There were only a few clues to help me know where to start searching for my father's family: a few small unlabeled photos in the shoebox, my grandmother's funeral card with her birthplace and date, some picture postcards of old Freeport, Illinois, and my memory of hearing about Aunt Lizzie and Aunt Bertha, my grandmother's sisters. These nuggets were small, but big enough to eventually lead me to a treasure of family history, photographs, and living cousins.
I don't remember too much about Grandma Kraus since she died when I was just six years old.What I've learned about her life is that she was born in the very small village of Buena Vista in northwestern Illinois. She was the seventh child of nine altogether, her four oldest siblings having been born in Germany before her parents' arrival in the United States about 1871. Two additional older sisters were born in Illinois in the late 1870's before Emma, and another sister and brother born later in 1881 and 1882.
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| Fryer family of Illinois about 1900, with Emma on the far right |
Not much is known yet about her childhood or her school days but she probably as a farmer's daughter finished only an eighth grade education and also worked to help out on the farm. In December of 1902 at age 22, with her youngest brother Frank and his wife Amanda as witnesses, she married a handsome young man from the village of Baileyville about 15 miles south of Buena Vista. William Anthony Kraus was the grandson of Joseph Kraus and the son of Augustus Kraus, both enterprising German pioneers in early Illinois history who immigrated about 1854 from Bavaria.
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| William Anthony Kraus, about 1902 |
Soon following their marriage the young couple, along with William's parents August and Mary Ann (Nickless), moved to Newaygo, Michigan, probably drawn to the dark forested countryside's potential in the growing lumber industry, as William's father had owned his own lumber yard in Baileyville, IL for several years.
It was here that Emma and William settled down and before long started their family, their first daughter Gladys being born in 1905. Another Daughter Ila was born in 1907, followed by their only son William Arnold, my father, in 1911. Their fourth child, another daughter Irene, came along later in 1918. It was in that same year that Emma became very sick during the serious influenza epidemic of 1917-1918 during which millions of people died worldwide. An "influenza" sign hung just outside the porch door warning of the very contagious virus.
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| Emma and the four children, about 1922 | | | | | | | | | | | |
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Emma survived the epidemic and was a busy mother of four as the children grew up during the next few years in Newaygo. Their father followed his trade as a house carpenter and also worked at, and possibly owned, the Kraus Cash store on Main Street. During these years Emma also traveled back to Freeport a few times to visit her family, and to attend her sister Anna's funeral in 1925, her mother's in 1926, and her father's in 1932. Grandchildren began to arrive in the 1940's...Ila's two children Sandra and Barry came first, then Arnold's son Bil in 1943 and daughter Sylvia in 1948, and daughter Irene's two children Georgia (1941) and Jimmy (1950). Emma oldest daughter Gladys did not marry and lived at home much of her life.
During the 1920's the family moved to the larger town of Grand Rapids, and I recall the large old house on Adams Street and Grandma's delicious Sunday dinners after church every week. We were always all together, except for Aunt Irene and Uncle Fred and cousin Georgia and Jimmy who lived in Jackson across the state. Grandma was an excellent cook, was always cleaning house, it seemed. One family joke was not to ask her how she was feeling, as she would often go on and on about her aches and ailments.
Grandma and Grandpa celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on December 23rd, 1952, with Aunt Bertha and her husband traveling up from Freeport for the special occasion.
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| 50th Anniversary 1952 |
Grandma Emma developed heart trouble and diabetes in her later years. She had several heart attacks within a few years, and died of a heart attack in 1954. Grandpa lived many more years as a quiet man, sitting in his handmade rocking chair in front of the large living room window or on the front porch, smoking his pipe. He died in 1966. Both of these loving grandparents are buried in Rosedale Memorial Cemetery, outside of Grand Rapids near Standale, MI. Three of their children are also buried beside them, and daughter Irene is buried in Jackson where she lived and raised her family.
