16 Johann Peter

16 Johann Peter Kraus (1808 Schilling, Russia-after 1887 Kansas)

This page was begun 20 June and updated 5 July 2001 -- rak.

Great great granddad was born in Schilling.  He lived in Alexandertal; click on either for more info.

When great uncle Ferd Kraus and I interviewed Ferd's older brother and my great uncle Alec in December of 1962, Alec thought he could remember three things regarding his grandfather, but he was not at all certain and became more and more uncertain as he moved from the first to the second to the third.  Later events have confirmed his memory on the first two items as perfect.

First, he thought his granddad's name may have been Johann Peter.  That was confirmed when I first got access to family records in Russia in 1998.

Second, he had the vague memory that his granddad came to the US but later than his dad, David, had.  This I confirmed on July 3, 2001 when I found his name in the Baltimore shipping lists.

Third, he thought his granddad just might have been buried somewhere between Hillsboro and Marion or near Lehigh in Marion Co, KS, perhaps in a Mennonite cemetery with a Riffle buried nearby.  This is not yet confirmed, but given Alec's accuracy on the first two points, I'm now betting he was right!

When I was at the AHSGR convention in Denver last month, one of the things I did was to copy down all of the "Kraus" entries under any spelling in the first six volumes of Migration from the Russian Empire -- that covers the years 1875-June 1891. Although the first one or two volumes only cover the port of New York, the rest are supposed to cover all US ports.  I have learned from years of frustration that ALL spellings of the name should be copied since almost anyone writing it down was likely to spell it differently.  Not only that, but in Russia at least, I have found that in our own line brothers have officially used different spellings.

So after I got home I was trying to help a cousin with her family tree and it became important to check for the immigration of Samuel Kraus who lived in Marion County and who uncle Alec and uncle Ferd thought was a brother to their father David.  According to Russian records, David indeed had a brother Samuel but I had seen no proof that said brother actually came to this country.  The 1900 census in Marion County said that that Samuel, his wife and his daughter Mary had all come to the US in 1887.  So I checked my newly created list.

And there were both Johann Peter and Samuel plus more!  On page 253 of vol.III, aboard the Koeln arriving 4 June 1887 in Baltimore were the Krause party: 

Peter 79 [Johann Peter would have been 79], 

Sam (a laborer) 39 [Samuel, J.P's son would have been 39],

Peter (a laborer) 30 [brother of Charlotte?], 

Catharine 39 [Sam's wife??], 

Elisabeth 20 [sister of Charlotte?], 

Catharine 10 [Charlotte, daughter of Heinrich Conrad a s/o J.P?], 

Dorothea 7 [daughter of Sam?], 

Catharine 5 [daughter of Sam?, and 

Mary 6 months [daughter of Sam?].  

Also on the ship but not listed as part of this party: KRAUSE, Johann (carpenter) 31.  

All were noted as coming from undesignated Russia and going to undesignated USA.

Uncle Alec had remembered 6 KRAUS first cousins of his as being siblings (although he could not remember for certain which of his uncles was their father), along with the following information: Katie who married a Youk, Dora or Dorothea who married Jakob Schisller, Margaret who was born 14 June 1879 and was 7 [his memory confused the ages of Margaret and Dora??] when they came to this county,  Mary who was a baby when they immigrated and who married Fred Haas, Solomon and Peter, the youngest.        

In the 1900 census, Samuel KRAUS b. Aug. 1847 in Russia was listed in Durham Park Township of Marion Co, along with his wife of 25 years, Maggie b. F.1847 in Russia, and children: daughter Mary b. June 1883 in Russia, son Solomon b. July 1890 in Kansas and son Peter b. F. 1894 in Kansas.   The wife's full name probably was Katharina Margaret (KREL).  In this census, Sam and Maggie indicated they had 3 other children living, 2 more having died earlier.  This clearly is both the family of the Koeln and the family uncle Alec remembered far more clearly than he thought!

Uncle Alec also said he remembered a cousin Charlotte who was the daughter of Konrad one of his father's brothers.

On 9-29 April 2001, Deb DeWeese e-mailed me wondering about the early US years of her great grandmother Scharlotte KRAUS b. 11 June 1878 to Conrad and Margaret (SCHMIDT) KRAUS; as well as Conrad's origins.  She said that unconfirmed family stories indicated that there were 13 siblings; that many of them died of polio; that Charlotte and her sister Elizabeth came to the US together; that one of them (probably Elizabeth) was raped aboard ship and had a baby soon after being married in the US; that Elizabeth married Peter Stahr and lived in Rock Island and Silvis, Illinois; that Charlotte married Jacob Dies on 2-26-1897; that a sister Emma with a facial birthmark followed them later to the US and committed suicide the day after Scharlotte's funeral; that sibling Peter also came to the and died in a bar brawl in NY; and that siblings Katharine? and Dorothy stayed in Russia probably dying in Siberia.  

She also says her relatives told her that a Sam Kraus who died in Wilson?, KS married a Katherine Krell.  My grandmother told me that just after she and grandpa KRAUS married, they stayed with a very close relative of his while on their way from Marion Co. to Sheridan Co. to homestead -- Wilson, in Ellsworth Co. would have been on their way!  However, I do not find Sam and family in the 1910 census in Wilson ... maybe they lived elsewhere in the county??

In Marion Co. marriage records the bride and groom are identified in part by the town or area in which they lived.  Sam's family lived in Durham.  In the marriage records, four Kraus are identified as "of Durham":

on 26 Dec. 1892, Katie married Gottlieb YOUK at Lehigh by the Lutheran minister.

on 29 Jan. 1896, Dora married Jacob SCHISSLER at Marion by the Christian Church minister.

on 16 Feb. 1899, Charlotte married Gottfried DIES at Lehigh by the Lutheran minister.

on 5 March 1901, Maggie married Henry REIFSCHNEIDER at Marion by a judge.

This would suggest that the various family memories that can be checked by these records were correct, except that Sam's daughter's name may have been Maria Margaretha and she may have married a REIFSCHNEIDER instead of a Haas.

But the bottom line is that Johann Peter came to the US along with several of his descendants.  And, given his rather advanced age, surely died here sometime between arrival in 1887 and the 1900 census.

To get to his wife's page, click on Mary Nagel.  To get to their couple's page, click on it.