 |
| Cornelius |
Cornelius' father, Theodore, was a widower with 4 children when he married Katherina Elizabetha Kolhoff on August 29, 1892 at St. John the Baptist Church in Glandorf. Katherina would have been 34 years old and her stepdaughter described her as "dour and unfunloving". Near the end of her life she spent time in a hospital or institution and the cause of death was "insanity dementia". Theodore, on the other hand, was said to have "a twinkle in his eye and a wicked wink". He was a hard worker who cleared his own land and built his house. He supported education and had a school on his property. Together they had a daughter and four sons.
 | |
| Katharina and Theodore Wedding 1893 |
Cornelius was the oldest son and would have been 15 when his mother died in 1910. I imagine that his older sister Rosina took on much of the responsibility of caring for the boys. Cornelius graduated from Kalida high school a few years later...
They lived in Lima, Ohio for the first few years of their marriage where Cornelius was a machinist for the Lima Locomotive Works. Their first child, Geraldine, died as an infant. They had 3 more children before leaving the city for rural Putnam County where both of their families lived and farmed. By 1930 Cornelius was a tenant farmer with 8 children, including my mom, Frances. Sometime in the next 10 years they moved to the Myers farm and in 1940 they owned the land. This is the farm that I remember from visits as a child. I wish I had a picture of it...
All told, Cornelius and Blanche had 15 children. Some are still living. Their oldest son, Edward, died young due to a shooting accident, but the others lived long and have many descendents. I have few memories of my grandfather. He seemed to tolerate young children following him to the barn when it was time to milk the cows. And he tried his best to teach me a tongue twister...Peter Piper...
Please add your own stories to the comments or send me an email...I would love to collect them.
