Pressing Matters of a Sound Mind

Generations Project: The Hohne's



Christine Sophia Hohne

Christine Sophia Hohne (also "Hoehne") was married to Charles Taylor (grandson of John Taylor of the "Taylor's" post). She was born in Nuremberg, Germany June 19, 1878. She was baptized into the Mormon Church at the age of fourteen in 1892. She was the daughter of Johann Gustof Rudolf Hohne and Katharine (Katharina) Pabst Hohne. Rudolf was a carpenter, he made cabinets and pianos.
The Mormon Church was being preached in Nuremberg around 1892. Officials used the Church's doctrine as a reason to persecute members and arrest missionaries, so the meetings were held secretly out in the forest. The family took a streetcar two miles out of town, then would walk into the forest. They would have to leave at noon and then come home late at night. Christine reports "There were detectives watching for us all the time. Twice I had to appear before court because I was caught attending these meetings. If I had been caught one more time I would have had to pay a fine." All the members of the church would invite the missionaries to their house to have supper. Rudolf (LDS records show show he was baptized in 1896) invited the missionaries in to their house often . Christine records "Many times I can remember father bringing missionaries home for supper when I was a little girl." Her brother Adolph, who also had joined the Church in 1886, was the first to come to America. Then a sister, most likely Anna Theresia , who came over next in 1894 with a Frank Young, a missionary who had been in Nuremberg. Rudolf wanted to come to America but Katherine, his wife, was afraid to cross the ocean.
In 1898, Christine Hohne was eighteen and she came to America. A rich aunt had given her $800.00, which helped pay the cost of travel, it cost $500.00 to come first class across the ocean. She went from Nuremberg to Hamburg, the from Hamburg to Scotland she rode a small boat across the North Sea. Says she, "We were only on the boat thirty-eight hours, but the North Sea is very rough and everyone got very sick. We had to wait three days in Scotland for our ship." There, the company received a new ship and sailed from Scotland to New York. While on ship she reports having very good meals, mostly fried fish and fresh fruit. Also, they held big concerts every night on the ship. While en route, she met on the ship an Elder Howard from Vernal, UT who had been on a mission in England and a professor Miller who taught music at BYU. The voyage lasted  on the ocean ten days and eleven nights. From New York she went to Salt Lake City, UT then to Vernal, UT where Christine stayed with her sister Anna Theresia  (McCoy). She went to school at an old academy in Vernal held in an old lumber building painted white, as there were no brick buildings in Vernal at that time. She attended school for two years. She did not speak English, and undoubtedly learned it there. She reports "It was very easy to learn to read and write but hard to learn to speak English."
Her brother Adolph returned to Nuremberg, Germany on a mission and converted her mother (baptized 23rd, November 1900), her older sister Anna Elisabeth and twelve others, but they did not come to Utah. Christine often sent packages and letters back to Germany, but never went back and did not ever see her mother again.
Having finished school, she married Charles Taylor, son of Teancum and Mary Hiatt Taylor, and had four boys . The oldest was named Rudolph Teancum but went by the name of  "Charley", Rudolph Teancum Taylor, or "Grandpa Chuck", as I knew him, is my great-grandfather. The Indian Reservation there was opened for homesteading, and they moved to Lapoint, UT. There was no schoolhouse at the time. The boys had to travel about three and a half miles south of Lapoint, for school, to a South Liberty schoolhouse. The boys rode to school on horses.
Christine Sophia Hohne Taylor died December 30, 1951 from complications of diabetes. She was buried January 3, 1952 at Lapoint, Utah. It is recorded that the day of her funeral it never got above 23 degrees below zero all day.

http://www.ourlifehistory.org/genealogy/histories/Life%20History%20of%20Christine%20Sophia%20Hohne%20Taylor.pdf
http://www.ourlifehistory.org/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I16&tree=Richens-Sorensen
http://www.ourlifehistory.org/genealogy/histories/History%20of%20Rudolph%20Teancum%20Taylor.pdf

posted by Austin @ 9:31 AM