Picture in a Picture

A few weeks ago my father, Robert Vogel, received some pictures from my second cousin, Bonnie Thomas in Arizona. Bonnie was cleaning out some things of her mother’s, Frances Mutsch Besch, who is the daughter of Pauline Vogel Mutsch, my grandfather’s older sister. (I know that it’s confusing, but stay with me on this, it gets better.) One of the photos Dad received was a lovely 5X7 wooden framed portrait of his grandparents, Michael and Katarine Vogel. (These are the great grandparents that link Bonnie and I as cousins.) Michael and Katarine came to Mansfield, Ohio with my grandfather in 1905 when they were in their late forties. The portrait Dad received appears to have been taken around 1915 to 1920. We estimate the year based on how they look, dress, and the fact that we have a 1928 photo where they look much older. When my parents took the photo out of the frame to photocopy, and share it, they found another photograph that had been hidden inside for perhaps 80 years. It is a family photo that may have been taken at the marriage of my Dad’s Uncle Henry, which occurred about 1908. The photo that Mom and Dad found was cut to fit in the frame behind my great grandparents portrait. The matting on the top and left of the photo was saved, but the picture was slashed off to fit in the frame. It is a professional photo of a wedding party. We think that the bride and groom are Henry and Rose Vogel, who lived in Detroit and had no children. Henry is my grandfather, Michael Vogel’s, oldest brother. There was 20 years between them. According to the records I have found, Henry came to the U.S. in February of 1906, when he was 24. The rest of the family came earlier. The 1930 U.S. Census says that Henry and Rose were married when he was 27 and she was 19, which would have been 1908 or 1909. I have not yet determined whether they were married in Mansfield or Detroit. I am also looking for Rose’s maiden name and the rest of their family history. The discovered photo has a row of small children in the front. My Dad and I think that the boy on the far left is my grandfather, Michael Vogel when he was around 8 years old. We are pretty sure that the boy on the far right is his closest brother, Nick Vogel. The women are difficult to identify, but the man immediately to the right of the bride appears to be a youthful, Michael Vogel, the sire of our U.S. family.

Cousin Betty Cuper

This week I talked on the phone to Betty Cuper, the daughter of Eva Emond Tremblay. She is Mom's first cousin, and recently sent her a photo of Phillipe Emond. I added the photo to Phillipe's story posted below.

I hope to talk to Betty again, soon. She was helpful with information on the Remi Emond family update I am writing. I plan to have it posted here in the next few weeks.

Goulash

Hungarian Goulash

My sister, Laura, and I were texting the other day about our Grandma Vogel and her cooking. Grandma was a German, born in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, and one of the dishes she loved was goulash. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of ever having a serving of goulash at her home. We often went there for holidays, so I remember turkey dinners and ham. She always served a plate of fresh cut vegetables and I scarfed down the fresh radishes. I also have a distinct memory of the celery stalks stuffed with cream cheese or peanut butter. I remember her talking about goulash, but I don’t recollect ever eating it.

For years now, I have thought that goulash was made with ground beef, elbow macaroni and tomato sauce. There are a large number of recipes on line that are like that, but I know now that they are an Americanization of real Hungarian goulash. As I searched for recipes for goulash, I find that the main ingredients are stew beef, paprika, potatoes and a beef broth. There are many variations, but the one I am going to make is from the Central European Cooking book that I have from ‘Round the World Books Inc., by Eva Bakos and Albert Kofranek, published in 1973. Now, I must tell you that I maintain all my favorite recipes in a MasterCook file. One of my “rules” is that I don’t enter recipes that just interest me. I must first cook them successfully before they get entered in my database. So this one is untried, but I will get around to cooking it. Here goes…

Gulyas Leves (Hungarian Soup in Magyar)

6 servings

4 Tablespoons butter
2 Onions, coarsely chopped
1 ½ pounds of beef, cubed
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon paprika
6 cups of beef broth
1 ½ pounds of potatoes, peeled and diced
2 Tomatoes, peeled, seeded and sliced

Heat the butter in a large, heavy saucepan and sauté the onions until golden brown. Add the beef, salt, paprika and about ¼ cup of broth. Lower the heat, cover and simmer about 30 minutes. Add the remaining broth gradually. Cover and continue simmering for 1 hour. Add the potatoes and tomatoes and simmer 20 minutes more. Many recipe variations call for hot peppers and then a sour cream topping at the end to cool the taste. Cooked noodles may be used in place of the potatoes. I will begin to experiment and research this dish.

Lecture faite.

Chicken Paprikas

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Olive Oil
2 medium Onions, sliced julienne
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 tablespoon paprika
½ teaspoon cumin
1 small fryer chicken, deskinned and cut up
½ teaspoon salt
1 can chicken broth
2 carrots, sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a heavy bottom dutch oven and sauté the onions and garlic until golden brown. Stir in the paprika and cumin, cook one minute. Arrange the chicken pieces on top and sprinkle with salt. Pour in the broth and add carrots. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 25 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and simmer covered another 25 minutes until chicken is tender.
Serve over country noodles or other pasta.

Comments:

This comes from “Round the World Cooking Library: Central European Cooking”, by Eva Bakos and Albert Kofranek, 1974. This book features original recipes from Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Rumania. I think of my Donauschwaben grandparents from the Banat when I read this book. I am sure that this Hungarian dish is something that they would have cooked. My mother said her mother-in-law would have made this with dumplings, something I have not yet tried to do.

I used a whole small, fryer chicken for this dish. I cut the fryer into small serving pieces and discarded the back, skin and all the fat I could peel off. This is the most economical ways to buy chicken. A bird that cost me $3.40 the other day provided four generous portions.

Nicolas Pilote - Militiaman

Records do not indicate any military service on the part of members of my French Quebec ancestors, with the exception of my great- great-great-grandfather Nicolas Pilote. Born about 1796 in Les Eboulements, Quebec, Nicolas was the son of Francois Bernard Pilote and Julie Tremblay. A French-speaking British citizen, Nicolas served in the 1st Battalion Canadian militia during the War of 1812, according to Eric Jonasson, “Canadian Veterans of the War of 1812”.

In 1875 the Canadian Parliament voted to distribute $50,000 in $20 increments to all Canadian militia veterans who were still alive and residing in Canada. A minister was appointed to review all applicants and determine whether the declarations fit official government records, whether their names were listed on land grants for service, confirm a solid declaration of identity or a solemn declaration of services and personal identity by another veteran who had personal knowledge of his services. The veteran’s minister identified 2,554 surviving veterans in 1876 that had successfully proven their services. Jonasson wrote that documentation at the time indicated that the Canadian militia in the War of 1812 had an active military force of 6,617 men with a further 16,244 men being called up on occasion for service ranging from a few days to a few months. Another 674 men were involved in other military activities at the time. Nicolas Pilote was listed on the final approved list for the $20 gratuity. He was living in St. Fidele, Charlevoix, and was ranked as a private in the First Battalion militia.

According to Joseph Bouchette’s book, “Topographical Description of Lower Canada”, the Canadian militia of the time was composed of a “sedentary militia” of all males from 16 to 60 years of age. They were mustered four times a year on Sundays or holidays and received some form of military training. Out of this group an active militia was formed. During the War of 1812 it was set at a strength of five battalions, with the men chosen by ballot from the unmarried men of the sedentary militia. Their term of service was two years, but a provision was made to discharge one-half of the men each year and fill the vacancies with a fresh ballot.

Nicolas married Marie Anne Victoire Gobeil at St. Etienne Parish, Malbaie, Quebec, on 7 April 1818, according to church records. She was born 26 March, 1793 at Malbaie, the daughter of Barthelemy Gobeil and Victoire Tremblay. The bride was baptized in St Etienne at La Malbaie, but her parents were married in 1792 at the church on Isle-aux-Coudres, which is located in the St Lawrence just south of Les Eboulements.

The Nicolas Pilote family made their home at Malbaie and at nearby Les Eboulements. The 1851 Census of Canada listed them as residents of Les Eboulements, but all of the children were said to be born in Malbaie. The 1851 census said Nicolas and Marie were 55 and identified 10 living children. The youngest of the family was my great-great-grandfather, Charles Pilote, who was 9. The others listed were Eudofe, 25, M; Raimond, 21, M; Deardre, 19, F; Louis, 18, M; Cyprien, 16, M; Louise, 15, F; Theophile, 13, M; Emelee, 12, F; and Domitille, 31, F, who was listed after Thomas Brisson and two Brisson children were listed after her.

The members of this Pilote family did not live out their entire lives on the north shore of the St Lawrence, however. The 1862 church record of Charles’ marriage in Bagotville indicates that Charles and his parents were members of the parish of Notre Dame d’Hebertville. Both Bagotville and Hebertville are significantly north of the St Lawrence River. Bagotville is on the Saguenay River, which would have been in the early stages of development at this time.

Nicolas Pilote did end his days at Malbaie. In addition to the 1851 census, there was an 1858 church record of the marriage of his son, Louis Pilote, which indicated Nicolas and Marie Gobeil were members of the St Fidele parish in Malbaie. Nicolas was buried at St. Fidele, Malbaie, Quebec, on 8 November, 1879. His wife, Marie, had passed away before him. Witnesses at the funeral included a son, Raymond Pilote, and Paul Lapointe.

Philippe Emond's Story

The perils of work in the Lowell Massachusetts mills are made vividly clear by the life of my Grandma Pilot’s older brother, Philippe Emond, shown here in a photo recently sent to my mother by her cousin, Betty Cuper.

Philippe was baptized Joseph Philippe Emond on September 3, 1891 at St Patrice in Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec. He was the seventh child of Remi and Adele Emond. Grandma Laura Pilot, his younger sister, was the tenth child and was born in 1896. The family immigrated to Lowell, Massachusetts around 1899.

In the early morning hours of July 18, 1910, 18-year-old Philippe was working alone in the cloth room of the Massachusetts Cotton Mill. He was operating a shearing machine. The function of the machine was to cut the cloth threads which were left there in the weaving. In the process the webs are first sewed together by the ends and they are then passed over several rollers suspended near the ceiling to straighten and smooth out the cloth before passing it into the shearing machine.

The web parted during the process and Philippe had to bring the severed ends down to the sewing machine and reattach them. The only way to do that was to pass one end by hand over one of the upper rollers which was within inches of the rapidly revolving drive shaft. In the process of doing this work, Philippe became caught in the machine and was carried around the shaft.

According to the newspaper report of the accident, the first that anyone else knew of the injury was when other workers heard shrieks. They went into the cloth room and found Philippe on the floor in a pool of blood with his left arm torn from the shoulder. The news reported that in addition Philippe sustained two compound fractures to his right arm, one at the wrist and the other above the elbow. The young man was confined to the hospital for over two months in recovering from this injury.

Philippe sued the Massachusetts Mill the following year. It was a jury trial. These were the days before workers compensation laws. The burden of proof was on the injured worker. In order to receive compensation for injuries sustained, he had to prove to a jury that the employer was negligent. The original report of the suit said he was asking for $6,000 in damages. The suit came to trial in November of 1912, nearly two-and-a-half years after the accident.

The Lowell Sun provided detailed coverage of the case and was the source of the information about the cause of the injuries to Philippe Emond. The November 8, 1912 report said that the family was now asking for $25,000. Testimony was given by Remi Emond, Philippe’s father. The news report said the machinery was defective and that the young man was given insufficient warning. He did not know the danger of being caught.

The defense of the Massachusetts Mills was to “deny all of the material allegations contained in the statement of the plaintiff,” according to the Lowell Sun. The jury was then taken to the mill to view the scene of the accident and the court was adjourned until the following Monday. The court never reconvened on the case. The company settled out of court and the amount remained confidential.

Philippe may have never been able to work again. I found a reference to him in 1914 when he gave up a license to operate a billiard parlor. Ancestry.com had an image of his draft card from World War I. He was listed at the Ludlam street family home and it stated that he “lost and arm.” If you look closely at the photo, you will see an empty left sleeve. In the 1920 US census he was listed at the same address and his employment was shown as “none.” I have not yet found an obituary or date of death for my grand-uncle Philippe Emond.

Death at Feast

From the Lowell Sun, 30 June 1903, P 7:

"Mother Dies at Her Daughter’s Wedding

Mrs. Charles Pilotte of Kenwood

Succumbed Suddenly to Heart Disease

When the laughter and merriment held undisputed sway throughout the morning hours yesterday at the comfortable house of Mr. Charles Pilotte, the original settler at Kenwood, sorrow and tears were fair’s sad substitute as the day closed. In the morning Mr. Pilotte gave away in marriage the last of his daughters to leave the paternal roof, while in the evening he stood beside the bier of his devoted wife, Mrs. Adele Pilotte, aged 68 years, who was stricken down with paralysis of the heart just as the nuptial festivities were at their height.

Her daughter, Miss Lydia Pilotte, was united in marriage with Mr. Arthur Latour, a popular young resident of this city at 7:30 o’clock in the morning, the nuptial mass being celebrated at St. Joseph’s Church on Lee street. After the ceremony the bridal party repaired to the house of the bride’s parents in Kenwood where a wedding breakfast was served. None was in better health and spirits during the morning than Mrs. Pilotte. It was planned to have a wedding reception at Belle Gueve in the evening to which many friends had been invited, and Mrs. Pilotte jokingly remarked that she would dance at the wedding of the last of her daughters.

But shortly after dinner, about 2 o’clock, she was suddenly stricken down and became unconscious. Medical aid was summoned and it was found that she was suffering from paralysis of the heart and could not recover. A clergyman administered the last rites of the Catholic Church and she passed away at 7 o’clock in the evening.

Mrs. Pilotte is survived by her husband and nine children, five sons and four daughters. One of the sons is Mr. Alfred Pilotte of the Sun mechanical department.”

Charles and Adele Pilotte are the parents of my great-grandfather Maurice Pilotte. A few weeks ago Mom and I were searching church records from Richmond Quebec where Maurice and Claudia Pilotte were married. One of the things that was puzzling to me was the way that all mention of Pilotte family birth, death and marriages vanished from that church after about 1889. The answer was that almost every member of the family moved to Lowell, MA.

This week I found the somewhat sensationalized reporting on the wedding day death of Adele Boivin Pilotte. The newspaper writer made quite a story of the grim irony of the event which juxtaposed the joy of a child's wedding with the grief of a parent's death. The picture became even darker when I located an obituary for the bride of the wedding feast, Lydia Pilotte Latour. She died a short nine years later on February 26, 1912 at the young age of 32, leaving four small children.

Charles Pilotte passed away in December, 1917 at the age of 75. The Sun obituary mentions three daughters Mrs. A Gosselin of Canada, Mrs A. (Amedee) Caron and Mrs. Aime Demers of Lowell; as well as three sons, Maurice, Joseph and Alfred of Lowell. The obituary also said that Charles Pilotte had been a bricklayer.

My research thus far uncovered a marriage record for Charles and Adele Boivin Pilotte on 7 Jan 1862 at Bagotville, QC. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, Bagotville is a good deal north of the banks of the St. Lawrence where Charles was born in 1842. It was an even greater distance (over 200 miles) to Richmond, QC, where most of the Pilotte family lived in the 1860's where Maurice and Claudia were married. Now I find that my great-great grandparents relocated their lives once more to Lowell.

We are still waiting on the Bagotville Church records to find out more about this family. I am sure that they had at least nine children, perhaps more. If the newspaper obituary is right, Adele was born in 1835 and was 7 years older than Charles. She had her youngest daughter, Lydia, in 1879 when she was 44 or 45. Maurice, my great-grandfather, was the oldest child, born in 1862.

The Degree Team of 1918

The following story was published in the Lowell Sun on May 27, 1918:

"The degree team of Court Blanch de Castile, Foresters Franco-Americans, gave a delightful musical at C.M.A.C. hall Friday night. There was a large attendance including visitors from out of town and the program was carried out in a manner that reflected much credit on the participants. The program was as follows:
Opening number by Miss Alice Dallaire; address of welcome by J.H. Guillet, former supreme chief of the order; singing by the degree team, with Miss Hermine Ducharme, soloist; “Joan of Arc,” singing and declamation, with tableau by Misses Louise Herbert, Blanche Bisaillon, Anita R. Robillard, Aurore Parent, Jeanette McCarthy, Yvonne McCarthy, Jeanette d’are Alary, Irene and Dora Faucher: singing by W. Demers, accompanied by Miss Ida Grenier; singing, Miss Delia Thibault; address, Maxine Lepine; drill by the degree team commanded by Alphonse Vallerand; singing by the team with Miss Lucienne Geoffroy as soloist.
The members of the team are Misses Katie Chamberland, Yvonne Perrault, Hermine Ducharme, Maria Ducharme, Anna Topping, Laura Emond, Vitaline Martineau, Georgina Grenier, Mrs. Guerette, Misses Rose Roux, M. Damphouse, Minnie Noval, Albertine Asselin, Eva St. Gelasis and Eva Emond."

The team members included my grandmother, Laura Emond and her sister Eva. Mom and I found a professionally photographed postcard of grandma in a uniform. She is holding what looks like a French tricolor. The postcard has an imprint of the photographer as "Geo. Lemire". We think this is her uniform when she was in the Foresters' Degree Team.

I did some additional research with the library edition of Newspaper Archives online and learned that the French Order of the Foresters was founded in 1905. The first supreme forester was a prominent attorney from Lowell, MA. By 1910 the organization had over 50 chapters and 10,000 members. The Foresters was a mutual benefit society that collected dues and paid sickness and death benefits. It also was a social organization with twice a month meetings, social gatherings and performances.

The Blanche de Castille chapter my grandmother belonged to was one of the few that was made up entirely of women. It was organized in 1908. According to the Sun, "A feature with them is the many entertainments held under their auspices."

Jackie Pilot and Daddy

This picture of Mom with Grandpa Pilot on the swing was taken in the backyard of a neighbor on Mendota St., Mansfield. Estimated time of picture was 1934.

Tip Toe To the Cellar

One of the fun things about genealogy research is looking through boxes stored away for years and finding things you have never seen or have forgotten. Mom and I spent a day looking through her house and reviewing photo albumns. She opened some boxes in her basement and found some things I didn't remember. One interesting item was a detailed scrap book Grandma Vogel made about Dad's U.S. Army days. It contains photos, telegrams and letters home and even the grades he received in his classes in Georgia.

This is a shot of Jaquelyn Pilot Vogel's dancing days.

My research continues to focus on the French-Canadian side of the family. More photos of the Pilot and Emond side will follow.

Visitors from New England

Grandpa Joe Pilot visited us with these two relatives who had their picture taken in the backyard at Edgewood Rd. Mom thinks that the lady on the left is Aunt Lumina Lussier, Joe's oldest sister. The lady on the right may be one of her daughters. Another photo found which appears to be taken the same day shows only five of us kids and Mom pregnant with Joyce. That would date this photo in the summer of 1961.

Lumina Pilotte Lussier was Grandpa Joe Pilot's oldest sister She was born in Richmond, Quebec before the family immigrated to Lowell, MA. Mom and I have been a bit confused about the names/identies of grandpa's two sisters because we found the church record of Lumina's baptism which gives her baptismal name as Marie Claire. Grandpa's other sister was Marie Pilotte Michaud. We have always referred to her as Marie Claire. Marie was born in Massachusetts as was grandpa.

I pulled up the Pilotte family portrait from 1910 and cropped out Joe and the sister that I think may be Lumina. Look at the shape of her face in both photos. I also see a strong resemblance in the lady on the right of the 1961 snapshot to the 1910 shot. On Friday I was at Tallmadge Library and used the Newspaper Archive database and found a clue about the mystery of the sisters' names. Lumina's obituary from the Lowell Sun on 23 June 1976 listed her name as "Lumina M.C. (Pilotte) Lussier." It seems likely that this older sister was Lumina Marie Claire. The next item of information I would like to dig up is a birth certificate for Marie, to see what her full name was.

Joe and Laura Pilot at the Mill

Mom did some research on clothing to help date this photo as 1929, based on the cloche hat and the drape of the coat Laura Pilot is wearing. She and Joe are standing in front of what appears to be a typical New England mill. Another photo we have was obviously taken the same day at the same location and has Laura's neice, Grace Fortin. Because Grace lived in Lowell, we feel that the shot was taken there. Laura and Joe did not move to Mansfield, Ohio until 1933.

Joseph Pilot and Laura Emond Wedding

Joseph Pilot and Laura Emond were married at Middleton, CT on November 24, 1927. The people in the foreground of this wedding photo are from left Julia Fortin, maid of honor and Laura’s niece; Joe, Laura, and John Moriarity, best man. Of the bridesmaids in the second row we can only identify the one on the far right as Grace Fortin. Julia and Grace were the daughters of Laura’s sister, Albertine. Albertine was the oldest of the Emond siblings and Laura was the second youngest, so Albertine's children were close in age to Laura.

Pilotte Family Research

Rootsweb.com has a section with family trees uploaded by both amateur and professional genealogists. The web site clearly states that there is no guarantee of the accuracy of the information. I have downloaded and printed a number of these family trees which are known as GEDCOM’s, but I have resisted using the unsupported information in building my own family tree in the Personal Ancestral File I am using as my database. However, these GEDCOM files have been extremely valuable to me in guiding my own research.

This past month I have been working on researching the Pilotte family. I located two GEDCOM’s which mentioned Maurice Pilotte, my great-grandfather. I started out this project with the report from the professional genealogist that listed his parents as Charles Pilot and Adele Boivin. The GEDCOM from a Paul Lareau confirmed the data I already had and traced Charles parents as Nicolas Pilote and Marie Victoire Gobeil, who were married at Malbaie, Charlevoix, Quebec on 7 April 1818.

This month I ordered a microfilm of the Loiselle Marriage Index at the Family History Center in the Church of Latter-day Saints at Tallmadge. This is a microfilm of a series of 3 by 5 cards which record marriages in Quebec. They were compiled from church records and list the names of the bride and groom, their parents’ names and the date and location of the wedding. This information can be used to order the church records, like the ones Mom and I searched from St Bibiane-de-Richmond, where Maurice and Claudia Dionne were married in 1886. We looked back far enough to determine that neither Maurice nor Claudia were baptized in Richmond, which is located between Montreal and the City of Quebec, about halfway between the St Laurence River and the northern border of Vermont.

Maurice’s father, Charles, was born in Malbaie in 1842. In 1862 he married Maurice’s mother in Bagotville , QC, which is some distance due north of Malbaie. Charles and Adele Boivin wound up in Richmond, which was 260 miles away from Bagotville by the time that Maurice and Claudia Dionne were married there in 1886. Prior to the 1840’s it appears that the Pilotte family lived on the north shore of the St Laurence across from Riviere du Loup, where the Emond family was located.

Much of this information comes from research done by others, but it gives me a place to look and make my own confirmation of the details. I am waiting on new microfilm of the St Alphonse Church in Bagotville, where I hope to find the record of Charles and Adele’s wedding and baptism records for Maurice and his brothers and sisters.

Research Continues

The first written draft of the Vogel Family History was rushed to the printer in time to distribute at our family Christmas Party. Most of it was published here, however there was new material and some tighter editing. Pictures were omitted, I am working with those for the next edition.

I have finally started to use the wonderful facility of the Family History Center at the Church of Latter Day Saints in Tallmadge. For a reasonable fee you can rent microfilms of historical church records and I ordered the film of the Church of St Bibiane-de-Richmond in Quebec where Maurice and Claudia Pilotte were married in 1886.

Mom and I visited the Family History Center yesterday and reviewed the church's record of baptisms, funerals and marriages from 1850 to 1894. It was a daunting task. These are microfilms of the pages of a hand-written record book in French. Some of the writing is illegible to me, but we did find the record of Claudia and Maurice's wedding in October 1886, the wedding of his sister Fidelia in January 1882 and the baptism of two children to Fidelia in 1883 and 1884. Sadly we found a funeral record for Fidelia in May of 1886.

We also have a slight mystery to unravel. The church record clearly shows the birth of Marie Claire Pilotte, daughter to Maurice and Claudia on 12 August 1887. U.S. Census records state that Lumina was born in Quebec and Marie Claire was born in Massachusetts. We are looking into ways to confirm the birth dates and places of Grandpa Pilot's two sisters.

The Pilotte family appears in Richmond church records just in the 1880's. Maurice's parents may have been married in Bagotville, which is north of the St Laurence River, quite some distance away from Richmond. I am requesting more microfilm to further our research in that area.

The French Canadian Connection

My mother, Jacquelyn Pilot Vogel, descends from hardy French Canadians who settled in North America on the shores of the wooded St Lawrence River in Quebec of the 1700’s. Her grandparents, the Pilottes and Emonds, migrated to Lowell, Massachusetts to work in the textile mills at the close of the 19th century. They came from the Kamouraska County area near Riviere du Loup, known as Fraserville until 1919. The Riviere du Loup tourism web site describes the natural amphitheatre overlooking the St. Lawrence River. It describes the pure salt air, beautiful sunsets, seal and whale watching on the beaches that make it a desirable vacation spot today.

“Kamouraska, a county in Quebec, lying south of the St. Lawrence river, opposite Murray Bay, and between L'Islet and Témiscouata counties. The name is an Indian word signifying "where there are rushes on the other side of the river." County town, Kamouraska. Pop. 25,535 [in 1948]. Kamouraska is also a village in Kamouraska county, Quebec, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, 29 miles south-west of Rivière-du-Loup. It lies directly in front of St. Pascal, on the Canadian National Railway, and is a popular summer resort. “
Source : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. III, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 396p., p. 320.

About 900,000 French Canadians immigrated to the United States between 1840 and 1930, according to a paper written by Claude Belanger of Marianopolis College. He writes that poverty, lack of credit, overpopulation and infertile soils pushed them off their small farms. In addition, the United States was going through a rapid period of industrial growth. Jobs were easier to find, wages were higher and the textile mills required no formal training. All members of the family could work and did so. My great-grandparents, the Pilotte's and the Emond's were part of that French-Canadian migration. Maurice Pilotte in 1890 and Remi Emond in 1899.

“The development of the railway stimulated migration. As Eastern North America’s railroad network became more complex and affordable, emigrating to the United States became simpler and cheaper. Indeed, while in 1840 a trip from Montreal to Vermont would have taken several arduous and expensive days in a cart, by the 1880’s it would only be a question of a few dollars and hours.” Belanger wrote. According to a history of Riviere-du-Loup, that city became the east terminal of Grand-Tronc's railroad in 1859. The inauguration of the Temiscouata Railway, linking Riviere-du-Loup and New Brunswick, occurred in 1887.

Lowell was the second largest Franco-American town of the New England area. About a quarter of its population originated from Quebec. Lowell had been an early planned city, and because of its situation had received some of the earliest textile industries in the 19th century. The founders of this city had intended it to be a model industrial city. It had deteriorated considerably by the time French-Canadians started to arrive between 1850 and 1860. Located along the Pawtucket Falls, where the Merrimack River plunges over craggy rocks on its path to the sea, Lowell, Massachusetts, is one of early America’s most important industrial cities. Beginning in 1820s, the nation’s largest textile factories were built in Lowell and thousands of women and men flocked to the city to find jobs in the booming textile industry.

The French Canadians followed a pattern of “chain migration” to Lowell. One or two members of a family would sound out a new home before sending for the rest of their families. They would be joined by cousins, uncles and nephews, who would in turn send home for their families. Thus large populations of the same village would transplant to the same community in the United States.

“As patterns of emigration began to fill certain American towns with French Canadians, neighborhoods began to acquire a French flavor. These neighborhoods were called “Little Canada’s“ and life in them was predominantly French and Catholic. Around their local church and school, life appeared much the same as it was in some parts of Quebec. In these “Little Canadas” Franco-Americans could often speak French to their priest, grocer or doctor.”
Belanger wrote that the Quebec branch of the Catholic Church followed their transplanted members. According to one study in 1927 there were 21 French-speaking priests in Lowell by 1927.

“ In Lowell, Franco-Americans enjoyed full-fledged French-Catholic institutions. By the 1920’s, there were no less than five Franco-American parishes, with 21 francophone priests. There were large parochial schools, an orphanage, various national societies and clubs. Most of the clergy was associated with the Oblate Fathers. Most of the teaching personnel were made-up of the Grey Nuns and the Frères Maristes.”

The French Canadian emigrant to New England was a factory worker, particularly in the huge cotton mills that dotted the area. In this respect, the French Canadian immigrants played a significant role in the industrial expansion of the New England area in the last half of the 19th century. Some of these textile mills had as many as 10,000 workers and employment was often readily available, as upwardly mobile English and Scots moved out of the area and were replaced by the Irish, French Canadians, Southern and Eastern Europeans.

In these factories, wages were low, although higher than in Quebec, and work related accidents were frequent. The factory bell summoned men and women to the mills where they toiled long hours at the various tasks—carding, spinning, and weaving—to produce cotton cloth. The heat created by the machines, and the lack of proper ventilation, was stifling; the noise of dozens of machines all working at the same time was deafening and could be heard hundreds of meters away from the factories; cotton dust was everywhere and coated the workers’ lungs. Working hours were from 10-12 hours a day, up to six days a week, and much of it was spent standing while keeping an eye on several machines. These conditions were commonplace at the time and not restricted to New England. The newcomers were frequently victims of discrimination, as immigrants with a different language and religion often were at the time.

“The living conditions and the socio-economic status of the inhabitants of the "Little Canadas" were very poor. Based on the data presented by Father Hamon, in his book Les Canadiens-Français de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, published in 1891, the percentage of proprietors among Franco-Americans in 1889 was rather small in the large cities ranging from a low 4.2% in Manchester to a high of 21% in Worcester. Thus, as they rarely owned property, they lived in tenements that are described as lacking comfort and amenities, and usually far too small and overcrowded. Built around the most uninteresting part of the town, in shabby surroundings, the "Little Canada’s” had a considerable population density, among the highest in the United States. Thus, one should not be surprised that health conditions were also poor”

Although conditions were difficult, the French Canadians worked their way into prosperity. As members of the community bettered their lives, the entry-level jobs were filled by new French Canadian immigrants and subsequently by new arrivals from other parts of the world, such as Eastern Europe and the Mid-East. The United States closed the border to new Canadian immigration in 1930. The Depression affected Lowell as severely as the rest of the nation. A search of city directories showed vacancy after vacancy in the areas where the factory workers formerly resided.

Massachusetts Bound

I know that some of you were wondering if I gave up our family history research project...Not so. The easy research has been done and I have begun to work on the Pilot and Emond family history. That data is located in Massachusetts and Kamouraska County, Quebec. Today I have been calling people in the Massachusetts phone book with the name of Pilotte. So far I have not had any luck reaching unknown cousins. The one guy willing to talk to me was not a relative.

I have some more leads and am sending out letters of introduction with a little family info from this site. I will follow up with phone calls if I do not get a written response. In the mean time check out the links I have added to the Riviere-du-Loup city in Quebec. This is where the Pilot and Emond family lived before they came to the U.S.

The best way to pursue this research further is to visit the areas where our family members lived. Most of the data is in libraries or museums and not available on line. It is also very expensive to have local researchers do the work...and where is the fun in that? Can anyone say ROAD TRIP!

Four Generations 1978 and 2006

Thanks to Joel and Lauren Vogel for giving me a copy of this picture. It was a four generation photo taken in 1978 of my dad, Robert Vogel; me, holding Joel; and my grandpa, Michael Vogel. The 2006 version of the photo shows me; Joel, holding his son, Jack Vogel; and my dad, Robert Vogel.

Gilde Family in 1937

This is a four generation photo of the Eichof/Gilde family descendants taken in 1937. They are standing from left: Nancy Hoff in the arms of her father, Jacob Hoff; Jake Gilde Jr., Michael Vogel, Tony Leitenberger, Jacob Gilde, Katherine Gilde, Teresa Eichof, Katherine’s mother; Catherine Gilde Vogel; Mary Vogel Graf; Helen Gilde Hallabrin, Anne Gilde; Teresa Gilde Leitenberger, and Elizabeth Gilde Hoff. Seated are my father, Robert Vogel, with his cousin, Joanne Hoff. Teresa Eichof is Robert and Mary Vogel's great grandmother.

Gilde Cousins in 2006

A small gathering of Gilde Family descendants was held at Catherine Hallabrin's house in Ocotober, 2006. The author of this blog, Cliff Vogel is in the forground. From left in the back row are Robert Vogel, my father and the son of Catherine Gilde Vogel; Pat Leitenberger Rohal, daughter of Teresa Gilde Leitenberger; Elizabeth Gilde Hoff; Anita Hallabrin McGrath, daughter of Helen Gilde; and Joann Hoff Pullem, daugher of Elizabeth Hoff. Three of these cousins were also in the 1937 photo above. Can you find them?

Elizabeth Eichof Schemine

Elizabeth Eichof Schemine was the youngest of the three Eichof sisters who immigrated to Mansfield. Catherine and Theresia came to this country together in December 1907. They brought their children to meet their husbands who arrived in July that year. Catherine Eichof Gilde is my great grandmother.

Elizabeth Eichof was 28 and single in 1921 when she arrived in Mansfield on a ticket paid for by her brother Nick Eichof. In that generation it was unusual for a woman of that age to be single. I have not yet discovered if she had ever been married before immigrating to Mansfield. The fact that she used her maiden name and had no children when she immigrated indicates to me that she had not.

Elizabeth’s future husband, Nick Schemine, was from Setschan, the same village in Hungary where the Eichof’s lived. He arrived in Mansfield in April 1907 at the age of 26. According to the passenger manifest he was joining a brother-in-law, Johann Schmidt. Three months later his wife Anna Fredrich Schemine, 24, joined him. She brought their one-year-old son Stefan. The manifest noted that Anna’s father, Johan Fredrich, lived at 6 Setschan.

I found the Schemine family in the 1920 Census living at 332 Harker St. Nick was 39 and Anna Fredrich Schemine was 36. In 1920 they had the following children in the home: Stephen, 13; Peter, 12; and Elizabeth, 10. A 23-year-old single man from Setschan by the name of Joe Berges (sic) was listed as a boarder in the household. In 1920 Nick was working as a laborer in a cigar factory. The Harker Street house remained as the Schemine home for many years to follow. My dad says that Pete Schemine was a friend of my grandparents, Michael and Catherine Vogel.

In October 1922 Anna Schemine died at the age of 39. I found a notation in the Cemetery Index at the Mansfield Richland Public Library that said she died of a skull fracture. Her death was a mystery to me until the luncheon I attended last month at the Hallabrin house with my parents and Gilde family members including my 90-year-old Grand Aunt Elizabeth Gilde Hoff. Aunt Liz said that Anna died when she fell off the back porch.

The next reference to the Schemine’s I located was the 1930 Census. By then Nick had married Elizabeth Eichof , who was 36 in 1930 – 13 years younger than her husband. They had a six-year-old son, Nick. Also living in this extended household was Stephen, 24; daughter Elizabeth with her husband, Carl Roth; and first wife Anna’s parents: John Frederich, 86, and Anna Frederich, 79. The November, 1932 obituary for Anna Frederich said she came to this country in 1921. Her husband, John, died two years before her.

The 332 Harker St home of the Schemine’s next became Theresia Eichof’s home. As I have noted elsewhere, the Frederich’s were not the only elderly parents who left the Banat to join their children in Mansfield. Anton and Theresia Eichof immigrated in 1927. Sometime after Anton died in 1931, Theresia moved in with the Schemine’s and lived on Harker St until her death in 1952 at the age of 94.

Elizabeth cared for the elderly parents of her husband’s first wife. Then she made a home for her mother until the end of her life. Elizabeth died in 1987 at the age of 93. Her obituary said that she made her home with her son Nick up until 1984.

I never really sought out information about my great aunt, but my research kept uncovering facts about her life. I think that it is an admirable one, and tells of the kind of family devotion that characterizes the Danube Swabian Germans.

Gilde Children circa 1910

Catherine Gilde Vogel with brother John Gilde during their early years in America. They arrived in Mansfield in 1907 when John was less than a year old and Catherine was three. Judging by their apparent ages in this photo it must have been taken around 1910 or 1911. Pat Leitenberger Rohal generously gave me this photo.

Newly Wed Gildes in 1904

Jacob and Catherine Eichof Gilde with Catherine Gilde Vogel in 1904. This photo was taken in Setschan, Hungary when Grandma Vogel was less than a year old. Jacob was 24 and Catherine was 21. My sister Melody Vogel Davis looks exactly like our Great-Grandmother Gilde in this picture. Photo copied for us by Pat Leitenberger Rohal, daughter of Teresa Gilde Leitenberger.

Gilde Family 1922

The Gilde Family are from left front row: Teresa Gilde Leitenberger, Jacob Gilde with Anne Gilde Skulski, Jacob Peter Gilde, Katherine Gilde with Helen Gilde Hallabrin on her lap, Elizabeth Gilde Hoff; and rear are John Gilde with Catherine Gilde Vogel.

Jacob Gilde

The SS Kaiser Wilhelm II arrived in New York July 2, 1907 with six men traveling together from Setschan, Hungary. Jacob Gilde, 27, came to the United States with his brother-in-law, Anton Keipp, 24. They were sponsored by Nick Eichof and, according to the passenger manifest, were to meet him at 147 Lily St., Mansfield. Jacob and Anton were married to two of Nick’s sisters: Katherine and Theresia. The passenger manifest said all six of the Setschan men were farm laborers. The manifest listed the village under its Hungarian (Magyar) name of Torontal Szecsany.

Katherine Eichof Gilde followed Jacob to Mansfield in December of that year, bringing my grandmother, Catherine Gilde Vogel, 3, and John Gilde, 10 months. The 1910 US Census listed the family still at 147 Lily St. According to the census Jacob was working as a section hand for the railroad.

The Gilde’s had a total of seven children. They were Catherine Gilde Vogel, born in 1904: John Gilde, born in 1907; Teresa Gilde Leitenberger, born in 1914: Elizabeth Gilde Hoff, born in 1916; Jacob Gilde, born in 1917; Anne Gilde Skulski, born in 1920; and Helen Gilde Hallabrin, born in 1921.

According to a family history prepared in 1992, the family lived at a couple of Mansfield area farms that they rented. Eventually they moved to 34 Prescott St. Jacob worked at Phoenix Electric as an assembler. He became a U.S. citizen in 1936.
Katherine Gilde died in 1938 at the age of 54. Jacob survived until 1961 when he died at the age of 81. In later years he lived with his children.

Three Generation Photo 1944

Photo of three generations of my family. Jacob Gilde, my great grandad; Bob Vogel, my father; and Catherine Gilde Vogel, my grandmother.

Vogel Cousins 1937

First cousins Bob Vogel and Ed Vogel in June of 1937. Bob was nine and Ed is almost a year younger.

Vogel Family in 1928

The entire Vogel family as of 1928 is pictured in this studio portrait. They are front row from left: Mary Vogel Graf, Bob Mutsch, Wilma Folmer Swigart, Frank Folmer, Pauline Folmer Wehinger, Joe Wilhelm, and Frances Mutsch Besch. In the second row from left are: Barbara Vogel Folmer, Michael Vogel, Catherine Vogel with Robert Vogel, Katherine Vogel, Michael Vogel, Eva Basting Vogel with Mildred Vogel Weber, and Nicholas Vogel. The back row is Jake Folmer, Joe Mutsch, Pauline Vogel Mutsch, Henry Vogel, Rose Vogel, Nick Wilhelm Jr. Johanna Vogel Wilhelm and Nick Wilhelm Sr. This photo was provided by Edward Vogel, son of Nick and Eva Vogel. Edward was born November 5, 1928 after the photo was taken. My Dad, Robert Vogel was born in January of 1928. Those birth dates place the date of the photo some time in the middle of 1928.

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.

Leitenberger Gilde Wedding 1934

The Mansfield News Journal carried a wedding announcement for Anthony Leitenberger to my grand-aunt Teresa Gilde Leitenberger. The couple was married in June 1934 with my grandparents Michael Vogel and Catherine Gilde Vogel serving as the best man and matron of honor. Here is a photo of the two couples, which was in my grandmother’s album.

The newspaper said that a wedding dinner for 60 relatives was served at the home of Anton and Theresia Keipp, aunt and uncle of the bride.

Nick Eichof

On his extensive website about the migration of the Danube Swabians, Dave Dreyer describes the link between villages in the Banat and cities in the United States. This link is clearly evident when studying the recorded references to Nick Eichof, the older brother of my great-grandmother Catherine Eichof Gilde.

Nick Eichof came to Mansfield, Ohio in April of 1903 via the Bremen to Baltimore shipping route. His wife Magdalena followed the following January. They are the first members of the Vogel side of my family to arrive in the United States. Nick’s name appears in a number of subsequent ship manifest records for Setschan residents immigrating to Mansfield. This includes the July 1907 listing of the SS Kaiser Wilhelm when Jacob Gilde, my great-grandfather; Anton Keipp, his brother-in-law; and four other men from Setschan arrived at Ellis Island.

Nick was the oldest son of Anton and Theresia Eichof. Three of his sisters followed him to Mansfield: Catherine Eichof Gilde, Theresia Eichof Keipp and Catherine Eichof Schemine. According to Catherine Schemine’s passenger manifest, Nick paid for her ticket. Dreyer mentioned that prepaid tickets were frequently used to bring family members to the United States. A record also exists of Nick Eichof returning to Setschan for a visit in 1911.

In 1927 Nick’s parents Anton and Theresia Klopp Eichof joined their children in Mansfield. Anton died in 1931; however, Theresia lived primarily in the Schemine home at 332 Harker St until 1952. She was 94 when she died. Both of these great-great grandparents are buried in the Mansfield Catholic Cemetery. The 1927 immigration was mentioned in Theresia Eichof’s obituary.

Another record which links Nick Eichof to my family is a transcription of a declaration of intent to become a U.S. citizen which was found on the Richland County USGenWeb site. Under Nick Eichof’s name on 9 December 1906 was John Leitenberger. John’s son Tony married my grandmother Catherine Gilde Vogel’s sister, Teresa in 1934.

Nick was a full time farmer and had a large family. The 1920 U.S. Census listed him in Springfield Twp with eight children. He was born 25 Oct 1887 at Setschan, Austia-Hungary and died in Lexington, Ohio 11 April 1956. His wife Magdalena died 27 March 1963.

Remi and Adele Emond

My Grandma Pilot’s parents were Remi Emond and Adele Emond. They were married September 25, 1877 in Riviere du Loup, Quebec, and according to my mother they were cousins, thus had the same last name. They had 11 children; the second to youngest was my grandmother, Marie Anne Laura Emond Pilot.

A report from Ancestor Seekers lists the names and birth dates of 10 children as follows: Marie Albertine, March 19, 1879; Marie Josephine, July 6, 1880; Marie Juliana, May 25, 1882; Joseph Silvo, October 13, 1887; Joseph Aime Marzanod, January 26, 1889; Joseph Philippe, September 3, 1891; Marie Eva, January 15, 1893; Joseph Adelard Albert, May 24, 1894; Marie Anne Laura, May 17, 1896; and Louis Joseph Alphee, August 24, 1897.

Ancestor Seekers did research on Remi and Adele Emond. They found a Canadian Census record which placed them in Fraserville, Temiscouta, Quebec in 1881. (Fraserville later changed its name to Riviere du Loup.) Remi was 28 and was listed as a journalier (day laborer). At the time they had two children listed as Albertine, 2, and Olivine, 9 months. Remi immigrated to Lowell, Massachusetts in 1899.

In June of 1900 a US Census taker found the Emond family at 795 Lakeview Ave and listed all 11 children. He did misspell the name of the family as “Emon”. They had been in the US for one year. Remi and all the children aged 14 and up were working in the mills on hosiery.

The 1920 US Census placed 63-year-old Remi Emond at 176 Ludlam St, Lowell, MA. Adele was listed as were the following children: Adolphe, 34; Philippe, 27: Joseph, 25: Laura, 23 and a granddaughter, Anna, who was 10. Remi’s occupation was shown as a dyer. My grandmother, Laura’s occupation was listed as a stamping.

Emond Family Photo

Photograph of Remi and Adele Emond with their 11 children taken around 1900 at Lowell, Massachusetts. Front Row: Julia, Remi Emond, Laura, Adele Emond, Alphee (behind Laura), Joseph (lower right), Eva (behind Joe). Second Row: Silvio, Adolphe, Olevine, Albertine, Phillip and Robert. Laura in the front row is my maternal grandmother. She was 4 when the photo was taken.

Setschan

At about the same time in history that the American colonies were struggling to free themselves from England and develop the frontier, another frontier was being colonized in Eastern Europe. The Austrian Imperial Army defeated the Ottoman Empire and claimed The Banat, an area now divided between Hungary, Romania and the country formerly known as Yugoslavia.

The Banat became a crown territory of the Holy Roman Empire in the 1700’s and colonial plans were made and administered from Vienna. According to a paper written by Sue Clarkson, the aim was to develop farmland, defend the border of the empire against invasion and to spread the Roman Catholic religion. They used inducements of free land, construction materials, livestock and exemption from taxes to bring in German settlers.

The German colonists ultimately built about 1,000 villages. They had to build dykes and dams, drain marshlands and build roads. The area of the Banat was flood plain and is subject to devastating flooding to this day. Those settlers became known as the Danube Swabians. They were the ancestors of my German-speaking grandparents.

The Banat grew and prospered during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. It became a breadbasket of Europe. Mechanization, industrialization and competition from American farmers, and others, caused economic decline by the end of the 1800’s. As a result thousands of the young Danube Swabians immigrated to the United States.

According to Dave Dreyer, there was a pattern of migration when members of a Danube Swabian village went to the same areas of the United States. He tracked ship manifests and identified over 700 Danube Swabians who settled in Mansfield, Ohio. Among them were my great-grandparents: Vogels, Gildes and Eichofs.

A large number of the Danube Swabians in Mansfield came from the Village of Setschan, including the Eichof’s and the Gilde’s. The Vogel family came from the area around Temesvar; however, most of them married Setschan villagers and their descendants, including my grandfather, Michael Vogel. They all had similar backgrounds, belonged to St Peter’s Catholic Church and for a time maintained their cultural heritage within the Mansfield community.

Setschan still exists. It is now a part of Serbia and is called Secanj. An elaborate website is maintained by a German organization of genealogy researchers. The text is all in German, but it is loaded with pictures. Scroll through the pictures under “Fredi’s Reisen” to see current photos of the homes, workplaces and church in Setschan. There are loads of pictures from the early 1900’s as well.

If you read the Clarkson paper about the Banat you will see why all of the villages have at least three different names. The Germans founded the villages and maintained their language and separate schools. When the Hungarian government took over the Banat in the mid-1800’s there was pressure to “Magyar-ize” the German community. Each village has a Hungarian or Magyar name. After World War I the Banat was divided among Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. The borders were shifted again after World War II and again after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s.

The Village of Setschan can be listed under the following names:
German: Setschan, Setschany, Petersheim
Hungarian: Szecsany, Torontalszecsany
Official: Secanj

Eichof Sisters

My grandmother, Catherine Gilde Vogel, came to the United States with her mother in November 1907. Her mother, Catherine Eichof Gilde, was traveling with her sister Teresa Eichof Keipp, who also had two young children with her. Their husbands, Jacob Gilde and Anton Keipp, immigrated to Mansfield, Ohio together the previous July.

This photo of Teresa (left) and Catherine was probably taken in Setschan, Hungary before they were married. In spite of the formal clothes they look very young.

According to the Ellis Island record of their arrival, Catherine Eichof Gilde was 24, and her sister, Teresa, was 21. They each had two small children. My grandmother was three and her brother, John, was 10 months old. Teresa’s children were three-year-old Anton and three–month-old Elizabeth. In addition they appear to have been accompanying a 16-year-old neighbor, Joseph Subich. The ship manifest records listed the last address of the immigrants. Joseph’s father lived next door to Teresa and Catherine’s father in Setschan. It also appears that Joseph was a half-brother to Teresa’s husband Anton Keipp.

The record shows that their ship, the SS Main, departed from Bremen, Germany. They had to travel from Setschan in what was then in Hungary, across Hungary and Germany to reach the North Sea port of Bremen. The likely mode of transportation for that trip would have been by train. They sailed as second class passengers to New York, went through the immigration process at Ellis Island and then made their way to Mansfield, Ohio probably by train.

A first cousin of Grandma Vogel, Magdalene Keipp Goettl, passed along a memory of the day they arrived at New York. Her mother, Teresa Eichof Keipp, was carrying the baby Elizabeth and told her son, Anton, to hang on to her skirt. Magdalene said her brother, Anton, was a "nosey boy" and before they knew it, Anton was gone. They searched all over for him and finally found him walking up and down the docks with his hands in his pockets and not a care in the world. He was looking at the ships and the people passing by.

The passenger manifest of the SS Main listed the final destination of the Eichof sisters as 147 Lily St, Mansfield. The U.S. Census of 1910 found the Gilde family at that same address. Jacob Gilde was a section hand for the railroad, according to the census. The Keipp family was in Crestline at the time of the 1910 census, where Anton Keipp was also working for the railroad. The Gilde’s later moved to Crestline as well.

Maurice Pilotte Family

My mother's side of the family came to the United States from Quebec, Canada. Maurice and Claudia Dionne Pilotte immigrated to the United States in 1887. They came from the Riviere Du Loup area of Quebec. It is located on the shore of the St Lawrence River due north of the northernmost tip of Maine. They were part of the French-Canadian migration of workers to the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts.

According to the 1900 census data, Maurice Pilotte was born in November 1860 in Canada. He immigrated to the United States in 1887 and was living in Lowell, Massachusetts. His occupation was listed as a cotton spinner. He was not a US citizen in 1900. Claudia Dionne Pillote was listed as his wife of 14 years. The census indicated that they had 5 children -- 3 of them living. The children listed at the address were Lumina Pilotte, daughter, born August 1887 in Canada; Marie Pilotte, daughter, born June 1889 in Massachusetts; and a son, Alphonse Pillote, born January 1897 in Massachusetts. The son would be my grandfather, Joseph Pilot. This is a photo of the Maurice Pilotte family. Grandpa Pilot is a young teen, so it would have been taken around 1910.

Claudia and Maurice were married at Richmond, Quebec in October, 1886. A Richmond Church record was of the August 12, 1887 baptism of Marie Claire Pilotte, legitimate daughter of Maurice Pilotte and Claudia Dionne Pilotte. The godparents were Charles Pilotte and Adele Boivin.

The census listed the next door resident of Maurice and Claudia Pilotte as Charles Pilotte and his wife Emma. This was Maurice's brother. Charles was born in December 1861 in Canada. He and Emma had 4 children, all living at the time of the census. The children were Charles Pilotte, 7; Emma Pilotte, 6; George Pilotte, 4; and Alphaise Pilotte, 1. Charles was a brick mason. Another resident listed next door was 70-year-old George Roleau, who was listed as a father to the head of the household. His occupation was listed as a carpenter and in 1900 he had been widowed for 40 years. Marriage records indicate that George Roleau was the father of Emma Pilotte.

In 1920 the U.S. Census shows Maurice and Dionne living at Dana St in Lowell, MA, along with their daughter Lumina Pilotte Lussier, her husband Wilfrid Lussier and their four children. Lumina and Wilfrid Lussier's eldest children were twin girls, Claire and Alida. The two girls inherited that property and owned it up until 1976, according to Massachusetts property records.

Grandpa Pilot kept in touch with his sisters. I can remember meeting them on a visit to Mansfield when I was a child. They were still alive when he passed away in 1968.

Michael and Catherine Gilde Vogel

My grandparents Michael and Catherine Gilde Vogel both came to the United States when they were children. Their families came from a part of Europe called The Banat, which was part of the Austria-Hungary Empire of the Hapsburgs. Their documents listed their citizenship as Hungarian, but they were German ethnically. This photo is from 1977.

Grandma and Grandpa were married 14 June 1922 and had two children, my dad and Mary Vogel Graf. Both of my grandparents spoke German in their households when they were growing up and continued to speak German at home to their children. According to my father, he did not speak English at all when he started shcool. I can remember my grandmother telling me that "Bobby felt bad because he couldn't speak English." She said that it was a relief to stop speaking German at home. They still used it when they wanted to say something to each other that they didn't want us kids to hear.

Grandpa went to for Ideal Electric in Mansfield. He took a course and became a draftsman. I remember that Grandma worked as a bookbinder for a printing company in the 1960's and perhaps into the 1970's. They were both very hard working and kept an immaculate house.

Foreword

This Vogel Family history traces the ancestors of my parents, Robert E Vogel and Jacquelyn Pilot Vogel, who were married at Mansfield, Ohio in December 1950. This photo is from 1952 when I was about 1 year old.

Dad's family is ethnic Germans who were part of the Austria-Hungary Monarchy when they came to Mansfield about a hundred years ago. Mom descends from French-Canadians who immigrated to Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1890's. Mom's parents moved to Mansfield when she was a child. They both belonged to St Peter's Catholic Church and attended the parochial school there.

Dad was finishing his degree at Case (now Case Western Reserve) in Cleveland when they were married. He graduated and went to work for Ohio Edison as an electrical engineer in Lorain, Ohio. I was born the following fall.