Category: 3. Lang/Breuss

Posts that are mostly about the Lang and Breuss branches of the family

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3. Lang/Breuss

The John Breuss Story

When I started getting interested in our family history, the logical first stop was talking to my mother Marian, the only person who knew most of the story. During those talks, she would occasionally mention that one of our relatives on my father’s side of the family had been killed by “chicken thieves” in a town called Silt in Colorado. As the years went by and I started to write about our history, I kept wondering about this story. Was one of our family really killed by chicken thieves? Spoiler alert – YES (although it’s not clear they were after chickens).

My curiosity finally took over, and I stated a more detailed research effort focused on the family of my fraternal grandmother Kreszentia Bruess Lang. The breakthrough came via “Find A Gravestone” on Ancestry where I found the gravestone of my grandmother’s brother, Johann Bruess, in Rosebud Cemetery in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. With no further clues on Ancestry as to what happened to him, I decided to actually go to Glenwood Springs and Silt to see if there were records.

Glenwood Springs, Colorado, a spa town featuring mineral hot springs, is the seat of Garfield County with a population of about 10,500 people. Staying there, Leslie and I found Rosebud Cemetery and the gravestone of my relative John Bruess. Venturing 15 miles further west on Interstate 70, we visited the small town of Silt. It seemed to be mostly farms and ranches but there was a small building with some old artifacts to see. We also found a small library, which unfortunately was closed.

Back in Glenwood Springs, I found the library phone number and called the next day. Asking about old newspaper articles that would mention thieves and a murder, the librarian told me to call the Glenwood library because all Garfield County libraries are tied into the same set of archives, and they might have someone who could help with my request. The woman who answered my call was amazed at my story and said she would do some research. She was more amazed, and I was thrilled when she called back, having found numerous newspaper articles that provided the full story of John’s demise. Here it is along with some background.

Johann Bruess Jr., known as John here in America, came to the United States in the 1890s with his father Johann and his sisters Rosa and Kreszentia. At their first real stop, Philadelphia, Rosa met John Waldis, married him and went to live with him in Roanoke, Virginia. Her father, Johann, accompanied them and lived out his life there. Kreszentia, not wanting to be a third or fourth wheel in Roanoke, moved to Chicago to join her cousins. Johann Jr. headed west to seek his fortune.

We have no information on why he chose Colorado or why he wanted to own a ranch, but the county title abstracts show that he purchased the ranch in 1910 for a very modest price. From the ongoing land records, we can also tell he was pretty shrew businessperson. In fact, he was later described in a newspaper account as a wealthy ranch owner in the small farming town of Silt in Garfield County. We also know that, unfortunately, John went missing in the middle of November 1918.

As shown in the newspaper article below, Sherrif C. W. Fravert suspected foul play and offered a $500 reward for the recovery of John’s body and information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons who murdered him.

The case stalled until the 10th of February 1919 when a man named Joe Sessions who had been working in the vicinity of Silt, walked into the jewelry store in Glenwood Springs seeking repairs on 21-jewel gold watch he had just acquired. After asking how the man came by the watch, Tom Dever, the jeweler, recognized it as one he had repaired five years earlier. Looking up his records, Mr. Dever found that the watch had belonged to John Breuss. The two men, aware of the John Breuss case, gave the information to Sherrif Fravert who promptly arrested the perpetrators. From one of those arrested, the sheriff learned that the others had killed John with a club and buried him under a pile of manure near his barn. The coroner recovered the remains which are now buried in Rosebud Cemetery at Glenwood Springs.

THE REST OF THE STORY

In the months following the discovery and internment of John’s remains, county authorities set about dealing with the disposition of his estate. In June of 1919, my grandfather John Nicholas Lang and my Aunt Minn traveled to Silt presumably to participate in that process.

Land records show that the ranch was sold in 1920 for $3500 which netted the relatives $1000 after payment of $2500 of debts. We presume that sum was split between Kreszentia and her sister Rosa. My grandmother used her $500 to pay off the mortgage on her house at 3031 Hamilton Ave, in Chicago.

That was 1919. Fast forward 100 years to 2019 and we find a summary of this incident on a website that covers stories from the American west. An accounting of a tragic event during rough and tumble times and verification of a piece of family lore.

John Breuss StoryDownload
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3. Lang/Breuss / Breuss-Waldis

Kreszentia Breuss Lang – Siblings and Descendants – An Overview

My grandmother Kreszentia Breuss Lang was born in 1871 in the Vorarlberg region of Austria. We believe she was the last of four children (Agatha, Johann, Rosa, Kreszentia) as her mother (Rosa Selfried Breuss) died in childbirth. She was basically raised by her older sister Agatha. She told us that when she was a little girl, her father, Johann Martin Breuss, took her up into the mountains to live with an uncle. When he came to check on her two weeks later, little Kreszentia held on to his pant leg and wouldn’t let go so he took her back home with him. She said that her aunt and uncle were very kind and good to her, but it was just too quiet up there.

Agatha remained in Austria where she married a Mr. Madlener. They had five children, one of whom (Anna) married Mr. Hophner. My brothers and I, growing up in Chicago, knew the Hophners and their children.

Johann Martin Breuss immigrated to the U.S. with his son Johann and daughters Rosa and Kreszentia. They initially went to Philadelphia where Rosa met Johann Waldis who had travelled there from Roanoke, VA. Rosa and Mr. Waldis married and moved to Roanoke and Mr. Breuss moved with them. Grandma’s brother, Johann, traveled to Silt, Colorado where he came to own a chicken farm. He was killed there by thieves in 1918. My grandfather Lang and Aunt Minn traveled there to settle his affairs. Evidently Grandma Lang netted $500 from the settlement which was enough to pay off the mortgage on her house on Hamilton Ave. in Chicago.

Kreszentia went to Chicago where she had cousins, the Kohlers. (NOTE: Emil Kohler was a jeweler; Leslie and I bought our wedding bands from him in 1966.) There she met and married John Nicholas Lang who was born in 1873 in a small farming village called Döbrastocken which is in the upper part of Bavaria, Germany. Grandpa Lang worked in a foundry in Chicago. Together, Grandma and Grandpa Lang had six children. Grandpa Lang died at home in 1948. Grandma died in 1964. We have a copy of note that my Aunt Helen wrote to Barbara in Roanoke in July of that year. Here’s a quote from that note: “How often Mom would call for Rosa.and for her sister Agatha and for my Dad.” Below is some basic information on her six children.

Wilhelmina (Aunt Minn), named after Grandpa Lang’s sister, was born in 1901. She married a wonderful man, Daniel R. Danielson, an engineer by trade who went by his middle name Rudy. They moved to Vallejo, CA where they had a son, Daniel. Uncle Rudy worked as a civil servant in the Mare Island shipyards where the U.S. Navy maintained naval craft including submarines. Cousin Dan worked there for a career as well. Leslie and I attended Minn and Rudy’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration in Vallejo in 1979. Uncle Rudy died in 1981. Aunt Minn died in 1996.

The next three children were girls as well, none of whom ever married. Aunt Flora was born in 1904. She worked at the Reed Candy Company in Chicago where she ran the data processing section which had IBM card punches, sorters, collators, and accounting machines. These machines were precursors to today’s computer systems. She died in 1991. Aunt Clara was born in 1906 and worked as a secretary. She died in 1978. Aunt Helen, also a secretary, was born in 1909 and died in 1993. We believe all three were physically born in the house on Hamilton Ave., and they all lived at home with their mom, Kreszentia. Clara moved to an apartment sometime in the 1960s.

The fifth child, a boy named John Harold Lang, was born in 1912 and went by his middle name. Uncle Harold married Anna Adams (Auntie Ann as we called her), and they had one child, Clifford, born in November 1943. Uncle Harold worked as a janitor most of his life and died in 1976. Auntie Ann died in 1995. Clifford married and divorced Joanne Kraus. They had three children, all boys. We have not seen or heard from Clifford since the early 1970s. Last we knew, we believe he was living in Hawaii, perhaps under an assumed name. We have lost touch with Joanne and the boys.

The youngest of the six was my father, George Edward Lang, born in 1915. He was the only one of six children who went to high school. He married my mother, Marian Lang, in 1939 and together they had three children: George E. Lang Jr., Richard F. Lang, and Gerald E. Lang. Dad became a machinist and, together with his partner, George Carson, founded a small machining business in 1944. The business was successful and was passed on to mom and Jerry after he died in 1983.

George E. Lang Jr. (1942-2007) was a PhD in Mathematics and the head of the Math Dept. at Fairfield University in Connecticut.  He married Mary-Beth Schnare and together they had two children:

  • John Kenyon (1974) (goes by middle name, married, successful businessman, four children, living in Scarsdale, NY)
  • Susan (1977) (PhD in Marine Chemistry, not married, post doc work at Scripps in California and at ETH in Zurich, Switzerland, now doing research and teaching at South Carolina University in Columbia, SC.

Richard F. Lang (1943).  BA in Math, MA in Business Management, career military with the U.S. Air Force, retired Colonel, business career in defense contractor industry. Married Leslie Ann Dahlquist in 1966 and together they had two children:

  • Douglas Patrick Lang (1969) Bachelor’s degree in liberal arts (English) and two master’s degrees; married to Julie Travena; three children: Katherine (1998), Connor (2000), and Annalise (2002). Lives in Springfield, VA.
  • Janice Carolyn Lang (1971) BS degrees in Computer Science and German; master’s degree in Psychology; married and divorced Joel Zimba – no children. Lives in Baltimore, MD with her boyfriend Michael Marshall.

Gerald E. Lang (1955) worked at then ran our father’s machining company until it was sold; married and divorced Marianne Cuddington. They have three children:

  • Sean (1977) lives in Indianapolis with his wife Katy.
  • Drew (1981) lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife Rachel and daughters Stella and Holly.
  • Gina (1988 – adopted from Korea) lives in the Chicago suburbs and is not married.
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Breuss-Waldis

A History of how the Breuss and Waldis Clans Merged

John Baptiste Waldis immigrated to Roanoke, Virginia in 1882 with his wife Barbara Betsler Waldis (B 1840, D 1894) and their five children; John Amadeus, Elizabeth Caroline, Maria Magaretha, Ignacious Joseph, and Amazia Barbara. They settled in the Roanoke valley, now known as Roanoke City. 

            Barbara died in 1894.  John was left with a developing young family and no wife or mother to help raise them, so he wanted to immediately return to Switzerland to find another wife.  He traveled to the Philadelphia area where he was staying with friends before embarking on the voyage to Switzerland. 

During this time, March or April 1894, another family had just immigrated to the United States from Feldkirch, Austria.  Johann Bruess arrived with two daughters, Maria Rosa and Kreszentia and one son, John.  One of his daughters, Agatha remained in Austria.  They were also staying with the friends of John Waldis.   One evening John went to visit the friends and was at the house when Rosa came down the steps and he first met her. He looked at her and immediately said he did not have to return to Switzerland, he just met the woman he would marry.  Shortly thereafter he brought her to Roanoke and they were married in St. Andrew’s Church on December 10, 1894.

Rosa’s sister Kreszentia moved to Chicago, Illinois and married John Nicholas Lang. Her brother John settled in Silt, Colorado. Rosa’s father Johann also moved to Roanoke and lived there until he died 1901. He is buried in the Waldis plot in St. Andrew’s Cemetery.

            Rosa and John then proceeded to have another family of seven children.  John Sylvester (later known as Sylvester Edward) was born on November 1, 1895, died November 4,1964; Teresa Mary born March 10, 1897, died April 2, 1995; Anthon born June 1898, died August 24, 1899; Pauline Mary Cecelia born March 1, 1903; Arthur Bernard born August 10, 1905, died December 10, 1989; Rose Catherine born December 23, 1906, died October 16, 1979; and Andrew Joseph born January 15, 1909, died March 25, 1994.

John and Rosa Waldis 1924
John Breuss and Sylvester Waldis cira 1896
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3.2 Jerry Lang Branch / George and Marian Lang

Mack and Kelly

Jerry Lang Reminiscing on Father’s Day

My grandmother used to tell my Mom that my Dad and I were more like brothers than father and son. I’ve never been too sure of that, but I understand how she came to feel that way.

My Dad, George E. Lang Sr., was forty when I was born. I don’t recall much roughhousing with him growing up, not the way my son Sean and I used to. What my Dad lacked in youthful energy and a pain free lower back, he more than made up for in affection.

One of my earliest memories was sitting on his lap in the kitchen of our house on Oak Park Avenue in Chicago. We were Mack and Kelly, two stagecoach drivers plying our way through the Wild West. We would fend off bad guys (maybe Indians back then) along the way. For the life of me, I can’t recall who was Mack and who was Kelly, but boy oh boy, were we the team!

While my Dad’s back prevented him from playing much catch (that was my brother Dick’s job – he used to throw me high pop ups that I couldn’t even see until their descent), he taught me about baseball and my love for our Chicago Cubs. He even caught a foul ball for me! Okay, truth be told, sitting in the first row in the upper deck, the line drive by Don Kessinger off of Tom Seaver, hit the stairs, bounced against the fencing and my Dad used his foot to shuffle it away from other eager hands and into his own. No matter. I still have that ball!

He also gave me my love of hockey. I remember watching the Blackhawks with him, listening to Lloyd Pettit calling the games on the black and white television While he couldn’t get out there and play ice or street hockey with me, he made sure that he went in on season tickets so we could see those great Hawk teams together, with the likes of Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull.

He also did his best teaching me tennis and golf. Neither one took too well. I always wanted to hit the tennis ball over the fence like an Ernie Banks home run rather than inside those silly lines. And golf, oh golf, it was too much like work. Dad always said to be good on the green, you needed to putt a thousand balls. Who has that kind of time? Not me.

The thing is, Dad always did things the “right” way. No shortcuts entered into his routine. Of course by the time I was a teenager and had things to do, shortcuts sounded like a great idea. When my folks had their camper, it was always a job to hook up the trailer hitch to Dad’s yacht-sized 98 Oldsmobile. Because this took place on a slanted driveway, it involved the trailer crank, jacks, blocks of wood, and an inordinate amount of time for a seventeen year old kid that wanted to cruise with his crew. One day, with the project looming and my buddies on their way, I petitioned my Dad to get ready to secure the ball hitch. Being pretty sturdy back then, I lifted the ass end of the Olds up and we got the hitch secured. No blocks or jacks for this kid. Dad of course, just shook his head and muttered that wasn’t the way to do it. Of course he was right. My back now, tells me he was right. The other time that he gave in to my shortcutting ways was when my Aunt Clara had passed away and we were tasked with cleaning out her third floor apartment. My aunt had perhaps the largest collection of plastic plants, homemade ornaments, and other random crap of anyone on the northwest side of Chicago. After a couple trips up those stairs to the third floor, my Dad amazingly, even eagerly, agreed to my suggestion of throwing everything but electronics and furniture out the third floor window. Still being careful, and in his way, doing this the “right” way, he went outside to be sure no one would come in harm’s way.

The one activity that we could truly participate in together was fishing. Ever since my first bluegill when I was 5 or 6, we were true fishing partners. Each year, we’d make our way to Big Muskellunge Lake in Vilas County Wisconsin. We’d rent a row boat from old man Roche, complete with an anchor that was an old coffee can loaded with cement. It was time to buy minnows. We fished, the two of us, with my Mom in the boat reading, until it was time for dinner. Eventually I un-invited Mom so that Dad and I could really get serious. By the time I was 16, devouring every fishing magazine I could get my hands on, I was pretty sure I knew a lot. My Dad always insisted on buying what were called Northern Minnows because those 3 inchers were good for northern pike. I, on the other hand, always drooled at the giant muskie suckers and thought we should try our luck with them. They were expensive and not really suited for the way we fished, but at this point, having earned my own money, I told Dad that if he didn’t want to pop for them, I would. It turns out, he caught the largest fish he ever caught on one of those suckers, a 10 1/2 pound walleye that hangs here in my office. He even received an award from Field and Stream magazine.

That’s One Big Fish

These were just a few snippets of the lifetime of memories I hold of my Dad. They speak nothing of the truly important things that he taught me and represented. Things like hard work, and smarter work. Things like his integrity and morals that truly made him the man that he was. Things such as his devotion and love of family that he instilled in me and my brothers.

Each day when I say my prayers, I thank God that he brought me to the best Mom and Dad and family a kid could want. I still miss ya Mack (or Kelly, as the case may be).

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Breuss-Waldis

Waldis family home in August of 1923

August, 1923, 407 Tazewell Ave, Roanoke, VA
August, 1923 Rosa Waldis.(nee Breuss) in front of 407 Tazewell, Ave, Roanoke, VA

Photos from collection of Minnie Danielson, niece of Rosa Waldis.

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3. Lang/Breuss / Breuss-Waldis

John and Rosa Breuss Waldis Photo with first 2 children circa 1898

This picture was taken circa 1898 and is of John Baptiste and Maria Rosa Bruess Waldis with their first two children. John and Rosa were married in Roanoke, Virginia on 10 December 1894. Their first child was born 1 November 1895 and was named John Sylvester Waldis and the second child was born 10 March 1897 and was named Teresa Mary Waldis.

John and Rosa Waldis with John Sylvester and Teresa Mary

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3. Lang/Breuss / 3.3 Richard Lang Branch

Finding Döbrastocken

I mentioned on the home page, that May of 1982 was a very special time – a magical time in our family’s history. Mom and dad came to visit when we were stationed in Wiesbaden Germany. Of course, they wanted to see us (Dick and Leslie), and they wanted to see their grandchildren (Douglas and Janice). But they had a few other things in mind for that visit. Mom wanted to be reunited with her second cousin, Anton Letang, and dad had several alternate agendas.

Beyond the family visit, his first order of business was to relate to me how he had structured his estate regarding the disposition of his company, Georges’ Screw Machine Products, and its related companies if he and mom passed away. Very typical of dad, it was the ultimate in fairness to all three of his sons.

Next, like many people, he really wanted to find where his father was born. I only knew this because mom told me, not because he asked me directly. So, I asked mom if we had any information about where Grandpa Lang was born. She said, “I think he was born in Oberfranken.” We didn’t know where that was so I went to my German friend Ziggy who owned a restaurant and a whore house. Ziggy said Oberfranken is a whole region of Germany in upper Bavaria. When I queried mom for more detailed information, she said that after World War II, they sent care packages to a place called Döbrastocken. Of course, nobody knew where that was either.

Now it was a quest. How to make it happen for dad, this man that gave me everything and asked nothing in return. Luckily, I was a Deputy Commander of a large Air Force reconnaissance unit. If we couldn’t find a place on map, who could? So, I called one of my airmen in a building across the compound from my office and asked if we had a World Gazetteer. After getting a yes, I asked him to look up a place called Döbrastocken, umlaut and all. He called back about an hour later and provided latitude and longitude coordinates in degrees, minutes, seconds.

Well what do you want? This is the Air Force! We’re not the Army with UTM coordinates of a mortar target just over the ridge line. We bomb things from aircraft! So, when I asked him to bring me a map, he brought a Jet Navigation chart. Next task, roll out on our picnic table the 5 ft. x 3 ft. chart covering most of Europe, and use a straight edge to plot an X on the map. There’s no detail there of course.

So, the family decided on an adventure. We set out heading east toward the Czech border in two cars: Leslie, mom, and Janice in our late model Opel, and me with dad and Douglas in an older Mercedes. After one overnight where we bought some wonderful crystal, we were off the Autobahn on country roads. A road sign appeared, pointing the way to the village of Döbra. So, if there’s a Döbra, there could be a Döbrastocken. We pulled into Döbra about mid-morning on a Saturday. Not sure what German women do now on Saturday mornings, but at least in the 1980s some came out to sweep the gutter of the street. I got out of the car and, although very far from fluent in German, I was confident of pulling off that conversation. “Excuse me, can you please tell me where I can find Döbrastocken.” She looked up and asked what my family name was. Totally baffled! My German just isn’t that bad. So, I asked again. And she asked again. When I said “Lang. Ich bin Herr Lang.” She replied, “Jah Herr Lang” and proceeded to tell me how to find Döbrastocken which was just outside the village. You probably still can’t find Döbrastocken by typing it into Google Maps, but you’ll get very close by looking up “Döbra, Schwarzenbach am Wald”. You’ll find that it’s about a 30 minute drive from the larger town of Hof, which is very close to the Czech border.

Approximate Location of Döbra

It turns out that Döbrastocken is just three farmhouses down a road outside the village of Döbra. We stopped at the first and asked young boys if they knew of the Langs. They didn’t. Next, we drove to an old house that was all boarded up. Could that be it? I went to the third house and knocked on the door. Not polite I know, but I thought the man who came to the door was probably older than the dirt. He was very hard of hearing so I called for the other quasi-German speakers (mom and Leslie) to join me. The man confirmed that the Langs had lived in that boarded up house but no one lived there anymore (which was obvious). At mom’s suggestion, we got back in the cars and returned to Döbra, knowing that there was probably a cemetery associated with the village church. We were right, and there’s nothing like six Americans walking around your cemetery and into your church to draw the attention of the pastor. We had a nice chat with him during which we learned that the last Lang to have lived in that house was a woman who had married 16 years earlier and moved away with her husband.

It’s a good thing Mom took pictures of those Lang gravestones because they’re no longer there. Leslie and I went to Döbra in July 2019 and learned that gravestones are removed after 25 years. The timing probably also depends on whether or not someone is paying for the upkeep of the gravesite. But new Lang gravestones are there and members of a small band told us to look at a war memorial on the side of the church. Sadly, two Lang names from Döbrastocken are there, having been killed in WWII in 1943. There’s also a Lang bakery in Döbra. The woman who waited on us said that a Frau Lang lived upstairs but she didn’t seem inclined to go find her.

It was quite a successful adventure, but the magical part was the inspiration to start recording our history for future generations.

Church in Döbra
War Memorial in Döbra
Lang Bakery in Döbra