Koppelman Family Tree

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Johann Henrich Koppelmann (b. May 4, 1775, Badbergen; d. June 29,

1817, of consumption) m. Helena Margaretha Detmerr December 14, 1804,

Badbergen (b. February 16, 1774, Badbergen; d. January 28, 1841, Groenloh,

Hannover) He was the son of Johann Gerhard and Catharina Koppelmann.[1] Birth

records from the Lutheran parish of St. Georg, Badbergen, Germany, confirm that

Johann Henrich and Helena Koppelmann had a son:

1. Johann Hermann Koppelmann (b. December 29, 1811; chr. January 2,

1812, Badbergen; d. February 25, 1877, Baltimore Co., MD): m.

Anna Katherina Masmann (b. 15 Aug 1803, Osnabruck, Kingdom of Hannover,

Germany; d. June 19, 1884, Baltimore Co., MD[2]):

Johann Hermann Koppelmann may have emigrated in 1834. A Johann H. Koppelmann boarded the brig Burgermeister Smidt at Bremen, and sailed to Baltimore, Maryland, arriving on May 26, 1834.[3] A Johann Hermann Koppelmann applied for naturalization in 1838, in Baltimore County, Maryland, using the Anglicized name John Herman Koppelman. The 1840 federal census found a family headed by John H. Coppleman living in the city of Baltimore’s 6^th Ward, but as there was at least one other Koppelman, J. Harman Koppelman, in the city, we cannot be sure which one is listed in the census.[4] An 1848 map of Baltimore locates the 6^th Ward east of Jones Falls, north of Fayette Street. John H. Coppleman listed himself as a U.S. citizen.

Land records show that John H. Koppelman and a partner named John H. Jeungman bought 24 and a half acres of land from William L. Bowley near Bowley’s Lane in 1840. In 1849, Koppelman bought out Jeungman’s share for $200. Intriguingly, J. Harman Koppelman, who may have been a tavern-keeper, bought a parcel from Bowley of almost the same size and sharing a boundary with our ancestor’s land, only a month before. This coincidence suggests that the two were relations. After J. Harman Koppelman died suddenly in 1846, John A. Nortrup, bought the land at auction for $1,400.

In 1850, the federal census lists John H. Koppelman, his wife Catharina, two sons, John George and John Henry, and a possible relation, Mary Bocklage, farming on this land in the Gardenville area between Belair Road and the Philadelphia Road. According to a story passed down to Charlotte Koppelman Betz, who related it in a Jerusalem Lutheran Church anniversary pamphlet, the family lived in a log house, which stood on the land until it was removed to make way for a development called Garden Villa about 1950.

In 1860, the Koppelman farm was worth $3,000, and they employed a 14-year-old hired hand named John Herbert. 1850 neighbors included Charles Myers, John Northrupp, the Sieferts, Valentine Lutz, Peter Quick, and Jane Hickman. 1860 neighbors included John Siple (sic), Joseph Hofsteder, John Nortrup, Peter Murray, and August Copenhaver.[5] In 1870, John Henry was farming, with his father, land worth $4,700, while John George and his wife Elizabeth formed a separate household nearby along with his wife’s mother, Elizabeth Kamp. [6]

In 1880, the two brothers were still farming next to each other. According to the census, John Henry’s large household included a 23-yr-old servant named Mary Weber (possibly a relation of his wife’s), three young male boarders who listed their occupations as farm hand, and his mother, Anna—but not his father. Neither was Johann living with his son John George.[7]

Conflcting evidence has made it difficult to be sure about the date of Johann Hermann Koppelmann’s death. His gravestone in Baltimore Cemetery gives 1887 as his year of death. The Jerusalem Lutheran Church funeral register lists his death date as February 25, 1876, at the age of 65. His will, proved in March 1877, refers to him as deceased, which supports a death date of 1877. Moreover, his obituary, printed in the Baltimore Sun on February 28, 1877, seems to provide conclusive evidence that he died on Feburary 25, 1877 at the age of 65. This is supported by a more extensive obituary printed in the Maryland Journal on March 3, 1877. Why is the gravestone incorrect? How did this error come about?

Charlotte Koppelman Betz wrote in 1961 that when the farms were sold and the family cemetery was exhumed and the remains moved in 1920, “it was found that my great- grandfather, who was killed in the ‘No [sic] Nothing Days,’ had been shot with a nail which had lodged in his skull. He was killed by a bystander on election day.” Goucher College historian Jean Baker, who published a study of the Know Nothings in Maryland, says that the Know Nothings ceased their violent attacks on immigrants by the time of the Civil War, so that it is unlikely Know Nothing gangs were responsible. Since the counties did not begin keeping death records until the 1890s, and the family buried him in the home cemetery, it is unlikely that this story will be ever be confirmed or refuted.

The continuity of some names of neighbors suggests that the Koppelmans farmed the same pieces of land, on what eventually became known as Franklin Avenue (now Frankford Avenue), in Raspeburg/Gardenville, continuously from 1840 until John Henry’s widow and John Harman Gerhardt Koppelman sold this land in 1920. John Harman bought a larger piece of land several miles farther east, in Rosedale, where he continued farming with several of his sons. His aunt, John Henry’s widow, went to live with her daughters’ families—first the Lutzes, then the Gleitsmans.

Johann Hermann Koppelmann made his will in 1870, then added two codicils: the first in June 1871, before he and his wife traveled back to Germany for a visit, and the second dated January 8, 1877 (they returned safely from Bremen on August 19, 1871, on the North German Lloyd steamship Berlin).¹⁴ He left all income from his 60 acres of land to his wife Anna for the remainder of her lifetime, as well as all the buildings and personal property on the land. From this, we can infer that as Johann and Anna grew older, the sons rented the land from their parents. After her death, he directed that John George receive 39 acres, consisting of a tract called Little Job and another purchased from neighbor John Thomas Mumma. In the first codicil, he directed that John George also receive his carriage, and the last year’s income from the land to pay for the construction of a new house. His son John Henry was to receive 31 acres, consisting of a farm called Grindon (named after the original 3,500 acre tract laid out in the county in 1735), and another called Gay’s Enlargement or Gay’s Favor. In the first codicil, he directed that John Henry was to receive all the contents of Johann and Anna’s house.

He also made bequests to his and Anna’s godchildren: to John Harman Koppelman, John George’s oldest son, he left $100 and “bedstead and bedding being 2 Feather Beds and four Pillows.” To John Henry’s eldest son, he left $100; to John Henry’s eldest daughter Catherine, called Kate, he left “my remaining bed and bedding.”

Johann and Anna Koppelmann were originally buried in a family cemetery on the first farm he bought, Grindon. In his last codicil, Johann directed that the quarter-acre cemetery should “remain as a Grave yard forever and ever and if the place is ever sold the Grave yard is to be reserved for the Koppelman Family for ever and ever and is never to be sold.” When the family land was sold in 1920, however, all his heirs agreed to legally transfer the family cemetery property to John Henry Koppelman’s widow, Anna Catherine Weber Koppelman; the graves were disinterred and moved: Johann Hermann, his wife, their son John Henry and other of John Henry’s family members’ remains were moved to Baltimore Cemetery; John George and his family were moved to Parkwood Cemetery in Parkville, MD.

With Anna Catharine Maseman, Johann Hermann Koppelmann’s children were:

a. John George (Gerhardt) Koppelman (1835, Baltimore, MD July 21, 1891, Baltimore Co., MD) m. Anna Elizabeth Kemp (b. March or May 3, 1843, Saxony, Germany; d. March 1, 1895, Baltimore Co., MD). Their descendants moved their remains from the family cemetery to Parkwood Cemetery in 1920, along with those of Elizabeth’s parents, Anna E. Kemp (1812-1872) and John Kemp (1820-1858). John George’s children with Elizabeth were:

1. John Harman Gerhardt Koppelman (b. July 18, 1862,

Baltimore Co., MD; d. March 31, 1929, Baltimore, MD) m.

Anna Wilhelmine Schaub December 25, 1884, at Jerusalem

Evangelical Lutheran Church (b. July 15, 1868, Baltimore, MD; d.

August 26, 1938, Baltimore, MD). They are buried in Parkwood

Cemetery.

2. Henry Louis Koppelman (b. June 22, 1864, Baltimore Co.,

Maryland; d. February 27, 1934, Baltimore, MD¹⁰) m.

Caroline C. Walker 1888 (b. July 1867, Baltimore, MD; d. January

10, 1920, Baltimore, MD) Died of a heart attack at the home of his

daughter, Mamie Koppelman Reineke.¹¹ They are buried in

Baltimore Cemetery.

3. John George Ludwig Koppelman (b. March 23, 1867,

Baltimore Co.,⁴ MD, d. June 3, 1941, Baltimore Co., Maryland⁵) He is

buried Parkwood Cemetery.

The 1900 Federal Census lists John G. Koppelman as a farm laborer working on the truck farm of his brother-in-law, Louis Shaub (husband of John’s sister Minnie), hard by John Harman Koppelman’s farm. In 1920, these roles are reversed, with John G. Koppelman listed as the head of household, and Louis Schaub as his brother-in-law, with Louis’ wife Minnie, and their two daughters, Lydia and Ethel. Perhaps John G. Koppelman bought out Louis Schaub and became owner of the land? There is to date no evidence than John G. Koppelman ever married.

4. Emma Katherina Elizabeth Koppelman (b. July 2, 1870⁹;

d. 1870, Baltimore Co., MD) She is buried in Parkwood Cemetery.

5. Wilhelmine (Minnie) Koppelman (b. September 1, 1872,

Baltimore Co., Maryland; d. September 9, 1940, Baltimore Co., MD) m.

Ludwig (Louis) Ernst Schaub (b. August 1866, Baltimore Co., MD;

d. June 13, 1961) on December 28, 1896, in Jerusalem Lutheran

Church. They are buried in the Koppelman plot in Parkwood Cemetery,

along with daughters Annie B. and Emma.

a. Annie B. (Bertha?) Schaub (b. December 2, 1897, Baltimore

Co., MD; d. 1898, Baltimore Co., MD)

b. Emma Elizabeth Schaub (b. October 31, 1900, Baltimore, MD;

d. 1904, Baltimore, MD)

c. Lydia Minnie Schaub (b. May 10, 1907, Baltimore Co.; d.

February 1, 1989, Baltimore, MD) m. George Roemer, a local

farmer (b. April 29, 1901, Baltimore, MD; d. September 1963,

Baltimore, MD)

d. Annie Ethel Schaub (b. December 2, 1909; d. July 1987,

Baltimore, MD) m. Albert C. Greif in 1928 (b. November 22,

1907, Baltimore, MD; d. November 28, 1994, Baltimore, MD)

b. John Henry Koppelman (b. April 26,1840, Baltimore Co., MD; d. July

20, 1902, Baltimore Co., MD^6,9of heart disease) m. Anna Catharina Weber

March 9, 1866 at Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church (b. September 1844,

Baden, Germany; d. January 9, 1931, Baltimore, MD, of cerebral hemorrage).

The 1900 census indicates that Anna Weber immigrated to the U.S. in 1852, but

according to the 1910 census, Anna immigrated to Maryland in 1856, and her

death certificate records 1854.

John Henry farmed with his father in Gardenville.⁶ He was drafted into the Union

Army in a lottery that took place on October 15, 1862, in the Towson courthouse,

and served from September 1863 to 1865, in the Gov. Construction Train

Engineer Corps, along with neighbors John H. Raspe and Joseph Kahler (1890

Special Veterans Census, Baltimore City and County, NARA M123 Roll #8, ).

Other neighbors drafted that day included M. Biddison, Adam G. Erdman,

John Schone, Gottlieb Erdman Jr., George Erdman, Charles C. Franklin,

Harmon Northrup, and Frank Hofstetter (Baltimore County Advocate,

Towson Town, October 18, 1862).

In his 1898 will, John Henry Koppelman left all his property and money to his

“beloved wife,” except for several bequests to his children: $500 to his youngest

son William; $500 to his daughter Anna Elizabeth, as well as $50 per year “as long

as she remains with her mother.” To his daughter Macy, he left $500 to be paid

“at the time she gets married.” He directed that after her death, all his property

should be sold, and the proceeds divided among his children or their heirs, with

the stipulation that money he had loaned to his other children be deducted from

their shares—thus turning these loans into advances on their inheritances

(Baltimore County Register of Wills, Liber HR, No. 12, Folios 367-368).

After John Henry died, his widow went to live first with her daughter Kate’s

family on Lutz’s Hill, then with her daughter Margaret’s family, first on E.

Baltimore St. in the city, then on Echodale Avenue.⁸ We believe their Frankford

Avenue farm was sold at that time, around 1920, but have not yet found a record

of the sale. John Henry’s remains were moved from the family cemetery on

Franklin Avenue (later renamed Frankford Avenue) to Baltimore Cemetery in

1920; his wife is also buried there. John Henry and Anna’s children were:

1. John Herman Koppelman (b. December 24, 1866, Baltimore

Co., Maryland⁹; d.?) Nothing is known about the fate of this son; he does not

appear in the census after 1880; he is not buried in the family plot in

Baltimore Cemetery. One speculation is that he sought his fortune in the

west.

2. Anna Katherina Maria (Kate) Koppelman (b. September 11,

1868, Baltimore Co., MD⁹; d. ?) m. Wilhelm Heinrich (William Henry)

Lutz (b. May 1867) in 1888. Their children were:

a. Margaretha Anna Lutz (b. March 28, 1891, Baltimore Co., MD⁹;

d. 28 March 1967, Glen Burnie, Anne Arundel Co., MD[8]) m.

George M. Greensfelder (b. 4 Dec 1895, Baltimore, MD[9]), son

of baker John Greensfelder (b. Sept 1859, MD[10]).

In 1920, the Greensfelders lived and farmed with Margaret’s

widowed mother. At that time, they had two sons, George and

Herman:

1. George C. Greensfelder (b. 5 Dec1917, Baltimore Co., MD;

d. 10 January 1963, Alameda Co., CA[11])

2. Herman William Greensfelder (b. 15 July 1918, Baltimore

Co., MD; d. 17 August 1998, Baltimore, MD[12]) He enlisted in

the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941. His enlistment record lists his

occupation as “gas and oil man,” that he had had two years of

high school, and that he was married.[13]

b. George William Lutz ( b. May 7, 1893, Baltimore Co., MD⁹; d. ?)

m. Florence H. ? (b. 1889). The 1930 census lists his mother,

Catherine Lutz, living with them on a truck farm on Lutz’s Hill, the

top of Hamilton Avenue above Belair Road, in District 14. They don’t

appear to have had any children.

c. Katherina Elizabeth Lutz (b. December 10, 1898, Baltimore Co.,

MD⁹; d.?) m. Charles William Christ (b. 2 August 1896, MD; d.

April 1982, Perry Hall, Baltimore Co., MD[14]), son of Radecke

Avenue truck farmers Charles Albert Christ (b. July 1865, MD)

and Mary Nortrup Christ (b. February 1867, MD). Charles W.

Christ was drafted into the army in 1917, was promoted to corporal

and honorably discharged in 1918, but seems not to have served

overseas.[15] He farmed with his parents. In 1930, Charles and Kate

had one son, William:

1. William A. Christ (b. 13 February 1920, Baltimore, MD; d. 20

April 2006, Shrewsbury, York Co., PA[16]) According to his 1944

U.S. Army enlistment record, he was employed as some sort of

mechanic, and was married. His funeral was held at St. John

the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, New Freedom, PA.

3. Annie Elizabeth Koppelman (b. December 17, 1870, Baltimore

Co., MD⁹; d. 1964, Baltimore, Maryland) She became a nurse, but where did

she train and work? In 1900, she was living on her father’s farm. In 1920 she

was boarding with her sister Margaret Koppelman Gleitsman’s family in their

home on E. Baltimore Street near Patterson Park, and described her

occupation as “trained nurse”.⁸One possible answer is found in the 1910

census, where an Elizabeth A. Koppelman is listed as a resident nurse at the

Hebrew Hospital (later Sinai Hospital), founded in 1868 on E. Monument St

at Ann St. in East Baltimore’s 7^th Ward. Would a Lutheran have gone to

nursing school at a Jewish hospital? Why not to the nursing school at Johns

Hopkins? She remained single, and is buried in the Koppelman plot at

Baltimore Cemetery.

4. Margaret A. (Maggie) Koppelman (b. May 24, 1873, Baltimore

Co., Maryland⁹; d. 1961, Baltimore Co., Maryland) m. Hermann H.

Gleitsmann (b. October 1867, MD; d. November 19, 1926, Baltimore, MD)

December 12, 1892⁷ at the United Evangelical Church of Baltimore. Notes

among Ruth Hedeman’s papers indicate that Herman’s father, Wilhelm

Gleitsmann, was from Oldenburg, Saxony (b. September 6, 1829; d. August

26, 1909), and his mother, Elizabeth Tiefel Gleitsmann (b. April 14, 1829;

d. April 13, 1899), was from Bavaria.

Wilhelm Gleitsmann emigrated from Germany in

1867. In Baltimore, he set up a second-hand furniture business, eventually

building a prosperous retail furniture concern. Hermann Gleitsmann began as

an upholsterer, then took over the family business. At least until 1920,

Herman and Margaret lived at 2306 E. Baltimore Street in Baltimore, then

later on Echodale Avenue. They were members of Christ Lutheran Church.

Margaret and Herman Gleitsmann are buried in the Koppelman plot at

Baltimore Cemetery. Their children were:⁸

a. Anna Elsie Gleitsmann (b. 1893, Baltimore, MD; d. ?) m. George Hulbert Sack (b. December 24, 1908, Baltimore, MD; d. May 3, 1998, Baltimore, MD). Hulbert belonged to a the family of Sacks who owned a successful lumberyard in the area. They had three daughters:

1. Margaret Sack m. Nick Gordon

2. Anne Sack

3. Ellen Lee Sack m. 1) John Louis Hedeman; 2)

Orville Rollins. With John L. Hedeman:

a. Leslie E. Hedeman

b. Cara Lee Hedeman

b. Gladys Gleitsmann (b. 1901, Baltimore, Maryland; d. 1975)

5. George Charles Koppelman (b. August 21, 1875, Baltimore Co.,

MD⁹; d. September 18, 1952) m. Margaret A. Buchwald (b. March 24,

1884, Baltimore Co., MD; d. January 20, 1952, Baltimore Co., MD) They are

buried in Baltimore Cemetery.

6. Henry Albert Koppelman (b. October 10, 1877, Baltimore Co.,

MD; d. November 19, 1898, Philadelphia, PA). Henry A. Koppelman died of

typhoid fever contracted in camp while serving as a corporal in Company M

of the 1^st Maryland Volunteer Infantry, probably without having seen action

in the Spanish-American War. A good friend of Walter R. Hedeman, who

noted Henry’s death in his diary of army life, Henry was just 21 years old.^6,9

He is buried inBaltimore Cemetery.

7. Macy Margaret Koppelman (b. February 12, 1880, Baltimore

Co., MD⁹; d. 1958, Baltimore, MD) She is buried in Baltimore Cemetery.

Macy Koppelman became a stenographer and worked for a fire insurance

company in Baltimore. She boarded with her sister Margaret’s family on E.

Baltimore Street in Baltimore for many years⁸; at some point after 1920, she

moved to Echodale Avenue. Photos from the 1930s indicate that she was

friendly with Emma and Walter Hedeman. Ruth Hedeman remembers with

admiration Macy’s dedication to her career.

8. Frederick Koppelman (b. January 6, 1882, Baltimore Co., MD⁹; d.

1882, Baltimore Co., MD, of bronchial pneumonia) He is buried in Baltimore

Cemetery.

9. Charles Koppelman (b. January 6, 1883, Baltimore Co., MD; d.

January 16, 1883⁹, of complications from premature birth) He is buried in

Baltimore Cemetery.

10. William Ludwig Koppelman (b. May 9, 1884, Baltimore Co.,

Maryland⁹; d. July 18, 1899¹³) William L. Koppelman died at the age of 16,

of tetanus, contracted from an leg accidental wound. He is buried in

Baltimore Cemetery.

⁴ Source: 1900 Federal Census, Baltimore Co., District 14.

⁵ Source: Maryland Dept. of Health Death Index, Maryland State Archives

⁶ Source: 1904 application by Anna C. Koppelman to receive her son Henry A. Koppelman’s Spanish-American War pension, NARA.

⁷ Source: Maryland State Archives, MSSC 2887, Film #MIS 50-5, p. 96.

⁸ Source: 1910 and 1920 Federal Census, Baltimore City, 6^th Ward.

⁹ Source: Records of Jerusalem Lutheran Church, Gardenville, MD.

¹⁰ Source: Obituary, The Baltimore Evening Sun, Thursday, March 1, 1934. Thanks to Janet Dawson Canapp for tracking this down at the Pratt Library.

¹¹Source: Death Certificate #F98837, City of BaltimoreHealth Department, Maryland State Archives MSA SC 5458-65-2885.

¹³Source: Baltimore County Board of Health Death Certificate, Maryland State Archives MSA SC 5458-65-3062.

¹⁴Source: Baltimore Co. Register of Wills, Liber JBM No. 5 Folio 304 or 203, February 10, 1870.