Person:Elizabeth Bartolf (3)

Born on a Wednesday, died on a Friday, married on a Tuesday

Elizabeth Bartolf was born in the German settlement of Semlak, Hungary, on 2 May 1877. She was descended from Hartmann Bartolf. Her parents were Andreas Bartolf and Magdolna Maas. Birth recorded in State Archives Arad, Register 6, No. 45. Listed as Erzsébet Bartolf. Pastor: P. Pál Goldperger.

Elizabeth gave birth to eight children; four of whom survived. Her remaining four daughters worshipped her and were all devoted to her. She and her husband, Adam, had a strong and loving relationship; to put it simply, he adored her. When she passed away, he mourned and missed her. He would sit at the dining room window on Empire Boulevard and would wait for her to come home as he had done so often in the past when she went shopping downtown.

The first time she and husband came to America was in 1910. They went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to join Adam's cousin, Peter Grünwald on Cameron Street. Their youngest, Katherine, was born in March 1912 in the United States during this stay in America.

Grandma worked at the tobacco factory in Harrisburg, rolling cigars. I don't know the time span for this employment. In Harrisburg she and Adam rented a big house and had boarders -- this had to be on their first trip to America in 1910 or so since she was carrying Katherine at the time. There was no furnace -- just a big pot belly stove. Grandpa worked nights. One very cold night the pipes burst in the second floor -- she was pregnant with Katherine. She came downstairs and swept the water out the door -- as a result she became quite sick and delivered Katherine two months early. Katherine was tiny at birth and there were no incubators at the time. She was at home and her mother and sisters kept her warm in front of the stove. The doctor told Elizabeth that her baby would survive if she was a good mother. What a terrible burden to place on a mother's shoulders! If the baby didn't survive, she was a bad mother! Shortly after Katherine's birth, they returned to Semlak.

Adam and the two oldest girls, Mary and Elizabeth, next returned to America in December 1913. Mother Elizabeth and the two younger girls, Magdalena and Katharine, followed in May 17, 1914, sailing on the Lapland out of Antwerp. They returned to Hungary/Romania three to four times as their only motivation for being in America was to make money to improve their home and to buy more fields in Semlak.

In 1920 they returned to their homeland on an Italian troop ship with their eight-year old daughter, Katherine, along with their oldest daughter, Mary, and her family. On the trip back in 1920, they went on an Italian troop ship -- passenger ships weren't yet available as it was at the end of the war. As my mother recounted the trip to me, women were all in one big room and the men in another. They landed in Naples; travel home to Semlak on the train was very bad -- once again due to the fact that the war had not be over for long. Grandma and Grandpa didn't have too much land at the time. Joseph and Mary returned to the United States with their children, Henry and Elizabeth, in February of 1921.

Elizabeth could not bear being away from her daughters and so on 11 November 1923, they returned to America.

Source: Ellis Islands Internet Site. Sailed from Bremen, Germany to Ellis Island, New York (lines 21-23). Grandpa, Adam Wagner, was accompanied by his wife, Elisabeth, and his 11-year-old daughter, Katherina. On the steerage manifest the following was listed:

Amount of money bringing in: $118 which was almost double what the rest were bringing in. Ever here in America before: 1909-1920 in Harrisburg, PA [but the ship manifest for the first trip was in 1910] Going to: Son-in-law Stif Holzinger [sic]. That would be Stefan Holczimmer, husband of their third daughter, Magdalena, who was living at 31 Oakman Street, Rochester, New York Intending to return to country of origin? No. Hair color: grey (Adam), brown (Elizabeth), blond (Katherine) Eyes: blue (Adam), brown (Elizabeth), brown (Katherine) Skin: fair (all three) Height: 5'7" (Adam); 5'7" (Elizabeth) They didn't have a ticket to final destination (Rochester, New York)

However, Adam wished to return to his homeland and so he and Elizabeth returned to Semlak with Katherine in 1931 on the Deutchland anticipating that this time they would remain there. After Katherine married Henry in Semlak and he was conscripted into the army, she decided to return to her homeland, the United States of America, so that Henry might join her after his military service. Shortly thereafter Adam and Elizabeth followed her to America never to see their homeland again.

The house she was so very proud of in Semlak was described this way by her youngest daughter, Katherine: It was a beautiful house, for the way they were built out there. Grandma had wood floors put in. The ceilings were low so they had the roof raised to make them higher. Bigger windows were put in. Wooden floors were put in a small cellar which was under a small room and it was used for vegetable and milk storage. At that time there was no electric. Adam and Elizabeth would send money to Elizabeth's brother, Johann (grandfather to Johann Kaiser) to make repairs on their beloved home. Johann Bartolf was the owner of the lumberyard in Semlak and considered one of the wealthier men there. When Katherine and Henry visited Semlak, they went inside the house which was then being used as office space by the communists. She was saddened by the appearance of their once lovely home. The floors were a mess. It was not kept up.

My grandmother, Elizabeth, was known for her many kindnesses. Here is one to underscore that information. According to Aunt Katherine Wagner Keller, Grandma Elizabeth's brother-in-law had tuberculosis and her sister, Magdalena (Magdolna) contacted it from him. Two children of the couple, boys, were born crippled due to the disease in both parents. Magdalena knew she was going to die. She asked her sister, Elizabeth Bartolf Wagner, to take care of her remaining son, Michael. Elizabeth being the kind of person she was, promised to care for the child. He was big and heavy and disabled. Elizabeth found a place in Arad, the county seat, that took in children with such disabilities. She took him there and he didn't, of course, want to stay there. She had no choice. She went to see him once a month which was quite a hardship because the only way one could get to Arad from Semlak was to go by wagon. It took four hours one way. So, Elizabeth was on the road eight hours. Each time she visited the boy, he begged her to take him home. It was emotionally very hard for Elizabeth -- she couldn't afford to pay for help in her home and she already had children of her own. The boy was there less than a year when Elizabeth went on her monthly visit. She was told that he had died. She always suspected they had poisoned him because he had given them so much trouble always wanting to leave the facility Elizabeth cried every time she told the story.

She was a hard worker. You could hear the sound of her shoes clacking fast and furiously as she ran from one task to the next. She was short, only 5' 1", and very slight. She maintained the Semlak way of living and wore her apron most of the time. She liked to cook and to entertain and was happy when her oldest daughter, Mary (with whom Elizabeth and Adam lived), started a "kaffeeklutch" and a group of ladies had coffee and pastries weekly. Elizabeth could bake some of her delicious kuchens for her friends. She was an expert at crocheting and did exquisite embroidery. Her husband never had a store-bought shirt, he wanted his Elizabeth to make them for him.

Elizabeth took over the household tasks for Mary since her daughter had several jobs trying to keep the bills paid and food on the table during the Depression years. Then when Elizabeth's granddaughter, Elizabeth, became a single mother due to a divorce, the great grandmother agreed to babysit for her two great grandchildren. She worked from dawn to dark and it's hard to remember seeing her sitting. She was a hard taskmaster but never asked more of you than she would of herself.

If one could give verbal snapshots of her, they would include: a woman running rather than walking with her schlappas (open-backed leather shoes) making clicking sounds . . . holding a baby across her lap and murmuring (praying) as she stroked the crying child's back . . . snapping the heads of the doves as she brought them from the garage to the house . . . working in her poppy garden . . . cooking her wonderful food . . . keeping a house ultra clean . . . bringing home a bag of candy for her husband . . . dancing so erect with her husband . . . two tiny people moving so elegantly . . . hair that was thinned from several serious illnesses . . . bending over her needlework as she klatched with her family and friends . . . smiling with love at her remaining four children, her precious jewels, her daughters . . . caring for her great grandchildren so that her granddaughter could go off to work with a lighter heart . . . scolding her younger sister, Mary, for doing something she thought was crazy . . . teasing her youngest granddaughter by acting like a swooning teenage Sinatra fan . . . unconditional love.

Elizabeth died at the age of 73 on her youngest granddaughter's birthday. She and Adam were married 56 years when she died. Practicing the wake traditions of the Old Country, Elizabeth's casket was in the home of her eldest daughter. Adam sat at her side until she was carried from the home she and Adam had shared with her eldest daughter and her family. Her fast step had stopped and she was missed by her family and her adoring husband.

Death Certificate is recorded in District No. 2701, Registered No. 1748. She died at Strong Memorial Hospital. Her eldest daughter, Mary Wagner Keller, was the informer of death. Besides the direct causes of her death, Hypertension, Essential was listed as other significant conditions contributing to her death. An autopsy was performed. Also, when she was younger, she had a kidney removed which always seemed to be a contributing factor in her later health. She is buried at Mount Hope cemetery, alongside her adoring husband at R312.

1. ↑ Georg Schmidt. Semlak Lutheran (Evangelische) Church Birth Records.
2. ↑ Monroe County Death Certificate.
3. ↑ Death Certificate in Possession.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Family Records.
5. ↑ Georg Schmidt. Semlak Lutheran (Evangelische) Church Birth Records.

   State Archives Arad, Reg. 6, No. 45

6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Ellis Island Manifest.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2} Ship Manifest Copy.
8. ↑ Passport Information.