History of GULDNER (GUELDNER)- MEIFERT - MULLER -MEISLER Families in Hope Villa, Ascension Parish, Louisiana as known to JOHANNA J. MEISLER ANDREWS File submitted by John Gueldner and prepared for archive by Deandra Norred Pardue ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Great Grandmother Regina Nicoljewsua , and Great Grandfather Wilhelm Guldner came to America in 1867 entering through the Port of New Orleans, La, They had two children, Frederick and Adelheide Guldner,both of whom were born in Germany. Great Grandmother was Catholic and Great Grandfather was Lutheran. On February 11, 1873, their daughter Adelheide Guldner married Frederick Meifert in Donaldsonville, La. Frederick Meifert had been a passenger on the same ship with the Guldner family. Frederick and Adelheide had three children: Lorenza Meifert - who died in infancy; Frederick Emile Otto Meifert - born August 14, 1876 at Hobart, La. Ward 8. He died on September 6, 1911 at Hobart, La,, of myocarditis, nephritis, and hypertension; Louise Sophie Meifert - born ?, died in 1949 of cancer; All of this family are buried in Hope Villa, La., Ascension Parish, in the old family cemetery on what is known as the Meifert place, --------------------------------- Grandmother Caroline Augusta Sophie Muller was born in West Prussia on February 14, 1853. She married Frederick Gueldner, son of Regina and Wilhelm Guldner ( note the change in the spelling of the surname) I do not know the date of the wedding or where it took place but I believe it to have been in New Orleans. Grandmother Caroline Muller was on the same ship as the Meifert and Guldner families . Grandmother Caroline and Grandfather Frederick Gueldner had seven children: Sophie Adelhaide Wilhelmine - Born January 5, 1876 in New Orleans, Died April 19,1970 in Covington, La, buried in Garden of Memories, New Orleans; Theodore - Born in New Orleans; Buried in Ponchatoula, La.; Richard - Born in New Orleans, Buried in Hope Villa, La.; Frederick - Born in New Orleans, Buried in Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans; Oscar R. - Born in Hope Villa, La., died of cancer on December 2, 1964, buried in St, Louis Cemetery, New Orleans. (Dates of birth of the four persons named above are not available.) Page 2 Pauline Nicoline - Born in Hope Villa, June 26, 1888, Died November 29, 1955 in Bakersfield, Calif., buried in Oreenlawn Memorial Park, Bakersfield; Julia - Born February 16, 1893 in Hope Villa, Died of cancer on June 3, 1959. She is buried in Magnolia Cemetery, Baton Rouge, La, ------------------------------------- Grandfather Frederick Gueldner died, I think, when I was 5 years old ( 1904 ), He is buried at Hope Villa. Grandmother Caroline remarried at Baton Rouge, in 1919 to Henry Vens. No children were born of this marriage. Henry Vens died in 1933 in Baton Rouge. Grandmother Caroline died of pneumonia an June 1, 1938 at our former home 6304 Patton Street, New Orleans. She and Henry Vens are buried in Magnolia Cemetery, Baton Rouge; ------------------------------------- The Meifert and Gueldner families lived in New Orleans for some years after arriving from Europe. They operated a dairy business. Grandfather Gueldner was also a commercial artist? Eventually the Meifert and Gueldner families homesteaded 500 acres each, adjoining each other in Hope Villa, Acension Parish. There they expanded the dairy business and shipped the milk products daily to New Orleans by boat. 'The boat was called the "Alice", It docked at their farm on Bayou Manchac. It plied the waters to New Orleans via Bayou Manchac and Lake Pontchartrain. On its return to Bayou Manchac, it brought all kinds of supplies to small stores in the vicinity as well as to the Meifert and Gueldner families. From New Orleans it brought huge blocks of ice packed in huge boxes with rice chaff to keep it from melting. The three older Gueldner boys accompanied the dairy products on the boat and peddled the milk, butter, cream, and cream cheese in New Orleans. Then there were restrictions placed on milk products sold in this manner. It was too costly to meet these requirements, so the project was phased out. The families then decided to go into the wood business, selling wood to bakeries to fire the ovens in which bread, cake, etc., were baked. The wood was referred to as "baker's pine". It was usually cut into 18 or 20 inch lengths. They also: sold oak wood for barrel staves. It was a certain kind of oak called white oak, The families invested jointly and built a narrow gauge railroad to haul the wood to the boat landing on Bayou Manchac to be loaded on the "Alice" en route to New Orleans via Lake Pontchartrain. The three older boys, Uncles Richard, Theodore, and Frederick met the boat in New Orleans, loaded the wood onto a Tennessee wagon drawn by two horses and delivered it to the customers. As credit was had, payment was taken on delivery ~ no money, no wood. The boys lived at the home of an uncle whose name I do not know; they also stored their equipment at the uncle's place. Times were changing: gas was now being manufactured from stone coal. The bakeries preferred gas to wood, so the wood business was no longer profitable. The families sold all their equipment to some lumber mill and divided the proceeds. Page 3 Both families, the Meifert's and the Gueldner's decided to farm their own land. They planted cotton, corn, cane, sorghum and sweet potatoes; They raised sheep for wool as there was a good market for that, They also raised hogs and cattle for meat, Grandma Gueldner raised a great flock of geese for down and feathers, The children of both families attended a public school. They walked three miles through the woods to Prairieville, where the school was situated. They carried a book, a slate, and a little pail of lunch (there were no brown bags then). In winter the pails were set around a wood burning heater to keep warm. The drinking water was from a well. It was kept in buckets in the school room near the teacher's desk so the boys could not add a frog or something to tease the girls. The school itself was a one room building where first through ninth grades were taught. The teacher was a tall man named Mr. Bonart. The readers were McGuffeys. The author of this book was the father of Mrs. Harold Brown, the wife of the minister who was in charge of the Protestant Home far the Aged on Magazine St., in New Orleans. It is amazing how well educated these pupils became, This teacher was truly a dedicated person. Some of the boys became lawyers, teachers, surveyors, merchants, bookkeepers, and doctors. Some of the girls became teachers. Years passed and the boys and girls of both families decided to go their ways in life, as the farm was not profitable enough to support so many adults. They wanted to be self~supporting, marry and have homes of their own.