| Our Family Ties |
| Rosalia Chaloupka |
Texas Death Index 6686 Franziska Choloupka in "Baptisms" Lutheran Church records Kalubka in Austin Co. Marriage record Edward's wife Rosalia Chaloupka was born in Cermna, the same Czech town that Franziska Marek came from. Her background was Moravian. Her family settled in the area of Bleiberville and Wesley, near Schoenau. She was tall and very slender, as if the wind would blow her away, and a hard worker. Compared to her husband, she was very meek. Her parents attended the Unity of the Brethren Church. Rosalia read her Bible every day, though Riley didn't see her in church much. He doesn't ever remember seeing her husband Edward there. In fact, he didn't see his grandparents together much in public. Riley thinks someone brought them groceries because he wasn't aware of them shopping. Edward and Rosalia's home near New Ulm consisted of several buildings. His sons slept in a large two-bedroom house outside the main house, where Edward stored his feed after his boys were grown. The smokehouse was next to it. The original house had a good kitchen stove. A pantry was attached to the house to store what they had canned, plus other staples. The house had a long porch and a bedroom. At least in their later years, Edward and Rosalia slept in separate beds. Adjoining the bedroom was the "güd stübe" (the good room), used as a parlor or living room. The bedroom where the girls slept was called "Little Ettie's room" after all her sisters were gone. One well was right by the house, with a rope to draw water, and a second well elsewhere. Rosalia liked to work in her gardens. One was behind the smokehouse, the other was on the side of the house. She would raise different crops in the different gardens, depending on what grew best where. Rosalia had guinea hens in a couple of places. Rosalia always spoke German with her family, not English. She wanted to teach them Czech, but Edward didn't speak it so he didn't want his children to learn it. But she would teach them a little when he wasn't around. Though they didn't use it at home, her children could "mix in a few words." Whenever Edward and his wife Rosalia got any mail, which was only every week or so, their small grandson Riley would ride his white jenny up to the mailboxes to get it for them. Later, when he got a Shetland pony, Rosalia said, "Wo hast du krache?" Riley was offended because in German, "krache" means a broken-down skinny horse. Then his father explained that the Czech word "krache" refers to any horse, and Rosalia used it even for the beautiful ones she and Ettie drove to town, riding in a buggy with the top down. One of Edward's two good horses was named Prince. Riley doesn't remember seeing his grandfather drive, only his grandmother. When Rosalia was old, she tended to wander from home across the fields. For a while she lived with Edith Schunka, then went to her daughter Ella Henneke's home about October, 1942 in the community of Bernardo, where Albert Henneke had a store. According to the death certificate, which Albert signed, Rosalia died on February 7, 1946 after four or five days of pneumonia. Her body was laid out at home on a cold winter day. Some of the Ashorns called Rosalie the "Platt Deutsch" because she spoke Low German, which as Gloria Garrett demonstrates is more breathy, sibilant and low than the High German spoken by the rest of her family. Her husband Edward Ashorn learned to talk like her if he wanted -- they called him the "Platt Deutsch" too! Her daughter Rosa Buechmann and her family took over their farm. Texas Death Index 6686 Franziska Choloupka in "Baptisms" Lutheran Church records Kalubka in Austin Co. Marriage record !BIRTH: pretty sure !MARRIAGE:Jan-Feb 1881, according to Shirley Nielsen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
http://www.gencircles.com/users/terilynn/1/data/28329
