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Max S. Freudenberg I (1858-1921)
Max S. Freudenberg
Freudenberg-Max 1921b
Sex: Male
Birth: October 25, 1858 (1858-10-25) (166 years ago)
Berlin, Germany
Death: March 21, 1921 (age 62), 5:00 pm
Jersey City, New Jersey
Congestive heart failure
Burial: Flower Hill Cemetery
North Bergen, New Jersey
Father: Sigmund Freudenberg (1828-1908)
Mother: Clara Horwitz (1835-?) of Germany
Spouse/Partner: Eloise Lindauer II (1860-1935)‎
Marriage: circa 1878
Children: Babyboy Freudenberg (1879)
Max S. Freudenberg II (1881)
Ada Augusta Freudenberg (1885-1957)
Charles Fredrick Freudenberg (1887-1942)
Jenny Gertrude Freudenberg (1888)
Clara Freudenberg (1889-1959)
Arthur Oscar Freudenberg I (1891-1968)
Max S. Freudenberg III (1893-1900)
Louis Julius Freudenberg I (1894-1918)
Harry Freudenberg (1895-1896)
Richard F. Freudenberg (1896-1988)
Eloise Freudenberg (1898)
Eugene Freudenberg I (1900-1956)
Ralph Freudenberg (1903-1980)
Grace May Freudenberg (1904-1981)


Max S. Freudenberg I (1858-1921) aka Maximilian Freudenberg. He migrated from Berlin, Germany to Jersey City, New Jersey via Hamburg on May 11, 1869 with his siblings. His father had arrived on March 16, 1867. He worked as an actuary in the German department of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company until he had heart problems that prevented him from working full time. (b. October 25, 1858, Berlin, Germany - d. March 21, 1921, 5:00 pm, 63 Concord Street, Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, 07306-1617, USA)

Name[]

His first name has always been written as "Max" which may be short for Maximilian. His middle name may be "Sigmund" or "Siegmund" after his father, but no written record of it has been found to date. His son, Arthur Oscar Freudenberg I (1891-1968) listed him as "Maximilian" in his own 1923 vanity biography.

Parents[]

Birth[]

He was born on October 25, 1858 in Berlin, Germany. Civil registration became mandatory in all German states on January 1, 1876.[1] Prior to that time only religious records would exist.

Religion[]

His parents were Jewish but Saint Matthaus Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Kirke, in Hoboken, recorded the death of his first child, Max Freudenberg II. His son, Arthur Oscar Freudenberg became a congregationalist. His son Louis Julius Freudenberg I, who died in WWI was first buried with a Star of David on his tombstone but his mother, Eloise Lindauer, changed it to a cross. She may have been the one that shifted the children to Christianity from Judaism. The Lindauers, most likely, were Protestant.

Emigration[]

Max Freudenberg arrived in the United States from Germany on May 11, 1869 at age 9, with his two siblings.[2] His father had arrived alone in 1867. According to the oral family tradition, it was believed that Max emigrated from Germany around 1875 while working as a cabin boy on a ship. However, the 1900 census listed his immigration year as 1865, when he was 7 years old. The Freudenberg were in the 1870 census of New York City, in the household of Sigmund and Augusta Freudenberg. This Sigmund was in the life insurance business. Based on the gap in ages of Sigmund's children, Augusta would have been Sigmund's second wife. Max had sisters Jennie and Gertrude, which explains the name of his daughter "Jenny Gertrude." Sigmund and Augusta moved on to Philadelphia by 1880. Max's brother, Alfred, appears in the Philadelphia House of Correction in the 1880 census.

Marriage[]

He married Eloise Lindauer II (1860-1935)‎ around 1878 and they lived with her parents at 51 8th Street, Hoboken, New Jersey. They appear in the 1880 United States Census. Max was Jewish but Eloise may have been Lutheran and may have raised the children Lutheran or without a religion. One child's death in Hoboken was recorded at the Lutheran church.

Children[]

Eloise and Max had 15 children, 5 died as children, 9 lived to adulthood, and 5 of them had children and grandchildren. The children were:

^ These lines are extant. ✝ These died as infants.

Saint Matthew's-Trinity Lutheran Church[]

Although his father was Jewish, in 1881 he was at Saint Matthew's-Trinity Lutheran Church on Washington Street and 8th Street in Hoboken. The church was directly across the street from the family apartment. The church was also known as Saint Matthaus Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Kirke. The church recorded the death of his child: Max Freudenberg II.

Hoboken to Jersey City[]

Eloise and Max rented a home at 89 Adam Street in Hoboken from about 1888 to 1893, then they moved to 220 Madison Street, Hoboken, New Jersey till at least 1903. Most of their children were born at 220 Madison Street. After 1903 they moved to 51 Booraem Avenue in Jersey City and stayed until around 1910. In 1910 they appear on the US Census living at 22 Hopkins Avenue in Jersey City. The family has not been located in the 1920 US Census. They were living at 63 Concord Street in Jersey City when Max died in 1921.

Occupation[]

In 1922 Max's son, Arthur, wrote: "Maximilian Freudenberg was active in the insurance business in New York City for many years, in the capacity of actuary in the German department of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company". Eloise, his wife wrote in 1918 that Max was a "clerk, [earning] $36.00 per month when [he is] employed. [He] works only about one half the year due to heart trouble."

Death and burial[]

Max died in 1921 of "cardiac insufficiency with chronic parenchymatous nephritis" at 63 Concord Street, Jersey City, New Jersey and he was buried in Flower Hill Cemetery, North Bergen, New Jersey with his wife and several of his children including:

The only marker for the family plot is for Louis Julius Freudenberg I (1894-1918) and it was toppled and broken. Richard Arthur Norton (1958) ordered a replacement and it is the only marker for the plot.

Research[]

  • No photograph of Max Freudenberg is known to exist, but there is one unlabeled photograph showing the Freudenbergs on the porch of a house taken between 1915 and 1918. There is a man about Max's age in the photograph and he has a mustache and white hair. This may be a photograph of Max Freudenberg or it may be a photograph of the father of the other family shown in the picture. The only other place where a photograph of Max Freudenberg may exist will be with the descendants of Grace Freudenberg. Of the 9 children to survive into adults only 5 of them had children and grandchildren and their lines are extant: Arthur, Richard, Eugene, Ralph, and Grace.
  • On February 24, 2013 Richard Arthur Norton (1958) tried to find Max and his family in the 1920 United States Census. I knew they were living at 63 Concord Street, Jersey City, New Jersey at the time of Max's death in 1921 and they continued to live there during the 1930 United States Census. I looked for families in the 1930 census that were neighbors of the Freudenbergs and then found them in the 1920 census to see if they were still living on Concord Street. I found one family but even after looking at the entire enumeration district, I was not able to find 63 Concord Street. The problem is that Concord street is broken into tiny segments of a just a few houses each and the name column of the 1920 census is fuzzy, either the ink ran or the camera was not in focus because the books are bound at their left edges where the names appear. One of the census takers switched the order of the family names and given names which added to the confusion. I searched in all the indexes to see if "Max Freudenberg" was listed as "Freudenberg Max". All combinations of names and dates and places of birth did not find them in the Ancestry.com index or the Familyserach index.

Uncompleted tasks[]

Max's funeral notice, marriage certificate, and appearance in the 1920 United States Census have still not been located.

References[]

Documents[]

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