Johann and Elizabeth -- Immigration

I've been working to uncover as close as possible when Fred's parents moved to America. There are a few different documents to consult here. The first place considered was the naturalization records, which typically spell out the Date and port of arrival in the U.S. Johann's records show this occurred on April 11, 1871. However, whomever took these records was not the most thorough. His address is just listed as "Jamaica Plain" and the Date and port of arrival is listed as empty.

The 1900 US Census has a convenient Citizenship section, which includes an input for "Year of Immigration to the United States," followed by "Number of Years in the United States." There are inputs for Fred and Elizabeth in the census, both for the year 1852, and thus calculating against the 1900 date of the census, they'd spent 48 years in the United States.

This sets us pretty well in the year 1852, but I wondered if I could get any more specific. Prior to migration, Johann and Elizabeth had given birth to some children, and consulting their records (particular Jean Kohlhepp, who was born, baptized, and died in 1852) we can get a closer date.

Ancestry's collection of "Hesse, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1661-1957" has 3 entries for Jean Kohlhepp born to a Johann Friedrich Kohlhepp and a Maria Elisabetha Benedicta Wetzler:

(a) General record of birth, baptism, death

Name: Jean Kohlhepp

Gender: Male
Birth Date: 11 Mrz 1852 (11 Mar 1852)
Baptism Date: 21 Mrz 1852 (21 Mar 1852)
Baptism Place: Evangelisch,Grossenlinden,Oberhessen,Hesse-Darmstadt
Death Date: 17 Jul 1852
Father: Johann Friedrich Kohlhepp
Mother: Maria Elisabetha Benedicta Wetzler
FHL Film Number: 269706

(b) Baptismal record

Name: Jean Kohlhepp

Gender: männlich (Male)
Event Type: Taufe (Baptism)
Birth Date: 11 Mrz 1852 (11 Mar 1852)
Baptism Date: 21 Mrz 1852 (21 Mar 1852)
Baptism Place: Hessen, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany)
Father: Friedrich Kohlhepp
Mother: Maria Elisabetha Cramer [NOTE: Name from prior marriage]
Author: Evangelische Kirche Großen Linden (Kr. Gießen)
City or District: Großen Linden
Parish as it Appears: Großenlinden
Page Number: 16;17

(c) Burial record

Name: Jean Kohlhepp

Death Age: 4/12
Event Type: Beerdigung (Burial)
Birth Date: abt 1852
Death Date: 17 Jul 1852
Burial Date: 20 Jul 1852
Burial Place: Hessen, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany)
Father: Johann Friedrich Kohlhepp
Mother: Maria Elisabetha Kohlhepp
Author: Evangelische Kirche Großen Linden (Kr. Gießen)
City or District: Großen Linden
Parish as it Appears: Großenlinden
Page Number: 12;13

Based on these records (I do not have the originals, it is a text only record database), they would have not left prior to Jean's burial in Grossenlinden on July 20, 1852. So the immigration occurred in the latter half of 1852. These records also cast further doubt on the Jewish heritage question; one could argue that one parent just accommodated the other in religious matters, but at the moment all we have is evidence of is a Lutheran background.

While this might seem to lock us into the 1852 date, there is some ambiguity in the records. The 1910 federal census, after Elizabeth passed away, still contains similar Citizenship information, and for Johann, this time it lists the year as 1856. Which is correct?

I'll need to find the specific records whether birth or marriage records documenting Amelia's birthplace, but the generic online records have her born in 1855 in Massachusetts, which would mean that Johann and Elizabeth migrated earlier.

1938 Article on Minerva Teichert (Fred's Daughter)

The Relief Society Magazine (a periodical for women published unofficially by the Church of Jesus CHrist of Latter Day Saints) in Volume 25, No. 3 (March, 1938), pages 168-170 has an article on my great-grandmother, Fred's daughter Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert. The article is entitled "One of Ours (Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert)," and judging by it, this is a recurring series. It was written by Dorothy Clapp Robinson. An interest article in its own right, I'll only focus on the details in it up to Fred's death in 1919. I prefer providing the source not in bits (as you can tell by now), so here is the section I am interested in:

"Undoubtedly her talent for drawing was inherited. Perhaps there was born with her, too, a talent for perseverance but both qualities were added upon by a rare type of directed effort. There came a time when she tasted the joy of recognition by critics and teachers but not until she had paid the price. Out of Boston came an educated talented Jew, convert to a new faith. In the West he married a girl who had been bred in that faith. Both had literary and artistic ability. Minerva, their second child, was given all that complete understanding and encouragement could give, but there was no money for painting lessons. Isolated on a farm, miles and miles from a teacher, no money to take her where there were teachers, mere living was a struggle. One less valiant would have wept and succumbed to their lack of opportunity. Not Minerva. 'Knock and it shall be opened unto you' had literal meaning for her. She knocked and knocked until doors of opportunity began opening as doors will to those who persist.

At age thirteen, the age when most girls are just leaving the doll period, she was already making her own living and paying for painting lessons. Minerva Kohlhepp was born in Ogden but in her first months her parents moved to Idaho. There is little about dry-farming and ranching that she does not know. There is little of it she has not put on canvas. In a little shore in American Falls she first exhibited. While still a child she dressed a group of dolls in native costumes of every country. They drew a great deal of praise but seemingly took her no nearer an art teacher.

In Pocatello she worked for her board and attended high school. There she met a woman with splendid artistic ability who helped her to other contacts. A Mrs. Sparks who was going to San Francisco needed a girl for nursemaid. Minerva had been preparing herself for just such an opportunity. In San Francisco she found time for work at Mark Hopkins' Art School.

After graduating from high school she taught in rural Idaho just long enough to insure a year of study in the East. In February, 1908, she enrolled as a student in the Art Institute in Chicago--and what a student! Once there, nothing less than finishing would satisfy. She worked and schemed and borrowed money in order to stay. By July she had completed the first year's work. In 1912 she completed a three years' academic course beside studying Dramatic Art and Indian Dancing at the Chicago Conservatory of Music.

The year 1913 found her back in Idaho teaching school, paying debts, writing poetry and finding time to file and live on a homestead near American Falls. It was at this time also that her determination to be a great painter suffered a slight retard. Herman Teichert, who pursued her as persistently as she pursued art, came near winning his case. But before she had quite decided, an offer came to teach art at the University of Utah. Her ambition flared anew and she went to New York for final preparation.

All these years her reputation had been growing and hardly had she reached New York when she was offered a scholarship under Robert Henri. Henri had come back to the Art Students League for the year 1914-15. This big chance swept away all immediate thoughts of homestead, sweetheart, and teaching offer. She was the first to enroll under the master portrait painter and became not only a favorite pupil but a warm personal friend. Some think her portraits show a strong Henri influence. She received other scholarships as well, one under George Bridgeman for draftmanship.

The next three years brought Miss Kohlhepp another rare privilege. The war was on. The wealth and culture of the world settled in New York. The Art Students League, fearing complications, would accept no gifts of money, but wealthy patrons of art could and did aid the struggling pupils. This aid came in the form of tickets to things of worth. Minerva Kohlhepp being an advanced student shared generously.

Many of her evenings were spent listening to opera, studying theatrical lighting effects, enjoying Russian ballet, etc.

During this time her financial problems were still with her but with the determination so characteristic of her she found things to do about it. She had a natural bent for making the most of a dollar and a propensity for finding work along the line she liked. She sketched cadavers for doctors. She painted animals for a series of school books. One afternoon she did a portrait of Wallace Beery dressed in skins for the show Purple Knight. She received fifty dollars for that. She did much work for the movies.

Of her the great Henri said, "She is one of the coming woman artists of America."

The summer of 1917, when war clouds hung so threateningly, Miss Kohlhepp woke to the realization there were other fields of interest far from halls of learning. For the first time in her life painting took second place in her heart. She hurried home to marry her cowboy sweetheart, Herman Teichert. While he served in France she lived on his paternal homestead that in the days of stock companies had been known as Tall Tree Center. Mrs. Teichert loved this old ranch and some of her finest work was done there. She loved the Snake River "bottoms" where the ranch was located. She told of it in verse and story as well as on canvas. It is her delineation of life on the "bottoms" that makes her so essentially an Idaho artist.

There was everything in that section to stimulate the artistic urge. From Horse Island to Big Hole, from Ferry Butte to the cataracts at American Falls she gathered her studies. And such a variety! Here were tradition, scenery, and local color. Here she found marsh grass, brown-topped tules, gray-green sage, blue pools and foaming rapids, stretches of meadowland and warmscented cowpaths, giant gnarled cottonwood, tangy willows and flaming kinnikinick. Here, too, were picturesque cowboys, gaudily attired bucks, squaws in bright blankets and papooses in boards. She studied bucking broncos, dances to the Sun God and the ruins of old Fort Hall."

Items to consider/research further:

- Look into "One of Ours" to see if it was a series and what general purpose of the series was. Clearly, it is to highlight and draw positive attention to Minerva in this particular case.

- Who was Dorothy Clapp Robinson and how would she have learned about Minerva?

- Here we encounter the Jewish myth once more. I've not seen in friends own writings or those of his sisters or parents anything on Jewish ancestry. I remarked in a prior post how I wonder if this spread from a folk etymology of the term Kohlhepp and family ancestry speculations.

- Fred is noted as educated and talented. It describes Minerva's art talent as inherited. There's often a reference to Fred as being a source of her artistic talent in other sources. This article (perhaps since it is an article for women) also notes that Mary Ella was a source for her talent ("Both had literary and artistic ability").

- It gets Fred's Boston upbringing right, and his marrying Mary Ella in the west. It's interesting that it seems to suggest Fred converted to the faith first, and then married a girl bred in the faith. I'm not sure that sequence of events is quite right.

- It really stresses the Kohlhepp's family poverty. They cannot afford lessons, but they do provide encouragement. No teacher is anywhere near where they live. Quite likely true in towns like Neeley and Rockland. Poverty is driving the Kohlhepps to have their children work at young ages to pay for their living and board, to live in other homes. As a teenager, Minerva is going out to San Francisco. Perhaps for someone like Frederick who made his own journey throughout the United States as a young man, this is seen as they way of things.

- The article reports that the Kohlhepps moved quite quickly to Idaho following Minerva's birth, "in her first months." This would have put the migration to Idaho in late 1888, early 1889.

- She exhibits the first time in a little store in American Falls.

- It isn't until she makes it to Pocatello that she finds a woman (Mrs. Sparks) to further her artistic abilities.

- The other items don't tell us much about Minerva's relationship with her family, as much as her having been away. It does make one wonder how much the sisters really grew up together.

Jewish Ancestry Mythology (Lisonbee Account 1)

Hope Hilton was a freelance historian (much like I hope to become) who studied the Kohlhepp family generally to obtain a basis for information to understand the upbringing of her mother (Annalee Skarin) for her works like "Descent into Madness." I think she did a lot of great work, even if I do not agree with the conclusions she makes about the family in her Skarin writings. Her research was donated to the University of Utah, and greatfully made available to me. Amongst her papers I located a short biography of Frederick written by his third daughter, Eda Kohlhepp Lisonbee. It has several items of interest that I will try to study topically. First, let me paste the first section of the text, from which I will analyze and discuss it.

"Handwritten by the daughter of Frederick John Kohlhepp, Aug. 28, 1959. From the memory of Mrs. Eda Kohlhepp Lisonbee of Ashland, Ore. Sent to her neice, Hope A. Hilton also the granddaughter of Ferderick John Kohlhepp in 1959.

HISTORY of Frederick John Kohlhepp 1862-1919

My father frederick John Kohlhepp was born in Boston 13 Feb. 1862. His parents were Frederick John Kohlhepp and Elizabeth Wetzler who came from Germany in 1860 and settled in Boston. Frederick John Kohlhepp I started a dying establishment as the family had been dyers in Germany (Poland) and Russian since the Middle Ages, the name Kohl still means dye or dyer in the Middle East while the word “Hepp” meant “Jew” in Poland in the Middle Ages. Kohlhepp therefore meant a Jewish Dyer, as Jews were the only people allowed to be engaged in the dying business we know for certain that the family were Jewish in their culture and background, however as was common in Europe in the 1860’s to avoid persecution by the Gentiles[,] many Jews adopted the Christian religion or quit [being] their Jewish customs. Grandfather and his children were of this caliber[.] the only thing they refused to give into was the eating of pork. To my knowledge they never tasted it or allowed it in the home."

Commentary:

1. Eda informs us that her account is from her memory, so that it does not appear that she consulted any journals, letters, or other persons regarding the information she provides here. The document proports to have been written in 1859, which means Eda would have been 66 years old at the time of its production. The question then is if it is accurate. Even if it not, it still can give us an understanding of the family's impression of themselves and their history.

2. Eda refers to her paternal grandparents as Frederick John Kohlhepp and Elizabeth Wetzler. Their official names were Johann Friedrich Kohlhepp and Marie Elisabeth Wetzler. Is Eda flipping the grandfather's name and shortening the mother's, or is she referring to them the way the children and the grandparents actually referred to themselves? The best way to know this I suppose would be to examine correspondence and observe how they are referred to and refer to themselves.

3. Came from Germany to Boston in 1860? I don't believe that they immigrated so close to Fred's birth or that they initially settled in Boston, Massachussetts. I think that they had one stop before then. Here is where I will have to prove otherwise; the burden is with me.
NOTE: Having consulted my PAF, Fred had two sisters born earlier than him in the United States. One was born in 1853 (Elizabeth/Lizzie) in Rhode Island, the other in 1855 in Pennsylvania (Amelia). I should locate some Census records to verify this, but it seems very likely that they immigrated to the states at least by 1853.

4. The dying business. It is true that Johann Friedrich did run a dye factory in Boston, located in Jamaica Plains. I have an advertisement for the business as well as some listings in Boston and Jamaica Plains business directories. I will post these up later. However, Eda here does make a sweeping claim: that the Kohlhepps had been dyers since the Middle Ages (I am not sure how far back she means here--the Renaissance, earlier?) in Germany, Poland, and Russia. That she cites these three countries is interested, because due to family genealogical records, we have not found any Kohlhepps in Poland or Russia. Her reasoning (if not including word of mouth accounts) rests upon a folk etymology of the family surname, the Kohl and Hepp supposedly meaning Dyer and Jew in Middle Age Polish. I wonder how she came across this etymology. I need to conduct a surname search to see the possibilities of the meaning of "Kohlhepp" and if her interpretation was at all in vogue with the etymologists of her time period. Otherwise, did this come from subtle imagination?

5. This of course drives immediately to the Jewish question. Minerva Teichert had long claimed to come from Jewish ancestry. She drew a painting of Jewish immigrants coming to America, and associated with many Jewish people. The Mormon church (of which I am a member) had long connected itself with the House of Israel, and in patriarchal blessings assigns members to a tribe, which typically has a mission or role for the earth. Their is an idea of literal adoption into the House of Israel. Did the Kohlhepps wish themselves into Jewish ancestry? They did have a history of tall tales and exaggeration. I cannot find evidence that there was any Jewish blood that came into their lineage (though I am sure if we went back far enough we would, just as would be the case for nearly every human being on the earth). Fred's autobiography does not mention Jewish heritage either. Eda's further claims to support the Jewish theory are:
- Only Jews were allowed to be dyers. How so? Why?
- She claims Jews migrated from Germany to America and gave up their Jewish customs. I am sure this was true in some sense, but was it true on the whole? Why would the Kohlhepps participate? There is also a more fundamental problem here: Fred's mother was born a Christian, christined in a Christian church. I am not sure about Johann Friedrich, although he was a freemason. I will have to double-check my sources and post them up here. If these accounts are true, it seems strange to state they have Jewish heritage.
- She notes that the family refused to eat or have pork in the home. Even if this is true, did not other religious groups despise pork? I am sure there were many Christian groups that did the same from reading scriptures. It could also have just been family tradition or taste. I don't find this fact conclusive.

Given Eda's claims, did any of the other Kohlhepp sisters substantiate them, or back them up for the same reasons? This would be a difficult thing to find. I have heard that Fred's son, Fred, thought he had the natural right to be a Bishop do this jewish ancestry mythology. I will explain this claim more when I revise this post later.