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SCHRIEBER FAMILY
Adolf Josef Schrieber
Adolf
Josef Schrieber (1835-1875), the progenitor of the Schrieber family
of Ocean Springs and environs, was born on January 19, 1835, in
Engelsberg, Austrian Selesia, the son of Friederich Josef Schrieber
and spouse. Selesia is a region in east central Europe situated
primarily in southwestern Poland, with minor sections in
Czechoslovakia and East Germany. In 1864, a young Adolf J.
Schrieber arrived in Mexico from Austria with the contingent of
Ferdinand Maximilian (1832-1867), the Arch Duke of Austria and
French backed Emperor of Mexico. After Maximilian and his French
troops were defeated in 1867, by patriots led by Benito Juarez
(1806-1872), Adolf J. Schrieber found his way to New Orleans where
he met and married Marguerite Rosina Christian (1834-1920), a native
of Hausen, Reutlingen-Wurtemberg, Germany, and the daughter of
Frederick Christian and Laura Goevbrani. Catholic records at St.
Alphonsus Church in Ocean Springs, indicate that her mother’s name
may have been Louise Boedbroad. Their nuptials took place in April
1870 at the Bethlehem Kirche in the Crescent City.(The History of
JXCO, Ms., 1989, p. 343 and Lepre, 1991, p. 196)
W.B.
Schmidt estate
The Schribers found Ocean Springs in the early 1870s through another
German immigrant, William B. Schmidt (1823-1901). Schmidt, a native
of Baden-Wurttemberg, made his livelihood at New Orleans as a
wholesale grocer. After the Civil War, he acquired real estate at
Ocean Springs and erected a summer home, which is extant at 227
Front Beach Drive. W.B. Schmidt also owned the Ocean Springs Hotel
and Marble Springs, which he donated to the City in 1896. Other W.B.
Schmidt gifts to the local people were the land where the Ocean
Springs Community House is situated on Washington Avenue and the lot
of land on the northwest corner of Rayburn and Porter, now the site
of St. Johns Episcopal Church, which was completed in April 1892.
In the early 1870s, Adolf J. Schrieber and spouse were the
caretakers of the W.B. Schmidt Estate on Front Beach. Later they
moved to a site on Old Fort Bayou, which in the 20th
Century became the Gus Nelson Place. Here their three children were
born: Frederich Adolph “Dolph” Schrieber (1871-1944), Joseph
Louis “Dode” Schrieber (1873-1951), and Maria Luise Schrieber Carver
(1875-1954). Five weeks prior to the birth of his daughter, Adolf
J. Schrieber expired from the yellow fever virus on October 13,
1875.(History of JXCO, Ms., 19189, p. 343 and Lepre, 1991, p. 304)
F. Joseph Letzler
In the St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, on November 16, 1876, Franz
Joseph Letzler (1834-1908), a native of Grenzingen, Alsace-Lorraine,
Germany married Rosina Christian Schrieber, the widow of
Adolf J. Schrieber. Joseph and Rosina S. Letzler were the parents
of Marianne Margrethe Letzler Cotton (1877-1944+). Joseph Letzler
also reared the children of Adolf J. Schrieber who called him “Pa”.(The
History of JXCO, Ms., 1989, p. 264 and p. 342)
Wedding day of Frederich Adolph Schrieber and Lilly Alice Rupp
[Courtesy of Lurline Schrieber
Hall]
Frederich A. Schrieber
Frederich Adolph “Dolph” Schrieber (1871-1943) was born at
Ocean Springs on November 11, 1871. Dolph Schrieber married Lilly
Alice Rupp (1889-1972), the daughter of Robert Rupp (1857-1930), a
German immigrant, and Paulina Thiem (1857-1945). They were the
parents of: Rachel Pauline Schrieber (1911-1968) married Curtis
Wright (1906-1953) and David Herman “Pat” Pettus; Robert F.
Schrieber (1914-1973) married Anna Ruth Kolb (1921-2005); Leah
Louise Schrieber Thayer (1917-1992) married Earl Burnside
(1905-1991) and Benjamin Thayer; E.M. Ashley Schrieber (1919-2001);
Joseph Wheeler Schrieber (1921-1953) married Juanita Potter; Mildred
Harriet Schrieber (1923-1978) married Francis A. Ford (b. 1916),
Jackson Samuels, Rudolph Fisher and Theodore Myers (d. 1978); and
Allen “Laddie” Schrieber (1925-1985) married Dorothy L. Hebert (b.
1936).(genealogy research of Dorothy L. Hebert)
Children of F.A. Schrieber and Lilly Alice Rupp
[top l-r: Allen "Laddie"
Schrieber (1925-1985), Robert F. Schrieber
(1914-1973), Joseph W. Schrieber (1921-1953), and E.M.
Ashley Schrieber (1919-2001).[bottom l-r: Leah L. Schrieber
(1917-1992), Mildred H. Schrieber (1923-1978) and Rachel
P. Schrieber (1911-1968)] Courtesy of Lurline Schrieber
Hall.
During the Spanish American War (1898), F.A. Schrieber served
with the 29th US Volunteers in the Philippine Islands.
After the conflict, Dolph Schrieber became active in the oyster
business at Ocean Springs. In March 1902, he, E.N. Ramsay
(1832-1916), and George W. Dale (1872-1953) applied to the Jackson
County Board of Supervisors for an oyster planting lease on eighty
acres of "land that is underwater" west of Marsh Point. Schrieber
built a small home on creosote pilings at Marsh Point. It was
christened "The Little Black Diamond" when it was completed on July
4, 1904. Dolph planted over ten thousand barrels of oysters in
Davis Bayou opposite his house. He and his wife occasionally lived
here to protect their oyster beds from poachers. Mrs. Lily
Schrieber reported that she once shot several holes through the
skiff of an oyster thief one night. The Schrieber water home became
known as the "Shack". It survived storms and hurricanes for many
decades, but was probably finished off by Camille in 1969.(The
Progress, July 9, 1904, p. 4 and The Daily Herald, November 16,
1957)
Dolph Schrieber acquired a US Government patent on Lot 5,
Section 32, T7S-R8W in December 1905. This 23 acres tract adjoined
his 1902 oyster leases at Marsh Point. Schrieber sold an interest
in his Marsh Point acreage to his brother, Dode Schrieber
(1873-1951), and others including, George W. Dale (1872-1953),
William Toche (1862-1937), Thomas R. Friar (1845-1918), and John
Burr (1875-1916).(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 34, pp. 290-291)
In May 1909, Dolph Schrieber relinquished the majority of his
holdings at Marsh Point and Grass Island to Hugh C. Seymour
(1876-1913). Seymour for $1000 acquired 1800 feet of Lot 5 fronting
on Davis Bayou. This in addition to 800 feet acquired in May 1905,
from Schrieber gave Seymour a commanding position on the valuable
oyster reefs in Davis Bayou north of Marsh Point.(JXCO, Ms. Land
Deed Bk. 34, pp. 489-90 and Bk. 31, pp. 349-350)
Fort Maurepas stone
In
1910, Robert W. Rupp (1857-1930), the father-in-law of Dolph
Schrieber, discovered the Fort Maurepas cornerstone, on the W.B.
Schmidt estate where he was the caretaker. Dolph Schrieber kept the
Colonial era relic at the various lighthouse stations that he manned
until his retirement and return to Ocean Springs in 1937. In May
1937, James J.A. Fortier, president of the board of curators of the
Louisiana State Museum, and Emile V. Stier, secretary of the board,
came to Ocean Springs to view the stone. Mr. Schrieber loaned it to
these gentlemen from the Crescent City for it to be shown to George
Bonnet, the French ambassador to the United States. In recent
years, the Fort Maurepas cornerstone had been on display in the
drugstore of Dr. O.L. Bailey (1870-1938) on Washington Avenue.(The
Jackson County Times, May 28, 1937)
In
September 1937, Mr. Fortier informed Dr. Bailey that he would not be
returning the Fort Maurepas marker to Ocean Springs. His pretext
for keeping the historical item for the Louisiana State Museum was
that the Heirs of W.B. Schmidt were claiming it since it was found
on their family estate in Ocean Springs. Their wish was to make a
permanent loan of it to the museum.(Schmidt, 1972, p. 10)
F.A. Schrieber Cottage (circa 1910)
508 Ward
Lighthouse service
After
his sale of his Marsh Point lands to H.C. Seymour, Dolph Schrieber
left the seafood industry and made a career in the US Lighthouse
Service joining in 1908. He tended lighthouses at the Mississippi River's
Southwest Pass for six months; Chandeleur Island for thirty-one and
one-half years; Horn Island for four years; Round Island for four
and one-half years; Tchefuncte River at
Madisonville, Louisiana for fifteen years; and Biloxi, Mississippi
for two years. Mr. Schrieber retired from the Lighthouse Service at Biloxi in 1937. He
made his home in Ocean Springs at 508 Ward Avenue, which is now in
the possession of his grandson, Robert F. “Bobby” Schrieber Jr., who
inherited the home from his uncle, E.M. Ashley Schrieber
(1919-2001). Bobby has meticulously restored the old Schrieber
place with the skill and patience of the master carpenter and
painter that he is.(The Daily Herald, march 4, 1935, p. 6 and The Ocean Springs Record, January 25, 2007,
p. B4 and B5)
Frederich Adolph Schrieber expired at Ocean
Springs on March 17, 1944. Lilly Rupp Schrieber lived until August
10, 1972. Both were interred in the Evergreen Cemetery on Old Fort
Bayou.(The Daily Herald, March 18, 1944)
Memorabilia
In the
spring of 2006, Bobby Schrieber (b. 1940) of Ocean Springs and
Lowell F. Ford (b. 1942) of Torrance, California, both grandsons of Dolph Schrieber, donated more than 100 lighthouse
service memorabilia artifacts owned by Mr.
Schrieber, to the Lake Ponchartrain Basin Maritime Museum at
Madisonville, Louisiana. The donated collection consists of: a
pristine, lighthouse keeper's dress uniform, two Spanish American
era rifles, journals, family and lighthouse photos, a megaphone, and
other family items. The Dolph Schrieber material was examined
by a California based historical commissioner who lauded the
collection as: "This collection is extraordinarily unique due
to its historical relevance to the lighthouse. This material
is likely the most comprehensive collection of its type on
existence." Alison Greffenius of the Lake
Pontchartrain Basin maritime Museum said that: "It's
the only extensive collection of light keeper family memorabilia in
the United States."
(The Sun Herald, June 12,
2006, p. A5)
Joseph L. Schrieber
Joseph Louis “Dode” Schrieber (1873-1951) was born
at Ocean Springs on March 14, 1873. At Beaumont, Texas, in October
1917, he married Etta Augusta Clark (1888-1979), the daughter of
James Lundy Clark (1850-1914) of Biloxi and Charlotte Victoria
Richards (1859-1939), a native of Shubuta, Clarke County,
Mississippi. Their children were: Marion Lurline Schrieber (b.
1920) married Charles W. Hall (b. 1918) and Charlotte Rose Schrieber
(b. 1924) married Howard M. Blanchette (1927-2001).(History of JXCO,
1989, p. 162 and p. 342)
Dode and Dolph Schrieber
[Courtesy
of Lurline Schrieber
Hall]
Dode Schrieber was an interesting man. He was
multi-talented and made his livelihood at various times as a
carpenter, boat builder, and oysterman. One of Dode’s most unusual
jobs occurred when he was the assistant of Mrs. Paul W. Bennett.
Mrs. Bennett in addition to being the recreation director at the
Community Center on Iberville Drive, which later became the American
Legion hut, was the choir director of a Baptist Church in New
Orleans. During WW II, Dode was a local air raid warden in charge
of checking that those residents in his area of responsibility had
turned off their house lights at the appropriate time.(Lurline S.
Hall, May 16, 2004)
Schrieber homestead
In 1910, Dode Schrieber built the family home at present day 1309
Porter on a part of Lots 13 and 14 in Block 32. He had acquired the
lot in June 1910, from H.F. Russell (1858-1940) for $250. Local
State representative, Henry B. Zuber III, purchased the old
Schrieber property in June 2003 for $40,000, from a Special
Commissioner of the Jackson County, Mississippi Chancery Court. The
home was demolished in July 2003. Judith Martin was conveyed the
Schrieber lot in January 2004, by Mr. Zuber and H.J. Endt II. (JXCO,
Ms. Land Deed Bk. 36, p. 10, JXCO, Ms. Land Chancery Court Cause No.
2002-8429-JB, and JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 1330, p. 797)
Local historian
Dode Schrieber made an amazing contribution to the chronology of
Ocean Springs in the fall of 1949, when he was interviewed in the
twilight of his life by Captain Ellis Handy (1891-1963), then a
writer for The Gulf Coast Times. Captain Handy’s
column “Know Your Neighbor” was published between July 1949
and November 1949. It included interviews with some of Ocean
Springs’ most notables: Antonio John Catchot (1864-1954); John
Edward Catchot (1897-1987); Henry L. Girot (1886-1953); John W.C.
Mitchell (1871-1952); Alfred Peter Moran (1897-1967); Fred J. Ryan
(1886-1969), and George Washington Smith (1857-1953). The VanCleave,
Bradford, Davis, and many more pioneer families and individuals were
highlighted by Mr. Handy. In addition to details of his own
Schrieber-Letzler family, Dode Schrieber related much about the
unpublished events of the mid and late 19th Century
chronology of Ocean Springs. For any local genealogist or history
buff, the Handy and Schrieber reports are a must!
Dode Schrieber expired at Biloxi on June 22, 1951.
Etta Clark Schrieber lived on until May 16, 1979. She passed at
Montgomery. Alabama. Both lie in eternal rest in the Evergreen
Cemetery on Old Fort Bayou.
Maria Luise Brigette Schrieber
Maria Luise Brigette “Louisa” Schrieber (1875-1954) was
born on November 23, 1875. At Ocean Springs, on January 31, 1903,
she married Oscar Raymond Carver (1878-1926), a native of Bay St.
Louis, Mississippi, and the son of David Carver (1836-1900+) and
Matilda Breakfield (1846-1925). She was the daughter of surveyor,
D.N. Breakfield, who was born at Georgia in 1817, and May Breakfield,
born 1827, at South Carolina.
Oscar R. Carver came to Ocean Springs from Bay St. Louis
in 1889 with his family. His father was one of the ferrymen who
transported people and animals across Old Fort Bayou at Ocean
Springs before the first bridge was built in 1901. Oscar supported
his family as laborer on the bridge gang of the L&N Railroad. He
and Louisa were the parents of three sons: Lawton H. Carver
(1903-1973) married Freda E. Lee and Lillian Carla Montalto
(1916-1995); Joseph Aubrey "Joe" Carver (1906-1985) married Grace
Carver (1904-1971); and Withee Oscar Carver (1910-1985) married
Manuela Pol Lewis (1906-1991).(The Jackson County Times, May 15,
1926, p. 5)
Oscar R. Carver expired at Ocean Springs in late May 1926, after an
illness of several months. Louisa S. Carver lived in the old
Theresa Vahle Friar (1871-1956) house on the northwest corner of
Washington and Calhoun for many years before she relocated to
Lakeland, Florida where she died on January 26, 1954. Both
were interred in the Evergreen Cemetery at Ocean Springs.
Lawton
H. Carver
Lawton H. Carver (1903-1973) was an Ocean Springs lad who became an
internationally acclaimed sports and culinary journalist,
restaurateur, angling and fly tying expert, and artist. He was
educated in Ocean Springs' Public Schools and at Loyola University
at New Orleans. In the fall of 1922, before he entered Loyola,
Lawton was employed by Earheart and Barner, a well-know drugstore in
the Crescent City. He married Freda E. Lee on May 10, 1926, at
Ocean Springs. She was the daughter of Frederick Edgar Lee
(1874-1932). Mr. Lee was a native of Campbellsburg, Indiana, a
small village in south central Indiana. He was in the real estate
and pecan business at Ocean Springs and the builder in 1925, of Casa
Flores on Davis Bayou, which is now called Del Castle. Lawton and
Freda were the parents of Betty Lee Carver Eisenberg, the spouse of
Lloyd L. Eisenberg (1927-1996).(The Jackson County Times,
September 2, 1922 and JXCO, Ms. Circuit Court MRB 17, p. 196)
After
graduating from college, Carver made his livelihood as a newspaper
sports writer and editor. Circa 1925, his journalist career began
in Tampa, Florida with the Tampa Tribune. Carver then went to
Daytona Beach, Florida where he was sports editor of the
News-Journal from 1929-1934. While at Daytona, he may have been
instrumental in starting the auto races there. In 1934, Lawton
Carver went to New York City as a sports staff writer for United
Press. He joined the International News Service in 1936, as sports
editor and remained with that organization until it closed in 1958.
Lawton
H. Carver later married Lillian Carla Montalto (1916-1995) of Beacon
Street, Back Bay, Boston. They had a son, Lawton Christopher Carver
who was born in 1955. Mrs. Carver resided with her son at Las
Vegas, Nevada, until her demise on 1995.
In
1951, in the Big Apple, Lawton H. Carver opened the Camillo
Restaurant on 2nd Avenue near 44th. He served Italian food and
steaks. At his Gotham restaurant, Carver had a bulletin board where
guests could thumb-tack praise or criticism regarding food or
service. Mrs. Ty Cobb once wrote that Camillo's served "the very
best marinara sauce I ever ate in my life". Pictures of Ted
Williams, Phil Rizzuto, and English Channel swimmer, Florence
Chadwick, also graced the note board. Lawton H. Carver sold the
Camillo Restaurant in 1957. He was in sports publicity for several
years before opening Lawton Carver's Cafe on 2nd Avenue near the
United Nations building. Carver later was an assistant editor at
the Herald Tribune and kitchen editor at the Journal-American were
he wrote under the name of Prudence Penny.
Lawton
H. Carver expired at New York on January 22, 1973. His remains were
interred in the Calvary Cemetery in New Jersey. Carver was
eulogized in a letter to Mrs. Lillian Carver from Larry Penzell, a
Madison Avenue public relations executive. Penzell wrote of Lawton
Carver in January 1973:
“I needn’t tell you how I adored this man, assuredly, the kindest,
and most wonderful person I ever had the good fortune to know.
Generous, witty, personable, talented…he was everything, and never
and individual to seek the limelight. In this business, this past
quarter of a century and need I say, dozens, who could never shine
his shoes, without a milligram of Lawton’s talent…. Were the
obnoxious crowd-shovers who sought the bows. Carver was an unusual
man of the highest caliber”. Pennell continued about Carver, “we’ll
never see the likes of anyone ever resembling dear Lawton again in
our lifetime nor in eons to come. God chooses only a very few to
dole out humility, understanding, patience and appreciation of his
fellow man.”
REFERENCES:
The History of Jackson County, Mississippi, “Franz Joseph
Letzler and Rosina Christian Schrieber”, (Jackson County,
Mississippi Genealogical Society: Pascagoula, Mississippi-1989).
The History of Jackson County, Mississippi, “Adolf Josef
Schrieber and Rosina Christian”, (Jackson County,
Mississippi Genealogical Society: Pascagoula, Mississippi-1989).
Journals
The
Daily Herald,
"Captain Schrieber
assumes Biloxi duty",
March 4, 4938.
The
Daily Herald,
"Frederick
Schrieber retired Lighthouse Keeper, Dies at Home", March 18,
1944.
The
Daily Herald,
“Know
Your Coast”-The Story of the finding of the Iberville Plaque”,
1960?
The
Gulf Coast Times,
“Curtis Wright Makes Pigeons A Profitable Hobby That Pay For Itself”,
September 18,1952.
The
Gulf Coast Times,
“Curtis H. Wright, 47 Dies After Long Illness”,
May 2, 1953.
The
Jackson County Times,
“Oscar
R. Carver”,
May15, 1926.
The
Jackson County Times,
“Schrieber-Kolb”,
December 16, 1939.
The
Sun Herald,
“Anna
Ruth Schrieber”,
March 15, 2005, p. A7.
The Ocean Springs Record, "Bringing back the good old
days: Builder restores grandparents' historic home", January
25, 2007, p. B4. |
By
Ray L. Bellande
