Hans Cäsar (John) Stirnimann

  General Notes:

LETTER FROM DELLA (STERNEMAN) SIRCLE (1984):

We were in Springfield (MO) in May, 1914 when I was born and he (her father) worked for the Forest Rangers. (I believe) it has to do with horses because I was told that at the age of two, I drank a bottle of horse medicine and they rushed me to a doctor in a horse and buggy. Joe was also born there and the age difference between Walter and Eddy was due to a miscarriage Mom had in that four years. She also had one between Eddy and Betty which makes 10 children instead of eight.

Your father (Walter) must have been five or six years old when we moved from St. Louis, because I remember when we first moved we lived on 4th St. (Evansville) and we went to Wheeler school. Walter was in kindergarten and it took John, Margaret, and I to get him up the steps, he was kicking and fighting all the way. (In MO.) we lived in Webster Grove on Famous Ave., and in St. Louis on Manchester Ave.

NOTES FROM ADELE (STERNEMAN) MOORE:

Hans Caesar Stirnimann was born in Daro, Canton Tincino, a mountain area of southern Switzerland bordering Italy. His father, Jakob, owned a European wine franchise and spoke 11 languages. Until age 12 or 13 Hans traveled extensively with his father and spoke 5 languages. Jakob died in 1902. Hans disliked being overseen by his brother (Oscar), older by three years. His mother sent him to be tutored by uncles at a Catholic Benedictan monastery in Einseidetn, Zurich, Switzerland. Claiming the uncles hammered on him, he left the monastery after a few years to attend the University of Zurich - dates unknown - and apprenticed in landscaping with another uncle in or near Zurich.

After a falling out he became a government postmaster in the Basel area where he met Adele Loew. Their son Hans Edward, was born shortly after their marriage (in Basel Feb 15, 1912), in Bolligen a few kilometers from Bern, March 6, 1912. The couple resided briefly in Ostermundigen, also in Canton Bern. Apparently because of religious differences between the families, they decided to emigrate to the U. S. They (Adele and Hans E.) left from Antwerp Belgium aboard the SS Lapland arriving in New York (Elis Is.) on July 8 1912. Hans' mother had given him a list of American relatives his father had previously financed, the purpose to collect these debts and establish a residence.

The couple's residence is uncertain for the next two years. Hearsay places them in south Wisconsin, or the Chicago area. The second child, Margaret born April 28, 1913, has never located her birth certificate. By May 1914 the family had moved to Springfield, MO. where Hans worked for the Missouri Rangers.

With 6 children, the family moved to Evansville, IN in 1924. John (Hans C.), worked in Evansville for Thornborgh Nursery. During the depression he worked for the WPA, landscaping Mesker's Park and Zoo and Burdette Park in Evansville.

Later John worked for Crescent Nursery, buying interest in it and eventually owning his own business, Sterneman's Nursery, which opened on Weinbach Ave. and was later moved to Greenriver Rd. in Evansville. The family resided at 4400 Covert Ave.

John's hobby was card playing and beer drinking and he died in 1949 at age 59 when he overturned his car.

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Immigration, 19 Feb 1912, New York. ⁵ He arrived aboard the SS Lapland from Antwerp. His destination is listed as "going to see Uncle Johann Fridley in Symerton, Ill."

2. Naturalization, 13 Jun 1941, Evansville, IN. ⁶

Hans married Adèle Loew, daughter of Emil Friedrich Loew and Bertha Glarner, on 15 Feb 1912 in Basel-Stadt, Switzerland.¹ (Adèle Loew was born on 31 Dec 1886 in Binningen, Basel-Land, Switzerland,⁷ died on 10 Mar 1963 in Evansville, IN and was buried in St. Joseph Cemetery, Evansville, In..)