Marguretta Maurer Klaiber: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

Marguretta “Dutch Granny” Maurer Klaiber and great grand daughter Sophia Francis Crum *1892-1894.

I so admire women with strength and independence.  We often think social graces of our ancestors left women obscure, meekly working behind the scene of home life, but I don’t believe Marguretta was one of them. I mentioned her bravery in a blog post in September 2014. Her family calls her “Dutch Granny,” which is, Kentucky brogue, for Deutch (the word for the German language). 

Marguretta was born 20 December 1798 in Wurttemburg, Germany, the daughter of Johann Andreas Muarer and wife Anna Christina Glunz Maurer.  The Maurer’s, and the Klaiber’s were residents of Tuttlingen.  When Marguretta was eleven she was confirmed in the church in Tuttlingen where she would later be married.

Marguretta married Matthias Klaiber 28 June 1828 in the “Evangelische Kirche Hausen ob Verna,”  Tuttlingen.  At this writing I know of five children born to Marguretta and Matthias.  Their first child, named Matthias was born 2 April 1830 in Tuttlingen and only lived until 1 July 1830.  Our ancestor, John Andrew Klaiber, was born the following year 20 October 1831.Two daughters by the name of Anna did not live to adulthood.  Her last daughter, also named Anna was born 17 July 1839, when Marguretta was forty-one years old.

Matthias Klaiber died 19 August 1845, when Marguretta was forty-six.  John Andrew was fourteen and Anna Christina Klaiber only six.  As John Andrew reached his majority we assume he apprenticed for his trade as bootmaker.  Nine years later John Andrew Klaiber travelled to Le Havre, France where he boarded the Brother Jonathan[i] for America. 

Daughter, Anna Christina Klaiber married 17 May 1863 Johann Martin Haller in the Evangelical Church in Hausen ob Verena.    While we have some ephemera, this branch of the family has no letters written to or from Germany after John Andrew came to America.  But it is safe to assume that they were in contact.  At the age of seventy-two Marguretta Maurer Klaiber travelled from Hausen ob Verena to Hamburg to set sail on 29 June 1870 for America.

She boarded the ship Silesia under Captain Trautman, part of the Hampburg- American Packet line.  She put foot on dry land in New York 13 July 1870.  (The Silesia was built in 1869 and travelled the route from Hamburg to Le Havre and on to New York.   In 1875 she was refitted with an engine and began sailing from Hamburg to the West Indies, as well as bringing passengers to the U.S. She is said to have run aground near the island of Lobos near Uruguay in December 1899 and was scrapped.)

On her trip aboard the Silesia, Marguretta carried a bundle of clothing in white linen sheets.  Once she settled in John Andrew Klaiber’s home, in Boyd County, Kentucky, she busied herself cutting and sewing white suits and dresses for relatives. 

Marguretta lived until she was ninety-seven years old.  She died 14 September 1896 and is buried in Klaiber Cemetery.

 

 

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[i] Interesting sidebar.  The Brother Jonathan arrived in NY in June 1954.  In Dec. 1854 the Brother Jonathan was smashed against the rocks of Ireland. The Charleston Daily Courier 20 Dec 1854 has   Capt. Joseph Tucker’s letter concerning the loss.

Klaiber Cousins Separated During Immigration

 

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 3^rd cousin of “Dutch Granny”. His name is listed in the Wurttemberg Immigration Index series by Trudy Schenk. The index indicates his destination was Ohio.

 

Brother Jonathan,6 June 1854 from Le Havre, France to New York

 The Balch Institute shares one of several emigrant guides on their web page.  THE GERMAN IN AMERICA, or ADVICE AND INSTRUCTION FOR GERMAN EMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA  was published in 1851 and might have been one the Klaiber family reviewed.  

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. 

Sandy Valley Advocate 20 August 1859

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.

 

 

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[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.

The Great American Water Shows Aka The Great American Water Circus

The Great American Water Shows

Aka

The Great American Water Circus

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber Oct. 2012

 

The circus is always full of spectacles that leave us wide eyed and breathless.  But one of the most amazing shows winter quartered, for a few years, just across the river in Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio from 1902 until about 1905.

The Great American Water Circus was a floating show.  The show travelled along the Ohio River going up the Alleghany River [at least one trip] and along the Mississippi.  Sometime between the 1903 and 1904 season it changed the name from the Great American Water Circus to the Great American Water Shows.[i]

 The show was described as two or three barges bound together with a large tent that covered the entire length, depending on what news articles are read.   Several advance ads stated that the tent was 60x175 feet.   Still a lot of canvas over barges tied together in any formation. The tent was touted to seat 2000 people.  At least one article I read said that it seated about 1000.  The show cost adults 25 cents and children under eight 15 cents.  

Most newspaper articles reference it as a two ring circus. According to descriptions the show had 14 parade wagons and 40 horses[ii]  as well as a dog show at one point.  The show had approximately forty-two people.[iii]

 

I found a grainy photograph of the show docked at Marietta, Ohio in the December 1958 issue of Bandwagon.  The photograph is the property of the Circus Historical Society.  The best quality photograph is the property of the Public Library of Cincinnati with their wonderful river collection.  But I truly got excited when I found that they have a picture of the inside of the tent showing seating, horses and  pony.  I am left wondering if perhaps that is the owner in the foreground with a smoke in his mouth.  The library notes that it is from the {Frederick} Way Collection.

William P. Newman was the mastermind and owner of this floating circus.  He was born in Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio 27 March 1872[iv], the son of Valentine [born Germany] and Mary [born Massachusetts].  He was one of at least seven children.  Valentine Newman was a lumber merchant and by the time William was fourteen he left home and tried his hand at several jobs.  He married 25 November 1896 Carrie Haller and the family can be found renting in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio in the 1900 census.  His occupation at this time is listed as superintendent.  But, it does not clarify what he is supervising.   

There were many show boats plying the waters of the Ohio that stopped in Portsmouth, Ironton and Ashland.  They had theatrical stage shows and music. How Newman visualized and created this unique circus and convinced performers to bring their animals onboard is a wonder.

The overhead for a show of this type must have been high.  Besides barges, a steamboat was required to push all of the trappings up and down the waterways. In 1903 the Cricket was one of the boats utilized.  The first towboat that this writer found mention of being utilized for the show was the J.C. Reynolds in July 1902 where it began its journey from Liverpool, Ohio.[v]  In 1904 the Katie Mc brought the show into Indiana.  River news was reported in detail by newspaper produced in Brookville, Indiana called The Sun.  There is no doubt that the show struggled.  In 1904 “Col. Newman” talked with the owner of the Floating Palace while in Evansville.  Rumors were circulating that the show was then out of business but the news  corrected the rumor stating the show was reorganizing and had even bought a calliope.[vi]

Newman’s wife was the cashier for the show.  R. E. Stroup resigned his position, as advertising manager, with the Portsmouth Times in April 1903[vii] to become Great American Water Circus advance man.  Stroup had only held the position with the paper for a month.  The Portsmouth Times had announced his taking a position with them after leaving the “Ironton newspapers.”[viii]

The show left winter quarters and usually made the next appearance at Ashland then Catlettsburg if heading up river.

Newman’s father Valentine died 5 November 1909 and was buried in Woodland Cemetery in Ironton.[ix] By 1910 the Newman’s had moved back to Bucyrus, Crawford County, Ohio.  They resided with Carrie’s parents Jacob and Mary [nee Schaffer] Haller on Walnut Street.  William P. gave his occupation as “none.”  Jacob Haller was an engineer at the county courthouse at this time.  Jacob Haller was originally a tanner, born in Lycoming County, PA.[x]

By 1920 The Newman’s had their own place and W. P. gave his occupation as manager of a bakery.  In 1913 they had a daughter named Mary.  By 1940, still living in Bucyrus, William gives his occupation as a salesman of step ladders.  

Census records can be a bit deceiving, leaving huge gaps in a person’s life.  The Cleveland Plain Dealer gave more information about his life in entertainment in his obituary 12 June 1950.  The article stated that he was one of Bucyrus first motion picture theater owners.  It went on to describe a partnership in billboard advertising for many years.  Besides his wife, and only daughter [Mrs.  Robert W. Ferguson],  a brother, Louis also resided in Crawford County.

Carrie, widowed, lived until her death, 29 January 1967, in a care facility in Bucyrus, Crawford County, Ohio.

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[i] Breckenridge News, Cloverport, KY, 29 June 1904

[ii] Rain, D.A. The Water Book. A Compendium of Facts and Fables 1993

[iii] Memoirs of the Lower Ohio Valley, Vol. 1, page 135

[iv] Ohio, Lawrence County Birth Records

[v] Evening Bulletin, Maysville, Ohio July 18 1902

[vi] Breckenridge News, Cloverport, KY 13 July 1904

[vii] Ironton Register, Ironton, Ohio 3 April 1903

[viii] Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, OH 7 Mar 1903

[ix] Episcopal Church Burial Records, Ironton, Ohio http://www.lawrencecountyohio.com/churches/records/episcopal/Burials_1902_1911.htm

[x] History of Crawford County, Ohio. Baskin and Battey, 1881. PP 749.