Renada (Kraus) Krauss Family
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Source: Shared by Helen (Kirmse) Hacker. Digitized: September, 2015.
Who
Left to right:
- Renada (Kraus) Krauss, wife of George Krauss and sister of Barbara (Kraus) Kirmse.
- Child – maybe a grandchild – several possibilities are:
- Arthur Elmer Dunn born on August 7, 1893
- George Finch Dunn born on June 8 1895
- James Earnest Dunn born on February 19, 1898
- George Krauss – the undertaker, husband of Renada (Kraus) Krauss.
See Chapters Renada (Kraus) Krauss (1836 – 1910) and George Krauss (1838 – 1923) for photo comparisons. The facial features are similar for Renada but older. The facial features for George and his beard is similar in both pictures.
When
Circa 1905 – an estimate based on the following:
Renada (Kraus) Krauss, wife of George Krauss, died April 18, 1910. So picture was taken a few years before 1910.
Sometime between 1900 and 1910 changed his occupation from “Wagon Maker” to “Undertaker”
- 1870 US Census, George Krauss occupation is “Wagon Maker”.
- 1880 US Census, George Krouse [Krauss] occupation is “Waggon Maker”.
- 1900 US Census, George Krans [Krauss] occupation is “Wagon Maker”.
- 1910 US Census, George Krauss occupation is “Undertaker” and he owns his own shop.
- 1915, George Krauss is the undertaker for Julius Kirmse, his brother-in-law in Farrar, Missouri
- 1920 US Census, George Krauss occupation is “None” and is living with his granddaughter, Choe B (Dunn) Strong, in Welch, Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Where
Longtown, Perry County, Missouri
What
Photograph of the G. KRAUSS UNDERTAKER establishment in Longtown, Missouri.
Helen (Kirmse) Hacker wrote in an email March 5, 2009:
- “George Krause [Krauss] made caskets and lived in Longtown. Your Dad [Julius Henry Kirmse] once wrote a letter telling how he [George Krauss] would use a corn stalk to measure the body and make the casket to fit.”
- “The Kirmse’s had a two seated surrey with a fringe around the top. It was common for the deceased to be laid out in the home and they hauled the casket in a wagon, but when the Kirmse’s took it in their surrey it was a special honor. H. Bachman told that they hauled his forefather and they were so honored.”
Note the wagon and wagon/buggy wheels on the left front of the establishment as well as the “Banner Buggies” sign above the entrance.
Possibly this photograph was taken shortly after George established himself as an undertaker instead of being a wagon maker. Or maybe he had a combined business of undertaker and buggy rentals.
End-of-Life Care Services
In addition to making coffins and being an undertaker, George Kraus provide end-of-life services. For example, in the probate records of Barbara Schuetz (second wife of Conrad Schuetz), the following invoice for the coffin, funeral and burial services
was a total funeral charge of $28.10.
Also included in the probate file is an invoice for the end-of-life services
for 790 days of board and lodging over a five year period. The total for the end-of-life charg