Casimier BAUER (M)
b. 24 December 1876, d. 19 September 1962
Pop-up Pedigree

     Casimier BAUER was born on 24 December 1876 at Tuetschgenreuth, Germany. He was the son of Christian Josef BAUER and Hanna Maria BENKERT. Casimier BAUER married Marie Anna KROENER on 14 August 1899 at Bischberg, Germany.¹ Casimier BAUER died on 19 September 1962 at age 85. He was buried circa 24 September 1962 at Forchheim Town Cemetery, Forchheim, Bavaria, Germany; Date estimated based on date of death.²
     Casimier BAUER Casimir grew up with his three brothers on a "Bauernhof" - a large German farm in Bavaria near Tuetschgenreuth. We don't know the names of Casimir's brothers, although Casimir’s grandson thinks that one of them might have been named Hans. All of the brothers knew about brick making because the “Bauernhof” had its own brick kiln, which was used to supply bricks and tiles for small construction projects around the farm and in the neighborhood.

When their father died, the family estate was settled per German tradition of the time: the oldest brother inherited the farm, while the three younger brothers, including Casimir, received money. Knowing about the brick-making trade, the three younger brothers pooled their money to buy a brick factory in nearby Forchheim, a medium-sized city located north of Nuremberg. The brothers built their factory at the base of a hill on the (eastern?) side of Forchheim. They extracted the clay for the bricks from the hill, and fired them in three large kilns. The factory made primarily building bricks because the clay was not pure enough to make roof tiles. The brothers divided their responsibilities: Casimir was in charge of the machinery and so ensured that the plant had the power necessary for operations; one brother ran the administrative offices; while the third was in charge of sales.

The factory apparently prospered for a while. At some point, however, the factory began to accumulate debts. One of the largest debts was to the factory's coal supplier. When that debt grew to sufficient size, the coal merchant gave the owners one week to pay, or he would foreclose. The brothers could not come up with the payment, so they lost the factory. According to one family story, the reason that the factory could not pay its debts was because one of the brothers stole all the money and ran off to America (possibly immigrating through Philadelphia).

The details of this story have been lost over time and it's doubtful we will ever know the truth. However, the Bauer's will always speculate about the whereabouts of their long-lost relative and wonder if he made it big after he got to America.

Ref: Tuetschgenreuth register #23. Note this is the correct spelling for Tuetschgenreuth - if it shows up somewhere else as some other spelling, it should be corrected to this.³ He was Roman Catholic. He was Owner of brick factory.