Leier Family Chart
Leier Family History
Children of Charles
& Louise Nowasky
Children of Lawrence
& Amelia Leier
Cemeteries
Causes of Death
Photos
Brooklyn Map
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LEIER FAMILY HISTORY
Sometime around 1860 in Germany, Adam Leier married Regina Schneider. They had a son named Longinus, who was born about 1862. Eventually, Longinus immigrated to the United States and settled in the Gravesend section of Long Island, NY, which would eventually be annexed into the city of Brooklyn.
Longinus met Emilie Nowasky and they were married on September 9, 1883, in St. John’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church on Prospect Street, located in what is now the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Longinus was 21 and Emilie was 19. Emilie was the daughter of Charles Nowasky and Louise Krzigan. Like Longinus, she was born in Germany (in February 1865). She immigrated to NY in 1880, along with her parents, her sister Bertha, and her brothers Charles and Herman.
Longinus soon changed his name to Lawrence, and Emilie changed hers to Amelia. On September 2, 1884, their first child, Louisa, was born. They were now living in the Greenfield/Parkville section of Long Island (Brooklyn). Between 1884 and 1897, they had a total of 12 children, but only 7 were still alive by 1900. Further information on the children can be found by clicking "Children of Lawrence & Amelia Leier" in the panel on the left.
Earlier records list Lawrence as a farmer. He was later listed simply as a laborer. He obtained his citizenship on March 26, 1894. On June 3, 1899, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and was sent to Kings County Hospital for treatment. He died there three weeks later, on June 24, 1899, at the age of 37. He is buried in an unmarked grave in The Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn.
After Lawrence’s premature death, Amelia struggled to support herself and her 7 children by taking in and doing the laundry of other people in the neighborhood. In 1900 they were all living at 379 Washington Avenue in the Parkville section of the town of Flatbush in the city of Brooklyn. By 1901, they had moved a few blocks east to a newly-built 3-story house at 941 Newkirk Avenue.
In July of 1901, as reported in the Brooklyn Eagle, Amelia and her 15-year-old son William, along with her brother Charles’ family, were dragged into court in Flatbush to answer a charge of disorderly conduct filed by 13 of their neighbors on Newkirk Avenue, for “assaults made both with violent force and in profane and obscene language.”
According to 13-year-old Perry Wheeler (who appeared in court with a bandaged head and black eye), he was riding his bicycle by the defendants’ houses when he was “knocked down, kicked, pounded with a stick and frightfully abused by word of mouth.”
In defense, Amelia’s brother, Charles Nowasky, stated that the Wheeler boy “had deliberately ridden his bicycle over one of the infant Nowaskys”, probably one of his sons, 2-year-old Frederick or 3½-yr-old Charles. Amelia corroborated her brother’s testimony. I have been unable to find out how this all ended.
Amelia was living with her son William at 941 Newkirk Avenue when 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.
Amelia left an estate valued at $6,500, basically the value of the property at 941 Newkirk Avenue. According to her Last Will and Testament, which she amended on December 17, 1924, she left $1 to her daughter Amelia (Mettie) Kazalsky, $1 to her daughter Bertha (Birdie) Hunter, and one-half each of the remainder of the estate to her sons William and Albert.