Information
Sheet
R Koehler family.
230 Koehler and Jorn families,
papers, 1886-1980.
Ten folders.
MICROFILM
This is correspondence, biographical
material, and miscellaneous papers of Emma Koehler Jorn and Charles G. Jorn of
Naylor, Ripley County, Missouri.
The correspondence, mostly in German, was received from relatives and
friends in southern Illinois coal mining
towns, 1890-1920, and from relatives in Bad Tennstedt, formerly East Germany,
1890-1960.
Charles George Jorn (1891-1984) was born
in Coffeen, Illinois,
where his family had located after moving from Bavaria.
His father, Peter Jorn, worked in the coal mines around Coffeen. Charles also was employed in the mines before
his marriage to Emma Anna Koehler at Naylor, Ripley County, Missouri. Emma Koehler (1897- ) was a native of Donnelson,
Illinois, who moved to Ripley County
around 1909. After their marriage,
Charles and Emma farmed at Naylor until their retirement.
Most of the Koehler-Jorn collection
consists of family correspondence addressed to Emma Koehler Jorn, although
there are papers which represent several individuals in both families. The earliest letters are from young school
friends in Coffeen, Donnelson, and Springfield,
Illinois, and from Charles Jorn
before their marriage. The letters
contain bits of news concerning family and mutual friends, and work in the
southern Illinois
coal mines. A much larger part of the
collection is made up of letters from Koehler relatives in Bad Tennstedt, Germany. Most are from nieces of Emma Koehler. Along with a considerable amount of family
news, the letters contain comments on social, political, and economic trends in
Germany. Letters from the period between the world
wars mention inflation, unemployment, and political turmoil in Germany. Following World War II, the correspondents
wrote of the total economic collapse of the country, and pleaded for shoes,
clothing, and financial assistance for their families. The evidence suggests that Emma Koehler was
generous in her response. The
correspondence from Germany
ends abruptly in 1960.
Nearly all of the material in the
collection is in German. Notes on some
of the more significant items have been prepared by Gerda Adawi-White of the
staff of the Curtis Laws Wilson Library at the University of
Missouri-Rolla. These notes have been
filmed at the front of each folder.
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