Family:Karl Kühn and Eva Senkpiel (1)

Parents: Christian Kühn and Luise Rindfleisch Karl Kühn b. 6 Jun 1853 Szwarowcszyzna, Russia d. 20 Aug 1939 Michalki, Poland

Parents: Christian Senkpiel and Luise Klann Eva Senkpiel b. 20 Aug 1859 Wrzeszewo, Russia d. 9 Mar 1945

m. 14 Sep 1875 Michalki, Russia

Karl Kühn and Eva Senkpiel came from a community of Germans who emigrated to Russia in the time of Catherine the Great. It is said that Karl's family were originally Saxons from the Leipzig area, and that Eva's family were Prussians. The families had lived in this Polish region of Russia (near the town of Rypin) for several generations.

Eva gave birth to thirteen children, only six of whom lived to adulthood; it was an age when contagious diseases were common and deadly. Five of these six emigrated to America, only the youngest daughter, Auguste, staying in Europe. In America, the spelling of the family name changed to Kuehn. Some of the family in America pronounce the name KEEN, others KYOON.

After World War I, the area became part of the newly reconstituted nation of Poland. Karl died just days before the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, but the rest of the family suffered hard times during the war; as Germans they were untrusted by the Poles and as Polish nationals they were untrusted by the Nazis. Frail and blind, Eva did not quite survive the war. Evicted from the family property by the Poles after the war (as many Germans were), Auguste and her family relocated to Dinslaken, West Germany.

The American branch of the family settled in Connecticut, except for Henry, who at various times lived in Connecticut, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Illinois, and Arizona. Edward, the oldest, emigrated first, around 1893, and Henry came last, in 1910. They came largely because the Russian government was taking away the freedoms and privileges first promised the Germans by Catherine the Great, now requiring them to serve in the army and pressuring them to assimilate culturally. They and their descendants fared much better in the new land than those who remained in Europe.

The Kuehn siblings in America, c. 1919.
Top (left to right): August, Edward, Henry
Bottom (left to right): Emilie, Pauline.

1.   Arthur Hitzeman. Hitzeman and Kuehn Families.