Family Trees for Edward and Anita Feick family,
Carl & Anna Gundlach, Franz & Anna Schlottag of Sandusky, Ohio
Donald and Carrie Gregory of Conneaut, Ohio
Written in April 1981 by Anita Gundlach Feick (as she knows it)
Franz Friedrich Schlottag came to Sandusky from Germany on May 26, 1881. He was the son of Ferdinand Schlottag and Caroline Barg. (Otto Schlottag's death certificate gives the name as Caroline - reported by Franz; Franz's death certificate gives the name as Augusta - reported by his son Car. Possibly both names were hers.) According to recent information from Germany, the mother was Carolina Barz, the daughter of Karl-Ludwig Barz and Friederike Knitter; born in 1821 and died in 1889.
Franz had two brothers also in Sandusky. In all probability he came to Sandusky with his twin brother Henry. They were born in Warbelin, Pommern; christened in the church in Glowitz, Pommern on 27 May 1853. Warbelin is a small village near Glowitz which is near the larger city of Stolpe, which is near Danzig. The other brother in Sandusky was Otto Schlottag, a gardener married to Agnes Alspach. According to St. Stephen's church records, Otto and Agnes Schlottag had a daughter named Gertrude Adelheid, born 10 July 1878. Henry Schlottag married a widow, Wilhelmina Reuter Keil, who was a midwife and there were no children of this union. Wilhelmina was a very popular midwife as the county records show long lists of children delivered by Minnie Schlottag.
In the United States, Franz Anglicized his name to Frank and he shortly married Emelie (Amelia) Heise (1859-1884). Amelia was the 'love child' of Sophia Heise (1832-1910). Amelia died in childbed. (The death certificate says 'cancer' but the family have always said childbirth, as does the Lutheran church death register). Amelia's mother Sophia was the 'grossmutter' the subsequent Schlottag children had. She had lived on Catawba Island for a while and is buried in Oakland Cemetery next to her daughter on the Schlottag plot.
The Schlottag brothers had one brother left in Germany. The oldest son, whose name was Albert. Albert had three sons and a daughter. One son was killed in WWI; Emil died in 1961; Elizabeth died in 1961 (She was married to a Kosbab); George married Meta Kieper. He died in 1960 and they had three daughters; two of whom were killed by shooting in 1945 (Erschossen). The oldest daughter, Ursula, married Hans Mayer and has one son and one daughter. I do not know if Emil ever married or if so, had sons. If he did not marry then the only descendants of the Schlottag's to retain the name are the descendants of Frank and Anna (Riedel) Schlottag.
Fourteen months after Amelia's death, Frank married a young eighteen year old girl who had come from Frankish-Crumbach, Hessen Darmstadt, Germany, and had been in Sandusky since 26 June 1883, living with her Uncle George Feick. Her name was Catherina Riedel; her mother was Catherina Elizabeth Feick, the second wife of Johann Philipp Riedel and a sister of George, Philip, and Adam Feick. At the death of the mother, George Feick had been apprenticed in Germany to a cabinet maker in Frankish-Crumbach. Here he lived with his sister, Catherina Elizabeth Feick Riedel until, at the age of 17, he rebelled against the harsh treatment apprentices received and he emigrated to Sandusky, Ohio where his two older brothers already were. (Neither of whom he had ever seen as they came to the states in 1849 and 1852 respectively). It is he who was instrumental in bringing to the states the four daughters of his sister Catherina. The first niece to come was Kate Riedel, who lived with George until she married Eli Zimmerman. In 1883 Uncle George brought 15 year old Catherina (Kåtchen) Riedel to Sandusky. When she arrived, her aunt, Mrs. Adam Feick, said "Kåtchen is too much like Katie so we'll call her Anna" and Anna she became.
Anna Riedel was born in Frankish-Crumbach on September 17, 1868, the second daughter of Philipp Riedel and Catherine Elizabeth Feick. Her mother was the fifth child of Johann Philipp Feick and Elizabeth Catharina Klinger of Steinau. She was the second wife of Philipp Riedel, a farmer (a tenant-farmer at that time) who had three sons and two daughters by his first wife who had died and subsequently had three more sons and five daughters by his second marriage to Cath. Elizabeth Feick.
Anna 'Kåtchen' Riedel lived with her Uncle Adam Feick's family until Frank Schlottag, a widower whose young wife had recently died, came along. At age 18 Anna married Frank who was 15 years her senior. This marriage was most successful, lasting almost 50 years.
They were married on January 19, 1887, the wedding taking place in the parlor of the bride's uncle, Adam Feick on Miami Avenue (now the site of the Feick apartments on Central Avenue). Frank and Anna lived at 1118 Jefferson Street for several years until the combined store and house they were building on the northwest corner of Campbell and Osborne Streets was finished. Frank was a carpenter, a cabinet maker, by trade. In the Campbell Street building they began a combined grocery and saloon - saloons being very prevalent and profitable in those years. The building was on land they received (purchased) from Adam Feick; it having been a portion of the 'Feick Farm'. To pay for the land - at least a part of the cost - the Adam Feick family was to get all of their groceries from the store. This did not prove out as the Feick family was numerous, ate heartily, and grocery store profits were zero. How Anna Riedel Schlottag resolved this problem I don't know, but I am equally sure that resolve it she did.
Henry Hasselbach, married to a cousin of Anna's, built his house on the other end of the Campbell Street block, on the corner of Campbell and Polk Streets. Henry Hasselbach's wife was Emma Feick, the only daughter of Philip Feick and Johanna Steuk. Philip and Johanna had four sons also but all died as infants. Emma and Henry Hasselbach had one son, Alexander, who died of peritonitis at age 20.
With the coming of babies, Anna and Frank abandoned the saloon portion of their business and concentrated on the grocery store. The back bar of the saloon was the side board in the Schlottag dining room until the death of Pauline. Schlottag's Grocery became one of the best known businesses of its type in the city of Sandusky. They were known for the quality of their groceries and their service. The youngest daughter, Pauline, was a clerk there. The oldest son, Frederick, was the delivery "boy" until he married Cora Rudolph, the only child of Nicolas Rudolph and Lizzie Halt. The turned out to have a genuine 'green thumb' for whatever he stuck into the ground... grew. All of our ailing plants went to Uncle Fred for help.
The Rudolph farm was on the corner of Bell Avenue and Campbell Street and here they operated a very successful "truck farm". Every day Fred packed up the truck with produce which had been cleaned and sorted and beginning at first light, delivered fresh produce to Schlottag's Grocery and to the other groceries in Sandusky. The last stop of the morning was always at Schlottag's for here Fred could visit a few minutes with "Ma" and have a mid-morning cup of coffee. (mid-morning being 9 AM). Fred and Cora Schlottag had no children of their own and on their death, the farm was left to Leo Castello and his family for Leo had been a devoted friend and had cared for Fred, Cora, and their farm in their declining years.
The oldest daughter, Anna Barbara, worked at the Mahala Laundry and then at the Manhattan Clothing Store until her marriage to Carl Gundlach. The laundry belonged to Lewis Feick, a cousin of Anna Riedel Schlottag's and the youngest son of Adam Feick. His home was just down Osborne Street from Schlottag's, and was also on a portion of the "Feick Farm". When Anna began working at the Mahala Laundry she received $3.00 a week, half of which she was required to give to her sister Pauline - because, as Ma said, Pauline was staying home and helping in the store. This way, with Anna sharing her salary, they did not have to pay Pauline for the work she did at home and in the store. Anna Riedel Schlottag was the actual head of the house of Schlottag and she rant it with a firm hand. One thing she did with much reluctance was spend money. Any item she purchases was kept and care for, mended, darned, cleaned, stored, saved....she was frugal.
Anna Schlottag married Carl Martin Gundlach, the operators of Gundlach Sheet Metal Works. Carl was the oldest son of Charles and Mary (Krueger) Gundlach. They were married in the parlor over the grocery store. The kitchen and dining room of the living quarters were on the first floor behind the store proper and the bedrooms, bath, parlors and a small attic were on the second floor over the store. (I remember mother telling of the white cakes they made, cut, iced and rolled in coconut to look like snow-balls for her wedding.) For years she kept the satin belt of her wedding dress in her cedar chest. The dress itself she cut up for baby garments for Doris. The cedar chest was Carl's gift to her on their engagement.
Pauline never married. She lived at home, worked in the store, kept house for her parents, and had delightful parities for her nephews and nieces; especially Halloween parties. Then she would decorate the kitchen with corn stalks and we would bob for apples in a wash barrel. There would be a broom decorated like a witch in a corner and we all had to wear costumes and masks and it was all very, very spooky.
The youngest son, Carl, took over the management of the store on the retirement of his parents. Carl had married one of the two daughters of William Diels and for a time he and his bride tried farming on a farm owned by Mr. Diels. However, Carl was no farmer and Laura no farm wife so the grocery and the city was for them.
At this time, the early 1930's, Frank and Anna Schlottag tore down the barn on the rear of the lot bordering the alley (horses were no longer being used), and built a retirement home for themselves and Pauline. The original piece of property obtained from Adam Feick now contained four structures - three houses and a garage storage unit. A rental income house had been built some time previously in the yard nest to the store building on Osborne Street. Grandma Schlottag now felt that their declining years were taken care of financially.
Carl and Laura Schlottag operated Schlottag's grocery for years and when Carl retired from the business it was operated by his son, William, until modern business methods and the supermarkets mad the home owned store obsolete. Schlottag's Grocery went out of business in 1953. Anna and Frank had moved into the store building in 1893. 60 years in business.
When Grandpa Schlottag was close to 80 years old he made five small tables out of wood he had kept ever since they had removed the saloon portion from the business. One table was given to each of his children and the fifth one went to his first grandchild - Doris Gundlach Giese. I am presently the owner of the one that was made for my mother, Anna Schlottag Gundlach. (Anita Gundlach Feick, April 1981)