The
Characters in my Closet
We all
have them. Some call them
“skeletons”. Skeletons to me are scary
and have no substance. Characters on the
other hand, are lively, have meat on their bones and get into all kinds of
shenanigans. If this story was about my
“Shenanigan Ancestor” it would definitely be about my Grandma Hessie, she tops
the list with the most. Although my great grandfather had fewer shenanigans, he
had the grandest of them all making national headlines across the country in
1914.
Gerhard John (G J) Shoenbohm was
born in Brehem, Germany in 1871. At just
6 weeks old his parents, Merhring J Schoenbohm and Margaret
T Schroeder immigrated to the US through Galveston and settled in Alice,
Texas. Gerhard married Carrie Matilda
Gilplin Valls in 1892 and they had six children, four girls and two boys. My grandmother Grace Linn was the oldest,
followed by Monie, Bubba, Lottie, Kakki and Johnny. Johnny died at two months old.
After Monie’s death, her daughter
found a small auto biography she wrote of her life. In it, she talked of the love of her father,
the distance between her mother, and how the circumstances surrounding their
father’s death they were treated as though they had the plaque. The family eventually was run out of Alice,
Texas and settled in Corpus Christi, TX to the end of their years and where I
was born.
Aunt
Kakki wrote a small history on the Schoenbohm Family stating Grandpa Schoenbohm
was a telegraph operator. The railroads were coming and he had a profession
that kept him gainfully employed.
Another insight Aunt Kakki gave to me was that Grandpa Schoenbohm’s
mother lived with them for 17 years until her death. She spoke fluent German, and very little
broken English. Family folklore has it
that German, Spanish and English was spoken in the Schoenbohm home, but not all
together, the Spanish language coming from the hired servants. My Grandmother Grace and sister Monie made up
their own language between the three languages.
Before they could start school they had to learn English. Creative and lively bunch aren’t they? So just what did Grandpa Schoenbohm do that
caused such a ruckus and run his family out of town?
From the Brownsville, Herald,
August 17, 1014, “On a morning of August, 1914, a mysterious man arrived in
Brownsville, TX from Alice on the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico passenger
train. According to T. J. Shanahan, the
manager of what is referred to as the Valley Hotel on Levee Street, the man
asked for recommendations of somewhere to eat. Mr. Shanahan directed him to a
place down the street and the mysterious stranger returned later to the hotel
and registered under the name of “Emmett Burgess”. In registering he smeared his place of
residence as if to hide it. He asked Mr.
Shanahan for some stationery and retreated to his room for the afternoon.
At
approximately 4:45 that afternoon, Mr. Shanahan had been speaking with Mr.
Burgess and then settled down to his desk to take on the day’s tasks. Mr. Burgess sat on the balcony at the top of
the stairs. Upon hearing footsteps
coming up the stairs, Emmett Burgess walked to the balcony overlooking the
stairs and began to shoot at the two men.
In a matter of minutes two men were dead and one wounded.
On
Monday August 17, 1914 the Brownsville Herald Newspaper Extra headline read:
H. G.
Dubose Assassinated – Shot down by G. J. Schoenbohm of Alice.[i] An
extra edition of the Brownsville Herald was produced on this day to cover the
story that went around the nation.
Stories also appeared in major newspapers across the country including
Salt Lake City, UT[ii],
Oakland, CA[iii]
and San Antonio, TX[iv].
According
to newspaper reports of The Brownsville Gazette, “H. G Dubose, Chief of the US
Immigration Office and his brother E. (Ed) M Dubose, US Customs Inspector, were
responding to a note that came from a mysterious Emmett Burgess. Mr. Burgess claimed on the note that he had
some information regarding a case that Ed Dubose was working on. Ed Dubose
questioned folks around town, regarding “Emmett Burgess” but when no one knew
or heard of him, he acquired the assistance of his brother H G Dubose, and came
prepared for a possible ambush. Ed
Dubose escaped with a wounded leg but was charged with killing of G. J.
Schoenbohm. He was later acquitted. H. G. Dubose had four bullets in him, and was
killed. G. J. Schoenbohm held 15 bullets
in his bullet ridden body. Schoenbohm
was also disguised with brown hair die on his hair and eyebrows, was wearing
brown gloves, shaved his moustache and wore shaded glasses to complete his
disguise. It was only through a letter
on his personage and a casual friend he was able to be identified”.
On
Tuesday, August 18, 1914 the title read, Two Homes Mourn Fathers’ Loss[v].
This was
my Great Grandfather G J Schoenbohm. I
am not sure how I feel about all this.
Do I label him as a murderer?
Assasin? Scapegoat? I get the gut feeling there are some
unanswered questions and more to the story than what the newspaper reported.
Reports were that his wife was having an affair with Ed Dubose. I believe it
has something to do with immigration. I have contacted some DuBose descendants
who did not know of this story, but also said, “It does not surprise me. The DuBose brothers were scoundrels.” This I do know, it is a part of my history,
that I feel needs to be told and most likely would have been lost had it not
been for Aunt Kakki’s history.
In
knowing this part of my grandmother’s history, it helps me to understand my
life a bit more. Even in the few short
years we were together in Texas, there was never a great bond. After leaving Texas, I occasionally heard
from my grandmother, father and aunts, but years later I would learn that
everyone claimed they did not know where we went after leaving Texas. There are tragedies and circumstances that
plague our lives for generations and affect the generations to come. We do not get to choose the consequences of
these actions, but maybe by learning their story we can have a bit more
compassion, sympathy, and burning desire to know more than just the names of
those who came before us.
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