Today was a really fascinating day for me. I have always been proud to be a Schlotzhauer since the time I was paid a silver dollar to learn how to spell it. With a name like Schlotzhauer you have to either embrace it or try to marry out of it as soon as possible. Well, I now am a proud Hulsebus but will never stop loving my Schlotzhauer past. Anyway, the reason I am going on about this is because today I took a step back into my family history and learned a little more about my roots. First we visited my great-great grandfather Rudolph's house that he built in 1897 located at 4104 Wyoming St in Kansas City, Missouri. My great grandfather moved to this house with his parents and his 6 other siblings when he was 7. We were hoping it was still going to be there when we decided to drive across town in our 40 ft beast. When we got closer we realized it wasn't going to be easy to get the big rig close to the street. The streets were very narrow with low lying trees and sharp turns. Dave managed to get us there but the block was closed off for a 4th of July party. So we parked at the end of the street and walked to the house. When I saw it I knew immediately that it was the one. I'm not really sure why since I ha
d never seen a picture of it. Next door the neighbors were sitting outside having a 4th of July party. We got to talking to them and he told me a little history of the house. He had lived in the neighborhood for 40 years and knew the owners prior to the current owner that bought it in 1989. I took a few pictures of the house and was about to leave when I got this wild idea that I wanted to see the inside. So I knocked on the door and a very nice lady, Teresa (who is the current owner), allowed me to come in and look around. She knew a little about the house but was excited to hear what I knew about it. Then she went to get something to show me. When she came back she brought some old pictures that she had found a while ago in the basement. They were pictures of the house taken sometime in the early 1900s. She told me that the previous owner had found a lot of old pictures and things in the attic but had thrown them all away since it wasn't their history. She had asked to keep those pictures of the house. I was pretty bummed that all that great history could have been from our family and it was no longer around. Teresa allowed me and Tanner to take a look around the house. I was amazed that
all the original molding, doors, a built-in China cabinet and the floors were still intact. The staircase also original. When I was walking around it was very eery in a good way. I honestly felt as if I could feel my family from the past walking with me. I had a sense of bonding and connection with them that I had never had before. I was so glad I was able to tour the house and on my way out Teresa handed me the old photos. She felt that since it was my family history I should take them with me. I was very thankful to have them and am very excited to share them with the rest of the Schlotzhauers.
Well my jog down memory lane didn't end there. We headed north about an hour to Oregon, Missouri. Christopher Schlotzhauer and his wife Dorthea moved here in 1864. They owned and farmed 250 acres of land and also owned a steam saw mill. After retiring from the mill (his son Phillip took it over) Christopher became the preacher of the German Methodist Church in Oregon for 25 years. Christopher was buried with his wife in the German section of the Oregon, Missouri Maple Cemetery. Christopher's son Rudolph (my great-great grandfather who I mentioned earlier) moved to Oregon, Missouri when he was 14. He worked for the local paper "The Sentinel" for 10 years. He married Anna Kunkel in 1876. The Kunkel's owned
a mill and Rudolph soon went to work there. In 1882 Rudolph and three of the Kunkle sons bought the mill and were very successful running it till Rudolph moved to Kansas City, MO in 1897. Rudolph and his wife are also buried in Maple Cemetery. When I went to the cemetery I had no idea where to find any of the grave stones. I walked along the path passing some of the 1,800 head stones and my eye immediately went to Rudolph's head stone. I was pretty surprised I found it so easily. I noticed that Rudolph was buried among the Kunkels. After spending some time at this headstone I went searching for the other family headstones with no luck. In the family history it said that they were buried at the German Methodist Church Cemetery. We were at Maple Cemetery so I thought we must be at the wrong place. So we drove into town and asked a gentleman if her knew were the other cemetery was. He wasn't sure so he asked his neighbor. His neighbor wasn't sure so he called his friend who happen to be the town historian. Well about 15 minutes later we were back at the Maple Cemetery with the town historian as our personal guide. He was amazing and gave me more history about my family that I didn't even know. He walked us to all my family and extended family headstones and even gave me a number of an extended family member who could give me even more history. It was so wonderful sharing my family history with my kids and Dave.
We left Oregon, Missouri and drove to Omaha, Nebraska to watch fireworks. We were surprised at how many people were doing the same thing. The streets were lined with cars and people. We got lucky and found a great parking spot with a perfect view of the festivities at Rosenblatt Staduim (site of the NCAA Baseball College World Series. Before the main show everyone was setting off their personal fireworks. It was pretty crazy. We haven't really been anywhere where all kinds of fireworks are legal. The boys got in on the action and were setting off bottle rockets, smoke bombs, grow worms, firecrackers, ground bloom flowers and sparklers. They were having a blast! The fireworks were really amazing. There were a lot of firework that we have never seen before. After the show we stuck around and enjoyed watching all the cars trying to pile out at one time. It was quite entertaining. Sometimes we really appreciate that we have nowhere we have to go and no specific time to be there.
Thought of the day: While we were at the cemetery we noticed a section with some small sticks in the ground with tiny rectangular signs attached to it. It looked like the signs you would put in a garden to tell you what you were growing. Dave asked our tour guide what they were. He said, "that's were the Negros are buried." My heart stopped for a minute as he explained. This was the only cemetery where blacks were even permitted. Most of the blacks were just buried where ever they passed away. These were "free" blacks not even slaves. Some of these men died fighting next to us whites in battle and we would not allow them to be buried in white cemeteries! This cemetery allowed them to be buried but most did not even have a headstone. The ones that did were just small rocks that were placed on the ground. I cannot even tell you how much this upset me!
Our tour guide (who Dave and I can't seem to remember his name) went on to tell us that he decided that it was wrong that the blacks did not have a headstone for their relatives to find them. So he made these little signs and placed them where their headstone should have been. I wish I would have taken a picture to show you all. As you can imagine this was quite a lesson for our boys. After being at the Brown versus Board of Education National Historic site the day before and hearing about the Little Rock 9 a few weeks ago our boys are beginning to understand the importance of equality. They are seeing and starting to understand what can happen when one group of people believe that they are better then another group of people. They are seeing how we as a society can brainwash ourselves into believing that what we are doing is justified or right. How we can hurt other people just so that we can feel more important or valuable. God loves us all equally and we need to learn to love each other the same way. I wish that all kids had the opportunity to learn these lesson so that history would not have to repeat itself.
