IN THE 1970s, Sarah “Sadie” (Schanhaar) Lawrence, my maternal grand aunt, corresponded with Kathryn May (Schoenhaar) Rohleder. The two women were first cousins once removed, since Frederick Schoenhaar was at once Sadie’s paternal grandfather and Kathryn’s paternal great-grandfather.
It is interesting that they knew each other well enough to correspond, since they were separated by a generation as well as distance. After growing up in North Dakota, Sadie had lived in San Francisco beginning in the late 1930s. Kathryn had meanwhile been raised in Wisconsin and lived in Colorado and Arizona after marrying in 1955. Sadie was in her 70s when they exchanged letters, and Kathryn was in her late 40s and early 50s.
A GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY
I was fortunate to acquire facsimiles of two of Kathryn’s letters, which related some Schoenhaar/Schanhaar family history. In one of the letters, Kathryn mentioned that she owned a photograph of Frederick Schoenhaar and his wife, Catherina Margaretha (Donsbach) Schoenhaar, taken to commemorate their 50th wedding anniversary.
Thanks to a June 1910 article published in the West Bend [Wisconsin] News, we know a celebration of the event took place on Sunday, May 29th of that year, with all their then-living children in attendance.
The big question is whether the photograph has survived. Kathryn, her husband Victor N. Rohleder, and their only son are no longer alive. The biggest hurdle I face trying to discover if any of their family has preserved this significant piece of history is that I don’t know their names.
Kathryn stated in her letter that she had obtained the photo from her paternal aunt, Viola C. (Schoenhaar) Mechenich, since “no one else was interested in having it.” As it happens, I am very interested in having it! If the photograph still exists, perhaps one of Kathryn’s descendants might one day share a copy.