Old News

My cousin Gail in Ohio recently sent me an email with a link to a prodigious project that was undertaken by the Berea Historical Society.  The society has digitalized and placed online pages and pages of newspapers from Berea going back as far as 1830.  I lived my whole life in the Berea area, and my parents, grandparents, and even some great grandparents were residents of Berea.  I have searched the archived newspapers and found many articles about my family.

This article is the obituary of my great grandfather, Charles Plau, who died in 1894.  I knew that he died very young, but did not know that it was tragic accident which took his life.

They do not mention the name of the widow, but she was Susie (nee Marti) Plau, my great grandmother, who came to this country from Switzerland when she was a little girl.

The newspapers in those days were full of short reports of mundane local happenings that nowadays would never make the news.  This item from 1899 tells that one of Susie's children suffered a broken arm.

Notice that the item says that Mrs. Plau is to be pitied for this addition to her heavy burden... a widow with five children.  Leslie, would have been my great uncle, but he died before I was born.

On a happier note, this social item appeared in 1900.

Moving to the English branch of my family, I found a short report on the death of another great grandfather, John Paintin, in 1914.

In 1926, his widow, my great grandmother, received a more proper obituary.

Mrs. Lola Plau was my maternal grandmother.  I have cousins in England who are related to me through the Bowsher line, and I have visited the village of Eastbury.  I have seen the house where Fannie was born and visited the church where she and John Paintin were married.

Dinner in the Woods

One of my very first blog posts, eleven years ago, told the story of how I made contact with my Swiss cousins.  After I retired, I started doing research on my family genealogy.  One of my great-grandmothers was from Switzerland, and her death certificate gave the town where she was born... Othmarsingen.  I discovered that the town had a website, and I wrote a message in the guestbook asking if anyone had any information about my Swiss family.  Niklaus, who at the time was one of the town councilmen, read my message, and did a bit of detective work.  He found a distant cousin who was still living in Othmarsingen.  That was the beginning of my relationship with my Swiss family, and I owe it all to Niklaus.

Nick and I have kept in touch all these years, and each time that I travel to Switzerland, we get together.  I told him that I was going to spend a few nights in Aarau, which is only a short drive from Othmarsingen where he still lives.  He suggested a restaurant near Aarau where we could meet, and since I wanted to treat my cousin Walter and his wife Helen for dinner, the four of us got together.

The restaurant is called Chalet Saalhoehe.  It is located in the forests of the foothills of the Jura Mountains, which extend along the border between Switzerland and France.

At the restaurant with Nick, the man who found my Swiss family

In spite of its rustic setting the restaurant was quite elegant.  Everyone is familiar with fondue, one of Switzerland's most famous dishes.  But we had something I had never heard of... "Fleischfondue" (Meat fondue).  Just as with cheese fondue, we shared a heated fondue pot.  But instead of melted cheese, the pot was filled with hot broth.  We had plates of sliced beef and vegetables which we put on skewers and dipped into the pot.

It was a delicious meal, and a wonderful evening of great company!

A Tradition Continues

When I was living in Ohio, every New Year's Eve, I would wait until the stroke of midnight, open the front door, and ring the dinner bell which belonged to my great grandmother, Susan Marti.  When I was preparing to make the move to Mexico, I gave the bell to my cousin Gail.  Susan was the sister of Gail's great grandfather... so Susan would have been Gail's great-great aunt.

Gail said that she would continue the tradition I had established of ringing the bell at midnight.  Today she sent me a video that her husband Wes recorded...

Gail wrote that the bell was very heavy and that Marti women must have been bodybuilders.

So, now it will be Gail's neighbors who will be wondering, "Who the heck is ringing that bell?"  However, that clanging bell is nothing compared to the noise in Alejandro's neighborhood last night.  Firecrackers were exploded all over.  Loud booms were coming from the neighbors across the street until around 2 AM.  

The Farewell Tour Continues

There is a lot to be done before I make the move to Mexico later this month, and that includes saying good-bye to friends.  I have already gotten together with several (a couple of whom I have written about here), and there are more on my social calendar in the coming weeks.

Yesterday I was invited to Sunday brunch at the home of my cousin Gail and her husband Wes.  They have made numerous appearances on this blog.  If you have been reading this blog since its beginning, you may even remember how we first met.  In February of 2013, just a few months after I started writing this blog, I posted an entry about my genealogical research and the trip I made to Othmarsingen, Switzerland, the little town from which the Swiss branch of my family came.  Gail, who has been avidly researching her family's genealogy for years, was on the internet looking for pictures and information about Othmarsingen.  My blog appeared in her search.  When she read my entry, she realized that we are related.  Her great grandfather and my great grandmother were brother and sister, so we are third cousins.  And then she realized that I live in the next town, just 2 1/2 miles from her.  For years we had been less than ten minutes away from each other, and we never know of each other's existence.  Of course, she immediately commented on my blog, and I was as amazed as she was.  Ever since then, we see each other on fairly frequent basis.

You may also remember from this blog that we have traveled together a number of times.  In January of 2017 I played tour guide to Gail and Wes in Mérida, Yucatán.  Although they have traveled extensively, it was their first time in Mexico, and they loved Mérida.  In August of 2019, we met up in Switzerland, and Gail had a chance to visit our ancestral town of Othmarsingen and to meet our Swiss cousins, whom I had already met on previous trips.  Later, in November of that year, Gail and one of her college friends made a trip to Mexico City, and I showed them some of the sights.

Now that I will be living permanently in Mexico City, I hope that they will come visit me there... Gail for a return visit, and Wes for his first time.

  Cousins!

Gail and Wes

Ringing in the New Year

 It is hard to believe that another year has passed, and that we are on the brink of ushering in 2023.  Tonight, I will stay at home, but, at the stroke of midnight, I will open the front door and ring my great-grandmother's dinner as I do every New Year's Eve.

The bell belonged to my great-grandmother who came to this country as a child from Switzerland.  She used the bell on the farm that belonged to the family of her husband, my great-grandfather.

I told my cousin Gail that when I move to Mexico that I would give her the bell.  Her great-grandfather and my great-grandmother were brother and sister.  She told me that she would continue the tradition of ringing the bell on New Year's Eve.

On the Triangle

The neighboring suburban community of Berea, Ohio, does not have a town square, but rather a triangle in the center of town.

I took these pictures last summer, but never posted them on the blog.  I thought they would be appropriate today on Memorial Day since the Triangle has a number monuments honoring the war dead.

The oldest monument stands at the northern angle of the Triangle and honors those who fought in the Civil War.  If you can read the inscription you will notice that it honors the soldiers and sailors from the township of Middleburg.  At that time Berea was a village within Middleburg Township which today is the cities of Berea, Middleburg Heights and Brook Park.

The monument is similar to countless Civil War memorials in small towns across the country.  I read somewhere that the Union monuments always have the statue of the soldier facing north, while the Confederate statues face south.

This small monument and antique cannon honor those who fought in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

This simple stone slab lists the names of Berea citizens who died in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.  My father was among those Berea residents who served in World War II (he was injured in the Battle of the Bulge), but fortunately his name is not on the monument... or else I would not be here.

Going back chronologically, the monument has the greatest interest for me is the one which lists all of those local residents who fought in World War I.

The names of three relatives of mine appear on that list.  Edward Plau was my great uncle, a brother of my maternal grandfather.  Edward served with the American Expeditionary Forces and was discharged in 1919 with the rank of Private First Class.  Edward, whom my mother referred to as "Uncle Eddie", died long before I was born.  He survived the war, but died at the age of only thirty five from kidney disease.

There are two members of the Swiss branch of my family, the Martis.

Albert and Norman Marti were the sons of Johann Jakob Marti who was the brother of my great-grandmother.  I never knew them, but they would have been distant cousins.

Ancestral Homes

 No, I am not going to show you pictures of English manor houses or European castles.  These photos are of much humbler abodes and close to home.

Yesterday the temperature rose into the upper 40s, most of the snow was gone, and the sidewalks were mostly clear and dry, so I decided to take a walk.  I headed into the neighboring town of Berea, and I passed a few houses that played a part in my family's history.

First is this house on Lincoln Avenue where my great-grandmother lived.  

Susan Marti emigrated with her family from Switzerland, and they settled in Berea where her father worked in the sandstone quarries.  When she married she lived on a farm in Middleburg Township that belonged to the family of my great-grandfather, Charles Plau.  My great-grandfather died at the age of thirty three, but they had five children in the nine years that they were married.  In 1902, eight years after his death, Susan remarried.  She and her new husband bought this house, and she lived there until her death in 1945.

This is the only photo that I have of my great-grandmother.  She is standing outside her house between my father (to the left) and my uncle (the husband of my mom's sister).

A short walk from Lincoln Avenue took me to Pearl Street where my maternal grandparents lived.  My grandfather, Clarence Plau, was Susan's third child.  Clarence and my grandmother, Lola, lived in this house.

They bought the house sometime in the 1940s, and lived there until Clarence passed away in 1956 and Lola died in 1957.  I have vague memories of this house, and it looks much the same as I remember it.

On my way home, I passed by this old brick house on Prospect St.  My cousin Gail has told me that her great-grandfather, the brother of my great-grandmother Susan, lived there.  Behind the house the hill goes down to the former sandstone quarries where he worked.

The house used to have a front porch, but some years ago it was closed in.  In my opinion, it spoils the historic appearance of the house.

Photography at the Cemetery

 Last week when I visited the Columbia Reservation of the Lorain County Metroparks, I also stopped at the Columbia Township cemetery which is not far from the park.  Now it may seem odd to go walking around a cemetery, but if you are into genealogy as I am, you know that part of the family research is to find the graves of your ancestors.  I had been to the Columbia Township cemetery before, and I had found the graves of several relatives.  This time I wanted to take pictures of their gravestones.

The reason why I have so many relatives buried in Columbia Township is because my great-aunt Hattie lived on a farm there.  Apparently she purchased a bunch of cemetery lots, ten altogether, for members of her family.  

Aunt Hattie lived to be ninety years old, and I remember her very well.   Ironically, her gravesite does not have a marker.  

Hattie's husband Myron died in 1919.  He drowned while swimming in a local quarry.

Hattie never remarried.  She and Myron had one son, Melvin.  I don't remember ever meeting him (he lived in Colorado), but I do remember going to his funeral. He predeceased his mother, and he is buried next to his father.

I assume that the unmarked space next to Myron and Melvin is where Hattie is buried.

Three of Hattie's brothers are also buried at the cemetery.  Two of them, Edward and Charles, share a grave marker.

Edward fought in Europe in World War I, and after the war had a very good job with General Electric.  He died at the age of thirty-five from kidney disease.  He had a wife, but they had no children.  After his death, she moved to Michigan where she had family.

Charles... my great-uncle Charlie... never married, and lived on the farm with his sister Hattie.  I remember him.  At the time of his death I was studying in Mexico.

Another brother of Hattie's was Leslie.  His marker is eroded and almost illegible.  He never married either, and also died young at the age of thirty-nine, in 1930.

Hattie had one other brother, Clarence, my maternal grandfather.  My mother bought some plots at a closer cemetery, and that is where he and my grandmother are buried.

The grave marker which I most wanted to photograph was that of my great-grandmother Susan Hepner (nee Marti).  I have frequently written here about my Swiss roots and my Swiss cousins.  It was Susan who immigrated with her parents from Switzerland when she was a young girl.

 I wrote about Susan in an earlier post (My Swiss Ancestor).  Her first marriage was to Charles Plau.  He also died young at the age of only thirty-three.  During their nine years of marriage they had five children... my great aunt, my three great uncles (only one of whom I knew) and my grandfather.

My Swiss Ancestor

I have written many times here about my distant cousins in Switzerland.  We are related through my mother's paternal grandmother who immigrated to the U.S. with her family when she was nine years old.

A couple days ago, when I was going through a box of mementos, I found an old tintype that I had forgotten that I had.  Here is my link to Switzerland...  Susanna Elisabeth Marti.

Susanna, or Suzie, as she later called herself in the U.S., was born in 1864 in Othmarsingen, Switzerland.  In 1873 she and her parents and siblings moved to Ohio.  It was a time of economic depression in Switzerland.  The family owned a stone quarry on the edge of town, but Suzie's father had heard that the sandstone quarries in Berea, Ohio, were thriving.  They packed their belongings, left the small town that had been the family home for generations, and made the long journey to America.  Suzie's father and her older brothers found work in the quarries of Berea. 

The tintype was probably taken around the time of her marriage at the age of twenty in 1885.  She married my great grandfather, Charles August Plau, the son of a German immigrant who owned a farm in Middleburg Township outside of Berea. 

Suzie and Charles were married for only nine years.  In 1894 Charles died at the age of  forty three.  During their time together, they had five children, including my maternal grandfather.  In 1902 Suzie remarried, but it was an unhappy marriage.  Her second husband had a drinking problem, and in 1917 he abandoned his wife and the two daughters that they had together.  In 1922 Suzie did something that for that era was considered scandalous... she filed for divorce.  Her divorce was granted, and the ex-husband was required to pay child support and give her their house in Berea.  She must have been a very strong-willed and feisty woman to have defied the stigma of a divorced woman.  Nevertheless, in the subsequent census she listed herself as a widow.  Well, it wasn't a lie.  She was the widow of Charles Plau.  

Suzie passed away in 1945 from a heart attack at the age of seventy seven.  My grandfather was the informant of her death certificate.  Fortunately, he provided the name of the town in Switzerland where she was born.  It was that bit of information that enabled me to find my cousins living in Switzerland.  

My mother always spoke fondly of her "Granma".  I wish that I had known her.  

A Hike into the Woods

Monday was my last full day in Switzerland.  Cousin Werner picked me up at my hotel in Lenzburg, and we drove the short distance to Othmarsingen.  We went to the house of Werner's sister Ruth, and she served us a lunch of Swiss comfort food... "wurst" and macaroni with cheese.

After lunch, Ruth suggested that we take a walk.  (Good! I need to burn some calories the way I have been eating!)  Ruth's house is on the edge of town, and just across the highway is a forest.

After crossing the highway we came to a "Wanderweg", a hiking trail that goes through the "Othmarsinger Wald"... the Othmarsingen Forest.

Within the forest there are a couple of depressions which once were sandstone quarries.  Supposedly, my great great grandfather, Johannes Marti, owned the smaller of the two quarries.  The story goes that during a period of economic depression in Switzerland, his quarry business went bust, and he emigrated to a town that was known as the "Sandstone Capital of the World"... Berea, Ohio.

From the path there is lookout from which you can see Othmarsingen.

Using the zoom lens you can see Lenzburg Castle in the neighboring town.

The path leads us out of the forest and back toward Othmarsingen.

One of the most prominent buildings in the village is the schoolhouse which was built in the early 20th century thanks to a large bequest by Herman Marti.  He emigrated to Brazil where he became a very successful businessman.  Herman is not related to us, although I suppose if you go back far enough, all of the Martis in Othmarsingen are related.

There is a farm at the edge of the village which used to belong to the Marti family.  Although a different family now owns it, this fountain bears the emblems of both families.  Since the Martis were not nobility, you could not call it a coat of arms.

As you can see, the Martis are a prominent family in Othmarsingen.  I suppose I should be thankful that my great great grandfather was not successful and had to come to the U.S.  Otherwise I would not be here.

The Village of Our Ancestors

On Saturday Werner drove us just down the road from Lenzburg to the town where our ancestors lived... Othmarsingen.  The area has long been inhabited.  Prehistoric grave site and the remains of a Roman theater have been found nearby.  The first recorded mention of the village goes back to around 1190.  Today Othmarsingen has a population of around 2700 people.

Our first stop was the town church, a structure which has been declared a Swiss heritage site.  It was built in 1675 after the Reformation had spread to the region.

Ohio cousin Gail in front of our ancestors' church.

Our Swiss cousin Werner, a native of Othmarsingen, at the gate to the church.

The interior is beautifully maintained.

Our family lived in Othmarsingen for centuries.  It is humbling to imagine that the baptisms, weddings and funerals of generations of our ancestors were held right here in this church.

We drove by this house which was the home of Gail's great grandfather and my great grandmother before the family emigrated to Ohio in 1874.  They probably would not recognize the structure which has been renovated and modernized.  It originally had a thatched roof, and it was divided into two parts... one part for the family, the other for the farm animals.

We had lunch reservations at Maiengruen, a little restaurant in the forest beyond Othmarsingen.  It's an out-of-the-way place that only a local would be able to find.

Joining us were Niklaus Wirz, a former councilman of Othmarsingen (at the front to the left), and his girlfriend (across the table from him).  "Nick" is the person who made the connection with my Swiss family possible.  I had known that my great grandmother, Susanna Marti, was born in Othmarsingen, and, according to family stories, there were still cousins there.  I discovered that this little Swiss town had a website, so on its guestbook I left a message asking if anyone had any information on the Marti family.  Nick saw the message, and sent me records from the archives tracing my family back a couple more generations in Othmarsingen.  He then tracked down a Marti living in town who was related to me.  Werner's father, Andreas Marti knew that one branch of the family had long ago emigrated to Ohio, and he remembered a great aunt of mine who many years ago had visited Switzerland.  Nick gave me the address for Andreas, and I wrote to him.  Sadly, he passed away shortly afterward, but contact had been made.  I now have a Swiss family... Werner, his sisters and brother, and all the other relatives.  They may be distantly related, but they have all welcomed me with open arms as their cousin.

And I have Nick Wirz to thank for this!  I will forever be grateful to him!

    Danke schoen, Nick!

Berea Cousin

Here is a photo of my cousin Gail and me that was taken earlier this summer.

We are sitting in a park in Berea, Ohio.  Gail lives in Berea, and I live five minutes away in the neighboring town of Olmsted Falls.  In the background is Coe Lake which originally was a sandstone quarry.  In the late 1800's and early 1900's Berea was known as the "Sandstone Capital of the World".  Berea sandstone was used in the making of grindstones, sidewalks, and the construction of buildings throughout the world.  The Canadian Parliament Building in Ottawa, and even a small portion of the Kremlin in Moscow are built with stone from Berea.

Our great-great grandfather was a stone worker in Switzerland, and the family owned a quarry on the edge of Othmarsingen.  (The remains of it can still be seen in the forest outside of town.)  During a severe economic depression in the late 1800's, our great-great grandparents and their children (including Gail's great grandfather and my great grandmother) emigrated to Berea.  They had heard about the sandstone industry here, and the father and some of his sons got jobs in the quarries.

So, if it were not for those sandstone quarries, our Swiss ancestors would not have settled in  Ohio, and Gail and I would not be here today.