Susanna Rupp and Emil Koetzle

Susanna Rupp was born in Freinsheim, the youngest child of Conrad Rupp and Barbara Fett. She was christened on 12 Dec 1868.

Susanna immigrated to the States with her widowed father, apparently after all of her older siblings had already done so. She and Conrad arrived in NYC on 16 Aug 1892 aboard the Rotterdam out of Amsterdam. Susanna is listed in the passenger manifest by a nickname, "Sanchen."

Susanna married Emil Koetzle in Manhattan on 11 Feb 1900. His marriage record states that he was born in Wangen in Württemberg in 1869, the son of Johannes Koetzle and Katharine Steiss. On his citizenship and passport applications in 1902, he gave his date of birth as 08 Feb 1869. I was able to find at least three places named Wangen in Württemberg in 1869. However, I also found a marriage record for Johannes Koezle born 16 Aug 1831 in Klein Eislingen and Anna Katharina Steiss born 25 Jul 1833 in Wangen. They were married in Eschenbach in the Donaukreis (Donau district) of Württemberg. This places Emil's birthplace fairly securely as Wangen in the Donaukreis district, 10 km WNW of modern Eislingen (Klein and Gross merged in 1933) and 11 km NW of Eschenbach.

There's a bit of a problem with timing, because Johannes and Anna Katharina married on 30 Oct 1871. Both were older - she was 38, he was almost 40. This suggests that it was a second marriage for both of them, but I wasn't able to find previous marriages on record for either. If both were Emil's biological parents, then it sounds as if there was some sort of complication that prevented them from marrying before he was born. Anna Katharina Steiss seems to have had a somewhat complicated past.

According to Emil's passport application, he arrived in NYC on 16 Jul 1895 about the Saale out of Bremen. (His declaration of intent also says 16 Jul 1895. His citizenship application says 10 Jul 1895. Neither specifies a ship or port.) In 1895, the Saale sailed from Bremen to NYC twice, arriving once on July 3 and once on July 30. Our Emil doesn't appear on the passenger manifest for either voyage. (I did find an Emil Koetsle on the Stuttgart out of Bremen, arriving 22 May 1895. He was three years old and travelling with his mother, Maria.)

However Emil arrived in NYC, as of the 1900 US Census he and Susanna were living at 354 East 81st Street in Manhattan. Susanna is for some reason listed as "Louise." Her brother Frank was living with them. Emil was working as a barkeeper and Frank, as a clerk.

Frank served as the witness for Emil's citizenship and passport applications in June 1902. By then both of them were living at 326 East 89th Street. Since Frank had married Helena Franck on 18 Jan 1902, presumably both Susanna and Helena were also living at this address. Frank was working as a restaurant keeper and Emil as a waiter. Seven days after being naturalized, on 23 Jun 1902, Emil applied for a passport. The application doesn't include Susanna and states that Emil intends to return to the States within six months.

As it turned out, the trip didn't take that long. Emil returned to NYC on 11 Aug 1902 about the Vaderland out of Antwerp. Not quite two months later, Friedrich Koetzle, a weaver resident in Eislingen, arrived to join his "uncle" E Koetzle at 326 East 89th Street. Friedrich and Emil were actually cousins. Friedrich's father Karl Christian was the 16-years-younger brother of Emil's father Johannes.

The 1905 NY State Census found "Fred" living with Emil and "Susie" at 537 Greenwich Street. Emil had his own baking business, while Fred was working as a waiter. (Fred married Tessie Felon in Manhattan on 12 Jul 1910.)

By 1910, Emil and Susanna (but not Fred) had moved to New Jersey, specifically to 712 Greenfield Avenue in Newark. Emil was working as a saloon keeper. They were still there as of 1915 and 1920.

In 1925 Emil went abroad again, returning on 05 Oct 1925 aboard the Albert Ballin out of Hamburg. His address is giving as 79 Cherry Street in Lakewood, NJ. He and Susanna were enumerated there in 1930. By then Emil had retired from running the saloon. He made another trip in 1931, returning on 09 Oct 1931 aboard the Deutschland out of Hamburg.

The couple were still living in Lakewood on 13 Feb 1933 when Susanna died in Manhattan. She was buried in the Fresh Pond Cemetery in Queens.

Emil may have remarried. The 1940 US Census includes records for Emil and Alvina Koetzle living at 175 Belden Street in the Bronx. Both were living in the Bronx in 1935 although not at the same address. (The property had been owned by Henry and Lillie Hagedorn in 1930, but Henry died on 25 Jul 1937.)

Both Emil and Alvina were born in Germany, he in or about 1869, she in or about 1878. What gives me pause is that he's a farmer who has his own farm. It's not the location that seems odd to me - Belden Street is at the southernmost tip of City Island at the westernmost end of Long Island Sound. It's more that I don't see a guy who retired after years of running a saloon in 1930 suddenly taking up farming ten years later. Maybe it was Alvina's idea?