Maria Weigel Gruny - Clara's Mother

Compiled by Jim Oehler (jimoehler3 at gmail.com)
Updated November 22, 2017

[Click on any of the graphics below to view a larger image]

Maria Weigel Gruny was born to Joseph Weigel and Theresa Zirngibel on December 6, 1874.  Family oral history has her born in Regensburg, Germany a city at the confluence of the Danube and Regen Rivers in Bavaria. However, her obituary states she was born in Rogging, Germany about 14 miles south of Regensburg.  Audry Carson, granddaughter of Maria, who had the pleasure of living with her on and off for 20 years, believes she was baptized in the Regensburg Cathedral. 

I originally thought she was an only child, but from her obituary and from talks with other family members, I've learned that she was one of four children.  Her three siblings included one brother (unknown name) and two sisters, Matilda Weigel Enhelder (1876-1964) and Theresa Weigel Hofmeister (birth and death dates unknown).  Matilda immigrated to America before Maria, married, had several children and lived in Phillips, WI for awhile before passing away in Park Falls, WI.  Theresa Hofmeister apparently remained in Germany.  

A picture of the city of Regensburg on the Danube and Regen rivers.  Wikipedia picture.

St Peter's Cathedral in Regensburg where Maria is thought to have been baptized.  Picture from Wikipedia.

According to a Port of New York ship's manifest, Maria immigrated to America in 1903.  She left Bremen, Germany on August 15 aboard the ship S.S. Friedrich de Grosse and arrived in New York on August 26.  The ship was built just seven years prior and held nearly 2,200 passengers, the vast majority in steerage where Maria traveled.  Before traveling to America, she had to travel more than 700 km to get to Bremen from where she was living in Germany.  Her last place of residence looks to have been Holklofen, Germany, but there doesn't appear to be any such town.  The hand writing on ships manifests can be difficult to decipher.  There are several .....lofen towns in the vicinity of Rogging where she was born, so presumably she lived in one of those.  She traveled to America by herself and paid her own way. Her occupation was listed as servant.  She had only $15 to her name, and was headed to her sister's Matilda Enhelder in Phillips, WI about 42 miles north of Medford, where she ended up living. However, before moving to WI, her obituary states she worked in Philadelphia for a few months.

S.S. Friedrich de Grosse, the ship that Maria traveled on to America. 
Courtesy www.norwayheritage.com.

Ships manifest for SS Friedrich der Grosse for the trip to the Port of NY
from Bremen, Germany in August, 1903.

She quickly found a husband upon arriving in Wisconsin. She married Joseph Gruny on May 17, 1904 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Medford, Wisconsin.  How or where they met is unknown.  Maria became an official U.S. citizen three years later in 1906. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t last that long. According to his gravestone, Joseph died on April 8, 1915 at the age of 44. According to my mother and Audry Carson, he died of pnemonia. In the 11 short years that they were married, they had six children: Henry (1905-1989); Hugo (1906-1995); Clara (1907-1983); Anna (1910-1992); Joseph (1911-1999); and Mary(1913-2006), and a boy who died at child birth and was buried on the family farm (year unknown). 

The 1905 Wisconsin census shows that Maria was living with Joseph and his mother Clara, and uncle Johannn on Joseph's farm.  But five years after his death, Maria was now the head of the house at age 44 living with her 3 sons and 3 daughters and farming on the 80 acres that Joseph originally purchased 3 miles west of Medford.  It is not known where Clara and Johann moved to. 



Gruny entry in 1920 federal census.  It shows, among other things, that Maria immigrated to
America in 1903 and became a naturalized citizen in 1906.



By 1930, Mary Gruny was 55 years old and was still farming, but now only her son Henry (age 25) and daughter Mary (age 17) remained on the farm.  Henry married Irmal Gowey (originally from Richland, IA) in August of that year, and took over the farm. Maria was to stay there to live and help, but according to Audry Carson, Irmal and Maria had a falling out and Maria left or was kicked out and went walking into Medford.  Audry's mother, Anna Fleischman, was a daughter of Maria.  I had the pleasure of interviewing Audry in October 2014.  Here is what she remembered about the falling out and where Maria Gruny ended up.



Irmal Gowey Gruny and Maria Weigel Gruny at the family farm.  Date unknown.

"So Grandma came walking into town where my folks live right by the park and she had just a little beat up box or something, my mother said. And then in German she said, 'Anna, ask Tony if I can live here?' Well Tony was at work. When Tony came home from work, Grandma asked Tony. ' Well yeah Ma, you can stay here,' he said.

The kids (Maria's kids) had a meeting because Tony was only getting $50 a month with two kids. So at that meeting, they asked for a little help - $5-10 a month to help support Grandma. Well it really didn't work out that way. It was really up to my Mom and Dad."



Anna, Audry, and Tony Fleischman.  They cared for Maria off and on for 20 years. 
Audry was a nun for 22 years before leaving the convent at age 38.  Later she married Clarence Carson.

Maria lived with the Fleischman's on and off for 20 years.  For awhile she took a full-time, live-in housekeeping job with the Federspeils, a father and son who had a farm west of Medford.  She did that until the son got married and then his wife took over the housekeeping.  Audry remembers a time she stayed with Maria out at Federspeil's,

" She worked out there and periodically she'd come into town with them and stop by and see my mother. And then once I went out there and got some home sick. I'd go behind the barn and cry. Well they only went into town about once every 2 weeks and I remember one time my hair needed washing, it was sticking out every where, and I asked Grandma will you fix my hair? Come here my child. She got the lard bucket and put lard in my hair to grease it down. I got back home and holy smoke my mom was mad."

In addition to keeping house for the Federspeil's, she would help farmers with calf bearing and was also a midwife. She didn't have any other way of getting around other than her two feet, so she would walk to wherever she was needed, regardless of how far away it was.  Audry recalled, "When I think of her feet and ankles, how they looked – holy Toledo. There were a lot of miles on there."



Maria Weigel Gruny in her 60s.

Audry had a number of memories of the time when Maria lived with her family and her.

"In between jobs she'd live with us. I had to sleep with her because we had the bedroom downstairs and that was my bedroom and my folks had the bedroom upstairs, and my brother had a room upstairs so when Grandma came I had to share my room with Grandma."

 

"Grandma and I would go to midnight mass and on the way home sing German songs. It was nice with the stars out. I learned how to pray the German prayers and German songs and speak a little German."

"I remember one time when [my cousins] Lester and Patty [Hirt], and my brother Donny and I, and our folks [Hirts and Fleischmans] went to the fair in Marshfield or Wausau or someplace and Grandma took care of us kids. Well, we had an upstairs in that house and you know we were playing bear. Lester was the bear and he chased us downstairs and we all got locked in the bathroom down there and we couldn't get out. So there we were all four of us locked in that bathroom and we were screaming and hollering and crying, couldn't get the door open. Grandma had to go next door and that man came over and took the door off and lets us little gypsys out. Lester was in there too. He chased us, and came in the bathroom too and I suppose locked the door. Grandma used to babysit when the folks went out at night. It was nice."

Four generations: Marlene Gruny with her baby son Dean, Marlene's father Henry (who married Irmal),
and Henry's mother Maria Weigel Gruny.  Date unknown.

A few years before she died, Maria went to live in a nursing home in Rib Lake.  She had gotten too much for Anna and Tony Fleischman to handle.  She had Alzheimers or dementia and would occasionally walk off.  Audry again,

"And the only place they found an empty bed was in Rib Lake. I know it hit Mom (Anna Fleischman) hard because [Grandma Gruny] was back in the time when the kids were little. “Well I have to go home now and make supper for the kids.” So it is hard when your mother gets to that point, or your father."


Maria Weigel Gruny died on February 25, 1965, in Rib Lake, Wisconsin, at the age of 90.  Her grave is located at Holy Rosary Cemetery in Medford, Wisconsin. (GPS Coordinates: 45.14094, -90.32153).




Gravestone of Maria Weigel Gruny at Holy Rosary Cemetery, Medford, WI.



Outstanding Questions About Maria’s Life

If you have any insight into these questions, please contact me:

Email: joehler at tds.net

1. Why did Maria Weigel choose to immigrate to Wisconsin?
2. When, where, and under what circumstances did Joseph and Maria Weigel meet?
3. What happened to Clara (Joseph's mother), and Johann (Joseph's uncle) after Joseph's death?