Whatever Happened to the Other Linneman Brother?

Elizabeth Linneman (Mem) had four older brothers: Christian, Gerhard, William and George. They arrived in Baltimore in 1904 from Germany and were all in Monessen by 1917, except for William. In their mother's obituary, William was listed as residing in Chicago in 1930 so I did a little digging.

The first record that I found for William in Chicago was in 1916. On January 4, 1916, William married Emma Schultz, a widow with 4 children. Emma was born in Russia, but was often listed as German, and arrived in Baltimore from Bremen in 1906 with 3 of her children. Her husband Rudolph Schoning (Schonig) was already in Chicago and died sometime between 1910 and 1915 (Emma was naturalized in 1915 and was listed as a widow). William and Emma had a daughter, Emma Linneman, on April 3, 1916 (yes, just three months after their marriage).

In all of the records, William and Emma lived on the northwest side of Chicago in the Logan Square and Bucktown neighborhoods, which were immigrant areas of the city at the time that they settled (German and Norwegian). William was listed often as a woodworker, carpenter or furniture finisher. He died in 1951 and Emma died in 1952; both are buried in Elmhurst, IL. In both of their obituaries, their five daughters were listed (Emma and her order siblings) plus they had 20 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

Here is the only picture that we have of William. It is from a portrait taken in Germany around 1904.

Another "Out of Town" Wedding

I am slowly entering all of our research over the past years into Family Tree Maker. As I am working on each person, I am double checking info and sources online. I found a reference to Charles Lester's (Pop-Pop's brother) marriage certificate which I thought was a different Charles Lester. We have a newspaper article from the Monessen Daily Independent that announces Lester's marriage to Gladys "Happy" Griffith on October 25, 1940 at the Dormont Presbyterian Church. Dormont is located between Monessen and Pittsburgh and it is where Happy's parents lived.

So when I found a Charles Lester Cubbage that was married in 1933, I didn't think anything of it until I saw that the bride's name was Gladys Griffith. I was able to find the original document and it WAS Lester and Happy! They were married on May 13th, 1933 in Morgantown, WV by a Lutheran Minister. (click on any of these images to see them larger).

So here is another Cubbage who went away to get married. It's interesting that Lester & Happy didn't "officially" get married until 7 years later. I wonder if young people did that at the time, although Lester was 30 and Happy was 24 when they were married in WV. And they were older for that time period when they married in the church in 1940 (37 and 32). Also, I wonder if any of Lester's siblings knew about it and if that influenced Art & Agnes' decision to get married in Connellsville. Hmmm, we'll be left wondering...



Here is a picture of Lester (I don't have any of Happy).

The Marriage of Art and Agnes

So after the questions and jokes about Pop-Pop and Nanny's wedding while we were in Pittsburgh, I did some more searching. We had looked for a marriage license while we were in Greensburg (Westmoreland County) and found nothing, and all we had was this newspaper announcement. It was in the Monsessen Daily Independent on August 31, 1940 and announced the marriage of Arthur Cubbage and Agnes Speck on May 26, 1939 in Connellsville, PA. Connellsvile is about 25 miles from Monessen, and as far as I could find, there was no family in Connellsville. This newspaper article also says that Agnes was given away by her father Frank Speck, who died in April of 1940 ... after the wedding, but before the announcement was made.

The first thing that I found was that Connellsville is in Fayette County (not Westmoreland) so I sent away for a copy of their marriage license. I received a letter back from the County Courthouse that there was no marriage certificate on file for Cubbage and Speck. I then sent a letter to the Wesley Methodist Church in Connellsville. I received a letter from the church that said that Rev Elliot was the pastor from 1935 to 1939, and that although they have a membership book with a section on marriages, there is nothing documented during the years of 1929 through 1944. So there is no official record of their marriage ... just the announcement in the paper.

There are some things that we know and a few other things that I did find. Both of Arthur's parents died less than a year before his marriage to Agnes (Maine died in August of 1938 and Charles died in April of 1939). I did find this in Maine's obituary: "Funeral services ... with Rev. L.S. Elliott, of Connellsville, former pastor of the local Methodist Episcopal church officiating." This is the same pastor that married Arthur and Agnes the following year, which may explain why they went to Connellsville. The last newspaper article that I found was in the May 29, 1939 Uniontown Herald in the Perryopolis section: "Mr. and Mrs. Frank Speck and son Frank, Jr, and Miss Marian Cubbage, all of Monessen spent Friday evening with Miss Ada Buttermore." Perryopolis is about 14 miles from Connellsville and Friday night was the night of the wedding and they were in the annoucement as being in the wedding party. So here is a picture of Art & Agnes on Easter in 1938 ... the closest we have to their wedding date.