Although we thought he was born in the Hamburg, Germany area, apparently he was originally from Bavaria in southern Germany as this is what he filled in when marrying Grandma Maas' mother, Mary Werner. He was born about 1856 somewhere in Bavaria, but it is a big place and the church records for this region are by town, and then by parish. These records are not indexed and require going page by page trying to decipher Gothic German handwriting.
The marriage certificate, which I obtained from the State of New York, confirms his father's name was Friedrich and his mother's name was Catharina, but now we know her last name - a huge breakthrough. She was Catharina Kocher (or Krocher), but again, I have no idea what part of Bavaria they were from. Hopefully in the not too distant future, some of these records will be indexed and I will be able to search through them just by entering these names.
His marriage to Mary Charlotta Louisa Werner was in Brooklyn on May 24, 1884 in St. Paul's German Evangelical Lutheran Church. We had thought that because Grandma Maas was born in Germany, that Louis and Mary had married in Germany and then come to the United States; but no, they probably met for the first time in New York. I have been unable to find either of their immigration records, as the one referenced in Shirle Gordon's autobiography was obviously incorrect as it had him arriving AFTER his May marriage!
He became a United States citizen on April 13, 1887 in Brooklyn which required that he live in the United States a minimum of five years, so he would have immigrated no later than 1883 (unless he lied on his naturalization application, which is entirely possible given the scandals he was involved in described below). The Federal, New York and New Jersey state censuses all show different dates for her immigration, but it looks like she immigrated sometime between 1879 and 1883. While pregnant with Grandma Maas, she returned to the Hamburg area to her parents' home in Wandsbek, where Kätchen Emma was born in August 1886 and she and her daughter returned to Brooklyn September 12, 1886.
Louis was involved in all kinds of businesses in Brooklyn, many at the same time. He was a Notary Public and was a realtor and German passage agent, arranging ship passage and arranging for money transfers to and from Germany and he even proclaimed himself a lawyer in one city directory. They worked and lived in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn that was commonly known as "Dutchtown" because of the large percentage of Germans living there.
Ready for the scandals? Based on newspaper accounts in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, in January, 1885, one of Louis' customers obtained passage tickets to Germany and gave Louis $460 for some of it to be exchanged for German marks and the rest in a bank draft on a Berlin bank. The customer changed his mind about the draft and wanted his money back. He stopped multiple times to collect his money, with Louis (or his employee) giving him dribs and drabs at a time. Before refunding the entire amount, Louis reportedly departed for Germany and the customer had Louis' employee arrested on a charge of theft. Apparently, the money was eventually paid, and the employee got out of jail. Pretty much a similar scenario occurred in October of the same year, with Louis closing his office to avoid repaying one of his clients. Louis was again charged, this time with grand larceny, but when the officer showed up to arrest him, he had just missed Louis hightailing it to Philadelphia. Louis was arrested the next day when he returned to New York and, unable to furnish bail, stayed in jail for two weeks, awaiting trial. The complaint was withdrawn - apparently Louis found a way to pay the client back.
During the next ten years, Louis had no more problems and he was morphing into a real estate land developer, holding officer positions in several different real estate land and building companies. They purchased land in Brooklyn and Queens, developed it, and sold the lots to builders. He was apparently doing well financially, purchasing a country home in Queens and had multiple servants.
Louis played by the rules for a while, but returned to his old patterns in 1895 and again spent time in jail awaiting trial for grand larceny, accused of pocketing money that was part of an estate settlement in Germany that should have gone to two sisters who had hired him to make the arrangements. Louis was accidentally released from jail after spending a week there when his bail was not posted correctly and a Judge ordered his re-arrest. Louis again made himself scarce. A couple more theft instances occurred, but each time Louis found a way to repay the claims at the last minute before the trials. So the good news is he apparently was never convicted, but he was a scalawag, to say the least.
Ready for another scandal? This time involving Louis' older brother Friedrich. According to 1893 newspaper accounts, he got himself involved with one of Louis' servants and she sued him for breach of promise for $10,000! Huh. The story played out for a few days, but then everything went silent. Don't know the outcome, although Friedrich never married anyone.
In 1898, the family left Brooklyn and settled in Newark, still involved in real estate development in Maplewood and Union areas of New Jersey. They moved to Union Township about 1905, and moved again in 1909 to Irvington where he also owned a nursery.
During this time, in addition to Kätchen (aka Kati) nine children were born - Louis, Jr., Fredrick in New York and Emma, Charles, Frederick (#2), William, Rudolph, Charlotte and Gordon born in New Jersey. Both Fredericks died while children.
Louis died at 52 years old in September 1909, after being ill for two years with Tuberculosis of the Larynx and is buried in Clinton Cemetery in Irvington, New Jersey. His brother Friedrich, who had moved to New Jersey with his brother's family, was killed in a hit and run auto accident in 1911 and is also buried in Clinton Cemetery. Louis' sons offered a $100 reward for information leading to the guilty party, but they were never found.
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