Louis Windmuller and Family

Introduction

This is a short narrative about Louis Windmuller, his wife Hannah (Annie) Eliza Lefman Windmuller, and their family. It includes a table showing their direct ancestors back to the sixteenth century. As a companion to this web page there's a set of genealogical entries for these and many more relatives at this location: Windmuller Family Genealogy. I've done other family history web pages and databases for ancestors in the Hettema and Hellegers family trees: 1) Five Generations of the Hettema Family, 2) Descendants of Thomas Anthony Hellegers. The companion database to the Hellegers and Hettema pages are located here: Hellegers and Hettema Families.

As well as the web pages and genealogies, I have made blog posts giving family stories or historical anecdotes. Links to some of these posts appear in the sections that follow. To find others, click the family history label on the blog, which is simply called Secondat. There's a label for the subset of these posts which are either about Louis Windmuller or related to his life. It's called Secondat: Louis Windmuller.

Background

I've benefited greatly from genealogical research done by a few dedicated individuals. My aunt, Florence Hadley Heynen, assembled many primary source documents over the decades before her death in 2000. Others who helped me include Inge Windmueller Horowitz, Mark A. Stern, Bob Weinberg, Dave Wolf, David Windmueller, Martin Burke, and Alexandra Shand. I've also drawn upon the Windmueller family chronicle by Inge Windmueller Horowitz and Windmueller Gedcom assembled by David Windmueller.


Because he was a prominent New Yorker in the last quarter of the 19th century, both writing and being written about, there's quite a bit of online information concerning Louis Windmuller. See the Source Materials section for more on this topic and see the Editorial Matters section for a brief discussion of the various ways personal names are rendered in old documents.


On his mother's side, Louis Windmuller was descended from a famous rabbi in a family that would include, in Louis's time, men and women who were wealthy and influential, and whose contributions in latter half of the nineteenth century were both beneficial and lasting. On his father's, he came from a tightly-knit Jewish clan in the Rhenish towns of Rheda, Beckum, and Warendorf. One source describes this origin:

The small township of Ostrup is the first place where the Windmullers were known to have settled. According to an entry in the church register, the Jew Awram Windmoehl died there in 1547. Around 1600, the Jews of Ostrup were expelled and the majority found sanctuary in the neighbouring city state of Rheda. It was here c. 1680 that Levi Windmuller was born and it is from that time we can start a more reliable genealogical account of the family. The Jews of Westphalia constituted an unusual community by virtue of their small numbers and isolation. They lived in groups of several families in the smallest of villages. They had almost no access to rabbis and in most cases were unable to build communities large enough to form a minyan (group of 10 men needed for prayers).

--" A Windmueller History" by Gerald Josephs, Shemot, March 2006 (the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain, London)

This source goes on to describe the history of the family in the time after Louis Windmuller emigrated to New York. In the second half of the nineteenth century, after anti-Jewish restrictions had been lifted, they made successful careers in medicine, in the chemical industry, and in the law. Members of the clan fought in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and World War I. Early in the twentieth century, a Windmuller became one of the first German female consulting gynecologists. During the Nazi era, some escaped and others were protected by Christians for a while, later to be discovered and sent to the extermination camps. Some of them emigrated to Palestine and fought to establish the state of Israel. Others joined the resistance to Nazi Germany, were captured, and died in the camps. Of the Windmullers who stayed in Germany, all but a small handful were killed in the Holocaust.


Louis Windmuller's family on his wife's side emigrated to America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They came so they could practice their dissident religion in peace. They set themselves up as yeoman farmers, millers, and merchants. They served in local offices and in the militia. At the outbreak of hostilities with Britain, some sided with one side, some with the other, and still others stayed out of the way, as best they could, until peace returned. Most remained strict Calvinists or Anglicans, and many became Quakers. One of the first to arrive would become famous as an activist for religious freedom. Some were slave owners back when that was still legal. One is remembered for court convictions for both soliciting (seeking to pay for illicit sex) and slander.

Immigration of Louis Windmuller

Late in life, Louis Windmuller wrote an article opposing restrictions on immigration in which he characterized immigrants and gave reasons for them to have left their homelands. Despite his use of the first person plural, meaning we Americans here in the United States, it's reasonable to suspect he was speaking partly of himself when he said that many European youths departed to escape from tyrannical laws and feudal prejudices, that German youths in particular left in order to avoid military duty, and that immigrants in general are valuable additions to the United States.


Here are his own words: "The large body of our immigrants generally represent the best elements of the nations from which they separated to cast their lot among us. The Germans were the young men who wanted to escape from military duty; the Irish were tired of the tyrannical exactions of the lords of their realm. All came to better their fortunes by their own exertions, without the fetters of tyrannical laws or feudal prejudices. The energy of these ambitious men has developed our own. We have inherited their thrift, and we owe as much to them as they owe to us."


The origins of his phrase "feudal prejudices" is indicated, very roughly, by historical accounts of Westphalia, and in particular Münster, from which he came. See in particular here, here, and here.


Münster was a cathedral city (the name means "monastery") that chafed under the rule for many centuries of a bishop-prince, then of autocratic Prussians, then unruly Bonapartists, and then, again, Prussians. It failed in all its efforts to free itself from this feudal bondage. See here for some photos of Münster today, including one of the cathedral. Though the city was flattened by allied bombing in WWII, the cathedral suffered little damage


The feudal chaffings on the mind of Louis Windmuller could also have had to do with treatment of Jews. His ancestry was Jewish and, although he converted to Christianity, he was a Jew by birth. The point is that Jews were a persecuted minority in Münster, Westfalia, and many other places in the Europe of his time.


There is strong evidence of political reasons for his unhappiness with his homeland. In a humorous essay, appearing in the New York Evening Post in 1907, he said he sympathized with the republicans against the royalists in the revolutions of 1848, and participated in mob action in which he broke all the windows of his conservative father's house. His republicanism would have made the U.S. a much more attractive place to be than the repressive atmosphere of post-1848 Germany (and much of Europe). It's also possible that he was directly ostracized for his radical opinions and possibly threatened with unusually harsh mandatory service in the army.


His essay on immigration said Germans departed from their homeland in order to escape military duty and that was probably one more reason why he left. Another was certainly his belief in the great possibilities that the United States presented. Late life he submitted information for a biographical sketch in the University Magazine saying that at the age of 12 he wrote at school an essay "Why America Finally must Become the Principal Stage of the World's History." A letter he wrote in 1855 makes plain that he managed to learn English while still in Germany, a feat that may have required a high level of motivation at that time.


The final and possibly most compelling reason for his emigration was almost certainly a family misfortune as one brief biography delicately stated the matter: "To his regret, circumstances compelled him to abandon his favorite studies for the mercantile career, and he resolved to emigrate, at the age of seventeen." Another indicated that the misfortune involved a lack of money.


First Years in New York

The letter of 1855, noted above, was written after only a few months after his arrival in New York. He was then nineteen and a half years old. His first contacts with relatives weren't successful. He felt them to be cold and unhelpful. He stumbled in his first efforts to make a living, attempting factory work, door-to-door selling, and work as a clerk in a retail store. Finally, he says, "I decided to look up my other relatives. I found a helping hand from my cousin Henry Lefman. And he is now the only one on whom I can depend. Without him I would be lost. He is a well-to-do honest man. He is in every respect above Philipp Frankenheimer [a cousin — son of his mother's aunt — with whom he had first made contact]."


The letter shows him to be lonely, despondent, and somewhat bitter. He reflects on the cold winter weather and implies that he had been ready to succumb to home-sickness. In it he also shows some of the self-confidence and perseverance that characterized him later in life. Concluding his report of his experiences, he says, "Yesterday I received a position starting March 1 in a dry goods store on Broadway due to a recommendation from Henry Lefman... my present life ... is pleasant since I left P.F. [Frankenheimer]. At first I lived with Americans where I had the opportunity to observe the Yankee way of life and to further my knowledge of English. Now I 'board' in a German hotel whose owner was my travel companion on the Hermann and who keeps an excellent kitchen."



The earliest item in the indexes of historical newspapers for Louis Windmuller is this classified ad he placed in the New York Times on June 6, 1856, to sell a horse. He was 21 at the time and had only been in the U.S. for a couple of years. The text reads: "Horse for Sale -- A kind, well-trained family horse, 9 years old; can trot inside of four minutes. Can be seen at Smith's livery-stables, Nos. 33 and 35 North More st; or inquire of Louis Windmuller, No. 242 Washington St." This address is a dry goods store where Louis was a clerk. It was owned by a German immigrant and relative of his, Henry Lefman. Three years later, Louis would marry Henry's daughter, Hannah.


Many years later he wrote a letter to the editor or the New York Sun (2 February 1893) recalling a tough winter a few years after his arrival in New York. In it he gave a couple of details about a partnership he had entered into with a man with whom he'd later be related by marriage, Alfred Roelker: "In 1857 my firm dealt with B., a manufacturer of china who kept his account in a Williamsburgh bank. After luncheon, on a cold winter day, I started to have his check for several thousand dollars certified by his bank, as we did not want to use it otherwise. Leaving by the ferryboat at Peck Slip [from Manhattan to Brooklyn], I arrived in good season to accomplish the object of my journey. The return was more difficult however. Ice had accumulated in the East River, so that we did not reach the New York side until 10 o'clock at night. My partner had long been waiting in the office for me, expecting to use the money on that day, but finally had left in despair about seeing me again."


My Aunt Florence did some genealogical research on the early years that Louis spent in New York. A letter from her summarizing her findings is here. She could not establish that Louis was related to any other Windmullers of NYC although Henry Lefman's uncle, Samuel (Solomon) Windmuller is listed in city directories of 1822 to 1836. She says "I feel that Louis Windmuller is related to Henry Lefman, through Henry's mother, Elise Lefman nee Windmuller who came to N. Y. with Henry in 1831 to visit her brother, Samuel Windmuller. Both Henry and Louis were from Warendorf, Germany - near Münster."


The cousin, Philip Frankenheimer, whom Louis mentions in the letter Louis wrote to his German relatives in 1855, may have been the same New Yorker named Philip Frankenheimer who became fairly well known in the second half of the nineteenth century for many of the same liberal causes which Windmuller supported. Click here for more information on Philip Frankenheimer.


The letter of 1855 also mentions as New York relatives a "Jacob Windmuller" and a family named Sutro. Genealogical sleuthing turns up only one Jacob Windmuller in New York during that period. I've given information about him here. He earned his living as an officer in a savings bank, promoted German-American causes in the city, and was active in the Democratic Party. He and Louis Windmuller had common interests and one common acquaintance so their paths may have crossed from time to time.


The Sutro connection is much more extensive. Louis's mother's maiden name was Rachel Sutro and he was closely related to quite a few members of the large and prominent Sutro family in the United States. Adolph was the most famous member of this family. He was trained as an engineer and made his fortune out of the Sutro Tunnel and settled as a prominent resident and former mayor of San Francisco, where there are still many locations which bear his name. According to a communication from Adolph's biographer, he, Adolph, would, in an uncharacteristic show of affection, write letters to Louis as his "brother." Louis was also well acquainted with Adolph's younger brother, Theodore. The two men had much in common and their paths would certainly have crossed frequently. Both were German immigrants who supported German-American causes, both belonged to the Reform Club, both pursued political reform and supported liberal politics, both favored advancement of women in business and women's suffrage. See more on Adolph and Theodore Sutro here.

Rapid Rise

I used to wonder whether Louis made his rapid rise in the commercial world through illicit means, but it seems more likely that he combined a venturous spirit -- working for a merchant and, quite ethically, undertaking commissions on his own account -- with an unusual caution which kept him from overextending his credit and which insured that he would remain solvent during financial panics.


The anecdote in his letter to the editor in the winter of 1893 suggests some inferences about his partnership with Alfred Roelker and their caution about money. In another newspaper piece, also long after the fact, he explained that in the 1850s and particularly during the Civil War he converted the currency he earned to gold since neither he nor German firms he dealt with trusted the currency used by American banks. Other articles of his about the silver crisis late in the century show that he was also against borrowing on credit, particularly the wild use of credit that was common during the second half of the 19th century.


There's yet another plausible reason for his success. In an article on the panic of 1907 he was quoted about the panic of 1857, showing that part of his skill as a merchant lay in knowing when to extend credit even when he did not himself borrow. He said: "The 1907 flurry was not so bad as that of 1857, although business recovered rapidly from the earlier trouble, and in 1858 most of the houses that had failed were able to resume. Prosperity revived sooner than we had anticipated; by the credit we extended to deserving customers we laid an early foundation for a long-continued good business." (Chicago Examiner, Aug. 17, 1908)


So, it seems a venturous spirit, fiscal caution, and knowledge of when and how much to extend credit to customers all contributed to his success. The partnership with Alfred Roelker as commissioning agents for German exporters -- Windmuller & Roelker -- survived periodic downturns and benefitted from the need for German imports of iron rails and munitions at the end of the Civil War. The firm thrived through the rest of the century as well, switching emphasis to keep up with market demands (for example. they were dealing in furniture and fabrics in the last couple of decades).

German Connections

Louis Windmuller was a German-American. Where the social events of his life are recorded, the guests mostly have German names; see, for example, this account of a silver anniversary party including Schurz, Hardt, and Sussdorf, as well as family members (Lefmans, Roelkers).


There's also a relationship with the German-American Steinways. Fritz once said that the Windmullers were neighbors of the Steinways in Woodside, Queens, and Clara retained a baby Steinway piano made specially for her in the Steinway factory. An account of the unveiling of a portrait of the German Emperor in 1893 records that the portrait was unveiled to the Deutscher Verein by Louis Windmuller and William Steinway.


The business enterprises and charitable orientation of Louis Windmuller were largely Germanic; see, for example, this brief biography. Louis made his start in New York with the help of his relative, Henry Lefman - himself a German immigrant, the support of the German Society, mentioned in this source, and his partnership with fellow-German-immigrant, Alfred Roelker. Louis Windmuller's grandson, my father Fritz, wrote that Alfred Roelker was, like Henry Lefman, a distant relative. Louis would later become more closely related to Alfred Roelker when Alfred's brother married Louis' sister-in-law.


Prominent New Yorker

There are lots of accounts of Louis Windmuller's achievements and the major events of his life as a prominent New Yorker and family man. Though successful and, by his own account, happy with his life, he suffered the loss of three children while still infants and the loss of another in a tragic accident while she was in her 30s. The notes on him that appear below give some of these biographic details and a few links to newspaper articles and other published sources.


One brief account of his life summed it up nicely: Louis Windmuller, banker, author, and philanthropist, ... who landed in this country when 18 years old with less than $15, and went to work as an errand boy in a grocery for $4 a week, ... died at his residence at Woodside, L.I. on Oct. 1, 1813... For many years Mr. Windmuller was a picturesque figure in New York. He seldom rode on a trolley car, but morning and night walked between his home in Woodside, to his office downtown, where he served as Treasurer of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company of which he was one of the organizers."


As mentioned above, I've written blog posts that concern him one way or another. Here are links to some of them.


- Secondat: Windmuller, Heine, and Lorelei
- Woodside, Queens, New York
- living high
- Louis Windmuller
- genealogy
- Robert A. Van Wyck
- SS Hermann
- an office on Reade Street
- two champions
- cousins and other family
   - more German relations set up shop in New York
- river crossings - 3 visits - Jan 24
- Henry Lefman, part one
- 19 w. 46th St. - 2 visits - 12/9/10
- Henry Lefman, part two
- 19 w. 46th, again
- commission merchant
- Madagascar No. 21
- Bragaws
- Woodside
   - Newtown families
- helpful neighbors
- Bownes
- flourishing
- both careful and caring
- an obituary
- America's best citizens
- five New Yorkers
- four notable German-American women

Tables of Ancestors

The table below shows linkages within a small number of families of English and German origin, all linked by marriage and descent. It focuses on Louis Windmuller's ancestors and gives only one of his descendants. It is no more than a rough outline or guide to the genealogy I mentioned at top: Windmuller Family Genealogy.


Each row of a table is a rough period of time. Family generations appear in columns. In most cases, the families are adjacent where they've inter-married. There are bookmark links from names in the table to notes given below and from the notes back up.


The members of these families who emigrated to the United Stated tended to congregate in the New York metropolitan area. Many of them moved only a short way or not at all from the place where they originally landed. For the most part they kept to the religion of their parents and, constantly meeting the same small group of people at religious services and in their communities, they tended to choose their marriage partners from within relatively small and homogeneous groups. For this reason it's really not surprising that family descendancies tend to interlink over time. Thus you'll notice that Sarah Lenington Thorne is directly linked to Francis Thorne (born 1555) in two separate lines of descent or that Louis Windmuller's daughter Clara married a man whose grandmother was closely related to her brother-in-law and other relatives.


Family Lennington Thorne Kissam Windmuller Lefman Heynen Roelker
Links to Windmuller Genealogy Lenington Interactive Tree Thorne Interactive Tree Kissam Interactive Tree Windmuller Interactive Tree Lefman Interactive Tree Heynen Interactive Tree Sutro Interactive Tree — Roelker Interactive Tree
16th c. Laurence Ellison was born 1590 in England and died ca. 1665 in Hempstead, Long Island, NY. He married Mary Rishton (1584-1638). Francis Thorne was born 1555 and died about 1601 in Gunby, England. He married Jane Cavendish (1555-1608).          
Early 17th c. His daughter, Catherine Ellison married Henry Lenington in 1655 in Hempstead. He was born 1630 in England and died ca. 1696 in Jamaica, Queens, NY. Her dates are 1623-1691. That she was born more than half a decade before him is interesting and somewhat unusual. This, however, was one of the least eccentric facts in his story. Their son, John Thorne, was born about 1580 in Essex, England and died in Flushing, Long Island, NY. His wife's name is not known. She was born ca. 1584 in Essex, England, and died in Flushing, Long Island, NY.          
Late 17th c. Their son, John Lenington, was born about 1655 in New York. He married a woman named Mary in 1688. Town records of Hempstead, Long Island, NY, contain a number of land transactions by him and the Hempstead census of 1698 lists him, his wife, and children, Mary, Susannah, Sarah, Henery, and Hannah. Their second son, Thomas, was not yet born. John Lenington died in 1748. His son, William Thorne, was born 1616 in Moreton, Essex, England, and died 1670 in Jamaica, LI, NY. He married Sarah Denton who was born 1623. Their son, another William, was born 1642 in Flushing, L.I. and died 1688 in Hempstead. He married Winnifred Lenington in 1662. Her dates are 1632-1713. John Ockerson married Susannah Thorne, daughter of William Thorne and Sarah Denton 1667 in Hempstead. Her dates are 1645-1695. He was born 1644. Of Dutch heritage, he would see his sons English his name to Kissam.        
Early 18th c. Their son, Thomas Lenington, was born 1694, married Elizabeth Losee in 1721, and died sometime before 1791. Her dates are 1698 to sometime before 1800. Their son, Richard Thorne, was born 1675 and died 1728 in Flushing, NY . He married Phoebe Denton 1699 in Hempstead. Their son, Daniel Kissam, was born 1669 and died 1752 in Great Neck, L.I., He married Elizabeth Coombs in 1697.        
Mid 18th c. Their son, also Thomas, was born 1722 and died sometime before 1814. He married Phoebe Southard 1743 and later married a very young woman named Sarah Van Sickles. Their son, Richard Thorne, was born 1704 and died 1763. He married Altje VanWyck 1725. Their son, another Daniel, was born 1701 and died 1728 in Jamaica, L.I. He married Ann Mott, daughter of Richbell Mott< and Elizabeth Thorne. Levi Windmuller was born 1680 and died 1750 in Rheda, Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He married but his wife's name is not known.      
Late 18th c. Thomas and Phoebe had a son, yet another Thomas, who was born 1751 and died 1829. This Thomas, Ensign Thomas Lenington, fought on the colonial side in the American Revolution. He married Sarah Sickerton 1778. She was born 1745 and died aged 105 in 1851. Their son, yet another William Thorne, was born 1731 in Hempstead and died 1783 in Great Neck. He married Martha Cornell 1754. She was born 1732 and died 1783. Their son, yet another Daniel Kissam, was born 1726 and died 1782 in L.I. He married Peggy Tredwell 1746. His son, Elias Levi Windmuller, was born and died in Warendorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He married but his wife's name is not known. Levi Lefman married Kelden Isaac. I know nothing about these two.     
Early 19th c. Their daughter, Abby Lenington, was born 1793 in Manhattan and died 1855. In 1814 she married John Thorne (born 1782). Their son, John Thorne, 1766-1834, married Mary Van Wyck. Their son, John, born 1782, married Abby Lenington in 1814. A second son, Thomas C. Thorne, married Elizabeth Kissam in 1786. Their daughter, Elizabeth Kissam was born 1761 and died 1833 in New York, NY. In 1786 she married Thomas C. Thorne, son of William Thorne and Martha Cornell. His son, Levi Elias Windmuller, was born 1745 and died ca. 1808 in Warendorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He married Kneldel Jacob. Their son, Solomon Levi Lefman, was born in Warrendorf, Germany and died 1830. He married Elise Windmuller, daughter of Levi Elias Windmuller and Kneldel Jacob, in 1801. She was born 1780 in Warendorf, Germany.   Abraham Sutro was born 1784 in Bruck, Germany, and died 1869 in Münster. He married Rebecca Culp, born 1791 in Bevengingen, Germany. 
Early 19th c. Their daughter, Sarah Lenington Thorne was born 1816 in Albany and died 1881 in Manhattan. In 1836 she married Henry Lefman. Sarah Lenington Thorne was sister to T. Lenington Thorne and John Edmund Thorne. Hannah and Joan Wolf were her step-sisters. In addition to Hannah Eliza Lefman, she had four sons and two daughters. Elizabeth Kissam's cousin, Peter Rutgers Kissam, had a granddaughter, Maria Louisa Kissam, who married one of the Vanderbilt clan and had a great-great-great-granddaughter who married Benny Goodman (click here for more information on this). Their son, Abraham Windmuller was born 1791 in Warendorf, Germany. He married Rachel Sutro, daughter of Abraham Sutro and Rebecca S. Culp, 1834 in Münster Stadt, Westfalen, Preussen, Germany. In 1846 his occupation was given as Lottery Collector in Münster. Their son, Henry Lefman, was born 1804 in Telgte, Germany. He emigrated to New York City in 1831 and there married Sarah Lenington Thorne in 1836. He died 1860 at his home in Hoboken, New Jersey.   Johan Peter Heynen was born 1793 and died 1854 in Germany. He married Maria Catherine Hoffman (1785-1854).   Their daughter, Rachel Sutro, was Louis Windmuller's mother. Born 1814, she married Abraham Windmuller 1834 in Münster Stadt, Westfalen, Preussen, Germany.
Mid. 19th c. Their daughter, Hannah Eliza Lefman, born 1836 in Hoboken, NJ; died 1929 in Woodside, Queens, NY; married Louis Windmuller in 1859.     Their son, Louis Windmuller, was born 1835 in Warendorf, Germany, and died 1913 Woodside, Queens, NY. In 1859 he married Hannah Eliza Lefman, daughter of Henry Lefman and Sarah Lenington Thorne.   Their daughter Hannah Eliza Lefman married Louis Windmuller in 1859. Their son, Damien Gottfried Heynen, was born 1824 and died 1888. In 1863 he married Anna Maria Berta Roelker, daughter of Karl Jodokus Roelker and Anna Holthaus. She was born 1835 and died 1915.  Hugo B., Carl, and Alfred Roelker were brothers of Anna Maria Berta Roelker. Hugo B. Roelker was husband of Emilia (Minnie) Virginia Lefman. She was sister of Hannah Eliza Lefman. Carl Roelker was also known as Charles R. Roelker. He was a naval engineer and Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. 
Mid. 19th c.         Their daughter, Clara Louise Windmuller, married Julius Heynen 1902 in Woodside, Queens, NY. She was born 1870 in Woodside, Queens, NY and died 1962.   Their son, Julius Heynen was born 1868 in Rheydt, Rheinland, Germany and died 1948 in New York, NY. He married Clara Louise Windmuller, daughter of Louis Windmuller and Hannah Eliza Lefman 1902 in Woodside, Queens, NY. Of her siblings, only one, a brother, Adolph Windmuller lived into adulthood.   

Notes on Ancestors

William Thorne and his son, William II, were two of the few courageous inhabitants of Flushing, Long Island, who signed a "remonstrance" in 1657 insisting upon freedom of religion for the town's inhabitants. They did not ask this freedom for themselves — theirs was not threatened — but for the persecuted Quakers among them. Their petition eventually was successful and is now regarded as the precursor of the religious freedom clause in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. I tell the story in a blog post called love, peace and liberty condemn hatred, war and bondage. Other useful sources include (1) William Thorne, (2) William Thorne, Sr. and William Thorne, Jr., a Remonstrance Profile, and (3) Remonstrance of the Inhabitants of the Town of Flushing to Governor Stuyvesant, December 27, 1657.

Henry Lenington appears to have been one of those ancestors whom families wish they could forget. The story of his misdeeds is given in Hempstead Town Records (Records of the towns of North and South Hempstead, Long island, New York (1896, Long Island Farmer Press). There, you find that in 1659, he was convicted of offering a woman money for sex and was punished by banishment from Hempstead for "more than one year." The woman, Deborah Sturgis, told the court:

I can say

1 that hinerry Lenington Came as I was aboute my worke at the well, and asked mee to lie w't him and would have me goe in to the Barne w't him for that purpose

2 that he offered me 10 S to yeeld to his desirers and so he fell from that sum by degrees to half a busheell of mault and I withstood him, and tould him that it was a greate sinne and shame for him that had so good knowledge to sollisit any woaman to soe great A sinn,

3 he tould me that hee offered Largely, and said that he used to give sarah but 5 S atime

4 seeing his importunity w't me to go into ye Barne with him, I bid him goe and stay till I Came, and that while I slipt over to timmothy holsteads."

-- source

A local court banished Lenington for this transgression, but re-admitted him a year later when some of his neighbors posted a bond for his good behavior. -- See Ye Olde Tyme Sinnes by Bernice Marshall, Nassau County Historical Society Journal (vol. 24, no. 2, Spring 1963)

Ensign Thomas Lenington -- The following statements are in a military pension file. Florence Hadley Heynen (second wife of my uncle Louis Heynen) did the research that uncovered the file. In 1976 she wrote a letter describing her work and summarizing the Lenington genealogy. A copy of the letter can be found here.

Thomas Lenington (also spelled Lennington and Leminton) enlisted in 1775 as served as sergeant in Captain John Nicholson's company, Colonel James Clinton's New York Regiment in the expedition to Canada; the next spring, while in Canada, he was promoted to ensign of Captain Ezekial Cooper's company, Colonel Nicholson's NY Regiment; he was in command of a party which captured a vessel of supplies near St. Anne, on the St. Lawrence River, the that vessel was retaken by the British May 8, 1776, when he and his party were taken prisoners and held in Quebec and Halifax for fourteen months. He served also as captain in the Quartermaster Department, had command of a vessel on the North River in New York; he served in various capacities until peace was declared. He applied Dec. 26, 1792, for bounty land which was due form the State of New York on account of his service in the Revolutionary War.

He resided in Albany, New York, between the years 1806 and 1812. He held the office of U.S. Inspector of the Port of Albany under President Madison. He was Director of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Albany. It was stated that he had a son who was an attorney at law, and a married daughter with children at the time he resided in Albany, but the names of said children were not designated.

He died April 2, 1829, survived by his widow, Sarah Lenington.

Sarah Sickerton Lenington: From a military pension file --

Sarah Lenington, widow of Thomas Lenington, was allowed pension on account of his service in the Revolutionary War. In 1839 she was a resident of Brooklyn, NY, aged 83 years. She gave the date of her marriage as April 20, 1778. She submitted records to prove her marriage.

She and Thomas had a son, Isaiah, born 1779. There is a baptism recorded at the First Presbyterian Church, NYC, Jan. 28, 1793: "Sarah Lenington, adult: Isaiah Lenington, son of Thomas Lenington and Sarah Sickerton, born Feb. 26, 1779." She had a daughter, Sarah, born 1787. There is an inscription on a tombstone in the Brick Church Yard, Beekman St, NY, "Sarah Lenington, died Aug 28, 1790, aged four years."

Their third child, Abigail Lenington, was born in 1793 and died, aged 105, in 1855. She was the mother of Sarah Lenington Thorne (1816-1881) from whom descended Hannah Eliza Lefman (18836-1929) and Clara Louise Windmuller Heynen (1870-1962).

Phoebe Denton was a daughter of Samuel Denton. English born, he was a large landowner in Hempstead who used slaves to work his property. In some genealogies he's called Admiral Samuel Denton, but it's virtually impossible that he was a fleet officer in any navy. At the time he was supposed to be "Admiral" he was living as a farmer in Hempstead not much more than 30 years old. The mistake comes from the appearance of "Adm." before his name in a court record. The abbreviation does usually stand for Admiral but on this occasion it almost certainly means "admitted." Samuel Denton died without having made a will. His estate went to probate and the outcome was reported: "New York Surrogate 8-305: Adm. Samuel Denton, late of Hempstead, intestate March 20, 1713 to his sons Samuel and Jonas." (source)

Richbell Mott was a second relative who's known to have kept slaves. He left a will that left to his wife, Elizabeth, "£20, per annum, and the use of his farm on Great Neck, as also all his personal estate save two negro slaves and an Irish servant boy, David, for whom he makes provision." (source)

Abraham Sutro was chief rabbi of Westphalia from 1815 to 1869. A prolific author and respected teacher, he was a staunch supporter of religious orthodoxy. He pursued separation of Jews and Gentiles rather than their assimilation and fought strenuously, and successfully, for Jews in Prussia to be given equal rights. He is also remembered as the teacher of Isaac Leeser who was one of the most significant American Jewish leaders of the nineteenth century America. His writings were extensive. I've done a blog post which compares him to another religious leader: two champions. Other resources on him include (1) Abraham Sutro, (2) SUTRO, Abraham, Landrabbiner, (3) Defending the faith: nineteenth-century American Jewish writings on Christianity and Jesus, and (4) Abraham Sutro (1784–1869), der letzte Landrabbiner des Münsterlandes (pdf).

Abby Lennington Wolf: From a military pension file --

Abby (Abbe) Wolf, daughter of Sarah and Thomas Lenington, was a resident of NYC, aged 42 years upward; she made affidavit in support of her mother's claim for pension. In 1839, John Edmund Thorne, grandson of Thomas Lenington and his wife, Sarah, was a resident of Brooklyn, age 24 years. He stated then that he had frequently seen the family Bible record of marriage of his grandparents, and that about 2 years previously (1837) that record had been torn from the Bible by "an heir of his grandfather and an enemy of his children, from malicious motives," but he did not state the name of that heir. No reference was made to another marriage of Thomas Lenington.

She was the mother of Sarah Lenington Thorne Lefman. In her letters of the 1850s and '60s, Abby signed herself Abby Wolf. In a letter to her grandson, Henry Lefman, while he was visiting and studying in Paris, written in New York April 18, 1854, she talks of his being "young and innocent in gay and pleasing city" and urges him to "climb to the top" in life. The closing is nice: "And now my dear Henry adieu - Under every sky your loving - Grand Mother, Abbe Wolf."

We have a letter from Louis Windmuller to his grandmother-in-law dated November 13, 1868 , Abby Wolf advising her against paying a bad debt.

John Edmund Thorne married a second time in 1847 as appears in this enry from an Odd Fellows yearbook, from which it's apparent that he was one of the brotherhood.
MARRIAGES.
Jan. 7, by the Rev. George Benedict. Bro. JOHN EDMUND THORNE to Miss AMANDA RUTGERS KISSAM, all of this city [i.e., New York]. Saratoga papers please copy.
-- The Golden rule and Odd Fellows' Family Companion, Volumes 6-7 (New York, J. D. Stewart & W. B. Smith, Publishers, 1847)

Thomas Lennington II resided in Albany 1813-15. He was a banker in Albany NY; John Thorne was a clerk in the bank.

Sarah Van Sickles: The little copy of a portrait in the hallway outside the bathroom has this written on its backside: "Clara Heynen's great great grandma, Sarah Van Sickles Lennington, II (the 2nd)." Records now available indicate that the portrait actually shows Clara's great-great grandmother, Sarah Sickerton Lenington. The evidence for the existence of Sarah Van Sickles as the wife of a man named Thomas Lenington is slight.

Sarah Van Sickles: The DAR Lineage Book of 1912 says that a woman named Sarah Van Sickles was the wife of a man named Thomas Lenington. It says this Thomas Lenington's parents were Thomas Lenington and Sarah Sickerton (married 1777). Thomas Lenington and Sarah Sickerton were married to one another but they did not have a son named Thomas and there could therefore have been no marriage between him and a woman named Sarah Van Sickles. There is evidence of a marrigage between a man named Thomas Lenington and a woman named Sarah Van Sickles, but little is known about them and nothing that suggests they were related to the people named in the DAR record. One person who has done extensive research on the Lenington family (Martin Burke) suggests that the father of the man who married Sarah Sickerton (also named Thomas Lenington) took Sarah Van Sickles as his second wife. However, even if this vague possibility is true, it is certain that the two had no children (Thomas died soon after the supposed marriage and there are no records of any births).

It is also possible that Sarah Van Sickles and Sarah Sickerton were the same person. The history of the Van Sickles family in America is well known. The came originally from Holland in the seventeenth century and settled along the Hudson River Valley, in the vicinity of New Amsterdam, and in the area that became northern New Jersey. A branch of the family settled in a neighborhood near Nyack, New York, that came to be called Sickletown. The words "Sickletown" and "Sickerton" are close enough in pronunciation and spelling that it is possible to imagine a person might be known as both Van Sickles and Sickerton. (Like very many families in that time and place, the Van Sickles were called by many similar variants.)

The little copy of a portrait in the hallway outside the bathroom has this written on its backside: "Clara Heynen's great great grandma, Sarah Van Sickles Lennington, II (the 2nd)." Records now available indicate that the portrait actually shows Clara's great-great grandmother, Sarah Sickerton Lenington. The evidence for the existence of Sarah Van Sickles as the wife of a man named Thomas Lenington is slight.

Isaac Lennington: From a military pension file --

In 1839, it was stated that Isaac Lenington, the son of Thomas Lenington and his wife, Sarah, had died in NYC at the age of 40 years.

Sarah Lennington Thorne Lefman: She was born in 1816 in Albany; died 1881 in NYC. The death certificate says her father's name was Thorne; Elias Wolf wrote to her as "daughter", Aunt Florence says she was Elias' step-daughter. She married Henry Lefman in 1836. He died 1881. I've done some blog posts about a copy book that's part of our little family archive: Miss Sarah Thorne, Her Book, Sarah Thorn and the cult of domesticity, Beauties of the mind, 'My Heart and Lute,' Sarah Thorn, and Miss Sarah Thorne, Her Book.

T. Lennington Thorne, in 1836 lived at 52 3rd St. NYC; same address as Elias Wolf that year. He was younger brother of Sarah Lennington Thorne Lefman. 1836 was the year she married Henry Lefman. (FH)

Elise Lefman; lived in Germany, visited her brother, Samuel (Solomon) Windmuller in NYC in 1831. Aunt Florence says Louis Windmuller was probably related to Henry Lefman via Elise. She says both Henry and Louis were from Warendorf, Germany. For a map of the districts of Westphalia, showing Warendorf in highlight, see here.

Dr. Elias Wolf: He was a physician in Frankfort, Germany, in 1838. He married Abby Lennington after the death of her first husband, John Thorne. They had a daughter, Hannah, to whom Elias wrote letters in the 1840s when she was a young girl. See, for example, this letter. We also have writing exercises of Hannah's from the same period. This Hanna and Annie Windmuller (Hannah Eliza Lefman Windmuller) were about the same age, though Hannah Wolf was Hannah Lefman's aunt, Aunt Florence says that T. Lennington Thorne lived at 52 3rd St. NYC in 1836. That is the same address as Elias Wolf that year. T. Lennington Thorne was younger brother of Sarah Lennington Thorne Lefman. 1836 was the year she married Henry Lefman.

Henry Lefman, born in Prussia (or Amsterdam), emigrated to the U.S. and became known as a wholesale silk merchant of Hoboken, NJ. Aunt Florence says he was in the "segar" business beginning in the early 1830s. We have an illegible letter from him written from New York in 1836. In 1851 Henry Lefman & Co. merchant, was located at 232 Washington and his home was at 15 Union Place, Hoboken. There's a letter from Louis Windmuller dated New York Feb. 24, 1855, addressed to his "dear aunts, uncles, and sisters." It's in German, but has a section asking that things be sent to him addressed to "Mr L Windmuller care of Henry Lefman New York."

Aunt Florence says Henry was not listed in church registers in Münster, Germany, where his family came from and since he seems to have had a brother named Abraham, it's likely he was Jewish. He also had an uncle Samuel/Solomon Windmuller who was in NYC directories 1822-26. Aunt Florence says "I feel that Louis Windmuller is related to Henry Lefman, through Henry's mother, Elise Lefman, nee Windmuller, who came to NY with Henry in 1831 to visit her brother, Samuel Windmuller. Both Henry and Louis were from Warendorf, Germany - near Münster." [FH]

A list of Westphalia families, in German, gives the following, in rough translation from the original German: "Permitted Emigration ... Name: Heinrich Lefmann [i.e., Henry Lefman], Residence: Warendorf, Occupation: merchant, Birthdate: 7 June 1804, Birthplace: Telgte [Telgte is a township in the Warendorf District], Parents: Widow Elise Lefmann, maiden name Windmuller, Year of Emigration: 1831, Country and Place of Emigration: North America / New York, Remarks: His uncle Samuel Windmuller has lived for many years in New York." Source: Beitrage zur Westfalischen Familienforschung (Verlag Ascendorff, Münster, 1966). For a map showing Westphalia's location in Germany, see here.

Henry joined the Reformed Dutch Church in New York and sent his children to the highly-regarded school run by that church on Bleeker St. Sometime after he married and had children, Henry moved his family to Hoboken, NJ.

Carl Roelker was older brother of Hugo Roelker by 2 yrs and younger brother of Berta Roelker Heynen. He served as an engineer in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War as Charles R. Roelker, and continued until 1903, retiring as a Rear Admiral. His wife: Parthenia Porter of Washington DC (1843-1912). His name is also given as Karl Rapael Roelker, b 1841, d 1910. (FH)

Carl's son, Edward P. Roelker, was involved in a scandal while being trained as an officer in the Marine Corps. During a fracas involving a young woman, a fellow officer shot Edward and either was himself shot or shot himself, accounts differed. Edward was discharged from the Naval Academy and subsequently disappeared. Reports said he had changed his name and was working in a coal mine in West Virginia. A book called Soul on Trial relates the tale.

Hugo B. Roelker: I've done one blog post on him: Hugo B. Roelker. He was an engineer. He was a brother of Alfred Roelker, who was partner of Louis in the import-export firm, Windmuller & Roelker, founded 1865. Like his brother Carl, Hugo became known as a naval engineer, though he did not join the Navy. He helped develop and manufacture submarines, destroyers, and torpedo boats and is credited with creating the first self-propelled torpedoes. He also worked on the first refrigeration units for naval use. See this source for more information on his career as a naval engineer. Late in life he became a director of the Maiden Lane Bank which Louis Windmuller had established and of which his brother-in-law, Julius Heynen, was Secretary and Treasurer.

Emilia (Minnie) Virginia Lefman Roelker: She decided to join the Daughters of the American Revolution and, in applying for membership, dug up a lot of information about the family. Her entry in the DAR Lineage Book reads thus:

MRS. EMILIE VIRGINIA Roelker. No. 33483
Born in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Wife of Hugo B. Roelker.
Descendant of Ensign Thomas Lenington, of New York.
Daughter of Henry Lefman and Sarah Lenington Thorne, his wife.
Granddaughter of John Edmund Thorne (b. 1815) and Abby Lenington, his wife.
Gr.-granddaughter of Thomas Lenington and Sarah Van Sickles, his wife.
Gr.-gr.-granddaughter of Thomas Lenington and Sarah Sickerton, his wife, m. 1777. Thomas Lenington, (1755-1829), served as sergeant under Capt. John Nicholson in the Canadian campaign; was promoted ensign 1776; was taken prisoner and confined fourteen months at Quebec and Halifax. After his exchange he was employed in the quartermaster's department and had command of a vessel on the North River. The widow was one hundred and four years old in 1848 and a pension was allowed her for over two years actual service as sergeant and ensign in the New York line. She was married in New Providence, New Jersey and received her pension in Brooklyn, N. Y.
-- source: Lineage book - National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Volume 34 (Daughters of the American Revolution, 1912)

The Windmullers and the Roelkers were close. A newspaper article about the 25th anniversary of Louis and Annie's wedding lists the following Roelkers as guests: Bernard Roelker, Charles Roelker of the Naval Advisory Board, Alfred Roelker, Mr. & Mrs. Hugo B. Roelker. Bernard was a pretty well known lawyer. See http://www.famousamericans.net/bernardRoelker/. Charles had a successful career in the Navy from the Civil War to the end of the century, retiring as a Rear Admiral. Alfred was Louis's partner in Windmuller & Roelker. Aunt Minnie was Mrs. Hugo B. of course.
Alfred Roelker: He was sometimes called Albert Roelker. In the 1900 Census report his name is given as "Alfred Roelker, widower, born May 1832 in Germany. Father of 3 of whom 2 have survived." The survivors were Anna E. Roelker and Alfred Jr. Alfred's occupation is given as merchant commissioner. The home address was given as 202 w. 40th St. NYC.
Anna Maria Berta Roelker, mother of Julius Heynen, was born in 1824 in Osnabruck, Germany and died 1915 in Rheydt, Germany.
Damien Gottfried Heynen was born in 1824 at a place in Germany near the border with Holland, possibly Kevelaer. He was married in 1863, in a town fifty miles away called Rheydt, Germany, to Anne Maria Berta Roelker. He died in 1888. Children: Ernst, Carl, Alfred, Julius, Damien Jr., Emilia, Paul, Erivin, Anne 2nd, Ernst. His son Julius wrote: "My father Damian Gottfried Heynen studied to become a teacher to earn enough money to study medicine to become a doctor. His half brother Heinrich Wienands persuaded him to join him to start a cotton mill in 1867 under the name of Heynen and Wienands." The firm was located in Rheydt. According to a directory published in 1873 a firm by that name was founded in 1867 by Damien Gottfried Heynen and Georg Heinrich Wienands (source). In 1893 it was reported to be a medium-sized producer of cotton thread having 14,000 spindles (source).

Louis Windmuller
Louis Windmuller He was named Levi Windmuller on his emigration paper. It was common for immigrants to adopt names that sounded less "foreign" than their given names on coming to the U.S. and thus not surprising that Levi became Louis. He gave his religion as "Israelit" on the papers that granted him permission to emigrate and it's known that his parents were Jewish. As mentioned above, in fact, his maternal grandfather was a well-known Rabbi. Although there's no family tradition identifying Louis himself as Jewish and although his religious affiliation after arriving in New York was Episcopalian, there's no doubt that he was raised as a Jew.

From his "discharge papers" for emigration in 1854 at Münster --

Name: Levi Windmuller, Religion: Israelite (German: "Israelit"), Born 31 Aug 1835, Height: 5'2", Hair: blond, Forehead: low, Eyebrows: blond, Eyes: blue, Nose: pronounced somewhat, Mouth: ordinary, slight heavy upper lip, Beard: missing, Chin: round, Face: round - full, Coloring: healthy, Frame: heavy, Outstanding marks: none.
The government of the King documents hereby that Levi Windmuller, born 8/31/1835 at Münster and residing there, has been granted permission, at the request of his guardian to emigrate to America. He is also discharged from the Prussian association of free citizens ("Unterhanen Verband") and only from the same.

The statement that the request for Louis-Levi to emigrate came from his guardian not his parent has not been explained. The letter Louis sent to Germany in 1855 is addressed to his grandfather, aunts and uncles, sisters, and others. This may mean his parents were dead or, just as likely, that their children had been adopted by an aunt and uncle following financial reverses that impoverished the parents.

A friend at work has translated almost all of this letter. Click this link to read the translation. I've also prepared an image of the first of its four pages.

I've quoted from parts of the letter above. Considering that he's writing to his elders as well as siblings, it's surprisingly blunt. It also shows a surprising level of maturity for a nineteen year old emigrant. There is no mention of his parents. It's hard to know what to make of his complaints that he has not received mail. It's possible he's being ostracized, but the tone of the letter makes that unlikely. One could conjecture that the family was in turmoil following the death of his parents, that his emigration part of an effort to stabilize it, and that the family was still suffering while sorting things out, but there's very little basis for such guess-work.

A few biographic articles about Louis Windmuller can be found. Links for six that I've scanned appear below.

They say he was a participant in the high culture of his time as well as prominent merchant and proponent of liberal causes. For example, one says he collected rare books, including books from the very first presses in Germany and England (Gutenberg and Caxton) and was "an ardent supporter of the various museums and historical associations."

This short bio is short and nicely comprehensive; it's also unusual in that it appears in a memoir rather than a biographical dictionary:

Among the representative German-Americans of this city, Louis Windmuller has been one of the most active. He is a thorough American in every respect, although he was born in the old city of Munster and educated at the Gymnasium of that place. He came here when eighteen years of age, since which time his career has been one of continued success. To enumerate the financial institutions which he has assisted in founding would crowd out more desirable mention of his unflagging work for political reform and social uplift. He was one of the organizers of the Reform Club. An Independent in politics, he has voted according to his convictions, heading strong German movements in the metropolis first for Cleveland and then for McKinley. He has been a constant writer for magazines and newspapers, producing copy with equal facility in German and English. On occasions of financial crisis, especially when American credit was assailed in Europe, Mr. Windmuller has been prompt to send letters to the principal newspapers of Germany, explaining our financial situation. His diversions have been confined to the col-lection of rare books and pictures; his library contains several early books of Gutenberg, Caxton and other famous presses. He has been an ardent supporter of the various museums and historical associations and was especially proud of his membership in the Chamber of Commerce. He is devoted to country life and his home at Woodside, Queens Borough, is one of the most attractive in that charming community. -- The book of New York; forty years' recollections of the American metropolis by Julius Chambers (The Book of New York company, 1912).

This one is representative of the bio-dictionary entries on him, although most are quite a bit more lengthy:

Louis Windmuller, a prominent merchant and reformer of New York, is a native of Westphalia, in which country he received a collegiate education in a college at Münster which had the honor of being founded by Charlemagne. He emigrated to New York...and entered into the mercantile business with much success, while outside immediate business relations he became in time widely known for his connection with prominent financial institutions, his active labors in the interests of reform and charity, and his connection with many of the municipal and social institutions of the metropolis... -- Makers of New York (Hamersly & Co, Philadelphia, 1895).

In Woodside, Queens, his summer home for much of his life, there is a park named after him. It's located on the property where he used to live.

In 1912 he was described as a "dear old German with the fatherland accent, the square-toed boots, stubbed from much walking, and the black worsted wristlets." The article in which this statement appears says he has a "snow white fuzz" of hair and "a dimple on his right cheek that refuses to become a wrinkle." It says "his eyes twinkle keenly and his ideas are all for progress. He believes in exercise, and in the goodness and capability of women," and describes his "ultra-modern" practice of hiring women for business positions, "though he is so old-fashioned that he put off getting a telephone until he had to."

My father Fritz wrote this on July 1, 1991:

Louis Windmuller, my grandfather

     Grandpa Windmuller was a jolly, verbal person, full of energy and a great walker. He would walk from Woodside to his office on Reade Street in lower Manhattan, morning and night. He was of good health and died of injuries sustained in a horse and buggy accident. I did not know him as I was three when he died. My mother told many happy stories about him and had been his friend and companion.
     He came to this country when he was eighteen with just five dollars and joined the "German community" through the Roelkers who are related in a distant manner.
     He became a very wealthy man as a importer/exporter merchant.
     He left his business to his son, Adolph, who was a ne're-do-well who let the business fail. He [Adolph] was a member of the New York City social set. He ignored my mother and I only saw him once on Fifth Ave getting into his chauffeured yellow Rolls Royce cabriolet motor car.

There's no newspaper account of a horse and buggy accident, but the Times did report that Windmuller was hit by an automobile in 1911, a couple of years before his death.

In an article submitted to the New York Times in 1906, Louis Windmuller described his city walks ("Noted Citizens Out for Walking Record," New York Times, Feb 7, 1913, p. 2):

In the summer when I make my home at Woodside, L.I., I have a regular route which I like the best. Here in the city there are many routes to take, and all of them are interesting. Uptown I generally walk in Central Park or along Riverside Drive. Downtown my favorite tramp is from Chatham Square to Houston Street and across Houston Street to Second Avenue, and then up that avenue as far as I care to go.

I delight to see people. To enjoy walking. One must use his eyes and the brain as much as he does his legs. I prefer to look at the faces of people to looking at the buildings and into shop windows. A good rule to make your tramp a really enjoyable pastime is to be careful and not walk too fast. My speed is about a mile every twenty-five minutes, or a bit more than two miles to the hour. If you go faster than that you have little time to see.

Here are links to newspaper articles and classified ads about him, by him, or in which he figures:

Here are short biographies and entries in biographical dictionaries:

This is a link to a scanned image of a typed copy of an entry in History of German Immigration in the United States and Successful German-Americans and Their Descendants (Geo. von Skal, 1908)

This is a link to extracts from a humorous newspaper piece giving Louis Windmuller's "confessions" of things he did wrong while he was a teenager. You can read the whole article in this pdf document: Herr Windmuller Confesses.

Hannah (Annie) Eliza Lefman Windmuller: 1836-1929. Daughter of Henry Lefman and Sarah Thorne; married Louis Windmuller on Nov 23, 1859, in the Reformed Dutch Church, Hoboken, NJ. She and Louis had six children. Three died in infancy and one, May, died in a kitchen accident while still young. Her second daughter was Clara Louise Windmuller, who married Julius Heynen.

At the celebration for her silver wedding anniversary she wore "a dress of steel-gray silk and diamond ornaments," according to a newspaper account. In another newspaper article, at the end of his life, in 1912, he told the reporter that "he married when he was twenty-four and believes his early marriage did a lot toward making him successful in business.".

She was quoted in a news account in the Washington Post during a golden wedding anniversary trip to Washington. This was her second visit, the first being when they were newly married. This time, she told the reporter, "It doesn't look at homelike as it did." She's also quoted as saying, "We wanted to make this trip because it recalls the happiest moments of our lives. Fifty years of unalloyed happiness we have spent together. Only a few more remain. Why should we not live over again the happiness of youth. Memories should never die."

The letter to the editor on hard winters (quoted above), Louis Windmuller gave an anecdote from his days of courtship with Annie: "Some years previously [to 1857 - so this would be very soon after his arrival in New York] I lived in the boarding house of Mrs. F., 54 Barclay street, and my best girl was in Bloomfield street, Hoboken. She was sitting in her father's parlor on a fine winter evening waiting for me to take her to the firemen's ball, where I had been rash enough to invite her. Not minding the warning of my friends, I started in my "swallow tail" on regulation time, by the Chancellor Livingston [a ferry across the Hudson], but did not get far before we were stuck fast in masses of ice. The wheels [of the steamboat] absolutely refused to turn: with our assistance some of the deck hands finally allowed themselves to be lowered by ropes, with lanterns in one hand and shovels in the other, to remove the obstruction from the blades of our paddles. By heroic efforts they finally succeeded so as to be able to move. We effected a landing at Hoboken about midnight, and I met a reception from my lady as cold as the ice was in the river. We arrived at the ball in time for supper and the champagne soon revived our spirits; but I will never forget the worry of that long evening."

Here is what the New York Times wrote about Clara Windmuller's marriage with Julius Heynen:
What is Doing in Society. Heynen — Windmueller

It would only be natural that in mid-Lent social matters should be dull, and also that there should be a reaction after the two days' festivities in honor of Prince Henry, especially when it is considered that many of the fashionables are at present in the South and West and others have gone to Europe. ...

Miss Clara Louise Windmueller, a daughter of Louis Windmueller, was married on Saturday last to Julius Heynen at the country home of her father, at Woodside, L.I. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Dr. Samuels Cox, Dean of the Garden City Cathedral.

The bride wore a gown of taffeta silk trimmed with Brussels lace, and the same veil which her mother had worn at her wedding in 1859. The bridesmaids were the Misses Eva Brainerd and Annie May Windmueller, a sister of the bride, whose costumes were of white silk trimmed with lace. They carried bouquets of La France roses, ferns, and lillies of the valley. Mrs. Windmueller, wor a white satin gown trimmed with black lace.

The ushers were Messrs. Edwin Baldwin and Bernard Russiger. Bruno O. Klein had composed a wedding march especially for the occation.

-- WHAT IS DOING IN SOCIETY.; Heynen -- Windmueller., NYT, March 11, 1902, Tuesday, Page 7.

Adolph Windmuller: Adolph C. E. Windmuller (Adolph Carl Eberhard Windmuller), born Sept 28, 1862 in Brooklyn NY, died July 7, 1942 (in Colorado Springs, CO - formerly of Dobbs Ferry), married: Carolyn Alberine Hague, nee Thurn, on June 5, 1901, at Church of the Messiah, NY NY. The wedding announcement gives the wife's name as Mrs. Caroline Hague. Her mother is listed as a guest: Mrs. C. S. Thurn (30 W. 36th st). Caroline Hague is listed as "Lilly Hague" in DAR forms. Lilly was the daughter of Mrs. C. S. Thurn. There may be a connection between the Thurn family and the Thorne family; but maybe not.

Fritz said Adolph was a ne're-do-well who let the business fail: "He [Adolph] was a member of the New York City social set. He ignored my mother and I only saw him once on Fifth Ave getting into his chauffeured yellow Rolls Royce cabriolet motor car."

Julius Heynen: A year before he died, he typed up a family tree. I've scanned it and you can view it here: The Family of Julius Heynen. Here are his basic data: b. 1868, Rheydt, Germany. d. 1948, NYC. m. to Clara Louise Windmuller Heynen, 1902. Children: Louis Windmuller Hugo Heynen (1903-1990), Virginia Emilie Heynen (1904), Benjamin Henry Heynen (1908), Fritz Carl Heynen (1910-1993). Aunt Florence says: "Julius was named after his aunt Julia. He came to US in 1891. Bookkeeper admitted to bar in 1905. Mgr. Harlem Office of Legal Aid Soc until 1908. Became secy treas & mgr Maiden Lane Savings Bank and asst secy of East River Savings Bank. Retired in 1943.

Strangely, one of Julius' brothers (Ernst) named his first daughter Clara Louise Heynen. She was born in 1904, two years after Julius married Clara Louise Windmuller. Another brother, Alfred, named his first daughter Clara Heynen. She was born in 1900.


===============

FH = Florence Hadley Heynen, Aunt Florence; she was the second wife of Louis Heynen. Louis Heynen was first-born son of Clara Heynen and grandson of Louis Windmuller.

How This Came About

Not too long ago I noted that the online versions of the New York Times and other newspapers were becoming available and, on a whim, used "Windmuller" as a search term in the Proquest index of the historical NYT. The first result intrigued me -- the classified ad from June 6, 1856, to sell a horse. I knew that Louis Windmuller had come to the U.S. in 1853 while still in his teens and the ad helped me imagine him as a newcomer in New York.


At the same time Julia contacted us about a class project. The course uses artifacts, structures, and other physical remnants of the past to show how historical accounts are pieced together from varieties of evidence. She asked to use Adolph Windmuller's travel writing desk in an assignment the class was given. The desk is a small mahogany box having a writing surface on the inside lid and containing family letters from the late 19th c., mostly between Adolph, who was traveling in Europe, and his parents.


As part of the assignment, she interviewed me about what I knew of the desk. In fact I knew little. I'm interested in history, including 19th c. U.S. hist, I have not really been very interested in family history. I helped Fritz find some biographical accounts about Louis Windmuller while I had access to the library of the Wisconsin State Historical Society (which is rich in holdings about Germans in America) and I did some photocopying of old clippings that had come down to him of articles by and about his grandfather. Beyond that, I knew what family members said about Louis the wealthy merchant. And as a child I had been fascinated by the elaborate menus for banquets held at the Lotus Club, one of many to which he belonged. I also recalled that Louis was associated with reform, such as civil service reform, and that there was a connection with Carl Schurz, related to the Legal Aid Society, I believed.


Recognizing how little I knew and recalling that there are boxes of papers from Fritz's estate right here, I decided to do a little family history research. Since I like web work, I thought it might be interesting to compile what I came up with into a more-or-less coherent home page and this is the result.


Source Materials

As I said in the Background section, above, my aunt, Florence Hadley Heynen, assembled many primary source documents over the decades before her death in 2000. Others who helped me include Inge Windmueller Horowitz, Mark A. Stern, Bob Weinberg, Dave Wolf, David Windmueller, Martin Burke, and Alexandra Shand. I've also drawn upon the Windmueller family chronicle by Inge Windmueller Horowitz and Windmueller Gedcom assembled by David Windmueller.


There are also quite a few letters, newspaper clippings, and odd savings. The internet provides much, particularly the archive of the New York Times and books digitized in the Google Books program. I've supplemented these by checking items from a clipping service that Louis Windmuller used to keep him abreast of accounts in which his name appeared, and of course, the articles that he himself wrote.


Editorial Matters

A note on spelling. Surnames were spelled without great consistency in the past. It's normal to find lots of variations and difficult to know whether Thorn and Thorne are the same, or Lenington, Linington, Lennington, and Liningtun; or whether Thurn comes from Thorn and Lefman from Leffmann. On this page and in the accompanying genealogical database I've regularized all the variations of Lenington into that one spelling and given Thorn as Thorne. I've generally given names with their proper diacritics. Thus, although our family has generally used Windmuller and it's sometimes given as Windmueller, I've given the name as Windmuller. Somewhat inconsistently, I use Roelker instead of Rölker because it's so commonly given that way. I give Münster though Munster is also proper.


I haven't done a 100% thorough proofreading and expect there are some typos and other sorts of mis-types in this work. If something doesn't seem to add up, it might be wrong or it might be one of those genealogical conundrums (little mysteries) that keep genealogists plugging away. For example, we have a copy of a letter of condolence signed Abby Lenington to a person addressed as "My Sidonie." It both gives interesting information and raises interesting questions. The interesting information: Since Abby signed herself Lenington, the letter comes from the time before she married Elias Wolf. She mentions two daughters: Joan and Hannah, so they were Elias's step-daughters, though he obviously treated them both as natural daughters (you can tell from his letters). Abby says both her parents have died. The interesting questions: Who is the addressee and her deceased father and are they related to the Leningtons? Why was Abby reluctant to be the first to write and why does she now make a conditional commitment to write? Etc. This is the kind of thing that probably kept Aunt Florence at her quest; there's some evidence in the files from her that we possess indicating that she spent quite a bit of time tracking down petty obscure relatives.


Credits

The style for the box on the top right of the page comes from glish.com : CSS layout techniques : nested float. The scans from the New York Times come either from the NYT web archive or Proquest Historical Newspapers.


Contact Me

I've put my email address behind a spam trap service. You can send me an email message, by clicking THIS LINK.


















































eXTReMe Tracker