The Hyphen Family Lineage

John Schoen Family History

With his birthdate given as 9th Sep 1844, there has been some historical uncertainty as to the birthplace of Johann ("John") Schoen (pronounced "Shane" by his living descendants), depending upon who was asked or what record is in question. His two older siblings, sister Augusta and brother Carl ("Charles"), were both born in Prussia, presumably in the region around the city of Elbing (now known as Elbląg, Poland). His parents, Carl and Charlotte Schoen, sometimes reported the whole family as being Prussian-born but would often distinguish John's birth by designating him American-born, in New York state. In later records, John would sometimes report that he was born at sea, while the family was on the voyage to America. The family arrived at the Port of New York on the ship Mary Phillips on 9th Sep 1844; whether this was his actual birthdate or the date chosen to use as his birthdate is uncertain, but his living descendants still repeat the story of John's birth at sea during the family's voyage to America. The Schoens lived several years in the vicinity of Buffalo, Erie Cty, New York, until moving west and settling in the area of Ixonia, Jefferson Cty, Wisconsin in 1849 - when John was about five years old.

John grew up on his father's farm, working it alongside Carl and likely his older siblings until he was around fifteen years old. By then, eldest sister Augusta had married and moved to her husband's farm to start her family, and shortly after that the middle brother, Charles, travelled to Indiana to enlist in the Union Army during the Civil War. It's easy to imagine the young John growing into the role of man of the house and head of the farm during the early 1860s, as his father grew older and the other siblings were no longer there to help run the farm. By 1867, John had married Wilhelmine Brandt and purchased the family farm from his father Carl, who retired to a quiet household nearby with his wife Charlotte.

Unlike his siblings, John and his wife did not have a large family. While Augusta had six children and Charles had a dozen, John and Wilhelmine had only three sons - Herman, William, and Frank, all born in the space of three and a half years. All three dedicated themselves to farm work and remained living on the family farm for most of their lives.

Of John's three sons, Herman and Frank never married; Herman lived on the family farm until sometime after 1930, and then went to live with his niece, Sadie (Schoen) Tietz until his death in 1947. Frank left the farm for some years as a young man to work elsewhere - on farms and at labor in the general area of Jefferson, Dodge, and Waukesha counties in Wisconsin - returning later to live and work on the farm until his death in 1954.

William married twice - first to Henrietta Duddeck in 1896. William and Henrietta purchased the farm from William's father John, and William followed in his father's footsteps, bringing the farm into its third generation. William and Henrietta had three children: son Albert, who died in 1903 at the age of five, and two daughters, Adela and Sadie. John and Wilhelmine continued to live on the farm, and it's easy to imagine John still working the farm alongside his middle son.

The death of his first grandchild in 1903 was the first burial in John's family, and must have been difficult for him; it was unfortunately followed by the death of his own wife in 1908, and by William's wife in autumn of 1911. All three were buried in the cemetery at Cross Lutheran Church in Ixonia - a church at which John's parents Carl and Charlotte had been founding members, and where, by 1911, members of John's extended family (notably his mother and his brother-in-law, Carl Stargard) were already interred.

By 1920, more changes had occurred on the family farm. Frank had returned to Ixonia to live and work on what was now his brother William's farm. William had remarried, to Minna Wein, and his family continued to grow. Finally, in late spring 1919, John died, and was buried in a plot he would share with his second wife in the cemetery at Cross Lutheran.

William and his second wife, Minna, had a daughter, Ruth, in late 1921; also present in their household in the 1920 US Census was Clarence, listed as a stepson and several years older than his younger sister Ruth. As the marriage records for William and Minna have not yet surfaced, it is uncertain as to whether Clarence was a born son of William's or not, but that doesn't seem to have mattered to William. Later records list Clarence as a son, and it was into Clarence's hands that the farm passed when he purchased it from William prior to William's death in 1947. If Clarence was not a born child of William's, it seems quite certain that William adopted him and treated him as his own.

All four of William's surviving children - Adela, Sadie, Clarence, and Ruth - are listed in the confirmation classes for Cross Lutheran Church, as published in their 125th Anniversary booklet (classes of 1914, 1917, 1927, and 1935). They would have attended in the years where German was still the primary language (early on, the exclusive language) of services and classes at the church.

Adela and Clarence neither one ever married, and lived on the farm with Minna (Wein) Schoen until her death in 1959. Sadie married twice - once to Walter Tietz, and then to his older brother Alvin Tietz after she was widowed young - and was living nearby in Ixonia at the time of her death in 1956. As far as is known, Sadie had no children. Ruth married Harvey Grulke in 1941, and moved to Watertown, Jefferson Cty, Wisconsin. Adela died in 1979, and was followed by Clarence two years later. With no heirs of his own, his younger sister Ruth inherited the family farm. In 1989, she sold the farm to someone outside the family - the first time in 140 years that the farm wasn't owned by a member of the Schoen family.

Compared to his siblings, John's descendancy is very narrow - only one of his sons married and had children, and only two of his grandchildren (Ruth and Sadie) ever married, and only Ruth had any children (one daughter, Eileen). John never knew the grandchild who would continue his line, as Ruth was born two years after his death, and some two decades after his death Ruth's daughter Eileen became John's first and only great-grandchild. Ruth had moved out of state sometime after the sale of the farm, making Clarence the last of John's line to be buried in the cemetery church founded by John's parents, Carl and Charlotte Schoen. John's great-granddaughter, Eileen, married and had four children of her own, preserving John Schoen's line from ending.

[Obituary for John Schoen, from the Oconomowoc Enterprise, 9 May 1919.]

John Schoen, who for many years had resided in the town of Ixonia, passed away at his home there on Sunday, May 4, aged 74 years. Mr. Schoen is survived by three sons, Herman, William, and Frank Schoen, all of Ixonia. He also leaves one brother, Charles Schoen of Oconomowoc.

Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at the Rock River Lutheran church with burial in the Rock River Cemetery.

[Editing note: I think it much more likely that the funeral for John Schoen was held at Cross Lutheran Church in Ixonia, where he and his family had been members for years, and his burial is known to be in the Cross Lutheran Church Cemetery.]