Category: Breuss-Waldis

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 50^th 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.