Ella, Margaret, and Hertha (later Bertha) Gohr, circa 1898, Chicago.
Ella, Minnie, Bertha, Margaret, July 1941 in Chicago.
Mothers of the bride and groom: Bertha Gohr Bruns and Marie Jatho MacLaughlan at the wedding of Lorraine Bruns and Tom MacLaughlan, August 3, 1947, Rosemead, California.
Wilhelm Robert Otto Gohr was born in February 13, 1857 and baptized on February 20th in the town of Nippoglense, Kreis Stolp, Pommern (Pomerania), a town claimed by Poland since 1945 and known as Niepogldzie. His father was a farm owner, Wilhelm Heinrich Gohr, and his mother was Emilie Louise Lübeck. Wilhelm was the youngest of six or seven siblings. The parish church, Budow Kirche, is pictured below. In Wilhelm's day it was Lutheran.
When Wilhelm was twenty-four years old he emigrated to the USA in March 1881 on the S.S. Leipzig sailing into Baltimore. On the same ship was his future brother-in-law, Carl Hasse. Wilhelm and Carl were headed to Chicago where Wilhelm's cousin Albert Gohr had already settled.
Laura Kramp, born June 14, 1858 in Massowitz, Kreis Bütow, Pommern (now Maslowice in Poland), sailed to the USA on the S.S. Köln in August 1881, her destination listed as Chicago. She was accompanied by Augusta Hasse, her older sister, and Augusta's two young children Laura and Emil Hasse. Augusta and Carl Hasse were to have two more children in Chicago, Emma and Ewald.
Five days later Laura's arrival she and Wilhelm Gohr were married at First Lutheran of the Trinity Church on 31st Street. Both Albert Gohr and Augusta Hasse were witnesses to the marriage.
Wilhelm (later William) was a laborer. The Gohrs lived on Wood Street next to
Albert Gohr, and William became a naturalized citizen in 1892.
William and
Laura raised six daughters and one son: Anna and Minnie (twins), Caroline,
Hertha, Margaret, Ella, and Rudolph. Margaret was later known as Alma; Hertha
(pictured at left about 1910) changed her name to
Bertha.
Laura Gohr died in 1893 of puerpural fever; a baby daughter, Elsa, had died five days earlier. Laura, another infant William, and Elsa were buried at Concordia Cemetery with the Hasse family. Wilhelm Gohr died in Chicago in 1905 and was buried at Bethania Cemetery with his daughter Anna Glawe and her family.
Most Gohr offspring remained in the Chicago area. Neither Minnie nor Rudolph Gohr ever married. Anna Gohr married John Glawe and had two sons and a daughter. Caroline (Carrie) married Edward Collins and had three sons. Hertha changed her name to Bertha and married George Bruns, with who she had four children. Ella Gohr married William Schultz and had three sons. Margaret, known to the family as Alma, married Frank Meyers and had four children.
Many thanks to Cherlyn Bruns, whose expert research on the Gohr, Kramp, and Bruns families has been invaluable.