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Little Bohemia: Part I – From Kratzau to Grand Rapids, Michigan
by Nan Schichtel, GRHS Trustee
My mother, Esther Shears Schichtel, and her uncle, Fred J. Esbaugh, loved to share stories about our family’s roots in the Sudeten Mountains of Northern Bohemia. The Riemer family came from Kratzau, now Chrastava, Czech Republic. The Schitky side came from Grottau, now Hrádek nad Nisou, Czech Republic. Both towns are north of Prague, near Liberec, formerly Reichenberg, close to the German and Polish borders.
One Thanksgiving afternoon when I was about 11 years old, while most of the clan were watching football or playing setback, Uncle Fred sat me down on the couch with the family albums and a box of treasures. He told me that his mother, Anna
Figure 1 Real photo postcard of Kratzau, Bohemia
Riemer Esbaugh, was born in Kratzau in 1863 and came to America in 1866 with her parents, Josef and Maria Anna Schitky Riemer. The Riemers had planned to emigrate earlier, but the US Civil War deterred them. They were joining extended family who already were living in Grand Rapids, Dorr, and Alpine. Upon arrival, they initially stayed with Mrs. Blumrich, whose husband, City Physician Dr. Wenzel Blumrich, had died in 1862.
Mrs. Blumrich took in all the Bohemians when they first arrived in Grand Rapids, until they got settled with a place to live and a job, often at a business owned by a relative.
Figure 2 Anna Riemer, age 3, Kratzau, Bohemia
Uncle Fred never made it to Kratzau, although he did see his paternal homeland while serving in the First World War. But he knew a lot about the place and the people, since he was a regular and welcome visitor in the homes of German-speaking Bohemians who called West Michigan their new home. On that Thanksgiving Day, Uncle Fred shared photos and postcards from Kratzau, gave my Mom a primitive painting of a Kratzau street scene, and showed me the furniture his grandfather, Josef Riemer, built. I didn’t know it at the time, but Fred was passing the baton of family history onto me.
Mom, her sister, Barbara Shears, and Uncle Fred always made it a fun family outing to place flowers on family graves on Decoration Day where each family member was remembered with stories. Mom recalled planting bushes in early 1930, next to her great-grandparents’ gravestones on the steep “Kratzau Hill” of Greenwood Cemetery along Bristol Avenue. Those same bushes help present-day Memorial Day visitors find their burial plot more easily. For decades, the family has also tended the grave of Marie Zech, a Bohemian woman without any family in the area, because “we Bohemians have to stick together.”
Figure 3 A. Jonas painting of Kratzau residence and carriage
A few years ago, the Chrastava Historical Society approached the Grand Rapids Historical Commission with a request for information about families from their region who had moved to Michigan; I provided text and photos about some of the better-known. Over the next few GRHS Newsletters, I will share the histories of some of those families who were links in a huge chain immigration.
There will be names you recognize from Grand Rapids history – maybe even your own family name.
Andersch, Ansorge, Appelt, Arnold, Blumrich, Breuer, Betz, Elger (Alger), Elstner, Friedrich, Froebel, Gies, Glauz, Greilick (Greulich), Hanisch, Herkner, Hockeborn, Jantsch, Kern, Kiel, Lautner, Leitelt, Lichtner, Mierlenbrink, Neumann, Pettersch, Peuker, Preibisch, Riemer, Richter, Schindler, Schinkmann, Schitky, Scholz, Schwertner, Schwindt, Seidel, Siebeneicher, Siegel, Sitte, Simon, Sommer, Stoelzer, Tandler, Thiel, Urich, Vielkind, Werner, Worfel, Worm, Zech.
“Little Bohemia: Part I – From Kratzau to Grand Rapids, Michigan” by Nan Schichtel
