Leier Family Chart
Leier Family History
Children of Charles
& Louise Nowasky
Children of Lawrence
& Amelia Leier
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Children of Lawrence & Amelia Leier
According to census records, Lawrence and Amelia had a total of 12 children. I have been able to document only nine of them. They are Louisa (1884), William (1886), Amelia (1889), Bertha (1890), Emma (1891), Charles (1892), Minnie (1895), Annie (1896), and Albert (1897). Emma and Annie each died a few months after being born.
Louisa Leier – born September 2, 1884 in South Greenfield, a hamlet in the Gravesend section of Kings County, New York, later to become part of the city of Brooklyn. Louisa was 19 years old and 6 months pregnant when she married Ciro Lanzaro on September 27, 1903. They had nine children, five of whom lived to adulthood. The family moved to a farm in Morganville, NJ, in 1914. Louisa contracted tuberculosis in 1919 and was confined to a sanitarium in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, where she died more than a year later on July 16, 1920. She was 35 years old. She is buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Keyport, NJ, along with Ciro and their last 3 children who died as infants.
For more information about Louisa, click on "Louisa & Ciro" and "Louisa's Letters" in the panel on the left.
William Leier – born June 26, 1886 in the Parkville section of Flatbush, a town in Kings County that would eventually be incorporated into the city of Brooklyn. After his father died in 1899, 2 days before his 13th birthday, William was forced to drop out of school to help his mother support themselves and his six siblings. He found work as an office boy. Several years later, he was hired as a printer in a print shop. In fact, by 1910 he was operating his own printing business from the home at 941 Newkirk Avenue called “Modern Job Printing Company.”
On November 16, 1912, William married Susan Halbert, the grandniece of Nathaniel Currier of Currier & Ives fame. They had two children: William Thomas (born August 16, 1913) and Dorothy (born August 19, 1915).
On September 12, 1918, at the age of 32, William filled out a World War I Draft Registration Card, as he was required to by law. He describes himself as a tall man of medium build, with brown hair and blue eyes. He was employed as a carpenter with C. Knickerbocker at 737 Newkirk Avenue in Brooklyn.
By 1920, William and Susan separated. William moved back home with his mother, Amelia, while Susan took the children (ages 7 and 5) and moved back with her mother, Hannah. William and Susan officially divorced on August 23, 1922.
On December 18, 1924, Susan remarried, to John Ernst, and moved to Queens. By 1930, 14-year-old Dorothy was living with her mother and step-father and step-sister Arline in Queens, NY. William Thomas was an inmate at the Herriman Farm School in Monsey, NY, about 40 miles northwest of Queens. Nearly everthing I know about the children comes from information provided by Jo Ann Moffat, Arline Ernst's daughter-in-law.
In 1925, when young William was 12 years old, he developed appendicitis and had to have his appendix removed. There are indications that he was causing problems with his mother and step-father and was sent to live with his father. He confided to those who knew him later in life that his father beat him and eventually sent him to the "orphanage" in Monsey.
From 1934 to 1942 William worked as an elevator operator. In 1942, he was earning $13 per week operating an elevator at Kings County Hospital and back living with his father and his father’s second wife, Lillian at 634 Franklin Avenue.
In October of 1942, when he was 29 years old, he enlisted in the Army Reserve Signal Corps. According to his military documents, he was 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed 153 pounds, had a 31-inch waist, medium frame, brown hair and eyes, and a dark complexion. He was single and had no dependents.
He was also suffering from a condition called “dorsal kyphosis” or curvature of the spine. One can only conjecture that, in 1942, the Army was enlisting anyone who could walk into the recruitment office.
His immediate assignment after basic training was with a medical detachment. In any case, he lasted only 14 months in the service, long enough to earn an honorable disability discharge due to his worsening physical condition. He was discharged on December 22, 1943 and moved back to Brooklyn.
Around 1959 he moved to Herlong, California, a small town near the Nevada border, about 50 miles northwest of Reno. He found work as a civilian at the nearby Sierra Army Depot. A retired employee of the depot recently told me he remembers Bill in 1964 as an older gray-haired fellow who was quite bent over and worked as an operator at the depot’s water treatment plant. Others who knew him at that time have also confirmed that he was known as "Bill" Leier.
According to his ex-landlady, Bill lived in a trailer in a park near the depot. He had no tv or telephone, but he did have a cat. He rarely talked and pretty much kept to himself. From what I gather, he didn't have a car, either. His landlord would drive him to the veterans clinic in Reno (a 2-hour round trip) on those occasions when he needed medical care.
After retiring from the depot, Bill moved to the nearby town of Susanville. He was suffering from chronic lung disease. Shortly after entering the Lassen Community Hospital for treatment, he developed pneumonia and died there on August 23, 1988, a week after his 75th birthday. His obituary states there were no known survivors. Another source indicates he never married.
He is buried in the veterans section at the Diamond Crest Cemetery in Johnstonville, California, a small town just southeast of Susanville.
Dorothy was 19 years old when she married Herman Bosch on June 19, 1935, in Queens, NY. Herman was working as an automobile mechanic when he enlisted in the army in 1943 and served as a Staff Sergeant during World War II. I have no evidence that they had any children.
They were living in Dix Hills, Long Island, NY, when Dorothy died on October 10, 1976. Herman died in 1982. Both are buried at the National Veteran's Cemetery on Long Island.
William and his mother Amelia continued to live at 941 Newkirk Avenue until she accidentally died from inhaling illuminating gas from the outlet wall fixture in her bedroom on June 25, 1931. She was 65 years old. She is buried with Lawrence at Evergreens.
According to her will, Amelia left an estate valued at $6500, primarily the value of the property at 941 Newkirk Avenue. For some reason, she left $1 each to her two surviving daughters, Mettie and Birdie, with the remaining estate to be divided evenly between her two surviving sons, William and Albert.
On October 15, 1931, four months after his mother died, William married his second wife, Lillian Fall, who was already living with him at the family home. In 1933, Albert sued his brother for his half of the inheritance.
On April 27, 1942, at the age of 55, William again registered for the draft. By this time, he and Lillian were living at 634 Franklin Avenue, in Brooklyn. He was employed by the Works Projects Administration (WPA), a work relief program funded by Congress that provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression. He lists Robert Foell as a reference, who I believe was Lillian’s brother.
They were living at 367 Crescent Street in Brooklyn when Lillian died on November 14, 1948. She was 56 years old. Cause of death was coronary occlusion (heart failure due to blocked arteries). She was cremated at Fresh Pond Crematory. William was still alive at the time and 62 years of age.
I don’t know when William died or where he is buried.
Amelia Leier – born March 1889 in Gravesend. She was known to us as Aunt Mettie. She married John (Jack) Kazalski on November 18, 1909, in St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn. They had five children: Jack (1910-1991), Bertha (1912-1931), Gladys (1914-1993), Dorothy (1916-1933), and Florence (1919-2005). A tuberculosis epidemic in the early 1930’s killed teenagers Bertha and Dorothy.
Mettie's favorite holiday was Christmas. She continued the German tradition of having real lit candles on the tree and the tree was NEVER put up until after the children went to bed Christmas Eve. She also did wonderful needle work, especially quilting, producing many "masterpieces." Every Christmas she would make new doll clothes for the girls' old dolls.
At some point the family changed their surname from Kazalski to Berry. Mettie died in October 1969. Her husband Jack died on August 10, 1981 in Asheville, North Carolina. They are both buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in East Hanover, NJ.
Bertha Leier – born February 12, 1890 in Gravesend – known to us as Aunt Birdie. On Christmas Eve, 1918, 28-year-old Birdie married a 22-year-old sailor from Massachusetts named Lawrence Hunter. The marriage took place at the Dutch Reformed Church on Flatbush Avenue. On her marriage certificate she listed her age as 24. Witnesses to the ceremony were her sister Minnie and brother-in-law John Kazalski. Minnie was only a few months away from marrying her sailor.
I only know of one child, Ruthie, born in May of 1919. Shortly after Ruthie's birth, Birdie and the baby were living with her sister and brother-in-law, Mettie and John Kazalski, at 277 West Street in Brooklyn, while Lawrence was serving aboard the U.S.S. Columbia in the Caribbean. Birdie and Lawrence eventually divorced.
Emma Leier – born March 4, 1891 in Gravesend. She died a few months later on July 27, from Cholera Infantum, also known as “Summer Complaint ”. She is buried in the Old Gravesend Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Charles Leier – born November 3, 1892 in Gravesend. Charles was a tall, slender man with light brown hair and blue eyes. He worked in a butcher shop, then later worked on his sister’s farm in Morganville, NJ. He died in Westerly, Rhode Island on November 11, 1926, at the age of 34. Cause of death was listed as "Pulmonic Filithisis" - a fancy name for Tuberculosis. He is buried with his sister Minnie in Evergreens Cemetery.
Minnie Leier – born January 24, 1895 in Gravesend. On February 22, 1919, Minnie married Otto Fretz in a ceremony held at her mother's home at 941 Newkirk Avenue. Otto was serving as a cook with the U.S. Navy. Sadly, Minnie contracted tuberculosis a few months later and died at her mother's home on September 12, 1919. She was only 24 years old. She is buried at Evergreens Cemetery with her brother Charles.
Annie Leier – born January 17, 1896 in Gravesend. She died shortly after on March 26 from Periostitis, an inflammation of the membrane surrounding the bones, brought on by a severe asthmatic attack. She is also buried in Gravesend Cemetery.
Albert Leier – born February 17, 1897 in Gravesend. Known more familiarly as Ollie or Allie, Albert was a slender man of medium height, with light brown hair and blue eyes. He worked as a horseshoer in a blacksmith shop, a subway conductor for the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation, known as the BMT, and as an elevator operator. He married Miranda Kennish around 1927. They lived at 456 Lexington Avenue in Brooklyn.
Albert was 78 years old when he died of natural causes on August 1, 1975. Miranda died a year later on October 29, 1976. They are buried together in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Flushing, a town in the borough of Queens, which is situated north of Brooklyn.