A Spelling Problem Simplified: Johann Streu Becomes John Stroy
Johann Carl Christian Streu/John Stroy: 1834-1918
Donald Trump recently made headlines for mocking a Michigan
congressman’s surname, Meijer, a common German name, but weird according to
Trump. He asked why Meijer didn’t just spell it “Meyer” so people would know
how to pronounce it. This invited mockery on Twitter, as Trump’s ancestors
immigrated to the United States with the surname Drumpf, which they changed to
Trump, a little piece of personal history he apparently likes to forget. I
suspect there were plenty of mocking comments like Trump’s directed at my
second-great-granduncle when he arrived in the United States. Like Trump’s
ancestors, he chose to “Americanize” his name, choosing a more phonetic
spelling that even the cruel, prejudiced and ignorant could understand.
Johann Carl Christian Streu was born September 21, 1834 in Laage
u Weitendorf in the Mecklenburg region of Germany. His parents were Johann
Friedrich and Friederike Dethloff Streu. He appears to be the eldest of their
six children; my second-great-grandmother, Sophia Maria Christiane Streu, was
his younger sister, born when Johann was five.
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| Johann's baptism record |
Johann left Germany for the United States in either 1851 or
1852, when he was only 17 or 18 years old. I have been unable to find any
records of his arrival, or of his naturalization, so the details of how and
when he travelled and arrived are lost. I don’t know if he was alone or with
extended family or friends, but it must have been very frightening to head off
to a new country where he couldn’t even speak the language. How did he decide
where to go once he arrived? How did he afford the trip?
He first settled in Racine, Wisconsin, appearing on the 1860
census at age 25 as John Stroi, a laborer living in the home of a miller named
Richard Thomas. It is unclear if he and the other boarder were laborers in
Thomas’ mill operation, or if they just happened to board at the Thomas house. It
is also unclear whether Johann chose the new spelling of both his first and
last name, or if the census taker just wrote what he heard, anglicizing the
German.
Johann’s family followed him to the United States in May
1857 aboard the ship Johannes. His parents, then 50 years old, his sisters
Sophia (my second-great-grandmother) and Marie, then 17 and 18 years old, and
his younger brothers Bernhard and Wilhelm, 15 and 11, sailed out of Hamburg. His
parents also moved to Racine, and appear on the 1860 census farming with
Bernhard and Wilhelm. My ancestor, Sophia, had married by the 1860 census, so
was out of the house. Marie or Maria simply disappears from the records. Did
she marry as well? Or did she die? Since one of Sophia’s middle names was
Maria, other Ancestry trees merge the two sisters together, which is incorrect.
The ship’s manifest clearly shows they both set out for America with their
parents and brothers.
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| Streu family record from German ship Johannes |
Was it Johann’s job to pave the way for his family to join
him? Was he supposed to find a good place for them to settle, and then send for
them? He was very young to take on such a responsibility if that was the case.
Johann married Anna Dorothea Kupke, another German
immigrant, on September 21, 1864. The couple married in Milwaukee; the marriage
certificate stated that Johann was living in “Town Lake” which no longer
appears on any map. On the record, Johann’s name is spelled correctly, the
German way. However, the first name of his spouse may have been incorrect; on
all subsequent records she appears as Johanna or Johannah. She and her family
had arrived in America just a year earlier; she was born in 1845, so was 11
years younger than Johann.
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| Johann and Johanna's wedding record |
The next time Johann and his wife appear on records, on the
1870 census, Americanization of his name had begun in earnest. Johann had
morphed into John, and Streu had become Stroy. Johann/John and Johanna had
three children in 1870, all of whom had very English-sounding first names:
Amelia, Emma and John. Johann was farming near the small Wisconsin community of
Port Washington, which was on the shore of Lake Michigan just north of
Milwaukee.
The family continued to grow, and sometime around 1875, Johann
and Johanna moved to Nebraska, settling on a farm between the tiny towns of
Murdock and Elmwood. Their sixth and last child, Anna, was born there on April
1, 1877.
The Stroys became solid members of their community,
attending the German Lutheran Church in Murdock. Their children married area
residents, and Johann/ John ended up helping his sons-in-law, serving as the
guardian of Peter Gakemeier, his daughter Amelia’s husband, when the young man
suffered some sort of mental health issue that led to his being deemed insane.
Fortunately the issue was short-term. John also worked with his daughter Mary
Louise’s husband, Conrad Baumgartner, helping to build a barn on Conrad’s
property.
By the time Johannah died in 1905, she was described in the
Ashland Gazette’s death notice as “the wife of one of the wealthy and highly
respected citizens of Murdock.” Obviously, Johann/John had done well farming.
By the time of Johannah’s death, the couple had moved into Murdock to live.
Johann sold all his farm livestock and basically retired from active farming. A
1907 news clipping reported that he was “suffering severely from rheumatism.”
Johann/John died at age 83 on March 27, 1918. He and
Johannah were buried in Murdock at the Immanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery.
Curiously enough, after decades of Johann using the name “John Stroy” for legal
records as well as in the community, the family chose to use the names “Johann
Streu and Johanna Dorathea Streu" on the headstone. The surname at the bottom of
the monument proudly reads “STREU”. In death, Johann and his family reclaimed
their German heritage.
Sources:
Baptism Record. Mecklenburg, Laage u Wietendorf, Taufen,
Hieraten u Tote 1750-1885, accessed on Ancestry. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61229/images/0069280-00224?pId=14707424
Ashland Gazette, Ashland NE, 14 Jun 1907. Murdock news. https://www.newspapers.com/image/667950689/?terms=john%20stroy&match=1
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/51648589/johanna-dorathea-streu
Plattsmouth Journal, Plattsmouth NE 24 Sep 1903.
Guardianship Notice.
Ashland Gazette, Ashland NE. 4 Jan 1901. Public Sale Notice,
John Stroy Farm Property and Livestock
Census Data: Ancestry.com
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