finding the von niedas

A few weeks ago, my friend Chanel and I were shopping on the Avenue in Hampden. For those who haven't visited, Hampden is a bit of hipster heaven in Baltimore. Along West 36th Street, also known as the Avenue, is home to a variety of restaurants, boutiques, and my favorite, antique shops.

It was at one of these antique shops that Chanel and I came across a box full of vintage photographs and I told her about my fondness for identified vintage photos. We began to rifle through the collection, searching for photos with names on them. We found plenty of examples, but nothing phenomenal, until we started to notice a recurring surname: Von Nieda.

The first of the family that we found was labeled "Grandmother's brother Bart (Barton) Von Nieda & family." I'm no expert on dating photographs, but to me this one looks like it's from the early 1900s– so that's where I looked to try and find more about Bart and his family. A quick query on FamilySearch brought up a Barton Von Neida, thirty-seven years old, living in Brecknock, PA in the 1900 Census with wife Sallie (32), and daughters Gertrude (13– a photo of adult Gertrude can be found for sale here), Jennie (9) and Katie (0). This sounds about right for what we see in the picture, and would date the picture at about 1902 or 1903.

So that's grandmother’s brother, but who is grandmother? The 1870 Census shows the Von Nieda family in Brecknock, headed by Henry (44) and Sarah (36). At the time of the census, the couple had five children. Daughters Emmaline (18), Isabella (12) and Nancy (3), and sons Adam (10) and Barton (6).

The photo above identifies the oldest daughter, Emeline, as the grandmother in question. Her name is given as Emeline Von Neida Walter. The little girl is Emma B. Walter, "about 5." Is the little girl the granddaughter who wrote the identifications on the photos? To try and find that out, I had to do more research on Emeline’s married life.

The first record I found was the 1900 Census where, like her brother, Emeline was living in Brecknock. Her household consists of her husband, Isaac Walter (55). Emeline is 48 at the time and is recorded as being the mother of 3 children. Also in the household are the couple’s sons Henry (22) and Charles (27), and Charles’s wife, Mary (22). An eighty-year-old woman named Elizabeth Grill is listed as aunt, and two servants also live with the family: Lizzie Musser (21), and Anthony Ziegler (16). Lizzie is listed as a house servant while Anthony is a farm laborer.

To find the identity of the third of Emeline's children, I have to look for older records. The 1880 Census shows that Isaac and Emeline’s oldest child is a son, Adam (9), and that all of the boys have the middle initial V.

This photo is identified as Charles Von Neida Walter. Could this be Emeline's middle son? If so, is he the father of Emma, or whoever was the owner of these photographs? A marriage record exists for a Charles V. Walter and Mary J. Bender, dated October 21st 1899, but I am unable to find much about the couple beyond that. Unable to find out more, I move on to the next photo.

The first part of the name on the far left is unreadable, but the middle initial is clearly V and the surname is Walter. The name written next to the woman beside him appears to be Suetta Walter. A search for Suetta Walter brings up the 1900 Census. Adam Walter, Sr., age 29 is the head of a household in West Earl Township in Lancaster. Wife Suetta is 27, and the couple has one child, a 4-year-old daughter named Luella. The oldest member of the household is 62-year-old William Snader, a boarder.

The 1920 Census shows the family still living in West Earl. This time, it identifies William D. Snader as Adam’s father-in-law (making Suetta’s maiden name Snader). Luella is no longer in the household, but by this point would be 24-years-old and likely married. Instead, 4-year-old ward Pauline Ludwig and 18-year-old niece Emma Walter reside with the family.

Emma! Is this the Emma from the photographs? If she is, that means the photo was taken about 1907. She would not have been born yet by the 1900 Census, which means she could be the daughter of either Henry and an unknown wife, or of Charles and Mary. I take a look at the census records to try and find her parents. In 1910, she is living with Isaac and Emeline (called Emma) in Brecknock, without her parents. This doesn’t tell us any more about who her parents were, so I look to find out what happened to Emeline and Isaac’s sons Henry and Charles.

Having been unable to find anything about Charles and Mary, so I turn to Henry. The first thing I find is a World War II draft registration card that lists a Catherine McC Walter as being the person who will always know Henry’s address. BillionGraves shows a family plot for the Walters at Rothsville Lutheran Cemetery. The plot contains Henry V. Walter, M.D., 1878-1948; his wife, Catherine McC. Walter, 1879-1960; Lowell F. Halligan, 1900-1968; and Margaret W. Halligan, 1912-1973.

The epitaphs on Henry and Catherine's headstones list them as Father and Mother, respectively, which leads me to believe that Margaret is their daughter and Lowell her husband. A quick Google search for Margaret W. Halligan brings up a Find-A-Grave memorial that confirms my suspicion. Not only that, but it lists her siblings as D. Henry, Richard A. and Janet K. Walter– no Emma. It also links back to Emeline and Isaac Walter, Henry's parents. Unfortunately, neither Emeline nor Isaac's memorial has any hints of what happened to their middle son and his wife, but by process of elimination, we can say that Charles and Mary were Emma's parents.

A search of Bowmansville Union Cemetery, where Emeline and Isaac Walter are buried, shows that it was also the final resting place of their son Charles and his wife, Mary Jane. Mary Jane Walter, née Bender, lived from 1878-1902– approximately the year that Emma was born. But Charles would live from 1873-1942. Not only that, but there was a third person buried with them, a Lizzie B. Walter, 1875-1971. Is this Charles’s second wife, and Emma’s step-mother?

The 1910 Census reveals this to be exactly the case. Living in Brecknock, Charles and Lizzie Walter (née Musselman) are living with Lizzie’s brother, Abram, and their two daughters Irene (3) and Florence (1). Charles is alive and well, and has two more daughters, but for some reason his eldest and only daughter by his first wife are living with his parents.

A final search of Find-A-Grave reveals that Emma would go on live to the ripe old age of 95. She married a George A. Smith, and graduated in 1921 from Millersville State Normal School. She would teach at Upper Leacock High School and as a substitute teacher in the Solanco School District. At the time of her death in 1997, she had two surviving children: G. Aaron, husband of Dorothy Rose Smith, and June S. Mylin, wife of Donald Mylin of Havre de Grace, Maryland. Her half-sister Florence W. Newpher also survived her, as did six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

While I can't explain why Emma went to live with her grandparents, and later her aunt and uncle, I am happy to discover that her daughter June lives not far from where I live. Hopefully she is still alive. I plan to give her a call soon to let her know of these photos. But I'm not quite done! There are still two more pictures that I have to share with you.

 

This photo is identified quite simply as Grandmother's Aunt Betsy Grill. She is the eight-year-old woman that was living with Emeline and Isaac in 1900.

It is difficult to tell from the photos, but Kathy Von Neida is likely the youngest daughter of Emeline's brother Barton. She is about the same age as Emma, which looks right in the photo. I found more pictures of the oldest girl, Sara Morrow Yost, for sale online. The same seller also has photos of her brother William, the Billy Morrow in the photo. In the 1900 Census, Sarah (14) and William Morrow (5) can be found living with their parents, Isaac and Isabella. That clears up their connection to the Von Niedas– Isabella Morrow was born Isabella Von Nieda. A Google search reveals the obituary of Sara Morrow's Husband, Herman B. Yost. Indeed, you can find the couple buried at Bowmansville Union Cemetery, the same cemetery where Emeline and Isaac Walter rest.