Joseph Magnus Kleger's Birthplace is Found!!

     But I'm not going to tell you where just yet, I'm going to make you hungry for it. I have been looking for his birthplace and parents for 35 years - off and on of course - but 35 years, so I'm going to make you wait just a little bit longer too!

     First I want to explore some ideas of why Joseph M.'s history was so hard for me to find.

One -
     My grandfather, Frank August Kleager, died in 1929 at age 33, when my father, Clyde Louis Kleager, was only 11.  At the time of Frank's death, he and his wife Sophie were living in Havelock, Lancaster County, Nebraska.  In the same county were two other Kleager families - Frank's brothers Joseph William Kleager and Edward Louis Kleager.  All 3 families had moved to Nebraska from their birthplace in  Franklin County, Missouri in the previous decade.
     In addition to two Kleager families, living in the same county were Sophie's parents; Louis Henry and Minnie Drewel, and her youngest brother Elmer Drewel.  She had family near by.
     But, within two years of my grandfather's death, my grandmother, Sophie (who later called herself "Eleanor") Kleager moved with her five young boys 100 miles farther west of Havelock to a farm near Alda, in Hall County, Nebraska.  She distanced herself farther from family.
     Over the years I have tried to ask my father why he thinks his mother moved away from both her own family, and her dead husband's family.  Clyde wrote in 1997: "A major part of mother's thought was a passion to keep her family together.  Her fear was that someone or group would decide that she couldn't cope with doing this financially or otherwise.  She felt that the first cue of failure would be to ask for assistance from anyone, and relatives seemed to be the most suspect in this regard."
   My dad, Clyde, only remembers meeting his grandmother Lesetta Mincemeyer Kleager a few times when she came to Nebraska.  Sophie and her boys were too poor to do anything as extravagant as going back to Missouri - where she grew up also - and visit family.  His grandfather, Joseph Kleager, died before my father was born, a year before Frank and Sophie married and moved to Nebraska. So, just by moving to Nebraska they were distanced from the Kleager family in Missouri, and after Frank's death, Sophie moved herself farther, from even the Nebraska part of the Kleager family.
   As a result, the stories and history and ancestry of the Kleagers just didn't get passed on.  My father, a great story teller with a brilliant mind that can recall details well, knows very little of his father's life, let alone of his grand parents Kleager's lives.


Two -
   My great great grandfather, Joseph Magnus Kleger/Klager/Kleager/Kleager (yes, it was spelled that many ways in documents relating just to him) could not read or write.
   That had to be a handicap all his life.  He was the son of a "day laborer", and man who had no skill or occupation, who just worked where and when he could get it.  Joseph M. immigrated from Switzerland at the age of 30, alone, as far as I can tell.  He landed in New Orleans in October 1846, and was in St. Louis by November.  Perhaps he had distant relatives near Washington, Missouri where he first lived after arriving.
   He was poor, he was illiterate, and he was alone.
   Any document had to be written by some one else, the name "Joseph Kleger" written, and then around the "Joseph Kleger" was an "X his mark".  He left no records that he himself wrote.  He never read anything.  This was not the middle ages, this was between 1816 - 1885, and there were great thinkers and writers all over the world, and in Missouri - but he was left out of that world.
   I'm not certain he knew when his birthday was.   From what he said on the ship's manifest;  he was born in 1816.  From his U. S. Army enlistment; 1817.  His declaration to become a citizen of the U.S.; 1820.  From the 1850 and 1860 census; 1823.  Maybe he never learned to do math either.  Perhaps he was so impoverished as a child he had no access to education.
   I wonder if he ever even picked up any English, surrounded as he was by German speakers Missouri.
   He did not leave much of a trail.  Certainly no letters, journal entries or written documents.  Part of why he was so hard to find because he left nothing behind.
   When he died, without a will, in 1884, his processions (from probate packet) consisted of: "1 Ward robe, 1 Bed Stead, 1 feather bed and 1 lot of clothing".  He was owed a note for $200, but owed someone else $300.  $46.45 was owed for his medical bills, $20.00 for his coffin, $6.65 for a bill to L. H. Himburg General Merchandise and Agricultural Implements, and another bill for $1500.  He lies in an unmarked grave, and there seems to be no record of what cemetery.
   In his lifetime of 68 years he had 2 wives and 7 children, he owned and sold land, he was always listed as "farmer" in the census records.  He accomplished things.  He just did not pass down any legacy that I can find of his childhood, or even his adult life.

   So, it's been hard to learn much about Joseph Magnus Kleger's origins.  Now that you appreciate that ... there is more coming soon!

Charlene Elsie Kleager Foreman - the answer

Last post I asked who was Charlene Kleager Foreman?

Well, she is related to Joseph William Kleager (my great uncle, brother of my grandfather Frank August Kleager), the oldest son of Joseph and Lesetta Mincemeyer Kleager.

Joseph William married Halle Ellen Renick in Missouri in 1906, and they had 3 children: James Joseph "Jim", Clara Lisetta and Bertha Josephine. (Notice we are keeping with the "Joseph" theme there!).

Unfortunately, the mother Halle died a few months after Bertha's birth in 1911 of valvular insufficiency. That left Joseph a widower with three children under the age of three.  I don't know who helped with the children, though I am sure Joseph's family did.  Lesetta Mincemeyer Kleager raised a lot of children!

Joseph married and Iva E. Ernie in 1914.  I only know that because of a marriage license, I have no idea what happened to her; if she died, or they were divorced. No one in the family has talked about it.

Joseph married again in, 1917 to Josephine Jost in Missouri.  About 1921, they moved to Lancaster County, Nebraska near where his brothers Frank and Edward had already located, to farm.

There still seems to be some mystery here.  Is she a child of Joseph William Kleager with his second wife Josephine - Joseph was been 56 at the time of her birth and Josephine 45, not impossible but tricky.  Or, was she a grand daughter of Joseph, the daughter of one of his daughters, Clara or Bertha?

I sent to Nebraska Vital Records for a birth certificate, and none could be found!  That is curious.  Why is there no birth certificate?

JoAnn Munden (who is a Drewel, not a Kleager, but grew up in the same area around Lincoln) said her sister Virginia remembers when she was small going to visit Kleagers, (not sure which ones), and there was a little girl a few years younger than her.  She told that the girl (not sure it was Charlene, but the timing fits) "sang like Texas Mary, a famous singer".

Then Virginia said I should ask my Dad, as Virginia seems to remember that it was my Dad (a M.D.) may have been one of the first to say that Charlene had cancer.  Virginia seemed to think Charlene was the girl with the beautiful voice who died of cancer.

My Dad, who would be Charlene's first cousin, told me in a phone conversation that he remembers that Josephine was step-mother to Jim, Clara and Bertha, and maybe there were some issues with that in terms of how she treated those kids. He then said "but later there was a baby and Joe and Josephine went ga-ga over that little baby".  He thought he remembered the she was a grand daughter that they raised as their own.

He also remembers that Charlene went to a one room school near Lincoln, and for a while the teacher at the school was Kenny Kleager (my Dad's brother), and the only student was Charlene!

LaRue Kleager Bryant had a picture of Lesetta Kleager with a child, Lesetta's great-grand daughter Charlene, the grand child of Joseph Kleager.

I wrote Ron Bryant to ask his mother, LaRue Kleager Bryant (also a first cousin), if she remembered who Charlene was.  LaRue wrote back that Charlene was a grand daughter of Joseph's, and that Charlene was the daughter of Bertha.

However, the plot thickens.  There was no birth certificate, right?  But, there IS a death certificate which I received from Nebraska Vital Records:

   
The death certificate says she is the daughter of Joseph William Kleager and Josephine Jost!   Did they legally adopt her, or did they just raise her as their own?

Now the 1940 Census for Nebraska has been indexed, and I think the census confirmed the theory (opposite of the death certificate) that Charlene was a grand daughter.

I know this is hard to read, but the second entry is down is:
Kleager, Joseph, Head, age 61
(--------), Josephine, Wife, age 50
Jewitt, Bercha, Daughter, age 29
(--------), Charlene, Grand Daughter, age 4

The last name for Bertha (which was misspelled Bercha), is hard to read, it was indexed as Jewitt, but it could also look like Jewell.

But there is Charlene, as Bertha's daughter, with Bertha and Charlene living with Bertha's father and step-mother, Joseph and Josephine Kleager in North Bluff Election Precinct, Lancaster County, Nebraska.

Charlene's life is a sad tale all around.  She married Wayne Foreman, had a infant son, Kenneth Wayne Foreman, who was born and died in 1953, when Charlene was 18.  Charlene developed a "choriocarcinoma", which is a cancer originating from a fetus or pregnancy (so possibly from pregnancy of the baby that died), and then 9 months later died, at age 19, from the choriocarcinoma.

The baby is buried in the same cemetery as Charlene, Lincoln Memorial Park.  That is the same cemetery where my grandparents, Frank August Kleager and "Eleanor" Sophie Drewel Kleager Weise are buried.  It was the headstone for Charlene that set me on this quest to discover who she was, and how she was related!

Who is Charlene Kleager Foreman?

 I have a favorite website;  Find A Grave .com. It is an interesting, great, free website in which anyone can take a picture of a tombstone, and enter the picture (and what ever else they know about the person buried there) into the database.  Then, anyone search the database by a variety of means to see tombstones of their ancestors, or anyone else for that matter!  It's a wonderful "crowd sourced" website that is growing all the time.

If you type in the surname "Kleager",  one of the cemeteries with multiple listings is the Lincoln Memorial Park in Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska.

                                                                                                                          photo courtesy of Chris Kleager Nervig
           Grave stones of Frank A. Kleager (1896-1929) and Sophia S. Kleager Wiese (1894-1987)

Lincoln Memorial Park is where my Grandfather, Frank August Kleager, was buried in 1929.  Almost 60 years later, my Grandmother, Ella Elizabeth Sophia "Eleanor" Drewel Kleager Wiese was buried next to him.

There are two other "Kleagers" in that cemetery on the Find A Grave website that I recognize:  Joseph W Kleager (28 Nov 1878 - 28 Jan 1963).  He is my great uncle, Frank's brother, who also moved from Missouri to Lancaster County, Nebraska shortly after my grandparents moved to Nebraska. There is also Josephine Kleager (4 June 1889 - 10 Aug 1971), who is Joseph's wife. 

But there is also a picture of a grave stone and entry of a person I cannot place:
Charlene Kleager Foreman
Born Aug. 7, 1934
Died Apr. 14, 1954

She was only 20 when she died, and was married.  Who is she?





Added by: Jenny Watton

I have contacted the person who put this entry on the find a grave website (Jenny Watton): she is unrelated, and just a nice person who takes pictures of gravestones in that cemetery when she goes to see her grandparent's graves, and adds them to Find A Grave.  She doesn't know who Charlene is.

To try to figure out who she is, I started with the Kleager brothers who moved from Franklin County, Missouri to Lancaster County, Nebraska around 1917 to 192: Frank (my Grandfather), Edward, and Joseph.  

I know this girl is not a granddaughter of my grandfather Frank.  

Joseph, had only one son, James Joseph Kleager, born 1908.  So far, I have discovered James in the 1930 census, at age 22, living with his 17 year old wife, Bertha and his in-laws, Harry and Pauline Densmore (they were 38 and 36) in Omaha, Nebraska.  James' wife Bertha Densmore Kleager died later that year, in 1930, at age 18.  I don't know any details of her death. James eventually he remarried a Mary.  But I haven't been able to find out if he had children.

Edward's boys were Fred, Lawrence and George.  Charlene could be the daughter of Fred, who was born in 1910, he could have had her when he was 24, but Lawrence (born 1918) and George (born 1921) would probably both be too young to have had her in 1934.

So, she could be the daughter of Fred Kleager OR James Kleager.  

Does anyone out there in Kleager-blog land know who Charlene Kleager Foreman was? 

I am going to keep hunting!  Let me know if you have any ideas!

Christ Muengemeyer (MIncemeyer) in the Civil War

   My great grandmother, Lesetta Mincemeyer Kleager, told a story she remembered even into old age.  She was about 5, outside the family farm house with some brothers and sisters, and saw a man who was dirty and scruffy coming across the field towards them. The children were scared, and "ran to Mama", trying to hide because they did not recognize him.  Turns out it was their father, Christ Mincemeyer, returning home from serving during the Civil War.

   LaRue Kleager Bryant, who grew up with her grandmother Lesetta living in their home, told me that story in July, 2011.

   My great-great grandfather, Christian "Christ" John Muengemeyer (Mincemeyer), served in Company C of the 54th Enrolled Missouri Militia from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15, 1864.  His commander was Lt. Col John T. Vitt.

   What does that mean, and what did he probably do in the war?

   What he may have done,  around October 1st, 1864, was to hastily enroll, and eventually get on a boat  and cross the Missouri River in retreat.  Well, not maybe exactly retreat, more like evasion of engagement.  Let me explain.

   The town of Washington, Missouri and the surrounding Franklin County, was a divided community as was the State of Missouri during the "War Between the States".  Missouri was the only slave state that remained in the Union.  Early settlers to the area had come from southern states, and several were slaveholders.  Later settlers included a large influx of German immigrants, (defined as German speaking, from several areas) - like all my ancestors.

   Many of the Germans immigrated to escape tyranny and seek freedoms that didn't exist in their home lands, and they had no sympathy for slaveholders or the cause of succession from the Union.  According to Ralph Gregory: "Some persons were biased against them as foreigners and some were jealous of their practical success.  The Germans risked much by their unconditional stand for the Union...." As a result, there were neighbors of competing loyalties, and at times that difference was very damaging and dangerous.

   During the conflict, Missouri was terrorized by guerrilla bands loosely associated with the Confederate cause who roved all over the state killing, destroying homes and crops, and robbing.  There were also some Confederate groups trying to recruit (force) soldiers for the southern cause and to harass and damage Union positions.  There were some Unionists also roaming in bands seeking revenge on southern sympathizers.  It was a terrible time of not knowing who to trust, fear, and panic on both sides.

   The Enrolled Missouri Militia (E.M.M.), of which Christ was enrolled, was organized partly in response to these "bushwackers", guerrilla groups, and Confederates who were so feared in the area.  The E.M.M. was a state paid and state serving militia.  The 54th and 55th Regiments of E.M.M. were organized in Franklin County.  Much of their duty was to guard the railroad and bridges.

   There was an actual invasion of Washington, Missouri in the fall of 1864.  The invaders were a Confederate army led by General Sterling Price.  The city of Washington was notified by telegraph of the approach of the army of about 10,000 men.  Panic ensued.  At first,  the 600 poorly trained Enrolled Missouri Militia were instructed to put up breastworks, and all able men in the city and area were to prepare to defend the city.
 
   In the end, the local commanders decided the number of the enemy was much too large to engage, and troops and civilians ferried across the Missouri River to the north.  Townspeople hid food and precious things, or took them with them across the river.

  There were 2 ferries operating out of Washington; the "Bright Star" and the "Evening Star." They were steamboats, that the Confederates wanted to capture for their own use.  The steamboats, plus little skiffs, were used to carry the E. M. M. and citizens across the river to Augusta.  Some went farther down the river to St. Charles.  The thought was, that without resistance, the city could avoid shelling, the outnumbered militia would be safe, and the ferry and other boats would be secure from the Confederates stealing them.

   By the time Price's Army got to Washington, the defending militia was gone, but many townspeople remained.  According to Ralph Gregory: "Washington's small military force returned to the town October 5.  The town was not greatly damaged, but almost every sound horse had been taken, much food carried off and a lot destroyed.  The railroad depot was burned an the track torn up for a short distance."

   I can't find what the 54th Enrolled Missouri Militia did for the rest of October, and the first part of November, the rest of the time Christ was enrolled.  But, apparently, he spent time away in his service, long enough for his children to not recognize him when he came home!



 

 Bibliography for this post:
Gregory, Ralph. Washington, Missouri--The Civil War Years.  1962.
Siddali, Silvana R (editor). Missouri's War The Civil War in Documents.  Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009.
Kiel, H. G.  The Kiel Files.  Washington, Mo.:  Four River Genealogical Society Library.  Binders of files compiled from various sources, from the Civil War binder under surnames beginning with letter "M".

Anna Kubli Mincemeyer

   My great-great grandmother, the mother of Lesetta Mincemeyer Kleager (who married Joseph Kleager), was Anna Kubli.  She was born in Switzerland, and was 15 when she married her 41 year old widower husband, who brought at least one child (about age 3) into the marriage.

   Her husband, John Christian Mincemeyer, who sometimes went by "Christ" and in other sources "John", was a farmer, who had to spend at least a few months involved in the Civil War.

    Anna bore 10 children between 1855 and 1877.

    Anna and Christ's oldest daughter, Caroline Mincemeyer Brune, died in 1878 at age 23, leaving a 4 year old daughter, Annie Brune.  It is believed that Annie Brune's father left his child with Anna and Christ, and moved on, descendants are not sure to where.

    The grandmother Anna raised the grandchild Annie Brune.  The grandchild, Annie Brune, was older than her uncle (Anna's youngest) Herman.  So Anna bore 10 children and raised 12, counting her step-son and her grand daughter.

   She was  widowed in 1888, when she was only 50, and her youngest was only 11.  She lived 37 years as a widow.

   She looks pretty calm for all she's been through.

   I have never seen a picture of her before, and found one on ancestry.com recently.  I don't know the year of the picture, but she was born in 1838 in Switzerland and died in 1925 in Franklin County, Missouri.

   I can't make out what is on the table, I'm guessing a "still life" of fruit maybe.  Since she seems to be sitting in front of a curtain, I assume it was taken in a photo studio.  I find her hands interesting.  Are they arthritic?  Is she nervous?  Do they hurt?  They seem quite twisted.

   Anyway, it's always a thrill to see a picture of an ancestor that one had not seen a picture of before!

The many children of Friedrich Wilhelm Drewel

My great-great grandfather, Freidrich (Fredrick) Wilhelm Drewel had a lot of children!!

        His first wife was Maria Louisa Dierking, whom he married in 1863.
        They had:
            Fredrich Ernst Drewel in 1864
            Louisa Maria "Mary" Drewel in 1866
            Emilie Dorothea Caroline "Lena" Drewel in 1868
            Louis Henry Drewel in 1870 (my great grandfather)
            Edward Drewel in 1872
            Louise K. Drewel in 1875

        Maria died in May, 1875, only 8 days after Louise was born, so it had to be from some sort of complications of childbirth.  The 37-year-old widower, Freidrich, with 6 young children under the age of 10 must have looked around quickly for a new wife.  He found a neighbor and fellow church member.

        So on August 2nd, 1875, just 3 months after his wife's death, he married 19-year-old Catharina Wilhelmine "Mina" Rosendahl.  Shortly after their marriage, in December of 1875, baby Louise died at the age of 7-months-old.  Mina and Fred started having children less than a year after the baby's death.  
         They had:
             Ida Wilhelmine Drewel in 1876
             Heinrich Wilhelm "Billie" Drewel in 1879
             Dorothea Henrietta Sophie "Dora" Drewel in 1884
             Wilhelmine Caroline Hulda "Minnie" Drewel in 1887

          Tragedy struck again.

          Less than a month after baby Minnie's birth, his second wife died.  Now he was a widower with 9 living children, though the oldest was 23.  His wife Mina died in August, and by December 1887 he had found another neighbor and fellow church member.  This time he married a widow who was only 4 years younger than him, Charlotte Cathrine Wilhelmine Hotmar Knehans.

          However, she had 8 children of her own, plus at least 2 step-children from her now dead husband's first marriage!!
          Her children were:
             Maria Louisa Knehans born 1863
             Heinrich Wilhelm "Henry Knehans born 1865
             William Freidrich Knehans born 1867
             Louisa Sophia Knehans born 1869
             Wilhelmina Kathrine "Minnie" Knehans born 1871 (my great grandmother)
             Elizabeth "Lizzy" Knehans born 1872
             Caroline Elise Knehans born 1867
             Franz Louis Knehans born 1880
       

          I don't know how many of the 19 living children and step children that they had between them were combined into the same household.  I assume perhaps some of the older ones had moved out.  I'm also not sure about which house they moved into, if she got to keep her husband's house and farm.  Who knows, maybe they maintained 2 households and had older kids living in one.  If we had the 1890 Census (it was burned), it would help with sorting that out.

         BUT ...... the plot thickens!

         In 1891, just four years after Fred married Minnie, two of Fred's sons married two of Minnie's daughters:
              Louis Henry Drewel married Wilhelmina Kathrine "Minnie" Knehans on June 11th.
              Edward Drewel married Elizabeth "Lizzy" Knehans on February 6th.

         Louis Drewel and Minnie Knehans eventually had 9 children, including my grandmother Ella Elisabeth Sophia "Eleanor" Drewel (Kleager Wiese).

         Louis and Minnie's 9 children would have been "double cousins" to Edward and Lizzy's 8 children, and for any of them, visiting the grandparents would involve only going to one house!
           



 

Who is Maria Serephina Kleger Baumgartner Bauer?

     Maria Serephina Kleger has to be some relation to Joseph M. Klaeger, but I have not yet established how!

     Maria Serephina Kleger married John Baumgartner on 29 December 1849 in Franklin County, Missouri.  John Baumgartner bought land in 1852 next to land owned by Joseph Kleger (which was bought in 1850) in Franklin County.

      Serephina's husband John Baumgartner died November 6th, 1873 (he was only 48).  A year and a half later she married a widower, Michael Bauer in April 1875.  Bad luck, Michael Bauer died 5 months later!!

       Joseph M. Kleager/Klager/Klaeger is my great great grandfather, father of Joseph Klager, father of Frank August Kleager.  Joseph M. can't read or write, was born about 1816 in Benken, St. Gallen, Switzerland, immigrated to St. Louis about 1846, served in the US Army from September 1847 to October 1848 during the War with Mexico.  In December of 1848 he married Elizabeth Janne in Franklin County, Missouri.  Elizabeth died and he married Josephine Klager in 1857.  Josephine was the daughter of George Klager and Teresa Mueller.

      What is the relationship between Joseph and his second wife, who had the maiden name of Klaeger?  Were they first cousins? What is the relationship between Joseph and Seraphina?  Was Seraphina Josephine's sister?

      This is what links Joseph and Serephina:

       In Joseph's probate file in Franklin County, Missouri is a "note" (a loan) from Seraphina Baumgartner to Joseph M. Klaeger (who signs with an "X") for $300 with interest at the rate of 8% per Annum.  The note is dated February 16, 1874:

    On the back of the note it is recorded when the interest was paid.  Always on February 16th in the following years: 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879 paid to Seraphina Bauer (she remarried Bauer), 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885:

     Interest payments stop in 1885.  Joseph died December 14, 1884 intestate without a will.  The estate was settled in May and June of 1885, and in the list of payouts is to Seraphina Baumgartner, $300 for "note".

     How were these two related, why was she willing to loan him $300, how did a woman have the $300, why wasn't the loan from her husband??

     I would like to know more about her!