Franz Ludwig and Hulda Emilie (Neupert) Boehm

Franz Ludwig Bo’hme and Hulda Emilie Neupert were married 10 February 1859 in the Lutheran church in Eibenstock, Saxony, Germany by Rev. Herman Merr.[i]  Soon after they travelled to Bremen where they sailed for America aboard the bark Trusko, arriving in New York City 15 August 1860. [ii] The Trusko, which looked very similar to the Carlota pictured below, carried about 300 mostly German immigrants.

Carlota

Passenger List

Passenger List

Franz, born 1833, who later Americanized his name to Frank Lewis Boehm, was the son of Carl Ludwig and Johanna Fredericka (Kartzcher) Bo’hme. Hulda, born 3 May 1835, was the daughter of Frederick and Johanna Neupert. [iii, iv]    

After arriving in America the couple made their way to Easthampton in west central Massachusetts where Frank worked as a weaver in a textile mill, a skill he probably acquired in Eibenstock as it was a city known for its textile mills and especially its embroidery. [v] Their first of fifteen children, [vi] Charles Ludwig/Lewis, was born 15 June 1862.  In the meantime the Civil War had begun and Frank, who was then 29 years old and had already served in the German Army from 1854 to 1856 and then three months each year until he emigrated, was inducted (along with his brother Charles) into the Massachusetts 52nd Infantry Regiment on 8 September 1862. [vii] The hardships of Frank’s military experiences are well documented in The Color-Guard, an account of the war experiences of Reverend James K. Hosmer who served as a corporal in the 52nd. [viii]

Frank must have seen some combat duty because there was a tintype photograph of Hulda which folded like a book that he carried in his shirt pocket. There was a dent in it and family lore has it that it saved his life when a mini ball struck it. Unfortunately this souvenir “went to the curb” when the last known owner Myrtle (Boehm) Anton died in 1999. On 16 March 1863 (page 100 in Hosmer’s book) between Port Hudson and Baton Rouge they were overtaken by rain and forced to camp standing up in ankle deep water. Frank developed respiratory problems from which he would never recover. In April he became so sick between Bayou Boeuf and Brashear City that he had to be carried by his brother until the next day. He was too weak to march with his regiment, so was sent by ambulance to the hospital at Bayou Boeuf. Later he was sent by steamer to the fort at Brashear City and stayed there until until July when the regiment was ready to return home. The regiment’s term of service (about 10 months) expired on 23 July, it boarded a steamer bound for Cairo, IL, arriving there the 30th. The same afternoon it boarded a train for home, reaching Greenfield, MA on 3 August. Frank was subsequently discharged.  His regiment had not seen much battle, losing only 11 men in combat, but 101 had died of disease.

They moved to Blossburg, PA before their second child was born in May 1864. Although it is unknown why they moved it may have been because Blossburg at that time was occupied by many German speakers. He got work as a brakeman on the Tioga Railroad running from Corning to Blossburg. Frequent bouts of coughing forced him to give up his job after only four months. His respiratory problems continued to plague him. He was dangerously ill for six weeks in 1867, two months in 1872 and two months in 1881. He applied for Civil War pension in 1889 based on his disability.

He worked for the Fall Brook Railroad in Blossburg as a car inspector and night watchman after leaving his job with the Tioga Railroad. He was never able to perform manual labor. At some point in the late 1880s the family moved to Corning. [ix] He worked there until New Years Eve, 31 December1889, when at age 56, he was “killed by the cars”. The night Frank was killed by the train they brought him home in a burlap bag, his body so mangled that the only way Hulda could identify him was by his little finger, which was cut off at the joint from a prior injury. His obituary:
Mr. Frank L. Boehm
Last Tuesday evening Mr. Frank L. Boehm, a car-inspector for the Fall Brook Coal Company, was instantly killed in the yard at Corning. Nobody saw the accident, but when the body was found the head was lying inside the rail and the trunk outside, it evidently having been dragged a few feet.  It is supposed that he was killed at about half past eight o’clock, as at about that time a switch engine pushed a few cars in upon the track where the body was found, and those cars undoubtedly came in contact with the train already there, pushing the latter onward a few feet.  From the position of the body it is thought Mr. Boehm was probably lying on his back, tightening some loosened bolt or other part of the car, when, without warning, the cars moved, the wheels caught his head and his death was instant.  The features were scarcely distinguishable, one leg was broken and the fractured bones protruding through the cloth.  His lantern was crushed, and his repair tools were found with the lantern a short distance back.  Boehm formerly lived at Blossburg, and he was employed on the Tioga railroad for 25 years.  He was 56 years of age, and he leaves a wife and several children.  The remains were interred at Blossburg.  (Tuesday, January 7, 1890, The Wellsboro Agitator, Wellsboro, Tioga Co, Pa.)


Portrait
 


Frank was 5 feet 7 inches tall, had a fair complexion, light hair and blue eyes. Hulda was a small woman, only 4 feet 10 inches tall. She was born with a "veil over her face", meaning she could foretell the future. Her daughter Ida often told her children stories about Hulda's foreseeing. When Frank was killed, their daughter, Louisa was sick and not expected to live. Hulda had predicted that she would live but an older person was going to be badly hurt and killed. [x]

Hulda’s known children and their spouses are listed below.
            
Charles Louis Boehm   1862 - 1948
   +Elisa Jane Phelps        1865 - 189-
   +Ada Myrtle Brown    1878 - 1962
Lewis F. Boehm        1864 - 1937
    +Margaret Orr        1866 - 1963
Emilie Ida Boehm        1866 - 1940
    +Fredrick Fish        1862 - 1921
Hulda Emilie Boehm        1868 – 1873
Bertha Boehm        1872 - 1957
   +Rudolph Ramazetter   1869 - 1938
Flora Boehm                     1873 - 1962
   +Alfred B. Kentch         1872 - 1950
Clara Maria Boehm         1876 - 1916
   +George C. Peterson     1872 - 1952
Henry Arthur Boehm    1880 - 1942
   +Nellie A. Sindlinger    1880 - 1948
Louisa C. Boehm         1883 -
   +John Hebner         1878 -

She moved back to Blossburg after 1892 and lived next door to her sister who had married Frank’s brother Charles in 1866. She declared in the 1900 census that she had 15 children, 9 of whom were living. I have found only eight but the ninth may have been Rose, born April 1888, who was living with her in 1900 and was listed as her daughter. There is a mystery here as (1) bearing a child at age of 53 is biologically unlikely and (2) after Frank’s death Hulda claimed a widow’s pension based on her poor health and three children under 16, Clara, Henry and Louisa.

Rose reappeared as a sister of Bertha (Boehm) Ramazetter in the 1920 census and Rose’s children (she died in 1928) were listed as grandchildren in the same household in 1930. [xi] This leads me to believe Rose was Bertha’s child from a relationship prior to her marriage in 1889.
Census
 
1900 census, Blossburg

There’s no known record of Hulda between 1900 and 1920 when she lived in the same house as her daughter Flora in Waverly. [xii] It’s a good guess however that she lived most of those years in Blossburg with her daughter Louisa and her husband as Louisa was also in Flora’s house in 1920.

Hulda was taken ill 11 August 1921 and cared for by Flora until she died 23 July 1927. The last three years of her life she was bedridden and suffered from dementia. [xiii]
 Doc Statement
Doctor’s Statement from Pension File
[i] Civil War Pension File of Frank L. Boehm, a copy of which is in the possession of the author.

[ii]  Passenger list number 761, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm M237, roll 203.

[iii]  Biographies of Tioga County Civil War Soldiers extracted from PRESIDENTS, SOLDIERS, STATESMEN:
 
Charles L. Boehm [brother of Frank]

A native of Saxony, Germany, born March 6, 1837, was a son of Carl L. and Fredericka Boehm, now deceased. In 1864 he settled in Tioga county, Pa., where he was married two years later on Aug. 18, to Tina Neupert, who was also born in Saxony, Germany, Sept. 19, 1842; her parents, Frederick and Johanna (Christiana) Neupert, are both deceased. The following children have blessed this marriage, Amelia A., Huldah E., Frank C., Oscar dec., Walter G., Albert W., Lena D., Herman F. dec., Freddie F., Carl L. and Christiana J. Comrade Boehm was by occupation a spinner when he enlisted Oct. 1, 1862, at East Hampton, Mass., at the age of 25 years as a private in Co. K., 52d Mass. V. I., which was assigned to Gen. Bank's Div., 19th Army Corps. In March, 1863, while on the march from Fort Hudson to Baton Rouge he contracted disease of the lungs from the effects of which he still suffers; June 14, 1863, his collar bone was fractured by a fragment of
shell at Port Hudson; he fought at Baton Rouge, Ft. Donelson, Irish Bend, Port Hudson and numerous skirmishes, receiving an honorable discharge Aug. 14, 1863, at Greenfield, Mass., at expiration of term of service. At the battle of Port Hudson June 14, 1863, where 203 were killed, and 1,401 were wounded and 201 missing, Comrade Boehm slept two hours on the battlefield among them, and did duty for two nights, and one night worked on rifle pits. A brother, Frank S. Boehm, served in the late war and belonged to Co. K, 52nd Pa. V. I., and was killed in 1890 while engaged in work for Fall Brook R. R. Co., as car inspector. Comrade Boehm is a member of Brown Post, 171, he is a car inspector for Fall Brook R. R. Co., and in the spring of 1874 while discharging his duty he accidentally lost a portion of his right hand; his address is Blossburg, Pa.

[iv]  Birth Certificate of third known child Emilie Ida (author’s great grandmother) b. 30 August 1866,  in the possession of the author.

[v] Wikipedia, < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eibenstock>

[vi] 1900 census, Blossburg Borough, Tioga County, PA,  (T623, roll 1489), ED 122, SD 11, page 5A, sheet 5, dwl/fam 107/107. Only nine of Hulda’s fifteen children were still living at that time and only one of the six who died is known, Hulda Emilie (1868-1873), so probably most died as infants.
 
[vii]  Civil War Pension File of Frank L. Boehm.

[viii]  James K. Hosmer, The Color-Guard: Being A Corporal’s Notes of Military Service in the Nineteenth Army Corps, Walker, Wise and Company, Boston,  1864, a copy of which is in the possession of the author.

[ix]  1892 census, Town of Corning, Steuben County, NY

[x]  Letter (with 12 page attachment) from Juanita Boehm  (103 Timberline Drive, Vicksburg, MS 39180) to Nellie (Fish) Harris 26 February 1986; held by the author. Ms. Harris was the granddaughter and Ms. Boehm is the great granddaughter of the subject couple. It is evident from the letter that they had previously corresponded about this subject.

[xi]  1930 census, Town of Riverside, Steuben County, NY, ED 51-34, SD 13, page 96, sheet 3B, dwl/fam 70/70.

[xii]  1920 census, Village of Waverly, Town of Barton, Tioga County, NY, ED 153, SD 18, page 63, sheet 14A, dwl/fam 302/365

[xiii]  Letter from Juanita Boehm to Nellie (Fish) Harris 26 February 1986.