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.