Find A Grave Friday

Jacob Bohman

Jacob Bohman is my 3rd great grandfather. He is buried at St Michael’s Church Cemetery in Hewitt, Wisconsin. His Find A Grave memorial can be found here.

Jacob Bohman was born at dwelling number 17 in the village of Hyršov (formerly Hirschau, Germany), Domažlice District, Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic to parents Jakob Bohmann and Theresa Grossl on 3 October 1853. The link to his birth record can be seen here.

Jakob married Anna Ertl in Hyršov on 20 May 1878. I am unable to locate the register where the marriage was recorded, but fortunately the date was recorded with oldest daughter Anna’s birth. Anna was born out of wedlock in February 1878 and originally recorded under “Anna Ertl”. The register has Ertl crossed out and Bohmann written below with a note stating Anna’s birth was made “legitimate” with the marriage of her parents on 20 May 1878. The register can be viewed here.

The Bohmann family are enumerated on the 1880 census in Hyršov living in dwelling 13. This is the same house where Anna Ertl (later Bohmann) was born in 1878. Jacob’s birth year was listed as 1851 on this census. It was not uncommon for men to list inaccurate ages or birth dates on census records to evade military service. In later years, the census takers began asking for birth certificates as proof of age.

Jacob did indeed evade his military service by fleeing to the US in 1883 leaving his pregnant wife and 3 small children behind. He arrived in New York on 3 April 1883 aboard the SS Elbe. How or why Jacob migrated to the town of Auburndale in Wood County, Wisconsin is not known. Anna Bohman sailed to the US on the same ship in September 1883 with her mother, brother, and 4 small children and followed Jacob to Wisconsin.

The only details about Jacob’s life that were passed down outside the historical record were memories recorded by Anna Bohman’s granddaughter, Helen Jo Breu. Helen and my grandmother were pen pals in the 1980s, and then Helen and I wrote to each other a few times in the 1990s. The stories and memories she passed along are recorded in previous blog posts in the Squaw Creek series.

Jacob died in 1892 from tuberculosis of the bone caused by axing himself in the knee. He and Anna had a family of 7 at the time of his death.