Compiled by Teresa
Martin Klaiber 2020
As
I was posting my last article, going down memory lane about my first
publication, Klaiber Cousins, almost 50 years ago, the telephone
rang. A bubbly Klaiber cousin, Nanette
Couch called[i]. Hubby and I met Nanette in 2019. She is in the midst of her genealogy journey
and brought an aunt along to honor Klaiber Cemetery. I immediately knew she would become an
excellent researcher. She had questions. She had ideas. She was excited.
As
I picked up the phone I told her the call was serendipitous since I just wrote
the article about the booklet that started my own journey. Nan had been reflecting about the 6 June 1854
United States arrival of Johann Andreas (John Andrew Klaiber) from Havre to New
York.
I
sent her the notice from the New York Herald dated 7 June announcing the
arrival of the Brother Jonathan which was part of the Tucker line. She wondered why they chose Le Havre port
instead of Hamburg which was about the same distance from Tuttlingen in
opposite directions. She talked about
steerage. She questions where money to pay for the trip for a twenty-two year
old came from. Then she mentioned a
seventeen year old passenger with the surname Glunz.
The
alerts in my brain went off. Nanette’s inquisitive mind led me back to my
lecture days when I told students to be sure and review notations and collected
materials on a regular basis as new information surfaced. I had not practiced what I preached. I had not looked at my copies of the manifest
of the Brother Jonathan in many years. Yet once kirche (church) records
from the area were digitized I had dutifully charted the Klaiber ancestors and
discovered his mother’s name. We simply
call Marguretta Maurer Klaiber “Dutch Granny”.
At that moment Nan’s lilting
voice chatted on & I knew that over the years we – no I – had made some
early genealogy mistakes.
“Dutch
Granny’s” mother was Anna Christina Glunz who married Johann Andreas
Maurer. It was right there in my files but
I had not reviewed my material. My other
mistake was assuming that the cousin had the surname Klaiber. Never assume in genealogy.
I
began writing down the stories when I married in 1968. They came from the
various branches of the ten children of John and Mary Ann McBrayer Klaiber and
were pretty consistent in the telling.
One of these little stories was that John Andrew Klaiber came to America
with a cousin. They were separated in New York and the cousin never heard from
again. Not even a story but a simple,
short statement.
Once
I located the manifest I remember being very disappointed that no other Klaiber
surnames appeared among the passengers.
Family members never gave up hope that they might find that cousin. In 1949, as one of the last drawings Robert Ripley
did, John Andrew’s son, James Matthew Klaiber, appeared in the newspaper
article Believe It or Not having voted in the same precinct for 70
years. Letters flooded in from Klaiber’s
around the United States. My “in-laws”
felt strongly that there was a connection with the Klaiber’s, at that time in
Buffalo. They saved the letters[ii].
But they could not tell me why they felt a connection to the Buffalo families. I spent a lot of time tracking the New York
and Pennsylvania branches through those letters. Yes, they all seemed to lead back to Hausen
Ob Verena, Tuttlingen, Wurttemburg. But
immigration dates did not fall into place with our progenitor s journey and the
separated cousin. I was still making the
assumption mistake.
The
ship’s clerk entered the passenger names in the order that they came. Johann Klaiber, age 22, is entry 298. Entry 299 is Christian Gluntz
(as spelled) age 17. John Klaiber made
it to Cincinnati and from Cincinnati up river to Catlettsburg, Boyd County,
Kentucky. He immediately set up shop as
a bootmaker.
Christian
Glunz was born 31 August 1836 in Tuttlingen[iii]. The son of Christian and Anna Burer Glunz, he
ultimately is a 3rd cousin of “Dutch Granny”. His name is listed in
the Wurttemberg Immigration Index series by Trudy Schenk. The index indicates his destination was Ohio.
Rule #1: "Never suffer yourself to be so misguided in Germany, as to pay in advance your fare from New-York to the interior of America. You can gain nothing by this, but lose much. Pay your passage only to New-York, and no farther".
Rule # 6 "Whoever travels from New-York to the West by way of Buffalo, generally does best, to take one of the two great railroads, which lead there from New-York; that is, the Albany and Buffalo railroad and the New-York and Erie railroad. If you choose to travel by the first mentioned, take a steamboat from New-York to Albany and there at the railroad station buy a ticket for Buffalo. But you can also take a ticket for N. York; and you do well to enquire, for that purpose, in the office of the German Society, for the Agent of the Albany and Buffalo R.R. Co. But if you choose to travel by the New-York and Erie railroad, you have merely to go to the railroad station which is on the North River, at the end of Duane-street. From there it goes at first 25 miles up the Hudson by steamboat, then by railroad in a northwest direction directly through to Dunkirk on lake Erie, and from thence by steamboat to Cleveland, Sandusky, Detroit, &c."
By 1860 John Andrew Klaiber, the shoe/boot maker is established and appears on the census in Boyd County, Kentucky.
Christian Glunz has migrated to Marshall,
Clark County, Illinois where his occupation is also cited as a shoemaker. How I wish the elder Klaiber’s were still
with us so I could shout that, thanks to yet another Klaiber cousin, Nan, we
found that immigration separation. We
had not lost him, I was simply looking at it the wrong way.
Christian
Glunz’s parents, Christian and Anna Burer Glunz made the journey to America the
following year. The elder Christian died
30 May 1880 in Alta, California[iv]. Son Christian died 22 April 1915 in Oakland,
California. Apparently never crossing
paths with our branch of Klaiber’s again (Or am I making another assumption?).
The
Klaiber’s, Maurers, Glunz, Hallers, and Linck’s are just a few of the names
that intertwine in Hausen ob Verena, Tuttlingen. It did not take me long to make contact with
Jillaine Smith who has done diligent work on the Glunz family and is connected
to families in both Buffalo and Cincinnati.
“Dutch
Granny’s” brother Johann Jacob Maurer had a grandson Gustave Hermann Mauer Born
in 1831 who came to America. Gustave
died in 1893 in Grass Valley, California.
There is no indication from our branch of the family that she had
contact with this family after they arrived in America.
Marguretta
aka “Dutch Granny” also had a brother Andreas Mauer, born 17 Oct 1802, that
married Maria Klaiber,[v]
and a sister Anna Maria born 2 Dec 1811 that married Michael Klaiber.[vi] We all have twisted branches.
I
continue to learn. There is another
Haller family that settled in Greenup and Later Boyd county, Kentucky at about
the same time. Nellis Haller[vii],
a local genie, has graciously shared her notations. The family of Frederick Haller born in Saxony
and wife Charlotte Hiper[viii]
do not appear to have ties to the Tuttlingen, Wurttemberg Haller’s at this
point in the research.
Our genealogy journey will continue together. The
journey continues with fresh eyes, lessons learned, and stories told.
[i]
Desc. Of Harrison Elsworth Klaiber s/o John Andrew Klaiber
[ii] The
letters and other material of extended Klaiber families is now a part of the
vertical file collection of the Boyd County Public Library
[iii] Evangelische
Kirche Hausen ob Verena (OA. Tuttlingen)
[iv] Daily Alta
California, 2 June 1880, .
[v]
d/o Johann Christian Klaiber
[vi]
Michael Klaiber b 1809 s/o Matthias Klaiber and Ursula Strom
[vii]
Nellis Rae Ellis Haller
[viii]
Charlotte d/o John George and Charlotte Bingener Hiper. The elder Charlotte married #2 Henry
Menshousen. The Menshouse families well
known in Boyd County, KY.
