Gabriel Leopold Jahn

Gabriel Leopold Jahn was born on June 21, 1898 at 6:45 am at 324 Central Avenue, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. He was the second child of German immigrants, Max Joseph Jahn (known as Joseph M. Jahn) and Maria Magdalena Richter (known as Lena Jahn). Source: Kings County, NY Birth Certificate #B-K-9636.

Less than 2 weeks later, on July 3^rd, 1898 Leo Jahn was baptized at St. Leonard’s of Port Maurice Roman Catholic Church. Baptism record 1898 Book 5, Page 91, Entry 1418). This church no longer exists.

Siblings

Leo had an older brother Frederick (aka Fritz) born in 1897, a younger brother John (aka Max) born in 1901, and sister Lena (aka Madeline) born in 1904. Two other siblings Herbert (1899) and Joseph (1904) died in infancy.

Early life

In the summer of 1903, the Jahn family travelled to Bavaria, Germany. Most likely they went to visit their Jahn and Richter relatives. The Jahns traveled in steerage class, so while it was not a luxury trip, how exciting it must have been for 5 year-old Leo to explore the ship with his parents. The memory of those voyages back and forth from Europe may have piqued Leo’s future interest in working on a ship.

Leo’s parents moved the family from one apartment to another fairly often during Leo’s youth. Leo lived in at least 8 places by the time he turned 21. The bakery was probably the one constant, outside of the family unit, for Leo while he was growing up. Typical of the time in Brooklyn, the bakeries would have been at street level with several apartments located upstairs.

Leo attended grammar school in Brooklyn, but left in the 8th grade. His siblings all did the same. Staying in school may not have been an option for them. Their father would have expected them to work, and hopefully to learn and take over the family business. As the business was doing very well, and the family was financially comfortable, this must have seemed the best legacy for Joseph to leave his children.

Leo’s mother Lena, along with working in the bakery, keeping the home, and raising four children, made time for volunteer work. Her efforts were targeted at helping other German immigrants and her focus was the Woman’s Auxiliary for the German Hospital in Brooklyn. Lena served as Vice President of that organization, which boasted a membership of over 400 people! Unfortunately, when Leo was 18 his mother died (1917) at the age of 45 after a three year fight against breast cancer. Lena’s probate record, which mentions Leo, his 3 surviving siblings and their father, shows that she had money and property of her own and indicates she felt a certain degree of personal self-worth and financial independence.

Young adulthood for the siblings

During WW I, his brother Frederick was in the U. S. Army at Camp Gordon, Georgia where he attended the Army’s Cooking and Baking school while working in the same capacity there through April 1919. One home he was hard at work at the bakery again. In September 1920 he married Anna Martin.

His younger brother John Max Jahn, age 18, also signed up to work on a ship, but not until October 1919, through the USSB. John was employed as a messman on his first sailing. And the 1920 US Census says he was a seaman on a ship. He returned after that to work in the bakery. John did not marry until some time between 1942 and 1950.

Madeline, who was 16 in 1920, was working as a waitress in the family business. She married Thomas A. Kelly in 1926.

On June 9, 1918, Leo Jahn is photographed riding in the back seat of a sporty convertible with his future wife Grace Ferguson. Leo was almost 20 and Grace was 17.

The photo looks like a photography studio shot, as the background looks to be a painting, staged with cupie dolls and straw hat held as props.

What isn’t staged is how young, attractive and happy the two couples appear to be. Grace’s sister Carrie and her new husband Edward Peterson, in the front seat, look extra happy as it is their wedding day.

Photo credit: Ancestry.com family trees.

A few months later, September 1918, Leo followed in his brother Fred’s footsteps and registered for the WWI Draft. Both boys were living at 5721 5^th Avenue, Brooklyn. The second page of the draft registration describes Leo as physically slender, medium build, brown hair, and brown eyes.

Leo must have liked working with machinery and may have been doing so for a few years already. As early as 1915 (Source: New York Census) 17 year old Leo was working in a machine shop. When Leo registered for the draft in 1918, his occupation was Shipfitter* for the Submarine Boat Corp, located in Port Newark, New Jersey.

*Shipfitters fabricate and layout metal for building and repairing ships. They work for private companies as well naval shipyards. A shipfitter can be tasked with building, maintaining, and repairing small boats such as towboats and tugboats, as well as container ships, icebreakers, and ocean liners.
Source: Shipfitter – Careers in Welding

Working at the Submarine Boat Corp led to his work on ship at sea. On September 26, 1919, Leo age 21, applied for a Seaman’s Passport. The paperwork shows that Leo’s first work trip on a vessel was with the “USSB”, which turns out to be the United States Shipping Board.

The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board’s task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War I efforts. … The USSB operated a shipping business with its surplus ships until 1920, when the overseas freight market collapsed, and it began to lay up its vessels. In 1925, Henry Ford bought 199 of the out-of-service ships for $1,697,470 as part of an investigation into the secondary use of materials. The first ship reached the Ford River Rouge Complex in November, and all of the remaining ships were broken down and recycled the following summer.[29]

In July 1920, the USSB withdrew from the commission agreement and decided to deal with shipping workers directly.[27] The commission ceased operations on October 1, 1920.[28][26]: 568 .
Source: Wikipedia

So while Leo didn’t join the U. S. Army like his older brother Frederick, he contributed by helping the country build and retrofit ships to support the war effort.

Shown below is his application for a Seaman’s Passport and Certificate of American Citizenship #24138 submitted June 21 and approved on Sept. 26, 1919. The subsequent pages include a certificate of his baptism.

Gabriel L. Jahn of 125 5th St., Brooklyn, NY. is described on the application as being 5’8 ”, light complexion, brown hair, brown eyes, with a scar over his right eye.

The 1920 Federal Census confirms that Leo was still working then as a Seaman on a Ship. His employment through the USSB probably ended in the next year or so as the program winded down.

In July 1920, the USSB withdrew from the commission agreement and decided to deal with shipping workers directly.[27] The commission ceased operations on October 1, 1920. [28][26]: 568 [Source: Wikipedia]

False Charges

On Tuesday, September 6, 1921 a newspaper article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was published saying that Leo Jahn, 22 year old son of Joseph M. Jahn, a wealthy wholesale baker of Brooklyn, was charged with a robbery of a taxi driver that had taken place in Manhattan.

As no subsequent articles were published one can assumed that upon further inquiry the Grand Jury dropped all charges.

Marriage & Children

In researching Leo and his future wife, it was interesting to see that they did not live far away from each other prior to their marriage. In 1920 Leo was living with his father and siblings at 125 57th St. His future wife Grace Ferguson (1901-1905) was living with her parents, Charles Grant Ferguson (1871-1968) and Caroline Flood Tillinghast (1876-1948) a short distance away at 158 57th St., Brooklyn.

Leo Jahn and Grace M. Ferguson married some time after the 1920 Census. Neither the marriage license nor certificate was found in an online search.

By the time the 1925 NY census was taken, Leo and Grace Jahn were married with two children. Leo Jr age 3 and Grace, under a year old. They were living above the family bakery at 714 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn where Leo was once again employed as a baker.

Note: Kings & Queens County Birth Certificates for this time period are not available on the Historical Vital Records of NYC.

Leo and Grace’s first child, Leo Joseph Jahn, Jr. was born in Brooklyn on March 15, 1922. Kings County Birth Certificate # 11520

Their second child, Grace M. Jahn was born on July 8, 1924 also in Brooklyn. Kings County Birth Certificate #27543.

Their son Raymond John Jahn was born on January 19, 1927. Queens County Birth Certificate #1115.

Leo and Grace were living in Springfield Gardens, Queens when Raymond was born, however, Raymond’s WWII draft registration says he was born in Jamaica, Long Island.

Another son was born two years later. They named him James. He was premature and died the same day he was born, Nov. 6, 1929. Queens County Birth Certificate #11259. Queens County Death Certificate #6755. The death index record says James was buried in “City Cemetery”, Queens.

Charlotte Jahn was born on April 22, 1931. Queens County Birth Certificate #4273.

Six days before Charlotte’s birth, Leo’s father Joseph (age 59) remarried. His new wife was a recent German immigrant named Frances “Fanny” Grosser (Gresser / Grasser), 23 years his junior (and only 3 years older than Leo). In the 1930 Census record, Fanny was described as Joseph’s “cousin”. Fanny had been living at the same address at Joseph prior to their marriage, which took place on April 16, 1931. Fanny remained close with her step-family even after Leo’s father’s death in 1943. She was living in the same household as Frederick Jahn and his family, and working at the bakery/restaurant as per the 1950 census. Her death record has not been found yet.

Leo and Grace Jahn & children continued to live in Queens until some time after 1935. [The 1940 census asks where people were living in 1935, and their answer was Queens.] By 1940 they were back in Brooklyn, living over the bakery at 714 Washington Avenue.

Between 1931 and 1942 no other children are identified in the online NYC birth index. On Oct 5, 1942 Grace gave birth to a girl they named Dianne. Sadly, Dianne did not survive the month. She died of bronchial pneumonia on October 24th (note a copy of her Kings Co. Death Certificate #19813 is posted on the writer’s ancestry.com family tree). Dianne is buried in St. John’s Cemetery, Brooklyn.

The family moves to Hunterdon County, New Jersey

Apparently by the mid 1940s Grace wanted the family to leave Brooklyn. Leo’s father Joseph M. Jahn died on Jan. 31, 1943. Joseph’s estate was probated Kings County Probate record #1191-43. Maybe that event had something to do with their decision to leave.

In 1945 Leo Jahn secured a mortgage on property in Croton, near Flemington, Hunterdon Co., New Jersey. The mortgagees were Jacob Keller and his wife. The actual mortgage paperwork should be filed at the Hunterdon County Registry of Deeds in Flemington, which would be available to look at and copy there in person, as would be the discharge of the mortgage. The mortgage paperwork should provide more detail about the financing arrangements and the property itself. It should also include the deed’s book and page number so that it would be possible to see the actual deed and the subsequent sale to a new owner when Leo moved to Raritan Township.

[Source: FamilySearch.org Film # 008519874, image #942. Mortgages, 1766-1902; index, 1766-1956. Mortgagee: Jahn, Leopold. Mortgager: Jacob Keller ux 4542. Book 201, page 311. Record accessed Aug. 11, 2023. ] Note: ux is an abbreviation of the Latin word uxor, which means “and wife”.

record-image_Mortgage index Download

Leo worked as a baker at Batz Bakery in Flemington. The bakery was owned by a German immigrant, Berta Batz. Interesting (to anyone from Hunterdon County anyway) Berta and her husband Alois Batz were the couple who opened Deer Path Camp on their 122 acre farm in nearby Readington Township. In 1977 the Batz farm was donated by the family to Hunterdon County for use as a county park and is now known as Deer Path Park, a very much loved place by locals and visitors alike.

As the Hunterdon County Democrat newspaper is not available online through newspapers.com or genealogybank, it’s not possible for this writer to do a newspaper search of the archives to determine if more has been published about Leo, Grace, and their children in that paper.

When Leo’s wife Grace was about 49 years old she died on October 19, 1950 in Plainfield, NJ. Source: NJ State File #39486, place of death #20486, place of residence #10635, Month 10, year 1950. The hospital in Flemington wasn’t built yet and Somerset Hospital was still fairly small. So it’s possible she was hospitalized at Muhlenberg Hospital, which had a very good reputation.

Leo continued to work at Batz Bakery until his retirement (about 1968). Prior to his death on August 22, 1976 at the Union Forge Nursing Home in Clinton, NJ, Leo was living with his daughter Mrs. Charlotte Barnes in Flemington, NJ. Of his siblings, only his sister Madeline survived him.

Leo and Grace Jahn are buried at St. Magdalen’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Flemington, NJ.

Brief follow up details for the children of Leo & Grace Jahn.

Leo Joseph Jahn (1922-2018). At age 22, Leo was working at Sperry Gyroscope, 39 First Avenue, Brooklyn and living at 714 Washington Ave (source: his 1942 WW2 Draft Registration). Leo Jr. moved to Croton, NJ around 1945 with his family. In 1950 he was still single and living in Croton with his parents and brother Raymond. Leo’s wife’s name is withheld for privacy reasons. Leo died February 27, 2018 in Oceanside, San Diego, California.

Grace Caroline Jahn (1924-2017) married Andrew J. Nosal in 1947 in Hunterdon County, NJ. By 1990 Grace was living in Seattle, Kings, Washington State. Grace died on Nov 25, 2017 in Snohomish, Washington.

Raymond John Jahn (1927-2006). On his WW2 Draft Registration in 1945, Raymond (age 18) listed his address & contact person as c/o his Aunt Carrie Pederson of 161 Saratoga Avenue, Brooklyn. He was working at Old Town Carbon and Ribbon Co, 750 Pacific St., Brooklyn. In 1950 he was living with his parents & brother Leo in Croton, NJ, where his occupation was body fender work in a garage. Raymond had worked 48 hours the previous week. He married Marian Slout (or Stenabaugh) of Flemington, NJ. By 1990 they are living in Sebastian, Florida. Raymond died on March 21, 2006 and Marion on Sept. 20, 2011.

Charlotte – information withheld for privacy.