After I became interested in the background of my Grandpa George Grasse, I learned that his father's name was John. About 8 or so years ago I purchased a membership with Ancestry.com and the first thing I did was search for any information on John Grasse. Lo and behold, up popped the 1900 census for the John Grasse family in Steven's Point, Wisconsin! I was elated! There listed in the census was my Grandpa George! He was only 8 years old and it indicated that he was born there! Here is a shot of the entry, It was on two different pages:
The census shows that John Grasse emmigrated to the United States in 1888 from Germany (actually, they lived in Austria). By the taking of this census they had been here for 12 years. But the most interesting thing that I saw here was in the far right hand columns. These columns are questions about whether the person listed can read, write and speak English. All of the family could do all three things except for John's wife, Mary. After 12 years of living in the United States she still could not read, write OR speak English! How could that be? Family lore had it that John Grasse taught German in Vienna, so you would think if he could speak English by this time that he could teach his wife a few words, right? I guess not. Later, in the 1930 census, when John was no longer alive and Mary was living with her daughter Christina's family, the answer to the speak English question was still "no".
What could have prevented her from learning English? Was she not interested? Did she hold out hope that someday they would go back to Austria? How sad that she could not experience all that the United States of America had to offer because she could not understand what was being said. I sure would like to know what her reasoning was. If anyone can enlighten me, please do! Here is the only photo (of a photo) of Mary Grasse that I have, taken in her later years.
What could have prevented her from learning English? Was she not interested? Did she hold out hope that someday they would go back to Austria? How sad that she could not experience all that the United States of America had to offer because she could not understand what was being said. I sure would like to know what her reasoning was. If anyone can enlighten me, please do! Here is the only photo (of a photo) of Mary Grasse that I have, taken in her later years.