German Sauerkraut for the New Year
Do you serve sauerkraut at your New Year’s Eve dinner? German immigrant Catherine Löw Blend can be seen here tending to her crop of cabbage planted in Cavittsville, Westmoreland County circa 1925. For a mere $10 a year, her husband, John Blend leased 19 acres of farmland from the Samuel Shaw Stewart Estate. There’s no doubt that the Blend family brought many German recipes with them from the old country, including the age-old tradition of making sauerkraut.
There were several German immigrant families living in Trafford employed by either the Westinghouse Foundry or the Pennsylvania Railroad in the first census following Trafford’s founding in 1904. Here are just a few of the Trafford residents claiming Germany as their place of birth, appearing in the 1910 Federal Census.
Jacob Bukholz, William Blessing, Joseph Bruner, Carl Muentzer, William Srenda, Anna Brandau, Edward Hemler, Justus Schmitt, Elizabeth Weiland, Henry F Tregesser, Margaretta Schweikhardt, Emilia Richter, Margaret F Miller, Frank Krauss, Augusta Koepka, Peter Jay, George Heuer, Albert Hertzog, Otto Abel, Frank Albright, Lewis Doloros, Frank Dietz, F H Deinert, Fred H W Grentzmyer. Do you recognize any of these family surnames? If you did, remember these ancestors while enjoying a dish of sauerkraut during your New Year's Eve celebration. According to German tradition, it is believed to bring you blessings and wealth for the New Year. #germanheritage #newyearseve #westmorelandheritage #familytraditions
Catherine Anna Katharina Löw Blend (1842-1928) in Cavittsville.
