Sentimental Sunday: Easter, ABT 1931

This is my mother, Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape (at far right), with her older brother, Charles Peter Guokas III (1927-1999, at far left), and younger sister Jo Ann (now Sister Jean Marie, the baby in the middle).  They all have Easter baskets, and I'm guessing the photo was taken around 1931, near their home at 1717 Shearn in Houston, Texas.  Easter fell on April 5 that year.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Surname Saturday: PAPE Cousin Bait - part 4

For the past three Saturdays, I have shared a letter written by my great aunt Martha Elisabeth Pape Bleidt (1890-1980), my paternal grandfather's older sister, in 1969.  She sent it to a distant cousin, Lawrence Pape, who'd found me through this blog.

Aunt Martha's letter started out "Grandfather Pape [Jacob Pape, and his wife Elisabeth Gierse] had 4 sons:  John - Joseph - Anton - Lawrence."

The first three parts of the letter talked about Joseph, Anton, and Lawrence (or Laurenz or Lorenz).  The last part is about the oldest son, John, who is my great-grandfather and Martha's father.

Transcription:  John Pape had three wives.  John Pape and his first wife had 2 daughters.  The mother and the two children passed away.  Then John went back to Germany and married Gertrude Kramer and came back to Evanston, Illinois.  They had 7 children.  Clara, Martha, Rhea, Leo, Paul, Dick, and Walter.  Clara, Rhea, Dick, and Walter are not married.  Leo married Gretchen Reis and she has passed away.  Paul is married to Betty Massmann and they have 5 children and 28 grandchildren.  I, Martha, was married to Charles Bleidt (who passed away 10 years ago) and we had 3 children.  Now I have 7 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren.  I hope this gives you the information you desire.  Martha Pape Bleidt (over) - My father's third wife was Henrietta Reimer (We called her Aunt Agnes).  She passed away in 1937.  My father passed away March 9 - 1945."

--

John (born Johannes) Pape was born October 25, 1851, in Bödefeld, Westphalia, Germany, and baptized in the Roman Catholic Church three days later.  He apparently served in the Kaiser's army sometime before emigrating to the United States about 1880 (according to three US Census records) or 1881 (according to the 1930 Census).  I have not yet found him on a passenger list, nor any definitive naturalization records - John Pape is a more common name than I thought.

I was aware of John's first wife from the probate for my Uncle Walt, who died intestate in late December, 1975.  The 1910 Census also indicates he had this first marriage, and the 1930 Census indicates he was 28 when it occurred, which would have been about 1879..  I don't know the name of this wife or the two daughters, nor when they died.  It's not clear from Aunt Martha's letter whether these deaths occurred before or after John came to America. [ETA - I now know the names, and that the deaths occurred in 1886 and 1887.  More on this in a future post.]

However, by 1882-1883, John is living in Evanston, Illinois, according to that city directory, working as a carpenter with a home on the west side of Sherman Avenue, south of Greenleaf.

According to Martha's letter, John went back to Germany and married his second wife, Gertrude Kramer (or Cramer, 1859-1919), around 1888.  They came back to Evanston and had seven children.

According to the 1890 Census and city directories, they lived at 1043 Sherman Avenue in Evanston through 1899.  John moved from being a carpenter to a partnership in Senge & Pape Dry Goods.  In 1900, the U.S. Census shows the family living at 1072 (now 1943) Lawndale Avenue on the north side of Chicago, and John is a dry goods merchant at nearby 889 (now 3060) Armitage (with Senge & Pape). The family's house at 1043 Sherman Avenue in Evanston was rented out.  By 1904, according to the Evanston city directory, the family is back at the Sherman Avenue address, where they remained through at least 1925 (according to a city directory).  Gertrude died there of liver cancer on August 20, 1919, according to her death certificate (Martha does not note her death in this letter).

On the 1930 Census, John is living with his third wife, Hedwige (not Henrietta) Agnes Burkhardt Reimer (1872-1937), at 1949 Lunt in Chicago, not far from his son Paul (at 2093 Lunt).  According to the 1940 Census, John is living in Chicago in 1935, and at 3648 N. Hoyne in Chicago in 1940 with his single sons Walter and Dick (and around the corner from daughter Martha Pape Bleidt at 2043 Waveland).  John died at this address of liver cancer on March 9, 1945.  John and Gertrude are buried at St. Henry's Cemetery in Chicago. 

Standing, from left:  Lee Pape, Walter Pape, unknown priest, Dick Pape
Seated, from left:  Paul Pape, Elizabeth Massmann Pape, Martha Pape Bleidt, Clara Pape

Rhea Pape

The picture above includes six of the seven Pape siblings, the children of John and Gertrude Kramer Pape.   Clara M. Pape (1889-1975), Martha Elisabeth Pape Bleidt (1890-1981),  Leo John "Lee" Pape (1893-1979), Paul Robert Pape (1896-1970), Otto Richard "Dick" Pape (1898-1972), and Walter Francis Pape (1900-1975).  Third child and daughter Rhea Maria Pape (1892-1977) is not in the picture above; perhaps she took it (it was provided by her granddaughter).  I've included a photo of Rhea at left that may have been from approximately the same time (this was also provided by her granddaughter).

At the time Martha wrote the letter in 1969 or early 1970, she had three children (a son, daughter, and older stepdaughter), seven grandchildren (two of these were step-grandchildren, and there was one more grandson born in 1973), and four great-grandchildren (at that point).  While she mentions brother Paul's five children and 28 grandchildren as of 1970, she forgets to mention Rhea's daughter Patricia Pape Hunter Parks (perhaps because Pat died in auto accident in 1967), and Pat's five daughters and two granddaughters at that point.

I've written about Martha, Rhea, Lee, and Paul and their spouses and children in previous posts - I will write about the single, childless ones - Clara, Dick, and Walter - in future posts.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces from the Past: Karfreitag Holzratschen, Harth, Germany, 1982

During my visit to Germany in April 1982, my German Pape relatives took me sightseeing to nearby towns on Good Friday (April 9 that year).  One area we drove through was Harth, in the southernmost part of the Büren district.  I heard an awful noise and took this picture of the noisemakers, who happily posed for the camera.

My Tanta Lucia and Unkle Karl-Heinz told me that on Good Friday (Karfreitag) in Germany, bells are not rung because Jesus has died.  Before each Mass, children swing the Holzratschen, wooden rattles that make a terrible racket.  This is an old custom of the Catholic Church, to call people to Mass.  

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: Easter in Büren, Germany, 1982

Some notes from my travel journal:

Easter Saturday (aka Holy Saturday, April 10, 1982) morning, "I went shopping and took some pictures in the Marktplatz, where they were selling vegetables, flowers, and eggs. I did pretty well shopping despite not knowing much German!"

[That evening, my cousin] "Reinhard and his friends dyed Easter eggs."

According to About.com, German Easter traditions include "many traditional 'Easter [egg] trees' [an Osterbaum or Ostereierbaum], ... [trees or branches] dripping with colorfully decorated eggs. The custom of boiling and painting eggs, the symbols of new life, began in Germany; the bright colors represent sunlight and growth."  Below is my cousin Ulrike with her Ostereiebaum and other Easter decorations in her apartment in Bonn:

 Segelfluggelände [Glider Field or Flugplatz] Büren August 2009 / Felix Stember /  CC BY-SA 3.0

Later that evening, I "went up to the Easter fire [Osterfeuer] at the Flugplatz [the glider plane field], but it was too cold and snowing to stay long."  About.com says, "On Saturday evening, regions in the north of Germany will light Easter bonfires, chasing away the dark spirits of winter and welcoming the warm season."  Here's the Osterfeuer from Büren in 1982:

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

(Not-So-) Wordless Wednesday: Easter (and My Birthday) in Germany, 1982

In April 1982, I was lucky enough to get to go to Germany. I arrived on my birthday, and spent the Easter weekend (April 8-12) in Büren with my Pape relatives there.  

I believe the eggs pictured above were given to me by my cousin Wolfgang Pape, who was artistic.  I just took black-and-white photos, because he simply decorated white eggs with intricate designs in black ink.  The top egg in all of the pictures had my name and the words ""Kusine" (Cousin) and "Ostern" (Easter) on it, among other words I can't read.

The egg on the bottom in each of the photos had my name and the phrase, "Geburstag in Deutschland" (Birthday in Germany) on it.

I managed to get these eggs home safely and kept them for a number of years, until they were finally crushed in one of my (probably cross-country) many moves.

More in the next two days about my Easter in Germany.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Travel Tuesday: Jesuitenkolleg and Maria Immaculata Kirche in Büren, Germany

Probably the two biggest tourist attractions in in Büren, Germany, which I also saw during my April 1982 Easter visit there, are the Jesuitenkolleg and Jesuitenkirche.

The Jesuitenkolleg, also known today as Mauritius-Gymnasium (Mauritius High School), is named for Moritz von Büren (1604-1661), the last Baron of Büren.  After a law career (from 1629 to 1644, he was president of the Supreme Court of  the Holy Roman Empire in Speyer), he entered the Jesuit Order, and ultimately left all his possessions to that order.  Between 1717 and 1728, his castle was torn down, and the Baroque-style Jesuit College, in a three-wing rectangular form with an open inner courtyard, was built.  Over the years, the building has also served as a teacher training college, but has been Mauritius-Gymnasium since 1946.  My German cousins attended school here.

By ludger1961 (Own work (own photography)) 4 October 2005 [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

This is a view of the back side of the school, which has this lovely pond beside it:

Jesuitenkolleg Büren 3 October 2011 / Angela Marie / CC-BY-2.0

Next door to the Jesuitenkolleg (to the right in the photo below) is the Jesuitenkirche, otherwise known as the Kirche Maria Immaculata (Immaculate Mary Church).  It was built in the late-Baroque style between 1754 and 1773.  This is a view from the back.

Büren 29 March 2012 / Andreas Siegel / CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0

Here is a view that shows more of the ornate front exterior of the church (to the right):

Jesuitenkirche Büren 2 February 2011 / Felix Stember / CC-BY-SA-2.0

This church has an incredibly beautiful interior.  This panoramic shot shows the numerous frescoes on the ceilings and dome, most of which portray scenes from the life of Mary, Mother of God:

Deckenfresken [Ceiling frescoes] 14 April 2012 / Felix Stember / CC-BY-SA-2.0

The church has a gorgeous organ loft and organ, installed between 1884 and 1886 by Franz Eggert of nearby Paderborn:

By Nicole New (Own work), 26 June 2005 [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

More pictures of the beautiful interior and exterior of the church can be found on Wikimedia Commons.  Today the church is used mostly for weddings and concerts.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Fearless Females: Ruby Clayton Moore Albillar, 1908-1967

Ruby Clayton Moore Albillar was Breathless' aunt.  She was a bit of a free spirit and it's been hard to find much information about her, but here's what I've located so far.

Ruby was born February 8, 1908, in Fort Worth, Texas, the fourth child and third daughter of  Tandy Clayton Moore (1878-1964) and Nancy Flora "Nannie" Jones (1882-1969).  She's living with her parents and siblings on the 1910 and 1920 Censuses (in Tarrant County, Texas, and Marlow, Oklahoma, respectively), but is not listed with them on the 1930 Census - and I haven't (yet) found her anywhere else.

According to family stories, Ruby fell in love with someone of whom her father disapproved, and left home.  She was married more than once, and wound up in Phoenix, Arizona, where her last husband was named Teofilo Albillar.  She developed cancer and died in Phoenix on September 21, 1967.

Breathless' cousin Tom remembers seeing Ruby at the Moore family home in Marlow  when she came home for a visit around 1936, and again about 1960.  He believes the photos in this post are of Ruby.

I found the obituary at the left on page 42 of the Saturday, September 23, 1967, Arizona Republic.  It provides clues that match up with other research.

Ruby apparently moved to Phoenix from Hot Springs, Arkansas, in the mid-1930s.  This matches up with a record I found for her in the 1940 Census.  She is working as a practical nurse in the home of Frank A. Johnson in Maricopa County (where Phoenix is located).  She is listed as divorced, and her home in 1935 is listed as Hot Springs.

What might have taken her to Hot Springs?  I found a record of a marriage license dated April 18, 1932, in Garland County (where Hot Springs is located), Arkansas, for a 24-year-old Ruby Moore of (born in?) Fort Worth and a 42-year-old Charles C. Wilson of Hot Springs.  Could this be the man judged "no-account" by her father?

As for a divorce, the Arkansas Divorce Index shows one finalized on October 31, 1935, between a Charlie Wilson and his wife Ruby, in Pulaski County.  The following year, Ruby appears for the first time in a Phoenix city directory, on page 328 under her maiden name of Moore.  She is listed as a housekeeper and residing at 119 W. Almeria Rd.

Shortly before Ruby died, Breathless' mother, Jewel Moore Gresham, and her sister, Audie Ruth Moore Cook, went to see Ruby in the county hospital in Phoenix.  A week after Ruby's death, Jewel wrote to their other sister, Ivis Moore Mew (1905-2004), about their experiences.  On page 10 of her 14-page letter, she wrote,

Ruby didn't ask about things at home.  She told us about her marriage.  The man she married had a small child about five I think.  She said she stood between her husband and the child and later the child said "We just got married.  Now I am going to have me a mamma."  She said he was a wonderful child and gave her much happiness.  She told how her husband stepped on a nail at the barn.  She said, "He told everyone but me."  He died of lock-jaw.  She told of the [funeral] Mass.  She said, "I just did what everyone else did.  I stood and I kneeled like everyone."  After his death all the children went to California to their mother's people.

With more research, I found the death certificate for Teofilo Carrion Albillar, who died February 5, 1957, in Phoenix of tetanus (lockjaw).  Ruby is listed as his wife and the informant on the death certificate.

While I have not yet been able to find a record of their marriage, I know it occurred after Teofilo's first wife, Pomposa Quihuiz Serrano Albillar, died at the age of 28 on June 9, 1942.  However, it did occur before November 16, 1948, when Ruby signed as a witness, listed as stepmother, on an affadavit to correct the name on the birth record for Teofilo's oldest of five sons, Ernesto Serrano Albillar (1930-1988).

The youngest son, Francisco "Frank" Serrano Albillar, 1941-2011, is probably the about-five-year-old referred to in Jewel's letter.  He would have only been six months old when his birth mother died, and would not have remembered her.  However, he was probably raised Catholic, which may have been part of the reason he was sent to live with his mother's relatives in California (Ruby was not Catholic).

Ruby is still listed under Moore in the 1947 Phoenix city directory, so the marriage might have occurred in 1947 or 1948.  In that directory, Ruby's address is 1101 Grand Canal, which is also hers and Teofilo's address on the 1948 and 1957 documents.

The picture at the top of the post of Ruby with the rifle, and the one below with the little boy (not her child), have the same dog in them, and were probably taken at about the same time and place.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: Baby Shower, 1957

This picture was probably taken around this date 56 years ago.  It's a baby shower for my mother before I was born.  Her four Pape sisters-in-law are in the photo - and every one of them is pregnant!  My Pape grandmother is in the photo too.

From the left:  Rose Mary Pape Dietz (expecting her third child, my cousin Ruth), Elizabeth Florence Massmann Pape, Elizabeth "Betty" Marie Pape Streff (expecting her fifth child, my cousin Tom), my mother Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape (expecting her first child, me!), Marilyn Electa Pape Hedger (just behind my mother, expecting her second child, my cousin Joe), and Dolores "Lorrie" Frances Olker Pape (expecting her second child, my cousin Donna).

I just noticed - one of my cousins appears to be trying to hide under the sofa as this photo is being taken.  See the little arm on the sofa seat in the bottom right?  I also think this person is wearing a dress, and based on her size, it is probably one of these cousins:  Beth, Shelley, or Terrie.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Surname Saturday: PAPE Cousin Bait - part 3

Martha Elisabeth Pape, 26 years old, about 1916 or 1917.
Photo by J. D. Toloff, Evanston, Ill.

For the past two Saturdays, I have shared a letter written by my great aunt Martha Elisabeth Pape Bleidt (1890-1980), my paternal grandfather's older sister, in 1969.  She sent it to a distant cousin, Lawrence Pape, who'd found me through this blog.

I learned something interesting about Aunt Martha while having lunch with my dad last Saturday.  She was quite a singer in her younger days, but a tonsillectomy damaged her vocal cords and ruined a potential career.

Aunt Martha's letter started out "Grandfather Pape [Jacob Pape, and his wife Elisabeth Gierse] had 4 sons:
John - Joseph - Anton - Lawrence."

The first two parts of the letter talked about Joseph and Anton.  The next part is about Lawrence (or Laurenz, as it is spelled in Germany, or Lorenz, as he apparently spelled it after coming to America).

Lorenz was the youngest of the four sons, born October 30, 1862, in Bödefeld, Westphalia, Germany.  Sometime in or before 1889, he married his first wife, Maria Henrietta Kamp, who died sometime between 1896 and 1899.  As it says below, they had six children:

Transcription:  "Your grandfather Lawrence Pape had two wives.  Your grandfather and his first wife had six children.  Karl, Joseph, Ewald.  These are your uncles.  August - your father.  Marie and Nellie.  These are your aunts.  Your grandfather and his second wife had two children, Margaret (your Aunt) and Lawrence (your uncle who lives in Germany).  If you write to your Uncle Ewald who lives at 7440 - 4th Place Downey Cal. 90241 he would be able to tell you all about your father's family."

Karl James (1889-1958), Joseph John Anton (1891-1936), Maria/Mary [Mrs. Herman Walter] (1892-1977), August Peter (1893-1947), Ewald Theodore (1894-1976), and Petronella "Nellie" [Mrs. George Arendt] (1896-1930), were all born in Düsseldorf, Germany.

By 1899, Lorenz had married again, a Maria Brauman, and had two more children:  Lorenz Jr. (1899-1977), and Margaret "Grete" [Mrs. Louis Travaglini and Mrs. Arthur Hammes] (1901-1988), were also born in Düsseldorf.

Lorenz, Karl, and August arrived in Boston on May 27, 1913, aboard the Marquette out of Antwerp, Belgium.  Joseph, Maria, Ewald, and Nellie arrived later that year, on December 4, in New York, aboard the Friedrich Der Grosse.  They all went to stay with my great-grandfather, John Pape, at his home at 1043 Sherman Avenue in Evanston, Illinois.

The following year, the family is listed in the 1914 Evanston City Directory as living at 1622 Forest Avenue in Wilmette.  Lorenz, Karl, and August are all painters.  In June 1917, the family is still at this address, according to the World War I draft registration cards of Karl, Joseph, August (who all work for Lorenz) and Ewald (who works as a millman for Evanston Labor Co.).

Sometime between June 1917 and May 1919, Lorenz, Karl, Maria, Ewald, and Nellie moved to Wisconsin.  Joseph and August both married Chicago-area girls (in 1918 and 1919 respectively) and stayed in Wilmette, operating the painting/decorating business.

Maria married German immigrant Herman Walter (of Nekoosa as of 1917) on May 27, 1919, in Nekoosa, Wisconsin.  Lorenz is on the 1920 census in nearby Port Edwards, owning his own farm, with sons Karl and Ewald and daughter Petronella.  She married Illinois native George Arendt (who'd been in Wisconsin since at least 1910) in Nekoosa on May 18 of that year.  By December 11, 1920, Ewald is in Fort Logan, Colorado.   An article in the March 18, 1921, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune states, "Lawrence Pape was among the German Settlement residents who visited in Nekoosa on business Thursday."

However, by July 2, 1923, Lorenz and Karl are apparently back in Wilmette, Illinois, according to the passenger list for the arrival of his youngest daughter Grete from Germany that day.  Karl and Ewald both married Illinois girls later that year, but in Ewald's case, the marriage took place in Vancouver, Washington, and he moved to Portland, Oregon, shortly thereafter, where he had a successful architectural career. (Interestingly, half-brother Lorenz Jr, who stayed in Germany with his mother, was also an architect, in Solingen.)  Like his other brothers and father before him, Karl was a painter and decorator.

Daughter Nellie's July 28, 1930, obituary indicates Lorenz Sr. was living in Chicago, but I could not find him anywhere on the census that year.  He died March 23, 1932, following six weeks of illness with pneumonia, at the home of his daughter Mary in Nekoosa, Wisconsin, and is buried in Sacred Heart (Riverside) Cemetery there.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces from the Past: Aunt Moe, 2003

Ten years and three weeks ago, my brother got married, and a lot of the extended family came to the wedding.  As usual, the life of the party was my Aunt Moe.

Aunt Moe (seated, with the rabbit ears) and some of her nieces and nephews and their spouses and a kid, March 1, 2003

Aunt Moe is one of my dad's younger sisters, Rose Mary Pape Dietz.  She was born June 9, 1931, in Evanston, Illinois, the fourth of five children of Paul Robert Pape Sr. (1896-1907) and Elizabeth Florence Massmann (1902-2000).  "Moes Mary" suffered from polio as a child, which resulted in one leg being shorter than the other, but she never let that slow her down, as you can see from the photo at right of her dancing at the wedding.  I remember too that she drove a school bus for many years, and the kids riding it quickly learned not to mess with the bus driver.

Moe married Ronald Joseph "Das" Dietz (1931-1994) on June 13, 1953.  They had six children:  Ronald Jr., Rochelle, Ruth, Regina, Richard, and Robert.  They lived in Glenview, Illinois, while their children were growing up, and took in Elizabeth after my grandfather Paul passed away in 1970.  She was an active member of St. Isaac Jogues parish there.  Later Moe, Das, and Nana moved to the Largo, Florida area. She had 16 grandchildren and one great-grandchild at the time of her death.

Moe passed away from cancer on May 29, 2007.  She is buried next to her husband in All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines, Illinois.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: Pfarrkirche St. Nikolaus, Büren, Germany

Another place I visited in Büren, Germany, during my April 1982 Easter visit there was the local parish church, St. Nikolaus.  It is located just off the Marktplatz, about a block from the Pape family home and bookstore. 

Büren, St Nikolaus 001 [St. Nikolaus Church exterior, 25 Apr 2012] / Mattana [Mattis] / CC BY-SA 3.0

This is the rose window, just above the main door to the church in the photo above:

Büren, St Nikolaus 019 [Rose window above entrance , 25 Apr 2012] / Mattana [Mattis] / CC BY-SA 3.0

 Büren, St Nikolaus 010 [Madonna above aisle, 25 Apr 2012]
/ Mattana [Mattis] / CC BY-SA 3.0

 Büren, St Nikolaus 007
[St. Nicolaus above altar, 25 Apr 2012]
/ Mattana [Mattis] / CC BY-SA 3.0

The following information comes from Wikipedia and from an English brochure about Büren:

The church is a three-nave Romanesque cruciform basilica, and is the oldest building in the city of Büren, with its first mention dating back to 1220.

The church also has a baroque Johann Patroclus Möller organ, pictured below.  Originally built in 1744 for the nearby monastery Böddeken, it was moved to St. Nikolaus in 1804.

Büren, St Nikolaus 009 Restored [Organ, retouched , 25 Apr 2012] / Mattana [Mattis] / CC BY-SA 3.0

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

(Not-So-) Wordless Wednesday / Fearless Females: Moore Girls, ABT 1929

Nancy Flora "Nannie" Jones Moore (1882-1969, seated) and the four youngest of her five daughters, from left to right:  Beulah Mabel "Mabel" Moore (1910-1932), Audie Ruth Moore Cook (1911-1969), Ruby Clayton Moore Albillar (1908-1967), and Breathless' mother, Jewel Moore Gresham (1914-1994).  This photo was taken the same day as another photo of just the four daughters.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Travel Tuesday: Around and About Büren, Germany

In April 1982, I was lucky enough to get to go to Germany, and spent the Easter weekend (April 8-12) in Büren with my relatives.  Here are some pictures I took that Saturday while Unkle Karl-Heinz and Tanta Lucia worked, and I wandered around on my own.

Büren was founded in 1095 A.D.  In 1982 the population was around 17,500; by mid-2012, it was 21,320.  It is located on a mountain spur between the Alme and Afte rivers.  Here is the Almetal, or Alme River valley:

Along one branch of the river are a couple of mills. This one is the central mill or Mittelmühle.  It was built about 1532 and is considered the oldest secular building in the downtown area:

Near the river was this shrine to St. John Nepomucene, perhaps put there because this saint is considered a protector against floods.  A rough translation of the inscription below the statue (which appears to be a combination of German and Latin) is: "in honor of the martyr St. John Nepomucene - John Tholen, pastor in Büren, 1735."

The shrine still existed 25 years later, albeit with a different statue and a protective door in front of the statue.

Another thing I passed on my walk was the cemetery pictured below.  I really wish I had gone exploring in it a little more, looking for Papes buried there.  However, I might not have found any.  I have recently learned that in Germany, it's very typical for a grave to be recycled - used for another person after 20 years or so.  Families don't own cemetery plots - they only rent them.  At the end of the lease, if descendants don't pay up, the grave is re-used.

Finally - back in the Marktplatz area, near the Pape family home and bookstore, was this old building, pictured at right. The half-timbered (German Fachwerk) house with a half-hipped roof (German Krüppelwalmdach) says 1608 on the door frames, and is the oldest surviving house in the city. When I was there in 1982, the main floor was being used as an Italian restaurant.

The town also has two beautiful Catholic churches - I'll write about those more in future posts. 

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Fearless Females / Matrilineal Monday: "Nani" - Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald, 1907-1997

Sister Jean Marie (Jo Ann) Guokas and her mother, my maternal grandmother, Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald, 1990

If Nani, my maternal grandmother, Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald, was still alive today, she would be 106 years old.  She was born in Winn Parish, Louisiana, the second child and oldest daughter of Louis Henry Wolfe and Addilee Tennesee Shelton Wolfe Odom Harris.

On the 1910 Census, the family (which included Sara's older brother, Lloyd L. Wolfe, 1906-1993) was living at 1204 Sprague Street in Shreveport, Louisiana.  This census, taken in late April, indicates that Sara was only two years old, which is the first of many documents that have contributed to some confusion about whether she was born in 1907 or 1908. 

By 1912, the family is in Texas, as they are listed in the city directory that year living at 1433 Cortlandt in the Houston Heights.  Younger sister Edith Elizabeth Wolfe Smith Murff Brown Gould Knox (1910-2006), born in December 1910, is the fifth member of the family.  The following year, the city directory gives their address as 924 Ashland, still in the Heights, and the sixth member of the family is youngest sister Neva Marie Wolfe Ely (1912-1995), born in November 1912.

Things get a little confusing after that.  The next record I have for Sara shows her and her three siblings placed in the DePelchin Faith Home (now the DePelchin Children's Center, and in a different location) for about a year and a half, from mid-April, 1916, to late September, 1917.  Around this time, her mother Addilee ran off with another man.   The children were put in an orphanage temporarily because of Louis' work as a bricklayer, which had him moving around a lot.

By the 1920 Census, Sara, her father, and siblings are living with Louis' brother Shannon Wolfe and his family, at 1405 Allston in Houston.  In the Morrison & Fourmy 1923-24 Houston City Directory, Louis has an address of 403 Lamar Avenue - and Sara has her own listing there as well.

Sara married my maternal grandfather, Charles Peter Guokas Jr. (1903-1967), on July 20, 1926, in Houston, at St. Joseph Catholic Church.  They honeymooned at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas.  They had three children, Charles Guokas III (1927-1999), my mother, Geraldine, and my aunt, Jo Ann (Sister Jean Marie). 

The family moved around a lot as my grandfather worked in a series of jobs.  After their marriage, they lived at 1212 North York in Houston, according to the city directory.  In 1928 and 1929 they were living at 2215 Shearn in Houston, but on the 1930 Census, they are living at 1717 Shearn with my widower great-grandfather Charles Guokas Sr. (1863-1939) and my great uncle Roy Lee Guokas (1917-1959); they were also at this address in 1932.

In June 1933, Charles Jr. was named appointments secretary to Governor Miriam Amanda Ferguson (my namesake), so the family moved to Austin.  The 1935 Austin city directory shows them living at 1604 Alta Vista Avenue, but the listing must have been created early that year, as "Ma" Ferguson's term ended that January and the Guokas family moved back to Houston.  In the 1940 Census and 1940 and 1942 city directories, the family is again living at 2215 Shearn.

In 1944, Sara divorced Charles Jr.  She went to work for the U.S. Post Office.  There, she met Wallace Franklin "Archie" Archibald (1896-1970).  They married in 1945.

Sara continued to work for the downtown Houston Post Office until her retirement.  I remember a class field trip to that post office when I was in elementary school in the late 1960s. After retiring, she was very active in NARFE, the National Association of Retired Federal Employees.  I remember spending many nights at her home with Archie at at 1118 Bay Oaks in Houston, Texas.  This wasn't too far from my family's home in the early 60's at 7913 Cedel in Spring Branch.

After Archie's death in 1970, she shared a house with her sister Edith (who also lost a husband in 1970), first on Windswept Lane (near Chimney Rock Road), then at 7431 Beechnut, which was not far from our home at 8015 Sharpview, until Aunt Edith remarried in 1981.  At that point Sara moved to a condo at 6161 Reims (again not far from our home), where she lived the rest of her life.

I was going through a difficult divorce when Nani turned 90 in March 1997, and I missed a surprise birthday party for her in Houston.  About that time, she was diagnosed with lymphoma, and chose not to go through painful treatment.  I was able to attend a Wolfe family reunion with my offspring near Montgomery, Texas, on June 28, 1997, and spend some time with her there and at her home afterwards.  She passed away in hospice care on November 16, 1997.  She is buried next to Archie in Woodlawn Cemetery in Houston.

Nani's difficult childhood and experiences raising her family during the Depression made her very frugal. However, she was very generous with her five grandchildren, and I was able to pay my own way through college with the help of the many contributions she made to my college fund. She also contributed to college funds for my offspring, and helped me financially and emotionally through my divorce.

I still miss her.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: Happy Birthday, Sis!

My mother, Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape, and my sister Karen, probably on Easter (April 6 that year) and at Incarnate Word Academy in Houston, Texas, based on what my mother is wearing.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Surname Saturday: PAPE Cousin Bait - Part 2

Martha Elisabeth Pape, 26 years old, about 1916 or 1917.
Photo by J. D. Toloff, Evanston, Ill.

Last Saturday, I started to share a letter written by my great aunt Martha Elisabeth Pape Bleidt (1890-1980), my paternal grandfather's older sister, in 1969.  She sent it to a distant cousin, Lawrence Pape, who'd found me through this blog.

The letter stated that "Grandfather Pape [Jacob Pape, and his wife Elisabeth Gierse] had 4 sons:
John - Joseph - Anton - Lawrence."

Martha had said, "We know nothing of Joseph as he lived in Germany and my father never told us anything about him."

Since 1969, though, we learned a little about second son Joseph, who I wrote about last week.

The second part of  the letter talks about Anton Pape, the third son, who was born September 28, 1854, in Boedefeld, Westphalia, Germany, and who arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 5, 1883, on the Weser out of Bremen, Germany.  He was traveling with his son Hugo Aloysius Pape, then age 3, and a 22-year-old woman listed as Regina Pape, who I assumed to be Hugo's mother.

I was a little surprised to find a marriage certificate dated a little over five weeks later, on May 13, 1883, for the marriage of Anton and Regina Elisabeth Allers, by Father A. J. Thiele, rector at St. Henry Catholic Church at Devon and Ridge in Rose Hill (now part of Chicago's Far North Side).  I just assumed they were married again for some sort of legal reasons in the United States.  Aunt Martha's letter clarified that mystery - but left some other puzzles unsolved:

Transcription:  "Anton Pape had three wives.  The first wife and Uncle Anton had a son - Hugo.  When Hugo was a very little boy, his mother died.  Uncle Anton married a sister of Hugo's mother which was his second wife.  Of this union a daughter was born named Emma.  After a few years Emma's mother died.  After a few years Uncle Anton married a third time.  Her name was Katherine Hoffman and this is the only Aunt we knew.  No children were born of this marriage."

The new piece of information for me here was that Anton had THREE wives, and that Hugo and his sister Emma Genevieve Pape Childs were actually half-siblings, and also cousins, as their mothers were sisters!

I feel this provides more evidence for my assumption that Regina is Emma's mother, although I have found no proof of that yet.  I think this letter does confirm that Katherine "Kate" Regina Hoffman (1860-1927), is NOT Emma's mother, but is the stepmother who actually raised Emma.

It looks like Emma was born somewhere between 1883 and 1886 (based on censuses, birth records for her children, and her marriage record).   I believe I have found a record for the death of Regina, on the Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre – 1916.  This Regina died March 15, 1887, in Cook County, at age 25, meaning she was born around 1862, which is about right (based on the April 1883 Baltimore passenger list, and her marriage certificate with Anton Pape).   Since Regina died when Emma was age one to four years old (approximately), and Anton married Katherine a little over a year later (May 8, 1888, at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Evanston, Illinois), I think Katherine raised Emma and that is why Emma referred to her as her mother (and why Katherine was the only aunt that Martha, born in 1890, ever knew).

Aunt Martha went on to write, on page 2:

Transcription:  "Hugo and Emma were first cousins of your father.  Hugo was married to Josephine Didier.  Hugo had five children.  Hugo and his wife passed away about nine years ago.  Emma was married to August Childs.  They had 8 children.  Emma passed away in 1937.  I don't remember when August died."

The "your father" she refers to is Lawrence Pape's father, August Peter Pape.  The information for Hugo Pape (1879-1961), his wife Josephine Didier Pape (1880-1960), and their five children, match up.  Emma was married to August Solomon Childs (born 1882), and I did find records for seven children, although it appears only four lived to adulthood.  Emma's great-granddaughter told me Emma died in 1937 in Wisconsin, although I have no proof of that.  And unfortunately, no one seems to know when August died (although he was still alive in 1942).  Nor, for that matter, is there a date for Anton's death.  I believe he died about 1893, because at that point, Katherine is listed as a widow in the Evanston [Illinois] City Directory.

I'll post the third part of Aunt Martha's letter next Saturday.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces from the Past: Thomas Gurth Moore & Katherine May "Katie" Sprouse Moore Mayhew, ABT 1927

This is Breathless' maternal uncle and aunt, Thomas Gurth Moore (1902-1935) and Katherine "Katie" May Sprouse Moore Mayhew (1908-2005), taken around the time they married in 1927.

Gurth, as he was always known, was born March 20, 1902, in a dugout in Indiahoma, Oklahoma, the oldest child of Tandy Clayton Moore (1878-1964) and Nancy Flora "Nannie" Jones (1882-1969).  Gurth grew up in Texas, though, and didn't care much for Oklahoma when his parents moved there in late 1918.

In the fall of 1920, Gurth moved to Fort Worth, where he lived with the family of his maternal aunt Dorinda Jones Drosihn.  He and his cousin Sam Drosihn attended Draughon‘s Business College, graduating in June 1922.  They both worked in the kitchen of a Fort Worth hotel, and in 1924, Gurth moved to Austin where he became the chef at the then-new Stephen F. Austin Hotel, earning $50 a week.  It was here that he met Katie, who worked in the laundry at the same hotel.  They married September 14, 1927, in Buda, Texas.

They had two sons, Thomas Clayton (born in 1933 in San Antonio, while Gurth briefly worked as the chef at the Plaza Hotel), and Julian Wesley (born in 1934 in Austin).  Sadly, Gurth contracted pneumonia and died the following year, on January 5, 1935, at only age 32.  He is buried at the Driftwood Cemetery in Driftwood, Texas.


© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: Büren, Germany

Gebr. Pape Buchdruckerei

  Mauritzgymnasium                                               * Gebr. Pape Buchhandlung

*

On Sunday, March 10, I mentioned that I have kin in Büren, Germany.  Büren is a small town in the district of Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia.  Above is an aerial view taken in the 1970s.  The red arrow points to the Pape Brothers Printing (Gebr. Pape Buchdruckerei) building.  Below is owner Karl-Heinz Pape (1925-1992), my second cousin once removed, in front of it on April 9, 1982 (and yes, it's snowing):

The green arrow in the aerial view points to the Pape family home and bookstore.  It is right off the central marketplace (Marktplatz - here's a live webcam) and main street (Burgstrasse).  You can see it at the left in the picture below, also taken in the 1970s:

And a close-up of the house and bookstore, that I took in April 1982:

The entrance to the family home (which is above the bookstore) is at left in the photo above, and the address is Kapellenstrasse 9.   Below, the Pape family is standing in front of the Gebr. Pape Bookstore (Buchhandlung; Buchbinderei is bookbinding, Burobedarf is stationery), at the corner of Kapellenstrasse and Burgstrasse.  The store is still there today.

This photo was taken in June 1978, when my high school friend Audrey visited my kin.  From left are Karl-Heinz, his son Eberhard, daughter Ulrike, wife Lucia, and son Reinhard.  Son Wolfgang is missing.  Eberhard now runs the print shop.

The blue arrow in the aerial view points to the Mauritzgymnasium, a Jesuit high school.  More on that and the rest of the town in a later post.

collage of (from top), outside and inside of Gebr. Pape Printing card; Bookstore sticker, and (to right) tape for both.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.