Before coming to America Ferdinand Schuster was a cobbler in the Austrian Army. The only known picture of him can be seen on this webpage;
These web pages are currently under development, more content will be added in the near future.
Ferdinand Schuster (1865-1912)
Klara (Baumgartner) Schuster (1868-1955)
Frank Wenzel Schuster (1891-1980)
Mary (Schuster) Locker (1892-1980)
Theresia (Schuster) Kaiser (1894-1978)
Barbara (Schuster) Nemechek (1896-1971)
Stephanie (Schuster) Locker (1898-1988)
Ferdinand Schuster Family, circa 1920. Theresia, Mary, Frank, Paul, Stephanie, Barbara, Clara, Jacob, Clara Baumgartner-Schuster (Mother), Engelbert, John. They settled in Ellis, Kansas in 1904.
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The following recollections are from Mary Kaiser Conard, written in 1988, she describes her memories of her maternal Grandparents as well as her mother and each of her Aunts and Uncles. Please do not copy these or otherwise distribute them without permission from Mary Kaiser Conard.
The spring of 1904 was auspicious for Ferdinand (1864-1912) and Klara (1868-1955), the winter of 1903 had been especially hard and the new Conscription law passed by the Diet in Vienna, the capital of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, a decision had to be made. Since 1894 Ferdinand's two brothers, Joseph with his wife Anna (nee Augustin) and Frank, with his wife Anna (nee Poelmann) had immigrated to America (1894 and 1901 respectively) as had other family and friends from Furstenthal, settling on the high plains of Western Kansas near Ellis.
The letters from family and friends who had immigrated earlier to the place called Kansas sounded unreal, tales about the many acres farmed, the number of cattle pastured, how cheap the land was, and any number of wonders convinced many to immigrate. Little was ever written about the cold winters, the howling winds, the awesome storms or the many hardships these immigrants had to face. To Ferdinand and Klara, Kansas must have sounded like heaven, later they would come to understand the reality of life on the high plains of Kansas.
Conscription (service in the Army mandatory for all adult males) was another mitigating factor, the Austrian Empire was at this time was requiring its young men to serve at an even younger age, 16. Ferdinand had served as a young man, it hadn't been a pleasant experience, although it was there that he learned trade of a shoemaker which would later be of great value to him. Life in the Austrian army was hard, dirty and dangerous even without a war and Ferdinand understandably wanted no part of it for his sons. Frank their oldest son would soon reach that age. To spare their sons they must be removed from this perceived threat.
Thus the Conscription combined with the lack of opportunity for their children forced the question of immigration. The promise of a better life that is the American Dream no doubt left little question where they would go. America, the place where a family could grow and prosper, a place of unlimited opportunity for all of their children.
Ferdinand and Klara set out for this Golden Promise in faraway Kansas America, just as their ancestors had left Bavaria at the beginning of the 19th Century for the promise of greater things in a place called Bukovina. That they would follow their friends and family members to Kansas, made the decision easier. Yes they were going to a strange new land. But there was family and friends already there to ease the transition.
So as late winter gave way to the first signs of spring, Ferdinand and Klara sold or gave away what they could not take with them, and as summer came they said tearful goodbye to family and friends, gathered their seven children, Frank age 14 (1891-1980), Mary age 11 (1892-1980), Theresia age 9 (1894-1978), Barbara age 8 (1896-1971), Stephanie age 6 (1898-1989), Paul age 3 (1900-1990), and Jacob who was only 5 months old (1904-1989) and left by oxcart to the rail station at Radautz.
Their journey would last approximately a month and can be traced by studying the old railroad maps of the era. A train from Radautz to Vienna, to Munich, to Frankfort and then to Bremen where the family boarded the SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Gross* June 28th, 1904 bound for New York.
* This is actually incorrect. The name of the ship was the Kaiser Wilhelm II.
The voyage was hard, especially for Klara confined to a single cabin with five children and a baby to feed and care for. All their food for the must be brought with them, according to Aunt Fannie (Stephanie) consisted of bread, sausage, cheese and cabbage.
Few things were provided for passengers in the steerage, coffee and water was available, milk could be purchased but was expensive. The men would join their families in a common room (Frank, because of his age was with his father placed with the other men in a large below deck dormitories as was the custom) for their main meal which they could purchase but bore little resemblance to anything familiar or eat what they themselves had brought with them. Decidedly the food available on the ship would be foreign to a family used to making their own meals from the garden behind their former home.
A charming story is told about Frank as the Kaiser Wilhelm entered New York, July 4, 1904, witnessing an Independence Day fireworks display, young Frank asked the ships personnel "Is there a revolution?" How astonished he must have been to learn that the skyrockets were celebrating the anniversary of America's revolution.
The ship docked at Ellis Island on July 5th and the family began as many others the arduous inspection by biased Immigration employees that would allow them to enter America. The family would be five days on Ellis Island, Barbara had contracted an eye infection on the passage, which in itself would disallow her admittance into the country, before being allowed to continue their journey to Kansas.
Frank in later years would relate a story about the prejudice encountered on Ellis Island. He told that on the ship coming from Bremen there were 99 persons of the Jewish faith, 96 were turned away when they told officials that their destinations was New York City apparently the official was to have commented that there were already enough Jews in New York.
Frank, was inquisitive as all young people are, not restricted to the cabin or common room on the ship or the close quarters provided on Ellis Island roamed about. His innate language ability allowed him to acquire some of the English he would need in America, which would stand the entire family in questionable straits on the train from New York City to Ellis, Kansas.
Nearing Chicago on the train, the family was extremely low on food. Frank, who felt he had learned enough English to get by, was given some coins to find the family something to eat at the next station. He returned with what appeared to be a sausage, a loaf of bread, and some apples. Aunt Fannie would recall " That sausage wasn't what we were used to, it was bologna and bad too, by the time we got off the train the next day in Ellis the whole family was sick." Aunt Fannie remembered that on arriving in Ellis there was no one to meet them as they got off the train, Uncle Joe and Uncle Frank lived on farms west of town and hadn't been certain of the family's arrival. Mrs. John Weber, a cousin of her mother was in town for supplies, bundled the family into her wagon and took them out to the Weber farm where she fed them their first meal in Ellis, Potato Soup.
It was a hard establishing a new life for a growing family. Three more children would be born to Ferdinand and Klara after settling in Ellis, Clara 1906, John 1909-1983 and Engelbert (Bert) in 1911.
To make ends meet Ferdinand took work on the Union Pacific Railroad. Often gone for days, the work on their rented farm fell to Klara and the children.
Aunt Fannie relates Mama was really upset when she saw what Kansas was like "There were no trees" she would say. Life was hard for Mama; the older girls would help with the household chores and us younger children. But Mama was left to tend the gardens, feed and water our few cattle and milk our cow, Frank would hire himself to the neighbors for the extra money needed for store bought things. There was always something she had to do. Later when we lived on the farm, the wind was something she could never get used to, 'This will drive us all crazy' she would say. According to Mama it was never so cold, or so dry, or so windy in Furstenthal.
"But she'd make the best of it, we were never hungry and always busy, we children all had chores to do, but the bulk of the work fell to Mama and Frank. Mama was always very proud of the way she was able to manage."
Ferdinand and Klara would begin their new life in Kansas on a rented farm. By saving money earned by Ferdinand on the railroad and combining it with what they had been able to save before coming to America, Ferdinand and Klara in 1908 were finally able to purchase a farm 10 miles southeast of Ellis. (This farm is still in the family 82 years later, it is now owned by Michael Schuster, the third generation of Schuster to be there.) Sundays were a special day for the family. Even living ten miles out of Ellis, the town still provided their main source of social contact, their church, St. Mary's. Sunday mass was required and there was much visiting done between the families of the parish after mass.
During the erection of the present church which began in 1909, the male parishioners of St. Mary's, which included Ferdinand, his brothers Joe and Frank, cousins, uncles and other friends from Furstenthal used their spare time to assist in building of the new sanctuary. When the weather was good, the wives could be relied upon to prepare mountains of food which would be laid out under the trees on makeshift tables along Big Creek after Sunday mass. After the days work was done a country fair atmosphere would prevail. Uncle Joe could be relied upon to bring his fiddle, and cousin Frank had a Jews Harp, all those that could play an instrument were asked to play. There in the shade by the side of Big Creek watching their new church reach skyward, the families renewed their Bukovinian German Heritage.
In 1912 Ferdinand died. Frank, now 21 became the head of the family. Even Ferdinand's death did not alter the families' dream. They stayed on the farm, growing wheat and raising a few cattle, attending St. Mary's and marrying and becoming an integral part of the Ellis community.
Frank married Rosie Aschenbrenner in 1921, Mary married Joseph Locker in 1916, Theresia married Nicholas Kaiser in 1921, Barbara married Stephen Nemechek in 1921, Stephanie married Louis Locker in 1917, Jake married Elma Mickelson in 1931, Clara married Mike Zimmerman in 1923, John married Margo Dreiling and Engelbert married Iva Withers in 1939.
Most of Ferdinand's and Klara's children stayed in the Ellis area, married, baptized their own children and are buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Ellis, Kansas.
Ferdinand and Klara's grandchildren now reside in Arizona, New Jersey, California, Colorado and of course Kansas.
Klara Baumgartner Schuster died July 3, 1955, 51 years after arriving at Ellis Island.
Another Story...this one a letter by Mary (Kaiser) Conard to her niece Patty
Dearest Patty:
Had a chance to get to town to do some photocopying...so here's a Schuster start.
I wish that I had more time to write the stories as I did about Grandma's house. Names are okay, dates are a bore (but essential, I've found) and stories are fun.
I also filled out a set of pedigree sheets for you. This can really get involved for anyone who really does it well and with scrupulous accuracy, and I have tried to be accurate as I've copied. The typewritten family list-sheets I got from Fred Schuster's wife, Gay, who's delving into, four or five intermarried families from the Furstenthal area. Word has it, she started on the Ferdinand Schuster line and also Freddie Schuster's mother Rosie Aschenbrenner (married to Uncle Frank Schuster, Mom's brother) and found so many families intermarried that she went into more families, and as a result the book she was hoping to get published is still in the process. Since families keep adding, I doubt that she ever will get a book accomplished. I dabbled in family sheets, but not living close to where we have family or being able to visit frequently in Kansas ... what I've done amounts to what it is...dabbling.
From what I can read, and here again lots I want to know, isn't translated, the Schuster ancestors were originally from the Black Forest Region of the German Empire and moved to the village of
Furstenthal in Bukowina (Bucovina). (Bucovina means "Beech Woods")
Furstenthal was first settled at the bequest of Austrian Emperor Joseph in 1803, German speaking settlers were originally from Pfalz, Hasse, the Wertemberg Highlands, among others. The villages from which our ancestors came are located in the Black Forest Region on the Bohemian Czech border.*
*This is factually incorrect. The black forest area is not anywhere near the "Bohemian Czech border" and it infers that Fürstenthal was settled by people from areas other than the Bohemian forest. Some settlers were from outside the Bohemian forest - very few, I think - but these were not among our ancestors, so far as I can tell. The town was almost 100% German Bohemian - Jews were present, but not to the extent mentioned in the story. (by Rebecca Hageman, who has studied and lectured at the Bukovina Society Conventions. She is also a Board Member of the International Bukovina Society)
I Find Baumgartners and Schusters in an account of Bucovina in April 1803, and listed with those who came from the area of the Bohemian Woods were names of some of the earliest among them; Sebastian Baumgartner, Andreas Schuster and Franz Schuster. By 1808 we also find among the immigrants from the Bohemian Forests; Josef, Ferdinand, Julius and Johann Baumgartner. With my very limited knowledge of German, it seems to say that our ancestors were Craftsmen. I read accounts where some German Bukovina people come to the area because they were skilled salt miners, and Grandma Schuster did say there were salt mines nearby. (She gave me and also Rose a crucifix . . .about rosary size . . . she said was obtained of a mission held at the salt mines.) There were possibly other mines, as one of the people with our ancestral names was a smelter, and there are stampers listed in Furstenthal village census.
I base my assumption that our people were craftsmen with information from a 1822 census
lists and among the glassworkers in Furstenthal were Anton and Michael Gaschler, Franz and Jacob Schuster. Christoph Gaschler was a smelter. Listed under private handworkers and listed as cobblers were Johann and Michael Schuster. As Village Justice, a Johann Baumgartner served from 1859 to1888. I found others serving equally as long, so this did not seem out of reason.
Here again we have families living in villages, each with their own fenced in yard with house, barn, well, etc, as in Russia and the Alsace. Here again are solely Catholic villages and villages of other faiths…again marriages to only ones of their own religion and "Komradschaffen" and from their own villages or ones of the same faith nearby. There was a small exception to this. In both Franzfeld and Furstenthal lived other German-speaking people who were Jewish. They stuck together on the fringes of the city (village). Jews married no one of another Faith or Culture. They were the moneychangers who had the taverns that only men frequented, they traded in grain and merchandise ... and sometimes in illegality. Jews and Catholics did not associate with one another, the Jews being looked down upon here as in Russia. To this there was one exception. . when their children were needed to make up the school rolls to have enough students needed to receive money from the government. (This was given without interference from the government).
Village life apparently follows the European way. Cattle were herded into the woods to graze every day by the cowherd who was paid by an assessment of all the villagers (Remember in the story of Heidi where Peter, the goat-herder took the goats up on the mountain to graze each morning and brought them back at milking time?) Geese were tended to by a goosegirls in much the same way. Theresia did not say whether they had a swineherd or not but one was common in many accounts.
I don't know if all the little Furstenthalers went to school, but the little Schusters did by the time they were six, both boys and girls. The government gave money to the villages, provided there was an enrollment of 40 pupils for three consecutive years... this "might" have been an inducement to have all available students in school. The government did not specify the curricula and each taught in their own language and according to their own culture. They studied usually under the village priest and a schoolmaster trained for such. Many times the church and school were the same building. . i.e.…a room set aside in the church or eventually added on to, and in later years a building nearby. In addition to what we know as the 3 R's, they started to study Latin in the first grade ... Latin was the language of the Catholic Church's Mass. Religion was the 4th of the "R's", but first in the order of importance. Theresia said learning English reading was comparatively easy for her as she'd learned to learn to read and write the German Gothic Script and the Latin Roman letters. Boy! that's a tall order, as for as I'm concerned, for six or seven year olds.
In many ways, you could say their social life, too, revolved around the church. Religious Holidays were the ones most celebrated. Lent was strictly observed, Theresia said, with no meats and fasting every day for the 40 days. We did not celebrate birthdays, nor was it customary for us in Nick and Theresia's family to gather anywhere for Thanksgiving, Independence and Labor Days etc. These were days used for catch-up work because the whole family was home. We went to a Catholic School and were out of school on Holy Days, however no servile work was done on those days.
In the yard, our Schuster Family had a cow, chickens, pigs, etc. in the European way. Their
cow went out with the cowherd each morning and back at night. Agricultural Fields were outside of the village, as well as a large community garden. Theresia referred to thunder as "God's Potato Wagons" going across the sky, because thunder sounded like the potato wagons coming into the village in the fall. There for winter-feed for the cattle, they planted corn (or cane-type crops) interspersed with pumpkins. In the fall they would gather the grains, then bind the stalks and put the pumpkin under the feed "shocks". This they would feed the cattle over the winter. They found it surprising when they came to this country, that Americans ate cattle feed... referring to the pumpkins. Theresia said the terrain was a lot like Montana, but with the hills all covered with woods. Since the area was "woody" they did not use twists of straw for household cookery.
Weather was apparently cooler, as it was not the custom for our Schusters to build summer kitchens (as it was among the Kaiser people) so it probably wasn't something they did in the old country. Later photos of houses in Furstenthal also show no little enclosed porch like affair around the main entry door as was custom in South Russia, so I am guessing, the wind was not as high and they had fewer flies. In both the Schuster and Kaiser's European cultures, the front gate to the family home area ... a large one through which to drive the stock, wagons, etc. usually had an ornate archway, the large gate was adorned, and a little side gate that just admitted people next to this large one was also decorated. A rather aside from the story is an oddity in toilets between my parents' culture. The Kaiser toilets were usually a deep pit with the toilet "shed" on top... had maybe two holes, and a little lower one built on the side. When full, the shed was moved. The Schuster toilet was a covered seat, one holer that sat flat on the ground with a "trap door" in the back. Through this it was often cleaned out, along with the henhouses, hog sheds, etc. (In the old country each yard had it's "Mistplatz".. literally manure place.) Eventually this was all put on the fields and gardens. I doubt that this was left long in the buildings, as it was Theresia's habit when I was growing up, to clean the henhouses once a week, and this had to come from her "Up-bringing".
The Ferdinand Schuster daughters raised good gardens... Do you suppose they knew something, God given, that our generation, with its commercial fertilizer, could learn something from? They were all scrupulously clean housekeepers. No bedbugs, lice, or dirty kitchen grease in their homes.
I digressed there, I'm afraid. Grandpa Ferdinand was the last of his brothers and sisters left in Austria, Grandma once said. He wanted to come when they did, but he was enlisted as a cobbler in the Austrian Army ... I think this was a little like the militia, as in colonial days in America. Military men drilled as a group in each of their villages in readiness for whatever wartime action was asked, (or commanded) of them. He seemed to be home, from Mom's stories, most of the early years of Ferdinand and Klara's marriage, Austria was not at war, and if it was, he most likely cobbled for the army staying in the village. I would guess that he comes from a line of cobblers, because the name Schuster means "One who makes shoes or footwear (shoemaker)." At any rate, he was afraid to apply for passport out of Austria before his military time was up. There must have been some unrest, (Mom said there was usually a lot of that ... with one ruler trying to gobble up another to fill his own coffers.) They finally went to a Jew, who forged passports for the family for them to get out of the country. About the trip from Bucovina to Bremen, I have not heard anyone tell stories. Theresia said they had a little room on the ship and that most of them were very seasick, though Grandma Klara seemed be able to take care of the young family of seven aged from 13 years to five months . . . Frank, Mary, Theresia, Barbara, Stephanie, Paul, and Jakob. They boarded the "Kaiser Wilhelm" on the 18th of June in Bremen, Germany, and arrived at Ellis Island on the 5th of July, 1904. (Interestingly the Kaiser's came also on the "Kaiser Wilhelm", embarking at Bremen in 1907 and 1908.)
They came to Ellis because that was where the rest of Ferdinand's family and other Furstenthalers had settled. (Another interesting note: Both Klara and Ferdinand come from relatively small families as compared to large families that were general norm in Europe. Klara had one brother, Anthon Baumgartner. Ferdinand's brothers were Frank and Joseph, and his sister was Franziska (translated Frances) who married Franz Augustine. The boys had large families, but sister Franziska only had three children. One possible explanation: Many times small families were the result when one parent died, and the other did not remarry.
In an old account about Ellis, I read where at first the European immigrants settled like the European ancestors in small homes in Ellis and went out to the land to work it, though I don't know if by the time our Schusters came this was the case. An incident sticks in my mind. After Bob and I were married we'd visited, along with Mom and Dad at some of the Aunt's houses in Ellis. Mom pointed out a gravel road straight south of Ellis, and at one turn in the road she said, "This is the first place we lived when we came to America." I asked, "You must not have lived there very long?" She said, "No, it wasn't very long after that, when her Daddy bought the place where we called 'Grandma's House"'. I have no idea now where that place she pointed out to me was. I don't know if they just lived there, rented, or bought and sold.
I don't know if this is all, but some of the land is described as: NE¼ of Section 33 in TWP 13 S. Range 21, W of the 6th PM. Listed in book BB, page 12 in the County of Trego, State of Kansas. This information was copied from a cutting... and I will go into this with another tale.
Upon Klara's death (at which time all her children were still heirs) the family decided that each of the others would sell their portion of the interest to the land to the youngest son, Engelbert. The others could keep their oil rights on the oil leases or sell them back. The inherited oil rights ended at the death of Klara's children. Theresia sold her's back to Engelbert at the time Grandma Klara's estate was settled. So far as I know, there were no pumping wells on the property, though in 1939 a lessor broke a 1935 lease agreement, and action to clear this was taken. Possibly to lease to someone else, or to keep the rights in the estate.
To get to Grandma's we went East on Highway 40, turned South on the road by the Riga elevator and to the North of Grandma's was a place called "Round Mound". It was a raised round area of earth, a landmark, as it were. I can't remember just how far we went South before we turned West (for a little tad of a ways), then the yelling started, "I see Grandma's house first."
Stories aren't so profuse, and I've heard this expression more than once…"Tight-mouthed Schusters". As an example, quite a number of years ago, I wanted to start a genealogy of our
families, and Mom said to me, "That's all past history and none of your business." However, during the raising of children, they couldn't help but say some things to tell us just how lucky we were in our generation. In one case I was told that the older girls worked out as farmer's wife helpers of an early age. . Mom by the age eleven. This leaves the conclusion that they must not have lived in Ellis and gone to their land during the growing season. (The older girls received no more schooling after they came to America)
Cash money was always a need, and I've been told that Grandpa Ferdinand worked on the railroad. One of his jobs was to walk the tracks from Ellis to Riga and back ... out down one track and back on the other to see that there was nothing ... ties loose, loose spikes or loose rail plates ... that would impede the train's progress. On Sunday's he fudged a bit and the family would meet him in the buggy at Riga and he would ride back into Ellis, so they could all attend Mass together. Apparently it was the family, not he, that did the farming with horses and lots of manual labor.
Theresia once referred to her father as a complete autocrat. She, by the time this story was told was married with children of her own, and I might add that my parents weren't terribly strict as parents of some of my friends. She had begun to work for a family by the name of Waldo in Ellis. Mrs. Waldo had given her a hat, and when they picked up Grandpa Ferdinand at Riga, he saw her wearing the hat, and ordered her out of the buggy to walk home and get her shawl, because only fast girls went about without their shawls. I asked Theresia if she did, and she said, "No, Mamma (Klara) told Daddy (Ferdinand) that it was a bigger sin to miss Mass than to go to church in a hat ... American women already did." By the way, all earned money Mom made at her household jobs in Ellis was turned over to Grandma Klara.
Grandpa Schuster died in 1912. 1 had heard that it was complications of the flu, but in talking to Uncle Englebert he said, "it could possibly have been cancer of the stomach, or the result of a severe injury. He had worked placing ties on the railroad, and in the process someone hit him severely across the stomach area. In 1912, I don't suppose that there was much a doctor did for you, but give you something to dull the pain. Grandma Klara buried her man, when the youngest child was only nine months old.
What stamina these women we know as Grandmas and Great Grandmas had. I'm sure this came from the Grace of God. I may as well add this thought of my own, since I've had it many times -. . And the Apostle Paul, not withstanding, who said, "At the head of the woman is the man." . . ."She should pray with her head covered".. ."That she should keep silent in the church." ... "That she should always submit." My thought is this, that the older I get, it becomes apparent that it was the women in our lives both yours and mine, that were the true pillars of family. They didn't "rule" with a velvet glove more like a warm furry mitten. Mamma did not have to rule with a spanking or yelling. It required only a certain set of her mouth or an almost discernable shake of her head. It was your great-grandmothers, both Kaiser and Schuster that were the warp that wove the fabric of the family, and kept it intact. Although I didn't know my Grandmother Anna Mary Kaiser (the stories tell of her strengths), I did know my Gramma Klara. There is only one answer as to why we flocked around her at holidays, that she became such a cause for excitement when she came and stayed with us for awhile and that answer has to be LOVE, freely and openly given ... you knew it ... you felt it ... she never said it. We never had to be told to "kiss Grandma and hug her". We did it naturally --- joyfully. We hung around her chair watching her crochet, or darn socks, or patch overalls. We also learned early that we were not to disturb her when she held her rosary or read from her German prayer book, because ... "Shhh, Grandma is praying."
I will insert this bit here, as I don't want to lose it among my notes. In a 1945 census of Furstenthal the name Schuster is no longer listed, though there are a number of Baumgartners, Gashlers, Artmanns and Kuffners. In the upheaval during and after the Second World War alarge percent of German Bukovinans went to Germany under very trying circumstances. Most of them that live in Germany settled in the Worthgau and East Upper Silesia areas. The Bukovina of the Hapsburg era (the era in which our people were there) has been described as a model for a United Europe. Home of some 12 nationalities, none of which were a majority.
Bukovina inhabitants exercised a mutual toleration for the ethnic and religious differences of their neighbors. Bukovina, now a part of Romania, is located on the east side of the Carpathian Mountains. From a topical map by Dr. Karl Stump, it appears that the terrain is the type that would be situated between flatlands and mountains. I would describe it, as rolling foothills. Maps show that Furstenthal is located bout 50 km south of Czernowity, the capitol. (Present day name Cernovcy) Present day name for Furstenthal is Voivodeasa. These name changes were made when the USSR annexed this territory, which now lies behind the Iron Curtain.
By Mary Kaiser Conard in 1988
Grandma Klara (Baumgartner)
If you look at the picture of Grandma, she didn't change too much in looks from when the family picture was taken to the time I saw her last. A bit more stooped, and in later years the addition of glasses. She is wearing the traditional black Sunday dress of married women of our European German Culture. There is only one uncharacteristic thing about the photo ... The quietly folded hands. I keep expecting to see a rosary sprout there, or a crochet hook or some type of work. She always wore long dresses, and while the color and print and Fabric type varied ', the style was usually pretty much the same. Button front bodices, long sleeves in winter sometimes 3/4 sleeves in the summer with easy fitting semi-full skirts. Collars were of a varying style, maybe a peter-pan, a square cut sport type and sometime a ruffled one. Usually, in later years, her Sunday dress was of a silky Feeling fabric, the one I remember best was navy blue, With white pindots, and oh, there was one dark green with white print that I thought the material felt so nice on. She loved sharp contrasts in colors, so her cotton day to day dresses were more colorful. Usually of a subdued background, but with bright tasteful little flowers or geometric all over print. Long cotton stockings and sensible black tied hoes. No dainty hankies for this Grandma. A big white one. What money she carried, was tied in the corners. . coins in one corner, folding money in another, and her black rosary tied in the third. She might have had a purse, but I can't remember one. I can't remember if she wore any kind of jewelry, though she appears to have a small pin at her throat in the family photo. (A real Queen doesn't need such ... she's regal without gems)
Her hair was waist length, which was parted in the middle of her head, all the way from forehead to neck nape, then braided in two long braids. These were then wrapped in a coil, low on the back of her head then fastened with celluloid large hairpins and curved combs kept the sides neat. She uncoiled the braid's to sleep, and took the braids down each morning and combed this all out as we watched in fascination. Even Uncle Engelbert cannot remember when she wasn't a short fat little lady. She would sit quietly while we played house games around her. One of the games we enjoyed alot was hide the thimble. She and one of my sisters conspired and the thimble was placed in the center of that braid coil of Grandma's hair. It stayed there, while Grandma crocheted on. Oh! How the rest of us searched and searched, then had to give up. The thimble was in plain sight, placed like a candle in a Christmas wreath, and how they both laughed.
By the time I was old enough to remember her well, she was already having problems with her right hip, and always carried a cane. She always used the lowest chair we had. The rocker in her room, where she spent most of her life very busily working on some project, was low and armless. (She spoke German naturally with her family, and how much we missed by not knowing the language.)
Grandma spent some summers with us while I was growing. Enjoyed playing Solitaire when she had no partner and Rummy when she did. Frances was always ready for a game of Rummy. She'd get Grandma seated facing the light, then read Grandma's hand reflected in Grandma's glasses. They played for "blood". I'd hear, "You -darn kid." from Grandma, and "You cheated." from Frances, when one or the other would "go out" and "set" the other with a large hand full of cards. I was always too chicken-hearted to play cards. I couldn't stand to beat Grandma. I didn't like to always be beaten, so I didn't get the cards out. That she and Frances cheated each other to win, I'm nor sure of, but they accused each other of it often enough.
Another expression stays with me. . ."You haff not to cry. " Mom saw one of Rose's friends hide a pint of whiskey in the alley behind the dance hall. She told Rose that she could not go to the regularly held Saturday night dance over at the Zeman Hall. Rose didn't know why Mom was being so "unreasonable" and, of course, disappointed, started to raise furious objections and cry. There's no doubt in my mind that Grandma knew why, because Mom probably already told her in German.
Mom had a lot of responsibility, as Dad was often away the whole summer at jobs, and Mom worked out a lot too. I 'm sure now that's part of why Grandma spent summers with us.. to keep us out of serious mischief, though we'd never have known that.
I remember well, Freddie likes to make things with a coping saw. He'd cut out a teapot, fastened on a couple of cup hooks for Mom to hang by the stove for her potholders. This was cut from the end of a fruit box. Grandma set him to making one for her. He brought it in to show her, and ask if it had been sanded enough to paint. In his excitement the thing flipped out of his hand and onto the floor, breaking off the teapot's handle. Freddy was just shattered, he'd worked so long already. The two of them heated a nail and burned tiny holes in either side of the wood and glued in match sticks to hold the thing together again, and with a coat of bilious green paint, Grandma went home with a teapot shaped pot holder rack in her box to hang by her kitchen range.
I say "box" because I can't remember her with a suitcase. She had her "'things" in a box. If she had a suitcase, I wasn't aware of one, because that box was the interesting thing she brought with her. In there were bright cotton pieces she cut and sewed together to make quilt blocks. Crochet hooks and cotton ... she didn't crochet with "book written" directions. She studied a picture for awhile, then crochet the object portrayed. At 72 she could still crochet with fine and every colored threads. We'd ask, "Grandma, what are you making?" She'd answer, "I crochet for fassar (bazaar)." She was a member of St. Mary's Mothers Group, comprised mainly of a group of older women who could no longer participate in the more active projects of moneymaking for the parish. These ladies did their part by making things for scale at the church bazaar. One summer she was making balls and Oh! how each of us coveted one. She made striped ones, and using two threads crochet together veri-colored ones. She would take a jingle bell from a discarded toy, wrap around it old material that was no longer useful for putting into rugs and quilts and around this base is what she crochets the pretty cover. There may still be one around. There was one in Mom's dome top trunk that Frances inherited after Momma died. I suppose Mom kept it to use for a pattern, or more likely we got to fighting over it, and she took the noise as long as she could and confiscated it.
I had almost forgotten about it, when after Mom died, Frances and I were talking about Mom's wedding dress, and she said, "You've still got it." I said, "No, it should still be in Mom's trunk." We were at a lull time between cow chores, and I said, "it must be, have you looked?"' Frances got the key and we went to the basement to open the (now her's) trunk. The first thing she saw was that little ball. She picked it up and hugged it to her. At that moment the memories came flooding back ... I couldn't begrudge her that little treasure. She and Leroy had sacrificed so much to care for Mom, and Mom gave her the trunk and its contents. I write this now to preserve the memories ... many more are probably tucked away in objects in the inside of that trunk... Yes, the wedding dress was still there.
For "Fassar" she also made the three-piece chair sets ... the kind that are placed on over-stuffed furniture to protect the arms and back rests, buffet sets, doilies, fancy pin cushions and novelties of all sorts for sale. For her own house and for family she also tore up old clothing and crochet sturdy rag rugs.... round ones, oblongs, hexagons. Her favorite rug hook was one Uncle Jake (her son) fashioned from some very heavy wire, worn smooth as silver from hours of use. You can tell which granddaughters she taught their first crochet stitches. She carried her hook under her palm, as opposed to the modern crochet learning books that use the hook held like a pencil. ..over the palm. I can't recall that she did much embroidery, though I know she finished a lot of our summer tea towel and hankie projects we too soon dropped for other pursuits.
She taught us simple pastimes, like using a piece of string tied in a loop and manipulating this till it seemed almost hopelessly snarled, then one loop over the finger, one tug and it was off your hand ... how to make shadow animals on the wall, both in the lamplight and in the light coming from the window on the floor. How to play jacks with stones and a larger rock. You really had to be fast, for a rock didn't bounce.
Sunday she spent with her prayers, perhaps a nap and reading her German newspapers that she brought with her ... I think it was called, "Familienblat". When we'd ask her to sew doll clothes on Sunday, she told us, "What you sew on Sunday, the devil will make you rip out with your nose." A beautifully quaint way of saying, "Sewing is considered servile work. If you do this on Sunday, you can expect to go to hell for not keeping the Lord's day Holy."
She liked flowers. I can still see her bending over tie 4 o'clocks picking seeds from the plants of the color she liked', and tying these seeds in a little square of cloth. I now can't look at a 4 o'clock without hearing her say, "The seed looks like rat shit." Maybe t hat's how she remembered what every seed bundle she made. How she ever did is a mystery, for I can't remember her marking anything.
She didn't often cook at our house, but some of the things she did, I'll try to put down. I remember the strudel only once. She instructed Mom on how to put the dough ingredients together, then she and Mom put the dough on the table over clean cloths, and she and Mom put their hands under the dough, and stretched and stretched until it was paper thin, and covered the whole table. Then they sliced apples very thin, mixed with cinnamon and sugar, and spread this all over the top. They used the cloths to roll this together, much like a cinnamon roll is done ... baked... and Presto! Food for the Gods. There was my favorite "Kaas Perogi" (Or Kess Knaphala, as the Kaiser's say). Flour mixed with egg to produce something like cut noodle dough rolled out in a large sheet. This was cut into about 4x4 inch squares. A mixture of dry cottage cheese, eggs and salt was put in the center of the squares by rounded teaspoonful, then these squares were sealed into triangular packets, boiled until the noodle dough was done, drained and put in a large hot iron skillet in which was bacon grease or butter and gently turned over and over until all was deliciously coated. Cut up leftovers with beaten egg over them were a treat too. Rose's favorite was "Dawchala" It was simply grated potatoes with a little flour mixed in and put on a hot griddle until both sides were a golden brown, then served with a smearing of thick sour cream. Grandma would stand and grate potatoes and fry Dawchala until we were stuffed like toads. Of course, there was " Halushas". ...stuffed cabbage leaves. I didn't like them, but everyone else did. Grandma could cut egg noodles as thin as a threat that went into chicken soup, and I might add here that everything on the chicken was used, but the bill, talons, feathers and comb. The head was cleaned of feathers and combs. .(and eyes) and the head boiled along with the rest. The feet were scalded, the yellow heavy skin taken off, talons removed ... and into the pot. These latter, I really liked. There wasn't much there, but tasty nonetheless. Nobody knew about carcinogens, cholesterol etc. nor did we care. We ate it because it was put before us ... a supper of watermelon and bread would shock the pants off a nutritionist today.... as would a breakfast of coffee with lots of cream (or boiled milk) and apple butter on bread, but those were things we liked and enjoyed to the fullest.
Bob and I went to her house to invite her to our wedding, and she said, "When I feel good, I come." I secretly hoped she might, but when Uncle Paul's car came and she wasn't with him, was sorely disappointed. She did see two of our three children.
Bob found me one Monday noon, standing in the middle of the kitchen with a "weekend
delayed" telegram that said, "Grandma Schuster passed away this morning, Funeral Tuesday." Attached to this was a note that read, "The Western Union at Helena tried to call this telegram
to you during the weekend, but due to the fact that the phone exchange out here (Danvers) was closed, they were unable to relay it to you."
Maybe it was just as well that I was not there to see her one last time... She lives on; in these words I have placed on paper, perhaps for you ... I know that she does in my memories of this beautiful lady God gave me to call, "Grandma"
Go to Grandma's house." You didn't have to be asked twice. Always on Christmas and Easter. We'd top the rise, and, it never failed . . ."I see Grandma's house first. " Then an argument about who did, all the way to the yard.
You entered at the door of the screened in porch, each carrying something for the celebration. Straight-ahead was the door into the house…to the right was the porch swing. It must have been worn thin by the time we were all grown. To the left was a door, but that lead to Uncle Paul's room, and no one ever went through that door.
Though the main door and to the right was a big table, with chairs around and a bench on the backside. Behind the bench was the double window with a stand in front where Grandma kept her "cheranies" (geraniums). In the corner was the radio and lots of reading, including pulp cowboy and detective magazines. Also, a kerosene lamp. Immediately to the left of the radio corner was the door that led to the second story stairs. "Off Limits." Now going around the rest of the room; the kerosene stove sat against the stairwell wall. Then the pantry door... inside all sorts of nice spicy smells. On the west wall was the big kitchen range and Grandma's bedroom door. On the South wall was the kitchen cabinet, to the left of which stood the washstand with waterbucket and basin. A truly large and inviting room.
Grandma's Room… Wide open as her heart to her "kids" of all ages. She was always in her rocker at the North window. Her bed to the right of the rocker. I suppose some chests of drawers.... there were her trunks. A small stove back to back with the kitchen range in the kitchen, though I don't remember a fire in it at any time I was there. . . and the wind-up Victrola with records. My Favorite--"The Big Rock Candy Mountain." Ironic as it may seem, some years later I married a man who liked the song too as a kid ... only he simply called it, "The Bum Song". Just the kind of ingenious machine that should never have been replaced with electric motors and increased volume controls. We soon bored of the re-cranking, and left it alone.... but we just had to mess with it for a little while. Gramma just had to be the most important thing in that room, as the furniture placement is rather vague. In the center of the south wall was the "boys" room door, and by the time I knew the house well, it was Uncle Paul's room. Uncle Bert and Aunt Iva's room (yes, it was their home also) was upstairs. I only remember being in Uncle Paul's room once and that was to see the picture of Grandpa. It was only a thumb sized print of his head posted to an ornate soldier's body on a certificate of sorts ... and of course written in German (I wish I now knew the language). Grandpa had been a cobbler in the Austrian Army, I'm told.
I seem to remember a china cupboard, but don't remember where it stood, though the cream separator sat in the southeast corner of the kitchen . . .. "Stay out from the back of there where the gears are, or you will leave your dress full of oil."
The house showed lots of Gramma's handiwork. There were the crochet rugs made from colorful rag strips. I know how, and have made them, because she showed me. She also made some in hexagon pattern. . put together like shingling in applique. These were made or heavy wool scraps. Suddenly I can't remember if there were pictures on the wall. There probably was, but I didn't notice them. I remember oilcloth on the table. The ceilings, as I recall were wainscoting. I can't remember if the walls were painted or papered, or what they were. Small matter. It was the Garden of Eden cause Gramma was there.
Now go back to the cement step outside the screen door. I don't remember the house any color but white. You will be facing South. To the South East a ways was the water well and pump. I think there was a garden space East of the pump towards the draw... to the North was the chicken-house and smoke house, rock bottomed and wooden tops and that dam toilet... perhaps built in the old country manner. It was a one-holer no pit... just an opening with a wooden cover to clean out the residue and put it on the fields. If the boys wanted to aggravate the girls, they just pulled off the back opening and stood there giggling. Nobody wanted to bare their behinds to that. Usually someone went yelling to the house tattling, instead of the older girls taking on those boys, and always someone came in a hurry to the rescue. I can't remember anyone getting a good spanking at Gramma's, but I'll bet there were some after they got home for not behaving at Gramma's house.
Now still standing on the step, you look a short ways to the Southwest and there is the root cellar (also used in Kansas for cyclone protection). ."Stay out of it, and off the door." Everyone did. In line with the root cellar, way across the yard was the barn with a sort of work shop attached, and due west quite a ways was the hog sheds. In that direction also were the feed stacks. My guess is... either young milo, maise or some other cane type plant. I can't remember graineries, but there must have been.
Step off the stoop now, and go down the narrow sidewalk to the end of the house. There was Gramma's flower garden. It was fenced and strictly, "Off Limits" I don't remember trees and lawn ... who needed them? ... Not many people had them with just a gas-fired pump-jack. With all this "Off limits" business, what was there to do? We kids made our own fun and that was no problem with a slug of kids almost all the same age. All I know, was that the days just weren't long enough, before Daddy was saying, "Tell Gramma goodbye" and Mom carried out all the empty dishes, and Uncle Paul joked about eating leftovers for a week.
Some things are certain: I am not alone in my thoughts and memories of this house. I've been told, "You wouldn't recognize the place now. The house has been completely remodeled by Uncle Red and Aunt Iva's son, Mike." That is as it should be. . for if this were not true, the house would be as so many other farm houses. . deteriorating and empty, with gaping window holes. One fact stands out most. ..Gramma had no "Off Limits" places in her life for any of this is what a Gramma's house is all about.
Mary (Kaiser) Conard 1984