How lovely that this late 1860s – early 1870s CDV is labelled with the name of the mother, the baby son as well as the father of the child. It says in German:
“Aunt Anna Pomy, wife of Hermann Pomy in Chicago with son Hermann”
The photo studio stamp on the CDV confirms the location: Chicago, Illinois.
The names have been added at a much later date in pen and in modern German hand-writing. I found the original photo in Germany, so perhaps it was sent to relatives in Germany when it was taken? I couldn’t wait to find out!
These were mother Anna Pomy née Kuebler and her first-born, Hermann George Pomy in 1868. Anna Kuebler married Hermann Pomy in 1866. The couple’s only son, little Hermann here, was born on September 25, 1867 in Chicago, followed by four daughters: Clara B. (1869-1941), Bertha (1871-1939), Anna (1873-1928) and Pearl Olivia (1887-1965).
I’ve also figured out how come this photo was labelled in German. Well, their names obviously sound German – I assumed they must have had German ancestry. Anna Kuebler had been born on August 20, 1845 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and had made the sea passage to the United States as a 4-year-old girl in 1850, together with her parents Hieronymus and Anna Kuebler and her four older siblings. In 1860, Anna was 14 and living in her older sister Barbara and her husband George Auer’s household in St. Louis, Missouri.
As mentioned, Anna married Hermann Pomy in 1866. Hermann had left his homecountry of Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1859 as a 19-year-old man. What he probably didn’t expect while making the weeks-long journey was that just 2 years later his patriotism for his new home country would be put to a life-or-death kind-of-a-test. He - voluntarily or involuntarily, we don’t know – was drafted to serve with the Chicago Cavalry in the Union Army during the Civil War (with Company B, 1st Illinois Cavalry and later Company C, 16th Illinois Cavalry). Perhaps it was his bravery and loyalty that earned him the respect in the community and got him appointed as the deputy sheriff by 1880. The Pomys lived at 318 Maxwell Street in Chicago at the time.
In 1896, Anna Pomy applied for a passport for international travels. I wonder if she travelled to Germany? The passport application mentions her birthdate and place, her original date of arrival in the US in 1850 as well as the date of naturalization in 1864. According to the application, she was 5 feet 7 inches tall (170 cm), had dark hair and brown eyes.
From the many newspaper clippings I gather that the Pomys were very active in their local German-Swiss community. Hermann was a member of the German-American Veterans Association, the Chicago Dragoner (Reunion of former Swiss Dragonerschwadron soldiers), Germania Lodge (the Freemasons of Chicago), the “Orpheus Society" to name a few. Hermann’s name was among the director candidates of the new German Opera House or the Schiller Theatre, built in 1891, as well as mentioned as a representative delegate of 40 German singing societies. By 1891, Hermann Pomy had gone into bottling business and held office as the Secretary and Treasurer of the Chicago Consolidated Bottling Company up until his death in 1907.
The Pomys surely made a name for themselves in Chicago. In September 1891, the Pomys celebrated their silver wedding anniversary and were referred to as well-known Germans by the Chicago Tribune who reported on the celebrations:
Hermann Pomy died in 1907 from complications of a surgery he had undergone a year earlier. Anna Pomy passed away in 1929 at the age of 84. Anna's obituary, published in the Chicago Tribune on November 29, 1929, gives us many interesting clues about their life. Apparently the Pomys survived the great Chicago fire of 1871, which raged in October 1871, and left about 30% of the approximately 324,000 inhabitants of Chicago homeless. 120 bodies were recovered, but according to the coroner, the death toll may have been as high as 300.
And Anna’s obituary includes her photo, such a lovely surprise! How amazing that we get to see her face almost 50 years after my found photo was taken!
But now let’s look at what became of little Hermann from our picture. Just like his father, Hermann Jr. joined the Freemasons. And the Compendium of Freemasonry of Chicago gives us a pretty good overview of Hermann’s accomplishments:
Hermann Jr. married Harriet “Hattie” née Droney in 1892 and the couple had a son Hermann John Pomy (1894-1973), an officer of the US Army and a WWI and WWII veteran. Hermann Jr. passed away in 1931.
I will add this photo to FindaGrave and FamilySearch and hope to make contact with the Pomy descendants and return this photo. How wonderful it would be if it made the journey back to where it was taken some 156 years ago!
Commentaires