A Trachowfsky Mystery

When you're working on your family history online, one thing that's maybe not top-of-mind is to re-check sources you've checked before...UNLESS you're Larry.  He periodically stuns me with additional info, like yesterday ☺:
(Backstory: Our great grandpa Paul had a brother named Mathias.  Mathias Hesch married Agnes Trachofsky in Waumandee, Wisconsin in August 1879 and they eventually moved to Pierz, Minnesota about 1910.  They're buried in Pierz).

Larry found a small article in the San Francisco Morning Call from the 12th of March, 1892 with two very familiar names mentioned--


Mrs Trachowfsky's Will
Elizabeth Trachowfsky died on the 2d inst., leaving an estate of $1683.33 in cash.  By a will of the 25th ult., she left everything to the executrix, Mrs Annie E Bullis, in trust to bury her, to expend $50 for masses for the repose of her soul, to pay all debts, to retain $50 as a mark of esteem and as a small recompense for her kindness and attendance, and deliver all the rest to the testatrix's sister, Mrs. Agnes Hesch of Waumandee, Wis.


Wow!  Agnes had a sister in San Francisco.  In 1892, Agnes was 39...and Elizabeth was 41.  Evidently, too, she was in California by herself (no relatives):

TRACHOWFSKY--In this city, March 2, 1892, Elizabeth Trachowfsky, a native of Bohemia, Germany, aged 41 years.
Friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend the funeral THIS DAY (Friday) at 8:30 o'clock A.M. from the parlors of the United Undertakers 27 and 29 Fifth Street; thence to St Boniface Church, 123 Golden Gate Avenue, where a requiem high mass will be celebrated for the repose of her soul commencing at 9 o'clock A.M. Interment Holy Cross Cemetery.

Thinking about how a single female immigrant might have found her way across the ocean and the country, it's likely she worked for another family and traveled with them to wherever they were going.  Sadly, since she had no offspring, her story ended in 1892 (until now).
We couldn't find Trachowfsky or variations of it in the censuses, so we tracked the other person mentioned to see if anything seemed pertinent...and also, cuz we COULD, ya know? ☺

According to the 1900 census, Annie E Bullis was 4 years older than Elizabeth, and was the wife of Edward A Bullis.  They had 4 living children, two of whom were still at home.  Ed was retired from a career that had to do with the interment of deceased Ex-Union soldiers /maybe just part of his duties.  We found his name and comments in a book called "San Francisco municipal reports Fiscal year 1898-99, ending June 30, 1899" where Ed was identified as "Superintendant".   
...............................
New info, same afternoon:
COOL! Larry found Elizabeth listed in the San Francisco city directory in 1880, working as a domestic at 1104 Post.  Of course he looked-up that address: it was the home of George O and Margaret McMullin, grocers.  He found them in The Elite Directory for San Francisco and Oakland from 1879.  So, we know more about Elizabeth, but
...............................
  
As usual, new info brings more questions.  Now, when we go back to the church books in Bohemia from those years, maybe we'll find more than Thomas Trachofsky as Elizabeth's parents (Agnes's mom wasn't named in her birth account).  Also, since a brother named Alfred wasn't mentioned in the obit, was the man by that name in Pierz related...or was it just that her sister was closer to her?  
I'm hoping someone will google Trachowfsky/Trachowsky/Trachofsky and arrive here...and let us know.

1870

It would help, genealogically,  to have a sort of timeline in my head, with entries for significant events in the last 200 years.  So far, I only have imaginary chunks marked Otremba, Sand, Hesch, Rausch, Janson and Naber, but each family is separate, and I forget that one family was here setting up housekeeping and having babies while another was still waiting for a ship to leave Bremerhaven or Hamburg.

Our Heschs left Europe before 1870--we assume Paul and Mathias arrived here earlier than their parents and little brother--and this week, Larry and I have been perusing the 1870 Federal Census (MN and WI), as well as the Minnesota 1875 census, to see who was where, when.

In 1870, Mary Otremba was 17, and still at home with her parents Anton and Catherine, in 'Pierce', Mn.  By 1875, Paul and Mary were married less than a year, and living in Pierce, too.  They were still in Pierz in 1880, but now they had a 4 year old daughter named Rosa.

I looked through the entire Waumandee, Wisconsin  census for 1870.  It's faded terribly in 140 years so it's hard to read, but I didn't see Mathias Hesch there.  He would have been a farm hand, most likely, as a young man alone...but he and Agnes Trachofsky weren't married until 1879, in Waumandee, and Larry and I have reason to believe that Mathias traveled here on the same ship as the Trachofskys.

Ahh, here he is--in the town of Buffalo, working for a  Carl Williams, in 1870, at 21 years old.  COOL!
(Larry found this tonight ☺--Thanks!)

Interesting:  in the 1870 census for Pierce, Larry found Albert and Anna Trachovsky ►, who we believe were Agnes' brother and wife, so there was a third reason to move to Pierz eventually.


And, as shown above, the Anton Otremba family was already here:

In the fall of 1868 the Anton Otremba family came to America. They had seen an article in the German papers in which Fr. Pierz, the missionary priest, announced that a German Catholic colony was settling in the Rich Prairrie area. He described the country and told of the good qualities of the soil and the climate. This induced the Otremba family to come to the US. They got as far as St. Cloud, Minnesota by railroad. There they bought a team of oxen and a wagon and seven head of cattle and started for Rich Prairie township. They located on a 160 acre homestead in section 32 of what is now Pierz township. As it was late in the fall when they arrived and there were no buildings nor any lumber to be had, they built a dugout in the ground and covered it with poles and long slough grass. They lived in this over the winter. For the cattle they had to make hay of dried grass which did not have much nourishment. There was no protection for the cattle during the winter. The cattle died in the spring. The following year they built a log house and log barn and began clearing and grubbing the land. 
Anton donated the first church bell to St. Michaels Catolic church at Buckman and it rang it's first death toll for him on February 5, 1883. Catherine Otremba donated the large bell to the church when the new church was being built and it rang it's first death toll for her on January 13, 1902. 


And in 1870, St Cloud was the local metropolis, along with Sauk Rapids.  Where the census for an agricultural township had an ag production schedule, a city had an industry production schedule, and WOW is St Cloud's ever interesting.  There are about 75 businesses listed, with brewers, blacksmiths, millers, tinners, wagonmakers, butchers, builders, saddlers, watchmakers, a photographer, a millner, a plow maker, a publisher and a cigar maker.  It's worth looking at, just cuz its so interesting.

Trachofsky Family from Bohmen

Lessee, my great grandfathers' brothers' wife would be my great great aunt, or my great grand aunt? I'm talking about Agnes Trachofsky (or Trachowsky) who married Mathias Hesch, in Waumandee, Wisconsin in 1879.

Here, the Thomas & Elizabeth Trachowsky family arrived in Baltimore from Bohemia on the S S Ohio on June 4, 1869, when Agnes was 16. Her sibs were Franz, Maria, Theresia and Elise.
The wonders of web searching: put in a name, especially an odd one, and amazing things show up! This article from September 1899 was published in the Globe, St Pauls sensational rag...lol Franz, now Frank, would have been 39 here, and had evidently moved to Iowa/Illinois:

(So, when Frank eventually DID die, was there a second, real, grave marker for him? Genealogy is so un-exact! lol)

Another fascinating thing about searching for relatives who might have lived in Iowa was the amazing census of 1925. Each person was listed on two wide pages--first with current info, then with who their parents were, including mom's maiden name. Here, we see that Marie (Mary) Trachofsky married Isador Richlen (a Frenchman) and lived in Buffalo, Scott Co, Iowa.

(This also gives credence to her brother Frank living in Iowa, and to "Austria" as place of origin, even if it was really Bohemia).

Gotta check the map, huh?

So, siblings Mary Trachofsky (Richlen) and Frank Trachofsky lived near each other around Muscatine, Iowa, and their sister Agnes was 'just up the river' in Waumandee.
MORE thanks to Larry!