Happy fourth of July. It was on this day in 1870 that my great grandfather (paternal side ) was born in Greenport, Long Island, New York. He was the first Reichart from my family to be born in America ! His parents had emigrated from Germany in about 1855. His birth was the beginning of me in America and the first day the fourth was celebrated as an official national holiday. Me, I waited until the twentieth of July in 1953 before I arrived. By that time, all my grandparents on my paternal side were deceased. Strangely it was my great grandfather that was the last to pass in 1940. His son, my grandfather Elwood dies in 1932 from a ruptured appendix.
I didn't know any of this growing up and I'm not sure how much my own father knew. Ancestry.com and the internet have provided me with all this information. There wasn't much discussion about it when I was growing up. How a boy from Greenport wound up marrying a girl from East Hampton no one knows anymore. Somehow Grandfather Elwood met grandma Clara and the rest, as they say, is history. It is a rather sad tale really, a lot of dying.
When great grandfather Christian, that was his given name, was just eleven his father died. He continued to live with his Mom. In 1888 when he was seventeen there was a mighty blizzard in Greenport. This wouldn't be the last significant weather event he would witness. When he was twenty six he married Katherine Gaffga. Katherine came from a highly respected family in the Southold, Greenport area. They were wealthy and successful. Also German emigrants I'm certain they shared many things in common. In January of 1898 they have a daughter, Mildred. I would come to know her as Aunt Minnie. She lived in East Hampton. My dad would visit with her often and surely she knew all this stuff, after all she was there. I do not recall her ever speaking of it at all. Of course that was back in the days of, children are to be seen and not heard. There wasn't much discussion with her. That isn't to say she didn't love all us children, just that he was a bit of an old fuddy duddy, if you get my meaning. Two years later my grandfather, Elwood is born.
The next eleven years went by unremarkably as near as I can tell. Then in 1911 Christian's mother, my great ,great grandmother passes away. Just three years later in 1914 he losses his wife, Great Grandmother Katherine. He sees his son and daughter marry. His daughter moves to Chicago and his son to East Hampton. He is now living alone and ill. In 1932 his son dies. This is where the story gets vague and speculative for me. There is no one left to fill in the blanks and records do not tell all. Great Grandfather Christian spends his last years in the " Poor House " as it was called in those days. He dies in 1940 at the age of seventy from stomach cancer. Why his daughter never came back to him I do not know. Why his son apparently left him alone is another mystery. Why none of the Gaffga's, his wife's family did not take him in is a question. So much history to be uncovered but so much history I fear, buried forever.
Well, it is an interesting piece of history, at least for me it is. The fourth of July means many things to many people. I will include the birth of my Great Grandfather in that list. With him the Reichart's were born in America ! Now, my maternal side, that is a different scenario altogether. Did I ever write about old Sam Bennett from down to Northwest. We would have to go back to the 1600's. It was about 1653 when he married Nancy Gann, but I'll save that tale for another day.
I didn't know any of this growing up and I'm not sure how much my own father knew. Ancestry.com and the internet have provided me with all this information. There wasn't much discussion about it when I was growing up. How a boy from Greenport wound up marrying a girl from East Hampton no one knows anymore. Somehow Grandfather Elwood met grandma Clara and the rest, as they say, is history. It is a rather sad tale really, a lot of dying.
When great grandfather Christian, that was his given name, was just eleven his father died. He continued to live with his Mom. In 1888 when he was seventeen there was a mighty blizzard in Greenport. This wouldn't be the last significant weather event he would witness. When he was twenty six he married Katherine Gaffga. Katherine came from a highly respected family in the Southold, Greenport area. They were wealthy and successful. Also German emigrants I'm certain they shared many things in common. In January of 1898 they have a daughter, Mildred. I would come to know her as Aunt Minnie. She lived in East Hampton. My dad would visit with her often and surely she knew all this stuff, after all she was there. I do not recall her ever speaking of it at all. Of course that was back in the days of, children are to be seen and not heard. There wasn't much discussion with her. That isn't to say she didn't love all us children, just that he was a bit of an old fuddy duddy, if you get my meaning. Two years later my grandfather, Elwood is born.
The next eleven years went by unremarkably as near as I can tell. Then in 1911 Christian's mother, my great ,great grandmother passes away. Just three years later in 1914 he losses his wife, Great Grandmother Katherine. He sees his son and daughter marry. His daughter moves to Chicago and his son to East Hampton. He is now living alone and ill. In 1932 his son dies. This is where the story gets vague and speculative for me. There is no one left to fill in the blanks and records do not tell all. Great Grandfather Christian spends his last years in the " Poor House " as it was called in those days. He dies in 1940 at the age of seventy from stomach cancer. Why his daughter never came back to him I do not know. Why his son apparently left him alone is another mystery. Why none of the Gaffga's, his wife's family did not take him in is a question. So much history to be uncovered but so much history I fear, buried forever.
Well, it is an interesting piece of history, at least for me it is. The fourth of July means many things to many people. I will include the birth of my Great Grandfather in that list. With him the Reichart's were born in America ! Now, my maternal side, that is a different scenario altogether. Did I ever write about old Sam Bennett from down to Northwest. We would have to go back to the 1600's. It was about 1653 when he married Nancy Gann, but I'll save that tale for another day.
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