JOHN KIEBER, steam hoist engineer
Born 2 Nov 1876 in East Amherst, NY, John Kieber was the third eldest child of Frederick Kieber (Sgt. Fritz) and Magdalena Grimm, both born in Alsace.
In 1880 the family lived on a 125-50 acre farm in Amherst, District 78. On the census this is listed as supervisor’s district 11, enumeration district 78. The first nine holes of the present Transit Valley Country Club were part of the farm. At this point there were 4 children: Fred (b. 1874), George (b. 1875), John (b. 1876) and his younger sis, Emma (b. 1878).
Papa Fritz ran the farm from his wheelchair due to the injury he received in the Franco-Prussian war.
The Kiebers attended the one-room Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, which was relocated to the site of the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village. This is a a “must see” for family history buffs.
The photo is of the church as it would have looked while John attended. He would have been baptized in the Baptismal font to the left. Imagine the congregation gathering around the pot-belly stove on cold winter Sundays. The small church must have rung with the voices of the faithful Lutheran hymns, accompanied by the organ that is on the right side of the pulpit .
John’s other younger siblings: Martin (b.1881), Margaret (1883), Katie (1885), Lena (1886), Marie (1889) and Clara (1891) were born during the next decade.
When about 10 years old (abt. 1886), John was turned over to a farmer to work on the farm. His mother would be caring for 8 or 9 children at this point.
In 1895, when John was nineteen years old, Papa Fritz died rather suddenly of pneumonia.
Four years later, John would marry on 7 June 1899 in St. Ann’s RC Church, Buffalo, Anna Theresa Ruhland. The writing is hard to decipher, but it appears that the Rev. P. Bendermacher officiated and John Hoffman and Teresa Ruhland (Anna’s one year younger sis and her husband) were witnesses. John’s address is listed as 386 Genesee in East Amherst.
John met Anna when delivering milk to the Ruhland’s chocolate shoppe where Anna worked dipping chocolate candies.
Side note, John’s son Bob, continued this tradition years later, for many Easters, by making his own chocolate candy.
To avoid conflicts regarding their union, (Anna was Catholic and John was Lutheran), the lovers told the family that they were marrying at the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. However, they really exchanged vows in a Catholic ceremony in St. Ann’s, John having been baptized into the faith the night before. The family, who were all dressed up and ready at the Lutheran church, took a while to realize that they were at the wrong place. I imagine one of the Anna’s younger sister’s blabbing the news to a stupefied congregation.
John was a driver (motorman) for a horse-drawn streetcar (the IRC) and during this time he participated in the Great Strike (1899).
According to Bob, Anna did not want to live on a farm, though John loved rural living, the young couple settled in the city of Buffalo. In 1900 he and Anna lived at 413 Eureka Place, Buffalo Ward 12, district 95. They’d been married one year. John was 24 years old. His profession was as a Baker Peddler. He rented his own home.
Anna is 23 years old. Another family lived at 413 Eureka: Pauline Hourn and her 3 sons: Charles, Edward, and Martin. Duplexes were a common style of housing at the turn of the twentieth century. For people who could not afford a large home, the duplex looked large on the outside.
Soon, however, the young couple moved. In 1901,1902, the Buffalo City Directories show John, a driver again, residing at 413 Pratt.
In the 1904 Directory, John is listed as a motorman twice. His residence is on Pratt, and also at 1289 Genesee Street Buffalo.
The 1905 NY state census the family still lives at 1289 Genesee Street. John (28) is a motorman, Anna (28) is a homemaker and first son Raymond is 4 years old.
By 1906, the directory lists only the Genesee Street address. Brother, Martin is also a motorman at this point.
John had 20 barrels in the basement for his delicious home-brewed beer and wine. There was a huge fruit press in the basement. Whenever someone from the family came to visit, they’d always leave with a jug of home brew.
Son, Robert recalled going to the reservation or along Lake Erie to pick fruit for the elderberry (the women usually drank this), chokecherry (the men seemed to enjoy this best), grape, or other wines. They thought that anybody could make grape wine but you couldn’t buy the specialty fruit wines that the Kiebers made! They also made root beer and draft beer. During Prohibition, they hid the sugar necessary for making wine in the piano.
Kris said when she was young, years later, they’d head toward’s Wilson and Olcott. near Esther and Hugo’s cottage on Lake Ontario (Wilson NY) and pick fruit and then swim in the lake, which was very seaweedy and full of dead fish in the 1960s. They had to climb down a big ladder over the cliff to get to lake.
John and Anna settled in the Kensington area (currently called the Genesee Moselle) of Buffalo when it was still fairly open country. The 1909, 1910,1911, 1912, 1913,1916, 1917,1919 city directories show list the young family living at 131 Bissell Ave in Buffalo’s Ward 12. John is a motorman.
The 1910 US census shows John and Anna (both 33 years old) owned the brand new home at 131 Bissell Avenue with Raymond (9) and Buddie(4). John was a motorman for the street railway. The house 6 bedroom, 2 bath with 2,288 sq ft. built in 1900. In 2010 the area is pretty bad.They rented to Max and Eva Ruhland Wendt (Anna’s six years younger sis) sharing the other side. In December 2009, it sold for $1,000 in foreclosure. It is a two story duplex built in 1900, 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. 2,288 sq. ft.
He was desperate for work and when he applied for work at the railroad, they asked him if he knew how to drive a steam shovel, he lied and said yes. He went in with his friend on Sunday and had a quick lesson. He became a Hoisting Engineer for the New York Central Railroad. When John worked for the railroad, he shoveled coal.
The 1915 New York State census lists John (37) as a rail motorman living with Anna, Ray, Florence, and Clare in Buffalo’s Ward 16 on Bissell Ave. Anna’s younger sis, Eva Ruhland Wendt and her husband, Max, live there as well.
John would come home covered in coal dust. Anna would hand him clean clothes at the door, and before he even entered the house, he’d shower and change. Then he’d eat dinner and sip his homemade wine, and fall asleep on his chair.
On 2 Jan 1917, Anna’s sister Eva, who lived in the duplex, died.
Though he never served, in 1917, when John was 41 and still living on Bissell Street, he registered for the WW 1 draft. He listed his profession as a motorman for the Broadway (Buses?) Railroad. He was of medium height and stout build. His hair was gray already and his eyes brown. His next of kin was Mrs. Anna Kieber.
In 1920, they were 43 years old and rented a home at 126 May Street in the Emerson area of Buffalo. This home was built in 1900, of traditional style with a partial basement, 1,855 sq.ft., 2 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms. Current value, $17,000. John’s parents spoke French and were from Alsace-Lorraine; Anna’s spoke German from Germany. Interestingly, John says his mother-tongue is French and Anna’s is German. John was a motorman for a streetcar. Raymond is a clerk.
Photo of Robert visiting his dad’s home, sitting beneath his dad’s portrait
They had five children: Raymond John (b. 1901) He was a clerk at City Bank),Florence“Buddie” (b. 1905), Clarence John (b. 1910), Lavern Edward (b. 1917), Robert John (b. 1919).
Robert would hear him coming home in his Model T Ford, (the “Tin Lizzie”) and since his dad always had nuts in his pockets, the 
squirrels would run down off the tree next to Pop’s bedroom window and run up Grampa’s leg to eat the nuts in his pockets.
The picture at right is an example of a Model T — of the sort John would drive. from Wikipedia:
The Ford Model T (colloquially known as the “tin Lizzie“, “leaping Lena“, “jitney” or “flivver“) is an automobile produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927.[10][11] It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relatively low price was partly the result of Ford’s efficient fabrication, including assembly line production instead of individual handcrafting.[12]
In 1921, John lived at 618 E. Amherst, working as a motorman. The 1923 Buffalo Directory, the Kiebers had moved to 616 E. Amherst. John was working as a metalworker. Raymond was a Bookkeeper at McDougall-Butler, and Florence was a telephone Operator. By 1924, John had secured a position as foreman.
The 1925 NY state census shows John and Anna had moved to the home the Kiebers would consider the family home, 620 East Amherst Street, Buffalo’s 20th Ward with their first baby, Raymond. At the same address were William Weidell, an engineer and his wife Leonore. John was unemployed.
In 1926 Buffalo Directory, John is a shopman at Champion Switch Company. By 1927, he was a foreman again, which he held onto for many years. During the Great Depression that company moved south, so John sought work back on the railroad.
In 1930,1931 they were still residing at 620 East Amherst, Buffalo NY. John, now 54, (not a veteran) was a foreman at the Steam Railroad Yard. John worked twenty years for the railroad. He retired in November 1948. They owned their home with a mortgage. They also owned a radio. He listed his parents as from Alsace-Lorraine and hers from Germany.
Still living at home were Buddie (24), Clare (19), Lert (12), and young Bob (10). Raymond still a bookkeeper, had married Elsie C. and was living at 210 Millicent Ave. Buffalo.
This was the family home that John and Anna would live in nearly until their death. The Buffalo clan stayed close. Most of John’s kids in later years, even after they had begun raising their own families, attended St. James Parish. When Clare and Georgia bought house in (nearby!!) Williamsville, John and Anna were quite upset and asked them, “Why would you move that far away?” How the times have changed…
John and Anna’s granddaughter, Karen worked nearby for a couple of years and she would visit them regularly on East Amherst street.
John’s mother Lena died in 1932.John was 56 years old.
Though John was known to be a “very kindly man,” he and Anna were strict parents. Bob talked about his father locking him in a dark closet as a punishment. Clarence Kieber’s kids talk about how strict Anna especially was. The kids weren’t allowed in the formal living room. Sue relates a story about John she heard from Robert. Once Anna placed a dish of lamb in front of John at dinner. John took one look at it and proclaimed “I can’t eat this garbage.” He then opened the window behind him and through the entire dish out the window!
There was a lighter side to John as well. He loved to joke around. For one of the famous Kieber family reunions, he is pictured dressed up in women’s clothing for a skit. The photo is of John dressing up at family reunion skit.
Holiday traditions were strong in the family. Bob told the story of his dad making fudge every St. Nicholas Day (Dec.6). If any of the cousins have a copy of the recipe Grampa John used for his fudge, we’d surely love to present it on this site (or at least see it!). As Bob recalled, the five children would place their shoes outside of the bedroom doors and find fudge in them when they woke on Little Christmas.
True to old world tradition as well, the Christmas tree never went up until Christmas Eve.
I’m sure the children assisted their Mom making the HUGE batch of cutout and decorated the Ruhland Christmas anise cookies that have become legendary. Priscilla, Bob’s wife received the recipe early in their relationship and she kept the tradition going…some of her great-grandkids still make them.
Photo of Clare Kieber sitting in his father’s yellow chair.
Son, Robert would fondly recollect stories of the family Sunday drives. Sometimes they visited John’s brother Martin’s (and Lena Wekenmann’s) farm; sometimes they stopped in at sister Emma’s across the road. Emma and Elmer Leib had three boys that Bob was sent to play with while the adults visited. The family would receive vegetables etc to keep them stocked all summer. In return, any of John’s sibs could stop by his house and fill a jug of the homemade wine or beer.
The 1933 Buffalo Directory shows the Kiebers still in the family home on East Amherst. Raymond was still a bookkeeper living on Millicent Ave. had married again, Elizabeth C.
Sometimes they drove farther afield and headed out to the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation (Senecas). They were always on the lookout for wonderful farm stands brimming with the fresh fruit western New York is known for. But I suspect that John missed his “country” upbringing on the farm and loved to spend a day out in nature after the drudgery of shoveling coal all week.
John and Anna’s family were pious Catholics. Though not very well-to-do, they made sure that their children attended Catholic school at St. James. John was a member of the Holy Name Society of St. James Church. They were very proud of son Lavern’s calling to the priesthood.
June 7,1949, John and Anna celebrated their 50th (silver) wedding anniversary with a Mass officiated by son, Lavern; sons Robert and Clare were altar servers; son Ray and daughter Buddie stood in as witnesses.
Photo is of Buffalo News picture of the Kieber’ 50th anniversary.
The 1955 Buffalo City Directory lists John and Anna living on East Amherst Street in Buffalo.
Photo is John Kieber in his elder years, with his beloved pipe.
Buffalo NY Photo of son, Robert behind him.
At 79 years, 5 months, 8 days, John died 10 April 1956 in the Christian Brothers Nursing Home (Sacred Heart Home) where he’d been for three months. The cause of death on his death certificate is cerebral hemorrhage, and generalized arteriosclerosis. He probably had a stroke. He is buried at Mount Cavalry/Pine Hill Cemetery. Unfortunately for son Bob, when Bob visited his Dad in the nursing home, John’s hard side came out and he told Bob that he knew that Bob had never loved him. Those were among the last words spoken to his son. Bob held this sadness within, never telling anyone until shortly before his own death.
Buried beside John is his wife, Anna, and son Lavern.
John Kieber’s obituary, published in the Buffalo News:
John Kieber, 79, of 620 East Amherst St., a retired New York Central Railroad hoisting engineer, died Tuesday (April 10, 1956) in the Brothers of Mercy Home, Town of Clarence.
Mr. Kieber worked for the Central about 20 years, retiring in November 1948. He previously was employed as a motorman for the old IRC.
Born in East Amherst, Mr. Kieber was a pioneer resident of the Kensington area. He settled there when the section was practically open country.
Mr. Kieber, father of the Rev. Lavern E. Kieber, assistant pastor of St. Bartholomew’s Church, was a member of the Holy Name Society of St. James Church.
Surviving besides Father Kieber are his wife, Mrs. Anna Ruhland Kieber; three sons, Raymond J., Clarence J., and Robert J.Kieber of Rumson, NJ; a daughter, Mrs. John F. Malone; two brothers, Fred of Williamsville, and Martin; three sisters, Mrs. Katherine Repp of Hamburg, Mrs. Magdalena Flint of San Diego, Calif., and Mrs. Emmons Perkins, and 12 grandchildren.
Father Kieber will celebrate a Solemn Mass of Requiem at 10:30 o’clock Friday in St. James Church after prayers at 9:45 in the Carlton A. Ullrich Funeral Home, 3272 Bailey Ave. Burial will be in Mt. Calvary, Pine Hill.
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