Bio – John Huber (1880-1948)

John is a great example of how further research of a person’s
friends can prove that you have wrong person all along. I wanted to increase my
understanding of John’s immigration and how he ended up in Wisconsin when I
thought he was headed for Oregon. I had him arriving in 1901 aboard the SS St.
Paul with two friends. I decided to follow his friends and see what happened to
them. I found them in Oregon in 1910 and then I found another John Huber (born
about 1880) in Oregon as well. Oops. I know that my John Huber was in Alabama
in 1910, so the immigration aboard the SS St. Paul was clearly incorrect. I scrapped
the information I had about his immigration and will start anew.  Sigh…

John Huber was born 9 September 1880 in Windlach, Kanto,
Zürich, Switzerland. He was the oldest of five known children of Jacob and Kath
Stuckinger Huber.

Nothing is known of John’s childhood. However, in 1901 he
immigrated to the United Sates[1]. He
appears to have headed to the Swiss Colony area of southern Wisconsin where he
met Bertha Barbara Trumpi. 

The two were married on 2 March 1905 in New Glarus, Green
County, Wisconsin, probably at the Swiss Church, in an ecclesiastical ceremony
by Rev. A. Roth. The 1905 Wisconsin Census finds the couple living on a farm
that they rented in Primrose, WI[2], about
8 miles north of New Glarus.

In spring of 1908, they had their first child, a girl,
Florence Wilma Huber.

Sometime between then and December 1909, the young family
moved to Alabama where their only son, Clarence Eduard Huber was born. The
family is seen farming their own farm in Elberta and Josephine, Baldwin County,
Alabama in the 1910 Census[3]. The
1910 Census also indicates that John had submitted his First Papers for
Naturalization.

It is likely the Hubers succumbed to advertising directed
towards Swiss immigrants in Wisconsin and Illinois, which promised cheap land,
without snow and cold, in a Swiss Colony in Alabama. In any event, they bought
a farm in Alabama and worked it for seven to eight years. Then they bought a
farm from Jacob Spitz in James Township, Saginaw County, Michigan in 1916.

It doesn’t appear that John became a naturalized citizen. The
1910 census indicates that he submitted first papers. In the 1920 Census, he
was listed as an alien. The 1930 Census indicates that he was naturalized. However,
the 1940 census, once again, indicates he had only submitted first papers. It
is the recollection of his granddaughter that in the mid 1940s he indicated he
was still a Swiss citizen and “didn’t like America much.” That is not to say he hated America, rather, he spoke of Switzerland as if it were heaven. My suspicion is that
he never became a citizen and only went through the process enough to have
submitted first papers.

In 1929, his daughter, Florence, was married to Robert Harry
Darling.

The 1930 Census shows John, a poultry farmer, with his wife
and son, Clarence, living on the Farm on St. Charles road in James Township.

In 1934, Florence died leaving a granddaughter to be raised
by her widower. 

The 1940 Census finds John, Bertha, and son, Clarence,
living in the same house as they did in 1935 (and 1930). John owned the farm
worth about $4000 in 1940[4].

The daughter of Florence (their granddaughter) would come to live with him and his wife in the 1940s.

John died on 5 Oct 1948 from a lingering illness at St.
Luke’s Hospital in Saginaw, MI. At the time of his death, he was a member of
the Evangelical Church.

He was buried at Lot S464, Section
116, in Oakwood Cemetery, Saginaw, Michigan.

Notes:

Further Actions:

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