St. John's Cemetery (Calvary) Rochester

Calvary Cemetery was founded in December 1874 as Saint John's Cemetery through the purchase of 15 acres of land by Rt. Rev. Thomas L. Grace Bishop of St. Paul and given to J. B. Cotter Bishop of Winona in January 1895. 

The name was changed to Calvary Cemetery Association Rochester on November 1, 1940.

1999 Maura Madden Donovan, Mary Carney
and Norene Cajacob Moser 

Calvary is the home of nearly 100 Lawler and over a dozen each of English and Baier burials along with a few Delmores.  

Jean English Madden standing by stone of
Luke and Margaret (Somers) Delmore
1999

These pictures are from two visits, one in 1999 and the other in 2018.

 

Find a Grave - Calvary Cemetery

Baier Immigration

I have looked for years, and years, and years.  There were so many clues, not the least Joseph's naturalization papers which give an arrival date in New York City of 15th Oct 1848.  Yet, I never found the record.  Fortunately I also never gave up hope....so when Family Search and the Ellis Island Foundation announced the were working together to put all New York arrival records online I thought time to check again. 

It took half an hour to find but here is the record with a few surprises and perhaps a few mistakes, and definitely major mistakes in the indexing. 

First surprise was the spelling of the surname, BEYERLE.  Then came a major indexing mistake, Kuniguda's index entry gave her surname as Beyvile. 

Now while the next indexing mistake I'm going to mention is explainable by the fact the family was on two frames of the microfilm, this one is unfathomable.  Kunigunda has no surname listed just ditto from Johan above.

The second indexing mistake is that Johan's birthplace is listed as Bohemia.  It is obvious when you put the list back together that he is grouped with the rest of the family as being from Bavaria, but an indexer did not see that on the page he was on.

Now the next part is the ages.  If I didn't have the corroboration of Joseph's arrival being in Oct of 1848, albeit the 9th rather than the 15th, I might have wondered a little harder whether I had the right family.

The reason is the ages given.  I believe that Joseph's age on the manifest is in error.  Everything else found supports the 1835 birth date he always used.  I'm guessing the numbers were transposed and should have read 12 rather than 21. 

The ages of Johan and Kunigunda are also of interest.  If Johan is 51 he was born about 1797 rather than 1806 and Kunigunda abt 1799.

My problem with those ages is that Kunigunda would have been 47 at the birth of son Johann.  The 1850 census gives Kuniguda's age as 46 and Johann as 40.

In fact only son Johann has the correct age of 2.  Daughters Anna and Matgaretta are listed as 4 and 6 but they are a little older.  Other records are also inconsistent.

But, in spite of all the discrepancies, I do believe this is the right record. The names are right, no known family member is missing and they are in the right order.  Of interest is the A Bauer(l) listed directly below the family.  Is he related?

Baier Farm - Haverhill MN

I was fortunate to get a great tour of the area around the Baier and Lawler farms near Rochester by second cousin (1R) Martha Bowman, MD.  The Baier farm has been sold and is slated for development.  This is a combination of pictures from the late 1800s, early 1900s and 2018.

John Baier with pigs on the farm

John Baier - Part II

Baier House circa 1911 (Lawler Farm Collection)

" .... After the war Grandpa logged a bit, but wanted to farm.  He walked up thru Minn. near Rochester to Blue Earth County.  The land was great but after the following two tales he came back and settled in Olmstead county -- There was a bad storm and he had to stay with a settler who was just putting up his sad shanty & as yet no roof.  The lady of the house sat up all nite with an umbrella over her baby while grandpa  and the husband stayed close to a wall but still got soaking wet.  well that was OK because the house was not yet completed.  The next day, while still travelling, he met a man with a broken sickle who had to walk 40 miles to get it fixed.  Well that was too much for Grandpa, He returned - walking of course, to Rochester & settled east of town - first an 80 acre farm a few miles east of the 240 acre farm near to state hospital which he purchased from a Mr. Willson.  But all was not roses the first few years - there were chinch [sic] bugs which took all - & then I think grasshoppers.  Grandpa went to Mr. Willson & told him he would have to take the farm back because he could not pay -- Mr. Wilson refused because he said Grandpa was a good farmer -- first class -- so that is another good reason for staying in Olmstead ...." (Mary Baier Letter)

Circa 1893 John, Liz, Fan, Nan, Kate
..., John, Eva, Mary, Sadie
Lawler Farm Collection

John, in his pension papers, remembers that they moved to Olmstead Co, MN the year of the Chicago Fire, which is corroborated by his wife, Mary Delmore Baier's recollections.  "We lived there until I think 1871. I had one child when we came to Rochester Minnesota, since then born to us have had 12 children of which seven of my children are living, all of whom are married and out in the world for themselves."


John and Mary were reported to have had thirteen children in the Olmsted County History which was written while both were still alive. Some relatives recall hearing of twins who died at birth and are buried on the farm in Haverhill.  Of the other two nothing is known.

Over the years John added another 160 acres to his holdings, all of which he farmed for many years and later deeded to his son, John Matthew.  "....John was an exceptionally good farmer.  He worked hard and methodically and accomplished much.  His first farming was done with oxen ( a quick stepping ox could plow 1 1/2 acres a day.  Sunday he considered the Lord's day and would allow no work no matter what the situation or weather.  In later years he made it a daily practice to call the Grain Exchange in St. Paul for the latest information.  John always claimed he would quit farming when he had saved $50,000.  After years of successful farming the time came to retire and move to Rochester. He had put in years of hard labor and had achieved his goal.  His wife Mary had other ideas.  She was determined not to leave the farm.  She had always had a will of her own, but John and his daughters found a nice home at 611 East Center Street.  They did the arranging and the moving.  Mary finally agreed to move--under protest. She moved a lot of her farm home treasures and finally fixed the home to her liking.  They resided there from 1908 until their deaths.

"John started life as a poor boy but was industrious and frugal and so won success.  He was active in his community and served in many local positions of trust.  He and his family were members of the Roman Catholic Church.  John English, his oldest grandson remembered well the summers he spent on his Grandfathers farm.  He recalls how he worked in the fields and garden, how he was instructed to keep a detailed report of his hours and activities, and how he was paid at the end of the summer after having a heart to heart talk with the old gentleman.  His grandmother's cooking was another highlight for him. She made cookies as no other woman could and the tale of her wonderful dishes has passed down through the generations." (Granddaughter Dolores English Young Genealogical Notes)

John died on 1 Jun 1924 without having written a will. His estate therefore was divided 1/3 to Mary and 2/21 to each of his seven living children. The estate which was initially valued at $29,200 was settled at 40090.77.  After expenses there was 36595.16 left to distribute.  The farm however was not sold so the actual distribution of $10693.39 to Mary and 3569.04 to each child, was nearly halved with Mary receiving $5609.16 and each child $1064.01.  The lot on which the Baier/s lived in the Rochester was considered a homestead and was appraised for $5000.

John was buried on 3 Jun 1924 in St. John's Cemetery in a ceremony presided over by Rev. Seton G P

Murphy. When family visited in 1999 the cemetery had been renamed Calvary and the parish priest at St. John's Church die not remember it being called St. John's.  The name probably was changed when Rochester grew large enough to have more than one Catholic Church and the graveyard no longer was used exclusively by St. John's.

 John Baier - Dropbox

Picture Milwaukee

Located in southeastern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan, the city of Milwaukee is the county seat of Milwaukee County.

LOC collections Milwaukee 1879
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g4124m.pm010460

By 1880 it was the 17th largest city in the United States with 115,587 people.  Average life expectancy was 18 years, the result of unwashed inhabitants, unsanitary streets, unsafe foods, and often unchecked spread of disease.

The city was in debt, by 1857 they had lost 1.6 million investing in Rail Roads.  Although they built a reputation for solid conservative banking and fiscal policies in 1880 the debt amounted to $18.69 per individual, a total of $2.2 million for the entire city.

Milwaukee had 231.83 miles of streets.  150 miles were gravel and 25 miles of wood.  Asphalt which was introduced after 1871 still melted in hot weather.  Sidewalks were constructed of plank, flagstone and cement.  Street cleaning was  a problem.  Urine and manure covered the streets.  Cleaning cost the city about $53,000 a year and that did not include snow removal.  Volunteer crews shoveled to create fire lanes.

Dead animal removal cost the city about $850 a year.  The carcasses were taken by private contractors to glue factories.

In 1878 the city began regular collection of garbage and ashes at the cost of $10,000 to the city.  Collections were daily from April 20 - Oct 20 and twice a week the rest of the year. The collections wee taken to dumping grounds beyond city limits.

Liquid household wastes gathered in cesspools, privy vaults, gutters and sewers, causing danger to shallow wells. Licensed scavengers with air-tight carts cleaned out the privies between 11pm and 4 am.  Liquid waste often found its way into lakes and streams.

LOC Collections - Milwaukee  - Beck & Pauli.1882

The sewers, a systemic plan created by ES Chesbrough, consisted of vitrified earthen ware and cement pipes with manhole covers.  With a capacity for 280,000 people they ran to the Menomonee River and into Lake Michigan.  The reality is the waste backed up into the river rather than spreading through the lake.

Industrial waste and smoke were rampant, but, they were considered signs of progress and not a danger to ones health.

Before 1876 Milwaukee had a monopoly on gas lights.  Customers were charged $2.25 a month and outages and flickering were common.  Commercial enterprises were favored over individual customers.  Downtown, gas-lighters ran from pole to pole to light the street lights. When Edison perfected electric lighting Milwaukee was a quick adopter.

In 1870 the city had 42 police officers, one for every 1700 citizens, causing the mayor to claim that the city was more secure than in any other city on the continent of equal or greater size.  By 1880 the number of officers had increased to 69.  They made $800 a year and had to buy their own uniforms at a cost of about $60.  The chief made $3000 per year.  In 1880 there were 2564 arrests, 3445 lodgers in jail and the entire budget was $76000 for the year.  These were high wages, other cities in Wisconsin paid about $1 a day, but the city need to control their tough waterfront dives!

This was the city where Peter Somers (nephew of Margaret Somers Delmore) became mayor in 1890 and where Johannes Baier(l) settled with his daughter after his son John moved to Minnesota.

Haverhill Township - Olmsted MN

Wikimedia

When Jeremiah Lawler settled in the area now known as Haverhill Township is unknown.  He emigrated from Ireland about 1850 and settled first in New York.  He is not listed among the first settlers but was resident by 1860 when he is found in the agricultural census with $1000 of real estate and $100 in personal property.  The population census misnames him as John Taylor.

The area was first settled in 1855 and a town Zumbro was organized in 1859.  The name was changed for a short time to Grant and then to Sherman before finally becoming Haverhill in April of 1867.  By 1883 when the History of Olmsted and Winona Counties was written, our families were firmly entrenched.  John Jeremiah Lawler the son of Jeremiah was an Associate Supervisor.

Baier Farm

What has always fascinated me was the number of families that came from Gullane, Kerry, Ireland and settled in Olmsted County.  Not only did most of the children of Thomas Lawler (3rd GG) end up there, we also find representatives of most other Lawler families found in Gullane, the English family and a lot of the families that had married into those families in Ireland.  Many settled elsewhere in the US, including New York, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc and gradually found their way to Haverhill, Orion, Rochester and High Stewart as well as many townships in neighboring Winona County.

The Baier family moved to Haverhill from Juneau County WS about 1871. The Delmores soon followed,  joining their daughter, Mary, the wife of John Baier.

In 1880 Edmund English emigrated and stayed with his Uncle John English in Haverhill and his Lawler cousins before leaving to work for the Railroad. During his time in Haverhill he met Anna Baier.  They eventually settled in St. Paul.





History of Winona and Olmsted Counties, 1883

The Ancestry of Jean Ann English