Category Archives: Krosch

Genealogy, Historic Photos, Krosch, Photo Detective, Treutel

Photo Detective: Faces in a Very Old Family Album

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What are the odds? I wondered that question as I flipped through a very old, leather-bound photo album purchased from a collector in Ohio. What are the odds that I would come into possession of a Treutel/Krosch family photo album stretching back 150 years, from a person in another state whom I’ve never met? The chance would seem very small indeed.

We’ve already outlined some of the wonderful finds from this photo album, including the cartes de visite showing Philipp Treutel, his wife Henrietta and his mother-in-law, Christiana Krosch. Those photos were fun and easy, because they were labeled with names by a relative long ago. Now comes the hard part: determining the identities of many faces with no names. It is certainly possible that all of the suppositions below are inaccurate. Without the aid of original photo captions or relatives who might recognize the people, we can only make educated guesses.

Philipp Treutel (1833-1891) had a long face and prominent mustache, which matched well with a number of unlabeled photos in the album. Could he be the stranger in those images? One was even a wedding photo, but I was a bit skeptical that the album could include a studio photo from the 1850s.

PhilippTreutel_Series
Do these photos show the same man? The man at right is Philipp Treutel. The others had no photo identifications, but they bear some resemblance to Philipp.

a wedding photo, but I was a bit skeptical that the album could include a studio photo from the 1850s.

The other image shows a man with three young women, presumably his daughters. We know Philipp and Henrietta Treutel had three daughters: Adeline, born in November 1859; Lisetta, born in April 1861; and Emma, born in February 1877. The youngest girl in this photo appears to be 6 or 7, which would put the year at about 1883. That was some eight years before Philipp’s untimely death from influenza.

Man_With_Daughters
Is this Philipp Treutel with his three daughters? The woman at left looks old enough to be a wife, but we are sure she is not Philipp’s wife, Henrietta.

We have no photos in our collection that show Adeline (Treutel) Moody (1859-1928), who married William Jones Moody in 1883 and eventually settled near Vesper, Wisconsin; or Lisetta (Treutel) Moody (1861-1931), who married Lewis Winfield Moody in 1887 and settled at Plainfield, Wisconsin. Since the little girl in the photo could be Emma Treutel, we created a photo series to evaluate resemblance.

EmmaTreutel_Series
The photos at center and right show Emma (Treutel) Carlin, 1877-1962. Is the little girl at left Emma? Without more photos from Emma’s youth, it is very difficult to draw conclusions.

We next examined the wedding portrait that could show Philipp Treutel and Henrietta (Krosch) Treutel. We don’t know their wedding year, but it was likely around 1857 or 1858. Below is a photo series comparing the bride to later photos of Henrietta Treutel. Again, there is a resemblance, but no other clues to help in the determination.

HenriettaTreutel_Series
Henrietta (Krosch) Treutel is show at center and right. The bride at left from the wedding portrait below.

We can see family resemblance in many of our album images, so we’re on the right track. But to make judgments with confidence, we need more photos from the Treutel and Krosch families. There are other faces in this old album that we will review in another post, including possible youth photos of Walter Treutel and his brother Henry A. Treutel.

WeddingPhoto

Genealogy, Historic Photos, Krosch

First Known Photo of Christiana Krosch Discovered in Old Album

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To borrow a phrase from the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, an old photo album is a lot like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get. That was certainly the case with a very old leather-bound album we recently acquired from a collector in Ohio. In it we found the first known photograph of great-great-great grandmother, Christiana (Schlagel) Krosch.

The album was purchased from the same source who provided us the carte de visite image of Philipp Treutel. Based on his inclusion in the album, we surmised that the other photos would be related to the family tree of my grandmother, Ruby (Treutel) Hanneman. One of the first carte de visite photos we pulled from the album was labeled, “Grand Mother Krosch, Our Mother’s Mother.” It was right next to a photo of Henrietta (Krosch) Treutel. Since Henrietta was the only girl in the Krosch family of six children, it was an easy jump to conclude the photo showed her mother, the former Johanna Christiana Schlagel (1801-1884).

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Christiana (Schlagel) Krosch in an undated photograph. The portrait could have been taken the same day as that of her daughter, Henrietta, shown at the bottom of this article. The carpeting and staging of the studio are identical.

The photograph is the first image in our collection that goes back five generations. It was taken at the studio of F.D. Faulkner in Waukesha, Wisconsin. There are a number of other unlabeled photos in the album that could also be Christiana Krosch. We laid the photos side-by-side in Adobe Photoshop, and even overlaid a low-opacity version of Christiana’s head and face on the other images. The facial contours, distance between the eyes, etc., are remarkably similar. Could the other photos show Christiana later in life? The beady pupils in the right two photos were likely drawn in by the photographer.

FacialCompare
Could these photographs show the same woman?

If she is the woman in the far right image in the series, then we have an ever bigger discovery. That image was taken from a portrait of an elderly man and woman. The portrait was from the studios of F.L. and A.M. Bishop, who had locations in Mukwonago and Waterford, Wisconsin. Christiana and her husband John Frederick Krosch settled on a farm just north of Mukwonago after emigrating from Saxony in 1854. Based on visual comparisons, that portrait could show Frederick and Christiana Krosch. We have no images of Frederick Krosch for comparison. He died in August 1876.

Frederick and Christiana were married on May 10, 1824 at a Lutheran church in Salzwedel, Saxony, Prussia (now Germany). They had six children between 1824 and 1842. Their second youngest was Caroline Wilhelmine Henriette Krosch (born in January 1839), who was called Henrietta. According to Lutheran church records, she was baptized on January 13, 1839 in the parish at Gössnitz. We have unsourced information that she was born at Merseburg, Germany, which is not far from Gössnitz. This information conflicts our earlier belief that the family came from Jessnitz, Prussia. Many Prussian villages had very similar names, which can lead to confusion in genealogy research. More work is needed on where the family lived in Prussia.

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This portrait could show John Frederick Krosch (1799-1876) and Christiana Schlagel Krosch (1801-1884). The portrait was taken at Mukwonago, Wisconsin. ©2017 The Hanneman Archive

As documented in an earlier article, the Krosch family left Germany in June 1854 for America. Theirs was a perilous journey aboard the Barque Bertha, which encountered terrible storms and stiff trade winds that delayed arrival in New York by one week. After 40 days at sea, they reached New York, set out for Chicago and Milwaukee, and eventually reached East Troy in Walworth County. Frederick took to farming on an 80-acre plat north of Mukwonago. After Frederick Krosch’s death, Christiana moved to Minnesota to live with her son, William Frederick Krosch. She died in December 1884 and is buried at the Dobson Schoolhouse Cemetery in Elmore.

Henrietta Krosch married Philipp Treutel sometime in the late 1850s. Philipp established a blacksmith shop at Mukwonago, but he also worked as a blacksmith in Milwaukee during the 1860s. The couple had seven children between 1859 and 1879. Their youngest, Walter Treutel, became father to our grandmother, Ruby Viola (Treutel) Hanneman. The newly acquired photo album also had a carte de visite of Henrietta at a much younger age than the other two photos of her in our collection.

Family Line: Frederick and Christiana Krosch >> Henrietta (Krosch) Treutel >> Walter Treutel >> Ruby V. (Treutel) Hanneman >> Donn, David and Lavonne Hanneman.

©2017 The Hanneman Archive

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This portrait of Henrietta (Krosch) Treutel could date to the 1860s. The caption on the back reads: “Henrietta Krosch, Philipp Treutel’s wife, Mother of Oscar and Emma.” ©2017 The Hanneman Archive

 

Eye on the Past, Family Tales, Genealogy, Krosch

Eye on the Past: Aunt Adeline’s Shopping Trip with Tommy

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If today’s Eye on the Past photo were made current, we might see Adeline Krosch pulling into her driveway in a family sedan or a minivan. Back in her time, as the photo shows, a horse-drawn buggy was the mode of transport to and from the market in Walworth County, Wisconsin.

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A cropped, closer view of Adeline Krosch and her horse, Tommy.

The handwritten caption on the back of the photo reads simply: “Aunt Adeline Krosch, with her horse Tommy, returning from shopping.” We don’t know who wrote the caption, or where Adeline was shopping. She might have traveled north to the village of Mukwonago. We can reasonably assume she is returning to the Krosch family farm in Lake Beulah in Walworth County. The photo could date anywhere from 1900 to 1920.

What do we know about Aunt Adeline? She was born Adeline Lisette Griesbach on December 13, 1841 in Saxony, Germany. She arrived in New York on August 20, 1850 aboard the Bark Agnes, having made the journey with her mother Lisette. It appears that Lisette Griesbach was widowed in Germany, since she traveled without her husband, Johann Gottlieb Griesbach. Lisette married Karl Krosch and settled on his farm in Walworth County.

On November 26, 1863, Adeline married Reinhold Heinrich Krosch in Milwaukee. Reinhold came to America from Saxony in July 1854. The couple then settled onto a farm near Lake Beulah in eastern Walworth County along the Racine County line. The hamlet of Lake Beulah (which was sometimes called Lake Beulah Station) is a bit east of the actual lake, an 812-acre body of water north of East Troy.

Reinhold and Adeline Krosch had three children, Louis, Charles and Lusetta, between 1863 and 1881. Charles died in March 1879 at age 12. Louis never married and died in March 1942. Lusetta married Dr. Joseph C. Harland on September 28, 1909 at the Krosch farm home at Lake Beulah. The couple settled in Mukwonago in Waukesha County. They had two daughters, Esther Louise and Josephine. Joseph was a veterinarian who later became postmaster in Mukwonago. He died in April 1959. Lusetta died in February 1970.

Reinhold Krosch died on February 25, 1907 on the farm at Lake Beulah. Shortly after strolling across the barnyard talking to his son Louie, Reinhold collapsed and died. He was 69. Adeline died on May 30, 1922 at the home of Lusetta and J.C. Harland in Mukwonago. Her newspaper obituary called her “a woman of sterling character” who could “always be counted on by her neighbors.”

How are Reinhold and Adeline related to the Hanneman family? Reinhold’s younger sister, Henrietta Krosch (1839-1908), married Philipp Treutel (1833-1891) and settled in Waukesha County. Their youngest child, Walter Treutel (1879-1948), is the father of our own Ruby (Treutel) Hanneman (1904-1977).

©2017 The Hanneman Archive

Lusetta Louise Krosch (1881-1970) on her wedding day in September 1909.
Lusetta Krosch, circa 1895.
Josephine and Esther Louise Harland
Handwritten caption on the back side of the Adeline Krosch photograph
Cemeteries & Monuments, Family Tales, Genealogy, General History, Krosch

Cemetery Neglect: Sad Resting Place for Little Ida Krosch

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William and Crystal Krosch faced unthinkable tragedy during their first years in Wisconsin. The joy at the birth of their daughter Ida Clara Krosch in February 1858 turned to dread and sadness just a few years later. Sick with diphtheria, little Ida died two days after Christmas 1861 at the family home in the town of Eagle in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.

Ida Krosch was laid to rest at Oak Grove Cemetery about a mile south of the village of Eagle. A 2-acre parcel carved out of the Kettle Moraine Forest, the cemetery was a scenic, peaceful place that no doubt brought some comfort to the family during visits to the little girl’s resting place. What shock they would feel if they witnessed what would become of the little country cemetery long after the family had moved to Minnesota.

What was going on in the world in December 1861? “It looks now as if we are to have good sleighing for Christmas, as several inches of snow fell during Sunday last,” wrote the Waukesha Freeman on Dec. 24, 1861. The newspapers were promoting a Waukesha visit by Gen. Tom Thumb, “America’s Man in Miniature” made famous by P.T. Barnum. And many local men were leaving their businesses to join Wisconsin troops in the Civil War.

The arch over entrance to Oak Grove Cemetery, Eagle, Wisconsin.
The arch over entrance to Oak Grove Cemetery, Eagle, Wisconsin.

 

The burial records of Oak Grove Cemetery are testament to the hardships of pioneer life in rural Waukesha County. It was common for families to lose young children to diseases such as diphtheria or typhoid fever. Ironically, an article run in the Waukesha Freeman the week Ida died wrongly predicted that diphtheria would be fatal in just one of 100 cases. Diphtheria would become the No. 1 killer of children in America during the coming decades.

The cemetery is replete with stories of the sadness of youth lost. James Lowry died at age 5 in 1858. Ada Severance died at age 4 in 1855. Arden Baldwin died at age 3 just months before Ida Krosch. Oscar Jaycox was just 1 when he died in 1858. Arthur Bigelow was 2 when he died in 1855. Orlando Cook was a mere 8 months old when he died in 1852.

‘Gone but not forgotten?’
‘Gone but not forgotten?’

Peter Grems, reported to be the first veterinarian in the Wisconsin Territory, is buried here. Charles Kilts, a bugler for Company K of the 1st Wisconsin Volunteers in the Civil War, is buried here, too. He died in September 1862.

No doubt the graves of these folks were tended to with care for many decades, but Oak Grove Cemetery has now become a sad monument of neglect and abandonment. Monuments have been toppled. Headstones lie in pieces. Many headstones are leaning badly. Grave sites are covered in thicket. Some have been swallowed by the encroaching forest. The wrought iron fence that separates the cemetery from nearby Highway 67 is rusty and listing. No doubt the families of these souls would be heartsick to see the state of this burial ground.

Broken tombstone of Eliza Mead, who died in 1870
Broken tombstone of Eliza Mead, who died in 1870.

Ironically, Oak Grove Cemetery is just across the road from Old World Wisconsin, the world’s largest museum on the history of rural life. Old World Wisconsin is run by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Maybe if they included their neighboring cemetery on their tours this hallowed ground would not be in such deplorable shape.

For the most part, burials stopped at Oak Grove in 1967, 125 years after the cemetery was founded. We did find one interment at Oak Grove in 2007. Since the cemetery association that cared for the land disbanded long ago, upkeep of the cemetery falls to the local government. It appears the grass gets mowed, but that is no doubt where the maintenance stops.

Graves of Mary and William Reeves, d. 1856 and 1857.
Willie Larue Snover, who died at age 8 in 1869.

Under Wisconsin law, circuit courts can compel local municipalities to care for abandoned cemeteries, or even order the reinterment of the deceased in new cemeteries. Given that Oak Grove is a pioneer cemetery with the remains of the founding families of Eagle, as well as many Civil War veterans, it is very sad that more pride is not taken in preserving it.

Little Ida Clara Krosch’s tombstone can no longer be found at Oak Grove Cemetery. Maybe that’s just as well. Her parents and their descendants would no doubt hang their heads in sadness and shame to see what became of little Oak Grove Cemetery.

FAMILY LINE: 
John Frederick Krosch >> William F. Krosch >> Ida C. Krosch

Grave of Martha Lowry, who died in 1873.
Grave of Martha Lowry, who died in 1873.