Notizen zu dieser Person
There is some discrepancy regarding the year of Maria's birth. While all records agree that she was born on March 4th, the year appears as either 1881 or 1883. I have used the 1883 date, which seems to have the most documentation. There is also a discrepancy regarding the date of her death. All records agree that she died in 1965; some have the date as December 27th; others have the date as December 29th. Dot Wimsatt's notes say: "(Maria) died of acute coronary occlusion due to arteriosclerotic heart disease at 1:30 PM on December 29, 1965. She would have been 84 years old." Because this note pinpoints the time of death as well as the day, I am inclined to believe this to be the true date. The memorial card distributed at her wake also indicates the date of her death as December 29, 1965. During her lifetime in America, Maria was twice referred to in official documents (by her husband) as Mary. Additionally, there is some confusion regarding her middle name. The memorial card from her wake lists her name as Maria Theresa; this information must have been provided to the funeral home by one of her two sons, who certainly should have known. However, the birth certificate for her son, Berthold, lists her name as Marie Katherine Schenke, and other old records list her name as Maria Caroline. (Some early Family Trees, prepared by Dot Wimsatt before she noted the discrepancy, still exist in various online databases with the name Maria Caroline.) It is also possible that she had two middle names. Maria's childhood village was in Silesia (aka Schleisen), which has a long history of vacillating territorial control. Over the centuries, it has been controlled by Prussia, Westphalia, Poland and Germany, and even enjoyed periods as an independent state. When Maria was a child, it was Prussian; later it became part of Germany. However, in dividing up the spoils of World War II, the village was taken by the Russians, and ceded to Poland. It was not a friendly takeover, fueled by intense (and worldwide) anti-German sentiment. Maria was in the USA by this time, but her family members in Silesia were all driven from their homes and scattered. Everything was taken from them, including homes, furniture, even clothing. Some were taken as prisoners to Russia. Today, Silesia is part of Poland, near the city of Wroclow. Both Mary Clare Potthast (Maria's foster daughter) and Helen Hoos Potthast (Maria's daughter-in-law and my mother) indicated that Maria was a "professional" cook while in Germany. She may have cooked for an Earl or some other royalty. There are records of various Barons "von Schenck" in the 1600's, although I have not been able to establish any family connection. My mother used to say that one of the things Maria needed to be able to do was carve a whole turkey ... and then present it at the table to appear as if it had NOT been carved. Various people who knew her in America also described her as an excellent cook. She did preserve various types of garden produce and even made homemade wine. When Maria immigrated to America (date unconfirmed as 1910), she stayed at a rooming house run by her aunt, Mrs. Michael Broderick; she only ever referred to her as "Tante Broderick, but I believe her first name was Elizabeth; her husband's name was Michael. Unfortunately, I cannot determine either a Schenke or Gabisch familial relationship. Maria's stay in Baltimore was planned to be a short one; Maria's ultimate destination was Helena, MT. Numerous members of the Gabisch family lived in Helena, as did (purportedly) one of Maria's brothers. It should be noted that the trip from Baltimore to Helena, MT at the turn of the 20th century was probably not an easy one. Railroads didn't arrive there until the 1880's; and the territory didn't become a state until 1889. Another important turning point in Montana history occurred in 1909 with the passage of the Enlarged Homestead Act. It prompted tens of thousands of immigrants to come to Montana in search of inexpensive land; perhaps this was also influential in Maria's desire to head to Montana. Back in Baltimore, as fate would have it, one of Tante Broderick's other borders was (supposedly) Theodore Potthast. I find this implausible, considering that Theodore had already been living in Baltimore for ten years, and had three brothers living in Baltimore. Why would he be staying in a boarding house and not with one of his brothers? However, it is quite probable that Theodore knew, perhaps even dated, one of the Broderick's boarders. Love eventually won out, and Maria either stayed in Baltimore ... or left Baltimore and quickly returned. Among Maria's possessions was a collection of old postcards; included among them were postcards sent to Maria (in care of the Opp family) in Helena, MT ... including at least one from Theodore. Maria and Theodore married in 1911 (although her obituary in the Baltimore Sun incorrectly lists the date as 1910). She is included in the 1920 US Census as the wife of Theodore; the same census indicates that she immigrated to America in 1910 and was naturalized in 1911; presumably her marriage to Theodore in Feb, 1911 granted her American citizenship (Theodore became an American citizen in 1906). In 1922, Maria took her two sons on a summer trip to meet the family in Germany; her husband, Theodore, did not travel with her. Curiously, there are no records of Maria's trip to Germany ... but the return trip is well documented. Nautical records include them as passengers on the ship Hannover, which left Bremen, Germany on September 23, 1922 and arrived at New York's Ellis Island on October 7, 1922. Ellis Island records contain the same information. There is also a passenger named Elizabeth Potthast, age 39 (the same age as Maria) on this same return voyage. I cannot determine who this was, and suspect that it was an error, of which there are at least two others: Berthold Potthast is incorrectly listed as Berthold Kraske, and the place of residence for all three of them is listed as Brooklyn (although this could be a modern transcription error). The ship Hannover was built in 1899 for the North German Lloyd line; it could hold 120 second class and 1,850 third class passengers. In August 1914 she was laid up in Bremen, and at the end of World War I surrendered to the British. In 1922 she was resold to the North German Lloyd line and converted to cabin and third class only; this is when Maria and her children sailed on The Hannover. The ship continued to travel between Bremen and New York until 1926 and was scrapped in 1932. Maria's obituary appeared in The Baltimore Sun on December 31, 1965: "Potthast. On December 29, 1965, Maria T. Potthast (nee Schenke) of 5115 Greenwich Avenue, beloved wife of Theodore Potthast, Sr. (sic), and beloved mother of Michael and Berthold Potthast. "Friends may call at the Witzke Funeral Home, 4101 Edmondson Avenue, on Thursday, from 3 until 5 and 7 until 9 P.M. Prayers on Friday at 9 A.M. Requiem High Mass at St. William of York Church, at 9:30 A.M. Interment in New Cathedral Cemetery. "A requiem high mass will be offered for Mrs. Theodore Potthast, Sr. (sic), wife of a retired furniture manufacturing executive, at 9:30 A.M. today at St. William of York Catholic Church, 4900 Edmondson Avenue. "Mrs. Potthast, 82, the former Maria Schenke, died Wednesday at her home, 5115 Greenwich Avenue, after a short illness. "Born in Schleisen, Germany, she had moved here in the early part of the century. In 1910, she married Theodore Potthast, Sr., (sic) who was one of the founders of Potthast Brothers, Inc. and is the last surviving brother of that business. "Besides her husband, Mrs. Potthast is survived by two sons, Michael and Berthold Potthast; six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. A brother, Karl Schenke, of Hamburg, Germany also survives."
Georg
Potthast
