Stohler Family Portrait circa 1912

Emma Sierra, Maria Stholer, Ruth Sierra Grandmother, mother and daughter circa 1948 San Jose California.

Alma, Carl and Emma Sierra circa 1910

Emil Stohler

Emil was born in St. Louis, Missouri about 1887.  His parents were Frederick and Marie Stohler. He finished school in St. Louis and moved with his family to California.  He lived in the San Francisco area for a while and later moved to Southern California.  Emil served in the U S Navy during World War I

Emil was a big man standing over 6 feet and weighing about 275 pounds.  He was a great cook and had a short order grill at one time in Southern California.  He also managed a beer garden at different times.  He was trying to separate two drunks from fighting in one of the beer gardens when one hit him over the head with a beer bottle.  He lost an eye and wore a black patch over his eye for the rest of his life.

Emil's greatest love was gambling. My mother told me at one time he was quite wealthy and had two bank accounts.  One was for gambling and other was for saving.  He ended up with nothing. He bet on horses, played cards or whatever the casinos had to offer.

Emil was married twice.  Nothing is known about either one except they were both schoolteachers and both weighed not much over 100 pounds or they both died of TB.

Emil was a happy man and always laughing.  He seemed to find something funny or amusing in everything that happened.  He told me about an incident that happened in the early 1920's.  He was aboard a rumrunner boat and they had just finished picking up the rum from a ship off the coast of San Francisco when the shore patrol spotted them. Emil said the boat they were in out ran the shore patrol and he did not ever participate in rum running again.  Another time while in San Francisco at one of the bars on the waterfront he was shanghaied and the family did not hear from him for over a year.  This is how many ships at that time found help by having someone slip strong men a knock out pill or "Mickey" in their drink.  They would then be kidnapped and put on ships to work.  The ships usually went to China and they would be gone about a year.

Emil took care of his mother until she died.  They had a small home in Huntington Park in Southern California and Emil came home every night to prepare his mother's meal.

Sometime in the late 1950's my family heard that Emil had diabetes and went to a Veterans Hospital in Southern California. He lost a leg and he died and it is believed he is in a pauper's cemetery.

Adolph “Otto” Stohler

Adolph “Otto” Stohler was the second son of Frederick and Marie Stohler born in St. Louis, Missouri, Jan. 2, 1893.  He attended public school in St. Louis and then took a chiropractic course from the Palmer School.

In later years in the 1920’s Otto had his own office and was doing very well when the regular doctors in California fought so hard to get rid of the chiropractors that they were successful.  Otto moved to Vancouver, Washington where he had a very good practice and did this until having a slight stroke shortly before he died.

Otto married in the 40’s to a lovely lady named Dorothy.  Nothing else is known about her except she died in 1970 and Otto died just three months later on Dec. 2, 1970.  He is interred in Evergreen Memorial Gardens, Vancouver, Washington.  They had no children.

I remember as a young girl growing up in Eagle Rock, California that I had growing pains or just played too hard and when Uncle Otto came to visit he would do some adjusting and massages on my neck and back.  After his treatment I always felt relieved of every ache and pain in the world.  He was wonderful and very kind person.  He had snow-white hair at a very young age.  My mother said he had a very high fever when he was younger and very sick.  When this sickness was over his hair had turned snow white at the age of 14.

Frederick Stohler Stevens

Frederick Stohler was the oldest child born to Frederick and Marie Stohler in St. Louis,

Missouri about 1891.

In later years after moving to California, Fred married Salinas (no other data known) and they had one child.  Mildred was born in Southern California about 1914 or 1915.  Fred and Salina were divorced in the 1930's.  Fred had two jobs that I know of.  In the early 20’s he delivered ice to put in the iceboxes in homes.  Leo, the youngest boy worked with Fred.  Also, Fred had a ceramic tile business and installed tile in homes and businesses.

Fred changed his last name to Stevens sometime in the late 1930's or early 1940's due to not wanting to be associated with his two younger brothers, Leo being an alcoholic and Emil being a gambler.  Fred met and married a lady named Ruth who had a daughter named Nadine.  They had a large and very beautiful home in Huntington Park in Southern California.  I remember going to visit them in 1946 to introduce them to my future husband Frank Seaman.  It was like a family reunion, all the Stohler children were present along with Grandma Marie Stohler.  Fred and Ruth's home was beautiful.  The bathrooms and kitchen had tile and the yard was beautifully landscaped.  Ruth loved her flowers and raised chrysanthemums that were 7 and 8 inches in diameter.  I do not know what happened to this beautiful home but on one of my trips cross county in the 60's the children and I dropped in to see them.  At this time they were living in a one-bedroom cottage in what is called a court in Southern California.

Fred died in the late 1960's and Ruth worked in a hospital with her daughter Nadine, who had a degree in something related to a hospital library to do research.

Mildred, Fred's daughter, was married and had two boys, who both became dentists.  Names and other data unknown except they lived in Southern California. 

Marie Seitz (Zeitz) Stohler

Catherine Eliza Marie Seitz (Zeitz) was born in Heemsen, Nienburg, Germany July 9, 1868 weighing 12 and one half pounds. Her father was Jurgen Heimrich Dietrich August Zeitz.  Her mother was Sophie Wilhelmine Dorothee Boikhoop.  Their religion was Lutheran.  She went by the name of Maria.

When Maria was in the family home in Germany she was in the kitchen washing dishes, her uncle walked in the room and asked why one arm was hanging down her side.  Maria answered that her arm hurt.  She was about 12 years old at this time.  Her uncle found the arm to be broken and a parent had evidently abused Maria.  About 1880 the uncle took Marie to the United States taking her away from her parents.  They settled in Bunker Hill, Illinois.

Later Maria met Frederick Stohler of St. Louis, Missouri and they married August 13, 1889.  Five children were born in St. Louis being, Frederick, Adolph "Otto", Emma Louise, Emil and Leo.  Maria and Frederick spoke German to their children but they had to answer in English.  Maria could not read or write in English but could sign her name in English.  She could read German.

In 1910 or 1911 the family moved by train to the San Francisco area.  Frederick died of pneumonia in 1917.

In 1919 Maria met and married Jacob "Jack" Steinman.  Jack was 49 and Maria was 50 years old when they married.  They lived in Watts in Southern California and had a walnut grove and raised cattle.  Watts at this time was all country and a peaceful and quiet place to live.  Jack was German and all Germans were noted for being frugal about spending money or wasting anything.  In the late 20's Jack saw a biscuit on the railing of the back porch, he ate it and died.  Maria had been trying to catch or kill a rat she had seen so put poison in the biscuit.  Maria had forgotten to let Jack know about the poison bait for the rat. Maria was once more a widow and never married again.

In 1950 a month before I moved to Georgia with Cheryl and Doug, I went to visit and say goodbye to my grandmother, Maria.  Cheryl was over 2 years and Doug was 7 months.  Maria held Doug in her arms and asked what month he was born.  I answered in July and she said, "Aw, too bad, he is a Cancer like me and will have a hard life."  Doug was born July 24the and a Leo.  This was the last time I saw my grandmother.  She had lost two husbands, had one son that was a gambler, being Emil and her youngest son, Leo, was an alcoholic.  Fred Stevens was a successful businessman and Otto was a chiropractor in Vancouver, Washington.

Maria lived with her sons, Emil and Leo, in Huntington Park, after she sold the walnut grove in Watts.  Maria died about 1954.  Date and interment unknown.

Frederick Stohler, Sr.

Frederick Stohler was born in Bern, Switzerland in 1858.  He migrated to America as a young man.  He applied for United States citizenship on February 13, 1899 and became a citizen on February 15, 1901.

Frederick was living in St. Louis, Missouri when he met Maria Seitz (Zeitz) who was living in Bunker Hill, Illinois.  They married in St. Louis on August 13, 1899 and had five children, four boys and one girl.  The oldest was Frederick following were Adolph “Otto, Emma, Emil and Leo.

Frederick Sr. brought a two-story hotel in St. Louis being a few blocks from the Mississippi River.  He drove a horse drawn beer wagon earning $14.00 a week to help pay for the hotel.  This was considered good pay in the late 1890’s.  There was a bar in the hotel where Frederick worked nights after his daytime job.  He worked very hard and was a very honest trusting person as his daughter, Emma, told me.

After selling the hotel in 1910 or 1911 the Stohler family moved to California by train and lived for a short time in Santa Rosa.  Frederick was looking for a small hotel to buy in San Francisco and found one….the only thing was that the man did not own the hotel and Frederick paid for it in cash with all his savings.  He lost everything, as was heart broken that anyone could be so dishonest.

Frederick died of pneumonia in 1917 in San Francisco and interred here.  Emma (my mother) always told me she believed her father died of a broken heart.