-grandmother Elise Steiger coming to America on a first class booking in 1864. Tracing her lineage back, we quickly come to Erbenheim, Germany, where her father Johann Heinrich Steiger was born in 1801, and where this Steiger line can be traced back to the mid-1600s. Erbenheim was once a town in its own right but now it is just a part of Wiesbaden in the German state of Hesse. 

The Erbenheim marriage of Johann Heinrich's parents Johannes Steiger b. 1771 and Christiana Elisabetha Schrumpf b. 1777 is an interesting study of intermarriage in such small towns. When tracing their lineage back, I discovered that Johannes Steiger's parents were second cousins once removed on the Steiger line, both descending from my 8th great grandparent Johannes Steiger who died sometime before 1678. Christiana Elisabetha Schrumpf's parents Johann Andreas Schrumpf b. 1743 and Anna Catharina Göbel b. 1750  were also second cousins, sharing great-grandparents Johann Conrad Reinemer b. abt. 1656 and his wife Margaretha. Johann Heinrich's parents were themselves 4th cousins and 3rd cousins once removed on two other lines, descended from ancient Stein and Giebermann forbears in that town.

Visiting Erbenheim in 2015 with my wife Patti, I was introduced to a Klaus Steiger, who was able to point out where my Steigers had lived in the town. Later we determined that we are 8th cousins on the Steiger line, both descending from a 7th great-grandfather Georg Caspar Steiger b. abt. 1656 and son of that ancient Johannes Steiger who died sometime before 1678 (we are also 7th cousins on a Schrumpf line).

Klaus sent me excerpts from a book on Erbenheim's houses published in 1952, with an interesting account about our ancient Johannes Steiger who had lived on what was listed as House Number 5, on Ringstraße, Erbenheim. This involved how they had determined that Johannes had died by 1678, and the Steiger origins in Rambach (translated into English):

The family comes from Rambach. In the register of Rambacher subjects from 1630 a Johann Peter Steiger is mentioned, whose son is Johann Steiger of Erbenheim. This Johann Steiger is the progenitor. His signature as Oberschultheiß from 1663 is still available today. He is also mentioned as mayor in 1668 in the Erbenheim field book. 

The year of his death has not been determined, but he must have died before 1678. At a witch trial that year, a 75-year-old woman who was tortured as a witch accused the late mayor Steiger of Erbenheim, among others, of having been the witch king at a witches feast. After further torture, the old woman reported the most incredible things. A lady named Reinemer from Erbenheim seduced her and promised to make her rich. There were even more people from Erbenheim at the eating and drinking of the witch's feast. The poor woman, Christine Gumpf from Wiesbaden, was beheaded and burned on August 3, 1676. [Krag, pages 61-62]

Johannes Steiger was deceased and not able to defend himself from this charge, but then he also didn't take part in the sham trial; I also had two 8th great grandmothers who had married Reinemer's and were definitely around at this time – perhaps one of them was the one accused by the woman in the story above. This is a reminder that witch trials were not just held in America during this time, but were also happening in Europe. Given the intermarriage in Erbenheim, most of the people in that town with old surnames probably have a bit of witch blood in them.

Our 2015 trip included a visit to the local history museum (Heimatmuseum Erbenheim) where we found a photo of the old city hall. Perhaps this is where Mayor Steiger performed his duties. 

The old city hall in Erbenheim (photo in Heimatmuseum Erbenheim)

Much of the city was destroyed during the Allied bombing of Wiesbaden toward the end of World War II. The book by Krag notes that the Steiger home was badly damaged during the war. Klaus showed us a memorial in the church to those who died, including his great aunt and her young daughter who were killed in that bombing.  

Memorial to Gerda and Tilli Steiger

My Steigers were blacksmiths for several generations here in Erbenheim. Then my 3rd-great-grandfather managed to get into a school for veterinary medicine and used that degree to move up in the world, and out of Erbenheim to Limburg. I just wish our ancient Johannes Steiger had bequeathed us a book of spells. 

Local article on our 2015 visit to the Erbenheim Heimatmuseum

Sources

Krag, Emil Adolph. 1952. Erbenheim: Die Häuser Und Ihre Besitzer. Wiesbaden-Erbenheim: W. Hörner.

43 – Dig a Little Deeper

Intro

Going back over some piece of research, you can almost always learn something new by digging a little deeper into the story: perhaps there is additional data, perhaps it just requires a bit more thought. Last week's blog was about the supper club my aunt and uncle joined as newlyweds, and which lasted 63 years. Most of the data for that blog came from a short conversation I had with my 95-year-old Aunt Gladys this last month on a visit to Colorado.

After hearing about this, more questions eventually found their way into my head; luckily Gladys is still with us, and so I was able to quiz her a bit more. I also searched for the various club members online, finding them in high school yearbooks, family trees, newspaper articles, obituaries.

Recipe for a successful "supper club"

What was the "recipe" that made the club successful? I found the high school yearbook entries for some of the members:

Richard Knaus, Longmont HS class of 1946 

Dwight Wederquist, Longmont HS class of 1947    

Barbara Wright (Thomason), Longmont HS class of 1946

Jane Jones (Rundle),  Longmont HS class of 1947

The women, especially, were very active in their classes (the men only attended the high school for junior and senior years). The McCook Nebraska yearbook for 1946 isn't available, but Gladys appears in a number of clubs as a junior in 1945. Given the limited opportunities for women in the work force at that time, certainly some of their energy and skill was channeled into this supper club.

The Longmont High School connection was part of the "glue" of the club. And Dick Knaus and Dwight Wederquist were first cousins, having grown up within shouting distance of one another.

How did it last so long?

The couples lived long lives, and all but one stayed married: Dick and Gladys lived to celebrate their 67th wedding anniversary, similarly to other marriages in the group. The members stayed put in the area, for the most part; Dick and Gladys did move 3 hours away for almost a decade, but the club had been well established by then, and had an importance in their lives that made it possible to continue to meet even with the travel involved. 

Three of the couples had farming in common. New hobbies and interests developed, including airplanes (two of the couples), and golf. Starting out at similar points in their lives, the experiences of living around Longmont and raising families, and finally, growing old, increased the gravity of the club for the couples. The obituaries for a couple of the members even mention the club as a notable accomplishment and interest.

[To be finished...]

42 – Friends

Note: Richard "Dick" Knaus was my mother's younger brother, and Gladys Loose shared a room with her in Denver; my mother introduced the two, but that's another story...

Gladys Loose was raised in a small Nebraska town, moved to Denver after high school, then married a farmer, Dick Knaus. Newlywed and living on their farm in Boulder County, Colorado, one day she accompanied Dick on a visit to a nearby farm:

We went out to [their farm], to look at a piece of farm machinery that they had, and Jane and Bob R., I met them the first time, Dick knew them from high school... they were farming, and Jane said "Come on in, I'll make a pot of coffee and we can sit down and visit." 

Jane was always pretty outgoing I think, with all of us and with me, and [me] being kind of new, and so we went in and sat down, and she popped popcorn and made a pot of coffee and we just sat around and visited. I think they were already thinking about getting a [card] group started and they needed another couple.

Dick and I were the 4th ones. There was Pat and Dale F., Bob and Jane R., Barbara and LeRoy T., and then Dick and I were the fourth couple. But the three couples had wanted to get something going. [And so we met] the third Saturday of every month...

They expanded to 6 couples, adding Dwight and Jean W., and Howard and Lucille N. It was just a private supper club; they weren't all friends when it started, although some had attended the same school in Longmont; friendship grew over time. 

The Supper Club, 1950s

They were mostly newlyweds. A few of the men had served in the Armed Forces at the end of WWII. Longmont High School was a common thread: Barbara T., Dale F., Dwight W., Bob and Jane R., and Dick K. were all graduates, between 1944 and 1947. A few farmed (Bob R., Dick K., Dwight W.), one owned a welding shop, one worked in a furniture shop, a couple worked at IBM, though careers changed over time: e.g., Dwight went into teaching, and became a school principal. The women were mostly homemakers, but one did transcriptions at a hospital and another ran a preschool. All were raising children. 

The club was held at the homes of alternating members, on the 3rd Saturday of each month, with a break in the summer for farming. The hosting members would provide a main course, and the others would bring sides or dessert:

[My typical dish was] probably a roast, and mashed potatoes and gravy, and sometimes chicken. Pat always made a good ham and scalloped potatoes at Easter time, and you know, we didn't just do casseroles, we mainly did main dish meals, steak or roast or meat loaf or something basic like that, kind of old-fashioned cooking.

We'd set the dining room table for 12, everybody was able to do that usually, made a big table, and we'd use our fine China and our silverware and our better dishes.

We'd always dress up, and we'd give prizes all the time; there were 3 tables, 4 at each table, we'd move from one table to the next. The high and the low would get prizes and when we got home the kids would go "Well did you win anything Mom? What did you get?"

That was such a simple life back then; none of us had a whole lot of money to spend on extra [things]. So that was our entertainment, we looked forward to going to supper club; we didn't go to movies much at all.

Over time one couple divorced and a new couple replaced them; at least one other couple would occasionally sit in when someone couldn't make it. The card game of choice was Pinocle:

We tried Canasta, but we just kind of ended up doing Pinocle, it's kind of an old game I think, Pinocle. Rosemary and Bill A., when they moved here from Mississippi, he worked for IBM, they were going to teach us to play Bridge, and we tried it, and we ended up teaching them how to play Pinocle. Pinocle is more of a fun game, it's not all [serious], you can play and laugh and talk... and so we ended up teaching them to play Pinocle.

Gladys and Dick sold their farm and bought a new one outside Holyoke, on the eastern edge of Colorado, and moved there in 1981. Holyoke is almost a 3 hour drive from Longmont, but Gladys and Dick would host in Holyoke, and travel to Longmont for the other club nights.

We were out there just from 1981 to 1990, so that's 9 years... they would sleep over, and in fact LeRoy had a plane, and the Andersons, and they flew out one time and landed at the Holyoke airport.

They tried including their families in their club friendships:

You know it was just, we were like family almost, and our children you know... one time we had a picnic in the summer but the kids didn't really know one another, so we didn't continue having family picnics with the kids.

The club kept going until they started losing members to the various diseases of old age: Jane R. (2009), Jean and Dwight W. (2013, 2016), LeRoy and Barbara T. (2017, 2019), Dick Knaus (2018),  Dale and Pat F. (2021, 2023).  

Bob R. and I are the last two of the 12 that are still living, but Bob, his divorced daughter has been living with him and helping him. He's using a wheelchair now, and so he doesn't go out a great deal, but he farmed... not a big farmer but he did farm and so anyway, that was our entertainment, we just enjoyed eating together and sharing recipes. 

The Supper Club, 1990s

Gladys says the supper club lasted 63 years!

Sources

Knaus, Gladys Loose. 2023. Remembrances about the supper club.

 

 

41 – Travel

The travels of my ancestors are featured in many of the blogs I wrote (see below); and so I was a bit stumped about what to write about specifically on travel. This last month I have started to inventory my genealogy collection, inspired by Marian Burk Wood's book Planning a Future for Your Family's Past, and I came across a small spiral-bound notepad documenting a bus trip my grandmother Marie Gerhard Kenyon took in 1980 from Wisconsin to California, visiting various people she knew including me. So I think kismet was telling me I had to blog about Grandma's bus trip.

Marie never learned to drive, and was born before automobiles became popular. In her teens and twenties we know she used to enjoy car rides – her diaries from 1916 to 1926 include a lot weekends she would go "autoing" with others for leisure. 

Marie (back seat, driver's side) with her father and siblings, abt. 1914

She also frequented the trains, especially the one between Milwaukee and Fond du Lac, and her honeymoon in June 1918 started with an early morning train trip from Fond du Lac to Minnesota: her wedding was at 5:15 A.M. in order to make the 6:30 A.M. train to Minneapolis!

Marie Gerhard diary entry, 5 Jun 1918

"Take the Greyhound, and leave the driving to us" – I still remember the advertising. Wikipedia has a fascinating history about Greyhound; the company is around still, at least in name, but its heyday is long past due to competition from automobiles. For someone who had raised a family during the Great Depression, the economics were compelling. Marie was not afraid of flying: my father took her to Europe once, but price determined her mode of transport. 

Small spiral bound notepad, 1980 trip log, cover and first page

Google Maps tells me her route to Pasadena would be about 2,160 miles by auto today. It's still possible to take the Greyhound buses: Google shows it takes about 2 days of travel, about the same as in 1980, but taking the train is a few hours shorter.

Marie's route to California, Google Maps (Map data ©2023 Google, INEGI)

Marie's bus trip began in Chicago, in the very early morning, two hours past midnight Friday night; she probably napped Friday evening, and my father, who was a night owl, must have driven her from the suburb where she was visiting him to the downtown Chicago bus station:

Sat. Mar. 15 – 1980. Left Chicago 2 A.M. First stop - for breakfast - 6:45. Restaurant outside Cedar Rapids. Left – 7:40 A.M.

She continued through Iowa during the day (my family had lived in Grinnell for a few years where my dad worked for the city):

Went thru Grinnell; got a glimpse of "City Offices." Des Moines at 9:30 A.M. Stop at 10 A.M. Council Bluffs. Played cards w/a 12-yr. old who with his brother and mother, are moving from Boston to San Francisco. Weather fine – sunny – moderate temperature.

12:45. Stopped in Omaha, Neb. for lunch at Burger King. Bus serviced here – will leave at 3 P.M. 

6:20. Just finished supper at cafeteria near Grand Island, Nebr. 

Big Springs, Nebraska. 

My first trip thru Utah – snow capped mts. Thru Ogden – Arr. Salt Lake 2:20 P.M. Left 2: 45. 

My coach mate from Omaha to Las Vegas is a Meister boy from Fond du Lac. Left Barstow 4 A.M. Tony Meister got off at Las Vegas. [Note: Barstow was after Las Vegas!]

Marie kept track of every expense in the log!

Las Vegas a fabulous sight at 11:30 P.M. – all ablaze with multi-colored light from far and wide. There for 30 minutes. Majority of passengers remained in Las Vegas. The few left on bus went to Montclair, San Bernadino, L.A., and San Diego.

Mon. 6 A.M. Arr. in Pasadena to find station closed until 8:30, so I walked 2 blocks to a good restaurant. Breakfast $1.58 at Barstow, Breakfast in Pasadena $6.20.

Marie visited with an old friend, Goldes, in Pasadena for two weeks, noting occasional events in her log. On Saturday, March 29, she took another bus trip up the coast to Salinas. She doesn't say why she stopped in Salinas for a day and night, except she did enjoy the 17 mile scenic drive along the ocean in Carmel. On Sunday morning she took another short bus trip up to San Jose to visit me, one of her grandchildren. I had moved to California almost 3 years before from Illinois, and was renting a room in San Jose from a workmate (Joe is my family nickname):

Sat, March 29. Fare to Salinas – 22.00. Beautiful 17 mi. drive along ocean.

Sun 1:25. Bus fare to San Jose - $4.58. Joe and I [had] steak dinner in Pruneyard (huge mall). 

Drove to Mary Kolander's. Sherry & husband there from Antioch, Ca. Strawberry birthday cake.

Slept on Joe's waterbed. Also answered his phone from a unique spot. 

Sleeping on a waterbed was an adventure!

Joe & I drove to the S.F. airport – great. Had espresso coffee and tarts at a "sidewalk cafe" at the airport. Left at 1:05 P.M. on flight 128, $99.00. Cocktail & lunch en route to Chicago. Choice of Veal Parmesan, Chicken Princess (Teriyaki), Duck, Short ribs of beef. Arrived O'Hare 6:50 P.M.

Marie had turned 82 on March 23, and celebrated both in L.A. and up in Antioch. Sleeping on my waterbed shows Grandma had a sense of adventure. And making such a trip tells you something about her, she was not afraid at this age to embark on a two thousand mile journey by bus across the country! 

Going back by plane was a contrast she apparently enjoyed. Marie traveled out to California other times after this, but I think she took a plane for those trips. Her last visit was in 1988 when she was turning 90. She and my father flew out to San Jose for a week, and we had a birthday party for her, and for her great-granddaughter who shares a birthday. Marie was quite the traveler!

Marie Gerhard Kenyon, enroute to California, March 1988

Marie on her 90th birthday, with great-granddaughter Cristin on her 3rd

Travel theme in previous blogs

Should be a Movie covered the very long travels of my Swiss ancestors, from Bern Canton to Colorado via New Orleans. The blog Slow discussed my great Aunt Emma and the difficulties of automobile travel in the early 20th century with an unreliable car. In Prosperity I wrote about the first class steamship trip my great-great-grandmother Eliza Steiger took to emigrate to America. 

And many of our vacations have included some family history component. On our honeymoon to Ireland in 1983 my wife and I visited some of her Irish relatives, as I touched on in At the Cemetery. Our first trip to Europe as a family, in 2008, was family history themed and included stops in Scotland, Switzerland (Translation), and Sweden (Solitude and Birthdays). A trip in 2015 included investigating my Justen ancestry in the Eifel region of Germany (Begins with a Vowel), and my Becker ancestry in Poland (Tradesman). That same year we did some research in Massachusetts (So Many Descendants.) I'll cover a 2018 trip to France and Germany in War and Peace (upcoming), which included a second trip to Limburg, Germany (In the News). A 2019 trip from Detroit to New York (Out of Place), Vermont and Massachusetts was all about genealogy.

I even wrote about virtual travel using Google Street View in the blog I Can Identify!

40 – Longevity

In the past longevity was sometimes a problem: old age could bring poverty and extreme hardship; my Kenyon great-great-grandparents made sure this did not happen. This photo of Austin Pardon Kenyon and Harriet Brewer Kenyon was taken in the first decade of the 20th century; they appear to be enjoying retirement on their front porch in Fairwater, Wisconsin:

Austin Pardon Kenyon 1820-1909, Harriet Brewer 1827-1911

Born in the early part of the 19th century, Austin lived to age 89, and Harriet to age 84. Both died at the end of the first decade of the 20th century, before the advent of antibiotics; given the state of medical knowledge at the time, neither would have seen much benefit from visiting a doctor. It's likely both may have lived even longer with medicines available today to reduce blood pressure, tests to find cancers, vaccinations against pneumonia and flu, and all the advances we enjoy today.

They did not have an easy life. Both were born in central New York State, Austin in 1820, Harriet in 1827. According to family lore, Austin drove mules on the Eire Canal as a young man. When Austin was 26 he married the 19 year old Harriet Brewer, who was living in a nearby town. After a first child was born in 1847 they moved to Wisconsin, to territory recently opened by treaty with native Americans. There they started a farm, and helped build the town of Fairwater (known as Metomen then). 

Hannah Jones Kenyon, Austin's mother, had died at a young age, though we don't know exactly when; Pardon Kenyon, Austin's father, had married again, but succumbed to smallpox at about 40 years of age. Lovinia Tifft Brewer, Harriet's mother, died at age 25, a year and a half after Harriet's birth; her father remarried, but only lived to 57.

As far as we know, neither Austin nor Harriet smoked; both escaped smallpox, and Harriet successfully birthed 4 children. There were no wars in which Austin had to risk his life. Unlike their parents, and with some luck, they both had made it to their eighties. But what about their final years?

On the 17th of October 1894, at the ages of 74 and 67,  Austin and Harriet deeded their farm to their youngest son Louis for $1, in exchange for Louis agreeing to:

 ...properly clothe support maintain and take care of during health and sickness and pay all proper and necessary doctors bills and nursing and care during sickness for and during their lives and each of them and to pay all necessary burial expenses...

...pay or cause to be paid to Allen Kenyon... the sum of eight hundred dollars on or before three years from the date of this deed without interest...

...pay a note secured by a real estate mortgage on the land above described given to one William Miller for the sum of twenty five hundred dollars on or before ten years from date with interest rate of 5% payable annually...

Allen was their oldest son, but was living in Beloit as a carpenter, so the $800 was probably his part of the farm inheritance. The farm had a $2500 mortgage which Louis was to take over. And in exchange for the farm, Louis was to provide all the support Austin and Harriet needed, for the rest of their lives. Louis had married years prior and was presumably doing the farming (the lack of the 1890 census makes this a bit murky, he was 20 and living on the farm in 1880). In the 1900 census we see Austin and Harriet living in town, and renting out a room to a boarder for some extra money. 

This agreement must have been satisfactory to everyone, and lasted until 1908 when it needed updating. Louis was now running the Fond du Lac County Farm, the county's mental health facility, and had decided to sell the farm. In exchange for Austin and Harriet releasing any claim on the deed so it could be free and clear in the sale, they created a new legal "Agreement to Support" document that contracted Louis to provide the same support as specified in the deed. The new contract was drawn up on the 3rd of March, 1908, and signed by all parties. Interestingly Austin and Harriet sign their surname "Kinyon," while their son Louis and his wife Ida sign as "Kenyon."  

Excerpt from "Agreement to Support"

Signatures to the "Agreement to Support"

Other elderly people were not so lucky to have successful offspring to support them in old age. Some ended up in the Fond du Lac Poor Farm – that is, until the Social Security Act was passed in 1935, and we start to see some of those Poor Farm residents checked out with that new means of support. However, it wasn't until thirty years latermor, in 1965, that Medicare and Medicaid were created, and seniors were guaranteed health care. Austin and Harriet basically had their own "Social Security and Medicare" deal with their son Louis to cover them in their old age, and solve this longevity "problem."

Austin only lived a year longer, passing away 17 February 1909 in Fairwater, about 3 weeks after his 89th birthday. Harriet, 7 years younger, lived another 3 1/2 years, until 13 August 1911; she was 84. But they both were able to live their last years knowing someone would take care of them.

39 – Surprise

One of my first genealogy projects was to scan and transcribe scores of letters that my great uncle wrote home from his time as a soldier in World War I. In 2010 I put them into a biography mostly using the words he wrote, describing his 34 years of life on earth, focusing on his service in France and then Germany during the war. 

Compilation of WWI letters from Louis

The book ends with his last letter, from Hartenfels, Germany, on the 11th of April, 1919, in which he writes "We are scheduled to leave here, next week, for Brest, France." Louis had been stationed in Germany as part of the occupation force since late December 1918. 

On the 25th of April, 1919, Louis sailed from Brest on his way home to the States. On the 7th of May he sent a telegram from Paterson, New Jersey, "twenty five dollars please by western union all ok, louis," probably requesting some travel money to get home.  His discharge papers were signed on the 17th of May.

Louis returned to Fond du Lac where he resettled at the asylum his parents managed, taking up a position of engineer at the facility. He married Dorothy Neice and fathered two sons; on the 24th of November, 1924, he died from pneumonia. We have no further correspondence or writing of any kind by Louis during this remaining 5 1/2 years of his life after the war. And so the book ends.

Louis' letters had been in possession of his son Don Kenyon, a first cousin of my father, and a great family historian. He lived in Fond du Lac on Lake Winnebago, and my wife and I would visit him whenever we made it to Wisconsin. Don provided me with much of what I know about my Kenyon ancestry, and gave me the many photos and documents he had acquired from my grandmother. Don passed away in 2011 at the age of 89; his wife lived a few years longer. 

Don was a collector. As his daughter wrote me in 2016, "We have been working on emptying my Dad's garage for the last 5 years. My Dad saved everything! We found 3 bottles of used staples, shoeboxes full of spirals from notebooks, & >50 boxes of scrap paper." But one box had, at the bottom, some unexpected letters. We were all intrigued. 

There was a letter from Germany, dated 28 August 1938, typewritten, in fractured English, addressed to "Louis Kenjon, Box 95, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, U.S.A." Now my great-grandfather Louis A. Kenyon was still alive then, and his son Louis E. Kenyon's widow Dorothy was living with him along with her two sons Donald and Russell. But the letter makes it clear that it was addressed to Louis E. Kenyon:

Dear Sir, After several difficulties have I been able to come to your real address. If I surprise you with a letter from Germany, I suppose, you will be quite astonished for the first moment quite easy! In order to give you a small introduction of my doing, it is necessary to acknowledge myself to you and to tell you my name: Louis Brühl. 

Please, try to remember you being here at the time of the foreign military possession of Rheinland/Westerwald in 1919. Try to remember that little village Walmeroth and Miss Joan (Johanna) Brühl, my mother. I don't mean to recall those tragic days. Therefore shorterhand I will [tell] you about things, that might be perhaps unknown to you. I was born in Engers/Rhine on the 10th December, 1919. My mother, at that time being left alone, with the only wish of following you to America as soon as possibly, gave me later for education up to German parents and went on ship to America... 

Louis Brühl was looking to come to America, was interested in finding his mother, asked for some sponsorship but didn't want to disturb his biological father or ask for any money. Louis Kenyon had left Germany in mid-April, and Louis Brühl was born in mid-December, so Johanna Brühl had only been a month pregnant when her soldier left – he probably had not known she was pregnant; had he considered the affair serious enough to even leave a forwarding address? How Louis Brühl had tracked him down with just a phonetic pronunciation of "Kenyon" is a mystery. 

 

28 Aug 1938 letter from Louis Brühl to Louis Kenyon

The letter didn't make it to Louis E. Kenyon, of course; he had died 14 years earlier. But it must have been a big surprise to Dorothy, his widow, and her in-laws; that would mean Louis Sr. and Ida May Kenyon had a fifth grandson. We don't know how they reacted, except that they did not embrace this new relation and offer to help him emigrate.

A second letter, apparently after a response which we don't have, was sent 7 Dec 1938 to Dorothy Kenyon, Louis E. Kenyon's widow; Louis Brühl has learned of his father's 1924 death, he fills her in briefly about his origins, and makes only a simple request:

I therefore ask you to send me some photos or any other remembrances of my father, further to write me something about him, his life and his early death. This I do, be sure, not because I wish to approach you in a self-interest[ed] way, but because you know, one is compelled to know the real truth of one's father, whom one does not know.

Dorothy, or perhaps her father-in-law Louis A. Kenyon, passed the letter on to a "County Service Officer," Leo Promen, who responded for her, and a copy of that letter was kept. It says she "knew very little about her deceased husband prior to the time she married him," and extended "her regret ... that she does not have a photograph of Mr. Kenyon which she could send to you," basically cutting of communication. 

Germany had invaded Poland, and Britain and France had declared war on Germany at this point. The letters found their way to a storage box. Eventually they came into possession of Louis' son Don. We don't know what he thought of the letters, or if he had attempted to ever find his half-brother; in 2011 he took those mysteries to his grave.

I asked a German genealogy/travel contact to do some research, given the information Louis Brühl had provided about his birth date and location, and some time later she came back with the astounding news that Helmut, a son of Louis Brühl, had been located: for me a new second cousin. We exchanged information, and he sent me a photo of Louis Brühl in his uniform, probably about the age of 20. Louis Brühl's mother had died or disappeared (being a single mother of a child by an American soldier was not looked upon kindly), and he had been adopted, and eventually had taken on his adoptive parents surname and a Germanized given name, Ludwig. Ludwig had died in 2006 at the age of 86.

Louis Brühl left, Louis E. Kenyon right, at about the same age

In 2018 my sister and I made a trip with our spouses to France and Germany, retracing the footsteps of Louis Kenyon during WWI, 100 years after. That will be the subject of a future blog, but at the end we were able to visit Louis Brühl's grave, and pay our respects. We haven't been able to find out what happened to Louis Brühl's mother; perhaps we'll have another surprise in the future!