John and Mary Kujawski - My Great Great Grandparents are the parents of Ottilie Kujawski Schoenewald (Great Grandmother) and the Grandparents of Johann Herman Schoenewald (my Grandfather - my Mother's father).
Prussia, which is now known as Germany, is the country where both John and Mary were born and grew up. Times were changing in the old country and the opportunities were great in the new world. They wanted these opportunities for their children. The oldest girl, Ottilie, was 18 and engaged to get married to a man already living in America. So off went Ottilie and her sister, Emelia (17), on a journey across the pond in 1894. Since Emelia decided to stay and marry in 1896, John and Mary made the decision to make the move with the two younger children, Ida, age 14, and Emma, age 10. They left Hamburg, Germany on 21 Sept 1897 on a ship named "Pennsylvania" with Captain Kopff. The accommodation was on the Zwischendeck. Finally after some time at sea, they arrived at a port in New York. Then they continued their journey from New York to Minnesota to start their new life.
John was born on the twenty-fifth of April 1848 and Mary was born the ninth of January 1848. When they made the trip to America, they were forty-nine years old. His immigration paper states his occupation was a "Arbeiter" which means worker / laborer. His death certificate states he was a farmer. Did he own a farm in Germany or did he work on someone else's farm?
According to the 1900 census, they were living with their daughter, Emelia, her husband, Carl, and their one year old grand-daughter. When Emelia and Carl decided to move to Idaho, John and Mary stayed in Minnesota moving in with their other daughter, Ottilie, and her husband, Adam. They had 5 grand-children in that household. Sometime prior to 1910, their daughter, Ida, had moved to Sandpoint, Idaho and married a butcher. By this time, John and Mary, were in their sixties and decided to make the move to Idaho and live with Ida and her husband. They may have been like a lot of Grandparents, helping out with the grand kids. Their ages were four, three and one.
John only lived to be 64 years, 9 months and 4 days when he died on 15th of January, 1913 at 4:00 in the morning while living with his daughter and son-in-law. He died of bronchitis with pleurisy. The certificate does not state who his parents were.
A newspaper article stated that Emelie, their daughter, drove up from Cameron for a visit in February of 1913.
Ottilie, their eldest daughter, and her husband, Adam, decided to move from Minnesota to Sandpoint, Idaho. Ottilie wanted to be closer to her mother since her father had passed away.
In February 1916, Emelia spent a week or so in Sandpoint, visiting her Mother. And again spent time with her mother on March 10th time frame as her mother, Mary, was seriously ill. Emelia's daughter, Ida, also was visiting according to the newspaper article.
Mary died at 7:00 am on the 13th of March, 1916 with Chronic Valvular disease only 3 years after her husband. She was living with her daughter, Ida, and family. The death certificate states that her father was named as Daniel Flader and her mother's name was written as Harbat Wilhuning, both from Germany. She was 68 years, 2 months and 4 days old.
John and Mary never really learned to speak the English language as I am sure that was a huge language barrier for her grand kids. They are buried at the Lakeview Cemetery in Sandpoint, Bonner County, Idaho.
Children:
Ottilie (1873-1953) - my Great Grandmother
Emelie (1876-1944)
Adolph (1882-1885)
Ida (1883-11963)
Emma (1886-1958)
Things to Research:
The journey to America / the ship information and what it may have been like
Their life in Germany - what documents can be found?
What was going on in their area of Germany / Prussia at the time they left
What was life like in Germany at that time frame
What was America like when they arrived
Their Children
Sources:
Immigration Document - 1897
1900 Census - Minnesota (Hartung)
1905 Census - Minnesota (Schoenewald)
1910 Census - Idaho (Willi)
1913 Death Certificate for John - Idaho
1916 Death Certificate for Mary - Idaho
Newspaper.com
1897 Passenger List from Germany to New York, USA
1913 - Death Certificate for John Kujawski
1916 Death Certificate for Mary Kujawski
Headstone for John and Mary Kujawski at the Lakeview Cemetery in Sandpoint, Idaho
Below are the pages that I created for their Scrapbook Album
This is the same information listed above.
Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned for more family stories - FAMILIES MATTER - PAST AND PRESENT
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