Thursday, April 18, 2024
Robert Hollman
LEGACY COMES TO LIFE
Editor’s Note: Jenny Frank’s story is told by her great-great-great-great-grandson, Robert Hollmann. Robert is a member of The Sons of the Republic of Texas and serves as a vice president of the David Crockett Chapter in Granbury.
My name is Genevieve Klaus. I was born in 1819 in Alsace, Germany. My family called me Jenny, and that is what I went by all my life. We moved to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania. When I grew older, I moved to New Orleans, and there I met a young man named Lawrence Frank. Lawrence was working as a steamboat captain on the Mississippi River. He was a large man, heavily built, and would have fitted the description of a Prussian Army Officer, although he had never served in any army. Like me, he was born in Germany. We had many things in common, and we were soon married. Being a steamboat captain is not conducive to a happy home life, so Lawrence decided to leave the riverboat business, and we moved to the Republic of Texas.
Texas had won its independence from Mexico, and there was a lot of opportunity for people who were willing to work to become successful there.
We moved to a thriving community called Houston. We bought a small farm in what today would be downtown Houston. Some of our friends helped us build the farmhouse, and it survived until 1947 when it was finally razed for progress, although some wanted to keep it as a landmark since it had been built during the Republic of Texas days.
Lawrence invested in property, and the property tax records for the time show that he owned ten lots in Block 121 on the south side of Buffalo Bayou only a year after Texas joined the Union.
I walked to church, and on the way, I would recite the Rosary for my family and friends who followed me. Some of the people who went on the walks were not very spiritual, but they told me they went because they liked to walk with me on the way home and listen to the stories I would tell.
Although I liked to visit with friends, I refused to learn English. German was my native language and so I thought no reason to learn another. My daughter Mary Teresa was afraid that her first-born daughter Miriam McCleary would never learn English because I lived with them and saw to it that Miriam was
fluent in German. However, by the time Miriam was mature, she had forgotten all the German she knew.
I was very suspicious of new inventions. When some neighbors installed a telephone, I told them no one would ever convince me that a person was in that little box talking to me.
We had eight children, all born in Texas: Ignatius, Joseph, Louise Gertrude, Lorenz, Charles, Antone, August Frank and Mary Teresa.
Lawrence and I were one of the founding families of Annunciation Catholic Church in 1866. Unfortunately, that year my daughter Louise Gertrude died.
Two of my sons, Ignatius and Joseph, served in the Civil War. Ignatius was a member of the Confederate army, while Joseph joined the Union. Fortunately, both boys survived the war; however, at family gatherings, they would argue about the war and get into violent arguments. On one occasion, they got into a fistfight at the home of Mary Teresa. She was thoroughly disgusted with them for spoiling the family gathering, so she took a broomstick to them, broke up the argument, and had the brothers sit out on the porch. Joseph fought for the army during the Indian wars. He was stationed at Fort Davis. At one point he told a man to “Go to Hell”. The man advanced on Joseph to fight and Joseph said, “Hold on, now. Just because I told you to go don’t mean you have to do it.” The fight was averted.
Genevieve Klaus Frank died on July 1, 1899, eight months before her husband. Her sons acted as her pallbearers. She is buried next to her husband in Saint Vincent’s Cemetery in Houston. Texas.
WHO ARE THE SONS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS? The Sons of the Republic of Texas consist of members who are direct lineal descendants of those who settled in the Republic of Texas from 1836 to February 19, 1846. The purpose of the SRT is to perpetuate the memory and spirit of the men and women who won Texas’ independence. They set the course for Texas to become a nation and eventually the 28th state. LEGACY COMES TO LIFE personifies our ancestors with true stories about real people who changed the course of history. For membership information, please visit our website srttexas.org, or email old300.srt@gmai.com.
