Malcomb John McEachran

Malcomb John McEachrans b. 18 May 1819- 1895 was born on Prince Edward Island to Dugald McEachran b. 1788 and Catherine McLeod b. 1800. It is assumed they were married in 1818. The information about this family is sketchy and what records were available indicate that they had 4 children. Malcomb John called John by his parents b. 1819. Donald b. 1820, Angus 1822 and Archibald b. 1830. After 1830 there were no further records of Dugald McEachran and Catherine is living alone in West River of Prince Edward Island. I assumed he died at sea since he worked in the shipping industry. More work has to be done in this area.

William Henry McEachran

Wm Henry McEachran lead an interesting life. He was born on May 29 1849 in Northumberland New Brunswick, Canada to Sally Jane Gillis and Malcom John McEachran. Jane and Malcom John were married in Jan 1841.

Together this couple had five children named Jonathan b 1842; Catherine b 1843; Mary b 1845; Daniel David b. 1847; and Wm Henry b. 1849. Apparently Jane died shortly after Wm Henrys birth. His father Malcomb John McEachran needed to work but he wa responsible for five young children. Wm turned his children over to his in-laws Jonathan Gilis and Mary Woods Gillis.

In 1854 Malcomb John remarried Mary Desmond and brought his children from the previous marriage into his new marriage. Malcoms John went on and had eight more children; Thomas b. 1855, John b. 1857, Edward b.1860, Charles Archibald b. 1862, Malcomb Penrose b. 1863, Anny Jane b.1867, Robert Ambrose b. 1869,and Charles Robert b. 1871.

In 1888, Malcomb and his children second family followed his son Wm Henry to Minn.

McEachran-Donalds

Hugh Patrick McEachran (1887-1918) was the son of Wm Henry McEachran (1849-1944)and Abigail Catherine Donalds (1854-1954). Wm and Abby were married on 21 May 1877 at St Michaels Catholic Church in Chatham, New Brunswick.

A cute aside is that Abby was engaged to be married to Wm Henry's cousin but he died while working on board ship in the Atlantic. Wm was there to console Abby and married her a year later. Four years after their marriage they immigrated to Stillwater, Minnesota.

They had eight children as follows. Jane Dorothy (1880-1967) who married Wm Jennings Hemsch in 1906. Angus James (1882-1918) who married Stella Grehan in Tenn.
in 1905. Ann Thersa (1884-1971) who married Conrad Graff in 1910. Hugh Patrick (1887-1918) who married Bertha Gehrmann in 1910. Mary Margaret Cecilia (1889-1969) who married Oscar Gallus in 1914. Catherine Gertrude (1892-1969) who married Peter Schweigel in 1917. Wm Bertman (1895-1964) who married Alice Clark in 1934. Agnes Serena (1898-1963) who married Raymond Little in 1918.

Irish-Scott side of the fmily

When my mom Anna Elvera McEachran pictured to the right, married my dad Carl Richard Deifel they brought together the Irish-Scot and German nationlities.
Hugh Patrick McEachran was her father. He was born (Nov 1887-Nov 1918)in Stillwater Minnesota to William Henry McEachrn (May 1849-Feb 1944) and Abigail Catherine Donalds (Dec 1854-Dec 1937). Abby and William were married in 1877 New Brunswick.
Abby was born into an Irish family while William came from a family that migrated from Scotland.

Kaiser-Rhode family

Anne M. Kaiser (Mar 1865-Jul 1939) was the daughter of Johann Jacob Fritz Kaiser ((Apr 1834 - May 1903) and Louisa Eliza Rhode ((Aug 1935-Nov 1908) Their marriage date is unknown at this time but it took place in Wittenberg, Germany.

The family came over in Aug 1885 on the ship the General Werder from Bremen to New York. They had seven children with them some of which were already adults. Their names were; Fredrick Fritz (1885-1939) who remained single.

Pauline Kaiser(1861-1945) She married Henry Heinrichs and they had three children including Louise Pauline Heinrich who married John Diedrch Ramm. Paul Peter Heinrich who married Francis Rupple. Herman Otton Heinrich who married Gertrude D Lesard.

Mary Eliza Kaiser (1869-1895) She remained single.

August Kaiser Sr. (Dec 1881-Oct 1929) who married Amelia Gregorson in St. Paul. They had three sons name (1) Leonard M Kaiser who married Dorothy L Beuch and they had a son and a daughter. (2)Eugene H Kaiser who married Marie F Schouweller and they had a son and daughter. (3)George A Kasier who married Elsie G Miller. They had two girls and a son.

Bertha Kaiser (Sep 1875-1947) married Fredrich W Riechelt in 1895. They had one daughter named Eleanor. They family moved to Califonia and set up boarding houses where they prospered until their death. Eleanor never married.

Mathilda R Kaiser (Jan 1880-Feb 1945) married Edwin A Hempel in 1898. They had no children.

Gehrmann-Fiss & family

August Gehrmanns parents were Charles, Earl Gehrmann (1827-1896)and Henerietta Fiss (1827-1900) were married about 1852 in Prussia. The came to America, via Ellis Island on May 26th 1874.

They brought seven children. Wilhelm ( 1855-1912), Herman John (1857-1934), Johanna (1888-1950), Ida (1861-?), Albert F (1863-1945), August F (1868-1913), Bertha (1971-1914). Emil Franz was born in St. Paul (1875-1950) Of these children only Ida and Albert have been hard to track. Ida may have died in childbirth because there is a grave with her name in the family plot in Elmhurst cemetery. An Albert Gehrman who may have been a nephew.

Charles Earl Gehrmann was a tailor by trade. They owned their own home of Sherburne in St. Paul. Of the children Wilhelm remained single. Herman married Henrietta Fick and they had 8 children. Johanna married August K Stuewe and they had 3 children.
August married Anna Kaiser and they had 5 children. Bertha married Albert H Schultz and they had 6 children. Emil married Ernestine Wittwer and they had 2 sons.

Gehrmann-Kaiser Union

Bertha Gehrmanns parents
were August F. Gehrmann
(1868-1913). Pictured
on the left. August
came over from Prussia
in 1875 onthe ship
Marko Polo with his
parents.

August was 7 years
old at the time and
his parents sent him
to a Lutheran school
because their religion
was very important to
them.
When he became an adult learned the trade of being a tinner,
now known as a sheetmetal worker.

Anna Kasier, pictured on the right, (1865-1924) came with her parents from Wittenberg, Germany in 1885 on the ship General Werder. Her family was Catholic's. Anna was already a young lady on her arrival on these shores. Within a short time she met August and they fell in love. There was one problem; that was their religious differences. In 1889, they decided to run away to Salk Center, Mn and get married in the Catholic Church. The result was that Augusts family disowned him and refused to acknowledge their marriage.

The couple continued to life in Salk Center for the next 5 or 6 years where they
had three children, including Paul Anton ((1890-1955), Bertha Catherine (1891-1971),
Walter John (1894-1942). Then they moved back to St. Paul to find more work. The Gehrmann side of the family did not forgive the couple and severed all ties. During the next years they had 2 more chldren. Arthur Charles (1896-1963)and Theodore Joseph (1899-1966).

August died under unusual circumstances and was found in the basement of his home.
Anna, who never learned English, and unable to support herself, became extremely depressed and died of heart failure.

Bertha Gerhmann McEachran remarries

Pictured above are left to right: Paul, Anna Elvera, Mary Leone and Bertha in about 1930.

After the death of her beloved Hugh McEachran, Bertha went to work for a German immigrant man who owned his own restaurant. He hired her as his cook for the business. She became close to him and admired the fact that he was so good to her girls. She married Paul Robert Helmut Scharfenberg (1881-1861)in 1921.

After their marriage Paul built Bertha and the girls a lovely home in St. Paul. Meanwhile, he earned his money by boot-legging during prohibition. As a result he was occasionally in trouble with the law. The business must have been profitable because he moved the it several times so he could continue to sell the liquor under the table.

Finally, Bertha demanded, that he quit the illegal business and get a legal job. He went to work for a big company that built refrigerators. While working, an appliance fell on his foot and he developed gangrene. The disease spread into both legs and he ended up a double amputee for the last ten years of his life.

An interesting note was that when Bertha was married to Hugh, she meet a
lady who told her that in her future was a man who had wheels instead of legs. Bertha thought the woman was crazy. Forty years later she found that in deed the
woman was correct.

Gerhman-McEachran

Hugh Patrick McEachran (1887-1918)
and Bertha Catherine Gehrmann (1890-
1971) were married in 1910 in
St. Paul,Mn. Hugh left school at St.
Johns University in Mn to marry Bertha.
After their marriage Hugh went to work
for the city as a conductor
on the street car lines in the city.

Pictured below are their two daughters, Mary Leone McEachran
born in (1912-1984)and Anna Elvera McEachran born (1914-1984).

In 1918 the family all came down with a lethal flu bug that sweep
the country. First the children got sick and Bertha nursed them
back to health. Then Hugh got sick and went to bed. Then Bertha
became ill.

Meanwhile the neighbors dropped off foods, for the children then
ages 4 and 6 years old, who were milling around the house.


When Bertha awoke from her illness three days
later, she discovered Hugh laying
beside her. Her husband had died
while she slept. She was a widow
at age twenty seven.

German-Irish side of family

To the right is a wedding
picture of Carl Deifel
(1905-1951) and Anna
Elvera McEachran (1914-
1984) taken in 1936. Anna
brings in the Irish-Scot
side of the family.

Anna saw Carl for the
first time when she was
14 years old. She was
in the back yard with a
girlfriend when he came
to her home to visit her
Mom and step-father Paul
Scharfenberg. At the time
the two girls laughed because Carl was wearing Knickers.
Something fashionable in Europe but not the USA.

Eight years after she first meet him, they were married.
She was 22 years old and he was 31 years. The marriage
lasted 15 years when Carl died of a heart attack. Anna
Elvera raised their two daughters alone and then Anna
died at the age of 70 of Non Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Maria Margaretta Steurner

Pictured to the left is Carl Deifels
little sister Emma (1910)and his
mother was Marie Margarette Stuerner,
(Mar 1883) in Aidlingen, Germany.

Marias parents were Johann Michael
Stuerner (Jan 1851-Jun 1887) and
Christina Katherine Entenmann (Mar
1857-Mar 1918.

John Michael had been married prior to
Christina to Maria Katherine Loeffler.
Together they had six children all who
died shortly after birth. Loefflers
last birth resulted in her death.

John Michael then married Christina in 1881 and they had
two daughters, Maria Margaretta in 1883 and Louise Frederika
in 1886. Unfortunately Louise died in 1886 and then Johann Michael
died in 1887.

In 1889 Christina married a second time to Christopher Fredrick
Hoehing. They had two sons named Karl Angus b Dec 1889 to May
1916, and Gottlieb Hoehing b. Dec 1895 to Feb 1918. Then
Christina died in 1918.

Mathias Deifel

The father of Fritz Deifel was Mathias Deifel b.in
Feb 1855 in Bronnen, Wurtenberg, Germany. He was
the father of ten children, most who lived to old age.
Mathias's wife was Elizabeth Ann Heizelmann b. Mar
1853 in Bezingen, Germany.Elizabeth died in 1904, but
Mathias lived until 1924.

The picture includes Fritz and his siblings as well as
their children. Picture taken about 1924.



Childrens names were; Fritz, Maria Magdalene died in
infancy, Emil married Agnes, Maria Magdalene married
Franz Jackl, Heinrich married Anna Worm, Karl b. 1887
in Bronnen died in Lily France during WWI, Pauline
remained single, Adolf married Maria, Albert married
Rosa, Julius remained single.

The Deifel Family

Pictured are the Karl Deifel's family in Germany. Taken at the Deifel
family homestead in Bronnon Germany in about 1925. From left to
right is Fritz Deifel b.Jun 1881 and died in Stuttgart in Mar 1931.
Fritz was the son of Mathias Deifel and Elizabeth Henzelman.

Fritz married Marie Margarette Stuerner b.Mar 1883 in Aidlingen,
Germany. She passed away in Aug 1945. They were married in
Feb 1907. She was the daughter of Johann Michael Stuerner
and Christine Kathrina Entenmann.

Carl Deifel who was baptised as Richael Carl Stuerner in Apr 1905,
d.Aug 1951 in Minnesota. Carl left his family in Germany in 1928
and traveled by ship to the US due to conditions in Germany.

Emma Marie Deifel, in the front of the picture was b.Mar 1911.
She died from cancer at the age of 18 in Stuttgart.

Within three short years, Maria Margaretta lost he son who went
to America, her daughter who died in 1929 and her husband who
died in 1931. She survived WW 2 and in 1945, while living
in Stuttgart, the building in which she was living was bombed
by the Americans. She fell three stories and recovered from her
injuries died died of a heart attack 3 months later.

Who Are We?

It is difficult to define exactly who we are. We could describle physical attributes or what type of work we do, or those thing that we enjoy doing in our spare time. All the descriptions are just superficial descriptions.

To find who we really are, we have to look at where we came from, the cultures, their lifestyle, those events that shaped the live of those who came before us. . For it is what the generations before us experieced that make up what we are and who we become.

In this blog I will be connecting with several culture and some of the major life
events for these ancestors.

Lookiing for Ancestors

Pictured are Carl Richard
Stuerner Deifel. (17-4-1905).
Shown with his young family
in America, his wife Anna
Elvera McEachran (Feb 1914)
and two daughters, Diane Marie
(Mar 1940 and Judy (Mar 1943).

Carl was born in Aidllingen
Germany to Maria Margaretta
Stuerner. The Stuerner
family records can be traced
back 250 years in Aidlingen,
Germany

Who were they?

They came in ships from far and wide. Fleeing famine and poverty.
With empty bellys and hopeful hearts, they looked to the future
in their new home of North America.