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Note: BIOGRAPHY: Retyped again, July 1998 by Gary R. Smith as the copy sent tome from Roland E. Smith is not suitable for scanning. No attempt wasmade to correct the document) (A memoir written by Thomas Laverne Waber, retyped 7/86 by his nephew,Thomas V. Waber, son of L. Arthur, since the original did not xeroxclearly) Detroit, Michigan, April 1st, 1941 The Waber family in America as recalled by Thomas L. (“Vern”) Waber ofthe third generation. The family consisted of himself and wife Kunigunda and the childrenGeorge, Henry, Anna, Margaret, Thomas, Fredrick, James and a youngerchild whose name I do not know, who sickened and died while on the tripto America and was buried in the Atlantic ocean. In recording these words, it must be taken into account that what I nowset down may not be in accord with facts known by other descendants ofthe family and therefore this is only my personal opinion from the spokenword of my Father (Thomas) who did not tell it as an autobiography butonly snatches of conversation which I have heard him repeat. These wordsof my Father were only remembered by me and now recalled at this latedate. His remarks had no special appeal for me at the time and I mayhave some of the facts (from years of a faulty memory) twisted as tochronological sequence, but the main intent of this is to try to preservesome of the main events as I now feel they happened. I have no special knowledge of the Family as they lived in Germanyprior to their immigration to America, but I recall having heard thatJohannes or John Waber was what we would be known today as a forester orconservation officer. In Germany, the forests and any game that livedtherein seems to have been owned by some nobleman, duke, or lord orwhatever name they were known under in the German nobility. The forestmay have been under supervision of the government or state, but the gamewas only for the nobility, and when the hunting season came around allthe people had to make a drive through the woods, and the lords and theirguests held forth at the edge of the woods and had all the game driven tothem, and all they had to do was shoot whatever they wanted. No effortat all on their part. It was the duty of John Waber to watch the forestand see that no on cut any wood or caught any of the game. Whenever the peasants stole any of the wood, it was the practice to dipthe fresh-cut ends of the wood in manure water, that the ends of the woodbe colored dark like the wood that had been piled for some time, and thatwould make it less noticeable. Wood for the peasants was gathered onlywhen the state supervised the cutting and distribution. All trees wereremoved from the land by digging them out by the roots, and every branchand twig was saved and taken home, after which the ground was made readyand again planted to trees, and in that way a new growth of forest wasgrowing all the time, and there was no depletion of the acreage. The only game that could be taken by stealth was hares, or rabbits, aswe know them. They were caught by a snare, and the snares were made ofcopper wire into a loop, and a small tree was bent over the runway of therabbits and set with a trigger that would release the tree when therabbit ate the bait, and Mr. Rabbit would be found hanging by his neck.It was the duty of John to see that these snares wre removed whenever hefound them. He usually took them home, and at times he had severalbushels of them stored in the loft of his home. What disposition wasmade of the snares I do not know. John Waber was born in the year 1803 and died at the age of 80 yearsNovember 25th, 1883, Otsego, Michigan. Kunigunda was born November 21st,1808, and died May 28th, 1875, at the age of 67, at the family home inPine Grove Township, VanBuren county, Michigan. I do not have the dateof their marriage, nor do I know their social standing in the communityin which they lived in Germany. Owing to the fact that all names have a special significance andmeaning in Germany and the fact that Barbara Kunigunda (Egelseer) wasnamed for two of the early queens of Saxony who were known for theirpiety, Barbara and Kunigunda were names of the highest standing among theLutherans of old. Therefore, we must look upon the Egelseer family asbeing very highly esteemed in their native Germany. The origin of thename Waber is unknown to me, and owing to the fact that all names ofearly Germany were derived from the occupation by which ;the family madeits living, I can not imagine what they worked at. All trades and othermethods of existence were family affairs that were handed down togeneration after generation, and any secrets of the trade were mostcarefully guarded that no one not of the family came into possession ofthem. In the marriage of John Waber and Kunibunda Egelseer, we see themerging of two families of strong religious character and most highlyesteemed by their friends and neighbors. The family was of strongProtestant faity, as will be noted by their affiliation with the Lutheranchurch, which shows the convictions they held were of highest order, andthey must have had many ups and downs among the people affiliated withthe Catholic church, as the state was dominated by the Catholic church atthat time. These remarks are no criticism of the Catholic faith but areset down here to show the steadfast character and faith in their beliefs.Thus we find them affiliated with the Lutheran church upon their arrivalin America. I now come to time when the family are beginning to grow up, and wefind that when they decided to go to America that the oldest son wasnearing 20 years of age and that the youngest was jus born. The timeappears to me as about the time the Prussians were consolidating thekingdoms of Germany undr the Prussian yoke, and Bismarck was coming intoprominence as strong man of Germany who was to rule the empire for manyyears. The Waber family did not desire to have their sons become Prussiansoldiers, as the Prussians were old enemies of their kingdom. Theydecided to emigrate ot the Americas, where they were told that everythingwas free and all one had to do was help himself to get along in theUnited States. Their hardships must have been great before leaving Germany to causethem to dispose of their property and take upon themselves the unknownhardships of a new and foreign country where they could no speak a wordor our language as we now know. After having disposed of their property,we find that they had a long overland trip to reach Hamburg, Germany,where they were to take the boat for America. On arriving at Hamburg, they were put upon a sailing ship bound forAmerica. The family of six boys and two girls made quite a party to moveat one time, and they were put down in the hold of the ship where therewas no daylight and very little other light to see by. They wereherded-in like stock, and all lived together in a common lot as a herd ofcattle, and the privations must have been almost unbearable to them.This ship was an immigrant ship and carried only people their belongings.No other freight, only just human freight that was trying to get awayfrom intolerable conditions in their homeland and determined to havebetter things for their children than they were leaving behind. The meals had to be prepared on stoves down there in the hold, and asfar as I know, they may have slept alongside the stoves. These stoveswere community affairs and the different families had to take turns inusing tyhem, and many times several wanted them at the same time, andthis caused much confusion, and at times fighting was indulged in. This particular ship was thirteen weeks on the ocean, as it was a sailship and so had to go wherever the wind blew it. This ship was blown sofar south of its course that it first saw land somewhere along the coastof South America and then had to make its way back north to New York. We of this generation cannot even imagine the hardships and trials thefamily went through on that crossing, locked below decks days at a timeduring the storms and never seeing daylight frome one weekend to theother. How they procured their edibles is a mystery to me. They may havebrought them along, or again the shipping company may have furnishedthem. But I do know that they had to furnish their own bedding and maketheir own sleeping accommodations the best they could. What they did inthe way of washing clothes is one of the things that will always remainsome mystery, and I can only imagine what it was when I think of theother accommodations on shipboard. They finally arrived at New York City having lost their youngest childwho was unable to bear the hardships of the ocean crossing and was buriedin the Atlantic. After three months on this ship they came ashore andwent through the usual immigrant inspection and boarded a train forRochester, New York, where they had some former friends from Germany.They arrived in Rochester and were put up at a hotel for the first night,and in the morning when they paid their bill, they had the sum of 25cents in money left and no place to live. That they made good in their new home is the fact that after somethinglike five or six years we find that they own a small home in the city ofRochester. This home was where the union station now stands (or did someyears ago). There does not seem to have been anything to break themonotony of their making a living that was of importance in their livesduring these years, and as their children were growing into maturity theyfelt that they would have to leave the city if they were to have thething they had sought when leaving Germany. The time is now about the year 1855-56, and we find that they havedecided to move westward where they could get plenty of land cheap…andthat the older boys could help to make a home by all helping to clear upthe timber and thus have a new home. Michigan was the utopia of thatday, so they decided to come here. Land sharks were doing their stuff inthose days, and so the family traded their home in Rochester for 80 acresof land in Michigan, and we learn that trade was only a grab-bag, as noone had ever seen the property, and they had only hearsay as to where itwas or what it was. So again they move to an unknown home, and in due time they arrive atKalamazoo, where the Michigan land office was located, and on inquirythey found that the land they owned was some 25 miles northwest of thecity through a dense forest and that they could not find anyone who couldtake them to the property. Some of their friends advised them to securesomething near Kalamazoo and forget about their farm out in VanBurencounty, but they decided that as all they now owned in the orld was thispiece of land that they would move out there as soon as they were able. The fact that they had to do something to make a living was the mostimportant thing at this time, so they decided to move out to a placecalled Oshtemo Side Track, now known as Oshtemo, Michigan. This was atthe end of the Michigan Central Railroad at that time, and it wasbuilding on toward Chicago, and furnished the only source of work forthose who would work. The father and the older boys went to work for the railroad and wereemployed there for a couple of years. How long they lived in Oshtemo Ido not know, but owing to the fact that some time before the Civil Warthey were located on their farm in Pine Grove Township, VanBuren County,only half a mile from the north boundary line of the county, which iswhat is known as the base line (a line that was established when thestate was first surveyed and was the point from where all landdescriptions were made recorded in proceeding to the north or south fromthis line) and some eight miles southwest from Otsego. They found on neighbors when they arrived at their farm (I call it afarm, as that was what it beccame in time) and proceeded to carve a homefrom the wilderness. They found a plot of groung that was bare of anywoods or brush and all cleared containing some six or eight acres thathad only to be cultivated and planted to grow corps. This clearing wassaid to have been cleared by the early Indians and used to grow corn.The family grew corn and wheat and for meat killed wild pigs, turkeys,and other small game. Their groceries such as sugar, coffee, and flourhad to be transported over foot trails from Otsego and carried on theirbacks. I have heard my father say that when he was about 16 he carriedthe family flour on his back from Otsego in fifty-pound sacks. The family left Germany so that their boys would not become soldiers ofPrussia, but at the beginning of the Civil War we find that the familywas duly enlisted in the cause of the nation that it should no become adivided country. The records further show that the family wasrepresented in the Spanish War, also in the first World War. The children who comprised the family at this time were George, Henry,Anna, Margaret, Thomas Fredrick and James, all of the second generation. George Waber married Mary Miller (Mueller), daughter of Nicholaus andAnna (Killer) Miller. Five children were born to them, as follows:George, Louis, John Daniel, and Elizabetha (“Betha”). Henry Waber married_____________________(Linda Alice__?___). Three(4?) children were born of this union, James A., Henry, and Kunigunda. Anna Waber married George Kurtz. Three children, as follows: Charles,Henry, John. George Kurtz died, and Anna Waber Kurtz then married JohnMiller, son of Nicolaus and Anna (Killer) Miller. Two children,a sfollows: Anna, Clara. Margaret Waber married Charles May. There were nine children: Fred,Philip, Anna, Barbara, Frances, Charlie, Nellie, Alice, Elmer. Thomas Waber married Anna Eliza Miller, daughter of Nicolaus and Anna(Killer) Miller. There were five children: Thomas L., Alma, James W.,Paul M., L. Arthur. <<Roland E. Smith inserted a hand written note here:Roland’s, Roger’s + Louise’s great uncles + grandmother-Thomas was theonly one I never knew-Roland>> Frederick Waber married __________________, There was one son,Frederick Jr. James Waber never married, no children. This makes 28 descendants in the third generation. Copiers note: Some parenthetical information was supplied in pencil (on the originalfrom which this was made) by “Uncle Vern’s” brother, Arthur, my father.In the original, also, Vern was under the impression the Kunigunda was ofa family named ”Weise”, but genealogical records establish firmly that itwas Egelseer. Where blanks are show above, the inguirer can find fullinformation in the Waber genalogical files curreently in the possessionof James and Faith MacGregor. Thomas V. Waber (son of L. Arthur) July, 1986 Southfield, MI
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