2023 LEISZ FAMILY REUNION IN TURTLE LAKE, WISCONSIN—A BIG SUCCESS!
FAMILY TREE
Joseph Leisz was married first to Anna Karänke, who died in childbirth. Joseph went on to then marry Louisa Haspray, and together Joseph and Louisa had nine children from 1901 to 1921.
5 Generations of Joseph Leisz's
Every generation has a Joseph
Leisz Brother Joseph's family has a Joseph in each of four consecutive generations after him. They are:
GEN 2: JOSEPH FRANCIS LEISZ (1910-1994), Turtle Lake, WI and Cleveland, OH: Eldest son of Leisz Brother Joseph. Joseph and wife Louisa had five daughters—Marie, Anna, Barbara, Lucy and Tracy—before finally having a boy, Joseph Francis Leisz, in 1910.
GEN 3: JOSEPH C. LEISZ (b. 1941), Parma, OH: Son of Joseph Francis Leisz and wife Jean Buchholz Leisz. Joe, better known as "Bud," was the second-born son to the couple. Buddy and wife Fran had two daughters, Pam and Cindy. So carrying on the Joseph Leisz tradition was up to Bud's older brother Bob Leisz. Bob attended our 2018 reunion, driving from his home in California with wife Josie the 1,990 miles to Turtle Lake. so did his son Joe Leisz. Bob was also at the 2002 family reunion, along with his brother Bud and their spouses.
GEN 4: JOSEPH LEISZ (b. 1976), Ames, IA: This Joseph Leisz is the son of Bob Leisz (see above), eldest son of Joseph Francis Leisz. Gen 4 Joe was at the 2018 Family Reunion with his son, Michael, age 9. He was also at the 2002 family reunion.
GEN 5: JOSEPH HA LEISZ (b. 2005). Fort Collins, CO: This Joseph Leisz is the son of Steve Leisz and My Dung Leisz. Steve wrote to us in recent days, "Our son Joseph's high school had a 'dress up like the 20s day' where they were supposed to dress up as either as they think they would have dressed in the 1920s or the 2020s. Joseph choose the 1920s and we decided to send a picture of him from that (taken before he went to school) to you. One thing to note is that the tie he is wearing is one that my Grandpa Leisz (my Dad's Dad - Joe Leisz) gave to me when I was in high school. He gave me all of his old 'thin' ties that were actually from the 1920s - at least that is what he told me."
NOTE: Steve Leisz is the son of Bob Leisz (b. 1939) who has two boys—Steve Leisz and Joe Leisz (plus two daughters—Nadine Leisz and Dorine Leisz). Steve and wife My Dung, who is from Vietnam, named their firstborn child Joseph. Steve traveled from Vietnam to be at our 2002 family reunion.
MARY LEISZ WATERS LUCAS
MARY LEISZ WATERS LUCAS
MARY LEISZ WATERS LUCAS
Eldest, with one child, Billy Waters, the first grandchild to Joseph and Louisa. Mary, or "Marie" was widowed at a young age and remarried in 1943 to Emerick Lucas.
ANNA LEISZ LINDEN
MARY LEISZ WATERS LUCAS
MARY LEISZ WATERS LUCAS
Husband Arnold Linden served in WWII. They lived in Avon, Ohio—out in the country—where Ann grew delicious berries. They had no children.
BARBARA LEISZ DAVIS
MARY LEISZ WATERS LUCAS
BARBARA LEISZ DAVIS
Barb and husband Charlie Davis had three children, plus two adopted kids.
LUCY LEISZ WESTFALL
LUCY LEISZ WESTFALL
BARBARA LEISZ DAVIS
Lucy loved dancing, and pleaded with her kid brother Jackie to come back soon from his service in WWII so they could go back to the neighborhood Jam Bar and kick up their heels.
TRACIE LEISZ
LUCY LEISZ WESTFALL
TRACIE LEISZ
Tracie was only 9 years old when she died of diphtheria in 1918. Her little brother Franky died the same day. Losing two children in one day was agonizing for Joseph and Louisa.
JOSEPH LEISZ
LUCY LEISZ WESTFALL
TRACIE LEISZ
Eldest son Joe had five older sisters preceding his birth. Joe was a captain on the fire department in Cleveland, where the family relocated to in in 1920.
FRANKY LEISZ
JOSEPHINE LEISZ CRAVEN
JOSEPHINE LEISZ CRAVEN
A joy of a chlld, Franky was the little entertainer of the Leisz family. Tragically, he died the same day as his sister Tracie in 1918. He was just 5 years old.
JOSEPHINE LEISZ CRAVEN
JOSEPHINE LEISZ CRAVEN
JOSEPHINE LEISZ CRAVEN
After Tracie and Franky died, Joseph and Louisa had another daughter and son. Josephine or "Joan," born in 1919, married Chuck Craven and moved to Clarence, NY where they raised six children.
JACK LEISZ
JOSEPHINE LEISZ CRAVEN
JACK LEISZ
Jack or "Jackie" was the baby of the nine children of Joseph and Louisa. He served in WWII, and like his older brother Joseph, had a career as a firefighter in Cleveland, OH. Jack and wife Mary Zema Leisz had
two daughters.
The backstory on the above photo
The above photo was in the collection of Joseph Francis "Joe" Leisz (1910-1994), eldest son of Leisz Brother Joseph. Joe's daughter Marianne Leisz Kasarda brought the photo, along with many other classic old images, to the 2018 Reunion in Turtle Lake.
This photo is unique in that it is candid and unposed, Joseph in his farming overalls, smoking a pipe and reading the newspaper. The couple is seated in what was a log cabin they purchased on June 11, 1901 for $1,050, along with 80 acres of land. Joseph then expanded the one-room cabin to include a living room and upstairs with two bedrooms, plus a bedroom on the first floor.
The year 1918, when this photo was taken, was a key year for the Joseph Leisz family. At the start of 1918, they had seven children—five girls (Marie, Anna, Barbara, Lucy and Tracy) and two boys (Joseph and Franky). By February 2, the two youngest children died from diphtheria, both in the same night. Tracy, age 9, and Franky, age 5, are buried at St. Ann's Cemetery in Turtle Lake with one memorial stone marking their burial site.
On April 1, 1918, Joseph and Louisa married off their "adopted" daughter, Theresa "Tracy" Minnichsoffer, to August Thomas Klingelhoets in a church wedding at St. Ann's. Tracy came to live with her Uncle Joseph and his family in 1903, after her own mother, Mary Leisz Minnichsoffer, passed away at age 42. Then on May 14, their new "son-in-law" August was enlisted in the U.S. military to serve in World War I.
Just before this photo was taken in August 1918, Joseph and his brothers had buried their own mother, family matriarch Anna Maria "Mary" Schmidt Leisz, who died on July 31, 1918. She is laid to rest in St. Ann's Cemetery in Turtle Lake.
Here Louisa is pregnant with the couple's sixth daughter Josephine, who would be born December 21, 1918. Josephine Leisz Craven was the last of their children to be born in Turtle Lake, before the Joseph Leisz family moved to Cleveland, Ohio in approximately 1920. It was there that their last child, John Leopold "Jackie" Leisz, was born on March 29, 1921. Joseph was 53 years old at the time of Jackie's birth, and Louisa was nearing age 40 that coming June. The family moved because Louisa wanted to be closer to better medical care than what a rural area such as Turtle Lake could offer. She also reportedly told Joseph, "I spent the first half of my life in Turtle Lake with your family. I want to spend the second half of my life in Cleveland with my relatives."
Before moving to Cleveland, Joseph and Louisa sold their farm to Joseph's eldest brother John (1861-1939) on April 1, 1920, according to the deed. Then in January 1923, John Sr. sold the property on land contract to his son John Franklin (1895-1977), who rented the property for a time until Turtle Lake citizen Frank Merth and his family purchased it in 1942. The farm and farmhouse has been in the Merth family since that time, and current owner Michael Merth has lived his entire live in the house.
Left Turtle Lake for Cleveland, Ohio in 1919
2017 reunion of Joseph's decendents
1900: Joseph Leisz marries Louisa Haspray
TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY TURTLE LAKE WEDDING
The year? 1900. The place? Barron County, Wisconsin. The wedding couple? Leisz Brother Joseph and his new wife Louisa Haspray. This was the second marriage for Joseph, who had married a Minneapolis shop owner's daughter, Anna Karänke, who died while pregnant with the couple's first child; the baby also died.
WHO ARE OTHERS IN THIS PHOTO? Can you help identify anyone in the above photo? Click HERE for an enlargement so you can view it more closely.
Could the person standing behind Joseph with a hand on his shoulder perhaps be Leisz Brother John (1861-1939), eldest of the 6 Leisz Brothers? It would make sense that some of Joseph's brothers are in this photo. More recent (July 2019) information suggests this tall man could actually be Louisa's brother Stephen Haspray. But we're uncertain.
Who is the man standing behind the bride...could this be Leisz Brother Anton (1880-1942) or Frank (1875-1949)? And what about the mustached man second from right? Is this one of the Leisz brothers?
Contact us HERE to let us know your thoughts!
About Joseph's first wife
On January 15, 2019, new clues on ancestry.com suggested that Joseph's first wife was named Anna Bertha Louise Karänke, and not Anna "Granke" as previously thought.
Joseph Francis Leisz (1910-1993), eldest son of Leisz Brother Joseph (1868-1942), wrote about Anna, from family stories he had heard:
Joseph met Anna in Minnesota (likely Minneapolis), likely in 1898. Anna's parents, who were shop owners, opposed their daughter a mere "dirt farmer."
But in September 1898, marry they did. Tragically, Anna died between September and December 1898, she is said to have been pregnant at the time. Anna is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Turtle Lake, Polk County, Wisconsin.
Remembering Leisz Brother Joseph
Leisz Brother Joseph died on March 25, 1942 at age 74. He left wife Louisa, two sons and five daughters—plus plenty of grandchildren. Scroll down for stories about Joseph's passing, posted below.
THIS TURTLE LAKE PHOTO, CIRCA 1917, SHOWS FRONT ROW (FROM LEFT) LOUISA "LUCY" LEISZ, AGE 10, PATRIARCH JOSEPH, 49, JOSEPH FRANCIS LEISZ, 7, FRANKY LEISZ, 4, MATRIARCH LOUISA HASPRAI LEISZ, 46, AND AND THERESIA LEISZ, 9. BACK ROW (FROM LEFT) ANNA CATHARINA LEISZ, 14, MARY THERESIA, 16, ADOPTED DAUGHTER TRACY MINNICHSOFFER (DAUGHTER OF JOSEPH'S DECEASED SISTER MARY LEISZ MINNICHSOFFER), 20, BARBARA LUCILLE LEISZ, 15. NOT SHOWN ARE CHILDREN TO COME: JOSEPHINE IN 1918, AND JACK IN 1921.
Memories: Joseph Leisz (1868-1942) passes away
Going to the Lord
Children's Reaction
Going to the Lord
Joseph asked his eldest child Marie to fulfill certain wishes he had for when he passed on. Among this is his wish to not leave his beloved house, built with his own hands, and have his body taken to a funeral parlor.
Marie made sure to honor her dad's wishes when that time came. She recorded these wishes in writing, along with a description of the night her father died suddenly at home on Wednesday, March 25, 1942. This document was found in 2019 among memorabilia at the home of Marie's only child Billy Waters. Marie herself passed on in 1984.
Full House
Children's Reaction
Going to the Lord
At the time of his death, Joseph lived at 10326 Joan Ave. on Cleveland's West side, in a bungalow he built for his family when they first moved to Cleveland in late 1919.
The 1940 U.S. Census documents this Leisz household two years before Joseph died. It include he and his wife, daughters Anna, 37, Josephine, 21, son Jack, 19, and daughter Marie, 39, who was widowed and lived with her parents along with her only child Billy Waters, 8.
Joseph's other children Barbara, Lucy and Joe were married, raising families, and living in homes of their own.
Children's Reaction
Children's Reaction
Children's Reaction
Joseph's eldest granddaughters Joan Davis (left) and Marilyn Westfall, were each 9 years old when their Grandpa died.
Joan remembers how Grandpa was waked at home in his living room on Joan Ave. Their Grandma Louisa forced them each to approach their Grandpa's corpse and place a kiss on his forehead.
They both were terrified to do so, and afterward, they ran into the coat closet to hide. But inside were fur coats on hangers belonging to their aunts. Joan and Marilyn screamed, thinking the furs were a bear, and ran out of the closet in utter terror!
Memorial Holy Card
Brothers in Life and Death
Children's Reaction
Funeral prayer cards to memorialize the deceased date back to the 15th Century. Joseph's Holy Card was typical of the 1940s, in black and white, and displaying traditional Catholic images of Jesus and angels. Shown here is an image the original cards printed for Joseph's funeral, quite fragile as it is nearly 80 years old.
"O Gentlest Heart of Jesus, ever present in the Blessed Sacrament, ever consumed with burning love for the poor captive souls in Purgatory, have mercy on the soul of Thy departed servant..."
Brothers in Life and Death
Brothers in Life and Death
Brothers in Life and Death
Here Leisz Brother Anton (left) joins his older brother Joseph on a visit to Cleveland from Turtle Lake. It was the late 1930s, and Anton drove the 750 miles along with his brother Frank and son George. Anton, born in 1880, was 12 years younger than Joseph.
When Joseph passed away a few years after this photo was taken, Anton wrote a letter to his family with apologies for being unable to attend his brother's funeral. Anton said he just hadn't been feeling well.
As fate would have it, Anton himself died just four months later of a stroke, in July 1942. He was only 62 years old, and had retired from farming just months earlier.
Josephine Remembers Pa
Brothers in Life and Death
Brothers in Life and Death
Joseph's youngest daughter Josephine remembered Pa in letters she wrote to kid brother Jack, who by September 1942, just six months after Joseph's death, had been drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II.
Jack was in basic training at Camp Lee, Virginia when, on November 26, 1942, "Jose" wrote to him as follows:
"Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It sure is going to be kind of a lonesome ay tho for us, with Pa gone and you gone... Remember last year. We were all together—yet. Mother bought a 12-1/2 lb. goose from the chicken man yesterday. He was squawking all day in the basement.
I suppose you'll have turkey, won't you?"
Bits and Pieces
LIKE UNCLE, LIKE NEPHEW
DISCOVERING COUSINS' CONNECTIONS
DISCOVERING COUSINS' CONNECTIONS
Alexandra Waters, daughter of Dan Waters (above right), shared this photo of her law enforcement dad, along with his Uncle Jack Leisz, a Cleveland firefighter for 30 years. Thanks Alex for the great memory!
Jack is the youngest child of Leisz Brother Joseph, and Dan is the great-grandson of Joseph, and one of 11 children of Joseph's eldest grandson Billy Waters.
Jack passed in 1988 but his life still leaves a mark on those who were fortunate enough to know him.
DISCOVERING COUSINS' CONNECTIONS
DISCOVERING COUSINS' CONNECTIONS
DISCOVERING COUSINS' CONNECTIONS
Deb Raffesberger Avery, granddaughter of Leisz Brother Michael, came across this portrait among her old family photos and didn't recognize these ladies.
Turns out they're the three eldest children of Leisz Brother Joseph (from left) Anna, Barbara, and Marie, circa 1925. The frame identifies the photographer as Robt. F. Krumhar Studio in Cleveland, Ohio.
Upon seeing this long-lost photo, Marie's grandson John Waters told us: "I looked up the address for the studio where the photo was taken: 1917 West 25th Street. To my surprise it’s now the Town Hall Café, and my daughter works there! Weird…" Weird, indeed, John!
New videos of Billy Waters and others
DEC 23, 2018: Billy on his Uncle Jack
NOV 10, 2017: Billy tours the old neighborhood
NOV 12, 2017: Charlie plays the uke
DEC 22, 2018: Billy looks at his old artwork
DEC 22, 2018: Billy reads a Waters story about Christmas
JUL 21, 2019: Billy with his Grandpa Joseph's gun
DATE: Billy looks at his Grandpa's Book of Life
DATE: Billy talks about his Uncle Jack Leisz
DATE: Billy makes his famous bread
DATE: Billy reads a thank you note
DATE: Billy playing his dad's uke
DATE: Billy plays the uke with wife Cathie
DATE: Marianne Leisz Kasarda talks about Grandpa Joseph Leisz
DATE: Billy and Cathie Christmas present 1
DATE: Billy and Cathie Christmas present 2
DATE: Billy reads the Waters 12 Days of Christmas
DATE: Michael Merth on parties at the Joseph Leisz farmhouse
DATE: Michael Merth on the layout of the Joseph Leisz farm
DATE: Michael Merth on a fire at the Joseph Leisz farmhouse
DATE: Michael Merth on what happened to the Joseph Leisz farm
