Week 21 (May 21-27): "Brick Wall"

My great grandfather, Charles Herman Miller, came to the US from Germany.

As he was a small child, he probably came with some relatives. His name on arrival was still spelled Mueller. But I know nothing about his family in Germany.

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Here's a repost of an earlier blog about him:

I mentioned him in one of my early posts (2014) about ancestors (Here) and hoped to hear from my cousin Leslie again, but it never happened (yet).  She suggested that he had been a stow-away on a ship from Mecklenburg Germany.

Here's my first birthday post about him...

Thursday, July 18, 2013

"Charley" Charles Herman Miller

My great grandfather:

• Charles Herman Miller (Mueller) 

  B: 18 Jul 1868  Mecklenberg, , Schwerin, Germany  

  D: 7 Nov 1946  San Antonio, Bexar, Texas    

 That's what Ancestry DOT com says about him.

I have searched through lots of immigration records to try to find info about when he arrived in the US.  I think he was pretty young.

A census report of Smithfield, in Bastrop County, Texas in 1910 says the family lived on Neudgins St, (maybe something spelled somewhat like that) number 244.  It has Charles listed as head of household, age 41, married 14 years, and all his 4 daughters had been born.

His wife Eugenia Booth Miller was 36 at the time, and the census says her father was born in Illinois and her mother was born in Alabama. (I've honored her on my blog HERE) They were married Oct 28, 1896, according to Ancestry (though I don't see the actual date on the census report, which Ancestry uses as its source.  I think this came from another descendant - cousin?).

It (1910 census) clearly says Charles immigrated to the US in 1865, and that he is a naturalized citizen.  Do you notice any problem yet?

His grave marker says he was born in 1868.  His census record in 1910 says he is 41, which works if the census was taken before his July 18 birthday. And it is dated (by hand on that actual sheet) April 27, 1910. But  this census says he immigrated 3 years before he was born.

OK, there's also a listing of him in the census of 1900, living in Hill County, Texas, which is the home of his wife's family, the Booths.  They have been married 3 years, and have my grandmother already, a 2 year old at that time.  Charley is his listed name, showing that he probably had that as his nickname.  His birth includes the month, July 1868 thus verifying two other sources.  But does it list a date he immigrated?  No, nor how long he's been in the US, nor that he's naturalized.

Another strange listing is how Eugenia has a father now from Indiana, and her mother from Louisiana.  At least Charley's occupation is consistent, a conductor on the railroad.  I can just see him wearing his hat and uniform, and I'd gladly give him my ticket.  Can you say "All Aboard!"   (If this phrase has no meaning for you, you were born too late for the railroad.)

In 1920, another anomaly about Eugenia's parents  (which I can actually correct, but for now I'm just enjoying how they skirted around on these census reports.)  Her father was born in Indiana but mother was born in Texas.  And he's a conductor but has no date of immigration given.  The census taker must have gotten tired of asking questions because naturalization is given, but the date of same, or date of immigration are just scribbles...not years.)

Fast forward to 1930 census... (I looked very briefly at a Charley Miller in the census of 1870, who was 2 years old in Texas, but race was black.)  In 1930 Charley was 61, his wife Eugenia is 57, and two of his daughters in their 20's still live at home, in the house pictured below.  (Eugenia's parents are now from Indiana and Alabama,)

And now the immigration date is given as a believable 1871.   He hasn't retired, but is still a passenger conductor.

The 1940 census included Charles Miller, age 71, at the same house.  He no longer lives with my great grandmother, who died in '36, but the two younger daughters are still at home now in their 30's, and my grandmother has moved back as well, now age 42 and twice widowed.  (My mother had married and moved into her own home several years  in with her in-laws the year before.)

Has Charles retired at 71? No, and he's listed as a RR Passenger Conductor for Steam M.K.T. Railroad, Co.  He is listed as having complete 4th grade level of school.  2 of his daughters are now seamstresses at home, and the other is a Jr. High School teacher.

After reading this obituary (below) I searched a bit for a sister who was Mrs. Dora Lawnon, but without results. 

The sleuthing about these people will continue! 

Obit: Charles Herman Miller, 78, member of Central Christian Church, died at his home at 111 Davis Court, Thursday, November 7, 1946, He is survived by his daughters, Mrs Mozelle Miller Munhall, Mrs Rowena Miller Rogers, Miss Dorothy D. Miller, and Miss Margaret E. Miller, all of San Antonio; a sister Mrs Dora Lawnon, (my italics) three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.Services will be held Saturday November 9 at 10 am at McCollum Chapel with Dr. Floyd A. Bash officiating. Interment will be at Mission Burial Park under the auspices of San Antonio Lodge No. 1079 A. P. A. A. M.

SOURCE: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=56841312

 

 Miller Family Monument

I never met this great grandfather.  I never heard any stories about him. Where did he live as a child growing up, going to schools in Texas, where his native tongue was not spoken. I miss knowing anything about his life. 

Please spend time learning what you can from the elders in your family, now, before they're gone

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Here's the 1939 photo of him on his Naturalization application.

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BACKGROUND OF GERMAN/TEXAN IMMIGRANTS

Reposted from Dec. 2013 with edits

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

More roots across the seas

How about another area from which ancestors came?  Germany is easy.  My very great-grandfather (who I never knew) came from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, which is a large area much like a state in the US.  Unfortunately I don't know much beyond his census records.

I know he changed his name from Mueller to Miller, the anglicized version of the same name.  And there were a lot of Germans coming to central Texas both before and after the Civil War.

I do believe he was a Mason.  And my family told me he was a conductor for the railroad all his life...which is substantiated on various census records.

But let me learn a bit about German roots now.

There was a census taken "... of citizens of Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin as of 2/3 December 1867. Authorized enumerators, went from house to house in their appointed areas, recording in a “household list” of each person who was present at the time in the apartment or house."  If my grandfather had left in 1865, his household would no longer have been there.  (The link is here, giving another link to a German language list by area.  Since I have no idea of the area within Mecklenuerg-Schwerin that the Muellers came from, I'm up the proverbial creek without a paddle.  There are several hundred lists to chose from.)


Wikipedia speaks of Mecklenburg-Schwerin thus:

History, 1621–1933

"Like many German territories, Mecklenburg was sometimes partitioned and re-partitioned among different members of the ruling dynasty. In 1621 it was divided into the two duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Güstrow. With the extinction of the Güstrow line in 1701, the Güstrow lands were redivided, part going to the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and part going to the new line of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
In 1815, the two Mecklenburgian duchies were raised to Grand Duchies, and subsequently existed separately as such in Germany under enlightened but absolute rule (constitutions being granted on the eve of World War I) until the revolution of 1918. Life in Mecklenburg could be quite harsh. Practices such as having to ask for permission from the Grand Duke to get married, or having to apply for permission to emigrate, would linger late into the history of Mecklenburg (i.e. 1918), long after such practices had been abandoned in other German areas. Even as late as the later half of the 19th century the Grand Duke personally owned half of the countryside. The last Duke abdicated in 1918, as monarchies fell throughout Europe. The Duke's ruling house reigned in Mecklenburg uninterrupted (except for two years) from its incorporation into the Holy Roman Empire until 1918. From 1918 to 1933, the duchies were free states in the Weimar Republic.
Traditionally Mecklenburg has always been one of the poorer German areas, and later the poorer of the provinces, or Länder, within a unified Germany. The reasons for this may be varied, but one factor stands out: agriculturally the land is poor and can not produce at the same level as other parts of Germany. The two Mecklenburgs made attempts at being independent states after 1918, but eventually this failed as their dependence on the rest of the German lands became apparent."

I won't assume that my grandfather had any relations who were royal, so we can skip all the hooplah about family crests.  The family name speaks of being Millers, at some point in his ancestry.  So my conjecture is that someone he was descended from had milled either grains or lumber.

Here's some great information about immigration... 

The (Texas) German Belt is the product of concepts and processes well known to students of migration, particularly the concept of "dominant personality," the process called "chain migration," and the device of "America letters." Voluntary migrations generally were begun by a dominant personality, or "true pioneer." This individual was forceful and ambitious, a natural leader, who perceived emigration as a solution to economic, social, political, or religious problems in his homeland. He used his personality to convince others to follow him in migration. In the case of the Texas Germans, Friedrich Diercks, known in Texas under his alias, Johann Friedrich Ernst, was the dominant personality. Ernst had been a professional gardener in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg in northwestern Germany. He immigrated to America intending to settle in Missouri, but in New Orleans he learned that large land grants were available to Europeans in Stephen F. Austin's colony in Texas. Ernst applied for and in 1831 received a grant of more than 4,000 acres that lay in the northwest corner of what is now Austin County. It formed the nucleus of the German Belt. 

In the late 1830s German immigration to Texas was widely publicized in the Fatherland. The publicity attracted a group of petty noblemen who envisioned a project to colonize German peasants in Texas. The nobles hoped the project would bring them wealth, power, and prestige. It could also, they thought, alleviate overpopulation in rural Germany. Their organization, variously called the Adelsverein, the Verein zum Schutze Deutscher Einwanderer in Texas, or the German Emigration Company, began work in the early 1840s. They chose Texas as the site for their colony, in part because of the favorable publicity surrounding the Ernst-inspired migration and perhaps because Texas was an independent republic where the princes might exercise some political control. Though the Mainzer Adelsverein was a financial disaster, it transported thousands of Germans, mostly peasants, to Texas. Between 1844 and 1847 more than 7,000 Germans reached the new land. Some of the immigrants perished in epidemics, many stayed in cities such as Galveston, Houston, and San Antonio, and others settled in the rugged Texas Hill Country to form the western end of the German Belt. The Adelsverein founded the towns of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.

"By 1850, when the organized projects ended, the German Belt in Texas was well established. America letters and chain migration continued through the 1850s but stopped with the Union blockade of Confederate ports. During the 1850s the number of German-born persons in Texas more than doubled, surpassing 20,000.

"From 1865 to the early 1890s, more Germans arrived in Texas than during the thirty years before the war. The number probably reached 40,000. Many of them settled in the rural areas and towns of the German Belt.Interestingly, the postbellum immigrants generally avoided the Hill Country.

SOURCE: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/png02

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The original German settlers in Texas weren't from Mecklenberg-Schwerin however, so it stands to reason that the Miller family came after hearing about the success stories of other Germans in central Texas.

Since he married a woman (non-German descent) in Hillsboro, Texas (in the Hill Country) when he was 28, I was looking into the families from Germany which settled there.  But my source (above) says there wasn't much influx of German immigrants into Hill Country Texas after the Civil War.  
It goes on to say...

By the 1880s German ethnic-islands dotted north central, northern, and western Texas. Ethnic islands failed to develop in East Texas, the Trans-Pecos, and the Rio Grande valley, however. 

 By the 1890s sizable German elements had appeared in Texas cities, particularly in San Antonio, Galveston, and Houston. As late as 1880 the population of San Antonio was one-third German. By then a greater percentage of Germans lived in towns and cities than was true of the Texas population at large. German immigration to Texas tapered off during the 1890s. 

But being a railroad conductor was already his occupation when Charley H. Miller (as his census name is listed) had been married just 3 years, as listed in the 1900 Census of Hill County, TX which includes his oldest daughter at 2, who would become my grandmother.  That census also states that he'd been born in Texas, (not true) though his parents had been born in Germany.  Their neighbors tended to be tradesmen and laborers.  A nearby baker with 7 children came from Bohemia, which I think of as Czech, but everyone else was from a southern US state.

Later Census reports show his family in Smithfield, Texas and then San Antonio, Texas. 


How about the Texas railroad history?
The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company was known as M-K-T or Katy.  I saw and heard of Katy, but never remembered it was the name of the railroad.  It was the first railroad to enter Texas from the north, replacing the cattle trails that had historically brought beef to the northern packing houses. It took many years, many political and corporate squabbles to work out ownership, taxation, leases and all kinds of typical Texas power struggles over who owned what.  It was part of the struggles of a new empire in Texas.  Passenger trains were where my great grandfather worked, however, as a conductor.

Sharing as my "Brick Wall" for 52 weeks, 52 ancestors. 

Sharing with Sepia Saturday  where a bat would help to tear down a brick wall, it is not the chosen instrument usually!