The Descendants of Karl Gottfried and Mariana Klapper of Silesia, Prussia

By Richard Klapper, Josie Driscoll and Fred Klapper

This book documents the story of Carl and Mariana Klapper who lived in Prussia and later moved to London, England in the middle of the 1800s. We want this book to be more than a listing of generations of Klappers but one that shows the times in which they lived and the hardships and successes that they dealt with during their lives. We see how families aligned themselves with each other and intermarried to maintain their social position (even when that position was not high).

We see the bravery of Klapper men and women setting forth to Texas to find better lives for themselves when Texas was a wild country that needed to be tamed. These stories tie together this family history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781490783123

Richard Klapper

Josie Driscoll (nee Klapper) is a mother of four, has 11 grandchildren, and lives with her husband, Jim, in South Wales, UK. She is a language graduate, fluent in French, Spanish and Russian with some knowledge of German. She began exploring the Klappers’ European family history independently of Richard and Fred Klapper about 15 years ago, before their paths crossed leading them to merge their findings and to work together to complete this book. Fred Klapper lives with his wife, Pam, and they have a son, Andrew. They live in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Fred has been an active genealogist for approximately 35 years, starting at a time where he could question and document stories from his grandparents, aunts and uncles. During that time he came across documents from his great aunt Lizzie which formed the basic information for portions of this book. Richard Klapper lives with his wife, Linda and their silky terrier. They divide their time between Alvin, Texas and Estes Park, Colorado. Richard has been an active genealogist for approximately 20 years. In addition to researching his family lines he has published two previous books on two of his other family lines.

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© Copyright 2017 Josie Driscoll, Fred Klapper & Richard Klapper.

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ISBN: 978-1-4907-8313-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-8312-3 (e)

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Karl Gottfried & Mariana Fransiska Klapper

Chapter 2 Charles William Klapper

Chapter 3 Albert August Klapper

Chapter 4 Raymond Klapper

Chapter 5 Edward Klapper

Chapter 6 Emilie Bertha Klapper

Chapter 7 Emilie Fransiska Klapper

Appendix I Information Received From Elizabeth Ester Klapper

Appendix Ii Information From Charles Frederick Klapper

Appendix Iii Information From Ernest James Klapper

Appendix Iv Information From Charles Edward Klapper

Appendix V Charles William Klapper Descendant Pictures

Appendix VI Raymond Klapper Descendant Pictures

Appendix VII Edward Klapper Descendant Pictures

Appendix VIII Emilie Bertha Klapper Descendant Pictures

Appendix IX Emilie Fransiska Klapper Descendant Pictures

Appendix X Family Grave Headstone Pictures

Appendix XI Family Obituaries

Appendix XII Family Burial Locations

Appendix XIII U.s. & Canada Arrival Information

Appendix XIV Theft At Raymond Klapper’s

Appendix XV Living In Jack The Ripper’s Neighborhood

Appendix XVI World War I Diary Of Charles James Klapper (Includes Company Roster)

Appendix XVII Klappers In Debtors Prison

Appendix XVIII Liberation Of Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Appendix XIX Shoreditch Exhibition Fund & Hornchurch Cottages

Appendix XX Albert W. Henschel In The Spanish American War

Appendix XXI Excerpts From World War Ii Diary Of Francis Dennis Klapper

Appendix XXII Ferdinand Ducius Labor Dispute

Appendix XXIII Marriage Record Of Carl & Marianne Klapper

INTRODUCTION

In the early 1970’s one of the authors, Fred Klapper, became interested in the family history of the Klappers. Fred and his brother Richard are descendants of Charles William Klapper, the eldest son of Carl Gottfried and Mariana. Fred’s timing was excellent in that not only was his father, William Richard (Dick) Klapper, still alive but so was Dick’s mother, Mae Klapper, who was living in the old family home in Coleman, Texas. Fred was able to obtain numerous documents and stories from her and his father. In addition, Fred and his father were able to make contact with some of the Klapper descendants still living in England and obtain their information on the family history.

Fred’s brother, Richard’s, interest in the Klapper family history was not stirred until almost 30 years later. Having the information Fred had collected earlier was a tremendous help in his further research. In particular, much of the original data which formed the basis for this book came from notes and family trees which were prepared by Elizabeth Ester Lizzie (Klapper) Shirmacher (born 1878) prior to her death in 1948. Lizzie was a granddaughter of Carl Gottfried and evidently had a serious interest in her family history since she left numerous notes and family trees with fairly detailed family information. Her notes provided Fred and Richard starting points for their further research.

After Richard and Fred began in earnest to research information on the Klapper family they were extremely fortunate to discover a distant cousin who lived in Wales. She was Josie Driscoll and she brought a wealth of information and research help to the effort to create this book. She is a descendant of Raymond Klapper, a son of Carl and Mariana. Her input not only provided additional information on other Klapper descendants but also provided a check on the accuracy of the information available to Fred and Richard. Living in the UK, her knowledge of London proved invaluable.

In addition to the information from Lizzie, information on the early Klappers was obtained from letters by Charles Edward Klapper (born 1911), Charles Frederick Klapper (born 1905) and Ernest James Klapper (born 1895). The letter from Ernest James indicated that his information came from the flyleaf of an old German Bible published in 1736. Elizabeth Ester, Charles Frederick and Ernest James were descendants of Carl Gottfried’s son Charles William while Charles Edward was a descendant of Carl Gottfried’s son Raymond. While all of these sources provided interesting information, unfortunately they did not agree in all details and some was later found to be in error. However, they all provided information which was helpful in our research. For informational purposes, these notes, trees and letters are included in appendices to this book.

After collecting large amounts of data, stories and pictures from multiple lines, Richard realized that the raw genealogical data would be available in public records in the future but family stories and pictures would disappear forever as time and generations passed. He decided that the only way to ensure that the Klapper family stories and pictures would survive for future generations would be to publish them in a book. Fortunately, Fred and Josie agreed and consented to become co-authors.

This book is laid out in a series of chapters and appendices. The first chapter discusses Carl Gottfried and Mariana Fransiska and their ancestors and the remaining chapters discuss descendants of each of their children. The appendices contain miscellaneous topics and references covering related information which may be too detailed for inclusion in the chapters.

Although numerous people have contributed information for this book, the authors would like to particularly acknowledge the efforts of Laraine Walker, George Henschel and Ian White. They have provided pictures and information which has been invaluable in writing this book.

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Marriage record of Gottried and Mariana Klapper In the cathedral of Nysa, Poland

CHAPTER 1

Karl Gottfried & Mariana Fransiska Klapper

Karl (Carl) Gottfried Klapper was, per family recollections and his church marriage record, a farmer in the area of Prussia called Silesia in the small village of Sacherau (Sakerau), near the village of Toepliwoda (Tepliwoda), Prussia.

Carl was born June 27, 1798 in Sacherau, Kreis Muensterberg, Silesia, Prussia. Since Kreis is German for district, he was born in Sacherau in the district of Muensterberg. Sacherau was just outside of Toepliwoda which is now Cieplowody, Poland and Muensterberg is now Ziebice, Poland. These towns are south of Wroclaw, Poland.

Carl married Mariana Fransiska Patschkowsky on January 31, 1832 in Neisse, Prussia. Neisse is now Nysa, Poland. Elizabeth Ester Shirmacher’s notes indicate that Carl was Lutheran while Mariana was Roman Catholic. As discussed later in this chapter, their burials in London would confirm this. Their marriage record was found in the parish registers of the Roman Catholic cathedral in Neisse (Latter Day Saints Film 2407407). Per this marriage record his name was Heinrich Gottfried who was 33 years old and a landowner in Toppliwoda. He is listed as Roman Catholic (probably to avoid problems marrying a Roman Catholic), single and the legitimate son of Johann Klapper. The German word for landowner indicates someone who owns a piece of land but it could be just a small plot or garden.

According to the church marriage record, Mariana was 26 years old, Catholic, and the legitimate daughter of the commoner tanner Carl Patschkowsky. The German word burgerlich which is here translated as commoner denotes not of noble birth but also implies skilled trade/middle class. This information implies Mariana was born in 1805. This agrees with the information provided by Elizabeth Shirmacher which indicated Mariana was born 11 April 1805 and her death record which indicated she was 63 when she died in 1868.

It appears they had 4 sons and 3 daughters. Although birth records for the seven children have been found in church records, no record has been found for a fourth daughter named Amilia who was indicated by Elizabeth Shirmacher as another daughter. A researcher in Berlin indicated that the name Amilia was not used in German and therefore it is doubtful, but not certain, that this daughter did not exist. As a side note, an Amelia Klapper marriage was found in London in 1871. However, research by author Josie Driscoll has shown that this Amelia was not the daughter of Carl and Mariana. She was a Klapper only by a previous marriage.

A family story is that one of Mariana’s uncles was the archbishop of Cracow and there was a statue of him erected in the central square of Cracow. The fact that Carl and Mariana were married in the cathedral in Neisse may be because her uncle was of high church rank.

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Silesia, where Carl Gottfried and Mariana came from has had a turbulent history. In the mid-1700’s Prussia and Austria fought over territories and Prussia eventually prevailed and acquired most of Silesia. By 1763 the question of Silesia was settled with the majority belonging to Prussia. Silesia had been at the center of war for about 25 years. About 100 years later, Carl, Mariana and most of their children left Silesia. Per a family story they went through Holland to England with the intent to proceed on to the United States. Although some of the children later went to the U.S., most stayed in England. Shortly before the Klappers left Prussia, an economic downturn and other problems caused a massive emigration from this area to the USA and Western Europe. In 1848 there was widespread unrest and rioting which was brutally put down. In addition, Breslau suffered 300 deaths from a cholera epidemic. Living conditions of the common people in this area deteriorated during what was called the Hungry Forties. The area suffered from potato blight, a series of poor harvests and numerous economic crises. As living conditions worsened, incidents such as the Silesian weavers uprising of 1844 happened. It should be noted that Carl’s father and grandfather were weavers. In many regions starving people raided bakeries, flourmills and food shops. A famous painting entitled Storming the Bakery immortalized the desperation of the population. In March 1848 the Schleswig Holstein Conflict took place when Denmark annexed Schleswig. In response, the Prussian army, including many volunteers, invaded the area. On 26 August, an armistice was signed at Malmo. It is not known exactly when Charles William Klapper received the scar on his back from a sabre wound, but it could possibly have been at this time. As previously mentioned the increase in emigration increased significantly. To the USA alone, emigration increased from 37,000 to 83,200 in the five year period from 1845 to 1850.

Silesia was given to Poland after World War II and the Prussian city of Breslau is today in Poland and is called Wroclaw. With the area going back and forth between Germany and Poland the question arises – were Carl and Mariana (and their descendants) German or Polish? Author Fred Klapper makes the case for their being German rather conclusively as follows.

We have to remember that the Polish-German border was contested for centuries and that is why there are normally 2 names for each city, One name will be German such as Breslau and the Polish name is Wroclaw. When Germany (Prussia) controlled the area they would force out the Polish nationals and populate the area with German citizens and Poland would do the same when they controlled. When people referred to themselves as Germans they probably were and their allegiance belonged to Germany. I have run into several German immigrants that when they hear my name immediately say how that is a good German name. My theory is that we have always noted we are from Germany, our great grandfather and his sister spoke German, our name is a noted German name, and great grandfather made two of his sons join the U.S. Army during WW I to show how our loyalty was to the USA not Germany. In addition, we know from Josie that her g-grandparents, Raymond and Anna spoke German.

As noted above, Carl, Mariana and the children (or most of the children) left Silesia and went to England. It is most likely that some of the children left first with Carl Gottfried and Mariana coming later. What can be documented is that the 1861 census shows the children Charles William, Albert August, Raymond, Edward and Emilie Bertha were in London at 75 Long Lane working as confectioners. This arrangement must have lasted for several years as at the time of her wedding in 1863, Bertha and her new husband were residing at 75 Long Lane and the groom was a confectioner. If Ernest James Klapper’s recollection is correct, Charles William came to Leeds and opened a confectionary shop and the other three brothers came first to Leeds before moving to London. The problem with this story is that he noted they came in 1864 but from the 1861 census we know that the four brothers were already in London three years before that time. A portion of this story may be correct as a Carl Klapper, on 31 October 1854, left Hamburg on the ship Prince on his way to Hull (which is the port near Leeds). This may well be our Charles William Klapper but cannot be confirmed. Four brothers and one sister were found in the 1861 census while Carl and Mariana were not; this would tend to support the premise that the sons and Emilie Bertha came to England first and the parents came a little later. In addition to those siblings in London in 1861, we know that Carl, Mariana and another daughter Emilie Fransiska eventually followed them to England. Carl Gottfried was naturally listed as the father on the marriage record of Emilie Bertha in 1863, Charles William in 1866 and Edward in 1869. It is likely he was in England at this time since his occupation was listed as confectioner in 1863 and as gentleman in 1866 and 1869. This would be explainable since he was probably working as a confectioner with his sons and daughter in 1863 and had retired and was a gentleman by 1866. However, it is then odd that on his death record in 1872 his occupation was listed as a jobbing gardener. Since Carl Gottfried was not in London in 1861 but appears to have been there at the time of Emilie Bertha’s wedding in 1863, we can surmise that Carl and Mariane came to England between 1861 and 1863. Carl Gottfried was known as Gottfried. We know this from the fact that on the three marriage records and his death record his name is listed as Gottfried – not Carl.

The Klappers, like many other immigrants to London, found themselves living and working in London’s notorious East End, specifically the Whitechapel area. In around 1600, various smelly industries such as tanneries and slaughterhouses were established in this area as it was outside the walls of London proper. From then until the mid-1800s, a large migration took place from rural England to London. Most were poor and settled in this area which was near the industries which attracted them in the first place. In the Victorian era Whitechapel became the new home of many immigrants from around Europe, including the Klappers who arrived from Prussia. Whitechapel became a maze of small, dark streets and alleyways which were filthy and full of crime and disease. In 1866 a cholera epidemic swept through the area killing 3,000 people. Typhus and tuberculosis were common as well. In 1888 the London Metropolitan Police Service estimated that there were 1200 prostitutes and 62 brothels in Whitechapel. With the diseases causing early deaths of so many men in the area, large numbers of women with children were left penniless and with no way to make a living and therefore turned to prostitution to survive. In this disease ridden area the average lifespan for men was 49 and for women 44. The Klapper sons were very fortunate in that they managed to outlive this 49 year average with Charles living to be 54, Edward 64, Raymond 66 and Albert 71.

Many Germans like the Klappers were bakers and over 50% of the master bakers in London were Germans. At this time, bakers were low on the pecking order of workers. They worked through the night and delivered bread the next day. The work was very labor intensive with the dough being kneaded by hand. The bread was baked in coal-fired ovens which was a dirty process. It was also a hot, sweaty, unhealthy working environment. The conditions were so hot that most bakers worked naked. Their sweat ended up in the dough which did nothing to improve the sanitation of the final product. Life expectancy for bakers was 41 years and the majority lived with significant health problems, particularly lung disease. Several attempts by the bakers to strike for better working conditions were unsuccessful. When gas-fired ovens became more common, working conditions significantly improved as gas was much cleaner than coal.

At this time, flour was stone ground and expensive. Therefore, modified flour became almost universal. Flour was mixed with various things such as chalk and alum as well as potato, bean and pea flour. All bread in London at this time contained alum which had negative health affects. The main factor in reducing this activity was the importing of flour from the US which was better quality and cheaper. US flour cost approximately half of that produced in England. By 1900 almost all flour was imported from the US.

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Bread at this time was nearly exclusively white bread. When sugar became cheaper its use in baked goods became common. This would have been important for the Klappers who were confectioners which means they specialized in cakes and other sweet baked goods.

Because of the dismal nature of living conditions in this area it was fertile ground for social activism. Numerous poor advocacy groups sprang up. Probably the most famous group came about from a meeting held in 1878 at 272 Whitechapel Road. It was here that William Booth founded the Salvation Army. These terrible working conditions gave rise to trade unions and the British Labour party as well.

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In 1888 the area became even more famous in crime annals with the appearance of the notorious Jack the Ripper, who was also known as the Whitechapel Murderer. For approximately three months at the end of 1888, this killer terrorized the Whitechapel area with the grisly murders of at least five prostitutes. Although Carl, Mariana and their eldest son, Charles, were dead by this time, Charles’ eldest son (and probably Charles’ wife, Elizabeth) were living in the center of this terror and within a couple of blocks of these murders. Also, Carl and Mariana’s son Raymond was living in the Whitechapel area as well. Albert had moved slightly to the north to Bethnal Green which was very similar to Whitechapel, a short distance away. Only one of the four sons, Edward, had moved a significant distance away to the south to Penge. Additional information on Jack the Ripper and the famous murders can be found in Appendix XV.

Information on where Carl and Mariana lived in London prior to Mariana’s death is minimal. In her burial record of 28 May 1868, we find that she was living at 55 Hackney Road. She and Carl Gottfried must have been living there with their son Raymond. We also know that Raymond only moved to 55 Hackney Street in early 1868. Where Carl Gottfried and Mariana lived in London prior to that time is unknown. From the 1871 census we know that the widower Carl Gottfried was living at 46 Nicholas St., Mile End with his son Albert August and family. Carl Gottfried died on July 10, 1872 also in German Hospital in