Messages

To all, who were so helpfull in finding information about H.Pries and his family:

We wish you a peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year 2007 !

Hope, all your wishes may come true.

Regards

Andy
Frankfurt / Germany

Dear Janet, WGray and Lois,

you all are very nice to help finding information.

Janet, thanks for scanning the picture, it is in a really good state !
Much better than that in the collection.
I saved it from the forum, it was 450 x 293 pixel.
It you have it more precicly, could you please send it to andreas.berendsen@gmx.de  ?
I will print it and send to my  relative Gertrud for her ancestor book.


W.Gray, the additional information about the Metropolitan Hotel is very interesting.

Today, it is not unuasual, to include shops in the basement of a hotel or business building.
Can one say, that the hotel was somehow a prequel of todays shopping centers  ?   :-)

Lois, you spent probably some time in the courthouse to look into books.
Especially the information about ,Millie' was new to me.

Does Grace Lawn Cemetery still exist ?
You wrote, Millie died in 1960, 28 years after her husband and was burried in Howard.
Is it likely, that she lived these years in Howard ?
I guess, there is a chance, that her daughter Edith lived there too.

It would be a great  step forward to find Edith's name after marriage,
but as I do ancestry research in my village for a friend in California,
I know how much work it is. You spend hours and hours over books,
with hard to read handwriting.

Therefore, I don't dare to ask you for more research.

Millie was 86, when she died. Does the records tell anything about the place ?
Maybe an elderly home ?  1960 is not too long ago; is there the chance,
that someone is still living and has known her ?
It is not unlikely, that a descendant of Edith is among Howards inhabitants..

Teresa,  History is so exciting for me !
I live in a village, first mentioned 880. The oldest house was built in 1550
many more 200-300 years.
Can you imagine the stories around it ? I'm waiting for time travel !

(Thank you for beeing patient, I can post only, when I'm at work)

Your
Andy

Thanks for your help....

Already in 2002 I got some valuable hints from Mary Nelson at Wichita State Library,
where the only known picture of Metropolitan Hotel is part of the Special Collections.

She sent me an excerpt of the Elk County History book, which was very interesting.

I got a copy of a letter from Henry Priess to his relatives in Germany,
where at the head of the paper ,,Metropolitan Hotel Howard   Prop. H. Priess"  is printed.

I guess, when he died, it was no longer possible for his wife and daughter to make
a living from it.  It was in the years of the great depression and money was short,
so the hotel simply might have had no guests.

Is there any report of sandstorms near howard in the dust bowl era?

I found, that mainly the western parts of Kansas where affected.

More info at  http://www.pbs.org/shptv/Dust%20Bowl/dustarea.html

Andy

I have a story to tell.

One day in 2004 a lady in a small village in northern germany opened
an old suit case she found in her loft.
In there, she found  letters from an uncle of her mother.
He once  left Germany to emmigrate to America.

He wrote letters back home regularly.
First from Wichita, Ks., then he moved to Howard, Ks.

The last letter, which reached Germany, was from his daughter.
It is dated May 6th 1932.  His daughter Edith reports to the relatives back home in Germany, that her father died on April 15th. He was severly ill for 12 days,
but she did not write from what he suffered. 

The family tree in Germany continued to grow, but the loose connection to
Kansas was not living on. 

So, no one living today knows, where to these two ladies, Millie and Edith went,
nor if Edith ever married and the American family tree continued also.

The name of the father was Henry Priess, the proprietor of the Metropolitan hotel
in Howard, Kansas.

Although this man is a not so close person among my ancestors,
I adore his courage and trust in his faith to leave his home country and make a new
start in a totally unknown country.

I wonder if anyone living in Howard today, may know what happend to his beloved.

Thankful for any information   

Andy
Frankfurt, Germany