More Berles
Jul. 15th, 2010 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaSorry, actual life, aside from Isaiah Mustafa, is on the boring-to-painful tip right now. So you get dead ancestors.
My great-grandfather Theodore Protas Berle had a younger brother, Adolf Augustus (Sr.) who followed him to Oberlin and then New England and appears to have stayed a parson. He was the father of four high-achieving children, who were mentioned in Time Magazine on March 12, 1934, and appears to have been as strict a figure in the home as his less notable brother:
"I met a little boy in the streets of Antwerp one day," explained Rev. Dr. Adolf Augustus Berle (pronounced Burly) to a New York Herald Tribune newshawk. "He couldn't have been more than ten years old but he addressed me in perfect English. . . . Then I changed to French and his French was better than mine. . . . Amazed, I asked him if he knew any other languages, and he said yes, he could speak Dutch. . . . Then & there I resolved to myself that if there ever were any little Berle children, they wouldn't let that little Belgian peasant boy have anything on them. Shortly after that I got married."
There were four little Berle children, all prodigies. Oldest is Lina Wright who entered Radcliffe at 14½, took her A. B. and M. A. before she was 20 and is now, at 40, a financial researcher in her brother's office. Second oldest is Adolf Jr. who entered Harvard at 13. took two degrees before he was 18, graduated from law school at 21, taught law at Columbia University, became a Roosevelt Brain Truster and is today, at 39, Chamberlain of the City of New York. Next is Miriam Blossom who entered Radcliffe at 15, graduated at 19, got a degree at the Sorbonne and now, at 36, teaches Latin at Dobbs Ferry, N. Y. Youngest is Rudolf Protas who entered Harvard at 14, took his A. B. and M. A. before he was 18. graduated from law school at 22 and now at 32 practices law with Brother Adolf in Manhattan. Father Berle made his children memorize Latin and Greek, German and Italian before they could read them, made them study straight through summer vacations. Said he: "It's always been sort of a joke with us that Adolf has become so prominent, because Rudolf could have figured in public life years ago if he had wished. President Coolidge offered him a job as Assistant Attorney General long before Adolf entered politics but Rudolf refused it." (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930183,00.html)
Using ancestry.com, which we subscribe to at work, I was able to go back a generation to Theodore and Augustus' parents. Their father was named Protas Berle:
From Kenneth Coar's website, http://coar.org/GEDCOM/d0000/g0000028.html
[1993-04-19, from notes by Edward Sears Castle]
'PROTAS BERLE eimgrated in the 1850s from the Rhine valley town of Alt
Breisach, Germany, to St., Louis, Mo., with his wife Elizabeth Cornelius.
Protas' forebears had practised medicine in Breisach, and Elizabeth was
the daughter of a family of brewers either in Breisach or in nearby
Freiburg. He worked in St. Louis as a photographer, and there is extant a
fine 5X7 photographic negative (plate) which is a portrait of his wife.
Two boys were born to the Berles: Theodore Protas (1862) and Adolf
Augustus (1866). The family was Catholic, as was appropriate to their
Baden origin, and Theodore was an altar boy in that church. Protas is
said to have served in the Union Army in the Civil War and is rumored to
have deserted from any event; in any event he died a few years later as
the result of "swamp fever" contracted in the Army, was for some
reason not now clear refused Catholic burial, and his spirited widow
thereupon renounced the Faith for herself and for her sons. She
remarried, and is thought to have had several more children by August
Buehneman. She never learned English, but corresponded in German with
her son Theodore Berle and visited him at least once at his married home
in Reading, Mass. On this occasion her peppery spirit was again
demonstrated by her throwing back at her daughter-in-law Avis a cake
baked in her honor; it is believed that the cake was beneath German
standards.
Ancestry informs me that Protas Berle served with the 1st Regiment, U. S. Reserve Corps, Missouri Infantry, in Company K, as a Private, for 3 months in 1861.
He was assessed for taxes in 1863; this apparently is the source of information about his photography business, as discussed in a book, Pioneer photographers from the Mississippi to the continental divide (http://books.google.com/books?id=UNipzykMBEIC&pg=PA106&lpg=PA106&dq=protas+berle&source=bl&ots=UUPVybwCqH&sig=XIklNZuoHrQzp4cOJih1tXqmdFQ&hl=en&ei=xQk9TNrgBYn9nAfw6bTdDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCYQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=protas%20berle&f=false) on p. 106:
"P. Berle applied for a $6.67, eight month federal tax license in St. Louis in May 1863. The St. Luois business directory of that year cited his name as "P. Berll," and "ambrotype artist" operating at 33 Morgan Street, upstairs, and residing at 42 Morgan. The 1867 and 1868 St. Louis directories listed him as a photographer residing at 220 Morgan; the 1867 edition spelled his first name Protas, while the 1868 edition spelled it "Prutas." (Compare Protas Perle.)"
"Prothas" Berle died on 3 April 1869 in St. Louis, with the address of Broadway and Morgan, leaving his sons aged 7 and 3. I also found a death record for a Lina Louisa Berle on 17 March 1868, residing at 3rd and Morgan and buried in Cavalry cemetery; given that Adolf Augustus named his first child Lina, I wonder if this was a sister of the boys, or possibly an aunt or other relative of the family.
"Widow Elise Cornelius Berle" married Carl Heinrich Buenemann on 31 December 1869. (Mrs. Elisabetha Berle also married Charles H. Buenemann on 30 December 1881 - assuming these are the same two people, I wonder what's up with that - loss of documents, a change of churches, a separation and remarriage?) In the 1880 Census the household consisted of Chas. H. Bunemann, age 40, Elizabeth, age 39, Theodore Berle, age 19, Adolph Berle, age 14, Mollie Bunemann, age 8, Lena Bunemann, age 4, and August Bunemann, age 3. In 1890, Charles H. Bunemann kept a saloon at 519 Market. In the 1900 Census Charles and Eliza, aged 60 and 58, live alone; they are both alive, aged 70, in the 1910 census. Elizabeth claimed a Civil War pension for Charles after he died July 25 1910; she lived until August 22, 1917 (I am not positive about my reading of the difficult handwriting here).
My great-grandfather Theodore Protas Berle had a younger brother, Adolf Augustus (Sr.) who followed him to Oberlin and then New England and appears to have stayed a parson. He was the father of four high-achieving children, who were mentioned in Time Magazine on March 12, 1934, and appears to have been as strict a figure in the home as his less notable brother:
"I met a little boy in the streets of Antwerp one day," explained Rev. Dr. Adolf Augustus Berle (pronounced Burly) to a New York Herald Tribune newshawk. "He couldn't have been more than ten years old but he addressed me in perfect English. . . . Then I changed to French and his French was better than mine. . . . Amazed, I asked him if he knew any other languages, and he said yes, he could speak Dutch. . . . Then & there I resolved to myself that if there ever were any little Berle children, they wouldn't let that little Belgian peasant boy have anything on them. Shortly after that I got married."
There were four little Berle children, all prodigies. Oldest is Lina Wright who entered Radcliffe at 14½, took her A. B. and M. A. before she was 20 and is now, at 40, a financial researcher in her brother's office. Second oldest is Adolf Jr. who entered Harvard at 13. took two degrees before he was 18, graduated from law school at 21, taught law at Columbia University, became a Roosevelt Brain Truster and is today, at 39, Chamberlain of the City of New York. Next is Miriam Blossom who entered Radcliffe at 15, graduated at 19, got a degree at the Sorbonne and now, at 36, teaches Latin at Dobbs Ferry, N. Y. Youngest is Rudolf Protas who entered Harvard at 14, took his A. B. and M. A. before he was 18. graduated from law school at 22 and now at 32 practices law with Brother Adolf in Manhattan. Father Berle made his children memorize Latin and Greek, German and Italian before they could read them, made them study straight through summer vacations. Said he: "It's always been sort of a joke with us that Adolf has become so prominent, because Rudolf could have figured in public life years ago if he had wished. President Coolidge offered him a job as Assistant Attorney General long before Adolf entered politics but Rudolf refused it." (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930183,00.html)
Using ancestry.com, which we subscribe to at work, I was able to go back a generation to Theodore and Augustus' parents. Their father was named Protas Berle:
From Kenneth Coar's website, http://coar.org/GEDCOM/d0000/g0000028.html
[1993-04-19, from notes by Edward Sears Castle]
'PROTAS BERLE eimgrated in the 1850s from the Rhine valley town of Alt
Breisach, Germany, to St., Louis, Mo., with his wife Elizabeth Cornelius.
Protas' forebears had practised medicine in Breisach, and Elizabeth was
the daughter of a family of brewers either in Breisach or in nearby
Freiburg. He worked in St. Louis as a photographer, and there is extant a
fine 5X7 photographic negative (plate) which is a portrait of his wife.
Two boys were born to the Berles: Theodore Protas (1862) and Adolf
Augustus (1866). The family was Catholic, as was appropriate to their
Baden origin, and Theodore was an altar boy in that church. Protas is
said to have served in the Union Army in the Civil War and is rumored to
have deserted from any event; in any event he died a few years later as
the result of "swamp fever" contracted in the Army, was for some
reason not now clear refused Catholic burial, and his spirited widow
thereupon renounced the Faith for herself and for her sons. She
remarried, and is thought to have had several more children by August
Buehneman. She never learned English, but corresponded in German with
her son Theodore Berle and visited him at least once at his married home
in Reading, Mass. On this occasion her peppery spirit was again
demonstrated by her throwing back at her daughter-in-law Avis a cake
baked in her honor; it is believed that the cake was beneath German
standards.
Ancestry informs me that Protas Berle served with the 1st Regiment, U. S. Reserve Corps, Missouri Infantry, in Company K, as a Private, for 3 months in 1861.
He was assessed for taxes in 1863; this apparently is the source of information about his photography business, as discussed in a book, Pioneer photographers from the Mississippi to the continental divide (http://books.google.com/books?id=UNipzykMBEIC&pg=PA106&lpg=PA106&dq=protas+berle&source=bl&ots=UUPVybwCqH&sig=XIklNZuoHrQzp4cOJih1tXqmdFQ&hl=en&ei=xQk9TNrgBYn9nAfw6bTdDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCYQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=protas%20berle&f=false) on p. 106:
"P. Berle applied for a $6.67, eight month federal tax license in St. Louis in May 1863. The St. Luois business directory of that year cited his name as "P. Berll," and "ambrotype artist" operating at 33 Morgan Street, upstairs, and residing at 42 Morgan. The 1867 and 1868 St. Louis directories listed him as a photographer residing at 220 Morgan; the 1867 edition spelled his first name Protas, while the 1868 edition spelled it "Prutas." (Compare Protas Perle.)"
"Prothas" Berle died on 3 April 1869 in St. Louis, with the address of Broadway and Morgan, leaving his sons aged 7 and 3. I also found a death record for a Lina Louisa Berle on 17 March 1868, residing at 3rd and Morgan and buried in Cavalry cemetery; given that Adolf Augustus named his first child Lina, I wonder if this was a sister of the boys, or possibly an aunt or other relative of the family.
"Widow Elise Cornelius Berle" married Carl Heinrich Buenemann on 31 December 1869. (Mrs. Elisabetha Berle also married Charles H. Buenemann on 30 December 1881 - assuming these are the same two people, I wonder what's up with that - loss of documents, a change of churches, a separation and remarriage?) In the 1880 Census the household consisted of Chas. H. Bunemann, age 40, Elizabeth, age 39, Theodore Berle, age 19, Adolph Berle, age 14, Mollie Bunemann, age 8, Lena Bunemann, age 4, and August Bunemann, age 3. In 1890, Charles H. Bunemann kept a saloon at 519 Market. In the 1900 Census Charles and Eliza, aged 60 and 58, live alone; they are both alive, aged 70, in the 1910 census. Elizabeth claimed a Civil War pension for Charles after he died July 25 1910; she lived until August 22, 1917 (I am not positive about my reading of the difficult handwriting here).
no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 06:02 am (UTC)So I'm looking, and my mom's side of the family is elusive--either I'm not sure when they emigrated and/or what name they actually went by ("Hansine Sorensen" is not showing up under that or under her married name, Miller, nor is Katrinka Kawula/Wilson--but I recall when finding her at Ellis Island many years ago that her name was something slightly different). And the men are...Andrew Miller and Albert Wilson. Who I can find many of, but not anyone who seems to be the right one.
My dad's family, though, is proving a bit easier--for one thing, they're farmers from way back, and lived in the same place. So I just found my great-great grandfather, his wife, and their two remaining children at home (of 6 living, 7 she'd had, apparently!). The parents were both born in Ireland (he came over in 1857, she in 1849). He was illiterate, but she could read and write, as could both children.
By 1910, only the son (my great-grandpa) was showing up, by now married (to "Katie!" who I actually met when I was small, and am named after--my middle name is Catherine) and with my grandfather and his sister (Irish twins recorded as 14/12 old and 3/12 old!) No idea who her parents were, but one was from Ireland, and one from Illinois...
Fascinating!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 10:55 am (UTC)Yeah, any ethnic names can get problematic fast. Even "Berle" gets spelled a lot of ways, and I've been repeatedly stumped by Michael's Polish ancestors (Tybyszewski and Robalenska, not so easy to spell consistently.)