Gehl History

Gehl Family History

A History of the Gehl Family of Rehlingen, Germany and Hilbert, Wisconsin

As our uncle, Father John Gehl, wrote in his “History of the Britten Family” in 1978, our great-grandfather, Johann Gehl, who lived in Rehlingen, Germany, was killed falling from a scaffold. He was a gipser or a plasterer; he did fancy work with plaster of Paris. Johann Gehl was married twice. First to Anna Klein on August 6, 1860 in Rehlingen. Anna Klein was born July 6, 1833 in Rehlingen. Johann Gehl and Anna Kline had three children; Catherine who was born August 8, 1863, Anna Maria who was born February 28, 1865 and Johann Peter born October 10, 1866 and died November 12, 1866. Anna Klein died on December 11, 1867.

On May 7, 1868 Johann Gehl married Anna Maria Theobald in Rehlingen. Johann and Anna Maria had four children; Andreas born May 10, 1869, Anna Maria born April 4, 1872, Johann Peter born March 6, 1877 and Anna Maria born January 16, 1881. All of these children were born in Rehlingen. And all of these people were Roman Catholic. This information was E-mailed to me by Hans-Gerd Dauster, a genealogist from Siersburg, a town next to Rehlingen. He is connected to the Gehl family. Like always, there are discrepancies. There are two sons named Johann Peter, which is alright. It was customary to name another child after one who had died. Why there are three daughters named Anna Maria, I cannot guess. And why Mathias Gehl, son of Johann Gehl and Anna Klein, isn’t listed I do not know, either. His birth date was November 16, 1865, so something is out of place. Perhaps I’ll find out later.

Our great-grandmother was Anna Maria Theobald. Her parents were Peter Theobald and Elisabeth Kuhn. Her death record gives slightly different information, but I would accept this first.

On October 3, 1883, our grandfather, Andreas (or) Andrew Gehl’s baptismal certificate was copied in the parish of Rehlingen. Our great-grandmother was preparing to leave Germany and most likely a child’s baptismal certificate was needed for identification. Anna Maria Theobald Gehl left Germany with at least six children. Catherine, who was 20 years old; Mathias, who turned 18 on the voyage to the United States; our grandfather, Andrew, who was 14; Anna Maria, who was 11 and a half; Johann Peter, who was six and a half; and the second Anna Maria, who was nearly three. Anna Maria, the daughter of Anna Klein, might have come along. We were always told that a child died aboard ship on the voyage and was buried at sea. Perhaps it was she.

What made Anna Maria Theobald Gehl decide to come to the U.S. with all those children? Imagine a six week voyage across the North Atlantic in October and November! We’ll never know if she was a very brave woman or a very foolish woman. Crossing the Atlantic took six to eight weeks. Emigrants were crowded into the steerage deck, which was often only four to six feet in height. Privacy was not to be had. Each family had to bring enough food to last the length of the trip. From what port in Europe they left or the name of the ship, we do not know. We do know that they came in through the port of New York in 1883.

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Family lore has it that our Great-grandmother (Anna Maria Theobald) Gehl worked on a farm in Iowa, husking com. The two older boys, Mathias and Andrew could work, too. Newspaper articles written at the time of our grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration and at the time of Grandpa Andrew Gehl’s death state that the family went to Red Oak, Iowa for “a few years” or for “two years”. Neither time is correct. Red Oak is about 50 miles south-east of Omaha, Nebraska and is the county seat of Montgomery County.

Catherine Gehl, the oldest child, did not go to Red Oak, Iowa. She met a man, John Maurer, aboard ship and came directly with him to the Town of Woodville. John Maurer and Catherine Gehl were married at St. John the Baptist Church in St. John on November 26, 1883. The marriage record shows Catherine Gehl’s parents were John Gehl and Anna Klein. Witness at the marriage were; John Britten, John Reinert (can’t read the name), Maria Maurer and Susanna Madler.

A year before this family arrived from Germany, our Great-grandpa Mathias Britten had lost his wife, Anna Bodem, to cholera. He had young children at home, probably six, and needed the help of a wife. Father John Gehl writes in his “History of the Britten Family”, that it was John Maurer who told Mathias Britten about the Widow Gehl in Iowa. Somehow, Mathias Britten sent for Anna Maria Theobald Gehl. He more than likely had to payoff her debt to the person who sponsored her journey to Iowa. There was a good network of railroads in the country by 1884. And so our Great-grandfather, Mathias Britten, and our Great-grandmother, Anna Maria Theobald Gehl, were married on January 15, 1884 in St. John the Baptist Church in St. John. Witnesses were John Britten and Maria Jaekels. Father Ignatius Ritter was the pastor. They moved into the new brick house Mathias Britten had built.

In August of 1884, John Maurer and Catherine Gehl’s first child, Susan, was born in Chilton. The rest of their 10 children were born in Sheboygan, where John Maurer is shown on his children’s birth records as a laborer in a factory. I have not been able to find Catherine Gehl Maurer’s death record. She is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Sheboygan, next to John Maurer and four of her children. Her head stone shows she died on August 26,1940. John Maurer died on February 16,1924.

St. John Church burial records show that on September 9, 1884, Anna Maria, the daughter of John Gehl and Anna Maria Theobald died. She was buried on September 11 and was three years old. On October 7, 1884, Anna Gehl, the daughter of John Gehl and Maria Theobald died. She was buried on October 8 and was 10 years old. On October 22, 1884, John Gehl, the son of John Gehl and Maria Theobald, died. He was buried on October 24 and was seven years old. These deaths are not recorded at the court house in Chilton, so we do not know the cause of death.

In 1885, when our grandfather, Andrew Gehl, was 16 years old, he went up to the lumber camps in Floodwood, upper Michigan and worked as a teamster. He got $16.00 per month, a dollar more than other workers because he was the first one out of camp in the morning and the last one in camp in the evening. He told how he brought home every dollar he earned and gave it to his step-father, Mathias Britten. He worked in the lumber camps for several winters.

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Mathias Gehl, the son of Johann Gehl and Anna Klein, married our Great-aunt Josephine Britten on April 27, 1886. She was our Grandma Gehl’s sister. Witnesses were Nicolaus Britten, Andrew Gehl, Susanna Madler and Anna Britten. Josephine signed her name in the records as Sophia Britten. They lived in her father’s brick house.

Their parents moved into the house on the property bought from Bishops. This is the house where our grandparents lived in the 1940?s. On January 26, 1885, Orial D. Bishop and Oreelia E. Bishop, his wife, of Rantoul, Calumet County, Wisconsin, sold 80 acres, more or less, to Mathias Britten of the Town of Rantoul for $4,000.00. The parcel of land was the N1/2 of the SE1/4 of Section #1 in Township 19 North of Range #19 East.

Again, stories handed down indicate the newly wed couple (our great-grandparents) didn’t get along so well. They did not have a horse, but they did have a cart. If they had a spat, one or the other loaded up some of their possessions and pulled the cart down the road to one of their children’s houses. After a few days they’d return.

Our Great-uncle Matt and Great-aunt Josephine had five children between February 1889 and June 1898. Their only son, Andrew, died of diphtheria on March 23, 1896. He was born on August 30, 1891. He is buried in St. Mary Cemetery, Hilbert.

Our grandma, Anna Christine Britten, didn’t like living at home with her step-mother. She went to her sister Mary’s house in Bakerville and eventually found a job in a hotel in Marshfield. When our Grandpa Andrew Gehl was 22 years old he went to visit Grandma in Marshfield. The outcome of this visit was their marriage on November 3, 1891 in St. John Church, S1. John. Grandma was 18. They lived in the attic of Great-grandpa Britten’s brick house. When their oldest child, Mathias Nicholas, was born in July of the following year, it was very hot in the attic of the brick house.

Our Grandpa Andrew Gehl worked for Nick Schmidt, a stone mason. Later he worked for the railroad cutting out the soft rails that were gouged by the spinning drivers of the locomotives and replacing them with sections cut from a rail kept on posts along the right-of-way. He is listed in the 1900 Federal Census as a farmer, living in the Town of Rantoul, Calumet County. By June 28, 1900 Grandpa and Grandma Gehl had four children, Mathias, John, Emma and Anna, and another child, Cyril, would be born shortly thereafter on August 1.

On May 24, 1900 our Grandpa Gehl’s half-brother, Mathias Gehl, was killed on the railroad tracks coming home from Hilbert. He was hit by a passenger train. His death record states the cause of death was “fracture of the skull and multiple compound fractures of extremities due to accidental violence. Instantaneous death.” See the article about his death in the miscellaneous section. He was 35 years old and is buried in St. Mary Cemetery, Hilbert.

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In 1905, his widow, Josephine Britten Gehl, died of cancer at the age of 41, leaving four young daughters orphaned. I think the four girls then went to live with their grandparents. They lived there for nearly three years when their Grandfather Britten died on February 1, 1908 at 11 PM at the age of 74.

The oldest daughter, Anna, was nearly 19 years old and married Franklin Schneider, a carpenter from Chilton, on February 1, 1908. Is it coincidence that she married the same day as her grandfather died? I think she was trying to provide a home for her three younger sisters. The wedding was a surprise to many. See newspaper article about this event in the miscellaneous section. Frank Schneider was not an ideal husband. Their first two children, Leona and Mary, were born in Calumet County in 1909 and 1910. The next child, Germaine, was born in Green Bay in January of1916. Between 1910 and 1915, Anna Gehl Schneider moved her family to Green Bay and her three younger sisters went to St. Joseph Orphan Asylum in Green Bay. There are no records of their ever being in the orphanage, but we know that they did go there. Frank Schneider and Anna Gehl had a total of seven children.

Their oldest daughter, Leona, married Orlen (Bill) Miller, who was the motorcycle speed cop who Father Gehl refers to in his Britten history. But, he was not killed in the line of duty. He had his hand severed in a chase of a drunken motorist, during the Prohibition Era, when he ran into a train and fell under it. Orlen Miller was the Brown County coroner when he died in January of 1943.

The second daughter of Mathias Gehl and Josephine Britten, Katie, who was Kathryn in later years, married Joseph Kaster, Jr. on May 4, 1915 in Green Bay at the age of 21. Joe Kaster was connected with the religious supply store which is still operating in Green Bay today. Four children were born to Kathryn and Joe Kaster. Two survived to adulthood. Eugene F. Kaster was born on September 26, 1916 in Green Bay. Donald Joseph Kaster was born on May 25, 1921 in Green Bay. Twins, a boy, John, and a girl, Mary Joan, were born on July 29, 1923. John died after several hours and Mary Joan died on August 11, 1923. They are buried in Allouez Cemetery, Brown County. Joe Kaster died on January 31, 1969 at the age of 80. Kathryn Gehl Kaster died on May 10 of the same year at St. Mary Hospital in Green Bay. She died of acute (monotypic) leukemia of two weeks duration. She was 75 years old. Joe and Kathryn Kaster are buried in Allouez Cemetery.

The third daughter, Marie or Mary, married Frank Christien, a shoe merchant from Burlington, Wisconsin, on June 15, 1920 in Green Bay. Reverend John Gehl officiated. Marie was 23 years old and a nurse. In 1941, Frank and Marie attended our grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration and were living in Burlington. They had no children.

Josephine, the fourth and last of the Gehl girls, married Chester Barrett. She attended the 50th anniversary celebration alone and was living in Milwaukee. Marie and Chester had one son, Jack.

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In 1907, Father John left home for Mount Calvary to attend high school and to study for the priesthood. The 1910 Federal Census for Hilbert Village, taken on April 28, shows Andrew and Anna Gehl had nine children. Uncle Matt was 17 and a laborer in a factory. Andrew (Uncle Dick) is shown to be the age of 9/12, which was nine months. “Annie Britten, mother”, is listed with them. The census also shows she has had six children and one is living. That one would be our grandfather, Andrew Gehl.

The first of Andrew Gehl and Anna Christine Britten Gehl’s children, Mathias, was married in 1916. The oldest daughter, Emma, married the following year in June. 1917 was a busy year. The last child, Rosamond or Girlie, as she became known, was born on September 8, 1917 and the first great-grandchild, Edwina Gehl, was born one month later on October 8. Father John was ordained by Bishop Rhode in Green Bay on May 25, 1918.

World War I went on from 1914-1918. None of our uncles fought in the war. But, Othmar Gilsdorf, the future husband of our Aunt Til did.

Our Great-grandmother, Anna Maria Theobald Gehl Britten died in the county hospital in Fond du Lac County on February 28, 1919. She was 78 years and 10 months old. Her death record states that she was born on April 28, 1840 in Germany. She outlived her second husband, Mathias Britten, by 11 years. The cause of death was “Senility Delensis” and the contributing cause was ”’Dementia”. We do not know how long she was a patient there. She was living with her son, Andrew, in April of 1910. She was buried in St. Mary Cemetery, Hilbert, on March 3, 1919. Her head stone can be found in the old section, west of the driveway.

When my dad, Joe Gehl, was a little boy, I imagine eight or nine years old, he had to sleep at her house to keep her from wandering off during the night. If she did, she would be found sitting in the cemetery. Uncle Cyril took his turn staying with her, too. She had a little house, through the orchard, to the north of the house of our grandparents. My dad often said, when he was in his 90?s, a day did not go by when he didn’t think of this grandmother. She often told him she would take him back to Germany with her. For breakfast she made him oatmeal with raisins in. When he lived with me and asked for oatmeal for supper he’d say; “Put raisins in it, like my grandma did.” He truly loved her. This poor woman had a sad and tragic life.

The 1920 Federal Census for Woodville Township-Village of Hilbert, taken on January 6, shows six children at home with our grandparents. Clarence aged four and Rosamund, aged 2 were the youngest children.

Grandpa Gehl had a car, most likely in the 1920?s. He drove downtown to get the mail at the post-office. When he came home and wanted to stop in the yard, he hollered; “WHOA” and drove up on top of the woodpile. So ended his driving days.

Othmar Gilsdorf and Aunt Til were married in June of 1934. Aunt Til had been staying with Father John as his house-keeper at his parish in Lanark. Uncle Cyril and Rose Caroline Gilsdorf were married on May 26, 1925. Othmar and Rose were sister and brother.

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Norbert Weber and Aunt Marie married on January 5, 1928. My parents, Joseph Gehl and Emily Jacobs were married at St, John Church, St. John on October 1, 1929. The 1920?s saw a lot of changes. The Kohler Company in Kohler was the place of employment for many men of the family, before and after marriage.

Uncle Dick (Andrew) and Catherine Giesen married on November 9, 1932 at St. Mary Church, Hilbert. Uncle Ollie (Aloysius) and Helen Wolf married on October 27, 1937. Roland Kees and Aunt Girlie (Rosamond) married on May 28, 1938.

On October 1, 1940, Clarence Gehl and Eugenie Fink were married at St. John Church, St. John. Clarence enlisted in the U.S. Navy on September 28, 1942. He was a member of the original crew which commissioned the U.S.S. AJAX, a repair ship, on October 30, 1943 in San Pedro, California. The ship left port in December and proceeded on to Pearl Harbor. They crossed the equator on January 29, 1944 and went on to Guadal canal. From June to October they anchored off Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. From October 1944 to May 1945 they anchored at Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands and then went on to San Pedro Bay in Leyte Gulf in the Philippines for four months. The war ended on August 14, 1945, and the AJAX went on to Okinawa. The AJAX as a repair ship was ready to handle any assignment from making false teeth for an uncomfortable sailor to fashioning steel plates for the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. The machine shop could manufacture a small bolt or repair a large turbine. Electrical repairs ranged from nursing an ordinary electric fan to rewinding a 900 horsepower generator. The foundry could pour castings up to 1,000 pounds. Clarence was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy as a Mailman Second Class on November 28, 1945. He was the only one of our uncles to fight in World War II. Clarence and Genie’s marriage ended in divorce on February 28, 1951.

Andrew Gehl, our grandfather, passed away on December 17, 1945 and our grandmother, Anna Britten Gehl, passed away on February 11, 1956.

So ends the history of the Gehl family for this occasion. In years to come, add on to it yourself. Perhaps, some one else will rewrite it or do a big addition. In ending, I want to tell of two things that stand out in my memory about the Gehl family; they all had a good sense of humor and how well they could sing together.