Bernard-Tollas Family Tree launched ~ U. S. Naval Station Chapel Washington, D.C. This was the neutral site for our American Melting Pot Lutheran~Jewish marriage. Although our marriage ended due to ‘unhappy differences’ in 1973, we remain friends, delighted & proud to have produced two sons; four grandsons; one great-grandson with a second great-grandson due September 2016. Both our paternal grandparents immigrated: mine in 1891 from Gross Tuchen, County Bütow, Pommern to St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan; his in 1904 from Fălticeni, Suceava County, Romania to Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. Genealogical records for both families are scant or missing: my Tollas~Schultz records were destroyed or lost; his Bernard~Fine records because these, like his Romanian ancestors, perished during the Holocaust. However, my maternal heritage records go back as far as the 1500’s and some of them came to Colonial America shortly after the 1620 Pilgrims in what is known as New England: The Great Migration 1620-1640. Bucky and I met at a United Service Organization (USO) event in October 1953 at Silver Spring, Maryland. I was a USO hostess and he was in the U.S. Navy; we married four-months later. A year later our first son, Donald Steven, was born. Then when our second son Mark Alan arrived in 1958, our family was complete.
My father, Alfred Ewald Richard Tollas was born 26 March 1904 in St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan to William & Hulda (Schultz) Tollas. William was twenty when his parents, Albert and Albertina ‘Tina’ (Reischke) Tollas, emigrated in 1892 from Gross Tuchen, County Bütow, Pommern. They settled in St. Joseph where, three-years later, William married Hulda Schultz in March 1895. Hulda and her parents, Martin & Henrietta (Loraff) Schultz, were also from Pommern; Reinfeld, County Rummelsberg where Hulda was born in 1885. In 1885, the family emigrated on the SS Nurnberg fromBremen, Germany to Baltimore, Maryland. They then traveled on to St. Joseph where other Loraff and Reischke relatives had settled in 1857. More information about these ancestors see the Pommern Province, Prussian Ancestors post.
Our First Homeplace – Margie (Tollas) Bernard “Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.” -Helen Keller Whenever I get a whiff of boxwood, daffodils, curry spices, or geraniums I find myself transported back to my childhood home in Michigan. These odors, individually or separately, recall the boxwood hedge surrounding the manor house at Hadleigh Hill Farm in Royalton Township, Berrien County. One field was carpeted with yellow daffodils in spring; its kitchen contained pantry shelves filled with exotic spices; the woodsy odor of geraniums transport me to the four-room cottage where I lived with my parents and brothers Frank, Bob, Calvin, Phil and for a few months in 1944, Chuck. My Mom and Dad, Alfred & Lena (Barker) Tollas, married 23 May 1931 during the height of the Great Depression; he was 27, she 23. The ceremony was performed by Rev. F. C. Schmidt at the Zion Evangelical Church in St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan. Their witnesses were Mom’s brother Oscar Barker and his wife Dorothy. Their marriage license state that Dad’s occupation was landscaping and Mom’s was factory work. They were hyphenated Americans, Dad first-generation Pommern-Prussian; Mom, third generation Irish. They both had attended high school and Dad earned a degree in architectural drafting from the Chicago Technical College. (‘Diploma’ was the first word I learned to spell due to frequently staring at his graduation certificate on the wall next to the day-bed where I slept in our combined dinning-living room.) However, he never worked at his chosen profession; the Wall Street Crash of 1929 resulted in few requests for construction blueprints during the dim, dark, work-less years of the depression. Instead, he located a position as the gardener and general handyman on William Woodbridge Dickenson’s Hadleigh Hill Farm estate. WW (as Mom referred to Dickenson) made his fortune as co-founder of the Marquette Cement Factory in Chicago, Illinois just across Lake Michigan from his estate in Michigan. There his imposing manor was situated on the St. Joseph River that ran between the twin cities of Benton Harbor/St. Joseph in Berrien County. In addition to the manor, there were stables for horses, milking sheds for cows, a carpentry shop, and a hay barn that housed chicken coops. These buildings formed a U-shaped compound where, at the left front end, was a small dwelling in which lived Mrs. Hayhurst, WW’s housekeeper, and her son Johnny. At the back of the manor-house a lawn slopped down to the river. On one side was an enclosed English flower garden with a greenhouse that was heated in the winter, and on the other a fenced-in tennis court. The front yard was hedged by boxwood bushes kept well-trimmed by Dad. He also maintained the estate’s vegetable garden, flower garden and greenhouse, fed and milked the cows and tended the horses. With the help of Albert, the day-worker, Dad harrowed the fields with a horse-drawn plough, then planted field-corn and hay to feed the animals in winter. They shoveled out the manure from the barns to add to a compost heap used to fertilize the fields. They pruned the apple, pear, peach orchards; sprayed them with sulfur to prevent insect damage; then harvested their fruit in the fall. In his spare time, Dad repaired farm equipment and did carpentry work. In exchange for his labor, Dickenson provided Dad with a two-bedroom cottage and garden plot to house and feed his expanding family. Although I suspect Dad’s wages were slight, he managed to save enough to buy a Ford. The cottage had no central heating, indoor toilet or running water. On the kitchen counter a water pump located over the sink had to be primed before water could be pulled from a cistern that gathered its contents from both heaven and earth. There was a Stanley Range cooker for cooking, baking and heating water that filled a large, round tin tub on Friday night for my brothers and my weekly bath; being the only female, I was first to get plunked into the freshly heated water. There was also a storage pantry off the kitchen and it was in this pantry I exhibited my first act of culinary preference and independence. Except for being an excellent baker of bread, cakes and pies Mom wasn’t a good cook. One morning, I refused to eat yet another bowl of scorched porridge. After about ten minutes trying to coax me to eat, she put me and the bowl of porridge into the pantry, closed the door saying, “When you finish your breakfast, you can come out.” I stayed there hours until she finally relented and released me; the porridge uneaten. Just before the double Dutch doors between the kitchen and dining/living room another door opened unto a stairway that led down to the basement where there was a coal storage bin sectioned off underneath a small window. In the fall, the coal man would insert a tin ramp from his truck down which thundered our winter supply of coal. The basement had shelves along two sides to hold the canned fruits and vegetables that my mother preserved from our garden and the farm’s orchards to take us through the long, cold, snowy winters. There were also bins for storing potatoes and other root vegetables. The cottage window sills were always filled with pots of geraniums my father brought home from the greenhouse. I was given the task of keeping them watered and pruned of dead leaves. Sometimes in haste I broke off a still green leaf and its smell reminded me of newly plowed earth. Their blossoms were various shades of red and pink and when the plants died my father would bring home more. A small entry room off the kitchen, where we removed our boots and hung our coats, led to the back yard. At the left of the house was our vegetable garden; beyond that an apple orchard.
Old estate restored in Royalton By CAROL KNAPP H-P Special Correspondent What began as a business venture for two property developers three years ago quickly turned into a labor of love when they began to restore and make improvements to a 163-acre centennial estate passed down through three generations of one prominent St. Joseph family. David Harris says that when he and his business partner, Don Litke, purchased the former Hoffman Estate on Dickinson Road in Royalton Township, initially it was because of the tranquil setting and the breath-taking view. The view includes a 90-foot drop from the hardwood and evergreen tree-lined cliffs circling the property, renamed River Trace Estates, to the St. Joseph River directly below. However, Harris said the venture took on a whole new significance as they peeled away the dense thicket allowed to grow over several years to discourage vandals and other trespassers, to reveal the rich history behind their new acquisition.”It took a three-man crew, including my own father, the better part of that first summer to clear away the brush with chainsaws at first because it was such close work, and then with backhoes and other heavy equipment later on,” Harris noted.”What attracted me at first, besides the peace and quiet of the place, was the carpet of pine needles underfoot, and the fact that you couldn’t walk around the property without looking for deer trail and listening to the sounds of nature, like birds singing and the wind in the trees,” Harris said. He added that the majority of the people he’s brought out to look at the development have been drawn back “time and time again” to sit and enjoy its simple beauty. Harris and Litke acquired half of what was once a much larger estate from Sally Hoffman and her husband, Edward Hoffman, whose grandfather, William Dickinson, purchased the property sometime . around the late 1880s. Dickinson, co-founder of the Marquette Cement Company in Chicago along with his brother, Theodore, and another partner during the mid 1880s, lived in Illinois and built the Dickinson Estate on the St. Joseph River estate as a summer retreat. Theodore Dickinson, for whom St. Joseph High School’s football stadium was named, maintained a sizeable farm on the site where the high school is currently located. Executive offices for the Marquette Cement Company were located in Chicago before the business was moved to Nashville and then sold, according to Lyle Witte. Witte, who with his wife, Caroline Hoffman Witte, Hoffman’s sister, retains ownership of the remaining half of the original estate where Mrs. Witte owned and operated a riding school for many years. The estate was divided between brother and sister some 15 years ago. Witte owns and operates an interior design business on the corner of Marquette Woods Road and U.S. 31, about a quarter-mile from Dickinson Road. All that remains of some previous houses on the estate are an iron entrance gate with its period mail drop set into cement columns, an adjoining stone and cement wall surrounding the site where a house once stood, an overgrown garden containing two Georgian-style tea houses built out of Indiana limestone and cement, and a massive cement retaining wall, crumbling in places, built to protect the bluff from erosion and to provide a garden enclosure. A weathered cement water tower, used for irrigation purposes, also remains. Harris said as much as possible of what is still standing on the property will be retained as a common area to help establish the turn-of-the century theme for the 39-lot planned urban development. The one-acre lots are priced from $45,000 to $115,000 each, depending on their proximity to the river, Harris said. He added that it’s been his and Litke’s intent from the beginning to deed several hundred acres of bottom land on the river to a nature conservancy, although the details would remain up to the homeowners’ association to iron out. Location of the old Dickinson Estate [put_wpgm id=2]
In the late 1800’s several of our Loraff, Reischke, Schultz, Tollas ancestors emigrated from the Prussian Province of Pommern located on the southern border of the Baltic Sea to Berrien County, Michigan, USA. Pommern was within the Kingdom of Prussia, that later became part of the German Empire (1871-1918). After WWII the counties where our ancestors had lived, Bütow, Rummelsburg, and Schlawe were ceded to Poland. For a description of these see Information on Pommern/Polish Locations at the end of this article. Martin Christian & Johanne Henrietta (Loraff) Schultz They emigrated to the United States from Bremen, Germany on the SS Nurnberg arriving in Baltimore, Maryland on 17 April 1885. They had twelve children; three died young in Germany. When they emigrated they came with three of their nine children. The others evidently came either before or after because all died in the United States. Great-Grandfather Martin was born 10 December 1831 at Peest, County Schlawe, Pommern. Great-Grandmother Johanna Henrietta was born 1 January 1840 at Viartlum, County Rummelsburg. After Martin and Henrietta married in 1859, they resided at Reinfeld, where all their children were born. Their daughter, Hulda Marie was my father’s mother; my grandmother. Family anecdotes relate that Grandma Henrietta was an acquaintance of Johanna von Puttkamer who became the wife of the German Empire’s chancellor, Otto von Bismarck; her daughter Emma Louise (Schultz) Krause remembered Mrs. Bismark would arrive at their house in a Hansom carriage drawn by a white horse. Martin was a mason and brick-maker by profession, and worked at a brick factory owned by the Bismark family; some say he was the factory manager and when one of the Bismark’s visited Martin would give them a tour. Martin was noted for constantly puffing on a long-stemmed pipe which reached almost to his waist. He had been quite seasick on the voyage over complaining it was Henrietta’s fault they were making the voyage. Uncle Herb, my Dad’s brother, related that Henrietta kept a large portrait of Bismarck on her living room wall until it was confiscated during WWI. Uncle Herb also told me when a youngster, he opened the garage door at an uncle’s home and a large artificial horse almost fell on top of him. This was one of the animals on the carousel his uncles August, Herman and Henry Schultz operated in the summer on a vacant lot in Benton Harbor. On the 4th of July they would move it to St. Joseph on the lot where the St. Joseph post office was eventually built. Albert & Albertina “Tina” (Reischke) Tollas They emigrated with their seven children in 1892 from their birthplace, Gross Tuchen, County Bütow, Pommern to St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan. This information about Gross Tuchen, County Bütow was collected by Bill Remus. One of the photos in this link shows a plaque donated by Loraff relatives who lived in Bridgman, Michigan. Great-Grandfather Albert died on September 1922, in Baroda, Michigan, at the age of 77; great-grandmother Tina died in October 1931, a year before my birth. Their son, William, was my paternal great-grandfather. William & Hulda (Schultz) Tollas Their son, Alfred Ewald Richard Tollas, is my Father. Grandpa William died before I was born; however, I have a clear mind-picture of Grandmother Hulda just after she died, dressed in black, laid-out on her bed at her home on 712 Kingsley Avenue, St. Joseph, Michigan. She was 65; I was 4-years-6-months. Regarding one of my father’s middle names, Ewald: this was the surname of Hulda’s 2nd cousin, J. Friedrich Ewald, the son of her great-aunt Wilhelmina (Reischke) Ewald with whom they stayed briefly after they arrived in Michigan. His home on Jakway Avenue in Benton Harbor was a temporary way-station for her family as well as others after they arrived from the ‘old country’. Michigan Berrien County, Michigan Information on Pommern/Polish Locations: Pommern Place Name Pre-1939 Pommern County Poland Place Name Post-1945 Polish County Alt Kolziglow Rummelsburg Kolczyglowy Bytów Gross Tuchen Bütow Tuchomie Bytów Peest Schlawe Pieszcz Slawno Reinfeld Rummelsburg Barnowiec Bytów Viarttum Rummelsburg Wiatratom Bytów County Rummelsburg County Bütow County Schlawe I am grateful beyond praise for Cindy Schroeder’s painstaking research into our common Pommern ancestors, with an extended thanks to Bill Remus for informing me of Cindy’s research. The following are my annotated version for: Lohraff Annotated Report; Reischke Annotated Report; Schulz Annotated Report. The information for my Tollas ancestors are located in all of the above.
Arthur Henry & Jennie Augusta (Bennett) Barker My maternal grandparents, Arthur & Jennie, married 19 March 1905; he was 23, she 20. My Mother, Lena Mae Barker was their second child born 29 September 1907 at Sodus Township, Berrien County, Michigan. Oscar was their eldest and after Mom they had Forrest, William, Victor. She also had a younger sister, Leatha, who died at age 13. The 1910 U.S. Census lists Grandpa Arthur as a Fruit Farmer. He registered for the World War I Draft on 12 September 1918 at which time he was 37 with a wife and four children so ineligible for army service. He again registered for the draft of World War II but by then he was 61. This record indicates he was 5″9′, weighed 165, had blue eyes, a ruddy complexion with a mole on his forehead, and black & grey hair. Grandma Jennie had divorced him sometime before the 1940 U.S. Census was taken as it listed him as single, however, on 19 September 1948, he married Louise (Brance) Meyers; a second marriage for them both. His death certificate filed at the Berrien County clerk’s office states cause of death on 15 March 1966 was “carcinoma of sigmoid colon with congestive heart failure”. Sadly, I only have a dim memory of seeing him just once at his farm in Sodus when I was quite young. As far as my Barker uncles are concerned, I was closest to Victor who was seven-years older than I. It was because of him I moved in 1951 from Michigan to Wheaton, Silver Spring County, Maryland, just inside the Washington, DC Beltway. I had graduated from Eau Claire High School and was staying at Grandma Barker home in Benton Harbor while looking for work. Uncle Vic and his family were visiting and he suggested I go back to Washington, DC with them and look for work there. I agreed and a few days later left with them. I also spent time with Uncle Victor in the years before his death and attended his burial with military honors on Patton Drive at Arlington National Cemetery. Uncle Victor served under General George S. Patton during WW II but didn’t like him so there is a bit of irony that this was his final resting place! Sometime in the 1960s when I was living in Santa Barbara, California, I visited my Uncle Oscar Barker at the pub he and his wife Dorothy owned at Ojai, Ventura County. Henry L. & Mary Elizabeth (Disbrow) Barker Grandfather Arthur was the fourth son of Henry L. & Mary Elizabeth (Disbrow) Barker. On 1 July 1863, they were living at Michigan City, LaPorte County, Indiana when Henry registered for the Civil War Union Army Draft; the record show he was 23, married, and employed as a Teamster. However, I have no information as to whether or not he served in the Union Army and couldn’t find him listed in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database. The 1880 U.S Census for Sodus, Berrien County, Michigan, taken the year before Arthur’s birth indicate his parents, with their three sons and two daughters, were living on the family farm at Sodus, Berrien County, Michigan. This census record indicated Arthur’s parents, my maternal great-grandparents, were both born in Ohio but, according to the information provided in the census, after marriage they had lived in Indiana & Wisconsin before settling on their farm in Michigan. Grandpa Arthur was born 24 March, 1881. Sadly, nine-months to the day after his birth, his father Henry died of Typhoid Fever at the age of 44; Great-grandmother Mary was left with six children under the age of 17 and a farm to manage. The 1990 Census show Arthur is still living with his widowed mother on the family farm and she states both her parents were born in New York. Also, living with them is Mary’s granddaughter Hattie V. Barker. She was born in 1891 in California to Mary’s son, William O. Barker, and his wife, Lizzie T. Venable, who was born in Virginia. On their marriage license William gave his occupation as Goldminer: his residence was North Bloomfield, Nevada County, California; hers was Benton Harbor, Berrien, Michigan. They were married 31 July 1889 by O. F. Landis, Minister of the Gospel at Sodus then went back to California where Hattie was born two-years later. On 17 June 1898, William registered to vote in California at Angels Camp, Calaveras, California. As of 23 May 2016 I have no more information about why Hattie was living with her grandmother or what may have happened to her parents. Grandpa Arthur’s grandparents, my 2nd great-grandparents are John H. Barker & Jane McConkey. The 1850 U.S. Census states John was born about 1814 in New York State. His occupation was farmer and the value of the farm was $100 ($33,000 relative 2016 value) and that he could read and write English. His wife Jane who was born around 1817 in Ohio was not literate. At the date of this census they were living in New London, Huron County, Ohio with their three children: Henry age 13; O. Jeanette age 8; Stephen N. age 8 and indicate that all their children had attended school. I have no date for John’s death but Jane died in 1833 in Sodus Township, Berrien County, Michigan. As of 19 May 2016 I have no further information on the Barker~McConkey lines. For more information about the Disbrow ancestry see the Disbrow~Rogers Post. Grandma Jennie Augusta Bennett was born on August 28, 1884 at St. Louis, Gratiot County, Michigan. Her parents were Joseph M. and Fannie (Briggs) Bennett. The following information about our grandmother was compiled by my sister: Carol Ruth (Tollas) Knapp My grandmother, Jennie, was one of four children born to Fannie and Joseph Bennett in St. Louis, Michigan. A son, Willard, died in infancy. For some reason, she was adopted by her mother’s maternal grandmother, Narcissa Kemp, who married John Waldron after her first husband, James Bennett
Jacob & Harriet (Hoy) Kemp Jacob M. Kemp and Harriet Hoy are my maternal 3rd Great-Grandparents. Jacob M. Kemp, was born on 11 July 1811, in Fayette City, Fayette County, Pennsylvania to Edward & Eve (Penrod) Kemp; his father was 39, his mother 37.For more information about them see the Kemp~Penrod Post. Jacob & Harriet married 23 April 1830 in Plymouth, Richland County, Ohio. They had seven (7) children in 23-years and their fourth child, Narcissa, is my maternal 2nd great-grandmother. They were pioneers, living first on a farm in Richmond County, Ohio and after selling this they moved to Michigan buying another farm at Coe, Isabella County. This U.S. Agricultural Census of 1870 shows the number of acres owned at Coe by Joseph, as well as those of his sons Joseph and George. Later Jacob gave up farming and they moved to St. Louis, Gratiot, Michigan where Jacob opened a grocery store. Their eldest son Joseph was partner with W. A. Williams of another store in St. Louis that sold boots, shoes. crockery and glass-ware. Eventually Jacob took over Williams’ share and he and son Joseph were partners for four years before Jacob retired. During the Civil War, Jacob and two of his sons, Joseph and George, enlisted in the Union Army: Jacob was a private with the 1st Regiment, Michigan Light Infantry, Battery B; Joseph enlisted as a private, discharged as a captain with the 5th Regiment, Michigan Infantry, Companies F, D & C ; George entered as a private, was discharged as a corporal with the 2nd Regiment, Michigan Infantry, Company F. Jacob died on 24 November 1891 at the age of 80-years. The executives of his will, filed 7 December 1891, were Elias Phillips and Robert W. Hoy. Jacob’s wife, Harriet Hoy, was born 22 February 1810, at Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland to Robert & Alice (Talton) Hoy (sometimes spelled Hoey/Hoye); her father was 27, her mother 21. Harriet was the third of six girls and three sons born to Robert & Alice whose births and marriages were recorded in the Hoy Family Bible. For more information about Harriet’s parents see the Hoy~Talton Post.
The following information about Johanna Henrietta (Loraff) Schultz [she was my paternal great-grandmother married to great-grandfather Martin Schultz. MTB] was collected by Cindy Schroder: Graberschr@aol.com . Her research into the Loraff, Reischke, Schultz, Tollas ancestry was brought to my attention by Bill Remus: http://remus.shidler.hawaii.edu/genes/WPrussia/Tuchomie/home.htm . Cindy cites where she obtained her information thus: [3, 10-13, 15] with the numerals referring to a specific individual listed as SOURCES at the end of her research. My notes are indicated by brackets [ ] in bold text noted as MTB which stands for Margie (Tollas) Bernard. Johanna Henrietta (Loraff) Schultz Biography by Cindy Schroder In Germany she had a very good friend in Mrs. Bismarck. Mrs. Bismarck often would visit Henrietta in her home. Henrietta’s daughter, Emma, remembered that Mrs. Bismarck had a coachman who drove a handsome carriage [Hansom Carriage. MTB] drawn by white horses. She would arrive and depart this way. [3, 10-13,15] Carl Greiffendorf was a “coachman” for the von Puttkammer family. Carl Greiffendorf (born 1825), was the brother of Wilhelmine Greiffendorf Gast. It is not known if this is the coachman who drove Mrs. Bismarck to Henrietta’s home though. [26] She always had a large (2’x3′) full body picture of the Bismarck hanging in their home until WWI when it was impounded by the government. It was a full length picture of him in color. [13] Johanna von Puttkamer was born Reinfeld on 11 April 1824. She married Bismarck on 28 June 1847 in Alt Kolziglow Pommern. Johanna died on 27 November 1894 in Varzin. [23] She raised her granddaughter, Minnie Knuth. A daughter Minna Schultz [sic] is named in her probate – this must be Minnie Knuth. [3, 9] She had a birthday on New Year’s Day and all her children who were able to come always came to help her celebrate. She would really have a houseful on that day. No one was especially invited, but everybody who was able to come would come so her little house almost burst at the seams at times. Gifts were always brought to her on her birthday. This is how she got so many of her pretty dishes, some of which Marty shared with Elsie. [3] [“Marty” is the nickname of Martha (Schultz) Tietz. MTB] The 4th of July was another day every relative who was in town would come to the house to eat. Kids were going in and out of the house all day long. It took the whole next day to get the flies out of the house. [3] Henrietta had a couple of bushel of amber canning jars that her daughter, Martha, later smashed and buried in her yard in Baroda. [8] Henrietta took Minnie to raise when Pauline [Paulina. MTB] died in childbirth. Martha was ten years old and was jealous of Minnie. Many times Martha would blame things on Minnie and Henrietta would punish Minnie. [16] [Wilhelminia Henrietta (Minnie) (Knuth) Siewert was born on 11 May 1860. Her mother Paulina (Schultz) Knuth died that same day. Her father was Carl Knuth. Paulina and Carl married in Reinfeld, County Rummelsburg, Pommern. They had three (3) sons born there: Emil Carl Gustav (1882-1948); Carl August (1884 – ); William Herman (1886-1970). (Paulina is my paternal Great-Aunt and Minnie my 1st cousin 1x removed.) Minnie was born in Michigan in 1893, so they must have immigrated sometime between 1886-1893. Prior to marring Paulina, Carl had been married to Augusta Loraff who died in 1879. They had three (3) sons and one (1) daughter. After Paulina died, Carl married a third time in 1896 to Johanna Reischke. MTB] Carl Knuth had his eye on Marty Schultz (who later married Will Tietz) after his wife Pauline Schultz (Marty’s sister) died. He wanted to marry Marty, but Henrietta really put her foot down and told him “NO” he had enough kids – to go marry someone his own age. Also Henrietta didn’t approve of Marty marrying Will Tietz. She was very much against it because he was a heavy drinker and “boozer.” She was very much against Marty marrying anyone and insisted she stay home with her and take care of her. (Note Henrietta’s death date and Marty and Will’s marriage date.) [4] She only had one tooth when she was older. It was a wide tooth on the side between two stubs. [3] All the children had blue eyes except Marty who had green eyes. [3] [I also have green eyes. MTB] Many German people stayed with Martin and Henrietta when first arriving in St. Joseph from Germany. The Schulz’s lived very close to the train station in St. Joseph in a very small house. All of that area is now vacation/beach homes as it is right off the beach of Lake Michigan. The house is about a block and a half south of the railroad station just below the bluff and facing the bluff. [8] Aged Woman Died This Afternoon [14] Mrs. Henrietta Schultz, who has been gradually failing for the past eight months, died this afternoon at 1:30 at her home on Vine Street, at the age of 75 years. Death was due to old age. Mrs. Schultz came to this city 32 years ago from her native country, Germany, where she was born January 1, 1840. There are surviving her three sons, Henry Schultz of Court street and August and Herman of Baroda, four daughters, Mrs. Huldah [Hulda. MTB] Tollas of this city, Mrs. Bertha Krause and Mrs. Peter [sic] Krause of Scottdale, and Miss Martha Schultz and a grand-daughter, Minnie Knuth, both of whom reside at the family home on Vine street. She also has a brother, Carl Loraff, residing in South Dakota. Mrs. Schultz was a member of St. Peter’s Evangelical church. [Carl became a successful rancher in South Dakota. MTB] Mrs. Schultz Buried This Afternoon [14] Preceded by brief prayer services at the family residence on Vine street, the funeral of the late Mrs. Henrietta Schultz was held from St. Peter’s Evangelical church
Marjorie Louise Tollas Bernard (Margie) passed away peacefully on Thursday, July 25, 2019 in Buncrana, Ireland, after losing her three-month battle with cancer. Our family is deeply saddened by this loss and will miss her dearly. Margie was never one for long good-byes and she would prefer us to celebrate her life and not mourn for her. This website was created for Margie to post information about our families ancestry so it is fitting that we all can celebrate her life here as well. Please click here to join family and friends in celebration of Margie’s life with photos, videos, writings, links and other information. Post your comments and share your thoughts and memories about her with us.
