Kuhmann is a RARE family name!  There are less than 500 families in the World who bear our name (that's only about 1 person in 3 million).  In German "Kuh" means "cow", and "mann" means "person, or man".  Literally translated, the name means: "cowherd".  Our Dad's name is a peasant's family name -- whereas, Mother's family name "Kuechler" aka (von Küchler), hails from Saxon nobility.  Dad was born in 1910, died in 1975.  Mother, Emma Louise Kuechler-Kuhmann was also born in 1910, and is now aged to 96 years, 6 months, 6 days (as of this writing).

[ IMPORTANT: "Kuhmann" should not be confused with: "Kuhlmann" or "Kühlmann", since "Kühl" means "cool, or fresh". ]

Under the entry for 'profession' on Grand-Dad's birth certificate (Geburtskunde in German), his father's line of work was listed as Tagelöhner ("day laborer").  The family "oral tradition" is that Grandfather (Friedrich) came to America at about the age of 21 (in 1885).  The tradition is that he came through Ellis Island in New York, but I have found no trace of his passage in their archives.  No one alive today (circa Nov. 2006) knows of his motives, nor of the route he undertook to come to America.  We know from 19th-century birth records (obtained from the local 'Evangelical Lutheran Church', the Evangelische Lutherische Kirche in Bindlach, Bavaria ), that Grandfather had older siblings (that record says that he was their 4th child, 3rd son).  Presumably, his father owned no tracts of land that could be divided up and thus... what with the beckoning prospect of inexpensive sections of land in America, his decision was made.  I have also theorized that his departure may also have been prodded on due to wars in Europe (and the likelihood of being impressed into the armies of the König (King).  We may never know the whole story - since Grandfather died in 1927, when my own father was a youthful 17... thus, few of those (presumably) wonderful memories of life in the Old World got passed along. 

Hardly anything of the written family records remain.  Most of that was lost in a house-fire (home that my father inherited from his parents on the south side of East VanEmmon Street in Yorkville, Illinois).  The family Bible and a photo album survive (digital duplicates are available on a CD-ROM).  The Illinois family farm (off of Pavillion Road, west of Yorkville, Illinois), was owned and occupied by my Aunt, Eileen Rose Briggs-Kuhman, who died on April 24, 2004 (all of the land and the original farm buildings have now been sold).  The house, machine shed -- pig shed, and corn crib (both converted to living quarters) still stand, but the original barn burned in 1999.

Most of the families tied to our branch, hail from eastern Bavaria (see history of Bayern).  The family farm is located in a hamlet called "Ritterleithen" near "Oberlaitsch" (close to the villages of Ramsenthal, Harsdorf and Bindlach) and due north from the city of Bayreuth.  (Note: all of those WWW links are in German language.)  Oberlaitsch is situated among green rolling hills still occupied by dairy farms that are just a few kilometers from the border with the Czech Republic.  I had the pleasure of visiting all of those villages, where I met: Heinrich Kuhmann, his mother, and his two sons - as well as Karl Kuhmann, his daughter and son-in-law (in Ramsenthal).  Heinrich and Karl are first cousins to my father Wilbur and my uncle Fred.  Dad and Freddy died - never knowing of their German cousins. 

Almost everything that we know about grandfather, Friedrich Ferdinand Kuhmann came from the sparse, few documents that have survived.  He was born in Ramsenthal in November of 1864 to Johann Adam KUHMANN and Katharina HEUSSINGER (HEUßINGER).  In Ritterleuthen, there is a farm still owned and operated by Heinrich Kuhmann and his sons (circa 1990), his family shares the same paternal grandparents as my Dad.  Friedrich is thought to have entered into the USA, about 1880. He settled in Kendall County Illinois. He first worked as a blacksmith in Oswego, Illinois.  The farm was handed down to his wife, Alice May Peterson-Kuhman, Wilbur (Wilbur John Kuhman), and Fred Jr. (Frederick Roland Kuhman) at the time of his death in 1927.  Uncle Fred (Jr.) farmed that land until the end of his life in 1980.  Friedrich, Alice, Grace (died in infancy), Wilbur, Frederick, and Eileen are buried in Pavillion Cemetery, in Yorkville, Illinois - about half of a mile south of their Kendall county farm home.

No photographs (as of this writing) are known to exist of my Kuhmann great-grandparents (Johann Adam Kuhmann and Katharina Heussinger-Kuhmann).  I have copies of their birth records and of their marriage.  Both of those photo-copied documents were also obtained through the Evangelical Lutheran church in Harsdorf.

Note that the historical name was spelled with two "nn's" (it is written with two on all of the German records).  Somehow, our name lost that second "n" to become our legal name.  I prefer to use the historical name.  That's about all I can provide for today, but I will add links to some of the documents mentioned here, and old photos of grandfather and of the family - as time permits.  Thank you.

Free Masonry in Wisconsin

To honor my Father (a Past Master), my Grandfather and his Father before him - all were Free Masons.
last updated 06-May-2007