Haas & Bauer
Issue 8 December 2000
Email adress garylhaas@yahoo.com
Happy Holidays
Thanks for the positive comments that I have received about my previous efforts. I am interested in any comments that can make these newsletters more interesting. The "new" objective/format of this newsletter is write about things I have come across in this genealogy project that I find interesting. Hopefully you will find them interesting too.
Up is down, down is up
Normally when you look at a map, north is up and south is down. This doesn’t work with Germany. Up and down refer to elevation / height. The Alps are in the southern part of Germany. This is the "higher / upper" part of Germany. The north part is the "lower" part of Germany. This also explains why the main rivers in Germany seem to flow the "wrong" way. These rivers flow north to the sea.
Identify a German by his drink
Germans in the north drink snaaps , in the east near France they drink wine, in the south, they drink beer.
Johann Adam Bauer
This is the father of Franziska Bauer. He was born in 1808 and married to Franziska's mother in 1832 ( Katharina Ruland). They had 2 sons and 5 daughters. The sons died shortly after birth. 3 of his daughters emigrated to Wisconsin. Two of his daughters, who stayed in Germany, got married. One of them had children. On June 25 1864 Katharia Ruland-Bauer died. On Feb 12 1866, he re-married to Ursula Diez Wagner. She died Jan 1 1873 in Bohemia.
To summarize the situation, it is 1873, Johann Adam Bauer is 65, no wife, half of his family living in America. What should he do? On April 18 1873 he requests permission to leave and go to America. He dies in Plain, at a date unknown. He is buried in the "old" St Luke's cemetery next to Paul Kraemer. His tombstone is a metal cross. The "name tag" of Adam Bauer has broken off, and is loosely wedged into the marker.
There are a couple of questions that would be interesting to have answered. What ship did Johann Adam Bauer come to America on? When did he die? These are things to be answered. There are a number of things that you have to watch out for in researching this man. He was known as Adam but his "official" first name was Johann. It was standard practice in Germany to give a child a "religious" first name but then call him by his second name. This is why they could get away with so many Johann's in the same family.
I never would have found out when Johann Adam Bauer left Germany if it wasn't for the Nazi's. ( In 1939 they typed up a list of all the people who emigrated from the area to the US. Looking for possible spys or converts to help the fatherland?) Bauer's request for permission to leave Germany was combined with several other people who left at the same time. His request was filed under the W's (Wutz). It also was filled out under Adam, not Johann. Most of the records I have looked at from Germany are filed alphabetically (sort of). For example many times Ps are filed with the Bs.
In addition to answering the questions of when did he come to America and when did he die, there are some other documents that should be looked for, specifically marriage documents for Johann Adam Bauer and his daughters.
Volk – Ahern Affair
On Sunday evening, July 6, 1890 Daniel Ahern died after being shot by Adam Volk in Plain. After a trial in March 1891, Volk was sentenced to 14 years at Waupun state prison. On July 7, 1891 he died and was buried in the state cemetery. The rest of the details get a little murky.
August Derleth wrote about this "murder" in WISCONSIN MURDERS. His version of the affair should be considered an "interesting story." Derleth played a little fast and loose with the dates. He added some "spicy" items to his account to make the story more interesting.
Newspapers did not do much better. Several of them got the names wrong. One of them described the shooting as a "race war" Germans vs Irish. Each had its own set of facts.
What really did happen? I was surprised that there is actually a lot of documents from the 1890’s. Some of my sources are : news articles from different papers, actual trial records, and Waupun prison records. Here is what I think happened.
This was the 4th of July weekend. There were "doings" to celebrate the event. This included fights.
On Sunday, July 6th everybody went to Mass. After Mass, many people went to the local bars. Some drinking went on and an argument in Volk’s bar took place. Some possible reasons for these disagreements could be: Ahern was not a likeable guy and being drunk didn't improve his disposition, Ahern was dressed up like a dandy, some guys just can’t get along after a few drinks.
There were several "blowups" in Volk’s bar. The main fight might have went something like this. Ahern and his gang came into the bar and were being noisy. Volk asked them to get out, throwing of glasses at them. Volk picked up two more glasses and came from behind the bar intending to drive them out. Ahern punched Volk in the head. Volk went behind the bar and picked up a knife and a billet of wood. He started for Ahern. Ahern pulled his revolver and ordered Volk to stop, which Volk did.
Things had sort of calmed down, by 5:00 pm. Volk decided to go to the store and get matches. Ahern and his group were by the store. Volk and Ahern exchanged words. Volk went back to his tavern / home to get his rifle. Volk then "called" out Ahern. Ahern’s crowd might have egged Ahern on questioning his courage.
They got into the street. Ahern shot first, then Volk shot. There were some reports that Ahern fired into the air.
Where did this happen? Volk’s bar was where the "old" bank was. The store referred to in my sources seems to be the "store" across from the I Diehl bar. At one time there was a grove of trees infront of the store (in the middle of what is now main street). This would imply that Volk was facing west on main street towards Ahern. It also means that he was looking into the sun. Not a real good way to start a duel.
Some of the sources referred to a lynch party looking for Volk who was hiding in a barn. A more believable account is that Volk was in the custody of the constable in Plain until the county sheriff from Baraboo came to deal with the situation. Volk was taken to Spring Green where a preliminary hearing was held.
The sheriff left on the 9:45 am train east for Baraboo with Volk in custody. They spent the night in Madison then left for Baraboo. ( The quickest way to Baraboo from Spring Green is through Madison??)
Unfortunately for Volk he would have to wait for the Circuit Court of Wisconsin make its stop in Sauk County. The next session was September 1890. On Sept 19 1890, Volk's attorney requested a continuance because of sick witnesses.
Volk's wife gave birth to a son on Sept 12 1890. He died four days latter on Sept 15 1890. The cause of death per the death certificate was "imperfect development of respiratory organs." Volk's wife might have been the sick witness.
The trial was started Monday March 23, 1891 ( the Monday before Easter ). A lot of people from Plain went to the trial. Many because they were subpoenaed, others because this was a big event.
In the morning they started to select the jury. There were difficulties in getting the jury setup. Twice they ran out of potential jurists and the sheriff had to go out into Baraboo and round people up. They finally got the jury selected ( at about 4:00 pm ).
The next day, the court started at 8:30 am. However the court finished up another case. The court seemed to be juggling several cases and other issues at the same time by the same judge. Shortly before 9:00 am they were almost ready to start Volk's trial when one of the jurists requested to be excused. A half-hour break was taken after which a "new" jury was seated.
The attorney for the defense, T.J. Brooks, requested that witnesses be kept apart from the audience. This would seem to be a good idea so that a witnesses testimony might not be tainted. Because Brooks did not insist on it, the judge did not order them to keep separate.
The prosecution makes its case to the jury. About 11:00 am on Tues, they start hearing testimony. In the next hour and a half the prosecution questions 5 witnesses including Dr. Bossard who did the autopsy.
John Bauer was in the bar and was called as a witness. Could this have been Joesph Bauer's father. Bauer said that he lived in Honey Creek 1 mile from Log Town. What did he mean? The township of Honey Creek is farther than 1 mile from Plain. A branch of Honey Creek goes by the Bauer farm located south of town. There was a Michael Schwartz in the bar. Schwartz was a cousin of John H. Bauer. Andrew Hutter, an inlaw of John H. Bauer was also in the bar. It might be a stretch, but this trial could be a document of my great-grandfather and his drinking buddies.
A recess is called at 12:25 pm until 2:00 pm. Excluding a five minute recess at 4:15, the prosecution questioned a number of witnesses. After the prosecution finished their case, Brooks, the attorney for the defense states his case. At 6:00 pm a recess until the next day is called.
The trial re-started 9:00 am on Wed March 25th. Testimony for the defense was taken until late in the afternoon. At the end of the day, the attorneys discussed instructions for the jury. At 5:10 pm the trial was recessed until Thursday.
The trial re-started 9:00am on Thur March 26th. The attorneys make their closing arguments to the jury. At 5:40 pm the jury begins deliberations. They return three hours latter at 8:35 pm with their verdict, murder in the 2nd degree.
On Friday March 27th, Volk is sentenced to 14 years in jail, of which 10 days will be in solitary.
The short amount of time that the jury deliberated and the manner in which the jury had to be rounded up make it seem as though they were more interested in getting done before Good Friday.
It was not expected that Volk would live to be released. He suffered from Bright's disease (GLOMERULONPHRITIS) which is a kind of nephrtis (inflammation of the kidney) in which the capillaries (blood vessels) in the kidneys are inflamed.
Adam Volk died in prison at 8:00 pm July 7, 1891. He was buried in the state cemetery.
Books
For Christmas I decided to make a book that includes : all the newsletters, updated family trees and printouts of photos. These books were prepared for my family, aunts & uncles. There are 4 "flavors" of this book.
The photos include:
1 page of Plain
1 page of the churches in the area
2 pages of the Lute Haas family
2 pages of the Joesph Bauer family
2 pages of the LaVerne Haas family
1 page of each of my brothers & sisters
1 page of Mikayla Haas
1 page of Montana Prather
I plan on doing future books in the future so this was a test run. It can be expensive to prepare these books, especially the photo printouts. I would be interested in getting a group of my relatives together to form an editorial board to help in deciding how to organize the stuff I got into an interesting book. I am also interested in personal stories of my ancestors. Please contact if you are interesting in working on this type of project.
Computer disks / index
I created a "few" CD-Rom sets of the data , photos, books, and other stuff that I have gathered. This is a set of 6 disks which I will be selling for my costs. $10 for the disks. Postage and packaging for shipping will be about $10. ( I have another 26 disks that have movies that are not included in the official set of disks. These include movies of Germany and places around Plain. )
These disks contain things that I will be interested in looking at when I am in a nursing home. Some of the stuff is only of interest to me. A few of the items I have gathered are R-rated (selected because I thought they were funny or were examples of current culture).
There is very little "organization" to the items I have gathered. It is like dumping a bunch of photos into a shoebox. You are going to need some sort of computer program to look at this stuff. I recommend that you use IfranView. This is a small, free program available on the Internet ( and from me ) that makes it easy to look at this stuff. The display quality is not the best but it covers pretty much all the bases, thumbnails, slide shows and movies, sounds.
I have created a half-arsed printed index of the items that are in my collection. It is over 200 pages and indexes items into the following groups : ALPHA LISTING (grouped items) , MOVIES, EVENT LISTING (sorted by type example: official documents, marriage documents, wills), LISTING BY NAME OF FILE, LISTING BY NAME OF THE PERSON. It cost about $15 to make one copy of this book. Another option is to put these listings on a disk and let you print them out if you want.
If you are interested in finding out more about these disks / index write me at my internet address and we can figure out what the best method to get you this stuff.
Haas marriage documents
I have copies of the following German marriage documents:
1878 Georg Haas Margaretha Bauer (brother of Johann Haas)
1877 Johann Haas Kunigunda Brendel (parents of Ludwig Haas)
1842 Georg Haas Kuniguda Rausch (grandparents of Ludwig Haas)
1839 Johann Georg Haas Barbara Rausch (brother to Georg Haas)
I have just started to work with these documents. They are in the old German handwritten-script which is a bear to read. The following is a list of some of the types of "pages" that I have found in the marriage documents.
PROTOKOLL records, minutes, notice
BEKANNTMACHUNG notice
FAMILIENSTANDSZEUGNISS certificate of family standing
ZEUGNISS reference
LEUMUNDZEUGNISS certificate of character reference
SCHUL ENTLASS SCHEIN certificate of school discharge
KONSCRIPTIONS STEMPEL ENTLASSUNGS SCHEIN certificate of conscription dismissal
Not all of these documents are found for each marriage. The school and conscription certificates are interesting because they give glimpses of personal data. It will be an ongoing project to decipher these documents and will be covered in detail in future newsletters.
1944 photo of Waldmuenchen / Untergrafenried
I sent away to the US government for an aerial photo of this area ( home of the Bauers and many of the people in Plain). They have these photos available for most of Europe. This photo was taken Aug 6 1944 by the US Air Force at about 27,000 feet?. ( So can't see any indication of the bomb sights.) I haven't figured which end is up on this photo with any degree of certainty. You can not assume from the photo that north is at the top. You can make out roads, buildings, farms. I can't be sure that the photo is even of the area. If it is, it looks like it might include a big chunk of the area around the Czech border. One more thing to follow up on.
Internet Sites
As part of my genealogy project, I want to find out how our ancestors lived; life in Germany, the trip across the Atlantic, experiences in Castle Garden, etc. The following address is part of the Library of Congress.
http://memory.loc.gov/ American MemoryThis site is a gold mine. There is a section dedicated to panoramic photos / drawings of US cities, historical locations, army camps (Camp Grant), military. Photos are very large and can take for ever to bring up on your computer. But they are awesome to look at. I have downloaded several really goods ones.
If you want to find about what was going on during a period of time, a good way is to read things published during the period. American Memory has images of the magazines below and other pamphlets / books. You can search this massive data base like a regular search engine. I was able to find out a lot of stuff about what the emigration trip was like; reasons for leaving Germany, the ships, the voyage, arrival at Castle Garden in New York. These will be the topic of future writings. If you are interested in history, I recommend that you check this site out.
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa Cornell University'sThe American Missionary (1878 - 1901) The American Whig Review (1845 - 1852)
The Atlantic Monthly (1857 - 1901) The Bay State Monthly (1884 - 1886)
The Century (1881 - 1899) The Continental Monthly (1862 - 1864)
The Galaxy (1866 - 1878) Harper's New Monthly Magazine (1850 - 1899)
The International Monthly Magazine (1850 - 1852) The Living Age (1844 - 1900)
Manufacturer and Builder (1869 - 1894) The New England Magazine (1886 - 1900)
The New-England Magazine (1831 - 1835) New Englander (1843 - 1892)
The North American Review (1815 - 1900) The Old Guard (1863 - 1867)
Punchinello (1870) Putnam's Monthly (1853 - 1870)
Scientific American (1846 - 1869) Scribner's Magazine (1887 - 1896)
Scribner's Monthly (1870 - 1881) The United States Democratic Review (1837 - 1859)
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (1894 - 1922)
The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union
and Confederate Armies (1880 - 1901)
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/ University of Michigan
Appleton's 1869-1881 (2 series) Catholic World 1865-1901
DeBow's 1846-1869 + 1952 index (3 series) Garden and Forest 1888-1897
Ladies Repository 1841-1876 (3 series)The Old Guard 1864 Overland Monthly 1868-1900 (2 series)
Princeton Review 1831-1882 (3 series)
Southern Literary Messenger 1835-1864 + 1936 Contributor index
Southern Quarterly Review 1842-1857 (3 series) Vanity Fair 1860-1862
Cable Modem
Time Warner has just started offering cable modem connection to the to Internet in Milwaukee. It costs about $40 a month (nothing like having a monthly cable bill over $110). I am very happy with it. It is not a total solution, you still are slowed down by waiting for the individual Internet sites to respond (usually only a few seconds). I also switched my browser from Internet Explorer to Opera. There is a noticeable increase in the speed that pages are loaded.
The main benefits of a cable modem is to deal with downloading big files and watching movies / tv shows / satellite photos on the Internet. A 10 million bite file takes about 30 minutes using a dial-up modem and only 2-3 minutes using a cable modem. Yippee Skippee.
Table of Contents
Issue 1 Nov 1996 Objectives Family Trees
Issue 2 Mar 1997 George Haas / Anton Haas Franziska Bauer
Issue 3 Jul 1997 Joe Bauer farm Lute Haas farm
Issue 4 Oct 1997 Neckar – Haas Deutschland – Bauer
Issue 5 Dec 1997 John B. Haas probate John H. Bauer probate
Issue 6 Sep 1999 Franziska Bauer divorce Description of holdings
Issue 7 Mar 2000 Trip to Germany
Issue 7 Dec 2000 Up is down, down is up Identify a German by his drink
Johann Adam Bauer Volk – Ahern Affair
Books Computer disks / index
Haas marriage documents 1944 photo of Waldmuenchen / Untergrafenried
Internet Sites Cable Modem