Charles August & Wilhemina (Keuer/Kier) Kuhlmann

Grant Township, Clark County, Wisconsin

Contributed by Janet Schwarze.

The name, "Kuhlmann" means "deweller on a pond."

Charles August Kuhlmann was nicknamed "Carl."  He was born of  July 27, 1856 near the Jördenstorf area Mecklenberg, Germany.  His mother was Sophia Kuhlmann and we do not know his father's name because Carl was unehelich (born out of wedlock).

During the 1867 census the Heinrich Bastian household included his wife, Friederike (Mrs. Bastian); a daughter, Christine, who was five years old; a two year old son, Martin; and Friederike's sixty year old mother, Louise Becker.  Three others were also listed: Carl Kühlmann, born 1856; Heinrich Kühlmann/Kührmann, born 1846 (no relationship to head of household was given); and Fritz Peters who was born in 1847, no relationship to the head of the household was given for any of these.

Four years after his arrival in the States, Carl married Wilhemina Keuer/Kier, on the first of February, 1884.  Their fifth child, Caroline Chanley (photo) wrote the following history of her family.

MY TIME FOR LIVING

By Caroline (Kuhlmann) Chanley

Dedicated to my children: Blanche Roberta Zeluff, Beulah Rose Cox, Helen Fern Craig and Lynn Donald Chanley.

My father, Charles August Kuhlman, was born July 27, 1856 in Mecklenburg, Germany. I believe he was a shepherd boy in his childhood. We always understood he was adopted by a family named Bastain. After serving a term in the Army in Germany, he came to America. I do not know if he came with the Bastain family, or joined them after he got here. He was seventeen years old at the time.

A bit of history about Political unrest in Europe at this time: Political unrest in Europe led to the revolution of 1848. German patriots responded by forming a National Parliament that met at Frankfurt to form a constitution for a united German empire. Because the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV refused to become the German emperor, the movement for German unity and liberty, promised to the people by his father, Frederick William III, was lost. Following this unsuccessful revolution, many Germans of ability and culture came to the United States to seek freedom of thought and action.

The Bastain family settled in Brillion, Wisconsin. He had one brother, Fred, and two sisters: Sophia and Freida who remained in Germany. I know nothing of them. We did, however, have a picture of them. I do not know how my father was employed in Brillion.

The Kuhlmann's Cabin Home

My mother was also born in the province of Mecklenburg, Germany on December 8, 1864. Her parents came to America when she was four years old. Her parents, too, settled in Brillion, Wisconsin. My mother's mother died when she was nine years old. Grandpa's name was Henry Kueher - later changed to Kier. She had two brothers, Fred and Henry.
When mother grew up she met and married my father in Brillion. My mother's given name was Wilhelmina (she was called Minnie). They lived in Brillion for some years. Three of her children were born there. My mother was very particular about the butter she made for her clientele, who purchased this item from her through a local store. I remember many of the beautiful butter moulds she used.

Sometime around 1885 they moved to Neillsville, WI. My sister Amanda, myself and my brother Arthur were born here. After this period of time, they moved to the small town of York. I don't believe it exists any longer. I can remember living in Neillsville and also in York. My dad worked for John Hein lumber company. When my dad moved to Tony, WI, they sold their farm there. The town of Tony was named for a Tony Hein who developed the lumber industry in this area.

I can Remember my parents getting us up early in the morning and I had my first train ride. I was eight years old. Was that ever a long trip! We had to change trains three times at Merrillan, Eau Claire, and Cameron. It was November and raining. I know my mother had her hands full with a bunch of tired kids. Well, we finally got to Tony, but the lady we were to be with was out hunting, so we went to the local hotel and had to sit until the lady came for us. I don't remember whether or not she got a deer.

We moved into a double down near deertrail creek. It seems that that our half had been used for a school room. A new school had been built and they had just moved into it. It was two rooms - one downstairs and one upstairs.

My first day of school was in York. They had a teaching chart that was wound with a crank. I walked two and one half miles to school. I also remember going to school in Tony - the first day. We were a little late and we dashed into the door and took some vacant seats. How the teacher smiled. Her name was Mollie Hollis.

We lived in town for two years. Then dad bought a 40 acre farm. They spent Sundays cutting down trees and trimming them and finally one Sunday the whole town turned out to roll up our log house. The women helped mother served dinner under the trees. Finally we moved out to the farm. What fun! Birds to sing by the thousands and wild cats, wolves and bears at night. What shivers!

My girlhood chums were Beatrice Burgess, who later wed a Fred Scott. Louella Sharrah, who married Frank Leonard and Ethel Gill, who married Nick Christman. My girlhood chums and I used to spend the night at each other's house once in a while - something like the slumber parties of today.

The summers we were in town we had fun too. Being in lumber country, logs were piled high along Deertail Creek. We used to climb over those piles of logs and out into the creek which was full of floating logs. One log rolled with me and I fell into the water. It was no problem to get out as the creek was full of logs. I sat on a log until my clothes dried before I went home. My mother would have "skinned me" if I had come home wet.

My dad worked ten hours a day at the lumber mill for $1.00 per day. When he go home late at night, after supper, he and mother would go out and cut wood for the winter.
My dad had a team of oxen named Turk and Jerry. In the spring we would load the whole family into the wagon to go blueberry picking about 16 miles from home. It took two days to make the trip. Cranberries grew wild in a bog about two miles from our home.

When it snowed, it was fun to haul the wood on a sled to the house. In January we had what was called "January thaw."  The weather thawed day times and froze at night. It was fun to walk or slide on top of the snow.

We had to make our own pleasures. Winter evenings in the beautiful moonlight we played hide and seek and " run sheep run".

Somewhere along the line, I forgot to mention my sister Helen, who was born on June 29th about 1894. She only lived two months, and is buried at Wilcox, WI. My brother Ewald was born in Tony on June 19, 1896 and he only lived to be six years old. Then my sister Lillie was born November 17,1899 and my youngest brother Ben (photo) was born on September 10, 1902.
Things moved on - we went to school and worked at home. Saturday was always baking day at our house. We baked cakes, pies, cookies, doughnuts and bread. My mother was a wonderful cook and her freshly baked bread and homemade butter was one of our childhood treats.

My first doll had a china head and when I was a little older, I remember sitting in my rocker one day sewing and accidentally rocking over my doll's head and smashing it to bits.
I always loved to sew and began when I was about seven. By the time I was thirteen I was making my own clothes and clothes for others in the family. Patterns cost fifteen cents each, but all of our clothes were made from patterns of our own creation, cut from newspapers. Calico, gingham, and flannel were the varieties of the day. Calico was five cents per yard, the best grade costing ten cents. It took about five yards to make a dress, which was worn ankle length. My mother had a Singer treadle machine which she purchased in about 1888. I am not sure what it cost, but I think it was about $25.00. It was the days before the drophead and had a protective cover over the top.

I finished the ninth grade and started the tenth, but it was boring - I was the only one in the class. Teachers boarded out in the local community in those days. The town board hired teachers from written applications. When a teacher married, she left her teaching career.

The next thing for me was a job. There was nothing much for young girls to do in Tony except house work and I hated that. At the age of seventeen I left home. I first went to Greenwood, WI and stayed with my sister Frieda (who was then married) and got a job in town doing housework. I made two dollars a week. I soon tired of that, so moved to St. Paul, MN. I was about twenty years old. Again I did housework for a wealthy doctor - a Dr. Davis and his family. After awhile I was promoted to cook. At first I was a maid and learned the nice way to serve meals and when I became a cook, I learned to prepare nice meals. It was good training.

Upon the recommendation of some of our relatives, I then went to Mendota, WI to work in the hospital there. I working in the superintendent's department for three years. It was there I met my future Husband, George William Chanley. I was relief cook in the officers' kitchen and I used to fill my huge uniform pockets with goodies and when I met George and another couple we double dated with, we ate up everything. They say that it is the way to a man's heart - "feed the brute".

Before I met George I dated a boy named Tom Moore. I still haven't figured him out. Time goes on!

George and I were married in Jasper, IN (near his hometown) and made our first home in Birdseye, IN with his parents. My first daughter, Blanche, was born on Feb 1, 1916. Things did not go so well. The barn burned and the boys lost a lot. Dad came to Indianapolis to work and left me down there. I wanted to stay alone, be he wouldn't let me, so I moved in with his mother. I soon found out I didn't own anything, not even my clothes, so I went back home to visit my folks in Wisconsin until we could make some other arrangements. George went with me as far as Chicago.

I stayed with my folks until June and he had rooms for us in Indianapolis, and here we still are. He had rented rooms from a Mrs. Ooghe, whose daughter May later married an uncle of my daughter Beulah's husband. May Ooghe always loved to tell the story that when Beulah was a baby she used to come over and stay all night with me, in case I should need some help. She thought Beulah was a cute baby and wanted to know if she could be her aunt. How strange things work out that in later years she did become Beulah's aunt through marriage. Beulah was born here in Indianapolis on March 17, 1918.

About this time dad got a job at the Prestolite Battery Company in Speedway City and we moved to 525 Livingston Av. Then the folks who owned the house needed the house so we hunted, or rather dad did and found a place on Somerset Av, the next block over from where we were living. Housing was so hard to find because the war had stopped all types of construction. Anyway, we moved over there and stayed for nearly forty years. There were mud streets, no sidewalks, no water, no gas and only electric lights. The woods began right across the street from us.

Some people by the name of Catt were living at the Somerset Av house when we bought it. They were unable to find a place to move, so we shared this house until they could find something. This association led to a lifetime friendship with these good people.

My daughter Helen was born here on Feb 4, 1921 and my son Lynn Donald was born on May 26, 1928.

School #67 was right across the street from us on Walnut Street, so I did not have the problem of seeing the children off to school. All of the children attended grade school #67 and all attended George Washington High School.

When Blanche was little, she had a tendency to wander off from the time she was three years old. Twice I had to call the police to help find her. One time she was located at the fire station in Haughville, which was a little village about five or six miles from home. Another time she was enjoying refreshments at the Central State Hospital, also several miles from home. Later all the children would wander and I ran my legs off.

Since Don was the baby of the family, he more or less grew up by himself.

Today all of the children are married. Blanche and Helen have families of their own.

On Aug 31, 1947 dad died suddenly with a heart attack. Don was in Japan serving his time with the U.S. Army. I was alone and faced with the problem of earning my living. Beulah's husband, Jesse Cox was just starting out in his own business and asked me to work for him. I was glad to have a steady job. Today he has a big business and after twenty five years of working for him I am now retired. I loved my work at Aero.

Five years ago the school board decided to expand their school #67 facilities and make a parking lot. Eight families were involved, I among them, so I had to move and our old family home was torn down. I felt I was too old to get involved with any more property, so here I am in Meadowbrook Apartments, first floor, no responsibilities and no headaches. I no longer have Mildred come in and clean, so I keep fairly active.

I will be 84 on Oct 31st. My sister Bertha, who lived in Menomonie, WI with her daughter passed away this past winter, leaving me as the last survivor of my immediate family.
I have been going on trips for more than twenty years and have been about everywhere in the world. Each year I wonder if I will be able to go the next year. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them and met some very nice people.

I sincerely think the United States is the greatest place on Earth. We have scenery that equals, or exceeds that in any other country. Every climate and every mode of transportation - and for other countries most are friendly and I can say " I have been there".

Somewhere along the line I have neglected to tell about our family Christmases. Sometime during the summer my dad used to mark a tree in the woods, and about a week before Christmas he would wade through snow almost up to his waist and chop it down and bring it home. Mother would start baking cookies. We were home from school for Christmas vacation and mother let us help. She made cookies with a hole in the middle (made the hole with her thimble, then she iced them and sprinkled sugar on them. We put strings through the holes to hang them on the tree. We popped corn and stung it, strung cranberries, made paper chain of tissue paper. The tree was enormous to us it it was beautiful. The candles were real and were in different colors. As for gifts, we didn't get much. I usually got a wide red ribbon and was I ever proud to have two wide bows on my long braided hair.  Lillie got a doll once and Ben a sled - the others I do not remember.

Once we had a turkey and once a goose. I guess the rest of the time we had chicken. There were always homemade mince meat and pumpkin pies. On Christmas Eve we always had a "Stollen" which is a big thick coffee caked baked in a bundt pan. It was marvelous. Could my mother ever bake!

When company came for dinner, it was the custom for the children (us and their children) to wait until the adults ate, and I always had the horrible feeling there wouldn't be anything left for us, but somehow there always was.

We went to the Methodist Church and I used to get to walk with a boy down the road. His name was Leonard Kaiser. I think I was in love with him. His family later moved to South Dakota and I never have seen him again. His family eventually moved back to Tony, but he did not come with them, and by that time I was living away from home in St. Paul - such is life!

We had no hobbies. My mother didn't believe in anything but work. There was a traveling library in town and I used to get books. My mother didn't believe in reading and I couldn't have a light, so I stuck the book in the window and read until the printing just ran together.

Church and Sunday School were the only entertainment. The church put on a Christmas program and an Easter program, and being a very small town, everyone took part. It was mostly a Catholic town.

Our schools put on programs too and my class was the first to graduate there. I wrote the class prophecy which foretold the future for the graduating class. Our teachers name was Alice M. Pratt. I still have my graduation certificate.

When I was about sixteen years of age I dated a Swedish boy, who also lived down the road and over the next "bump" from the Kaiser family. His home was in Chicago. This romance died a natural death also.

Retrospection and bits of philosophy

Every life must have headaches and heartaches. The things I have left out of this little chronicle were done deliberately. They could serve no good purpose and hurt no one. I only mention it because, like everyone, my life was not all a bed of roses. Like everyone the point is to rise above it.

So many people have been so lovely and have left so many pleasant memories, why should I worry about the very few who were not so friendly? I feel no malice, and I am going to spend my declining years remembering the good things in life.

I have no worries and live in comfort - even luxury. I have been blessed with wonderful children. My health is great, and I keep fairly busy. Retiring has left me with one thing - I don't have to get up so early. All in all, I have had a good life and when it is time for me to go, I probably will dry up and blow away.

God bless you all!  Caroline Kuhlman Chanely died May 20, 1984 at the age of 94.
 

An uncle, for whom Charles Kuhlmann was named, may have fought and died in the American Civil War may have been a reason for Carl to immigrate to the USA.

Sources: Church, Cemetery, Family, County, Ship and Census Records and information supplied by Rita Wolfmeyer (A Bastian relative).

Research Notes

1. LAND INDEX: 1901-1905 General Land Office Registers lists Karl Kuhlmann as owner of Sec. 28, Town 35N, Range 5W in Rusk Co., WI. (Faust & Jungbut 1901-05)

2. A Note from another descendant

My mom recalled hearing that Carl Kuhlman came from Germany between the age of 18 - 24. He was raised in an orphanage. When he came to America he lived with a family near Green Bay, WI.  She does not know the name of that family.  He was a staunch Lutheran. His burial service was held at the Methodist Church in Tony because there was no Lutheran church there at that time but the services were of the Lutheran denomination.  Anita Schiferl, Marshfield, WI

Related Links

Obit: Kuhlman, Carl (1856 - 1931) (Obituary photo)