Rauscher Family Tree: Rauscher Family : Generation 4 : Joseph Casper Rauscher and Leona Mae Loughlin

(2) Joseph Casper Rauscher (my great-grandfather) was born on 28 Nov 1897 in Mt. Morris, Livingston County, New York and died May 1981 in Hunstville, Alabama. He was the first son of (4) George Andrew and (5) Flora Hilbert Rauscher.

(3) Leona Mae Loughlin Rauscher (my great-grandmother) was born 22 Nov 1901 in Charleston, SC and died 26 Jan 1993 in Vincent, Alabama. She was the daughter of (6) John James Loughlin (1869-1915) and (7) Jessie M Brace Loughlin (1880-1964). Her father, John James Loughlin, was born in England and immigrated to the US as a child. Leona’s grandfather, (12) Martin Loughlin, was from Ireland. It is not clear why Leona was born in Charleston, since both of her parents were from New York.

Joseph’s mother died tragically, at a Dentist office, when he was just 7 years old. For a number of years, he and his two younger brothers lived in St. Mary’s Boys Orphan Asylum in Rochester, NY, before returning to their father’s home.

It seems that Leona had a difficult childhood as well. Leona spent her early years in Corinth, NY. In the 1910 US Census, her father is listed as a Barber. In an interview she gave her daughter, Carol Ann, she remembered staying with her father in the hotel that he managed, in Mechanicville, NY during her summer vacations. They would play some sort of Chinese ballgame with rackets and go to horse races. Her father’s nick nickname was Jack and was possibly the Chairman of the Democratic party in New York State (I have not been able to find any evidence of this).

In 1915, her father died. He was just 45 and Leona was 14. Leona remembered that after her father’s death, her mother sent her to live with an old lady, who would make her shovel 10 pails of coal for the furnace every morning. It was under these conditions that Leona marries Ernest C. Potter, just one day after her 14th birthday, on 23 Nov 1915. She, or someone, lied on the marriage license and claimed that she was 18. But on the 1930 census, there was a question, “Age at first marriage?,” and she answered, “14.” Ernest Potter was 21 at the time, and the marriage produced four sons, Joseph (1917), Orville (1917), Brenton (1918), and Victor Ivan (1921).

There is no record of Leona and Ernest getting divorced, and Ernest did not die. In the 1925 NY census, he is shown living with his parents. So they must have separated around the time of Victor Ivan’s birth in 1921. According to an interview with Leona, by her daughter, Carol Ann, her 4 sons lived for 2 years in the Hillside Home for Children in Rochester, NY.

On 23 Mar 1923, Joseph Rauscher and Leona are married in Ontario, Canada under the Church of England. They were both Catholic, so this must have been because she was not divorced, or the Catholic Church would not perform a wedding ceremony for a divorced woman. It is not known what relation Ernest had, if any, with his children, but the 4 boys would be adopted by Joseph and would go by the last name of Rauscher for the rest of their lives. Joseph must have felt for the boys having to live in a children’s home, as he had lived in an orphanage himself for a few years.

In July of 1924, Joseph and Leona Rauscher would have their first child, Dixie Mae.

Dixie and her older brothers Orville, Brenton, Ivan

They would go on to have 5 additional children: Arthur Leo (1925), Leona F (1927), Theresa (1930), Donald Phillip (1935) and Carol Ann (1943).

Joseph, Orville, Brenton, Victor, Dixie, Arthur, Leona, and mother Leona abt 1930

They lived most of their lives in Rochester, NY, but later moved to Danville, IL and then Hunstville, AL.

In 1920, Joseph is listed as a farm laborer working on his family’s farm.

In 1930, he is listed as a Mechanic working in an automobile garage. He rents a home at 79 Brag Street in Henrietta, NY and have no radio. He is listed in the city directory as a machinist. The 1930 Rochester city directory lists Joseph as an auto body worker, and the 1939 directory as an auto mechanic.

In 1940, they are living at 12A Ridge Road East in Irondequoit, NY and Joseph works at the Buick Assembly plant in Rochester. In 1941, on his WWII draft card, he is listed as employee of Consolidated Machine Tool Company on Blossom Read in Rochester. He is 5’3”, 140 pounds, a dark complexion, black hair, and brown eyes.

On 28 Feb 1948, Leona’s twice-widowed mother, Jessie Brace Loughlin Pickett marries for the 3rd time in Rochester, NY. The wedding was attended by her 39 grand-children and 19 great-grandchildren. According to a report, she wore a “frilly pink hat.”

Jessie Brace Loughlin

In 1950, they are living in Lyons, NY and Joseph is self-employed. In 1951, Joseph and Leona are listed in the Danville, Illinois City Directory. He is listed as being employed by Danville Manufacturing. They later moved to Gordon, GA where Joseph worked at the clay plant, then Nashville, GA, then Leeds, AL.

Joseph Casper Rauscher and Leona Loughlin

Joseph and Leona

Joseph Casper died in Hunstville, AL in May of 1981 at the age of 83. His obituary read:

Joseph C. Rauscher, 83, of 2225 Golf Road, died Friday at a local hospital. Funeral arrangements will be announced later by Laughlin Service Funeral Home. Mr. Rauscher was a member of Holy Spirit Catholic Church and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Leona Rauscher; three daughters Mrs. Carol Amelang of Hunstville, Mrs. Leona Perry of Odenville and Mrs. Dixie Paradise of Pasadena, Texas; fives sons, Orville Rauscher of Naples, NY, Victor of Canandaigua, NY, Arthur Rauscher of Gordon, GA, Donald Rauscher and Brenton Rauscher both of Houston; 40 grandchildren and 43 great-grandchildren.

Leona would die in Vincent, AL on 26 Jan 1993 at 91 years old. She is buried in Faith Memorial Park in Madison, AL.

Notes of Interest:

Leona told her daughter, Carol Ann, that her favorite book was “Eyes and Ears of the Woods.” I could not find that book, but I think she may have meant, “The Eyes of the Woods: A Story of the Ancient Wilderness” by Joseph A. Altsheler, from 1917. This book would have been a popular young adult book when Leona was young.

Joseph Casper Rauscher (1897-1981) and Leona Mae Loughlin (1901-1993):