MySource:Aunthoot/Carolyn Kemper, "Adam Knipper," e-mail message from (cgkemper@fuse.net) (Fort Thomas, KY) to Martha Watson, Beckie Brewster & Grace McDowell

Short version of source: , "Adam Knipper," e-mail to Martha Watson, Beckie Brewster & Grace McDowell, 10 Nov 2003

Bibliography version of source: Carolyn Kemper. "Adam Knipper." E-mail message from <cgkemper@fuse.net> at Fort Thomas, KY. 10 Nov 2003

I am thrilled to have heard from both Beckie and Martha, and hope to also hear from Grace. There is so much to tell that I will be e-mailing many times, I'm sure, and my research is not nearly done. Want to get all of this info to all of you. I knew very little about George, my ggrandfather and his wife, my ggrandmother Julia, until I started this search just last week. My grandmother, Ida, died when I was ll y.o. and my mom, Mary Louise Kleintank Gavin, died a week before my 20th birthday. What I have learned in the ensuing years is that one is not really all that interested in geneology at the early ages. So, I really didn't ask questions concerning my ggrandparents, much less their parents.

I should start with some info about myself. My full name is Carolyn Louise Gavin Johnson Kemper (My first husband and the father of my daughters, Earl L. Johnson, died in 1973 at age 32 from chronic pancreatitis. Our daughter, Cynthia Lynne, was 7 y.o., and Jennifer Louise was 3. In 1981 I married Paul J. Kemper whose first wife, strangely, had also died of pancreatitis in 1972. He and Jeanne had one child, George, who was 20 y.o. when we married. We now have four grandsons, two from Cynthia and two from George.

Northern KY has always been my home. Until I married Earl I lived in Ludlow, KY., then one year in Park Hills, and have been in Fort Thomas since 1965. All of these towns are situated on the Ohio River. Ludlow is about a 25 minute drive to Petersburg, where Adam and Katherine lived. KY route 8 is the road that runs the whole length of the river in this state. My grandparents, John and Ida (Knipfer) Kleintank lived on what is called Lower River Road, and further down that road (about 10 minutes) is Petersburg. So you can see that our Knipfer ancestors lived very close to one another. I had mentioned in my first e-mail that I remember, as a child, hearing my grandmother speak of Addie Batchelor, (and I'm sure others, but I did not remember those names). Thank you, Martha, for sending the family pictures, and I immediately picked Addie out of the group. I do not recall any of the other faces. However, I have seen a photo like the one you sent of a couple standing on the rock (I'm assuming that this was taken at Split Rock). My grandmother Ida is not in the photos, and I'm not one of the children. This must have been taken at a different event than the one I remember going to. I have an older cousin, Jean Kleintank Lancaster, who lives in Rabbit Hash (also in the Petersburg area) part of the year and in Florida the rest of the time, who might recognize some of these people. She is in Florida now. When I have the opportunity I will share the photos with her. I'm fairly sure that none of the people on the photos are from George's line of the family. Note: To give you a better idea of where I live now, Ft. Thomas is directly across the river from downtown Cincinnati, OH. It takes me only about five minutes to get there across the bridge.

Martha, you mentioned that you were sending me a picture of yourself, but it did not transmit. There are four other pages of photos that I did receive. Please try to send it again. Also, I just noticed that the date of the family reunion where the photos were taken was 1956. My grandmother died in 1953.

To go on with my saga, John and Ida were married on March 11, 1911 at the priest's residence of St. Boniface Church in Ludlow. They had four children, one of whom died as an infant (or maybe was a stillbirth, I don't know for sure). My mother, Mary Louise (she was called Louise) was born on November 6, 1911 and died on July 24, 1961. John Ellwood was born October 26, 1912 and died in 1999 (I'm not sure of this date). Joseph Willard was born on May 19, 1916, and died in August, 1981.

As for the places of burial, John and Ida are in Highland Cemetery in Ft. Mitchell, KY. Louise and my father, Kenneth F. Gavin, are in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Erlanger, KY. John Ellwood and his wife, Lillian Herrmann, are in Highland Cemetery. Joseph Willard was creamated and his wife, Jane Heidel, carried his ashes around for a long time. She died about six years ago, and I have no idea what happened to Joseph Willard's ashes, or where she is buried.

Beckie, you asked where George and his family are buried. His death record from the German Evangelical Reformed Church (I left out the "Evangelical" part in my last message to you) has "Highland" written on it. I consulted with my brother, John Wayne, who has done some genealogical research. He said that George and Julia are buried in Section 4, Lot 53B, North Half, Highland Cemetery, Ft. Mitchell, KY. There is also a Christina Knipfer buried in this lot and another unnamed Knipfer (which Wayne thinks is a baby). Also on this lot are the parents of Julia and another Gaus family member. Wayne says the lot was purchased on August 17, 1871, the price being $19.20! Can you imagine! I do not have an obituary for George, but am planning to do more library research soon.

Beckie, the reason I questioned the religion of Adam and Katherine is because my husband told me that Bavaria is predominately Catholic. Until then I just assumed that the Knipper's were Protestant because my grandmother was, and I found the family records in the German Evangelical Church.

Paul receives a magazine called Northern Kentucky Heritage. In the last two issues there is a two-part article entitled The Distillery at Petersburg, Kentucky. This was the only distillery in Boone County in the 19th century, so had to be where Adam worked. As of now, I can find only the magazine with part II. This was a huge operation, also including milling of flour. There are pictures showing some of the buildings. If anyone is interested, I will have these pages copied and send them to you per mail.

I will stop for now and continue again in the next few days. I still have to cover all the children of George and Julia. My husband is going to try to transmit a picture of us that was taken in July in Sanibel Island, FL. We took our children and grandchildren there for vacation and had a wonderful time.

One other tidbit - I have a few old letters that were sent to my grandmother from her cousins that are interesting. One of them mentions Kate. I assume this refers to Katherine. I'll share some of that info next message.

Carolyn