IN THE 1970s, Sarah “Sadie” (Schanhaar) Lawrence, my maternal grand aunt, corresponded with Kathryn May (Schoenhaar) Rohleder. Frederick Schoenhaar was Sadie’s paternal grandfather and at the same time Kathryn’s paternal great-grandfather. This meant the two women were first cousins once removed.
It is interesting that they knew each other well enough to correspond. Sadie grew up in North Dakota and moved to San Francisco in the late 1930s. Kathryn, meanwhile, spent her childhood in Wisconsin and, after marrying in the 1950s, lived in Colorado and later Arizona. The women were also separated by a generation. 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 mentions that she owned a photograph of 74-year-old Frederick Schoenhaar and his wife, 73-year-old 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. Maybe one of their son’s children has preserved this irreplaceable bit of family history. But the hurdle I face is that I don’t know their names, and I’m not entirely certain of their father’s.
Kathryn also states in her letter that she received the photo from her paternal aunt, Viola C. (Schoenhaar) Mechenich, since “no one else was interested in having it.” As it happens, I am someone very interested in having it. If the photograph still exists, I hope to one day get in touch with one of Kathryn’s descendants, who would be willing to share a copy.