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JOHNSON and SCHAUFELBERGER GENEALOGY
SCHAUFELBERGER Narrative
KARL SCHAUFELBERGER
Emigrated to the United States from Zurich, Switzerland when he was in his teens. A cabinetmaker by trade, one day he cut off his thumb on the job, dipped it in hot glue to cauterize it, then took the trolley home. Lived at 131 Lynch Street, Brooklyn (which still stands - tho badly mutilated - as of March 2001).
CHARLES (Charlie) SCHAUFELBERGER"Charlie" met his wife-to-be Margaret Schmidt at church through his sister Bertha when he was 21 and Margaret was 18. Their courtship was interrupted by his Army service in France during WWI.
No actual records of his service have yet been located. However, in his effects were: a photo of him as a member of "Company C 108th Infantry 1919", another of "1st Battalion 108th Infantry 1919", a commemorative pin bearing the words "WELCOME HOME 27th DIVISION" (see image), and the April 8, 1918 edition of the Camp Upton newspaper "Trench and Camp". These lead us to the following surmises: he was a member of Company C of the 1st Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment which was assigned to the American Expeditionary Force's 27th Division (the "New York" division), and processed through Camp Upton in Yaphank, Long Island (the current site of the Brookhaven National Laboratory) in the spring of 1918 1, arriving in France by June of that year. In France, the 27th was assigned (along with the 30th) to the second of three army corps established by General Pershing in June of 1918 to prosecute the American effort. The "II Corps" (under the command of Maj. Gen. George Read) spent the bulk of the brief but decisive American intervention fighting with the British, notably in the Somme, Ypres-Lys and Flanders offensives. The extent of Charles' participation in these combats is unknown.
After the war's end in November of 1918 he was repatriated, presumably in the spring of 1919 3 and presumably to Camp Upton (the likely locale of the photos). Whether he participated in the triumphal parade held for the 27th Divison in New York City on March 25, 1919 is also unknown. However, the commemorative pin referenced above and several photos of WWI era military parades in NYC found in his effects suggest he was. See Research for more detailed descriptions of the operations of the 108th Infantry and 27th Divison.
Upon his return, Charlie and Margaret were married in the Schmidt home at 630 Kosciusko Street in Brooklyn (which still stands as of March 2001). They went on a honeymoon tour visiting various relatives in Philadelphia, Boston and Elmira after spending their nuptial night in the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn. They lived in Margaret's room for the first year of their marriage before buying a house at 833 Fulton Street in Hollis, Queens. They sold it at a profit of $1000 2 and moved to a newly built house at 9333 215th Street in Queens Village where they lived for 50 years, for the bulk of that time with his mother-in-law in residence until shortly before her death at age 101 and at times with other miscellaneous boarders. Charlie was for many years a dental appliance salesman and later a handyman, but the family struggled financially. A love of puns and other broad humor was one of his most memorable characteristics. He and his wife moved to an apartment in the Cedarwood Towers in Rochester, New York in 1974 where he died in 1976. For more on his life see the narrative for Margaret (Schmidt) Schaufelberger.
 FOOTNOTES
1 Stationed there during the same period was Irving Berlin who during his stay wrote a short-lived Broadway musical, "Yip Yip Yaphank", featuring the song "Oh How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning" (to hear a sample, click on www.besmark.com/ww116oh.ram). That same show is featured in the 1943 film "This Is The Army" with appearances by Irving Berlin, Joe Louis, Kate Smith, and then Lieutenant Ronald Reagan. What we didn't know until the events of September 11 brought the song "God Bless America" to the fore, was that that song was also written in that period and for that show but ultimately put aside as being too somber for a comedy. The song then lay fallow for another twenty years until Berlin dusted it off as war was brewing in Europe as a peace song. It was first performed on a 1938 Armistice Day radio broadcast by the redoubtable Kate Smith. see God Bless America (Memory) American Treasures of the Library of Congress.2 "Grandparent's Book" of Margaret (Schmidt) Schaufelberger3 The exact length of Charles' stay overeas is unknown but we assume it was less than one year since several photos of him in uniform show a single service bar on his left sleeve. Depending on its color, which can't be determined from the black and white photo, that would indicate overseas service of either less than 6 months or more than 6 months but less than 1 year. See .First World War Era. for a discussion of service insignia. |
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