30 Dec 2009

Brox & Kessler Family History

ohann Brox was born 21 Nov 1833 in house No. 16 in Neu Waldek, a northern Bohemian village which was then within the Austrian Empire.
John Brox and Anna Kessler He married Anna Maria Kessler, and their first child was born in 1863. In 1869, the family was living in the former home of Anna’s deceased father in the neighboring village of Altwaldek.

Emigration

Steamer
Braunschweig,
after 1886 On 6 Feb 1875, John received a passport to emigrate with his wife and children from Altwaldek to the United States. They set sail from Bremen and arrived in Baltimore 9 Apr 1875 aboard the steamer "Braunschweig". They must have continued directly to Kansas, since they were counted during the state census that was taken only one month later. They were shown living in the Good Intent neighborhood of Atchison County where they were staying with John and Veronica Woletz (or Wohletz). Along with the Prax family, a woman named Theresia Gergele and her infant son, John, had made the journey. They were also living in Good Intent with another Austrian family which was headed by John Drimmel.

The Woletz couple had emigrated from Bohemia ten years earlier, sailing the same route from Bremen to Baltimore aboard the "Gutenberg" and landing on 11 Aug 1865. Their ship's manifest was more specific than most and showed that they were from the village of Überdörfel. This was another among the cluster of small villages, including Altwaldek, which were all a mile or less from one another. They had emigrated with others from these villages, but none of them have been found in Kansas. The John and Mary Drimmel family had come to America even earlier in the mid-1850's and were living in Atchison, Kansas, by 1860. Since they must have known Theresia Gergele or her family before she arrived, they were probably from the same area, but this has not been proven.

Kansas

John and Anna had emigrated with their three older children, and their fourth was born less than a year afterward. They were the following:

1. Mary Anna (1863-1933) who married John H. Myers 1888.
2. Johann Joseph "John" (1869-1954) who married Elizabeth Keeler 1894.
3. Anton Paul "Tony" (1874-1955) who married Barbara M. Anslinger 1904.
4. Frank (1876-1948) who married Bertha Flachsbarth 1901.

Tombstone of
John Brox and
Anna Kessler,
2003 Although listed as a weaver on the ship passenger list, John Brox would spend the rest of his life as a farmer. According to his obituary, he "had been a sickly man all his life." Before coming to Kansas, he suffered from dyspepsia which is severe heartburn or nausea. It also states that he suffered from asthma during the last twenty five years of his life. He died unexpectedly on the morning of 27 June 1910 and was buried in the cemetery of the St. Louis Church northwest of Atchison, Kansas. Anna died 6 June 1913 and was buried with her husband.

Surnames

Prior to emigrating, the surnames of John and Anna were spelled Prax and Köszler. However, for many years their family name was variously spelled, or misspelled, in American records as Prax, Prox, Brax, and Brox, before the latter became the norm. Some of these variants were even noted in John’s probate records to clarify that they all referred to the same person. Similarly, Anna's maiden name was anglicized as Kessler when her death was entered in the church records. It is worth noting that the German pronunciation of Prax would be extremely similar to the American pronunciation of Brox.

Bohemian Ancestors

Several details regarding earlier generations can be extracted from the family's passport and birth certificates. John Brox was the son of Johann Prax and Maria Antl, both of Neu Waldek. His maternal grandparents were Franz Antl and Anna Klaschka of Körber which lies between Altwaldek and Neu Waldek. Anna Kessler was the daughter of Johann Köszler and Barbara Frodl. Her father was from Altwaldek, and her mother was originally from Triebitz about five miles further away.

Brox & Kessler Homeland

Zwittau Vicinity,
2007 The small villages around Altwaldek and Neu Waldek comprise the homeland of the Prax and Köszler families. These villages were located just beyond the outskirts of the small city of Zwittau, Bohemia, lying only 3 to 4 miles north of the center of town. They were also 100 miles east of the capital city of Prague and 50 miles north of the major city of Brno.

This area was located in the Kreis (similar to a county) of Chrudimer in Bohemia. At the time, Bohemia was considered a separate crownland within the vast Austrian Empire which covered an area far larger than the current nation of Austria.
Zwittau and Surrounding
Villages, 2004 The majority of its population was of Slavic origin, however, Zwittau was located in a border region known as the Sudeten where culturally German people were the majority. This area became a part of Czechoslovakia upon its creation after the first World War. During the second World War, most of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany. Afterward, the millions of ethnically German residents, most of whose families had been living there for generations, were expelled from the country and much of their history was destroyed. In 1992, the area became part of the Czech Republic when it was established.

Members of the Brox family variously identified themselves in American records as being Austrian, Bohemian, or German, although they never lived within the borders of Germany. The following table lists the former and current names of each of the locations that are relevant to this family.

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Links

• Johann (John) Brox / Prax {fam group, lineage, fam hist, query?}
• Anna Maria Kessler / Köszler {fam group, lineage, fam hist, query?}