OUR Honey-Moon

The story of the Packhiser's 1932 Honeymoon Drive from Coast to Coast

 by Grandson Frederick Walton, Family Historian

Erwin and Lydia's Wedding Photo
May 5, 1932

My grandparents, Erwin Rudolph Packhiser (1898-1981) and Lydia Hedwig Kroll (1904-1995) were married in Middletown, New York on Thursday, May 5th 1932 at St. Johns Lutheran church. 

I think this is probably where they met as part of the Luther league, a social club for young Lutherans. 

 Their wedding was reported  in the New York Times on Friday May 6, 1932, the following day, but  by then they were already well into the first leg of their epic Honeymoon Journey.

It may seem odd, that the title of the Times piece gives no indication of the Packhiser's nuptials. In fact, the wedding announcement itself seems to be in third place. The headliner is Erwin’s best man, Enrico Caruso, Jr., the illegitimate son of the world famous opera singer.

Enrico Caruso, Jr. circa 1932 Note dedication to Erwin and Lydia Packhiser
and his nickname "Ric"

Erwin met him while singing in Broadway shows where they became friends. Later Ric, as he was known, met Erwin's sister, Helen and they fell in love. Since Erwin’s father wasn’t a renowned opera singer, Caruso got top billing, although the occasion was Erwin and Lydia’s Wedding. Even sister Helen is mentioned before the bridal couple!

Erwin Packhiser (R) in front of Stage Door at a Broadway Theatre.

Another important tidbit is the announcement of their honeymoon plans:

"Mr. Caruso, who has appeared on the stage in Italy, left immediately after the wedding with the bridal couple and Miss Helen Packhiser, sister of the bridegroom, for Hollywood, where the four expect to engage in motion-picture production."

I knew that my grandparents had traveled across the country on their honeymoon, but didn't know they has made such a quick departure. Years after my grandmother passed I realized what a life-changing adventure this trip must have been and wished I had asked her more about it. I wondered where they traveled and visited, but didn’t think I’d ever find out…until now. I recently discover a treasure trove of 1932 souvenirs.

Cover of 1932 Honey-Moon Scrapbook

My grandparents made a scrap book of their journey, which I hope to use to fill in some of the blanks and maybe explain some of the old pictures that have passed down to me. These discoveries will be the subjects of future Blogs. But for now, back to the wedding.

The local Middletown Herald News was kinder to the Wedding Couple. At least they are mentioned in the headline, "BEST MAN AND COUPLE LEAVE FOR MOVIEDOM", even if it is after the Best Man!

The lengthy article, published on the front page of the May 5, 1932 edition, the same day as the wedding,  describes the brides wedding attire. 

    "The bride was given in marriage by her father. She was attired in a pearl gray suit trimmed with gray fur and wore a gray hat. "

The scrap book starts with the above photo of my grandparents, the only item on the very first page. The remaining pages have nearly ever inch covered with pasted in mementos of their journey. Like me, you might have assumed this was a picture of their traveling outfit, but we would be wrong.

Looking at the photo of the bride above, the newspaper description perfectly describes the wedding outfit she is wearing in the photo. The suit appears to be "pearl gray" and above her knee, fur trim can be seen. Look closely at her hat, there is a little piece of netting covering her brow. (at first glance I thought it was a smudge on the photo). Viewing the scanned photo under high magnification, the couples hands appear slightly blurred although their faces and upper bodies are in perfect focus.The hands, being within the same focal plane, should be in focus too, but they aren't because the camera has caught motion. Is it a nervous shudder or more likely a tender hand squeeze just as the photographer snapped the portrait?

Besides the fact that the newspaper article describes her outfit, there was an even more convincing clue written directly on the back of the photo: 

"Our Wedding Day 5/5/1932; On our way to California."

 

My mother,  Jeanne, recalls her mother Lydia telling her that once they decided to get married,  Erwin didn't want to wait. There was no time to plan a big wedding or buy a brides dress. She couldn't recall the reason for such urgency. Perhaps he was just anxious to begin a new life in Hollywood, chasing his dream. 

In future Blogs I'll explore some of the keepsakes they pasted in the album, using them to tell the story of their Honeymoon Trip Ninety years ago!

Read the whole Front Page story of the wedding in the May 5, 1932 Middletown Times Herald News 

 

Next: On Our Way To California

Three Old Maids

(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")

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

The entrance gates to the Middletown State Hospital. Aunt Margaret lived there but I wasn't allowed to go in.

Privacy regulations impede requesting any information on "inmates" of the state hospital, which closed around 2006 due to budget cuts. Today the buildings lie abandonded and mute, protecting their secrets. They have no information to provide about their former residents.

Margaret died in in August 1978 and is buried with her parents and the other "old Maid" sisters in the family plot at the Walkill Cemetery in Middletown, New York. (See "Visiting the Cemetery")

Those who knew her are few, and the documents that describe her are fewer still. 

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.

Remembering "Heshie"- The Halloween Caper

It was a dark and stormy night...

October 29, 1971. This was my last chance and I was looking forward to a big payoff. Halloween was the perfect time to blend in with the trick or treaters. Unfortunately this simple plan was already in jeopardy. This year Halloween fell on a Sunday, but some places planned to celebrate with trick or treating on Friday night, others on Saturday night. If I was lucky this would double my chance for a big score, but if I got the date wrong...oh well, I'd lose my chance and go out with a fizzle instead of a bang.

My two accomplices were ready. Their metamorphis complete, no chance anyone would recognize either one of them. Good. Now to sneak into town without being noticed.

We climbed into the car. The dark moonless night was perfect for our deed. As we got closer to town the streetlights backlit the dark, leafless autumn branches swaying in the breeze. The windshield wipers beat back and forth sweeping the raindrops off the windshield and mimicking the rythmic pounding of three hearts anticipating how successful our carefully laid plans would be.  A traffic light turned from yellow to red forcing the car to stop at the bottom of the street. There was no one on the sidewalks leading to the house where we were headed. Not sure how this would play out, we forged on, committed to our plan. The car pulled into the familiar driveway. We had been here many times before, but tonight was a little different.

The porch light was off, and we arranged ourselves carefully so that when the door opened, the light from the hall would light us up and let them know we meant business.

Ding-Dong. The doorbell summoned the occupants and we could hear footsteps cautiously approaching, obviously not expecting visitors. Good, we had surprise on our side.

Suddenly the overhead porch light snapped on blinding us as the door eased open and a face peered at us inquisitively.

TRICK OR TREAT we yelled in unison as our grandmother's confused face broke into its usual friendly smile now that she recognized her grandchildren. 

"Halloween is not until tomorrow" she said, inviting us in and admiring our costumes. 

Mom joined us from the car as Ami admired our costumes and said something witty about each one. Our Grandfather, "Grossi",  barely stirred from behind the paper and grunted a greeting at the three children interrupting his evening.

She offered us a treat and taking advantage of our "rights" as grandchildren we each helped ourselves to a big handful. 

We kind of knew that Middletown may not be trick or treating until tomorrow, so our visions of visiting the neighbors on Monhagan avenue were simply not going to happen.

"Why don't you go over and see Heshie ", asked Ami, meaning her sister who lived across the street. "She would love to see you", she assurred us.

A prim and proper Elsie Kroll Circa 1991

Giggling with anticipation at "tricking" Heshie in our costumes we crossed the darkened street and climbed the stairs to Heshie's house, sitting on a small knoll overlooking Monhagen Avenue. We once again arranged ourselves on the porch, shushing each other with whispered giggles and anticipating her surprised reaction. Unlike her sister, Heshie was a little stern and didn't always shower us with the unconditional love that our grandmother, Ami, did. She was always kind to us and we always got a dollar bill in our birthday card from her, but whenever we visited her we could count on being escorted out when she had gotten her fill of us, which was just long enough to be hospitable to a bunch of rambunctous little boys. She wasn't mean. but firm, and being a mid-aged spinster, she put strict boundaries on just how much we would disrupt her carefully ordered lifestyle.

Heshie's house, 112 Monhagan Ave

We settled ourselves on the darkened porch, and reached out to ring the door bell.  Ding-Dong. Footsteps. Porch light. 

Heshies face pressed against the glass as she pulled the lacy curtain aside. With knitted brow she scrutinized the three faces one by one, not recognizing any of us in our costumes. We smiled knowingly. We had fooled her. To our surprise,  the curtain fell back in place and the light went off. Heshie was not one to waste time on unexpected and unwelcome hooligans gathered on her porch. 

We sprang forward and rang the doorbell repeatedly, yelling: "Heshie, it's us!" but to no avail. 

She completely ignored the racket hoping it would go away, which we finally did. We were more disappointed not to share our clever costumes with her than not getting a few of the good treats she was sure to be handing out to strangers the next night. Oh the indignity of it all!

We slumped back to Ami's and reported our experience which gave Ami and Mom a good laugh. We felt like victims and wanted them to call Heshie, but the moment had passed and we loaded ourselves into the car for the trip home. Tomorrow would be another day, although at thirteen going on fourteen I was already stretching things, next year I'd be starting High School and leaving these childish traditions behind.

We didn't get any candy that night, but we had added a good "Heshie" story to our memory. That night we tricked Heshie and she tricked us!     

  

Broken Branch: Herzke to Harding

 (C) 2020 by Frederick Walton, Kroll-Herzke family historian

Recently, while climbing out on a branch of the Herzke family tree, I discovered a fork that was broken clean off about a third of the way out and I wondered,  "what happened"?

I am a descendant of the Herkze and Kroll families through my maternal grandmother, Lydia (Kroll) Packhiser, the daughter of Julius Kroll and Ottilie Herzke.  Ottilie Herzke Kroll’s older brother was Henry (Heinrich) Herzke and for some still undiscovered reason persuaded them during their immigration from Germany to relocate to Chester, New York near where he lived. Why? Simple loneliness for family? A good business opportunity? Who Knows? I have discovered no documentary evidence to answer this and anyone who might really know is LONG gone. I am therefore trying to research all paths hoping something might become evident, which led me to more closely investigate Henry and Augusta Herzke. 

The break I mentioned is found along the branch of Henry's son Herman John Herzke (1896-1950).

Finding Herman John Herzke

I started searching for Herman's on-line records and  right off the bat, I couldn't find his birth record. I manually searched the "New York State, Birth Index, 1881-1942" [1] and did not find an entry for Herzke, Hersky, or Herske, which I found odd, until I stumbled across a  a record for Herman J. Hedski, born on 13 Sept 1896 in Warwick, N. Y. This was about the right date and the right place, could this be my cousin?

  I searched for and discovered there are NO other records found anywhere for “Herman J. Hedski” or any Hedski for that matter (i.e. his parents or siblings), leading me to the reasonable conclusion that this must be our Herman J. Herzke with a misspelled name!

Birth index for Herman John "Hedski" a.k.a. Herske a.k.a. Herzke

In the 1900 U. S. Federal Census he is listed as Herman "Hetzke", age 3. Note the phonetic spelling of Herzke and the similarity to the birth index name "Hedski". This census confirms his birthdate as September 1896 and the place as New York. He lives in the household of his parents, Henry (34), Augusta (34) and sister Julia (1).  His father is a farm laborer living in Chester, New York. [2]

The 1905 New York State Census for Orange County is lost and unavailable.

In the 1910 Census he is listed as Herman Herske, age 13, living on his father's farm on Meadow Road in Chester, New York with his parents Henry and Gussie (Augusta), both 45,  and sister Julia, age 11. [3]

By the 1915 New York State census, 19 year old Herman Herzke (back to a "Z") is listed as a "lodger" at Orange Farm in Goshen, New York with his parents and sister. He and Henry are listed as laborers. Orange farm is the county's "poorhouse" [4] but my interpretation is that they are some sort of staff, since other names listed alongside them have occupations like cook or baker.  There is a separate list for residents of the poorhouse, listed as "inmates of the Almshouse", within the same census. A search of a different database labeled "All New York, U. S., Census of Inmates in Almshouses and Poorhouses, 1830-1920" in the New York State archives [5] for "Herzke" and its many variations resulted in zero results, leading me to conclude that they were workers, not residents.

In the 1920 [6] and 1930 [7] U. S. Federal Census, Henry, Augusta and Julia (1920 only) are still living at Orange farms where Henry is listed as a laborer, but again, they are not listed as "inmates".

In the United States, poorhouses were most common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They were often situated on the grounds of a poor farm on which able-bodied residents were required to work. Poor farms were county or town run residences where paupers were supported at public expense. Most were working farms that produced at least some of the produce, grain, and livestock they consumed. Residents were expected to provide labor to the extent that their health would allow, both in the fields, in providing housekeeping and care for other residents. Rules were strict and accommodations minimal. The poor farms declined in the U.S. after the Social Security Act took effect in 1935, with most disappearing completely by about 1950. [8] What began as Orange County’s "Poorhouse" transitioned to "Orange Farm", then became the "County Infirmary" until it evolved to what it is known as today, Valley View Nursing home. 

No other documents of his child hood survive.  

World War One

On his World War One draft registration card, Herman lists his birth date as 14 December 1896, one day off from his N. Y. S. birth index record. He lists Florida, N. Y. as his birth place, which is right next to Warwick, as listed on his birth index record. He also slightly changes the spelling of his name from HerZke to HerSke, perhaps in an attempt to Americanize it due to the emerging hostile feelings against the Germans waging war in Europe.  By this time he has left his parents household and found a job with Erie Railroad in Paterson, New Jersey, as a ticket agent. Herman lists his father, in Goshen, as his "nearest relative". [9]

1918 Draft registration card for Herman J. Herske

Herman John Herske honorably served in the U. S. Army during the first world war from 15 August 1918 to 10 Dec 1918 in Co A 76th Engineers. He did not serve overseas. [10]

When he returned to civilian life, he went back to his position as a ticket agent for the Erie railroad in Paterson, New Jersey as documented in the 1919 Paterson City Directory. 

Wedding Bells

On October 14, 1919 “Mr. Herske”  married Mabel Seymour:

"A quiet wedding was celebrated In St. Joseph's R. C. church yesterday afternoon at 4 o'clock when Mabel M. Seymour, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Seymour, of 186 Park Avenue, and John H. Herske, of Goshen, N. Y., were united in marriage by the Rev. Father Gardner. Mr. Herske has lived only three years in Paterson, but is well and favorably known. He is associated with Mr. Doherty in the ticket offices of the Paterson station of the Erie. The young couple were attended by Miss Ruth Brohal, of Belleville, as bridesmaid and Ronald Sutherland of this city, as best man. Mr. and Mrs. Herske left on an extended trip, and upon their return will make their home in Park Avenue, this city." [11]

In the 1920 U. S. Federal Census we find newlywed John Herske (23) and his wife Mabel (23) living at 186 Park Place. Although the census enumerator has listed them as a separate "household", they reside at the same address as William J. (56) and "Suzanne" (real name Eugenia, age 54) Seymour, Mabel's parents, and her younger brother William Junior.  William senior, a saleman, owns this house mortgage free, and John pays rent. John's occupation is  Railroad Ticket Clerk. [12] The 1920 Paterson City directory confirms that John's employer is the ERR, Erie Rail Road, as mentioned in the wedding announcement.

Vanishing Act

And then he diasappears! Vanishes from the records. There is NO Herman J. Herzke, Herske or Hedski found in the 1930 census. No Mable Herske. NOTHING beyond 1920. What happened? Did they both perish?

In the days of my youth, the phone company had a slogan- "Let your fingers do the walking". Being Covid isolated in North Carolina means that I will not be visiting archives in Patterson, N. J. anytime soon. So I turned to the on-line Patterson city directory and started walking...figuratively that is. 1921- missing directory, 1922- "Herski, John H". Still living at the in-laws. Still working for the railroad.

John H. Herske entry in Paterson 1922 city directory

1923, 1924, 1925 I find a Hersinger, but no Herske. I find a Herz, Herzinger and Herzog, but no Herzke! It seems like they disappeared around 1922-23, at least from Patterson. What about the Seymours? Are they still at 186 Park Avenue? I searched the "Patterson, New Jersey, City Directory", manually, starting in 1922 - William H Seymour, Salesman is still at 186 Park Avenue. No mention of the Herskes.

One of the cool things about City Directories is the ability to cross reference. In addition to the alphabetical name index, many directories have a street index. So I manually paged to the back of the directory and found 186 Park Avenue with the names of the residents listed as: Herske, John H. (notice the spelling variation from Herski in the Alphabetical listing of the same directory!) Also listed is “*William Seymour”, the "*" indicating a telephone at the residence. So in 1922, it still looks like Status Quo from the time of the 1920 census.

Moving on to 1923 William Seymour, Salesman now resides at 456 Ellison, where his son William Jr. also lives. (They share the same last name, so are listed together.) Since there was no alphabetical entry for Herske, I decide to look at the street directory for both Park Ave and Ellison to see if they are listed in either place. The name at 186 Park Ave is Wolfe, Abraham, a tailor. The solitary name at 456 Ellison is William Seymour. Same in 1924 & 1925 (but now with "*", a telephone). The name at 186 Park Ave in 1924 & 1925 is still Wolfe, Abraham, tailor & others but no Herske. Where can they be? Searching the variations of the name Herzke in "U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995" in the time period 1923-1925 yeilds a handful of names in various places, but not our John Herman.

 I decided to push on to the 1930 U. S. Federal census and after many unsuccessful attempts to find them directly using various Herzke name spellings, I pulled up the census for William Seymour thinking it may provide more information about who is living in the household than the single name typically listed in the City directory.  I found the Seymours,  still living at the address: 456 Ellison Street. Daughter Mabel IS living with them...under a new name "Mabel Harding". Did she get remarried? There is a husband listed- John Harding, and a son and daughter are also listed. It seemed an odd coincidence that Mabel’s second husband’s name was John, like her previous husband and his age 33 (b. 1896/97), matches the age of John Herske. So does this age at marriage- 24. Like her previous husband, John's occupation is a railroad ticket clerk. Very suspicious! Could it be that the census people have once again mispelled the name? But Harding is not anything like Herzke.

Going back to the 1923 "Patterson, New Jersey, City Directory", where John Herske first disappears, I decided to look up "John Harding". 

John H. Harding entry in Paterson 1923 city directory

It looks like I have my choice of John Hardings! Two work for ERR, but only one, John H. (Herman?) Harding, lives at the expected address- 456 Ellison. Same in 1924 and 1925. Oddly enough, the other employee of the Erie Railroad, named John Harding, first appears in 1914 as John T. Harding and continues to be listed for many years at the same time as our John H. Harding, confirming that these are two separate individuals with a similar name. Searching the Patterson City Directory for employees of ERR yields many results and many different jobs such a brakeman, yard worker, etc. There is not enough information to determine if John H. ever met, worked closely with  or even knew his namesake. [13]

I feel like I found the Herke’s, “hiding” in plain sight! But what happened? People don't just suddenly change their name for no reason, do they?  Like the T. V. detectives are fond of saying "I don't like coincidences!" If he made such a drastic name change, I really want to know when, where and why! I don't like to make this big an assumption without good evidence.

Since I'm in the city directory I continue searching, and continue finding John H. Harding, with the Erie Railroad on through the years, but that really doesn't answer my question. I turn to the last available census, 1940, and find  No John Herzke, but John H. Harding pops right up, living now, on their own, with their two children John (19) and Margaret (16),  at 240 Park Ave.   William Seymour died in 1933 and his wife "Eugenia" disappears from the Patterson City directory in 1938 and is not found in the 1940 census, but her 1949 death certificate is from Philidelphia...I'll leave this for the Seymour family historian to work out!  

Sherlock Holmes once said: "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" Can it be true that John Herske is now John Harding? It must be!  

The Smoking Gun

Using "John H. Harding" as a search name, I finally found the conclusive answer. He legally changed his name in 1921:

"To whom it may concern:

Pursuant to the provisions of an act of legislature of the state of New Jersey, entitled "an act to authorize persons to change their names." Approved February 24, 1876, and the supplements thereto, notice is nearby given that I shall apply to the court of common pleas of the county of Passaic, on THURSDAY, THE 27TH DAY OF OCTOBER next, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, or as soon thereafter as I can be heard, for an order to authorize me to assume another name, to wit, the name of John Herman Harding.

Dated Sept. 27, 1921 

JOHN HERMAN HERSKE

186 Park Ave,., Paterson, N. J."  [14]

This was followed by a legal notice published in the Paterson Morning Call Newspaper a few weeks later stating that:

 "...It is, on this TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY OF OCTOBER, 1921, ordered that John Herman Herske be and he hereby is authorized to assume the name of John Herman Harding from and after the Thirtieth day of Novemer, 1921. " [15]

This answers the how and where but not the why. I am not sure any documents even exist at this late date that will reveal his intentions. Using standard available genealogical sources like the census and city directories allow us to follow John Harding and his family for the second half of his life, which seemed quite ordinary. He had a long career with the railroad, he raised two "Harding" kids, became a grandfather and, according to his obituary, he even belonged to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His son served as a Marine Corporal during WWII. He seems like a well known and respected member of the Paterson community.

John died suddenly of a heart attack on August 11, 1950 and was buried in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Totowa, Passaic County, New Jersey, leaving behind his wife, children and his father's name... Herzke. 

While his eternal resting place may be  marked with the name Hardy and his descendants come from the Hardy family their DNA continues to be passed down through the generations as matching that of the Herzke's. I wonder if they have an unexplainable love of Sauerkraut?

Notes:

Unless otherwise noted, the online databases used were found using my paid subscription on Ancestry.com

[1] New York State, Birth Index, 1881-1942; New York State Department of Health; Albany, NY, USA; New York State Birth Index; year 1896, page 396, Hedski

[2] 1900 United States Federal Census; Year: 1900; Census Place: Chester, Orange, New York; Page: 14; Enumeration District: 0002; FHL microfilm: 1241139; Hetske line 58-61

[3] 1910 United States Federal Census; Year: 1910; Census Place: Chester, Orange, New York; Roll: T624_1059; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0003; FHL microfilm: 1375072; Herske line 44-47

[4] 1915 New York, State Census, Ancestry.com, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 02; Assembly District: 02; City: Goshen; County: Orange; Page: 15

[5] http://www.archives.nysed.gov/research/res_tips_019_almshouse_poorhouse.shtml

[6] Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. Year: 1920; Census Place: Goshen, Orange, New York; Roll: T625_1251; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 100

[7] Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930.; Census Place: Goshen, Orange, New York; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0017; FHL microfilm: 2341366

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poorhouse

[9] U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918; Paterson, N. J.; H 

[10] Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917 - 9/16/1940. NAI 76193916. Record Group 15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 - 2007. National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.

[11] The Morning Call ; Paterson, New Jersey; 15 Oct 1919, Wed;  Page 13

[12] 1920 United States Federal Census; Year: 1920; Census Place: Paterson Ward 5, Passaic, New Jersey; Roll: T625_1064; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 108; Herske Line 80-81; Seymour Line 82-84

[13] U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989; Patterson, N. J. 1914-1940 

[14] Newspapers.com - The Morning Call (Paterson, N. J.); 19 Oct 1921 - Page 6

[15] Newspapers.com - The Morning Call (Paterson, N. J.); 28 Oct 1921 - Page 6

Finding Herzke Records in Murawana-Goslin

(c) 2020 Frederick Walton

In a previous post I mentioned the Poznan (Posen) Project, which led me to a marriage record data for August Friederich Kroll (1862) and Anna Mathilde Herzke (1868).  Most importantly it names both sets of Parents. It turns out that none of this is really new news, BUT it is a citable, "official" document that PROVES, for the first time,  this genertion of the Kroll and Herzke names (via the parents names) are accurate and correct.

Kroll-Herzke Marriage Record from the Poznan Project

What other records did I find? In short NONE! Altough there are a large number of Kroll and Kròl.

Why? Civil Registration of Births (Geburtsregister), Marriages (Heiraten , Ehen, or Trauungen) and Deaths (Sterberegister or Totenregister) officially began on October 1, 1874 in Posen.  Reviewing the explanation of the data  in the Poznan (Posen Project) reveals that the date range of records is very limited. For the civil district of Murowana-Goslin, which includes Przependowo the date range for Birth's, Marriages and Deaths is narrow, 1874-1877 (land) or 1874-1892 (Index/City). Some civil records are split to 'City' and 'Land' records. In the former, events from the village or town locality itself were registered, while in the 'Land' records they registered people living in the surrounding area, I. E. the surrounding farmlands and rural areas.

This was somewhat confusing since I would expect to find Kroll & Herzke records under "Land" but since the date is 1887, they are within the "city" window. No Matter...I am grateful to find them at all, but deligent searching under both their family names and their given names returns no other records, so, this appears to be a dead end, primarily due to the narrow window, At least for now because new records are being added all the time.

What about finding their Parents Marriage records? Assuming their parents where married before they were born, that would mean their marriages took place prior to 1868 for the Herzkes and 1862 for the Krolls. Since German Civil registration began in Posen in 1874, these Civil records simply do not exist. It is possible they may be found in Parish records but that will be another project for another day! The Poznen Project has No records available (at this time?) for the Lutheran Parish.

What about my Great-Grandparents, Julius Kroll and Ottilie Herzke? They were wed in Blue Island, Illinois in 1893. I do have several records from this event but their parents names are not mentioned in the records I have thus far uncovered. (See the The Union of Ottilie Herzke and Julius Kroll)

more detailed information about civil records in Posen can be found here: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Posen,_German_Empire_Civil_Registration

What's in an F-ing name?

 (c) 2020 Frederick Walton Kroll-Herzke Family researcher 

Heinrich Herzke clearly had some influence over the decision made by his sister Ottilie and her husband, Julius Kroll, to settle in Chester, New York when they returned from Germany in 1902. What that influence was remains to be discovered. Why would Julius move his large family to a place he had never been, when he had many well established siblings and in-laws in Blue Island, Illinois, a place he had previously lived before returning to Germany? We could establish many theories, but perhaps one way is to learn more about Heinrich and his wife Augusta. Or is is Auguste? Both forms, along with Gussie, have appeared in documents discovered during my research. 

Henry Herzke and his wife Augusta (Circled)
at the 50th Wedding anniversary
of his sister Ottilie and Julius Kroll in 1943

It is her last name "Fiderowitzs" that gets really confusing. All I can say for sure after several weeks of research is that it starts with "F"! Trying to find her “real” maiden name took me on a month-long tangent, Here is where my research led and what I have concluded.

Before she married Heinrich, on 29 September 1892 in Chester, New York she was know as "Auguste F-i-d-e-r-e-w-i-t-z-s" (Fiderewitzs)... at least according to the "New York Marriage index" [1]. After that she is Augusta or "Gussie" Herzke. Of course just because it’s an “official” record doesn’t make it correct. This could have been a clerks phonetic spelling or it may have been incorrectly transcribed before it made its way to the final online marriage index we can search today.

Her final resting place in Chester is marked with a gravestone that identifies her as "Augusta F.".

  So what is her F-ing name?

 After her marriage, her maiden name is rarely used. I carefully checked the several places it might still occur:

Her first child, Herman, was born in Florida, N. Y. (near Chester) in 1896 [2]. I would expect her to be listed on his birth certificate by her maiden name. I manually searched the "New York State, Birth Index, 1881-1942" and did not find an entry for Herzke, Hersky, or Herske in the period 1895-1900. Likewise I was unable to find the birth record for daughter Julia born is 1899. 

After much manual searching, I finally found both records in the “Official” records of New York State birth indexes, both misspelled and each spelled differently. If the clerks couldn’t get Herzke right, what hope is their for Fiderewitzs or whatever it actually was?

Herman J. Hedski [Herzke] was born 13 Sept 1896 in Warwick, N. Y.:

How do I know this is him? There are NO other records found anywhere for a “Herman J. Hedski” or any Hedski for that matter (i.e. his parents or siblings) so it is a valid assumption that this is really our Herman J. Herzke!

I can practically hear my grandmother pronounce “ Herzke” in the German manner, will a rolling R Hear-duh-ski) and totally understand how this could be phonetically misunderstood as something like Hedski.

Likewise, I also manually found  "Julia L Hatski" born 13 April 1899 in Chester, N. Y.

 I found NO other records anywhere for “Julia L. Hatski” or any Hatski (i.e. her parents or siblings) so it is a valid assumption and can be safety presumed that this is another phonetic misspelling of “Herzke”.

I did not obtain a copy of the actual birth certificate in either case, but we now have a certificate number if anyone wants to go through the grueling and expensive process of trying to get the actual certificate from New York State, and even then there is no guarantee we will find the maiden name we are looking for!

Marriage

Another likely place a maiden name may be listed is on her children's Marriage certificate.

I couldn't find a copy of Herman's, although I did found him in the New Jersey index and identified a certificate number. [3]

I did, in fact,  find Augusta's maiden name listed in Julia's marriage record [4]. It was listed as "Freud", an "F" word, but not the one I would have expected, deepening the mystery. Did Julia not know her mothers maiden name and just pick something at random? 

section of Julia Herske's Marriage License registration showing mother maiden name is Freud

Death

One final place to look was an obituary. I searched Newspapers.com and NYS Historic Newspapers and found nothing, which simply means the paper containing her obit was not among the various online collections I checked . I would expect her Obit to be in a 1951 Middletown paper which was not online but may be available at a local archive if someone near Middletown cares to look. [5] Likewise, husband Henry’s 1944 obituary was not found because the entire year 1944 was not online. No Middletown papers were online for 1963 when Julia died.

I did find son Herman, who is known as John H. Harding by his death, but there is no mention of his parents. John H. Harding? Well that’s another name story still to be told, stay tuned!

So searching New York Records on-line from my office in North Carolina (while quarantined due to Covid regulations) was a total bust in finding Augusta's "real" maiden name!

 (Interestingly enough, when I searched Ancestry.com for "Augusta Freud" I got several results, including Julia's marriage registration. Apparently there WAS an "Augusta Freud" and she was from Posen! She lived in Queens and was married to Adam Freud, but it does not take much sluething to determine that this is clearly a different person.) 

Immigration

Augusta obviously immigrated to the U. S. A. under her maiden name since she was married after she arrived. However finding her immigration record is nearly impossible since we have no record of exactly when she arrived or what her name was! Both the U.S. Federal Census for 1900 and 1910 list her immigration year as 1892.

I searched immigration records for" Fiderewitzs" and found 21 "Fiderewitz" immigration records but none for Augusta or her siblings, so maybe this is not the correct spelling or perhaps the ships record is simply missing. I even searched the 65 million passenger records on the Ellis Island database using several variation and came up with no matches. [6]

Next I went back "overseas" to look for birth certificates in the online Posen (Poznan, Poland) archives, but they didn’t start recording until 1874. Another dead end! So the only name I have for her is F-i-d-e-r-e-w-i-t-z-s and I am not too confident that is correct, even though it is documentable! [7]

Other Family members sharing her maiden Name

Augusta had several siblings, so I thought I might have better luck finding how they spelled their F-ing name. I have discovered three siblings, but, again due to spelling discrepancies, there may be more to be found, although, besides spelling, there is clearing a family relationship among these three and Augusta:

1.) Bertha Herzke nee Fiedrovitz (1872-?]

2.) August William Fiedrovitz (1878-?]

3.) Emma Herzke nee Fiedrovitz (18881-1946) (Not to be confused with Emma Reich nee Herzke (1887-1951)

Since August William never changed his name due to marriage, there is a greater chance of finding him in multiple records and seeing how the spelling changed or remained consistent over his life  as a clue to the possible "correct" spelling of the family name. (Or at least the Americanized spelling.)

Although August’s records are few, they are consistent. Starting with his World War One draft registration card in 1918, in his own handwriting, he consistently spells his name F-i-e-d-r-o-v-i-t-z (Fiedrovitz).

1918 Draft regitration Card for August William Fiedrovitz

Most U. S. Federal Census records also clearly spell his name “Fiedrovitz” and so do Church records for the Blue Island Lutheran Church. The census records indicate he immigrated in 1902 or 1904, but searching the immigration database on Ancestry.com for “Fiedrovitz”  returns ZERO records. There are a total of 77 records of similar spellings, such as Fiedrowitz, Fiderovitz, Fiderowitz, Federovitz, Federowitz, etc. Any of these may be my target misspelled, but I reviewed all 77 and none match the family we are searching for.

Section of 1920 U.S. Federal Census for August Fiedrovitz

What about sisters Bertha and Emma? Bertha immigrated between 1895 and 1899, per census records, but is married by 1910. For the reasons above, there is NO Fiedrovitz immigration record found for her. What if I could find her in the 1900 Census after she immigrated but before she was married? That may give us an important clue!

 It was during this search that I realized she was married in 1907, but her son William was born in 1899! Various sources stated he was born in Illinois or New York. Then I found his confirmation record in Blue Island Church records showing that he was born and baptized in Chester, New York in 1899! So it seems sister Bertha was possibly living near Augusta and Henry Herzke around the time of the sought after 1900 census. 

1910 U. S. Federal Census containing Bertha Fiedrovitz (Pe Drovitz) and her son William
Click to enlarge

I started with Henry’s 1900 census and guess What ???... Bertha and William  are RIGHT NEXT DOOR! At first it may not be obvious, because the name listed is Bertha “Pe Drovitz”. Searching the zillions of records in a very general Ancestry.com search for “Pe Drovitz”comes up with exactly TWO records...Bertha and William in the 1900 census. I must therefore conclude that this is the phonetic misspelling of "Fie-Drovitz”, in fact this may be a clue to its pronunciation. I have been pronouncing it as FEE-drow-Vitz ... emphasis on the first syllable. Maybe it's pronounced Fee-DROVE-its ... emphasis on the middle syllable????

This Discovery doesn’t help find the immigrations records, however and when Bertha married Paul Herzke in 1907, her maiden name is lost, EXCEPT for the use in the Baptismal records of her daughter Paula where her name is clearly spelled as Fiedrovitz  the same as her brother August Fiedrovitz who is listed as a witness in the same record.

Blue Island Lutheran Church Register

 The handwritten church records are perhaps more reliable than state records because they are presumably written by a church clerk who knows the parishioner and is asking them for the information directly resulting (probably) in a more accurate spelling. In this case, looking at the pages and pages of tongue twisting German, Polish and Russian parishioners names, it is clear that the clerk in this German language Lutheran house of worship had more than an ordinary exposure and command of  multiple European languages. In fact, by looking at the neat flowing script, there is no hesitation in the middle of a confusing name and the same clerk’s hand appears for many years at a time, suggesting a long term familiarity with fellow parishioners.

Emma offers even more evidence along this line. Starting with her marriage record in the Blue Island Luthern Church records where her name is spelled Fiedrovitz, we find baptismal records for all eight of her children, six of which use her maiden name spelled Fiedrovitz. For the two eldest children her maiden name is listed as the very slight variation "Fiedrovitsch" and Fiedrowitz.

Marriage Record Of Emma Fiedrovitz and Wilheml Herzke in Blue Island Lutheran Church register.

Based on this evidence, I feel fairly comfortable declaring that the correct spelling of the family name (as used by them in America at least) was probably  F-i-e-d-r-o-v-i-t-z (Fiedrovitz), since this is most commonly and consistently found among trust-worthy records.

With this new level of confidence, I circled back to the Polish archives to see if I could find this family name near Murowana-Goslin. Searching "Fiedrovitz" had zero matches. I did find several members of a family name Fiedrowitz/Fiedrowicz in the period 1890-1910 but they do not seem to match our family, although more research would be needed to confirm this. The Polish Genealogy site explains that Polish Genealogy is still disorganized and in it's infancy, so it is possible more records will come to light in the future. 

Poland

In several census records the siblings identify their parents and their own birthplace as Poland (vs. Germany) and their native language as Polish. This may account for the difficulty in finding accurate records in Poland. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Poland’s neighbors constantly conquered and partitioned Poland in an attempt to systematically eliminate Poland’s ethnic identity. If the Fiedrovitz’s were, in fact, ethnically Poles, they had virtually no “identity” or freedom, as compared to the Germans, like the Kroll’s or Herzke’s, who occupied this conquered land. My mother, Jeanne Packhiser Walton, who as a child remembers Aunt Augusta, told me that she recalled overhearing some of the Kroll/Herzke family gossip, at the time, that wondered how Henry could ever have gotten involved with someone like Augusta who was in an entirely different and lower social class? 

Summary 

To date I have not found any immigration records for the Fiedrovitz siblings.

I found no indication that August ever married, so he never passed this name on, although his three sisters, passed on their Fiedrovitz DNA through their many children, but ALL with the surname Herzke.

A simple Google search for Fiedrovitz come up with No matches. If this is indeed  the correct spelling, it is now extinct in the 21st century.

That is an F-ing shame.

Notes:

[1] New York State Department of Health; Albany, NY, USA; New York State Marriage Index;1892; Fiderewitzs

[2] World War One Draft registration card for  "Herman J. Herske" lists his birthdate as September 14, 1896 and birthplace as Florida, N. Y. (Registration State: New Jersey; Registration County: Passaic; Roll: 1754432; Draft Board: 3) 

[3] New Jersey State Archives; Trenton, New Jersey; Marriage Indexes (Available on Ancestry.com)

[4]  New York, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1847-1849, 1907-1936 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com; Original data:Marriage Records. New York Marriages. Various New York County Clerk offices.

[5] There are no Middletown newspapers for 1951 in the database for Newspapers.com, Ancestry.com or Historicnewspapers.com.

[6] Searched various immigation databases on Ancestry.com and searched the  65 million passenger records on https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/passenger

[7] POZNAN PROJECT, POZNAN REGION MARRIAGE INDEXING PROJECT FOR 1800-1899- http://poznan-project.psnc.pl/# and BaSIA Project, Database of vital records from Greater Poland- http://www.basia.famula.pl/en/