(C) 2021 Frederick Walton- Kroll family Historian
old-maid \ ˈōl(d)-ˈmā-d \ noun- a woman regarded as unlikely ever to marry; a spinster
Here are some interesting statistics about the eleven children of Julius and Ottilie Kroll:
1) Half & Half- The children are almost equally distributed between males (five) and females (six).
2) Born in Thirds- Their birth places are neatly grouped- nearly one third in Blue Island, Illinois (three), one third in Posen, Germany (four) and one third in Chester, New York (four).
3) Half & Half- Of the six girls, half of them never wed and became "old maids".
4) Of the three "old maids"- each was born in a different place.
The three old maids were: Johanna Therese Kroll (1896-1983), Margaret O. Kroll (1902-1978) and Elsie Kroll (1903-1990). They never married, each leading an interesting life in a changing 20th century when unmarried women were perhaps looked at either distainfully or with pity for their inability to catch a man. As the century matured, so did views on unmarried woman and in the later part of the century, and their lives, they were perhaps thought of as leaders of the more commonly accepted "liberated" independant woman.
Of the five brothers, only one never married. Eric Kroll (1899-1986) lost his arm in a farming accident at a young age. According to my mother, he was her favorite uncle. He once told her that he would never get married because he felt it was unfair to a woman to have a one armed husband.
Each of the three sisters will be covered in a separate blog post.
Margaret, The Middle Maid
I start with Margaret O. Kroll. She never married. I don't know if this was by choice or by chance. Aunt Margaret was apparently quite a daredevil when she was young, at a time when automobiles, motor cycles and aeroplanes were relatively new. She went sky diving, probably in the mid 1930s, and her chute didn't deploy properly, causing her to have a serious accident, although I have never uncovered all the details.
I was a young boy when I knew Aunt Margaret in the 1960’s. She was a tiny, frail, pixie-like woman with gray hair and a bright smile. She was very shy and timid. She sometimes whispered to her sister, Elsie, but rarely spoke. She sat in the corner of Aunt Elsie's kitchen when she visited from the Middletown State hospital (psychiatric hospital) just up the street.
I think, technically, her mother left the house to all her unmarried daughters, so even though this was where Aunt Elsie (who we called Heshie) lived alone, it also belonged to Margaret, Nonie-Jo, and Dorothea, who was unmarried at the time of her mother's death.
Aunt Margaret would sit quietly in the corner, almost folded in on herself as if to make herself invisible, I was told she loved me and my brothers and she would smile and smile whenever we visited her at Aunt Elsie’s. She had a child like innocence, but as I got older, I realized there was something wrong with her. She was always “old” to me, as a child, and as I got older and more involved in school I saw less of her.
She passed in 1978, but I don't recall her funeral, even though I was in college locally at the time. I remember her well from my early days and wonder what she was really like before I met her?
Margaret is both the easiest to document and the most complex. Easiest because of the limited information available and complex because during some periods of her life information is so limited it makes her somewhat of a mystery. The early period of her life is sparsely documented but easily decipherable.
Her parents, Julius and Ottilie Kroll each immigrated separately from Germany, in the early 1890's, to Blue Island, Illinois where they married in 1893 and started a family. Their son Conrad (1909-2003), Margaret's youngest brother, in a handwritten summary of his parents life, documented that the Kroll Family emigrated (i.e. left Blue Island Illinois) to go back to the German kingdom of Prussia on 1 Sept 1897. [1]
Margaret was the fourth child born in Germany during the families stay there between 1898 and April 1902, when they returned to the U. S. A. Her birthdate is 17 February 1902, although I have been unable to find her German birth certificate in on-line German archives
The first records containing Margaret are as an infant passenger leaving Hamburg [2] on 5 April 1902, stopping at Boulogne, France; Plymouth, England and arriving with her large family in N. Y. [3] on April 17, 1902. At the tender age of 2 months old, she was already an international traveler. Perhaps her birth records can't be found because they were never reported to the German civil authorities as her parents busily prepared for their departure to America.
When the Krolls arrived in N. Y. they settled in Chester, New York where Margaret and her siblings grew up on the family dairy farm. (see "The Kroll Family at Elm Cote")
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| Margaret with some of her siblings and friends circa 1925 |
Early census records reveal nothing out of the ordinary, a young girl in a large family on a rural farm, going to school. She is not listed in the 1920 census at her parents farm, where almost all her siblings still resided, nor in any other census taken that year. [4] She was 17 (almost 18) when the census was enumerated. Could she have been living at the farm and been simply overlooked? A clerical error? Could she have been away from home training to be a stenographer. Was she living in a boarding house, but not captured in the census? There is no way to know.
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| My Grandmother, Lydia (middle), playfully captioned this photo "A Rose between two thorns" Margaret is on the right and Theresa Kruger on the left |
Family photos from the 1920's show her with her siblings, probably around Chester. She is an attractive and according to family stories, an adventurous sort. The post World War One world saw lots of changes, both in technology and attitudes. The slow, horse drawn pace of the previous century was being replaced by modern automobiles, fast trains and aeroplanes. Distant cities like Middletown and even New York City were suddenly as close as a few railroad stations away. Farm girls, growing up observing and perhaps being assigned some of the backbreaking chores on the dairy farm, that started before the sun rose and didn't end until after sunset, could now choose other careers. While no specific documents describe this metamorphasis, I recall my grandmother telling me about the hardships of farming and how she did not want to be a farmers wife. I suppose this was true for her sisters as well because they all sought careers rather than farm life.
My mom recalled hearing that the Kroll girls might have been "pushed" out and "forced" to go to work rather than remaining on the farm as another mouth to feed. She recalled her mother, Lydia, telling her that she quit school at the age of 14 (1918) to live with a family in Middletown as a Nanny. The brothers all worked as farm laborers on the family farm thereby "earning" their daily bread.
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| Margaret and some of her sisters |
Margaret Kroll left the family farm and is listed in the 1926-1933 Middletown, N. Y. city directory [5] first as a typist and later as a stenographer for an architect. A stenographer is someone skilled in the transcription of speech (for example, a secretary who takes dictation) while a typist is a clerical worker who writes letters, etc, using a typewriter. Margaret was skilled in both and was probably required to take notes during client meetings and later type them up for the architect. This would probably include very technical measurements and terms requiring her to pay careful attention to detail. Her continued long term employment would suggest she performed her job well.
My Mother recalled visiting her Aunt Margaret at her workplace when she was a child. Mom told me that Margaret was perhaps her favorite Aunt because she was so full of fun, always smiling and giggling. Newspaper articles from the early 1930's capture a few moments in time that illustrate this.
On June 29, 1929 The Kingston Freeman reported in a social column that Kingston Luther league invited the Middletown Luther league to a swim party, picnic and dancing in Kingston. Margaret is listed among the attendees along with her sister Lydia and future brother-in-law Erwin Packhiser. The Luther League is a Lutheran social society for young members of the church.
The Middletown Times Herald reported on October 18, 1930 that Margaret O. Kroll was named as head of the committee selling tickets for an upcoming masked ball hosted by the Queen Esther chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star at the Masonic hall.
On July 23, 1931 Margaret Kroll won an award in the Middletown Times Herald newspaper photo contest with a lovely landscape view of the cliff face of Sam’s point, which supports the stories of her adventuresome side. She would have to hike the rugged wilderness to get this shot. The Sam's Point Preserve, in Ulster County New York, is located on the highest section of the Shawangunk Mountains.
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| Margaret Kroll of 42 East Ave "won the landscape award with her clear snapshot at Sam's Point" |
By January 1935 Margaret Kroll had risen to an officer position in the Order of the Eastern Star, being named to the position of "Ruth" with the repsonsibility to "Share the lesson of Honor and Justice" as reported in the January 5, 1935 issue of the Middletown Times Herald.
These brief glimpse shows a young woman who was socially active and adventurous, at least with fellow members of her church and Masonic group. She attended parties, dances and other organized social events. She was active and organized enough to be given the reponsibilities of an officer in the Queen Esther chapter, indicating a person who was willing to be deeply involved as a leader.
During this period, with her sister Lydia living nearby for friendship and support, Margaret lived in a series of boarding houses, with other single young ladies holding similar jobs like stenographer, school teacher, Dental hygenist and dressmaker. [5] With Chester being only a short train ride away, I would imagine she also visited her family and old school friends as time and circumstances permitted.
Based on the above, we can follow Margaret throughout the period 1926 through 1933, but then she "disappears". Family oral history recalls that around this time, dare-devil Margaret's adventurous side led her to try sky diving. Apparently Margaret's parachute failed to open properly and the resulting fall caused serious injuries, putting her in the hospital, followed by a lengthy recovery. I recall both my grandmother, Lydia, and her sister Elsie, telling me about Aunt Margaret's accident when I was a child. It was spoken of in hushed, whispered, sad tones. This was a life destroyed at its peak. How I wish I could remember the exact details. Even my mother, who was a child when it happened, can not come up with all the details at this point. With her contemporarys all gone, there is no one left to ask about the exact date and details.
After a lengthy gap in her records, it is not clear how or why she suddenly shows up again in the 1940 Census [6] as a stenographer living as a lodger at 20 Chestnut Street. She she is not listed in City Directory records for this period, in fact there is No Kroll listed between 1934 and 1947, when her mother and Elsie are listed at 112 Monhagan Ave. It was my understanding that the accident ocurred earlier than 1940, if so perhaps she had recovered enough to go back to work. The census shows that she worked as a stenographer in an architects office for 51 weeks in 1939 and for 38 hours the week prior to the Census enumeration. Could this have been her old employer? The Census states she received $612 dollars in 1939 ($51 a week ) slightly less than the average salary of $900-$1000 for a stenographer/ secretary.
Margaret's 1940 landlady, the widow Elizabeth K Lesher, age 71, can be found in the Middletown city directory for several years prior to 1940, but has moved by 1941. I wonder what happened to Margaret? A close review both in the Alphabetical listing as well as the street listing reveals no information about Margaret or any other lodger, so another gap appears.
My Mom's younger sister Dee recalled visiting Aunt Margaret in the mid to late 40's. As a little girl she had many conversations with Aunt Margaret but remembers one in partiular. Margaret loved birds and would spend hours watching them flit around in the bushes surrounding Elsie's house. One day she pointed a bird out to my aunt who asked her what kind of bird it was. Margaret called the birds “Masonic birds” which is probably a reflection of her time with the Order of the Eastern Star. Aunt Dee confided that, even as child-like as Margaret was, she was a bit odd and she made her nervous. My aunt recalled that her mother, Lydia, told her stories of odd, unpredictable outbursts by Margaret when they were both children. Was Margaret simply high spirited or was she always a bit off kilter?
No formal documents were found to describe the time between the 1940 Census and the time I first met Aunt Margaret in the 1960's. I know that by then she lived at the State Hospital and remember walking past there on my way to the park, both places a few blocks past my grandparents house. Sometimes when we walked to the park my dad would lift me up so I could walk on top of the wall, which was shoulder high to my parents walking on the sidewalk below.
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| The entrance gates to the Middletown State Hospital. Aunt Margaret lived there but I wasn't allowed to go in. |
Notes:
[1] The Kroll's were German farmers living in Przependowo, Obornik, Posen, Preussen. Przependowo is a manorial farm near Murowana-Goslin in Posen...today Przebędowo is a village in the admin district of Gmina Murowana Goślina, within Poznań County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, adjacent to Murowana Goślina.
[2] Ancestry.com; Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 [database on-line]. Staatsarchiv Hamburg; Hamburg, Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Volume: 373-7 I, VIII A 1 Band 130; Page: 774; Microfilm No.: K_1773
[3] Ancestry.com; New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line];Year: 1902; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 26; Page Number: 39.
[4] Margaret is not listed with the rest of the Julius Kroll family in Chester, N. Y. in the 1920 U. S. Federal Census: Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]; Census Place: Blooming Grove, Orange, New York; Roll: T625_1251; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 87, Sheet 4B, line 62-72.; and independant search of the 1920 census for "Margaret Kroll" yielded 24 results, but no matches.
[5] Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Middletown, New York, City Directory, 1926-1933. (1932-missing) contain entries for Margaret Kroll; 1934-1945 Middletown City Directories ALL contain NO Kroll entries (36, 41 & 44- missing)
[6] Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line].; Census Place: Middletown, Orange, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02709; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 36-40, Sheet 5B, Line 43.
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