Bleimes Family History

Chapter 10. Emelie

Story 1: That she came over from Schleswig-Holstein at age 16 with her (unnamed) sister who died on the boat. - Comment: Plausible as she was born in 1832 and seems to be in New York state in 1852. No other info on such a sister.

Story 2: That she was Danish. - Possible. - Around the 1848 mark the Danes and Prussians were in a territorial scrap, adjusting boundaries back and forth, etc., so who knows her official nationality? Also, she is said to have spoken Platt-Deutsch, which is/was that area's tongue. I believe she could also handle High German; she owned a German language Lutheran bible "Die Heilige Schrift", which I still have.

Story 3: That her husband Adam was also from Schleswig-Holstein. There is no argument here except that neither Smith nor Schmidt was a common name there. The members of the family who told these stories might have been down-playing their Germanic background.

Story 4: That Emelie had two brothers who emigrated and took their dismantled house with them, settling with it in California. Their reason: They had heard there was a shortage of lumber in America. Comments: If they would have pulled such an ill-advised stunt, the costs would have been outlandish. The ship would have had to go "around the Horn" for a terribly long and expensive trip when you add the assemblies, loading etc. Not likely. There were Ruser's in northern California, though, and some were no doubt connected to Emelie. Some were in San Francisco and some further north in Mendocino County. A note in Jacob Germann's personal journal records: "C. F. Ruser was declared insane by the Superior Court" and incarcerated at the asylum in Ukiah. This person, whoever he was, fell off of his wagon, smacked his head, and was not the same afterward. His wife helped put him away, then wound up with the estate. Of course.

Back to Emelie - She first shows up in Newburgh, New York. This is by inference from her divorce document which was executed in Illinois. There are virtually no nuances to this action, just the facts as they were recorded in 1856 after their marriage in 1853. The eight page document grants her a divorce from Christopher Schreeder without him being present, and it is doubtful that he wanted to be. Oddly, there is no mention of their daughter, Louisa, who most likely was with Emelie at this time. (Louisa is listed with her mother in the Smith household in the 1860 Kentucky census.) Today there would be custody proceedings.

So what was she doing in Illinois? We cannot be sure, but there was a Christina Maria Ruser in the neighborhood who had married a Bernard Reckmann in 1855, then a Frederick Kipp and raised a family with Kipp later. It is almost a certainty that these two ladies were closely related. One clue is the Kipp family porch picture in which Emelie is included and even seems to be holding hands with the Kipp's. Chances are that Emelie followed Christina to Massac Co., but so ends this thought.

Emelie - 3rd from right, back row.

Almost as an aside to our story, some space must be given to the interactions of our Emelie with the May and Kipp families of Massac County, Illinois. The whole picture is not perfectly clear, but here is what we have:

General (his given name) Marion May 1859-1931, son of William Russell May and Amanda Gregory, wound up marrying both of the daughters of Frederick Wilhelm Kipp by Christina Reckmann (nee Ruser). First he wed Marie Emilie born 1863 (called Amelia), then after her death, he married Fredericka Maria born 1864 (called Reka).

General sired six children by Amelia, one of which was Fredericka Effie Anna May, born 1889, known to most as Effie. Reka had no children, but then later was step-mother to her sister’s brood.

Years later Effie was a companion/care-giver to our Emelie (Grandma Amrhein) in Little Rock, and at times lived in. All of this info leads us to believe that Effie and Grandma Amrhein were blood related (through Christina), but we lack proof.

My mother and Effie traded postcards in the early 1900’s, calling one another “cousin”.

Effie May married Rudolph Thiemie in Little Rock and they had one daughter whom they named Marion. Effie and Rudy died in the 1970’s. Marion had the original picture of the extended Kipp family that is shown above. I copied it with my Rollei camera on the kitchen table in her residence in Little Rock about 1980. - Effie is the girl with the Minnie Mouse hair-do, fourth from the left in the front row.

About a year after the divorce from Schreeder, Emilie married Adam Smith in Massac County, Illinois, and before the (June) 1860 census [1860 Union County, KY] they had a home in Caseyville, Kentucky. It appears the move was after the birth of two children, Emma about 1857/8 and Katy, about 1859. There has been no further information come to light concerning these two infants.

Another 1860 census item is the family of a John Ruser at Caseyville. Listed: Jno age 39, Mary age 17 and Mary age 68. All from Germany. The last named is old enough to be Emelie's mother - - ? There is no further info on this subject.

Caseyville was named for Samuel Casey, a U. S. Treasurer who lived there at one time. Its location in Union County was a bit of a misnomer since they raised a Civil War Confederate unit there. But the town was not destined for glory - on the 17th of December 1987, it was disincorporated, and its assets transferred to the county.

Emelie and Adam had two girls here: Mary Barbara, "Mamie" in 1863, and Bertha Rose, "Bettie" in 1864. [Adam Smith's Family Chart] Then Adam seems to evaporate and the females show up next in Memphis, sometime prior to the 1870 census. The action there is told in Bertha's chapter, so we will jump to Little Rock.

One year after marrying off daughter Bertha, Emelie wed widower Peter Wilhelm Amrhein, a Catholic, originally of Lohr, Bavaria, who was now known as William H. She used Schmidt as her surname. They had a pre-nuptial agreement, separating their assets. This is where she got the nickname of "Grandma Amrhein". He had a store/saloon and a dab of real estate. They lived at 1216 Cross Street in Little rock.

William had emigrated around 1865 and was probably already married to Magdalena Germann who was also of Lohr. She had a sister, Paulina, who died unmarried in Little Rock in 1871 at age 23. Now we can guess at some likely possibilities that have no real support: These Germann girls could have been related to Jacob; Lohr is not terribly far from Höllenhammer. Wm. and Magdalena probably brought Paulina with them from Lohr. This is more grist for the rumor mill about the 'Germann Connection'. Back to reality: Magdalena bore three sons, Andrew C. in 1868, William in 1872 and Augustus in 1874. Baby William died at 3 months. "Gus" is elusive - we only find that he was at one time a Western Union messenger.

Andy became a concrete contractor and married Fannie Balch in Little Rock in the spring of 1894. They lived at 1702 Wolfe Street where he died in 1945. Fannie lived on until 1964 - in that same house. Andy installed many sidewalks in L. R., imprinting them with his logo. He also cast a large slug of concrete with his surname in it. It sat in front of his house for years after they were both gone. I'd guess it was too big to throw away. Misc.: In letters Andy called Bertha "Sis". He worked on the Panama Canal.

Emelie acquired some pieces of real estate around L. R. and is supposed to have owned an item called Duell Park, renaming it and calling it Amrhein Gardens. Babe wrote that it had a dance hall, stables and riding horses. There was an article in the Pulaski County Historical Review in 1982 that had a short sketch on Deuell Park. It did not substantiate Babe’s story.

In the summer of 1883 Emelie married off her last daughter, Mamie, to a local saloon-keeper, probably an associate of her husband.

Emelie’s third marriage made it past the turn of the century, but in 1902 she brought suit and won a very favorable divorce from William. She wound up with numerous pieces of real property plus most of the household goods. He must have retained the house, though, as he died there in 1910. His will left most of his estate “to his only son, Andrew”, so Gus must have been deceased by this time. However, there is no record of Gus being buried in the Amrhein lot as are William, Magdalena and Paulina.

For her gender and for her era “Grandma Amrhein” was quite a traveler. From homes in northern Europe, New York, Illinois, Kentucky, and Arkansas, she is known to have visited (at least) Pittsburgh, Columbus, Metropolis and San Francisco. It was at the last named place that she became ill and died of chronic bronchitis in December 1920. But she had one more trip - her daughter Bertha had the remains shipped to Columbus for burial and daughter Mary came to Columbus for the funeral. They opened the coffin and said that they were surprised the body was not decayed after a week in transit. My guess is that the conveying train was routed north through the mountains and therefore was icy cold all the way.

Chapter 11.

Table of Contents