Michael Martin Vogel

My great grandfather Michael Martin Vogel brought his family to Mansfield, Ohio from Temesvar, Austria-Hungary in 1905. Born in October 1857, Michael Vogel was 48 years old when he left his home to make a new life for his family. According to a family calendar publication put out in the 1930’s he was born in Kreuzstatten, which is now Cruceni, Romania. His wife, Katherine was from nearby Weissenheid, now Tisa Noua, Romania.

The 1929 photo at the right is Great Grandpa Vogel holding Edward Vogel, son of Nick and Eva Vogel; and my dad, Robert Vogel.

The Ellis Island records show that Michael brought Paula, Nicholas, Barbara, and 4-year-old Michael Vogel, my grandfather, on the SS Slavonia, which arrived in New York in December of 1905. One interesting fact is that he sent two of his daughters to Mansfield earlier in the year. Maria, 17, and Johanna Vogel, 13, arrived in August of 1905. They traveled with a Barbara Them along with her 5 children under the age of 11. Barbara Them listed my great aunts and another 11-year-old girl as her nieces. Barbara joined her husband, Michael Them. My father said he knew a number of the Them family members in Mansfield, but had no indication that they were a relative. The Them family was from Fibisch.

In the US Census of 1910 the Vogel family was living at 46 Richland Ave. Great Grandpa’s occupation was listed as a laborer in a lumberyard. Johanna, 18, and Pauline, 16, were working in a cigar factory that was operating in Mansfield at that time. Nick, who was 14, was also working in a shop. Barbara, 12, and Michael, 10, were at home. Maria died of tuberculosis in March 1906 at the age of 18.

In 1911 Michael Vogel Sr and Katherine became US citizens. The citizenship certificate also named the minor children as citizens: Nicholas, 15, Barbara, 13 and Michael, 11.

By 1920 Michael Vogel Sr was working as a carpenter and lived at 285 Sturgess. My grandfather, Michael, 19, was the only child still at home. He was working as a laborer at a factory. I believe it was Westinghouse. The other children were all married and many of them lived nearby.

The 1930 US Census placed Michael and Katherine Vogel at 62 Mendota St. They were there in the early 30’s when my mother moved to Mendota St with her parents. She lived there until she was eight and remembers “Mr. and Mrs. Vogel” from long before she met my father.

In 1930, according to the census, my father was with his parents and older sister Mary living at 79 Wood St., a house Dad still remembers fondly. Twenty-nine-year-old Michael Vogel was draftsman at Westinghouse. Catherine’s sister Teresa, 16, was living with them at the time of the census.

Great Grandpa Michael Martin Vogel died April 28, 1935 at the age of 77. His wife, Katherine, lived until July 26, 1945 when she passed at the age of 83.