Kramp and Gohl/Gaul from Kreis Bütow

The earliest memebrs of our Kramp family that we know about include Paul Kramp, born probably around 1787 (we don't have his exact date of birth or baptism) and married to Dorothea Elisabetha Gohl, born January 19, 1795 and daughter of the farmer Johann Christian Gohl of Trzebiatkow and Maria Grulich. The Gohl surname was also spelled Gaul in later records. Some descendants from the Gohl/Gaul family of Zemmen, Kreis Bütow emigrated to St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan.

Paul's father was George Kramp, who died in 1822 at the age of 63, thus born about 1759, although we don't know where. It could be Klein Massowitz, where these families lived, or it could have been one of the neighboring villages.

We don't have a baptism record for Paul because he was born prior to 1800 when the available baptisms for the archive of Groß Tuchen have been published. But we know who his father was because an 1808 baptism record, where Paul was a godparent to a child of Friedrich Meisner, identified Paul as "the eldest son of the property owner George Kramp." Georg was still recorded in baptism records himself for a child, Christian, born in 1800 to George and his wife Anna Christina Dummerin. Another son, Carl Ludwig, was born in 1807. We know about older children too, an earlier Christian and a Martin, both of whom appear as godparents to one of Paul's sons and are identified as "brother of the father of the child."

Paul and Dorothea lived in Klein Massowitz had eight children, including Friedrich Heinrich Gottlieb Kramp, born in 1824. Friedrich and his wife Emilie Pauline Trabant (married in 1853) had ten children, of whom at least three emigrated to the United States.

The earliest (and only) photo we have of any of our Kramp family is above right: their daughter Laura (Laurette Albertine Henriette) Kramp, who was born in 1856 in Klein Massowitz, Kreis Bütow in what was then called Pomerania.

Laurette's parents, Friedrich Kramp and Emilie Pauline Trabant, were married in Groß Tüchen, Kreis Bütow on September 11, 1853. Emilie's parents were Carl Trabant and Henriette Knuth. Emilie's sister Carolina Wilhelmina Kramp was married to Franz Heinrich Melchert on the same day as her sister, a double wedding.

Friedrich and Emilie Kramp's first child, Ausgusta Caroline, was born in 1854, while their second daughter, Laura, was born on June 7, 1856 in Klein Massowitz, Kreis Bütow, Pommern (now Maslowice in Poland), and was baptized on June 15, 1856 in Groß Tuchen (now Tuchomie, Poland). The Kramp surname suggests that it may have been a place name at one time, possibly Krampe, Kreis Belgard (now known as Krępa).

Laura sailed to the USA on the S.S. Köln in August 1881, her destination listed as Chicago. She was accompanied by her married older sister Augusta Hasse, plus Augusta's two young children Laura and Emil Hasse. Augusta and her husband Carl Hasse were to have two more children in Chicago, Emma and Ewald.

Five days later Laura's arrival in Chicago she and Wilhelm Gohr were married at First Lutheran of the Trinity Church on 31st Street. Albert Gohr (brother of the groom) and Augusta Hasse were witnesses to the marriage.

Wilhelm and Laura had eight children in Chicago. The youngest, Elsa, born in 1893, died at five days old, and Laura died six days after Elsa.

Laura's sister Augusta was left a widow in 1909 when Carl Hasse died but the families appear to have been in contact throughout the 1940s. Augusta died in 1938.

A younger sister, Alwine Ida Kramp, emigrated to Chicago in 1912 and married Frederick Kelle there in 1916. Fred and Ida had no children. Ida died at age 71 in 1948, Fred (also 71) in 1950.