I don’t know much about Karl but I will share what I have about him. Karl is my husband’s maternal 3rd great grandfather. Like Bart’s other maternal immigrant ancestors that I’ve written about, Karl is from Saxony- the same area of Prussia (now Germany) that his other immigrant ancestors were from (the ones that I’ve written about so far, that is). The information I’m giving you today is from the 1880 census because that is one of the few documents I have that I feel certain belongs to Karl.
On this date in 1834, Karl August BRUMM was born. He married at the age of 26. He and his wife, Wilhelmina, were married in Saxony. On the 1880 census, Karl was 46 years old. Living with him were his wife, Mina, and his daughters- Pauline, Rosa (Therese Rosa- Bart’s 2nd great grandmother whom I wrote about here), Emma, Anna, and Clara- and his sons- Clemens, Oliver, and George – all of whom were born in Saxony. All of the children attended school except 4-year-old George. In 1880 they were living in Delaware Township, Sanilac County, Michigan.
The story in this census record that is begging to be told is the story about Karl’s occupation. He gave his occupation as “Farmer & works in wool mill”. There were not very many woolen mills in Sanilac County in 1880. In fact, the only woolen mills I found in Delaware Township, where the BRUMM family was living, were the mills in Minden. (This information is from the book, Atlas of Sanilac County, Michigan : containing maps of every township in the county, with village and city plats, and outline map of the county, also maps of Michigan, United States and the world, by E. R. Cookingham, J. S. Randall, J. L. Smith, and L. D. Cookingham found at University of Michigan Library’s digital archives.)

This is a map of the village of Minden from the book mentioned above.

This is an enlarged portion of the map showing the woolen mills.

Business advertisement for Minden Woolen Mill. There were no other ads so I’m assuming that Mr. Leavenworth owned all the woolen mills in Minden. I found no information about how many woolen mills there were but they were all in one place on the map so possibly there were only 2.
I don’t know what job Karl did at the woolen mill but I did find a great video from a woolen mill in Frankenmuth, Michigan that is still in operation. It’s very interesting. I hope you’ll watch it. It talks about how they process wool.
Frankenmuth Michigan woolen mill video.
If you ever get a chance to visit Frankenmuth or Delaware Township in Michigan, you definitely should go. It’s a wonderful summer trip and a beautiful area. I’ve so enjoyed introducing you to Karl and the wool milling process. Be sure to check back on Saturday for the weekend wrap up where I give you any additional information that didn’t make it into the weekly blog posts and on Sunday for next week’s schedule. Happy Friday!!

Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives