Number 42, Schamers...1896 and today

In the grand scheme of things, this post makes little difference.  It's just here to record our FINALLY weaving about ten different threads together into a coherent picture of the Binder houses in Schamers (Cimer, CR), Bohemia.  

Statue of St Joseph,
still displayed in the wall
of #42, Schamers, Bohemia

It's still hard to believe that we were in Schamers less than two weeks ago, on the street where they lived.  The family link between Heschs and Binders is one marriage many years ago (before 1850), but Heinz' involvement these last 3-4 years has been invaluable to our research....not to mention the accommodations and delightful guided tour he arranged while we were there.  

Besides  all that, the Binder houses in Schamers allowed us to go into the courtyard, to see up close how our families lived in Bohemia.  With a few steps between houses, we made the transition from a street in town to a farm pasture / cropland, and from 2014 back to 1869.

Almost 4 years ago, Heinz tried to tell me about his family home in Schamers, the market town our Heschs would have used for whatever they couldn't manufacture at home...but I didn't make the connection.  To me, the book Fr Josef Binder wrote about Schamers was good for general research, but didn't make much difference to Heschs.  Funny how things work out!

Then, because of Heinz' involvment, we heard from Su, in England, regarding her husband's grandfather, which led to his great great grandfather, a Binder relative who was the village Master Miller, in Niederschlagles at that time.  Su's added so much here, including a better understanding of what Heinz was trying to tell me.  This time, the genealogical brick wall took human form in me. Sigh. 

Su sent this photo from Heinz of three Binder brothers, (Franz, Ferdinand and Heinrich) with family members in about 1914, in front of the new house.  They were sitting exactly where Marion and Heinz stood one hundred years later.

So, what does this house, below left, have to do with all this?  It was the Karl Wanek house, at #40, Su's husband's family. Heinz said that Libor Rostik, the Neuhaus restaurant owner, is a Wanek relative too.  He's restoring it, making it into a lovely guest house in the country.

The houses along here were built and lived in by families named Schnell, Binder, Wanek and Hirsch, among others, up to May 1945, when all ethnic Austrian/Germans were forcibly removed from Czech lands.

Here's how the houses line up, how they've been for probably 300 years, built and torn down and replaced on the same spot.  That's what happened to the two houses above right.  The green house was built about 1842, and the tall ornate house was built by Binder siblings on the site of an earlier house, to insure they had a nice place to retire to, in the village they loved. 

It's is 51 by 33 feet, and was finished in 1896.  

Su provided a translation of the description Fr. Josef Binder wrote in his book  Heimatskunde Des Marktes Schamers (pub 1908)

which might have been written during his visits home...

"The new house No. 42"

           (This is the tall ornate-roofed building that's attached to the green-house-with-the-statue, ok?) 

"The living rooms of the old farmhouse was demolished in the spring of 1896 and the construction of a new home soon begun. This new building is 17 meters long and 10 meters wide. [51 x 33 feet] The plan for this was manufactured the architect Hnevkovsky in Prague III.  The three siblings living in Prague: Franz Binder, Joseph Binder, then deputy director, and Katherina Binder nee Eifinger, quickly contributed  all the expenses of the building the cost of 10,000 florins which merely insured the right to build"  

(and to live there later, probably). "The entire ground floor space is owned by the respective homeowners to administer the peasant economy/farm business(?) The entrance into this new house is made ​​from the court-yard. A large cellar and a laundry room was built. On the ground floor has two living rooms with the landlord, including a kitchen pantry.       Opposite the entrance of the stairs to the living space is on the 1st upper floor/story, where, five living rooms, including kitchen and food vaults.  This new house, the beginning of October, was completed in 1896, has been produced by the builder Johann Kocatz [of] Neuhaus.  140,000 bricks and 4 wagons of lime were used. The whole ceiling was wood from the forestry Klenau - purchased - that was there for five years [seasoned for five years].  
The wood for the roof structure was purchased from the parish priest in Kardasch-Řečic. The whole house is built throughout solid and dry".

PS: Su said: 
"We know from Josef's records of houses and their past owners that there has been a house called No 42 for a very long time:

Nr. 42. ("Schnell.") Christof Schnel 1580, Hans Schnell 1654, Kasper Charwat-Schnell 1666 bis/to 1716, Kollmann Charwat-Schnell seit/since 1716, Anton Schnell seit/since  1779.  Jetzt/now:  Ferdinand Binder".

Wow, huh?

A HUGE THANK YOU to Su and Heinz! ☺

We're back from Bohemia

Whew!  What an incredible trip.  My sister and I just got home from a trip to Europe (Rome, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany).  We visited Heinz and Melitta Binder in Heidenreichstein, Austria, and they took us on a whirlwind tour of the villages our Heschs came from 145 years ago.  Heinz is a dedicated family history buff and Melitta is tolerant.  We had a delightful time!

I expect you'd like to see some pics?

Schamers or Cimer.  It was the central market town
where our ancestors would have traded for things they couldn't make.

Marion and Heinz outside a Binder house on  Schamers' north side.
Check a following post about this...

The house was a farm house with a gate from the front leading into a
courtyard/protected enclosure formed by the barn & walls and the neighbors' barn & walls.
There was a gate in back as well, leading to the fields.
BTW, the pretty bunches of corn cobs are probably chicken feed.  In America, we used corn cribs, but here,
hanging is more efficient since the crop is smaller and there are fewer animals to feed.  I wondered
cuz its already February--practically spring--and the rafters looked full yet.  But maybe they purchase chicks
in April, then they have a nice supply of food all ready when they are.
(Thanks to Su for making sense of it ☺)

I was delighted to go into the courtyard of a couple of the houses there.
You could easily see how the space was used back then.

I'm pretty sure this was outside behind the second gate
of the farm house below.

Heinz standing in the narrow courtyard between houses.  That's the front gate beyond him.
See the green house, and warm-colored building behind
 him?--they're the Binder houses.

Below, the same house in two different photos: evidently, the house to the left was replaced by the larger fancy roof building that's there now.  (Su wrote and explained that the middle house, below, was removed and the two story building was built by three Binder sibs as a place they could retire.  It was finished in 1896). The B&W photos were found in Josef Binders' book on Schamers (published in 1908, in Prague).

Above is the  alte (old) house #42 and below right is the fancy new haus.  I believe the green house with the St Joseph statue is #40 (which only makes a diff to us when we're checking the church books).

The Binder house, #42, with a statue of St Joseph
still embedded in the wall., as it was
 around 1900, above.

The cool connection here has to do with a Wanek relative--when we got to Neuhaus (Jindrichuv Hradec), Heinz and Melitta took us to a restaurant (above) right across from the entrance to the castle, in Dobrovskeho Square.  The restaurant owners are Libor Rostik and his wife Iva Rostikova...who are also the restorers of the building

we're standing in front of, above  left. 

 A lovely couple, the food was savory and delicious at the restaurant,and the house in Schamers is lovely...check it out!

Here's the farmhouse at Schamers #40 if you can't translate that page ☺.  Here's a photo of the inside; it has vaulted ceilings, tile floors and a sweet outdoor area that would have been the farmyard once.  It's beautiful.