Casper P. Kirsch was born January 2, 1878 in Germany, probably in
Alsace-Lorraine. His parents were
Daniel Kirsch and Magdalena
Schmidt. The Kirsch's emigrated to
the United States in 1888 and settled in Buffalo, New York. Casper was just ten years old when he arrived
in America.
In 1903, Casper married Grace Mary Roberts. The groom was twenty-five,
the bride no older than twenty. The newlyweds settled in a rented flat at 68 Rano Street,
just a few doors from Grace's parent's home at 94 Rano
|
|
|
Grace Kirsch and one of her sons, probably John T.
|
on Buffalo's West Side.
Rano Street runs east from Tonawanda Street a couple of blocks north of Hertel Ave in "Riverside".
The Irish-Welsh
bride learned to cook German cuisine for her husband. I remember well, her culinary talents.
In the first seven years of their marriage, Grace would have four
children, but only two survived beyond infancy - Helen, born December 11th, 1903 and Mildred, born
July 24th 1908.
In 1910 Casper and Grace were still living in the rented flat on Rano Street. 68 Rano Street was also home to
two other families. In addition to the seven adults and six children in the building, Casper and Grace
had fifteen farm animals - not unusual for the time, as many people still kept horses for transportation
and chickens for Sunday dinners. Casper worked at grading and installing sod and was self-employed.
By 1915, the Kirsch's had moved a few blocks away across Tonawanda
Street to another rented flat at 197 Grace Street. They now had four children. Helen and Mildred
were joined by Edith, born November 13th, 1911 and John T., born November 21st, 1913. On October 17, 1915
Grace Kirsch gave birth to twin girls, Irene Agnes and Anna, at home. Anna struggled to hold on to life
but her little heart and lungs were just not strong enough. She died in the early morning hours of
October 18th.
|
|
|
Left to right, Helen, Edith, and Irene Kirsch.
|
The 1920 Census found six children in the Kirsch household.
Helen , Mildred, Edith, John and Irene were joined by Charles W. born May 27th 1918.
Everyone in the family older than Johnny could read and write.
Twelve-year-old Mildred and
eight-year-old Edith had attended school in the past year. Helen, who was sixteen, worked as a
winder at the Ericson Company to supplement the family income. After all, there were a lot of mouths
to feed in the Kirsch household. Casper worked as the proprietor of a Bed and Board.
As had been the case on Rano Street, most of the Kirsch's neighbors on Grace Street were born in
Germany or had sprung from German-born parents.
Casper's mother, who had adopted the anglicized name Madeline instead
of Magdalena lived next door at 199 Grace.
Madeline Kirsch
owned her home free of mortgage. Two of her unmarried granddaughters lived with her. Viola Munch, 18,
who also worked as a winder at the Ericson Company, and Lula or Leila Kish, Viola's nineteen-year-old
cousin who was an assembler in the same place.
The 1920's would bring both joy and tragedy to 197 Grace Street.
Donald W. Kirsch was born July 5th 1920, the last of Grace and Casper's children. Little
Charles died January 3rd 1922 after a six-day struggle with Diphtheria. He was just three and a half.
Casper passed away September 10, 1926
of heart disease. He was forty-eight. At the time, he had been working as a teamster for the
Jos. Schafer Co. Casper had no life insurance and Social Security was a decade in the
future. Grace Kirsch, at forty-three, found herself with little education, no income, no assets and a
lot of mouths to feed. She had lost four of her ten children and her husband - enough sorrow for a
lifetime. A lesser woman might have given up. Grace held her family together any way she could.
She scrubbed floors and cleaned the homes of more fortunate Buffalonians. The older girls
worked and helped out at home. My mother and my aunts told stories of sleeping in their winter
clothes because they had no coal for heat and of walking the railroad tracks to pick up coal
that had fallen from railcars for the furnace. In the midst of this economic chaos, others might
have let their principles slide a bit, not Grace Kirsch. She held her family to the highest standards
of behavior and decorum.
In the 1940's and 1950's when Grace Kirsch's work should have been
completed -
her children were grown and on their own - she was instead acting as surrogate parent to my brother
Tom and I, while our parents worked. This was not an easy job. Grace also cooked for several years
at Joe and Edie Doerfler's tavern on Broadway across from the Buffalo Forge plant. On April 17th, 1960,
Grace Mary Roberts Kirsch went to a well deserved rest. She is buried in Mt Olivet Cemetery in Tonawanda.
