Wilhelmine Augusta Fredericka "Minnie" Hoeft Busjahn (1865-1939)

Minnie Busjahn and daughter Elsie

The person in this photo was identified as Minnie Hoeft Busjahn and her daughter Elsie which would date the photograph to 1895.  While I am not absolutely sure the identity is correct the hat makes it a great picture.

Wilhelmine Augusta Fredericka Hoeft or Minnie was born 26 August 1865 in Falkenberg, Naugard, Pomerania to Karl and Ernestine Gransee Hoeft. [1]  The county of Naugard is around 120 miles east of Berlin, Germany.  In the year 1865 the American Civil War had ended; Mark Twain published The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County; and the future King George V of Great Britain and poet William Butler Yeats were born.  Minnie was an aunt of my grandfather Arthur Haeft.

In 1883 Minnie and her family immigrated to America. Her father Karl had brothers living in or near Watertown, Wisconsin.  Karl and Ernestine settled in Green County, Wisconsin.  They had sailed eigtheen days, 4 April 1883 to 22 April 1883, from Hamburg, Germany on the ship Rhaetia to New York.  The S.S. Rhaetia was built in 1882 by Reiherstieg Schiffswerfte & Maschinenfab and operated by the Hamburg America Line.  This was the maiden voyage of the ship sailing from Hamburg to Le Havre to New York.  It was later wrecked on shoals of New Jersey in 1916.

The Hoeft family came into Castle Garden.  Ellis Island was not in operation. Castle Garden, today known as Castle Clinton National Monument, is the major landmark within The Battery, the 25 acre waterfront park at the tip of Manhattan. From 1855 to 1890, the Castle was America's first official immigration center, a pioneering collaboration of New York State and New York City.

The Hoeft family settled in Cadiz Township, Green County, Wisconsin.  Minnie was about eighteen when she immigrated. Four years after coming to America Minnie married William Busjahn in 1887. [2]    Franz Wilhelm Busjahn was born 4 October 1858 in Warnitz, Kreis Pyritz, Pommern to Ernst Busjahn and Dorothea Marie Tabbert. [3] Minnie and William farmed in Cadiz Township near Minnie's parents and later settled near Winslow, Illinois. Minnie died in December 1939 in Winslow, Illinois.[4] Her husband, William, died in 1942.[5]

[1] "Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQX4-Z1Q : accessed 26 April 2016), Wilhemina Augusta Friedericka Busjahn, 04 Dec 1939; Public Board of Health, Archives, Springfield; FHL microfilm 1,831,675.

[2] Year: 1900; Census Place: Cadiz, Green, Wisconsin; Roll: 1789; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 0117; FHL microfilm: 1241789. Digital image Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Accessed 26 April 2016.

[3]
Kirkenbuchduplikate Pommern. Digital images. Landesamt für Kultur und Denkmalpflege, Landesarchiv Greifswald. Greifswald, Deutschland.

[4] "Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQX4-Z1Q : accessed 26 April 2016), Wilhemina Augusta Friedericka Busjahn, 04 Dec 1939; Public Board of Health, Archives, Springfield; FHL microfilm 1,831,675.

[5] "Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N3W3-ZWL : accessed 21 November 2015), F. William Busjahn, 07 Nov 1942; Public Board of Health, Archives, Springfield; FHL microfilm 1,851,992.

Eugene Haeft born 18 April 1933

Bessie Haeft and son Eugene

Eugene Arthur Haeft was born on April 18, 1933.  Some of his contemporaries born the same month and year include the musician Roy Clark (who Dad was a fan of), Actress Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched), Carol Burnett, and Jayne Mansfield.

In 1933 Prohibition is repealed and Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated President of the United States. The popular movies were "Little Women" starring Katharine Hepburn and "She Done Him Wrong" starring Mae West, popular songs included "Smoke gets in your eyes", "Easter Parade", "Stormy Weather", and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams".  Of course this was also at the depths of the Great Depression.

Dad said that he was born on Dill Road outside of Browntown.  The house is long gone so I am not sure exactly where it was though we used to drive out on Dill Road now and then.  There may be foundation from the house or outbuilding that could be seen from the road but not on this satellite shot.

Here are the proud parents with Eugene. Bessie would have been about twenty-one.  Art was about thirty-three.

Anna Broege Brecklin (1888-1918)

Anna Broege Brecklin circa 1911

Anna Broege was born 4 April 1888 to August Broege and Magdalena Schliem Broege in Wayne Township, Lafayette County, Wisconsin. [1]  Irving Berlin,  T.E. Lawrence, and T.S. Eliot were born the same year.  Benjamin Harrison was President of the United States. Anna's father, August, was a native of Germany who had been in America since 1883. [2] Her  mother, Magdalena was born in Wisconsin to German immigrant parents who arrived in America in 1863. [3]

Ancestry.com.. Wisconsin, State Censuses, 1895 and 1905 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.

Anna was the oldest of thirteen children.  Her siblings included brothers Carl, William, Frank, George, Fred and August and sisters Jessie and Ida. Her youngest sibling, Ethel, would be born in 1913.  

The Broege farm was southeast of South Wayne, Wisconsin. The Wayne Township map below shows the Aug. Broge farm consisting of forty acres on what is today Meier Road. On the northside is A. Mau. This land was owned by August Mau and Augusta Schliem Mau.  They were Anna Broege's aunt and uncle. To the south was L. Schliem. Ludwig Schliem and Wilhelmine Helmer Schliem were Anna's grandparents.

Map of Wayne Township circa 1895 . Source Citation:Collection Number: G&M_68; Roll Number: 68 Source Information:Ancestry.com. U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

In 1911, at the age of twenty-three, Anna married Henry Brecklin in Browntown, Wisconsin.  [4].  Henry's parents, August Brecklin and Ernestine Mau Brecklin, were both German immigrants who came America in 1872.  Henry was born in Wayne Township in 1883.  

Anna and Henry farmed in Wayne Township. Two children Bessie, my grandmother, born in 1912 and Orville born in 1916

In 1917 Anna's mother Magdalena Broege died of liver cancer at 49. The South Wayne Homestead newspaper reported:

"Mrs. August F. Broege, residing south of South Wayne, passed away Saturday at home due cancer of liver.  Born 14 December 1868, married A.F. Broege in 1886.  49 years 8 months old.  Services at German Lutheran Church" [5]

In 1918 the youngest child Harold was born in August.  The flu epidemic hit the area hard.  This was part of the world-wide flu epidemic.  Schools and churches in the area closed.  Anna contracted the flu.  She died 5 December 1918.  Her son Harold would have been four months old.  The South Wayne Homestead reported her death:

"Mrs. Henry Brecklin died this morning at her home south of town with influenza.  She leaves a husband and three small children." [6]

She was buried at La Due Cemetery.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/La+Due+Cemetery,+South+Wayne,+WI+53587/@42.5579555,-89.8867498,13z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x880808072c76e319:0xaa3176714a00d098 Accessed 4/13/2016

Anna’s daughter, Bessie, would marry Art Haeft.  Bessie’s uncle, Frank Broege, married Mae Haeft and Bessie’s aunt, Ida Broege,  married Dewey Haeft. 
__________________________________________________

[1] Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.  
[2]  The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Records of the US Customs Service, RG36; NAI Number: 2655153; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85
[3] http://castlegarden.org/quick_search_detail.php?p_id=4133292 [database on-line]. Ship: America; Arrival:  28 Sep 1863 Accessed 4/12/2016.
[4] Marriage Record, Lafayette County, Wisconsin. Volume 8, page 815
[5]  South Wayne Homestead microfilm PA-92-4677 Wisconsin State Historical Society 29 December 1917
[6]  South Wayne Homestead microfilm PA-92-4677 Wisconsin State Historical Society  5 December 1918.

August Frederick Hoeft (1875-1920)

This portrait photo came from my cousin Esther Betker.  Her mother Florence Haeft Demanouske Henry, my great aunt had a collection of old photos including this one. 

 August Frederick Hoeft was born in Wolfsdorf, Neumark, Germany, now a part of Poland , on 17 December 1875[1] to Karl and Ernestine Gransee Hoeft.  He was an uncle to my grandfather, Art Haeft.  He was born the same year as author Thomas Mann, poet Rainer Maria Rilke and psychiatrist Carl Jung. 

At the age of eight August's family left Germany for America. They sailed aboard the steamship Rhaetia of the Hamburg-America Line, on 4 April 1883. They arrived about two weeks later on 19 April 1883.  The Statue of Liberty did not yet exist in New York harbor so they would have landed at Castle Garden.  Chester A. Arthur was president of the United States. In the same year of 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge in New York opened for traffic and the first skyscraper in Chicago was built with ten stories.

Castle Garden  http://www.nps.gov/cacl/images/20100426110854.jpg

The Hamburg harbor manifest indicates the last residence for the Hoeft family was the village of Wilhelmsfelde in the Province of Pomerania.

From the manifest for the steamship Rhaetia. Staatsarchiv Hamburg Hamburg,Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Microfilm No.: K_1729

Below is documentation of the Hoeft's arrival to the port of New York.

New York Arrival.Year: 1883; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237,1820 1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 463; Line: 48; List Number: 446

The family settled in Green County, Wisconsin.  They rented and then owned a farm on West River Road in Cadiz Township just west of the Pecatonica River. August grew up on the farm and in 1898 at the age of twenty-three married Anna Hoeft of Watertown, Wisconsin.  In the first years of their marriage August and Anna lived on the Hoeft family farm.  Their first child, Alta, was born in 1898. She later married Paul Rufenacht. 

This 1900 U.S. Census image also show that August's sister Minnie Busjahn lived adjacent to the Hoeft farm with her family.

Year: 1900; Census Place: Cadiz, Green, Wisconsin; Roll: 1789; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 0117; FHL microfilm: 1241789

August Hoeft Circa 1902

Two children, Henry born in 1901[2] and David in 1904 [3] died in infancy. A daughter, Mabel, was born in 1905. By 1910 August and his family had moved to a farm in Wayne Township, Lafayette County.  They farmed there the next ten years.

1910 U.S. Census entry for August Hoeft.  Wayne Township, Lafayette County, Wisconsin.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Wayne, Lafayette, Wisconsin; Roll: T624_1717; Page: 4A; Enumeration District:0053; FHL microfilm: 1375730

1920 U.S. Census entry for August Hoeft.  Wayne Township, Lafayette County, Wisconsin.

Year: 1920; Census Place: Wayne, Lafayette, Wisconsin; Roll: T625_1993; Page: 10B; Enumeration District:189; Image: 195

August registered in 1918 for the draft during World War I using Winslow, Illinois as the closest post office.[4]

August Hoeft's WWI draft registration card

 August died 7 March 1920 at the age of 44 of influenza. If it was related to the world-wide flu epidemic that started in 1918 is not clear.  He was buried at the Rock Lily Cemetery in Winslow, Illinois.[5]

From the probate record the document document below details the inventory of the August Hoeft farm as of 1920. August's son-in-law was the administrator.

Lafayette County (Wis.) Probate Records; Author: Wisconsin. County Court (Lafayette County); Probate Place: Lafayette, Wisconsin

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1 "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images,FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8QT-8JP : accessed 27 March 2016), August Hoeft, 1917-1918; citing Lafayette County, Wisconsin, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,674,747.  

2 Death Record Entry for Green County, Vol. 3 , Page 139.  Birth date 15 Jan 1901  Martintown, WI.  Death Date 18 Feb 1901.  Peritonitis.

3 Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin Genealogy Index: Birth Record Entry for Green County, Reel No. 79, Record No. 312; viewed online at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org on 3/27/2016.  Birthdate 5 February 1904. 

Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin Genealogy Index: Death Record Entry for Green County, Volume No. 02, Page No. 0049; viewed online at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org on 3/27/2016.  Death date March 1, 1904.     

         

4 "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images,FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8QT-8JP : accessed 27 March 2016), August Hoeft, 1917-1918; citing Lafayette County, Wisconsin, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,674,747.

5 Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.