BY DAVE OSBOURNE
On August 1, 2019, I found myself driving south on IA 141 into Walnut, IA thinking about my journey to get here. It started 3 years ago in 2016. Why of all places was I in Walnut, IA which I had not heard of until 1 year ago?
My mom, Audrey Schoenewe Osborne is from Everly, IA. My dad, David Allison Osborne is from Cleveland, OH. They were married in 1953 and decided to live in Cleveland, OH, where Dad worked for his family company.
Dad came from a very large family with 33 first cousins. Mom was always very quiet about her family. We knew Mom was an only child because her mom, Florence Schoelerman died in Everly, IA when Mom was born in 1930. Mom’s father, Henry Herman Harold Schoenewe remarried Hilda Nordby in 1935. My brothers, sister, and I would visit West Okoboji Lake as kids in the summer as a family where mom’s dad and stepmother lived in a small house on the lake. Mom passed away in 2008.
I was always curious about the history and genealogy of Mom’s family. In 2016, going through some of Mom’s things, I found a letter from a distant cousin of hers in Cedar Rapids, IA asking for information about her family. I reached out to her and was so fortunate to find out she was the Schoelerman family genealogist. She sent me volumes of information going back to the 1000’s. The family is originally from the Holstein area in northern Germany. And, Mom had close to 33 first cousins on the Schoelerman side too!
Fast forward two years. In 2018, my work to identify the parents of my mom’s dad, Henry Schoenewe continued. Relying mainly on Find-A-Grave information, I saw a posting of Henry’s father’s grave, Andrew Ferdinand Schoenewe, with a notation that Andrew was buried in the Layton Township Cemetery in Walnut, IA and the memorial was maintained by the Walnut Genealogy Society. I looked up the society online and wrote to Jim and Karen Hansen. That started a relationship we have had to this day.
Approximately one year from that day, in 2019, I took a trip from my then home in Chicago, IL to Cedar Rapids, IA to meet Mom’s cousin on the Schoelerman side. She took me to the family farm in Keystone, IA and the community cemetery in Keystone. After two days of a very enriching experience, I drove to Okoboji IA and made plans to visit Lone Tree Cemetery in Everly, IA to see where Mom and Dad had one of their graves as well as my Mom’s parents. I also found a number of Schoelerman graves which I had identified through my research. To my surprise, I also found many Schoenewe family members buried in Lone Tree. I didn’t quite realize that.
As the last part of my trip, I had arranged with Jim and Karen Hansen to visit them on August 1st, 2019, in Walnut. It was my first time to the city as I drove down IA 71 which took 2 hours and 30 minutes. As I was driving south, I wondered how long it took many of my Schoenewe relatives who were likely born in Walnut, but eventually made the trip north to the Everly area, to make this journey.
I arrived at the library and was met by Jim and Karen who ushered me into the back room where all the research resided. During the next several hours, Jim and Karen shared several articles about Andrew and his wife Emma Doryan Dreyer, who we actually decided is also a distant relative of Karen’s. Karen showed me a copy of the 1895 Iowa Census for Pottawattamie County, Layton Township, listing 7 Schoenewe family members including Andrew, who was 21 at the time, and his father, Mattias Schoenewe, who was 53 at the time, and mother, Emma Carbuhn Schoenewe, who was 41 at the time. Karen shared that Emma Dreyer’s parents were Christian Dreyer and Maria Voss Dreyer. Several other interesting genealogy facts about our families were shared including Karen giving me a name of another Schoenewe historian in Florida. As a side note, I did reach out to him and found out the Schoenewes were from the Fehmarn Island area in northeast Germany; only 50-70 miles from the Schoelermans.
Jim then said it was time to visit Layton Township Cemetery where Andrew and Emma Schoenewe (one set of my great-grandparents) were buried. Jim knew just about exactly where the Schoenewe stone and graves were located. We took pictures of the Schoenewe stone, and we noticed a stone for Bernhard Schoenewe, born 1891, died 1892. Karen gave me the details that Bernhard was the youngest brother of Andrew and was buried next to the Schoenewe stone. I learned Andrew was the oldest of 6 children and he and his youngest brother, Bernhard, are buried at Layton Township Cemetery. In terms of a small world, Andrew’s other 4 siblings are all buried in Lone Tree Cemetery in Everly, IA, where I had just visited. I noticed all of these Schoenewes in Lone Tree Cemetery and didn’t realize the full connection at the time.
We then ventured to the Dreyer stone and found where Emma’s parents were buried.
I departed later that afternoon and in a final ironic experience drove past Atlantic, IA, where my mom first taught music after graduating from Drake.
I have stayed in touch with Karen and Jim as I continue to complete more facts about the Schoenewes and their ancestors. Looking forward to another trip in 2025.
DO